Page 1 of Ensnared
One
Skye
The cold beachpebbles bruise my knees, and I scramble around to stare at Jack. I’m still naked, but I utter a curse with numb lips.
He’s too still. Too quiet.
Moments ago, my magic exploded from me in a column of white flames as he and Ty gave me the most glorious orgasm of my life. Only it now feels dirty and wrong—because Jack is insensible on the ground.
Ty presses shaking fingers to Jack’s wrist, feeling for his pulse. After several tense seconds, he exhales, his shoulders slumping.
“He’s alive.”
He turns Jack carefully to his side and covers him with the blanket. I sob in relief, then crawl closer to help, but he growls at me.
I stumble back, shocked. I’ve never seen Ty look like that, especially not at me. But I can’t blame him. Whatever happened when Jack and I climaxed together has hurt him so badly, he’s unresponsive.
“Don’t touch him,” Ty barks.
I cover myself with my arms, shivering in the moonlight. “I won’t hurt him, I just—”
“Get Aiden,” he commands. “Now.”
There’s nothing I can do here. Ty is watching over Jack, his face etched in worry, so I drag on my jeans, forgoing my underwear, lace up my hiking boots so I don’t kill myself on the rocks, and race off, still pulling on my jacket.
Aiden meets me halfway to the lodge. “What the fuck is going on? Was that fire on the beach?”
There’s real fear in his voice, and I can imagine why: a forest fire here, in a village in the middle of the woods with only a small number of people to fight the flames, could be deadly. The truth is far, far worse.
I shake my head. “That was me,” I choke out. “Jack is…”
Aiden doesn’t wait for me to finish the sentence. He sprints down the path, and I follow, stumbling over my feet. The moonlight seemed so bright, but the path is shadowed by spruce trees, tall and dark in the night. My hands shake so much, I tuck them under my armpits. Fear grips my gut the closer we get to the beach, but I can’t leave now.
If my magic has hurt Jack… Aiden will know immediately I was responsible. They’ll throw me out of the village. I’ll have nowhere to go and no way of knowing if Jack will be okay. A knot forms in my throat, and I can barely breathe, each inhale searing my lungs but carrying too little oxygen.
I emerge from the woods and skid over the pebbles in pursuit of Aiden. Ahead on the shore, he drops to his knees beside Ty. He checks Jack over and peers into his eyes, but when Ty lifts his arm and drops it, it flops to the ground as though Jack is a marionette with cut strings. I slow down and hang back, afraid of going closer.
The air around Aiden shimmers, a golden flicker, there and gone again. Gods, I bet that’s some sort of residue from whatever magic I’d accidentally wrought. A cry escapes my lips, and I stifle it with my palm. With quiet steps, I approach them, but they don’t acknowledge my presence. Not that I expected them to: they need to take Jack somewhere safe so he doesn’t die from exposure.
Ty is also still naked, and I scan the beach for his clothes. Nothing. He and Jack had come striding out of the waves like sea creatures, but I’d been too preoccupied, too lost to pleasure, to think about it until now. I step closer, wanting to offer him my sweatshirt—it’s small, but surely it’s better than nothing. I can’t do anything more. The magic came out of nowhere, and I have no idea how to undo the damage. Ty flinches as I approach, then turns his back on me. It hurts, but I’m not surprised. Just as I thought I was making friends, I went and fucked it all up. Again.
Together, Ty and Aiden lift Jack, still wrapped in my blanket. Then Aiden takes his full weight, and they start up the path toward the Lodge. I stare after them, unsure of what to do. In the end, I put out the remnants of the fire I lit earlier by cupping seawater in my hands and pouring it over the embers. The crescent beach that had seemed so beautiful and welcoming just an hour ago, when I’d completed my full moon ritual, is now cold and inhospitable. I pick up my remaining clothes and follow the men.
Lights blaze in the Lodge, so that’s where I head. All three of them have rooms in the big wooden house, and I know which one is Jack’s. Inside, Aiden and Ty are bent over Jack’s prone form, murmuring softly. Ty presses a wet cloth to Jack’s brow, his movements tender. He’s obviously borrowed a pair of sweats and a t-shirt—they hang off his lean frame.
I know the moment they become aware of me because they stiffen. Neither of them faces me, and I’m left staring at their backs.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Ty throws down the cloth. “What happened?” he demands. “What was that fire?”
“I-I don’t know,” I admit. I’d never created white fire in my life, and I have no idea why having sex with Jack and Ty brought that out of me.
“How can you not know?” Ty advances on me, his dark eyes burning. “You fuck a guy and start glowing white—and you don’t know why?”
Lights flicker, and Aiden shoots me a glare. I look down at my wrists and realize what’s happened.
“I’m not wearing my bracelets.”
