Magic Destiny: Dark Paranormal Romance (Irish Rogue Series Book 1)

by Kate Gellar

  “Why are we really here, Sam?” Sylvie asked the question but his eyes were drawn to Abby who had locked her gaze on him. He pushed down his attraction for this feisty American who looked more Irish than Brendan did with his blond hair.

  “Folklore has it that four immortal guardians will give their lives to protect the seal, and prevent it from opening. A queen can bind them all and give them the strength they need to permanently close the rift between the two worlds.”

  “And if you don’t find a queen?” said Sylvie.

  “Then the guardians will lose their immortality and new guardians will take their place.”

  “But how can you be immortal then not?”

  “It’s the way this works. The power won’t belong to us until we bond. We are indestructible when fully bonded to a queen. Without, we are vulnerable to the demons’ power.”

  “Okay, we’re here because...” Sylvie rolled her hand.

  “We saw potential in all of you, in your bloodlines. They come from the time when the rift between realties was discovered and seal first forged.”

  Sam stopped talking when Abby’s gaze dropped to the floor. “If you’re not up for this, Abby...”

  She waved her hand. “It’s nothing. Tell us about the witches?” Her eyes flickered to Sylvie so fast that Sam almost didn’t catch it.

  “Good or bad?” he said to Sylvie. Abby had already heard the story, but Sylvie had not.

  “Good, hopefully,” said Sylvie. He got the impression she was referring to herself.

  “They can help to keep the seal closed, but it’s only a temporary solution. Dark witches can undo the work by stealing our magic and weakening us. The demonic power controls them more than it does white witches.”

  Sylvie perched on the arm of the sofa next to Abby. “Well, that settles it. I’ve no interest in stealing anything from you. That must make me good, right?”

  “Me too.”

  They turned at the sound of another voice. It was Noomi, the quieter of the two resident Swedes. She strode into the room. “Looks like you’re having a little party in here. What’s going on?”

  Sam went to make an excuse, but Brendan interrupted. “She’s a white witch. We can trust her.”

  Noomi looked around her. “I felt a pounding energy from before. Then a spell being cast—those I know about anyway. Maybe I can help.”

  It relieved Sam to know there were at least two white witches in the castle. He shut the door to the seal room and fitted a brand-new lock to it. “I need you both to incant a binding spell on the room to stop the entities from passing through the walls and detecting any energy in this castle.” He glanced at Abby, refusing to admit she might be the one. Not yet. She was something, but a queen? He couldn’t say for sure.

  Brendan handed Sylvie the book of spells Sam knew he kept in his room as a precaution. Noomi looked over Sylvie’s shoulder. Together they said the spell aloud that Brendan pointed out. When they finished, Brendan took the book back and tucked it under his arm.

  “What now?” he said.

  Sam looked to Sylvie and Noomi. “We need to test the other girls. We got lucky this time, but we must know what the others are, and Abby.”

  Sylvie turned to Abby. “What happened here? What drew you to the room?”

  Abby shook her head looking more alert than before she’d sat down. “I’ve no idea. I...I heard my name being called. Then it was like I was in a trance. The seal called to me. I came out of it to find the lock broken in my hand and Brendan shouting my name.”

  “To break the lock is an impossible feat, unless you have hidden powers,” said Sam. “It’s as old as this house.”

  “Shit.” Abby glanced at the door, then at Sam. “I really didn’t mean to break it. It was like a force channeled its magic through me.”

  “Like a vessel,” said Liam.

  Sam turned to see him slip inside the room with Murphy next who closed the door.

  Murphy said, “What’s goin’ on? We leave the castle for a few hours and all hell breaks loose?”

  Liam rushed to Abby’s side and grabbed her hand. Murphy remained by the door, arms folded, looking pissed off.

  “She shouldn’t be this close to the seal,” said Brendan.

  Sam nodded. “Good idea. Take her back upstairs.” He watched as Brendan escorted Abby from the room, waiting for them both to leave before he explained for Liam and Murphy.

