Page 29 of Magic Hunted
A body pressed beside me and cool hands brushed my forehead. Savvas’ gentle energy flowed into me and gods help me if I didn’t soak it up like parched earth. “It’s the magic. When she healed me before, it did the same thing.”
“The magic seeks to bond. That’s what it was designed to do, but yours is…damaged. The barrier has been…changed. It should never be this way. The grimoire shouldn’t cause her so much pain. You need to relieve the pressure. If not she will die with the backlash.” Shanyirra’s rasping voice floated around me.
“The grimoire?” Dias said, dark confusion lacing his voice.
“We won’t bond her when she’s like this. I won’t subject her to that,” Ashir said. I felt how badly he wanted to bond me and what it cost him to hold back. Damn him because I didn’t need understanding. I needed resentment. Disgust. They were my weapons, but I had no defense against what he gave me.
“Something has caused her to hurt. She’s suffering. And so alone. She needs her mates. Kiss her and take away her pain,” Shanyirra said.
“Don’t listen. A. Trick,” I whispered.
It would be best to let the magic kill me again. Somehow, someway, she knew about the grimoire and the importance of the bond.
“How do you know what she needs, crone?” Dias said, echoing my exact thoughts, but his voice was urgent. Panicked.
“I’ll tell you everything you need to know, but now isn’t the time. Are you so ready to fight that you will let her suffer?” Shanyirra said.
Yes, let me suffer. I understood that. I could deal with that. I would get through this because they’d thank me in the end.
“I feel her pain. I can’t let her be this way. I just can’t.” Ashir’s face was lined with harsh, determined lines. I groaned, trying to form words with a too-thick tongue. I willed my thoughts through the crack in the bond.Let me go. Don’t do this.He was dangerous. Too dangerous, but then his thumb trailed a path over my cheek and any resolve I thought I had slipped away as though it was never there.
His lips caught mine. The magical pain waned but the urgent need of the bond flared instead, burning me with another type of fire. One that I had no hope of escaping. I had to stop kissing him but then he groaned and the magic turned from electric sparks to fire. Sparks of a different kind shot from my beaded nipples straight to my throbbing clit. Pain replaced pleasure as the grimoire wrenched its tether, hungry to bond.
“It’s not enough. She’s hurting!” Ashir said, panicked. His voice sounded far away. My ears filled with rushing blood.
If only I would die, then I’d be free of this agony but the magic had me in its grip as though it wasn’t going to let me go like that. Not this time. It was forcing my heart to beat and my body to function.
“The bond needs you all.Sheneeds you all,” Shanyirra said.
My words of protest were chased away with a fresh wave of pain. Dias pushed in front of Taredd, using his body as a barrier between us. A snarl ripped through the hut. “I don’t know what your interest is with our bond, but this is private. I won’t have your eyes on her.”
Taredd fixed a hard stare on Dias. “She might be Chosen but we still need the grimoire out of her.”
Dias’ hands clenched and a tremor quaked through his body. “Get out. Now!”
Taredd’s eyes flashed. He stilled yet the rage pouring through him made the air vibrate. Shanyirra grabbed his elbow. “We’ve all sacrificed for the grimoire. Enough, General. They’re mates. You, at the very least, should understand that.”
“We won’t be far away.” Taredd sent me a lingering look before storming from the hut. “Guards!”
The warrior elves filtered out of the doorway leaving Shanyirra looking down at us. “Take care of her. She’s more precious than you can believe.”
“That’s something I already know and I intend to prove to her every second of my life until she believes it too,” Ashir said.
With a nod, Shanyirra left the hut, closing the door behind her, but I wasn’t watching her leave. I was watching Ashir. “You think I’m…precious?” My voice was barely a whisper, but he heard me.
I shouldn’t have asked. I shouldn’t even think about expecting anything from anyone. A lock of hair fell over his shoulders, shrouding me from the world. Ashir’s gaze softened. He stripped himself bare as he let me see beneath the veil of alpha, of being a leader of shifters, of being anything else other than a man. “You are beloved.”
“You barely know me,” I whispered.
His orange soul-light seeped through the fissure and whispered against mine. “I’ll spend a lifetime learning your mind. Your likes and dislikes, I feel your soul. I see your heart. The rest will come with time but I already see everything I need to know,” he said.
Why didn’t they understand thatnothingthey felt for me was real? It was there because of the grimoire. For the sake of them giving their lives to protect it. Our bond had nothing to do withus. And if they gave into the bond, the grimoire would rule us all. It would take away the sovereignty of our lives, just like it did to my parents. It had already destroyed my life once. I wouldn’t let it happen again.
“It’s not magic, Haera. Bonds can’t be faked,” Savvas said.
“Feel us, my heart. Feel my light. It shines for you. This is as real as it gets.” Dias pressed his yellow soul-light into the fissure and the whisper of his emotion sealed my fate.
“Gods…” My eyes fluttered closed as their essences trickled into me. I moaned, my fingers tightened in Savvas’ soft curls and my other arm wound around Ashir’s solid shoulders. Dias’ fingers tightened on my knee, anchoring me between them.
