Magic Claimed, page 16
Eike guided me past them while Alerick spoke a few quiet words as we passed. We stepped onto the front porch, and I saw that the wide veranda extended to my left and right to disappear around the edge of the building. Lights hung from lanterns hooked into the ceiling, lending a cozy feel to an otherwise chilly night. It was nice. Especially now I wasn’t going out of my mind with fear as I had the first night they’d brought me here.
I hugged my arms against the chill, grateful for the robe, and followed Alerick down the steps. His boots crunched against the frost. I was about to step to the ground when my feet were swept out from under me and I was cradled against Jarom’s broad chest.
“Don’t you ever ask before touching?” I asked, to cover up the shiver that stole through my insides. The scent of pine and fresh earth wove around me, penetrating me, mesmerizing me. I inhaled deeply, savoring the fragrance.
“You wouldn’t want to ruin your new slippers, would you?” Jarom said.
I glanced up at him, and then at the tattoo of black swirls that rose from his collar, up his neck and along his temple. I swallowed around my dry mouth. “You can always give me boots. Anise has some,” I said.
“Anise wore her boots over here when she came to visit you this morning. I will get you boots to wear tomorrow,” Jarom said.
“You could get them tonight and then you wouldn’t have to carry me,” I said.
His golden eyes pinned me as though he could see through me. “You might run away if you had boots, and then I’d have to catch you.” His voice was so low that he purred the words. I clenched my traitorous thighs together as sublime tremors sunk to the bottom of my abdomen.
I knew I should demand that he let me go, but I couldn’t seem to muster the indignation to squirm from his firm embrace. “I’m not prey.”
A slow smile spread across his beautiful mouth. He leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Are you sure?”
I turned my attention to my surroundings, rather than the bulge of biceps and hard muscle that locked me in place.
Alerick spoke quietly to an older man. It was a serious discussion, but the man wasn’t afraid of Alerick. Esoti would be yelling and cursing by this stage.
Alerick clapped the man’s shoulder and then walked along a path between cabins on either side of the path ahead of us. I glimpsed families through the open curtains. People sat by fires, talking with each other; relaxed and laughing.
The path opened to a square with a large log cabin at one end. Smaller cabins framed the other sides of the square, and a road beyond led to hundreds of cabins that dotted a sweeping valley.
The Wolf Territory was a huge village filled with happy people. Such a difference to the castle where hopelessness clung to every corner.
A golden line glimmered where we trod and led all the way to the log cabin. Golden bubbles danced along the roof line as though being pulled from the golden line on the ground.
I gasped as we walked toward the cabin, sending a sideways look to Anise. She was already watching me, gauging my reaction. I must have worn an incredulous look on my face, because she smiled and nodded, “These are my rooms.”
I shouldn’t have been jealous. I should be relieved that they had showered an orphan with food, clothing, and a massive building for her use. I tried to rub the sting from my heart, but it didn’t work. I was still jealous as all hells.
Anise opened the door and lanterns along the walls flickered to life. Jarom’s arms hugged my waist, bracketing me against his body as he lowered me to the floor. His hard muscles bunched and moved and there was no hiding his erection in his breeches.
My gaze flew to his face as he locked me against him with his fingers around my elbows. His shaft pulsed with each heartbeat and I wondered why he wasn’t hiding it. Wondered why he’d thickened when he hated me so much.
His golden gaze roamed my face, his expression unyielding. Searching. “When you’ve finished using me as a rubbing pole, would you mind letting me go?”
He released me so quickly I staggered back. I rubbed the imprint of his fingers from my biceps, ignoring the flare of heat in his eyes. I turned my back on him to see Anise bustling about the large room I found myself in.
The room was easily the size of Esoti’s quarters, and I thought that was big. Four large sofas faced each other in the middle, with a low wooden table between them. Overstuffed arm chairs and matching side tables were situated here and there, lending the room a homey feel.