  “Long story, but we’re running out of time. The power is agitated and detects magic here, enough to lure Abby to it. We need to test the girls now.”

  Murphy dropped is arms to his side. His eyes widened. “Jesus, fuck. Why?”

  “Because you know why.”

  Murphy ran his fingers through his hair. Sam understood his hesitation. Murphy, as loyal to the cause as anyone, was the least thrilled about finding a queen. A bond would tie him to one woman and kill his independence. But according to legend, it wouldn’t matter. The queen would be enough for him. For all four.

  But Murphy didn’t give a shit about legend. And Sam couldn’t say for certain the bond would live up to its promise.

  “Okay, back to this test scenario,” said Sylvie. “What are you planning?”

  Sam had no idea. Before, they’d been able to string the girls along for a few weeks without anyone suspecting they ran a fake summer program. The more time they spent with the girls, the more magic—or lack thereof—the boys sensed. But this event that turned Abby into a vessel so she could break into the seal room put a new urgency on their plans. Sam didn’t think they had time to let things play out. It was too dangerous.

  He offered up his best idea. “Talk to them? Ask them to perform spells from the book? I don’t know.”

  “Well, since you clearly don’t know women,” said Noomi, “I would suggest you don’t come right out and say it. We should set a trap.”

  Sylvie clicked her fingers at Noomi. “That only a witch would be able to feel and escape.”

  Noomi nodded. “Mortals won’t be affected. Dark witches will fight it.”

  “Okay, so how do we do this?” said Liam.

  “We would need everyone to be in the same room,” suggested Murphy.

  Sam repeated Brendan’s earlier suggestion. “How about a dinner on Friday night?”

  Noomi looked at Sylvie who smiled. “Yeah, that should give us enough time to find a spell to coax the dark witches out of hiding.”

  23

  Abby

  Brendan was so sweet holding onto her arm as he brought her upstairs.

  “You’re sleeping in my room tonight,” he said. “I’ll take the floor. My room has the strongest protection spell on it in the castle.”

  She didn’t protest as he opened the door and led Abby inside. She hadn’t noticed his room before; she’d been too out of it. But now she saw his room was huge, nearly four times the size of hers one floor below. A large four-poster bed set against the right wall was made of dark mahogany and looked as old as the castle. A second door opposite the bed hinted at an ensuite. A sofa sat next to the ensuite.

  A sofa! This was one big room.

  She stayed by the door, feeling shy all of a sudden. “Okay, but on one condition.”

  “Anything.” Brendan let go of her arm.

  “That when things settle down, you’ll let me repay you.”

  Brendan’s pupils dilated. “How?”

  “Not that!” She thumped his arm gently. “I make the meanest brownies this side of the Atlantic. Over there,”—she jerked her head in the general direction of the US—“my brownies are only average.”

  Brendan flashed her a smile. “Deal.”

  He said the word low enough for Abby to feel it inside. She pressed her thighs together and conjured up images of him and Emma with their tongues stuck down each other’s throat.

  He’s with her, Abby.

  That fact should have bothered her more. But a raw and primal need to have this man drew her to him.

  She sat on t
he bed, feeling awkward at being alone with a man who affected her without even touching her. But she also felt a simmering power strong enough to control Brendan with a bat of her eyelashes. Maybe it was the room. Or the specific spell he’d had placed on it.

  Brendan sat down on the sofa and stared at the floor while Abby perched on the edge of his queen sized bed big enough for two. Abby tried to push that last thought out of her head and the erotically charged feeling between them.

  “Um, I wanted to thank you properly for saving me back there.”

  Brendan flicked his eyes up and away. Was he embarrassed? “It was nothing. The guys would have done the same.”

  “That’s what I think, too... Well, except for Murphy. I can’t figure him out.”

  Brendan laughed and relaxed a little. “That’s what everybody says when they first meet him. He’s a closed shop, but he’s a great guy when you get to know him.”

