Darcaryn went right back to cleaning up the room, moving a few things with his hands even like any normal human being would’ve had to.
“I hope I can train Kyna hard enough that in a few days we can combine our powers into a locator spell.” Darcaryn added as he worked. “On my own, I’m getting nowhere. But, if we could channel her energy with enough control, then maybe we could pick up on something I can’t alone.”
“Why can’t we try now?” Kyna inquired, her body feeling like it was coming down from some high, still trembling even as her muscles began to relax.
“I fear we wouldn’t survive it. Remember the mess this room was just moments ago. You’re so powerful, and yet so uncontrolled,” Darcaryn answered without looking her way. Instead, he pressed his fingers repeatedly over a page in a book he’d picked up off the floor, as if he could iron out the wrinkles.
She figured he probably could, but nothing like that happened.
She looked around the now clean room, a fire creeping over her cheeks knowing it’d been their lust and power that’d truly wrecked it. With Aedan standing there, and memories of last night finally able to flood back into her brain, she felt a pervasive guilt wash over her, chill any lasting residue of heat she’d built up with Darcaryn. These two men stood before her, each powerful, each mind-numbingly sexy, in their own ways. Yet, even now, Aedan felt safe and true, while Darcaryn seemed dark and magical. These things could get to a girl, each of them, in different and dizzying ways.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Kyna?” Aedan asked, stepping toward her. “You look flushed and tired.”
“I’m worried about my aunt. I don’t like this...this feeling of being out of control. Powerful, and yet helpless to find her. She’s the reason I’m here. She called for me. Then she dumped all this stuff on me and disappeared. I’m homesick. I’m angry. I want her back. I came to know more about my birth mother, yet I have no answers. I have no bloodline here to help now. No, I guess I’m not okay, but I will force myself to be.”
She stopped, looking down with a glare at nothing in particular. Scolding her weakness, she looked back up at Aedan. Sexy Aedan.
“I’m sorry. I’m tired. It’s always something here, if not my own magic and issues, then shadows and spells cast upon me. I’m just not myself, whoever the hell that is!”
She paused for a moment. Both man stared at her, their eyes heavy-lidded with concern. Their mouths frozen in firm frowns of frustration. So alike, yet so blatantly different. She wavered between them, mentally and physically. The motions made her stomach churn, yet her pulse raced. She’d kill for a stiff drink.
“I’ll be fine,” she rallied.
“You will be,” Darcaryn offered.
“You are,” Aedan countered.
“I have no choice.” She chided herself even as she allowed another glance from one man to the other. “I need to keep working with Darcaryn, to learn, so I can help locate my aunt. At least it gives me a goal, makes me feel somewhat less out of control and useless. I’ll find you when we are done for the day, Aedan. I’ll be starving by then, I’m sure.”
She wanted to say more to Aedan, to make him realize how important his staying with her last night had been, both personally and professionally. Yet, what words could she speak that wouldn’t increase the awkwardness already blanketing the room, suffocating each of them.
“Okay. I’ll go back to work then,” Aedan spoke, but made no move to leave. “I will continue to look for your aunt until I’ve exhausted every last resource available to me.”
“I know. Thank you,” she offered, knowing her words fell short of all she wanted him to understand.
He moved his right hand out as if to touch her, but pulled it back to his side and balled his fingers up into a fist before turning to the door. When he reached it, he gave her one last glance, cast Darcaryn one final glare as he grabbed edge of the doorframe.
“Keep her safe in these lessons,” Aedan threatened Darcaryn, his voice so vicious, hard and dangerous, a cold sweat broke out over her brow.
Unclenching her fingers, she wiped her forehead with a shaky hand. A chill slithered through her spine as the men stared each other down. Her dry mouth remained desperate for water. She broke the tension by grabbing for her glass.
Darcaryn didn’t verbally acknowledge Aedan. With a brief glance his way, she witnessed the wizard’s anger flash clearly in his eyes. The slamming of the door put an abrupt halt to the endless moment. She found herself once again alone with Darcaryn.
“We should get back to work,” he stated dryly. “I apologize for earlier. I should be stronger. Able to fight against the spell they seem to have cast over us. The group, I can only assume, does not want me to train you. They want to train you themselves. So, this is merely a distraction spell until they can get their hands on you.”
After a pause, he repeated again, “I should be stronger, but… I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m attracted to you, as I’ve already said before. I am, despite everything else, a man. I can be weak, too. I will try harder.”
Each word sounded forced, as if it physically hurt him to speak each syllable.
“And, you know what this society wants because of letters?” she asked, changing the subject. “They said they want me in a letter, to train me themselves? I guess I don’t understand how you know so much about a society that no one seems to be able to locate.”
“It’s not just the letters. I’ve also made assumptions from what they’ve done before. You have to remember, there was a time when your grandfather dealt with them, and the communication was more direct. They threatened your aunt the same way when she was growing up, so we have to infer the same as their intention for you. I mean, she practiced her gifts, but they wanted to use them. I am guessing they’d want your powers raw, to brainwash you themselves. To train you to best suit their needs. They did send a letter to say they’d found you in the States. We know they want you.”
