Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set

by Multiple Authors

  Held at arm’s length even, if physically surrounded by his arms, she let herself sob for only a moment or two. With her throat tight and her heart pounding, she forced herself upright and pushed away from him.

  He met her challenge and pulled her back.

  With his arms wound around her again, she let him lead her upstairs. With him supporting most of her weight without her realizing it, they walked into the office where Aedan worked. Soon she found Aedan’s hands on her arms. The large male bodies fought against each other for control of her frame. Not slight of build, she felt frail, as if she’d break in their tug of war. So, that had been enough of that. Her moment of grief passed.

  “Please, just let me sit,” she managed, as she wiggled free of them both.

  She made her way to the soft, plush, couch of shamrock green in the corner. With her arms out in front of her, palms up to ward them way, she kept them both a foot or so away.

  “I just need a minute here. Please, give me some space. I appreciate how you both watch over me, but, I’m suffocating just the same Not under just your watch, but the weight of all that is here, the hole left by my aunt, the magic that seems to attack me every second of every day even as I have to learn to manage my own—" A deep breath put a stop to her barrage of words.

  “I just need a damn minute,” she hissed, using all the air she had available to her.

  “She needs a break from your training, Darcaryn,” Aedan spat. “She needs some time off. Weakening her to this state, surely even you can see won’t help anyone.”

  “I’m well aware. I just insisted she stop training and come up here,” Darcaryn hissed.

  “I know I can’t, but I just want to run away from it all, if even just for an hour, a damn, blessed hour. Go shopping at a damn mall. Catch a movie. Guess that would be two hours. Whatever! Anyone ever do anything normal like that here?” she grumped. “I know, I’m mad at myself for even suggesting such a thing with my aunt still missing, but how much can one former human be expected to take?” she practically yelled, would have if she’d been able to come up with enough lung power to pull it off.

  “You’re right,” Darcaryn countered. “You need some time to refresh. As I said, you’re no good to your aunt in this state. Maybe you need some fresh air. Looks like the sleet has finally given way to snow out there today. You should see the countryside. It’s amazing in this state.”

  The wizard looked to Aedan and huffed. “I need to get back to the room and try to improve upon another locator spell. I hope Kyna and I can do it together soon. Why don’t you guys go explore the grounds? Let the chill in the air cleanse your minds. I’ll put a temporary sort of invisibility spell over you both to keep you safe.”

  “That’s a great idea, Darcaryn,” Aedan growled at the man, his brows furrowed as if he looked for some sinister motive in the suggestion. “In fact, I insist. Would love to get more of a feel for the lay of the land other than what I was provided upon hire. And, it will be good to get you some fresh air, Kyna.”

  She relented and agreed, nodding. Under different circumstances, she would’ve wanted to explore the beautiful grounds she could see from the windows. She wished to see the small glistening lake she saw from the dining room window in its entirety.

  Once bundled, she set off with Aedan. He’d grabbed for her hand the minute they were out the back door and walking through the gardens. They’d kept a distance between them these past days. Even though he shared her room, her bed basically, to keep the magical monsters under the bed and all over the walls at bay, they’d done nothing more than kiss and hold each other. A part of her felt guilty entertaining any thought of more. She desperately wanted the connection with him, to get lost in what she imagined his body to be. Yet, with the odd, unexplainable attraction to Darcaryn, fighting it spell by spell, she held back. She wasn’t one to date two guys at once, and she hoped it wasn’t what she was doing now. No, she was being cursed, protected and trained. However, in many ways, it sure felt like it. She definitely had an intimacy with them both, as different as each relationship remained. She had to keep sex out of the equation.

