Page 3 of First Ritual

He sucked my tongue into his mouth, and I groaned. Mother be, a night with this man was all I needed. I could tell he’d be terrific in bed.

Fuck my life.

Pulling back, I nipped at his bottom lip and vacated the V of his thighs. His hand slipped from my hair and the other from my back. He curled his musician’s fingers to fists as though angry I was no longer in his grasp.

I felt almost the same.

Almost shaken. Pissed that this wouldn’t go further. I’d just had the best kiss of my life.

“Spend the night with me, gorgeous.” His voice had gained an urgency that I felt too.

I absorbed the delicious shiver it elicited. “Unfortunately, a night with you is one more night than I have spare.”

His drowning gaze searched mine.

Tempest, get your freakin’ butt out that door. “Thanks for the help, handsome. I won’t forget our kiss.”

That was no word of a lie either.

If he replied, the words went unheard as I turned on my heel and left the dusty bar.

Destination? The Buried Knolls. Or more accurately, as the original form of the name implied, what was buried under the knolls.

The time had come for Corentines to return to Coven Caves.

2

The coven had to know I was here. Were they scrying me? Probably.

Twigs crunched underfoot as I walked toward my underground cage and possible death, my path clear in the light of the near-full moon. Mother be, how different would life have been if I’d grown up here? The surrounding forest couldn’t hold greater contrast to my childhood home. This forest hid dark secrets. Danger edged the air. If my mind was inclined to think thorns, brambles, and tall shadows ominous, I’d have turned back long ago.

Humans wouldn’t have had any choice but to turn around. Those who ventured farther this way than Frankton Gorge would find themselves drifting north to Deception Valley. Perhaps they’d return to Bluff City despite their every intention to visit the knolls.

Magic. Sure was a doozy.

I broke from the cover of the forest and paused in the last line of trees to peer at the shadowy meadow beyond. Knolls dotted the meadow lending the appearance of mounded burial sites.

Would one be mine?

Pulling my focus to the ground immediately before me, I studied the protective barrier. The magical shield glimmered silver, and the one-in-a-hundred-thousand human who managed to get this far would find themselves unable to go farther.

I could get through. If I wanted. That would be bad manners, however, and bad manners wouldn’t buy me the time I needed in the coven.

Bad manners would get me dead.

They hadn’t extended this barrier very high. I could leap over the top if I put my mind to it. They’d only used battle affinity to root the wall too. Grandma would have a field day listing the weaknesses of this thing. Her disapproving voice rang in my ears as though summoned, and I had to agree. Not top-standard work by any description.

Sloppy even.

Or perhaps the magus within didn’t need any barrier.

Here goes. Trickling magic to the barrier, I knocked.

A full two minutes went by with no response.

Oh, well. They’d greet me in their own time. Or kill me. One of those options.

I set my duffel down and planted my feet shoulder-width apart, then tipped my face to the healing light of the moon—just a day short of being full.

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