UNDER HIS SPELL (19 page)

CHAPTER EIGHT

Skye felt Rane’s eyes on her, watching her every move as she
straightened the room and made ready to leave.
 
She didn’t turn around, nor did she respond to the unspoken question in
his eyes.
 
He wanted to know if she still
thought this was best, if she had changed her mind.
 
But Skye knew her sister.
 
Emily needed to be home, with her family and
friends, surrounded by people who loved and cared about her, people who could
protect her.
 
Though the wizards could
protect her, they could never love her as much as the family she’d cultivated
on Earth.
 

“You know, you really don’t have to go with us,” Skye finally opted
to say.

Rane made a grunting noise which Skye surmised was supposed to pass
for, “oh, really.”

She peeked over her shoulder at him.
 
“I mean it.
 
I can take Emily
home.”

He didn’t straighten from his leaning position against the
doorjamb.
 
“I am not letting you take
Emily home by yourself.”

“Sabrina probably still isn’t even watching for me.”

“I am not concerned with Sabrina.”

“This Unger doesn’t know when I’m leaving.
 
You could just blink us there, or whatever it
is that you do.”

“It is thought projection,” Rane supplied.

“Okay, well, you could thought-project us there.”

“I can take us only to the grounds of your home.
 
Your mother’s protection spell prevents me
from entering without the proper key.”

Skye waved away his concern.
 
“I could give that to you.”

“It does not work that way.
 
I
will need to be on the ground before I can surpass the spell.”

“Could you break it?”

“Yes.”
 

“So why don’t you?”

Rane did move away from the door then and he walked toward her.
 
“Because I do not enter a home I have not
been invited to enter unless a life is in danger.
 
I do not use my magic on a whim, Skye.”

She sensed she’d irritated him, but she didn’t apologize.
 
He wasn’t the only one in the room
irritated.
 
His high-handed manner was
starting to wear on her nerves.
 
“Okay,
whatever you want to do.
 
I’m sure that’s
what you intended to do all along and seeing that I can’t change your mind, I won’t
waste my breath any longer.”
 
She clamped
her hands on her hips and whirled around to face him.
 
“One thing though, when you return to
Mystique, you return alone.”

In his eyes, Skye saw the approach of a thunderstorm.
 
“That is incorrect.”

“Actually, it’s quite correct.
 
My birthday is coming soon and I’d like to spend it at my home with my
friends.”

“When is your birthday?”
 
He
practically barked the question.

“Since you asked so nicely, it’s next Friday.”
 
She watched him mentally tick the days off in
his head.
 

“How old will you be?” he asked quietly.

She glared at him.
 
“You
shouldn’t ask a woman her age, Rane.
 
Even wizards should know that rule.”

“How old will you be, Skye?”
 
He enunciated the words carefully, drilling in the importance of his
question.

Skye turned her back to him.
 
“If you must know, I’ll be thirty.”

“Skye.”

His voice sounded strange, unnatural almost.
 
It propelled her to turn back around.
 
Once she saw his face, she knew he hadn’t
been asking about her age to be nosy.
 
“What’s wrong?”

“Next Friday is Ostara.”

Skye clenched her hands around the hem of her blouse.
 
“I know that.
 
It comes every thirty years.”

“When you first told me you were born on Ostara, I did not think of
how close we were to this day.
 
I knew
you could not be older than thirty.
 
I
should have paid more attention.”

“More attention to what?”
 
His
agitation was transferring to her.

Rane came to her and grasped her shoulders.
 
“On your thirtieth birthday, you will assume
Allessandra’s role as the High Queen of the Covens.
 
You will lead every witch in the universe.”

Skye tried to shake him away, but he held fast.
 
“I have no interest in leading the witches.”

Rane gave her what she took as a pitying look.
 
“You do not get an option, Skye.
 
You are the chosen one.”

“No,” she shook her head adamantly.
 
“My mother was the chosen one.
 
I
was simply her child.”

“I need to make the others aware of this information.”