  She allowed the scenery to dazzle her as they walked out of the gardens and gazed over the rolling landscape. A thick, heavy snow coated every surface. Just enough to be a cosmetic coating adding true magic to an already beautiful countryside. She found a strange moment of serenity in the strings of hues cast by the cloud-covered sun, an almost magical ray from a muted, grayish copper to a moss green in the sky. She felt mind boggled, standing on Irish land so far away from her small, West Virginia, town. She’d seen nowhere else. There had never been money for real vacations, but they’d taken day trips into the woods for hikes. She wouldn’t give up a single one of them for any trip to a beach. She wished she could share this with her adopted mom, and she wished she could have shared it with her blood mother before she’d died. To think the woman had grown up here, walked this very patch of land herself, as a girl and as a woman, though, was the closest Kyna could come to feeling her.

  In fact, she stopped, flashed a brief smile at Aedan, and dropped his hand as she let her eyes drift closed.

  She mentally connected with the ground beneath her, absorbing the energy, reading from it just as Darcaryn had been training. No image of a woman similar to her came though. Frustration at not having encountered even so much as a photograph of her biological mother in her days here, threatened to stop her progress. She forced the thought aside. So far, she hadn't felt safe enough to dare explore the house, to maybe find some elusive room with a memento of her mother’s in it.

  Focus, she prompted herself. With concentration back, she let the earth fuel her energy. A spirit swirled through her, familiar, though she’d never been here before. Images rose in her mind, but only of her aunt, happy, carefree, and laughing. Then, just as suddenly as they came, they vanished, replaced by images of her aunt running and afraid. The weather dark and stormy in her mental vision, her aunt raced into the trees. Something unknown and dark, ominous, chased her. Kyna felt the power and sinister intent of this thing chasing her aunt in the vision, and she cringed.

  At the same time, seemingly of their own accord her limbs moved her stiffly to a tree. Touching the trunk no longer an option as an unseen force possessed her, her hand pressed into the bark until painful.

  “If they have me, they’ll leave you alone for a time,” her aunt’s voice echoed through her mind, as if the tree had spoken for her. “This spirit you feel, it’s them. They practically own the whole house now. So strong. Maybe if I let them take me, I’ll finally learn who they are, what they truly want. I will sacrifice myself willingly for your safety. Aedan and Darcaryn will keep you safe. I have no doubt of that. Don’t come looking for me. Just stay with Darcaryn and Aedan until I can get back to you.”

  “Kyna. Kyna, Snap out of it,” she heard Aedan’s voice, heightened with angst, even as she felt him trying to bundle her to him.

  The cold from the ground seeped through her pants. She’d fallen at some point, and now sat upon the snow.

  “I felt her. I heard her. My aunt,” she cried as she stood and wiped the wet snow from her long jacket. “She came through this way. Something chased her. I think one of the mystical spirits that keeps haunting my room at night. She ran from it. I had to touch this tree, and then I could hear or sense her thoughts somehow. She let them take her. She willingly sacrificed herself. She thinks she can learn more about them that way. All of this to keep me safe.”

  Aedan scratched his temple. “Guess that would account for the lack of clues as to someone physically breaking in and taking her. That never made sense to me. No one is that good that I, with my training, can’t find any clue. Plus, she had a security team watching over her room. From their account, she simply vanished into thin air. Maybe she put an invisibility spell on herself so she could just walk out of the house.”

  “We have to keep going, into the woods, see if I can’t pick up more of her thoughts. It’s like
I can track her somehow, in the residual energy left here. I saw her enter the woods right over there. Let’s go the same way, see if I get anything else,” she exclaimed, excitement making her voice raise an octave.

  “What a skill. Would’ve come in useful when I was a SEAL. Can you imagine a witch as a SEAL, say Darcaryn, with not only his powers, but the training I had as well.” Aedan shuddered.

  “He would be undefeatable,” she added.

  “Yeah, scary thought. You know, I read about this sort of thing, you reading the ground, seeing what happened there. Also, about the magical message from your aunt, bound to the tree. It’s some kind of magical residue she left there just for you.”

  “What? Why do you know all of this? And why leave it on a tree? What if I’d never come out here?”

