Slightly Spellbound

by Kimberly Frost

  My fae hands came down on the dagger’s handle. The blade was lodged right under the tip of my breastbone. He’d killed me.

  At his command, the witch part of my magic ripped away. In the distance, Bryn fell to the ground, his magic being drawn into Jackson with mine.

  No!

  Despair swallowed me.

  Greer howled in delight.

  I felt Bryn’s stolen breath rush in through the window on a wave of cool celestial energy. I sucked in a wisp, but Greer dragged away the rest. Tears sprung to my eyes. I’d let Greer kill me and kill Bryn, too, by default, robbing the world of Bryn’s brilliance and all that he was and could be.

  Bryn reached out for me. For a moment I saw his face as clear as the room around me. A cold fury at the thought of him dying balled in the pit of my stomach.

  No, I thought. I won’t give him over to a murdering parasite.

  Help me, I called in my mind. I saw myself on horseback. Hazel green eyes stared directly at me.

  Stab him, the me on horseback said. Kill him. My voice held a note of Ireland, a bit of Bryn.

  I closed fists around the dagger hilt, locking eyes with Jackson Greer. I think he saw that a piece of me remained, a fae piece that couldn’t be ripped out by wizard’s magic. His eyes widened.

  He should’ve fled. I wasn’t strong enough to chase him. But he stayed and spit out a spell, his nose dripping blood in an endless faucet. He’d tasted my fae magic and wanted to consume that, too.

  Frail, diseased human, I thought in disgust. Like so many of your kind, you’re a greedy fool.

  In his lust to stay young and alive forever, he grasped for more, for faery blood. He should’ve been satisfied with what he’d already taken.

  You should’ve run, I mouthed.

  He didn’t see my hands.

  I dragged the blade from my body, and my arm struck, lightning quick.

  Words died on his lips, his mouth falling open in shock. He struggled to speak, to finish the spell, but I’d scored him too deep. I’d cut right through his windpipe. Air rushed out through his neck, spraying blood everywhere.

  He grabbed his throat, his lips moving wordlessly. He wanted to call the lych, but he couldn’t change without the spell being spoken. The form that helped him heal and kept him invulnerable was out of his reach now.

  Bryn’s magic brushed over me and gusted out the window and back to his body. I felt the pulse of our connection in the ring on my right hand. Bryn drew in a deep breath, awake and alive, though perhaps not for long.

  I slumped back, breathless. When I’d pulled the dagger from my body, I left a large hole in a big vein in the back of my body. The severed vessel poured blood. I shivered, dying, but I felt magic emerging from dozens of places at once, from Greer’s bones, from his birds.

  I smiled and licked my own blood from my lips, tasting specks of iron. “I kill you, Frederick Jackson Greer. And with your death, I release the souls of your victims, including my aunt’s. Edie is avenged.”

  I stared at the ceiling, watching the color drain from the circling birds. I heard Jackson’s body fall, and the birds fell to the floor dead, too. The spirits that had been trapped in the sparrows misted the room, the faces of beautiful young girls emerging in a swirl.

  My heart slowed, and I heard Edie crying. “No,” she sobbed. “Don’t you dare die. Tammy, don’t you leave me.”

  The room spun, and bright lights danced before my eyes. Pain faded, and my body shuddered. Lighter than air and shimmering, I could go anywhere. In an instant, I could travel the world at the speed of sound. I heard distant drums.

  In the next moment, I was sucked down into blackness, a hard thump rattling my soul. And then another and another. My heart, I realized. It beat stubbornly in my broken chest.

  I fell to my side and curled into a ball, pinching that bleeding vein deep in my body. I felt dizzy, so very dizzy, like most of my blood had already drained away. Time ticked by as I faded in and out of consciousness.

  The next thing I saw was Bryn’s face near mine, whispering frantically. He forced magic into my body. Pain screamed through me, but I breathed and twitched.

  “Not iron,” I rasped. “The blade . . . not iron.”

  I closed my eyes, Bryn’s plea for me to stay with him ringing in my ears.

  I’ll try.