  Abby curled her hands into the soft duvet. “Sam told me about this place before, you know, all the stuff happened downstairs. I knew there was a seal in that room when I went there.”

  Brendan looked at her and nodded. “He told me.”

  “I didn’t go there to open the door. I didn’t believe what Sam had said.”

  “I know.”

  “But a part of me wanted to open the door and gain access to that seal. Do you think on some deeper level I broke in on purpose?”

  Brendan got up and sat beside her on the bed. He took her hand.

  “There’s definitely a power inside you. I felt it like a punch to the gut while I was setting up the presentation on Monday morning.”

  Abby looked down at her lap to escape Brendan’s intense gaze. “Me too.”

  “How are you feeling now?”

  She met his eyes and shivered under his watchful gaze. “Better. Still a bit weak.”

  “Well, I might have something that can help with that.”

  “Another spell?”

  He laughed and ran a hand through his long hair. “No, a bit more unorthodox than that. Don’t do it if you don’t want to.”

  Now she was curious. She shifted round to face him. “What? Tell me?”

  Brendan let go of her hand and clasped his hands together. While focusing on his lap he took a deep breath. “When you kissed Liam how did you feel?”

  Abby remembered it like it had just happened, even though it was two days ago. “Weird, powerful.”

  “That’s because you were able to take his power.” Brendan glanced at her.

  Abby hadn’t meant to hurt sweet Liam. “I was?”

  “Yeah. Witches can steal our power to make themselves stronger. I believe you’re part witch, but you have a second power inside you that none of us can define.”

  “The boys, you mean?”

  Brendan nodded. “I’m attracted to you and what you are. That could be the witch pretending to be what I want, or it could be another power.”

  “The queen?” Abby whispered.

  “Yeah.” Brendan kept his eyes on his clasped hands. “It sounds like a tale but Sam was telling the truth. Problem is none of us have ever met or bonded with one. So we don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like or how to recognize the signs.”

  Abby thought she understood. “How do you bond?”

  Brendan’s blush melted her heart. “It’s complicated, but to give you back the strength the seal stole from you, we need to kiss.”

  Now it was Abby’s turn to blush. “No, I can’t. I hurt Liam before.”

  “Just for a moment.” He leveled his gaze on her. “It won’t be long enough to actually bond, but it will be enough for you to take some of my power.”

  What Abby didn’t say was when Brendan had carried her to his room straight after the seal incident, she’d thought of nothing else. But her weakened condition had prevented her from stealing his power. Now, she felt better, strong. Yet, she still craved his power like she craved him. Abby liked Brendan. A lot. If she really was part witch, was her attraction to him real or was that other part of her trying to take what wasn’t hers?

  But then again, she wanted to try. “Okay, but if you start to feel weak, I want you to pull out of it, okay?”

  Brendan nodded as his dilated gaze slipped to her mouth. He leaned in and her body reacted to his in the same way. He cupped the side of her face and brushed his lips against hers.

  Zing.

  The same power she’d felt when she kissed Liam hit her like a falling brick. Like the spark of electricity in the shower her first morning. Except Brendan’s energy felt different compared to Liam’s. Complementary, though, like both energies were two pieces of the same puzzle.

  Abby craved more, but she sensed Brendan’s cautiousness and her own. His breath caught when she touched her lips to his a second time. A shot of heat went straight to her mound. Brendan’s hand slipped down her arm, but almost as if he thought better of it, he dropped both arms to his side. His power rose to the surface, teasing her to steal it. Her primal urge to have him raised its horny head again and a growl escaped her lips.

  She climbed onto Brendan’s lap and took more of him. Brendan’s breath caught in his throat as she stared into his almost black eyes. She teased his mouth with her tongue, probing the power that made itself available to her. He opened to her without hesitation; a rush of sweet air entered her mouth as their tongues danced.

  The longer they kissed the stronger she felt. She deepened the kiss when Brendan’s hands found her hair and drew her near.