Shelves covered the walls. Neat rows of bottles filled one side. Dried herbs filled another. A workbench was topped with instruments that had looked as though they’d been in use but hadn’t been put away yet. Old books with gilt spines filled an entire wall and corner of the room from floor to ceiling. The smell of dried flowers and a spiced herb flavored the air, and a sense of familiarity settled over me.
Eike started a fire in the hearth and Alerick strode toward me, his silver eyes flowing with otherworld power. “Do you sense the magic in here, Little Mate?”
The lines of the room from the ceiling to the floor overflowed with golden bubbles, lighting it so brightly I wouldn’t have needed the fire or the lanterns Anise lit to see. “A little.”
“Could someone please help me move these chairs?” Anise asked.
When the wolves had cleared space, Anise drew a large triangle overlapping a square. She lit a candle at each point of the triangle and asked the wolves to stand at each one.
“Serafine, please stand in the middle of the square.”
I took a fortifying breath and stood where she showed me to. The golden bubbles flew from the walls to flow along the shape Anise had drawn. Light streamed from the triangle to cover Jarom, Eike and Alerick, making it look as though their skin glowed gold. They looked like golden gods. Virile. Powerful. Otherworldly. If they felt the magic on them, they didn’t show it.
Anise retrieved a long, silver wand that glinted in the light. It looked like a twisted branch about the length of her arm. I’d never seen such an exquisite piece.
“Where did you get a wand like that?” I asked.
Anise shook her head. “I don’t know. The wolves found me with it and I don’t remember how or why I had it. Only that it’s powerful. It connects me with ancient magic.” She ran her fingertips over the wand before she looked back at me. “Are you ready? I don’t think this will be painful, but I haven’t done a remembering spell of this magnitude before.”
I was no stranger to pain. I nodded, bracing myself for the unexpected. In my experience, all magic was painful. “Go ahead.”
“I’ll need to use the magic of your bond to connect the ancient magic with you,” Anise said.
“Wait…what?” She was using bond magic?
Anise touched the wand to the edge of the triangle and golden light erupted over me, through me, became me. The golden bubbles in the room surged into the triangle and surrounded the square. It created a vortex of magic around me. My hair whipped into my eyes and the robe flapped about my legs.
I lunged at Anise to stop the spell but I was frozen in place and then I was falling, falling, falling into a pool of liquid gold and sank heavier than a stone. The sheet of gold morphed into four people encircling me. The blonde-haired woman from my memory cast her fingers through my hair and smiled. It was such a sad smile.
“Mama? Papas?”
She didn’t answer. Nor did the three men. They all looked strange from this angle until I realized everyone was so tall because I was small. They couldn’t hear me because this was a memory.
I clung to my mother’s dress. Tears streamed down her face. Her eyes were red, as though she’d been crying for a while.
“It’s all right, Mama. Don’t cry,” I said.
One of my fathers peeked out of the window. When he turned around, his face was grave. “It’s time. We cannot delay any longer.”
They looked stern and miserable when usually they were smiling and playful. Something felt all wrong.
I tugged Mama’s hand. “What’s wrong, Mama?”
She bent down to me and sniffled as she took my cheeks between her hands. “You have to be a brave girl, do you understand, Serafine?”
I nodded. Of course, I was a brave girl. I swam in the pond yesterday with the ducks. She should know how brave I was.
“I want you to remember that your fathers and I love you very much. Do you understand?”
I nodded. “I love you too, Mama.” My child’s mind grew more confused by the moment.
“My beautiful little girl. If there was anything else I could do, I would do it. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mama.” I agreed but I didn’t really understand. I just wanted her to stop crying. Mama sobbed as she kissed me and cuddled me as though she’d never see me again. It made me cry.
Someone shouted outside and loud bangs made my ears hurt. I covered my ears, but the bangs and shouting grew louder. One of the windows exploded, raining glass inside. I screamed.