  “Guess she figured you would, that it would call to you perhaps. I’m not sure. Although I’m trained to become an expert in almost anything overnight, this is too out there, even for me. I’ll admit some measure of defeat, although it pains me to no end to do so. I’ve done my research on magic since I've been here. Your aunt provided me grimoires, too, ones from your ancestors, to help me learn what you’ve been learning.”

  “Really? I’d like to read those sometime. Seems you know more about this than I do.”

  “Doubtful. You have practical experience. I’ve just read a few books,” he countered.

  “You know, I’ve done some research on you as well. Well, on SEALs. Sorry, but you fascinate me. Never before have I met someone so strong, so confident, so smart, and so on,” she continued despite the heat that crept up her neck to her face. “Anyway, the Internet claims SEALs are born, not made. Type-A personalities, dedicated and cocky, highly self-motivated, but who also follow a professional code of conduct. You were part of the nation’s 911 Force, and you never quit,” she ticked off the list of descriptions she’d read.

  “You lived in the shadows, killed anything that got in your way,” she continued, her voice filled with excitement. “You weren’t just the smartest or strongest, though, but a breed beyond. You played with high tech toys on an unlimited budget. You endured kill house training and torture training, and yet twenty-five percent of you don’t see your thirtieth birthday. Impressive, all of it, I have to say.”

  “Impressive? You’re impressive. What, you have an eidetic memory as well? And, you’re so cute when you get like this. You know how amazing of a woman you are, right?”

  She shook her head, lowered her eyes. The complement unsettled her like none ever had before.

  “I don’t know about all of that. I’ve never felt so weak before, so unknowledgeable, so out of control,” she confessed, and then dared a glimpse at his face.

  “You’re wrong. You don’t give yourself nearly enough credit. But, you know, maybe part of your strength here will come from allowing some weakness. You are human, and you’re dealing with an inhuman amount of challenges.”

  He paused to touch her shoulder briefly, to rub, to catch a smile.

  She granted him one despite the flush spreading over her cheeks again.

  “Let’s get going,” he encouraged, patting her back, then stroking the fall of hair over her hood. “We won’t be able to be out here too long. The sky looks threatening, even though only a little snow falls at the moment.”

  They moved along. With each step, she felt nothing more than what she already had as far as her aunt was concerned. She stopped at another tree, one half-covered in a blanket of clingy, wet snow. The trunk clung to the ground in a suspended half fall to the earth. The pull of gravity and weather had nearly won the battle to stay upright. She touched where the snow gave way to a rugged, wet bark. Brown and silver, it didn’t even look real, but like someone had painted it into existence. The faint presence left of her aunt disappeared completely, as if a blanket of black had just covered her.

  Bereft of the loss of her trail, she clung to the tree and gathered herself to move on.

  As she traipsed through the light dusting of snow over the grounds, Aedan at her side, ever faithful, the woods gave way to a stream of sorts. Skinny, snaking its way through the blanket of snow, moving in a lazy gurgle. The water swallowed each flake that fell in its path.

  “I’ve lost her,” Kyna sighed. “There’s nothing here of her. It's as if she just vanished into thin air at this line of trees. I don’t know what to make of it. And, the guilt, I have this overwhelming guilt. This woman, who didn’t really know me, only loved my mother, and thus me, has sacrificed so much for me already. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to know them both, my mother and my aunt, to learn of this stuff inside me with them to guide me.”

  “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to say. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling. I’ve nothing at all similar to draw from."

  “I can barely imagine it, and it’s happening to me. So no worries. You’re here. You’ve been here, every single step of the way, supporting me, hell, sharing my bed without asking for more. I couldn’t possibly ask for more from you.”

  “Whatever you need. You must know that by now, no matter how short our time together,” he claimed in a husky voice that remained soft around the edges

  “I do. Listen, I’m freezing, so you must be, too, but do you mind if we walk to the water before we turn back. I want to try something. Magic out of the house, that is. I want to see what my power feels like out here in the open, if I can control it. On second thought, you might want to stay back here. I’ve nearly burnt Darcaryn in my attempts to manage it, among other things,” she confessed as she contorted her face to show the insanity of her statement.

