Page 1 of The Water Witch (Fairwick Chronicles 2)

PROLOGUE

The dream began as all the others had, with moonlight pouring through an open window, shadow branches stretching across the floor, the scent of honeysuckle on the air.

“You’re back,” I whispered. “I thought…”

“That you had sent me away,” he whispered, his teeth gleaming pearly white as his lips parted. “You did. But it’s not too late to call me back. I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” I sighed.

The moonlight cleaved the dark, carving a cheekbone out of shadow, which I longed to reach out and stroke, so achingly familiar was the face taking shape just inches from my own. But I couldn’t move. He was still only shadow hovering above me but I could feel the weight of him, pressing down on me.

“I can’t,” I panted. “It won’t work. We can’t be together…”

“Why not?” he cooed, his honeyed breath lapping against my face. “Because they told you I was no good for you? That I would hurt you? How could I ever harm you? I love you.”

I breathed in his words and let out a long sigh. My breath filled his chest, each muscle rippling in the silver light likewater running over smooth stones in a stream. I felt those hard muscles slam down against my chest, forcing the air from my lungs. He sipped the air from my lips and the moonlight drew hands from the dark that stroked my face, my throat, my breasts…

I gasped and his hips bore down on mine. I was filling him out with my breath. All I had to do was keep breathing and he would become flesh and blood.

But I couldn’t breathe.

He was sucking the breath out of me, draining my life. His legs parted mine and I felt him rigid against me, waiting to enter me…

Waiting for what?

He moved away, his body shifted lower. “You have only to call my name to bring me back,” he whispered, his breath hot in my ear. “You have only to want me to make me flesh again.” His lips sealed each word to my throat, my breasts, my navel…“You have only to love me to make me human.”

Oh,that. If I loved him he would become human. It seemed a small thing. I was close, wasn’t I? As close as his lips were to my skin as they brushed along my inner thigh. Tantalizingly close. I had only to call out his name and tell him I loved him for the waiting to be over, for the teasing to end…

He wasteasingme. The little nips on my thighs, the way he moved against me and then retreated. He was holding back, waiting for me to release him from his exile.

“You’re trying to bribe me,” I said, my voice betraying my desire. His lips froze on the crook below my right kneecap and grew chill. His face appeared above mine, more shadow than moonlight, already fading.

“I wouldn’t call it a bribe,” he said, his voice sulky. “Just a little taste of what could be.”

“But it cannot be,” I said, trying not to let him hear theregret and frustration in my voice or how much Iwantedto love him. “I don’t love you…yet…and I can’t love you when you try tomakeme love you, so you’ll suck the life out of me before Icanlove you.”

He frowned. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked confused. He looked sweet when he was confused, like the boy he must have been centuries ago before he became…this. I could have loved that boy, I thought, but then his confusion turned to anger.

“Nonsense,” he hissed, “those are just words.” His body curled into a coil of black smoke. “If you could feel what it’s like…”

The coil of smoke whipped against the windowpanes, smashing wood and glass. Moonlight flooded in, only it wasn’t moonlight anymore; it was silver water rushing into the room, a wave crashing over my bed, the water shockingly cold after the warm breeze and his hot kisses. I still couldn’t move. I was powerless to save myself as the water rose around me. It began pouring from the ceiling, down the walls, into my mouth. As the waters rose his face floated above me, watching without pity as I drowned. This is what I had done to him, his expression seemed to say. I had exiled my incubus lover to the Borderlands and condemned him to an eternity underwater.

I awoke, gasping in the moonlit bedroom, my body chilled despite the hot summer night. I’d never really feel warm again while he was trapped beneath all that cold water. I’d never love anyone if I couldn’t love him.

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