  36

  I WOKE IN Bryn’s bed. I thought maybe I was dreaming, but I moved and felt a stiff pain in my chest. I ran a finger over it, feeling scabs. A silk and velvet coverlet lay over me with a dozen smooth stones arranged in a constellation on my torso.

  “I’m alive?” I turned my head. Mercutio lay on one side of me, Bryn on the other.

  “Yes,” Bryn said, tracing a finger lightly over my cheek. “How do you feel?”

  “I hurt,” I said. “But I’m okay.” I struggled to sit up, the pain making my breath catch but not bad enough to knock me back down. “How long was I asleep?”

  “Days,” he said, sitting up, too.

  I rubbed my breastbone. “Getting stabbed to death hurts,” I complained, feeling dizzy as I stumbled to my feet.

  Bryn shot from the bed to my side and steadied me with a hand.

  “I’m hungry,” I murmured.

  “I’ll bring you up some food.”

  “Something good. Something sweet,” I said, shuffling into the bathroom. I had to pause to catch my breath. “I’m not all the way healed.”

  “I don’t imagine you are,” Bryn said, watching me.

  “I’ll just take a shower for a minute,” I said, the stale smell of blood and death in my nose. Bryn had washed off a lot of the ordeal, but not all of it.

  “I’ll help you,” he said.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “You can help me by getting me toast and jam,” I said. “And a cookie. I’d do anything for a cookie.” It took me a few minutes to get undressed.

  “Watch her, Mercutio,” Bryn said. “Don’t let her fall.”

  Mercutio marched into the shower with me. “You don’t like water,” I reminded him as I turned on the hot water. Merc yowled but stood guard at my feet.

  I lathered my hair and skin until I smelled spicy and good, like Bryn’s shampoo and soap. I wrapped myself in a robe and sat in the slipper chair in the corner of the room, admiring the bouquets of flowers lined up on the dresser. I couldn’t have had more if I’d actually died.

  Bryn returned with a tray. Biscuits with butter and half an inch of raspberry jam on each. A stack of warm chocolate chip cookies. A glass of milk and a cup of cream tea. I ate and drank every bit.

  Pretty much as soon as I finished, I felt a ton better. “We won,” I said with a smile. “Again.”

  He nodded, watching me.

  “How about Edie and Vangie? Are they ghosts?” I’d seen that bright light. I’d felt the souls of the slain girls going into it.

  “Evangeline’s alive, but she’s in a coma. No one’s seen Edie.”

  I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Edie seemed too weak to make it back to the locket to regain her strength. I think she crossed over to the afterlife.” My voice broke, but I cleared it. “Which means she’s okay. She’s finally been set free.” Tears stung my eyes. “I set all his victims free so they can rest in peace.” I bit my lip hard. “I’ll miss Edie. I know she was already dead, but she was alive to me. And with me my whole life,” I whispered, a tear spilling over my lashes.

  Bryn nodded. “I know you’ll miss her. But you saved Evangeline’s life and rescued the souls of the other girls. At least a half dozen of them.”

  “That’s good, then,” I said, swallowing hard.

  “It’s Christmas,” Bryn said.

  I wiped a tear from my cheek. “Oh no,” I gasped. “I didn’t have a chance to get people’s presents.”

  Bryn laughed.

  I rubbed the moisture from my face. “I’ve got to stop leaving my shopping till the last minute. I never know when I’ll end up in a coma and miss all the last shopping days! Geo
rgia Sue’s going to be so mad. You can bet she’s got my present all wrapped and ready. What in the world will I tell her?”

  “I took care of it.”

  “You took care—what did you do?”

  “I gave her and Kenny a present from both of us.”

  I smiled. “From both of us,” I said. “Now the whole town’s gonna be gossiping about how we’re officially a couple.” I licked my lips. “But it was sure sweet of you. What did we give them?”

  “Plane tickets.”

  “Plane tickets!” I said with a gasp.

  “A vacation to the Caribbean. She mentioned once that they never had a real honeymoon.”

  “Bryn! You can’t do that. I have to be able to pay you back. I can’t afford to give people honeymoon vacations for presents.”

