Page 18 of Forbidden Magic
The lights of the seekers aren’t visible anymore, and I tread deeper and deeper into the unending forest. The damn helmet is too big and keeps falling over my eyes, so I tuck it inside a hollow trunk. The flip side of the glittering dust is that it makes it easy to avoid holes and branches. The air is crisp and cool, and I glide between the trees, the smell of pine needles and dead leaves rising in my wake.
If I can smell my own trail, it’s a problem, so I pluck an oyster mushroom and a patch of lichen from a rotting trunk.
I know basic tracking spells because of all the times Dad took me hunting and cast a stink bomb with the makeshift ingredients. I leave it on the ground and run. When it goes off in a minute, it’ll create a stench so potent that my subtle scent will be lost amongst the skeletons of trees.
There’s a stream ahead, the water bending around a steep rock formation.
The cold bites into my legs as I cross it. My progression toward the other bank is slow, the water reaching my knees in the middle.
I jump, startled, as a slim silhouette rises from the glassy surface.
“Get lost. This is my spot,” a feminine voice barks.
I stagger up the river bed to solid ground, and there’s my raven again.
Two beady blue eyes shimmer in the night before it takes flight. Its dark wings bring a chill to my core, and I follow it to a crack in the rocks.
A loud voice booms from the dark. “I see a newbie over there. Come out, come out wherever you are.”
Branches snap and crack, and the sound quickens my heart. I slip inside the cavern, the taunting voice replaced by the steady dripping of water.
I slalom between the stone pillars and reach a dead end.
Fuck.
I’m stuck.
Ripe for the picking.
A silver twinkle catches my eyes, and a shadow moves in the darkness, about twelve feet above my head. I frown and consider the rock wall with new eyes. Someone is hiding up there.
I kick off my sneakers, tie them together and throw them around my neck. Wrapping a spider web around my hand, I mutter a basic sticky spell under my breath and start climbing. I haul myself up with my hands and feet until I reach a natural alcove in the granite, the opening invisible from the ground.
A loud tongue-clicking sound resonates around the cave, and a hand reaches out to help me. I grab it without thinking.
“Hurry up, will you?” Cole’s hushed voice twists up my stomach.
It ripples like water across my cheeks and trickles between my breasts.
I almost let go, but Trent’s whistle echoes around the stone. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.”
Cole pulls me inside the tight space and presses me against the back of the alcove, covering my body with his.
Rivulets of sweat drip down my cold neck, and I open my mouth to speak, but he covers it with his palm. He shakes his head, the darkness around us thick and unnatural. Magic tickles my skin as he extinguishes the pixie dust glow with an unknown spell. The cold trickle of water around my calves stops, the spell apparently drying my clothes too.
“I know you’re close, mortal. I can smell the fear rolling off you,” Trent says from the bottom.
Cole closes his eyes, his lips moving silently, his body creeping closer. A thin, long-sleeved black shirt hugs his muscular body and scrapes against the red wool of my jacket. The brush of fabric makes my head spin, his unearthly magic so intoxicating that I’m drunk with it.
If he was to bend down and replace his hand with his mouth, I’d spontaneously combust. I imagine him kissing me, and my lids flutter, the Fae thrall punching me in the throat and making me fall flat on my metaphorical witch ass.
A high-pitched scream bursts through the cavern, and I wonder for a second if it’s coming from me, but no. Trent grunts and runs out.
Cole gives me an inch of space and lets his arms fall to his sides.
I’m still reeling from the brush of his fingers against mine, the imprint of his silky skin tingling across my palm. I massage the calluses to get rid of the sparks buzzing across my nerves, but it’s no use.
Cole follows my movements. “You should have shaken my hand the other day. Would have gotten that first touch out of the way in a safe space.”
