UNDER HIS SPELL (36 page)

“No.
 
These wizards,” Skye
pointed behind her, “chose to make this a public display.
 
So the least you could do is follow their
lead.”

Rane moved Allessandra aside to make it to Skye’s side.
 
“I summoned Allessandra.
 
I was not aware that I would have
company.
 
It was not my intention to
throw this in your face.”
 
He reached out
for her, but she pulled her arm away.

“What’s done is done,” she said in a tired voice.
 
“I don’t think I want to hear anymore
anyway.
 
“You’ve told me all I need to
know.”

“Skye, there is more,” Allessandra began.

Skye held up her hand.
 
“But I
don’t want to hear more.”
 
She locked
eyes with Rane for a long second before taking a step backwards.
 
The air opened up beneath her feet and she
careened over the edge of the cliff and into the chasm.

Rane gave a shout of alarm and without thought, dove off after her,
his only thought to save her.

***

Skye didn’t give thought to where she was going.
 
She only knew that she needed time to absorb
the information Allessandra had just given her.
 
The second her feet touched soil, she took off at a run, trying to chase
away the demons keeping even pace with her.

She couldn’t fathom what her mother had been thinking.
 
There had to have been some mistake.
 
Ingrid would never knowingly hurt another
human being.
 
It wasn’t in her.
 

Her face wet with tears, she raced across the open field, her hair
whipping around her.
 
The wind snagged
her breath and fogged it in the air and still she kept running.
 
She didn’t stop until exhaustion claimed her
and she sagged against the rickety back of a barn which had seen better
days.
 
She didn’t know where she was and
as she sank to her knees, she didn’t care.
 

The sobs overtook her, consumed her and left her weary and
torn.
 
She couldn’t lift her head up even
when she heard the footsteps approaching.
 
She wrapped her arms around her waist and leaned her head against the
rotting wood.
 
“Please go away,” she
whispered.

A warm hand brushed her hair away from her face.
 
“Do you really think I could leave you alone
now?”
 
          
Skye
heard the voice, felt the touch and though she wanted to sink into the warmth
Rane offered, a part of her, that loyal daughter part of her, recoiled at the
thought.
 
“Rane, I can’t be with you
right now.”

He didn’t move his hand away from her face.
 
“I know this is difficult for you.”

She brushed him away and turned her back to him.
 
“No, you don’t.
 
You have no idea.
 
You didn’t just find out that your mother has
been lying to you all along.
 
You didn’t
just find out that your mother turned an innocent man into an evil creature who
feeds off of witches.
 
You just helped me
discover the information.
 
Remind me to
thank you later.”

“We need to talk about this, Skye.
 
I could not kill Unger without knowing the truth.”

“You knew he was a heartless bastard who’s killed many witches.
 
That wasn’t enough for you?”

Rane let out a long sigh.
 
“I
knew there was more to the story.”

She lifted her face then and though she saw the pain in his eyes,
she refused to relent.
 
“How did you know
that unless you were searching for something?
 
Did you want there to be more to Unger’s story?
 
You couldn’t simply accept that he was what
he was?”

“I sensed more,” he replied simply.

“And you couldn’t have talked with me about it first?”

“There was not time.”

Skye smacked the wood next to her ear.
 
“You make time when it concerns the people
you love.
 
You don’t sabotage them!”
 
She leaped to her feet and whirled away from
him.
 
“As I said, I can’t be with you
right now.
 
Could you please leave me
alone?”

Rane reached out to her and then allowed his hand to drop to his
side.
 
“How can I walk away from you when
you are in this much pain?”

“Because you have work to do.
 
Have you taken care of Unger?
 
Made a decision as to what you’re going to do about my mother or are the
other wizards back at the fortress having a pow-wow about it now?
 
I mean,” she began to walk around him, “I
presume she won’t be left alone.
 
There
has to be some type of retribution after what she’s supposedly done.”

“We do not know the full story, Skye.
 
There could be more to the story.”

She held up one hand.
 
“Not
all of us are looking for more, Rane.
 
Some of us are happy with what we know.”

“Even if it isn’t the truth?”

She blinked against the dagger his words caused in the center of her
chest.
 
“I had the truth.”

“You had the partial truth.”

Her temper heated.
 
“So tell
me what good it does for me to know that my mother used her magic for evil
instead of good.
 
How does that help me,
Rane, because honestly, I’m having a hard time understanding this one.”

“Your mother was human.
 
People make mistakes.
 
She was
only trying to protect you.
 
We all know
that.
 
No one is going to point fingers
in judgment.”
       

She dipped her head and swiped the tears away from her face with the
back of her hand.
 
“So why find out the
information at all?
 
Why couldn’t you
have just let it go?”

Rane took a step away from her.
 
“Because the truth is important to me.
 
Just as it is to you.”

“Oh, let me guess.
 
Is this
where you say I’ll thank you one day?
 
I’m supposed to be grateful to you for exposing my mother’s dark side?”

Rane dragged one hand through his hair, but the frustration on his
face didn’t move Skye.
 
“I do not want
your gratitude.
 
And we all have a dark
side.
 
Your mother stepped over a
line.
 
We have all probably done that to
some extent as well.
 
I am sure she did
not intend for Unger to take things as far as he did.”

“She didn’t give him a choice,” Skye shot back.
 
“She condemned him to a life of hell.
 
What could he do but seek vengeance against
the woman who’d given him that life?
 