  He shrugged. “When she realized you were so sick, she came every day, bringing casseroles and flowers. She told me stories about all the hard knocks you’d taken as a kid and how you’d recovered without a mark. She told me to try not to worry and talked so much that it was a distraction.”

  “Georgia Sue’s tuna casserole,” I said with a laugh. “I’m so sorry.”

  “She’s not much of a cook,” Bryn agreed. “But she and I have got a lot in common.”

  “You and Georgia Sue?” I asked surprised.

  “We’re both crazy about you. We both think I’m the right man for you.”

  “So that’s how she won you over,” I said with a smile and a shake of my head.

  Bryn went down on one knee in front of me. “I’m glad you’re awake. I need you to do something for me.”

  “Bake you a thousand cakes? Because that’s probably how many it’ll take to cover the cost of a beach vacation for two people.”

  “Tamara,” he said, cutting me off.

  I blinked.

  “I love you,” he said.

  “Well, I love you, too, but that doesn’t give either of us the right to go on a spending spree like there’s no tomorrow just because one of us destroys a wizard serial killer and ends up in a coma. If you give people vacations every time I go into a coma, Duvall will be half empty.”

  Bryn smiled. “I want something.”

  “Uh-huh. What’s that?” I asked, studying his face. His cobalt blue eyes stared into mine.

  “I want something more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

  My brows rose. “Be careful what you wish for. You wanted to bind us together, and that’s very likely gonna get you killed before you turn thirty. Almost did a couple of days ago.”

  “I don’t care how long I live,” he said.

  “What kind of thing is that to say!” I snapped, glancing at the ceiling. “He didn’t mean that, God—universe . . . God and the universe.”

  “I need you to marry me. Whether I live for fifty more years or only fifty more hours, I want to do it married to you.”

  A thrill shot through me, my excitement a runaway train for several seconds. Hold on! I chided myself, forcing the pleasure of knowing he wanted to marry me aside.

  I cleared my throat, remembering how I’d felt when he fell. The pain of knowing my death could kill him had been one of the worst moments of my life. If I loved him, which I did, shouldn’t I try my best to keep him safe? Even if that meant keeping some distance between us?

  “I love you so much,” I said.

  “Good. Say yes.”

  “But listen, of the two of us, I’m supposed to be the impulsive one. You’re supposed to be the one who thinks things over carefully and logically, who doesn’t rush into stuff. I’m liable to get you killed. Is that really a quality a man should look for in a wife?” I asked. “I think there’s probably a way for you to unbind us if you wanted to, Bryn. Some brilliant, complicated spell that only you could write? C’mon. Tell me the truth.”

  “No.”

  “No, you won’t tell me the truth?”

  “Will you marry me?”

  “I’m dangerous for you. I know it. When the witch part of me died, it killed you, too. If Greer had been out of my reach, if he’d lived, you’d have stayed dead. It was this close,” I said, making a tiny space between my thumb and forefinger. “You being bound to me, it’s not safe.”

  “I don’t want safe.”

  “Can you undo the oath that binds us?”

  He hesitated and then said, “Maybe.”

  “Will you try?”

  He shook his head. “Tamara,” he whispered.

  “Yes?”

  He entwined the fingers of his left hand with the fingers of my right. Our bands clinked, sparking magic. “The bond saved my life once. I accept the consequences if it one day ends it. Especially since it allows you to draw power from me when you need it.”

  I squeezed his hand. “It slowed down my death, so I had time to heal?”

  He nodded. “Let’s stop talking about the magical bond.” He ran a hand absently through his hair. “I’m not just a wizard bound to a witch. I’m a man in love with a woman.”

  I became very still, holding my breath. Tears burned my eyes.

  “I’m not happy unless you’re with me.”

  I shook my head. “You could have had any girl in the world, and you go and pick the one who’s probably going to get you killed. I’m just like one of those black widow spiders. You must be out of your mind.”

  He waited, gorgeous and determined. And I already loved him too much. The thought of losing him, of not seeing him as much as I wanted to, created a hollow in my throat that stretched clear down to my belly. What good would it do to wait? A part of me knew that I would never willingly give him up.