Skye swept a hand toward the door.
 
“Go.
 
By all means, don’t let me
keep you.
 
If it were up to me, you’d be
staying here when I left.”

Rane glared at her.
 
“Then I
suppose it is not a good thing that it is up to you.”
 
He spun on his heel and marched out of the
room.
 

Skye wondered if she’d hurt his feelings, but she didn’t have time
for that.
 
She had to figure out a way
out of Mystique without Rane’s help.

***

“Ostara.”
 
Sabrina clapped her
hands together and moved around the cluster of witches.
 
“I don’t think any of you here know how sick
I am of Ostara.
 
The day when light
masters dark, when the good witches outdo the bad.”
 
She snorted her derision.
 
“As if such a thing could really ever
occur.”
 
Her head snapped up and she
allowed her gaze to run over each and every witch’s face.
 
“Perhaps I was remiss in not sharing with all
of you exactly what it is that we are facing.”

She made another lap before coming to stand next to the marble
dais.
 
“Next Friday at precisely 12:00
a.m., Skye will take her place as the reigning Queen of the Witches, a position
which has not been held in fifteen years since the death of Allessandra.
 
Should Skye take over, well,” she interrupted
herself.
 
“I don’t think I need to tell
any of you what that might mean for our Coven or any of the other Covens.
 
You all know Skye, what she is like.
 
She will have us knitting booties for orphan
babies.
 
Do any of you really want
that?
 
Did you become a witch to sit
passively by while the wizards and warlocks overtake the world?
 
I didn’t think so.”

No one dared to answer her or voice an opinion, especially not since
they’d witnessed Paige’s demise.
 
Though
there had been talk among the ranks about defecting to another Coven, none as
of yet had been brave enough to make the attempt.
 
It was clear that the Sabrina, who’d returned
after the battle, wasn’t the Sabrina who’d left.

***

Jaxon thumped his fingers on the table.
 
Rane paced and Falcon remained stoically silent
yet all three wizards were contemplating this new piece of information.
 

“After all this time,” Jaxon began in a bemused tone of voice.
 
“I think most of us had forgotten this.”
   
 
“Not
forgotten, merely put it from our minds.
 
Allessandra has not been gone long enough for any one of us to really
forget her position,” Falcon mused.
 
“I
just wonder if Skye is up to the task.”

Rane chose not to respond to the comment.
 
Instead, he responded by saying, “I should
take Emily home.”

“That would be a good idea.
 
The less mortals we have to protect, the better,” Jaxon responded.

Rane searched his brother’s face for any signs of acrimony, but
seeing none, he nodded and headed toward the door.
 
“One more thing.
 
Make no move against Sabrina until I return.”

Both Jaxon and Falcon turned to look at Rane with raised eyebrows
but they didn’t speak.

Rane didn’t elaborate further.
 
Instead, he slid back the wall and stepped out into the corridor,
passing Nexon on his way.

“If you are looking for your lady witch, she and the girl left about
ten minutes ago.”

Rane stopped walking.
 
“Left?
 
They could not possibly
leave Mystique.”

Nexon snickered.
 
“Apparently,
you have underestimated the witch.”

“She is to be High Queen, Rane.
 
She is learning her abilities,” Jaxon supplied this information from
over Rane’s left shoulder.

Rane’s teeth gnashed together and he strode toward the bedchamber
Skye had occupied with Emily.
 
Damned,
annoying woman.
 
When he got a hold of
her, he would . . . he deliberately ceased his thoughts, not wanting to give
his brother any more ammunition than he already had.

“Braeden, sometimes, I think you are the fortunate one,” he muttered
to his missing brother.

***

The landing was a bumpy one, but Skye had managed to escape Mystique
with Emily in tow and relatively few bruises.
 
While she silently celebrated her success, Emily trudged along beside
her, a scowl on her face.

“I don’t know why we couldn’t wait for Rane.”

Skye counted to ten.
 
How many
more times was her sister going to make that same blasted statement?
 
