She swore softly under her breath, so he gifted her with a reprimanding stare.

  She scoffed. “The saintly look doesn’t become you, Kester. You’re probably King of the Underworld himself.”

  “No. I think that’s reserved for the likes of Hamish Kerr.”

  Eliza stared at him, seeming to agree. “I suppose the Boggs-McCulloch feud seems very far from the time and place where it started. Have you ever even been to Scotland?”

  “Once, when I was a boy.”

  “You’re lucky. I’ve never visited.” She glanced at him and took a step back, her expression a bit bashful.

  He had crowded her, but it had been to keep their conservation private. “Maybe one day you will.”

  Up close, her skin was pale and soft, her lips rosy, and her eyes pools of green, like the forests of the Highlands.

  She gave a nod and a bit of a smile. “When this is over, I’ll tell you why we are never to…fraternize.”

  “Then I shall consider myself paid in full.”

  “Let’s go!” Johnny shouted.

  Kit turned and entered the mountains, dark clouds above them, a chill wind howling, and night coming. As they descended into the bowels of the earth, it was only fitting that today was All Hallow’s Eve.

  Chapter Five

  The sky released a deluge of rain. Eliza followed Kit, who led both of their horses. Johnny had insisted that she be tethered to one of the men, and Kit had made sure she was bound to none but him.

  The Crow wasn’t anything as she had expected of a Boggs man.

  But now, with the unrelenting downpour, he was a typical male, making no effort to stop and take shelter. Instead, the trail had turned to mud, and they continued to slog onward. Eliza couldn’t make out much of anything except for Boggs ahead of her.

  Occasionally, he waited for her to close the gap that kept widening between them, but once she reached his position he simply continued trudging forward.

  Try as she might, she couldn’t deny that having his company offered her a sliver of comfort, because she was, after all, a prisoner. The darkness and conditions began to press in on her.

  Kit lifted his hat and placed it onto her head since hers was long lost. She acknowledged him with a nod of gratitude, a cascade of water streaming off the edge instead of directly onto her. She was still miserable and cold, but it was a small and tiny improvement, and she would take it.

  Without warning, water began to rise around her boots, the ground now saturated. To her mounting terror, they stood in a quickly building flood. She glanced around but could see nothing in the pitch black. As the rain ricocheted off Kit’s hat, the horses snorted in agitation.

  She took a step and slipped, falling to her knees. Before she could stand, a wave slammed into her. Flailing, she flew down the hillside, trying to grab hold of something. Anything. Water blasted down her nose and throat, and she fought for air but there was none.

  She was drowning.

  • ♥ •

  Kit held tight to the reins of the horses as a column of water hit them. He scrambled to the right to gain higher ground, dragging the panicked animals with him.

  Eliza was nowhere to be found.

  “Eliza! Eliza!”

  Having found a perch where he and the horses could stand, he left them and slid back to Eliza’s location just moments ago.

  She was gone.

  He moved farther down the hillside, sliding through the muck and current.

  “Eliza!”

  In a flash, the crows descended, a cacophony of cawing filling his ears despite the roar of the storm. Where to send them?

  A darker mass filled the sky, dipping and changing in size.

  Bats.

  The crows followed. Kit blended with the corvids, his senses their senses, his sight their sight. He saw her, tumbling in the torrent of water rushing down the hill. As one, the flock of birds swooped in, their claws grabbing her clothing, the mass lifting her from the rushing cascade and bringing her back to Kit. As they released Eliza, he caught her in his arms, sending both of them tumbling onto the muddy ground. He rolled from atop her and helped her to her hands and knees. Coughing, she hacked out water then sucked in loud gulps of air.

  The rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

  Kit clasped her hand and brought her to stand. She’d lost his hat and they were both covered in mud.

  Her chest heaved as she pushed wet hair from her eyes. “You have the ability to call upon the crows?”