My fathers circled us. There was Papa with his head of sleek black hair, Father with hair as white as snow, and Dada with his mop of brown curly hair and golden glowing eyes. Each of them kissed and cuddled us, but I could tell they were in a rush.
“It is time, Sylvie,” Papa said.
Mama’s face crumpled as she took an old book from Papa. It was torn and crumpled and I didn’t understand why she held a dirty old thing like that so carefully. She touched the tip of the wand to my forehead and whispered words I’d never heard her speak before. Serpentine and slippery, I felt each word sink in to me. Golden light flashed bright and the torn-up bit of old book vanished. Something sizzled through me all the way down deep inside, burning inside my chest.
Mama’s shoulders slumped. “It is done.”
Father hugged us as the doors exploded. Soldiers poured inside, swords drawn. A flash of metal arched through the air and I was covered in a warm spray of crimson.
“Dada!” I screamed as Dada collapsed to his knees, holding his stomach. His mouth dripped with blood and he toppled forwards and stopped moving. Father and Papa pushed us behind them, drawing their swords, but we were outnumbered by the soldiers.
Mama gathered me in her arms. She trembled badly. She closed her eyes for a moment. “For what I am about to do, divine, please forgive me.”
Behind her, Father stumbled and collapsed to the ground. A soldier rushed Papa and with a slice of his huge sword, Papa’s head toppled to the ground. Mama whispered her strange words and my stomach twisted as though I was going to be sick.
“Mama, it hurts,” I cried out.
Mama’s mouth fell open and her breath whooshed out in a rush. She coughed, spraying me with drops of her blood. My stomach hurt. The more she whispered the words, the more it hurt. It hurt so much tears filled my eyes and made everything look watery.
She sagged, and I saw the tip of a sword coming out of her chest. Her limbs were so heavy and then she continued to fall, trapping me beneath her.
“Mama. Mama!” She didn’t wake up and she didn’t move a muscle.
Everything became quiet except for my crying. The soldiers came toward me. They looked huge and scary, with their bloodied uniforms and their swords drawn in their meaty hands. I clutched Mama but she didn’t move to comfort me.
“Don’t touch her!”
I whimpered at the loud voice and then a man dressed in long, black robes descended on me. Esoti. It was Esoti!
He tugged me free from beneath Mama with a cruel grip on my arm. I looked down at her to see her lifeless eyes staring at nothing.
“Mama!” I cried out, trying to get to her, but Esoti dragged me away from her. I screamed as loud as I could, struggling to rip his fingers off me. He slapped my face with the back of his hand so hard it made my vision go black and my ears rang.
He towered over me and struck me with the power of his wand. My skin burned with the magic. I screamed for Mama, for Papa, Dada and Father, but nobody came.
At last, Esoti threw his wand down in disgust. Through my teary vision I saw Drisella standing next to him. “Any luck with her?”
“None,” Esoti spat. “We were too late.”
Drisella bared her teeth and spat on the ground next to me. I’d never seen a lady do that before. “We will have to keep trying to get it out of her.” Drisella made a face when she turned her attention to me. “Ugh. I hate children.” She eyed me like I was a bug she wanted to step on. I didn’t like her. I didn’t like Esoti either.
“Too bad yours died millennia ago,” Esoti said.
Drisella shrugged. “I don’t really remember them, to be honest. Too long ago to be a concern.”
“She’s young, but we’ll make her forget this for extra security,” Esoti said, rubbing his chin as he regarded me. I was so confused. I didn’t know what he wanted from me. Didn’t understand what was so important that they had to do bad things to my parents.
Drisella looked at the carnage around her and pursed her lips. “Pity she won’t remember this. It’s a great way to keep her in line. A little fear goes a long way.”
“Don’t worry, Drisella. I’m sure you’ll come up with some good suggestions. You’re the scariest person I know.”
Drisella swatted him playfully with her wand. “You always know what to say to a girl.”
A uniformed guard charged through the door and ran straight to Esoti, bowing haphazardly in his haste. “Reports have come in, Master. Pockets of magic in all Territories are as strong as this.”