  “I’ll follow, but stay a step back. How’s that?”

  “That works,” she grimaced, stepping out from the cover of the trees.

  So much energy had built up inside her she thought she’d explode with it if she didn’t use it to do something. The feeling was familiar, in a way. She wondered if the many times she’d gone running for release had been because she couldn’t name what built up inside of her, what had made her feel like she wanted to jump out of her skin.

  “Here goes,” she warned Aedan.

  Placing her hands out in front of her, palms up, she suspended the wind, made it flow just above her head. She watched as the flakes of snow followed the air’s path, and then floated down over an invisible hill above her to fall to her sides rather than on her. Feeling a sense of pleasure, she made them move faster. She swept them up and around so the snowflakes gathered and danced above her head.

  She looked backto see if Aedan watched her and saw the flakes hitting him in the face.

  She giggled, and apologized, but he didn’t move away.

  “I once floated under a boat, in pitch black water, for hours, waiting for the call to come to board a ship and rescue captured military. I can handle a few snowflakes in the face,” he laughed. “Besides, it’s a privilege to get to watch you work.”

  She shook her head, always amazed whenever he shared his SEAL days, even if just snippets.

  “Once this is all over, I want to spend days hearing about your adventures, the good and the bad.”

  “As you wish. What I can share, I will,” he promised.

  She looked back at the water then, and she wanted to control it. But first, as she shivered, she got a more challenging idea.

  Stepping back, holding up her hand to stop Aedan from following, she took off her glove and held her hand out by her side. She let the energy swirl to a heat, one that made her sweat under her layers. The energy warmed her even as she’d been chilled to the bone just moments ago. Releasing the heat, she formed a small ball of light just above her palm, then turned it into flames. While she could feel the heat of it, Darcaryn had trained her not to fear it. This fire of her creation could burn without burning her.

  With a thrill zooming inside her, she shot the ball of flames at the water. The flames dispersed and road the small white caps for a second as the stream went over a jagged rock. It looke
d as if the water were on fire, before the flames sizzled into smoke and disappeared altogether.

  “Amazing,” Aedan said, coming in closer. “You’re amazing. When this is all over, I shall tell you just how amazing I think you are, in excruciating detail, as I, hopefully, will finally get to worship your body the way it should be.”

  “I so hope we get that chance,” she answered, as a blush, one more of lust than embarrassment, rushed over her cheeks.

  Desire boiled inside of her. She owned it. Her passions fueled it. Unspelled, true, she revealed in the pure heat of her feelings for Aedan.

  “We should head back now if you’re ready,” Aedan suggested, rubbing his gloved hands together.

  “I think I am. There’s a lot I want to discuss with you, once this is all over. But for now, I’m grateful to hold your hand, to have you with me at night, and for the seductive kisses that make me dream of more.”

  He smiled so big it softened some of his rugged lines. The twinkle in his eye ignited the fever inside her further. She smiled at him as they started their way back.

  Just before they got to the house, he said, “Tomorrow the first two of my friends arrive. I hate all the time I have to leave you with Darcaryn even when I’m in the house, but I’ll be picking them up at the airport very early in the morning. I will leave you as you sleep. Will you be okay? Maybe we can get Darcaryn to place a stronger spell over the room, or to come in to watch over you himself.”

  He’d practically spat the last words as if he’d choke on them otherwise.

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine in the wee hours of the morning. We’ll tell Darcaryn, but nothing seems to bother me then. I’m sure I’ll be fine alone. Besides, I feel stronger in my magic. He’s been teaching me to protect myself against the mystical visions, hauntings that plague me.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I mean, they’re still there. Cold, dark, and menacing, but, I feel I understand them more. Thus I have some control over my fear of them at times. But, I still want you in my bed. That is, if you don’t mind.”