“But, I thought my grandfather didn’t tell my aunt much, not until right before his death. And, what about my mom? I have to assume she had the same powers. Did they threaten her as well? Did she once live with this same fear? Her whole life maybe?”
“Yes, yes, and yes. You have to remember, I was a friend of your grandfather's, an apprentice of sorts, for a time before his death. A lot of this is just what he told me. Maybe some is fact and maybe some were just his fears. It’s a complicated business that finds one safer in speculation, to protect you from any possible kind of attack. We have to assume the worst. He once advised me of that.”
“Then how did my aunt get taken, now, after all this time? And, how horrible it must’ve been for my mother and my aunt to grow up with this threat. Why did my grandfather just not move them away?”
“I can’t answer all of your questions, I fear. He was a private man. An intense and driven man. He had motives I will never know or understand. And, he wasn’t exactly forthcoming about his motives, what got him in this mess with this group either. Those secrets, I fear, he took to the grave with him. But, I can’t stress how driven he was, how obsessed with money and power. He loved his family, though, in his own way. Truthfully, and I don’t want to upset you with this knowledge, your aunt was taken because she got distracted by bringing you here. She loves you that much…” he stumbled, seemed to swallow down over something he wanted to say.
After a few seconds, his gaze darting back and forth as if he were reading a script he could see in his mind, he began again. “Your aunt loved your mother with everything in her, and she understood her loss of you. She saw her through that daily pain, and I would venture to say experienced it with her as close as they were. So, when she heard the group had found you, she was in a panic like I’ve never seen before. Those emotions made her sloppy, made her act on them instead of acting with her head. You can’t fault her for that. But, you can fault your grandfather for the risks he took with this group. Risks that put his family into danger in the first place.”
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Kyna felt her lungs constrict with the weight of her fault in things. Her guilt threatened to end her. Every emotion swirled, weighed, and strangled her, until she felt herself floating, going numb to survive it all.
“Stop!” Darcaryn thundered. “You have to learn to control this. You have to use every last ounce of strength you have to rein in your emotions and control your powers in order to make you the most powerful witch you can be. Only with you focused, can I train you enough that we can get your aunt back. Now, let’s get you back to focus.”
He moved to her then. She couldn’t help but to flinch when he stood just inches behind her.
“No worries. I have control over myself now. I promise to control my own urges to help you,” his voice brushed past her ear, sent a ripple effect of need coursing through her.
“Use those feelings, both of lust and fear. They’re powerful. Use that to your advantage. Merge them with your power. Now, pull that power, let it move the air around you. Control it as tightly as you can. Make it swirl around a flame of a candle without blowing it out,” he coaxed and challenged.
He distracted her in an advantageous way. Welcoming his demands, she took everything in her, that which she recognized and that which she didn’t understand, and let it flow. Her energy captured the air, moved it. With her mind clearing, she saw the invisible breeze as visible waves. She nudged them around the tiny candle flame.
“Don’t blow the flame out. With absolute control, circle the flame so it flickers, but stays lit. Continue your circle of air, and then let the flame rise, fed by your winds rather than destroyed by it. Think of the natural cycle of nature where one element feeds another one rather than destroys it. Air breathes life into a flame, excites it.”
She did as he said. Energy built inside her the more she used it. The flame grew to several inches high and flickered inside her smooth waves of air. The beauty of the image fascinated her, mesmerized her, and inspired a sense of awe that only increased her power.
“Continue on. Grow the flame and the wind. Don’t focus on me as I move,” Darcaryn’s words grew fainter as he spoke.
She did as instructed until he came back behind her.
“Now, I’ve placed a bowl full of water and a bowl full of stones beside the candle. First, continuing your air and fire as they are, steady now, take the water in the bowl, feel it, feed it, move it up and around with your wind stream. Let it flow in a circle around your flame even as you protect it.”
Concentrating, trying not to fall prey to the mesmerizing tone of his voice flowing over her, she focused on the hot and the cold, the various temperatures that swirled inside her. She separated them somehow. Her ability to do so surprised her. The interaction of elements, inside her and out, seemed fanciful, unexplainable, and yet, undeniable. Soon, the water joined the air, meshed together to circle the flame. Water flowed, glistened as it reflected the light of the fire. Soon the whole room sparkled.
There were moments when she worried her astonishment would make the water and air douse the flame. She broke into a sweat, determined to keep everything going as it was.
“Keep it all going, but now move the stones in the other bowl into the flow. Let all of the elements shift together, feed off each other, and strengthen you as they strengthen each other. You’re so strong. It’s amazing to witness such raw ability. How you held this in all these years is what is truly unbelievable. But with your strength, I guess you can be anything you choose, fully human or fully witch at a moment’s notice.”
She straightened her spine at his praise. Stood tall, commanding the objects before her, a smile crossing her features from ear to ear,.
The stones fell into the flow. She let the power spill from her and seep back in at the same time. Kyna witnessed the proof that energy could be neither created nor destroyed. Best science experiment ever provided by magic, she mused. Indestructible, like the flame burning in the center. She lifted her chin and admired the cycle she’d created and protected.