  Brendan pulled away to kiss her neck and she whimpered underneath his soft breath. But it wasn’t enough for Abby. What she needed was inside him. So she kissed him again.

  Brendan went rigid beneath her. He no longer caressed her hair but pulled on it. Abby took that as a sign to continue. Warmth filled her as a power complementary to hers flooded her senses, made her feel strong. Brendan thrashed and flailed beneath her. She kept kissing him, drawing more from him...

  Abby, stop!

  She broke the kiss and whatever spell she was under.

  Abby scooted back and gasped when a pale and sickly Brendan flopped back onto the bed. His veins bulged in his arms and his eyes had deep purple circles around them. He looked exactly like he’d done that morning before the presentation.

  Abby jumped off the bed. “Oh shit, what have I done?”

  This was a bad idea. She paced to the door. What was she thinking?

  Brendan could barely talk. “My power... Give it back... You took...too...much.”

  “How?” She tugged on her roots. Should she get Sam? What would he say about her kissing Brendan?

  No, she could fix this. She ran back to the bed.

  “Same...way,” Brendan croaked.

  Abby straddled his lap again and pressed her lips to Brendan’s weak ones. Except this time she did nothing more than maintain the connection between them. She kept her eyes open the whole time. Brendan’s strength returned slowly, enough for him to kiss her back. And as he reclaimed his energy, she felt her new power dissipating. After a minute, Brendan broke the connection.

  “You okay?” Still on his lap, she touched the side of his face, feeling protective of this man. The veins in his arms and neck had returned to normal. The dark circles had diminished. She ran her thumb under each eye.

  “Yeah.” He smiled and sat up, looking exhausted. “That was quite the rush, huh?”

  Abby smiled back and wrapped her arms around him. “I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what came over me,” she mumbled into his hair.

  “It’s natural. Witches steal power, queens give it.”

  “So what does that make me?” She pulled back and frowned.

  Brendan grinned. “Potentially both.”

  His erection stirred beneath her. Embarrassed, she hopped off his lap and sat on the bed.

  “Maybe we should umm...separate,” said Brendan. He returned to the sofa. “You feel okay?”

  She did. Better than before. “I do. Wha
t happened between us?”

  “We partially bonded. It happens when guardians and queens, or witches, share power. But dark witches take it. White witches get nothing from the exchange other than a head rush, so they have no physical interest in us.”

  Abby definitely had a physical interest in Brendan. “Surely that makes me a dark witch.”

  “Possibly. All four of us are new to this. None of us has a manual and none of us has ever bonded, or come close to bonding, with a queen.”

  “Maybe that book downstairs has a manual,” said Abby.

  “Which one?” Brendan frowned.

  “The one in the old library with my mother’s face in it. The one about Queen Maebh.”

  Brendan fell quiet. She could tell from his shocked expression that what she’d told him was big. This whole thing was huge and she was in the middle of it.

  She tried to change the subject. “So what happens now?”

  Brendan lay down on the sofa and looked up at ceiling. “I think we should try to get some sleep.”

  24

  Brendan

  Brendan lay awake in the dark thinking about Abby. He’d always had his pick of women. They were a game he liked to play often. Brendan was definitely not a one-woman guy. And the ones he attracted understood the rules.

  When Sam had said Brendan’s lineage destined him to be one of four guardians of this castle and the seal, he hadn’t given it too much thought. Because he’d never expected it to happen. The power had been inside him for years, lying dormant. Then a meeting with Sam and Liam, and later Murphy, along with the trinity’s intervention, had unlocked their true potential and bonded them to each other. Now their mission to bond with the one or not at all had become his destiny.

  For so long he’d refused to believe Sam’s promise that one girl could complete all four. If one girl ever came along, he would fulfil his destiny while continuing to date as many women as possible.

  That’s who he was. And Murphy.

  But Abby had awoken a longing buried deep inside a few days before the kiss that took his breath away. Literally. Her presence in the presentation room had made the hairs on his arms stand up. A powerful vision had followed the sensation that showed him one woman: Abby.