  “That was my first time.” He wiped water from his eyes. While the birds often shadowed him and his brothers, he had never purposefully summoned a flock, or a molmacha as his granny liked to call them. “But I wouldn’t have known where to find you without the bats.”

  “My familiar. I would guess the crow is yours.”

  Johnny appeared, speaking to them as if nothing had just happened. “You two need to pick up the pace. We need to get out of this valley before the moon sits above us.”

  Once Johnny walked away, Kit grabbed hold of Eliza’s hand and led her forward, determined not to lose her again.

  • ♥ •

  At last Johnny stopped, and Eliza was heartily glad. Despite that Kit had put her atop her pony, the wet and cold had sapped her energy. She was exhausted.

  “We will rest only a very short time,” Johnny said.

  Everyone began to unpack saddle bags and bedrolls from their horses, settling themselves to the ground, which was oddly not very sodden. In a stupor, Eliza didn’t move. She tried to focus her thoughts, but they flew from her mind much like the white puffs of her breath in the chilled night air.

  Then Kit was at her side, and his strong hands lifted her from the saddle to the ground. She wobbled, and he held her upright. “Let me make a fire to get you warm.”

  She leaned into him. Without any warning, a fierce carnal desire blazed to life, and every female part of her—from breasts to womb—craved satisfaction. From him. The Crow. A Boggs man.

  She squeezed his arms and caught his gaze as she barely suppressed the urge to hungrily consume his mouth with hers. His eyes were hard, unrelenting, but there was no doubt in her mind that he knew what was happening to her.

  A beastly growl caused Eliza to jump and spin around. Kit stepped in front of her, his gun unholstered and at the ready. She swallowed against the panic building in her chest while her body still hummed with need for The Crow.

  Peering into the darkness, she waited for the predator to pounce.

  The bright full moon fully crested the horizon, and the outline of a large cat became visible. Two yellow eyes flashed as the creature turned its focus more fully toward them.

  “Mountain lion,” she whispered.

  Kit took a step back and bumped into her. Heedless of ancient family warnings, she clung to him. Kit Boggs flowed through her veins, and she suddenly feared for his life.

  She had to help him.

  The cat lowered its head, its shoulders tense, its haunches appearing to be spring-loaded.

  Eliza uttered the spell under her breath.

  “The moon is bright,

  The stars alight.

  The rock will quake,

  When the spirits awake.

  I offer up this sacred vow,

  Turn this creature, here and now.”

  The mountain lion stepped back, shook its head, and then yawned wide. With no sound, it dashed away into the shadows forming beneath the pearly light of moonbeam.

  She stared in shock.

  She had cast that spell three times in the past year, and it had never worked. She’d spoken it now because she’d been unable to think of anything else. The achievement filled her with a flush of pride, and she almost giggled over the outcome. Grateful that it had worked, she couldn’t help but wonder how. And why now? She was hardly at her best, either physically or mentally.

  Kit looked over his shoulder at her and it was only then she realized she still gripped his arm tightly with both hands. Reluctantly, she loosened her hold while some reckless side of her imagined stripping him naked and exploring every inch of his body.

  She caught his gaze, unreadable in the darkness, but the hard lines of his cheeks were visible.

  “How did you do that?” he asked.

  She fully released his arm and said, “You didn’t think ‘McCulloch Witch’ was just a rumor, did you?”

  Johnny moved beside them, a soft glow emanating from his eyes, but when Eliza looked again, it was gone.

  He grunted, the sound conveying both surprise and derision. “Lucky cusses. The devil cat never turns when she’s picked her prey.”

  With her fatigue dissipated, Eliza extended her awareness outward to touch the senses of the bat colony nearby, the ones who had already helped her. They confirmed that the cat had fled. In her heightened state she could feel Boggs, his essence a low but steady pulse. She probed further. When she caught a flash of desire, she stopped and pulled back.

  Embarrassed by her curiosity, she released a breath to gather herself.