  Are you sure, Bryn? I thought, searching his face. I saw the truth there. He was sure. Deep in my heart, so was I.

  “Oh, Bryn,” I said. “I’m afraid I have to say yes.”

  He blinked. “Yes? You’ll marry me?”

  I nodded with a shrug. “I already told you, you’re mine. We might as well make it official.”

  He grinned. “I am yours. I freely admit that. I’d appreciate it if you’d acknowledge that you’re mine, too.”

  “I said I’d marry you. The rest is implied.”

  He arched a brow that said he wasn’t satisfied by that answer, but he didn’t argue about it right then. Bryn’s a lawyer, so he can save up arguments and spring them on a person any old time. It’s a problem.

  He kissed the fourth finger on my left hand and slid a ring on it. The stone was sunshine yellow.

  “It’s a diamond?” I asked.

  “Canary yellow,” he said with a nod.

  It stretched from one knuckle almost to the other, sparkling like a shooting star. “Expensive, huh?”

  “Try not to lose it,” he said, giving me a kiss. Then he turned my hand over and a gold chain poured into my palm. “The necklace is for when you’re cooking. You can hang the ring around your neck.”

  I closed my fingers around the chain and turned my hand over to look at the big diamond.

  “How much did it cost? Ten thousand dollars?” I asked, looking up at him.

  He smiled, and I knew it cost a lot more. “Twenty?” I asked nervously.

  “Hello, darling,” a familiar voice said from the doorway. Bryn and I both turned. I expected to see Edie’s ghost, but Evangeline leaned against the door frame.

  She held her head high as her gaze traveled lazily around the room.

  My jaw dropped. Oh my God.

  “You’re awake,” Bryn said, standing.

  “So it seems,” she said, her voice dry as a gin martini. The woman in the doorway was definitely not the shy, slightly unbalanced Vangie. The woman in the doorway had confidence in spades and grace to match. She could’ve balanced in stilettos on the head of a pin.

  “It’s great to see you on your feet,” Bryn said. “I brought you here to recover because I know you don’t trust your stepmother and stepbrother. I hope that’s all right with you.”

  “Sure,” she said. “Have I interrupted something?
”

  “Actually,” Bryn said with a smile. “We just got engaged.”

  She strolled in, bold as brass, and lifted my hand. “Very nice. Ninety thousand?”

  Bryn nodded.

  “Oh my God!” I said, snatching my hand back to look at the ring, feeling dizzy.

  “Congratulations,” Edie said to Bryn. “You don’t deserve her.”

  I shot her a look, and Bryn raised his brows. “And here I thought you had a crush on me.”

  Vangie’s head tilted slightly. The wide-eyed look was a bit like Vangie’s, but the smile was pure Edie. I swallowed.

  “I need a little fresh air. Is it okay if I borrow your car?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Bryn said. “The keys are downstairs.”

  To me, she said, “See you later, darling girl.”

  I stared after her for a long moment. How sure was I that it was Edie in Vangie’s body? Very sure.

  To Bryn, I said, “I believe she just stole your sports car.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t think so. She buys Bentleys. They’re enormous. I don’t think she’s in the market for a two-seater.”

  I wondered if Edie had ever even had a driver’s license. Cars were new in her lifetime. She’d been from a wealthy family, so they might’ve had a car, but her father had been old-fashioned. I suspected that she’d been picked up and driven wherever she went.

  “That car’s pretty zippy. I hope she doesn’t crash,” I mumbled.

  Bryn gave me a questioning look.

  “I’m not sure that was actually Vangie anymore.” I took a deep breath and then explained that Edie had been in Vangie’s body when I killed Greer and apparently she still was.

  What had happened to Vangie? Was she a ghost? Or had she crossed over? Bryn and I had no idea.

  The giant diamond caught the light and sparkled bright as a camera flash. For the love of Hershey!

  I slid it off and held it out to him. “That’s the prettiest ring I ever saw, but you got carried away. I’ll never be able to wash a dish without having an anxiety attack about dropping it down the drain. Can you trade it in for something smaller?” I asked.