Drisella turned her head to the heavens and screeched, “We’re too late! We’ll never get it now.”
“Calm yourself, Drisella. All we have to do is find the children and we’ll get the book.” He faced the guard. “Find the sources. Get the children,” Esoti snapped at the guard.
The guard clicked his heels and scuttled away, taking some of the other guards with him.
Esoti knelt in front of me and I whimpered as he picked up his wand and held it to my forehead. “I’m going to like having a slave like you, vermin. Now listen to me carefully…” He uttered the same words as Mama, but these words split my head in two. I screamed and called for Mama and my fathers, but he didn’t stop until the darkness took me away.
The black became liquid gold and as I hung there suspended by the golden warmth, I cried out for the family that had been taken away from me. For Mama, Papa, Father and Dada. All ripped away from me.
Esoti had taken them from my life and then he had taken away my memory of them. I didn’t have a mother who sold me to him for the price of a meal. I had a family who loved me. My mother gave her life for whatever was stuck inside me.
The raw pain of loss and anger and confusion of that day hammered into me. I sobbed, crying out, screaming and screaming, and then beautiful lights bled through the gold. A silver, a cyan and a burnished gold that was almost a copper grew larger and embraced me. The lights swished around me, caressing me, understanding me. Calm washed away the pain. As the light grew steadily brighter, my chest eased and the sick feeling in my stomach disappeared and I floated in the most beautiful show of silver, cyan and copper.
The chill fell from my skin and I was wrapped up in comfort and safety. I inhaled the scents of oak, pine and smoke and my soul sighed with joy. I’d come home. This was my place. This was where I belonged.
I embraced the lights, clasping them to me. My mates. Mine. My wolf howled with joy as their souls brushed against mine. Alerick pulsed with possessive intent. Eike with playful joy and Jarom with a restrained intensity that took my breath away. I was bound to them with an ancient magic that went beyond worlds and time. The bond that joined us came from a divine place that no dimension could touch. It was sacred to my wolf.
But another side of me wasn’t a wolf, and it was that side that tugged me away from their soul lights, hissing words of warning. If I gave myself to these wolves, the bond would bind us forever. I would never get away. I would never be free.
And that was what I wanted. To be free.
I couldn’t bond myself to them. I could never bond to them.
I shot up from the pool of liquid gold, gasping for breath where I’d collapsed on the floor. Little golden bubbles danced everywhere. Anise glowed with magic as it flowed over her. The bubbles danced over her head and her shoulders and through my watery vision, I saw a ball of gold glowing deep in her center. A ball of magic locked small and tight. A ball of magic like mine.
Anise had ancient magic inside her.
She’d been hiding it all along.
Angry shouts sounded from the other side of the wall and footfalls stomped onto the wooden portico outside. Alerick dashed to the door. Eike swept the chalk shapes away. Anise uttered a few indecipherable words and slashed her wand through the air. She disappeared, but I still saw her outlined by the golden lights.
Jarom dove onto me, his arms anchoring me, and I didn’t know what was going on. There was a flash, the smell of ozone and Jarom’s dark brown and Eike’s light, mottled gray wolves caged me between them.
“Can you Change, Serafine?” Alerick asked.
My brain was overloaded with images of Esoti and the death of my parents. The last thing I could think about was shifting into my wolf. She desired her mates and there was a good chance she would complete our bond if I Changed.
“Open up. Esoti demands it!” Someone outside pounded the door with impatient strikes.
Alerick’s mouth thinned. “Serafine, Change.”
His voice surged with Alpha power my wolf couldn’t disobey. My limbs morphed and shifted against my will, bending into unnatural shapes to the will of ancient shifter magic. White hot agony erupted through me. Ozone rose from my fur as my legs gave way and I collapsed to the ground.
Alerick whipped the door open and Ben stumbled inside, his fist raised as though to pound on it again. What the fuck was he doing here?
Chapter Twenty-Four