She hadn’t thought her sister had gotten that
addicted to Rane in such a short amount of time.
 
She placed her hand on Emily’s shoulder and
ushered her through the forest.
 
“I’ve
already told you, honey.
 
Rane has things
he must take care of.
 
He has a very
important position in Mystique.”

Emily scrunched up her face.
 
“He’s a wizard, Skye, not the president.”

Skye stifled a giggle.
 
“Nevertheless, he has to stay there to take care of his family.”

Emily gave her a suspicious look.
 
“He could have at least told us goodbye.
 
I don’t think he was that busy.”

Skye increased their pace.
 
Had she known exactly where they were, she could have used a spell to
get them home safely.
 
But Skye had
always been directionally challenged and unless she had a map, she could never
find her way out of this jungle.
 

“Are you listening to me?”
 
Emily poked her in the side.

“Of course I’m listening to you and…” Skye stopped speaking and
snatched Emily’s arm.
 
“Emily, see those
bushes over there?
 
I want you to get
behind them and stay down until I call for you, understand?”

Emily, with her eyes wide, took off running.
 
Skye was grateful the teenager didn’t stop to
question this time.
 

Skye had just enough time to spin around and stand up straight
before the first fireball whizzed over her head.

***

The scent of burning leaves filled the air, making Rane increase his
pace.
 
He hoped Skye had taken this way
home, otherwise, he’d have a hell of a time finding her.
 
He couldn’t track her… yet.
 
He vowed to resolve that problem the next
time he saw her.
 

He heard a shout and he picked up speed, whipping through the air
like a bullet discharged from a .9mm.
 
He
could just make out the clearing when a large oak toppled.
 
Cursing, he halted in mid-air, decided on his
next course of action and then dove in underneath the cover of the trees.

He saw Emily first, squatting down behind a trio of bushes.
 
Her eyes were wide in her pale face, her
lower lip trembled, and the second she spotted Rane, relief made her shoulders
sag.
 
He placed one finger against his
lips to quiet her and rested his hand atop her head.

Skye held her own in the face of the enemy, a large, intimidating
troll with rubbery lips and arms like the tree he’d just toppled.
 
He advanced; Skye parried and the ground
shook which each movement of his feet.
 
 
“Oh for the love of Pete,” Skye shouted.
 
“Will you just stand still?
 
It’ll only hurt for a minute!”
 
She mumbled some words below her breath,
conjured a dagger into her palm and hurled it.
 

Not quite quick enough to duck, the troll managed to lean over but
the blade still nicked his ear.
 
He
howled in agony and clapped one hand over the blood.
 
Unintelligible words came out of his mouth
and when he lifted his mammoth-size head, his eyes glazed with hatred.
 
He lowered his hands to his side and began to
lumber forward.

Rane shot straight up into the air and spiraled down to land in the
middle of the sparring partners.
 
The
troll stopped short and stared at him.
 
Rane held up one hand.
 
“You will
leave this woman alone and allow her to pass.
 
I do not want to have to hurt you.”

The troll made a noise in the back of his throat and spoke something
in an ancient language.

Rane took a step toward him.
 
“Under whose authority?”

The troll tipped his head and regarded Rane with a blank stare
before he babbled once more.
 
 

Rane came even closer until he was nose to nose with the
monster.
 
“This is your one and only
warning.
 
Go.
 
Leave this witch and her sister alone.
 
Come near them again and I will take you
apart piece by piece.
 
Understand?”

The troll hunched his shoulders and began to walk backwards.
 
He didn’t say another word, but it was
evident he’d gotten the message.
 
Once he
reached the end of the clearing, he turned and lumbered into the forest, his
fear forcing him to walk faster than was ordinary or comfortable.
 

Rane turned around.
 
“You now
have a price on your head.”

***

Sabrina gritted her teeth and slapped her fist into her palm.
 
“What is it going to take to kill this
bitch?”

“The troll failed because of the wizard,” one of the witches finally
gained a voice.