  Boggs was as drawn to her as she was to him. Why would this be? Was he the Devil in disguise? Was she nothing more than a helpless fly drawn to his false nectar?

  “The panther has fled,” Eliza said.

  Johnny had crossed the camp to sit and rest, but Eliza still felt his eyes on her. Perhaps Kit did, as well, since he said nothing more. The men settled to a spot on the ground, and Eliza did the same. Her weariness soon returned. Trusting that the bats guarded the perimeter—at least for now—Eliza fell into a quick but deep sleep.

  She dreamt of crows.

  Chapter Six

  Kit awoke to fire.

  He bolted to his feet. The camp was surrounded by a wall of flame.

  In a frantic search, he found Eliza on the ground, coughing. He pulled her to stand and held tight, folding her into his arms to shield her from the heat. He scanned for an escape route.

  They were alone; Johnny and the others were nowhere to be seen. Kit brought an arm up to block the smoke from his face while his other arm kept Eliza pinned to him.

  Suspicion filled his head, but he pushed it aside. He would make sure Eliza was safe first, and then he would confront Johnny.

  He opened himself to the whispers of the dead, despite that they’d been quiet on this journey thus far.

  “I need a way out,” he said aloud.

  “The fire has sealed the boundary,” Eliza said, her voice muffled against his chest.

  She’d misunderstood, assuming that Kit was speaking to her, but she was right. They stood in the center of a ring of flames and wouldn’t last much longer; it was getting more difficult to breathe the longer he waited.

  Then came a clear and booming voice, stronger than any connection Kit had ever had in the spirit realm.

  I am The Horseman. Do not ignore the power of the McCulloch lineage. You have always been tied to her.

  Kit looked down at Eliza. “Can you help us?”

  Bewilderment marred her features.

  Let her protect you.

  “Can you mark a different boundary?” Kit asked.

  Her confusion yielded to a dawning realization. She knelt to the ground and quickly traced two large triangles, one atop the other, forming a pentagram.

  She came to her feet and yanked him toward her. “Stand inside.”

  There was just enough room for the two of them to occupy the center of the five-pointed star. Kit pressed her curves against him once more.

  “Now what?” he asked.

  Craning her neck, her face was so close he could feel her breath on his lips. “We pray,” she said.

  Would they survive? If this was his end, then he had nothing to lose.

  His mouth covered hers, consuming her with an unrelenting hunger that he’d kept clamped down from the moment he’d spied her on the dusty streets of La Noria.

  She matched him, returning his kiss with greedy desperation. When he stopped, she buried her face into his chest once again.

  The blaze grew higher, closing in with fiery ferocity, and Kit tried to cover Eliza’s body with his hands and arms, shielding her. The fire was inches from his face, but still they didn’t burn.

  He reached out his fingers and felt a barrier, an invisible shield, protecting them from flame, heat, and smoke.

  “What did you do?” he asked.

  “We’re in another place, maybe even another time.”

  “How?”

  But she didn’t answer his question.

  Kit couldn’t say how long they remained entwined as he resisted the urge to kiss her again, but images cascaded into his mind—dark-haired girls laughing in merriment and a stoic boy the spitting image of Eliza; a ranch house in the green mountains of Colorado, wood stacked outside, smoke spiraling from the chimney; a corral held horses and a pen contained pigs. Beside the house was a garden and a woman worked in the dirt. She wiped a hand on her brow, stood, and smiled. Eliza.

  The fire had died to embers, and Kit reluctantly released the witch who had saved him. She glanced at him, her face filled with shock.

  Had she shared his vision?

  “It makes no sense,” she said.

  But Kit was beginning to think that it did. Pivoting, he kept Eliza behind him as Johnny materialized.

  “Enough with the tests,” Kit said. The fire had simply been too much. “Show yourself, Hamish.”

  Johnny laughed. “Excellent.” His ruddy features gave way to a smoother complexion, giving him a youthful look. Instead of the drunken, disheveled appearance he’d presented, his gaze became clear-eyed and calculating.