It’s a sad day when I understand the killer more than I do my own
mother.”

“Would you like to talk to her?”

She walked closer to him.
 
“Do
not, under any circumstances, summon my mother.
 
That is not your right.”
 
She
started to walk away from him, but Rane blocked her path.
 
“What are you doing?”

“I will not allow you to walk away from me, Skye.”

“I guess we really are coming full circle then.
 
You held me prisoner when we first met, too.”

His eyes became dark pools of anger.
 
“It is not my intention to hold you prisoner.”

“Unless I give you no choice.”

“Can you honestly tell me you have no feelings for me?”

“My feelings matter little.”

“They matter most of all.”

Skye gave him a sad smile.
 
“If that were true, you would not have summoned Allessandra.”
 
She left him then, a little surprised that he
did allow her to walk away.
 
He could
have held her there against her will, but she imagined even Rane knew it was
too late for that.
 

He’d hurt her and like other women, she’d need time to heal.
 
Time to consider her mother’s actions and her
own future.
 
With or without Rane.

***

She came to him in the middle of the night.
 
She didn’t speak as she slipped beneath the
sheets and pressed her lithe body to his.
 
He caught the scent of freshly shampooed hair and perfumed soap.
 
Then her golden limbs wrapped around his and
Rane accepted the blatant invitation, covering her, offering comfort or perhaps
seeking his own.
 

He pressed his lips to hers, a soft, seeking kiss which Skye
returned with hurried fervor.
 
Her hands
were everywhere, skating across his spine, driving him mad with pleasure and
need.
 
He tried to slow her down, but
Skye rushed him, taking him in her hand, urging him to fill her, to take her
over the edge into the oblivion she sought.
 

He whispered in her ear, soothing words of promise and reassurance,
but Skye turned her head, moving her hips slightly to entice him.
 
As wanton as a siren in full heat, she used
all the right moves, touched him in all the right places and the flames licked
at him from the inside out.

“Take me,” she finally whispered and Rane was powerless to do
anything but comply.

He surged into her and fisted his hand on either side of her head.
 
“Skye, I…” he began, but she covered his lips
with her fingertips and moved beneath him, giving him silent instructions.
 
She didn’t want a conversation.
 
She just wanted him.
 
It would have to be enough for now.

He kept his movements slow to prolong the connection, but Skye’s
frustration tripled and she dug her heels into his hips.
 
Arching her back off the bed, she took him
deeper inside her and Rane’s thoughts scattered.
 
Her velvety warmth closed around him, stroked
him with a masterful touch and he lost the ability to form a rational
thought.
 

Skye whispered an urgent command in his ear and Rane became the
puppet.
 
His thrusts increased and he
pumped into her furiously, storing her wild cries in his heart.
 
She stroked him, caressed him, moved her hands
over every inch of his exposed body as if memorizing the landscape of his
skin.
 
So as not to forget him.
 
         
Even
as Rane’s release punched him, he knew this was Skye’s way of saying
goodbye.
 
She cried out when she climaxed
and held him tightly to her chest.
 
They
lay there, entwined in each other’s arms in the center of Rane’s bed for
several long minutes.
 

Then Skye asked quietly, “Emily?”

“She’s fine.
 
She’s safe.”

“Good.”
 
She relaxed against
him, her head on his shoulder.
 
Her hand
fanned out over his skin and her nails lightly scratched him.

Rane brushed the hair back from her face and wondered how much
longer he’d get to hold her like this.

They didn’t speak again and it seemed that no words were
required.
 
Rane knew Skye needed some
time to come to terms with her mother’s actions and he’d allow her that, but he
was a wizard as much as he was a man.
 
And wizards weren’t known for their patience.
 
Skye only thought she was saying
goodbye.
 
He would not allow such a
finality.
 
He’d only allow her to say she
needed time.
 

He kissed the top of her head and stroked her cheek.
 
“I love you, Skye,” he whispered in the
darkness.
 
He felt her stiffen for the
briefest of seconds before she relaxed against him once more.
 
She didn’t respond, but then, he hadn’t
expect her to.
 

He felt her inner pain as much as he felt the thump of her heart
against his arm.
 
He wanted to reassure
her, to promise her that he wasn’t going anywhere, that he would give her the
time she needed to make sense of her thoughts, her mother’s mistake and even
their future.
 
But he knew the words
would mean little to her.
 
As much as
Skye loved him, and he knew she loved him, though she’d never said the words
aloud, she needed silence now more than anything else.
 

His hands seesawed up and down her spine and in a matter of minutes,
Skye’s breaths came steadily.
 
She’d
fallen asleep in his arms.
 
Rane took the
opportunity to enjoy the feeling of her curvy, warm body curled next to
his.
 
The scent of her skin surrounded
him, the silk of her skin enticed him and her warm breath whispered over his
chest.
 
Unconsciously, his arms tightened
around her.
 
“I can’t let you go,
Skye.
 
As much as you might think you
need your freedom, I need your presence.”
 
He smiled into her hair.
 
“I guess
this is known as a quandary, isn’t it?”

His lids closed slowly but it was a long time before he gave into
sleep and though he held Skye, as close to his heart as he could without
disturbing her sleep, he knew that once she wanted free, she’d find a way.
 
Sometimes, he wished he wasn’t right all the
time.
 

When the sun streaked across the sky the next morning and Rane woke
up, Skye was gone.