“Good. Good. But, don’t get cocky. That won’t be good for anyone. Be strong. Know you are. Have faith in yourself, but above all, respect the magic. Just as those elements have a creation cycle, so have they a destructive cycle. No, don’t slouch. You have this. Remain standing strong. Just don’t think you’re better than it. It’s a fine line, a humbled pride fed by confidence and a huge amount of gratitude that makes the great even better. And, you, Kyna, are great. Now, return each element to its original place, and extinguish the flame, so all is as it was before you began,” Darcaryn instructed.
With everything back in its place, she felt she would fly from the ground and soar above it all with her triumph. She turned, then, to see the look in Darcaryn’s eyes. Though shifty, the gleam in them blinded her with his approval, his own excitement. Pushing her doubts aside, she threw her arms around him in celebration.
“Thank you,” she breathed. “You are a great teacher. Your instruction is so simple, and your praise is so motivating. My mother was the same, and it always brought out the best in me.”
“I’m sure she did,” he spoke with a sly smile.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“She was trained to take care of you and your powers, to, let’s say, help you when needed.”
“She loves me, and I know in my heart she did what she had to in order to do what’s best for me. She’s proven that time and again throughout my life,” Kyna countered, her voice firm, leaving no room for discussion.
“I wasn’t criticizing her. What she did for you was honorable.”
He nodded. For a second, he held her tight, pulled her into him, into a full body hug. But, when the tingle of more tickled her senses her, he pushed her away.
“No. I want you on your own terms. Someday, I think you’ll be able to separate it all. I hope then that you come for me, want me. Everything in me wants you. You will find there is an intimacy in all magic. When we share energy, we become tangled in each other even more. But, if there is a time, a fully human time, that you decide you want me, then, and only then, could we give in completely to the magical time. Making love to another witch, well, it’s something like flying, soaring through a starlit sky and never having to come back down. I’d love to share it all with you someday. But, for now, you’ve done enough. You need rest and nourishment. We can begin again fresh tomorrow.”
“I don’t know if I can wait that long with my aunt out there, somewhere,” she sighed.
“You have to. At this point, if we train to exhaustion, nothing good could come of it. It would make you even more vulnerable to them. Have faith. She’s safe. I can promise you that. They want you both alive. Dead, you would both be useless to their desires.”
“That makes me feel so much better,” Kyna added with a sigh.
She stood tall, though, wouldn’t let the weight of fatigue and fear take her down. Hearing her mother preach in her memory made it easier to stand strong.
“She can handle it. I’ve seen her handle a lot in my years with this family. She’ll make herself strong for you, just as I see you doing for her,” he soothed.
She just nodded and followed his lead back upstairs. His backside remained a constant distraction negotiating the rises and turns of the twisted stairs until the door to the main floor opened, liberating her from the lusty pull of the spell.
Chapter Nine
Days passed, each in much the same way. Darcaryn continued Kyna’s training at her insistence, almost to the point of exhaustion most days. His protests, sometimes for their safety, often fell on stubborn, deaf ears.
Aedan had been working drudgingly, following every lead, no matter how slight, to find this secret society that didn’t seem to really exist. All the while, he made plans with former SEAL friends to travel to Ireland. Since, unfortunately, there’d been no word of Kyna’s aunt, everyone just kept on as best they could.
Aedan had been there to soothe her as she felt the aches in each part of her body at night, , both
physically and mentally.
Storms blew in, bringing sleet mixed with snow. A few inches of snow was nothing to Kyna, but something that only happened a handful of days, if that, in these parts each year. Each mild blizzard never lasted long. Still, Kyna welcomed having someone to always guard over her as the winds howled outside, rattling the windows.
There’d been a constant barrage of attacks, too. These included moaning sounds, shadowy images, and visions in dreams. Each one had proven more disturbing, more realistic, and more gothic, than the last. One to take care of herself, she’d genuinely welcomed never being alone since her aunt had been taken. Having Aedan protect her, she told herself, wasn’t failure, but a way she took care of herself by playing it smart.
On the other hand, Darcaryn, well aware of Aedan bunking with Kyna, had become a more vicious taskmaster. With an angry vigilance, he made a grand show of resistance against whatever sparked between them, magical or otherwise.
She’d had little sleep but lots of training and talk. All the mystical and magical hauntings around her caused a strain, made her a victim of habitual assault. Add to this what felt like the loss of the mother who’d raised her, and now her aunt, she even forgave herself for breaking down in tears during a training session. She’d nearly choked the life out of both her and Darcaryn during a spell just before lunch. Why shouldn’t she be allowed the luxury of showing a crack in her armor? She’d earned the right to a moment or two, or three, and then she’d push on.
When the purplish color had faded from his face, Darcaryn insisted she go upstairs to eat a proper lunch, get out of the training room.
Tears, something she’d kept a tight hold on all her life, fell like a waterfall in between huge sobs that ripped from her tight chest, pulled air from her burning lungs, and made her feel like she’d faint to the floor at any minute.
Darcaryn held her tight then, but with an invisible shield between them.
Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set Page 29