  Eliza gasped and tried to push past Kit, but he thrust an arm out and stopped her.

  “Why?” Kit asked.

  Hamish narrowed his gaze. “I was curious about you two. I wanted to see what would happen if you mingled your gifts.”

  Eliza managed to step around Kit anyway. “You took something from my mother and aunts, and I want it back.”

  “The grimoire.” Hamish nodded. “I’ve had my eye on you, Eliza. You can have the book.” He waved his hand dismissively. “It’s been useless to me, anyway. Come with me.” He turned and left them, the remaining men no longer around.

  Eliza began to follow so Kit halted her progress once again. “I’m not certain you should go.”

  “I came for the grimoire. I’m not leaving without it.”

  “You’re risking your life for a book?”

  “Not just any book. It was the original collection of spells and family rituals compiled by my Granny Bea—Beitiris Shaw McCulloch. It’s a family treasure that Hamish stole from my mother.”

  “Fine. I’ll get your damned book while you high-tail it back to town.”

  “No.” Her eyes flashed with defiance. “I won’t let you follow that man alone.”

  “He’s no man. And neither is that which keeps company with him.”

  “Then all the more reason for me to help you.”

  “Eliza, I don’t need your help,” he said, his voice laced with frustration.

  “And I don’t need you seducing me, confusing my thoughts, and my body…and…and…”

  “That’s not what’s happening.”

  “It’s been a long journey to find Hamish Kerr,” she hissed in a low whisper. “I’m not running away now. And I will not be bullied by the likes of you. Get out of my way, Boggs.” She pushed past him.

  Kit followed, struggling to keep pace with her.

  He reached out to his granny but there was no response.

  The spirits had been too quiet since Kit had been in La Noria, and had been especially so whenever he’d been around Johnny. But it had been Hamish all along. That would certainly explain it.

  Although one spirit had been loud and clear.

  “Do you know The Horseman?” he asked Eliza.

  She looked back at him but kept walking. “Why?”

  “Is he on our side?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

  He was forced to slow down to grab the horse’s reins, and Eliza increased the distance between them.

  Kit hoped she was right, because he feared they were walking into a trap.

  Chapter Seven

  Eliza followed Hamish into a darkened tunnel. Kit had tethered the horses at the cave entrance and trailed behind her. They were forced to stay close because Hamish had connected a rope between them. Bringing up the rear were the men that had been part of Hamish’s gang when he was presenting himself as Johnny. They had reappeared after the fire.

  Apprehension ran an icy finger along her spine, igniting gooseflesh from head to toe.

  Could she handle Hamish?

  When she’d overheard her mother and aunts discussing the missing grimoire, it hadn’t occurred to Eliza that Hamish might be possessed of gifts. At least, nothing of merit. With growing dread, she was beginning to wonder if she had miscalculated her goal.

  And what of The Crow?

  Her attraction to the man was a damned nuisance.

  It surprised her that her spell with the mountain lion had worked. She was even more shocked that the pentagram barrier had protected her and Boggs. It was as if something had drawn and focused her intention. Had it been Boggs? Did he somehow enhance her ability to do magic? Was this the true reason for the warning between their families?

  The tunnel angled downward and Eliza sensed they were entering the bowels of the earth. The chilled air outside had given way to a humid and warmer climate, although now that they were dropping in elevation, a damp coolness was now present.

  Hamish held a torch, and the flickering light caused shadows to dance along the walls. Eliza’s gaze kept sliding to them, imagining that they performed some macabre ritual.

  While her mother and aunts had given her and her sisters a thorough education in the natural arts, in the energies that coexist with humans in this dimension, she had little experience with dark entities. Was that what Hamish was?

  Looking over her shoulder Kit’s features had blended into the darkness and she caught a glimpse of his true nature, a crow’s long beak and black eyes watching her. She blinked, and Kit was back.

 

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