Page 63 of Resurrecting the Witch
Chapter 20
The last hour was spent finalizing our plans with previously Warren, now Rory.
Feck me, I couldn’t take much more of this before I lost it. I just wanted to take my mate and get the feck away from Orla and anyone else who wanted to do us harm.
“Why did you have to suppress my powers again? This seems inconvenient.” My sweet mate was floundering without her magick, but luckily, I had enough for both of us. And with most of her closest friends here, she would be fine. We would be fine.
I would defend this island with my last breath if it brought Cliona a moment of peace.
The cave we were in was surprisingly large with only a small opening leading into the mountains. We weren’t so far out of town that it was incredibly inconvenient, but we weren’t close enough to warrant any worry for the residents either.
“Ya were outta control with ‘em, lass.”
I growled at Rory’s words. “You don’t know the first thing about my mate’s control.”
The bastard smirked. “Oh, come now, don’t be like that Patty boy. Ya know I was just lookin’ out for yer lass. She would’ve compromised Kady’s safety. And everyone else’s. And I couldn’t trust she wouldn’t kill Kady with her lack of control.”
“Enough!” I barked at him. “Do not insult my mate again. I don’t care about your feckin’ sister, and I damn sure don’t give a flying feck about Orla. I’m only assisting you because my mate demands it. Do not forget that I’mnotyour friend.”
Rory grasped at his chest as if in pain. “You wound me, brother.” Then he smiled like the fool he was at his own joke but then looked to Cliona somewhat apologetically. “I wasn’t tryin’ to insult ya, lass.”
I didn’t like Rory. I didn’t like this plan. I wanted to be in control.
I felt Cliona’s soft hand grip mine, and I managed to take several deep breaths. “This is important for the island. And like it or not, Rory is the only way right now that we can best protect ourselves.”
I nodded along and grasped the back of my mate’s neck and pulled her in for a kiss. It wasn’t as thorough as I’d have liked, but it would do. Her lips on mine felt like I was brought back to the present more than anything else. I knew my supposed conduit powers helped her manage the magick in her veins, but her touch centered me, too. It was as if her skin acted like a soothing balm on any aches or pains, anxiety, or anything at all that felt wrong in me.
“We’re in position,” I heard Dom say from the shadows of the cave. With his dragon-cloaking powers, he is able to hide the others. Not completely visible, but enough that the shadows should do the rest. He could also dampen their power signatures, which would have been nice to use with Cliona instead of whatever suppressant Rory gave her.
He wasn’t wrong though, and I think that annoyed me most of all. Two more days until she’d form her coven and we could put this farce behind us. I hadn’t been in her life for very long, but I would rather endure her wrath than watch her destroy herself for not forming her coven and finally getting her magick under control.
All of us settled into our final places, waiting and ready for Rory to summon the female I hated more than any other. I could only hope my brothers escaped her long ago and Rory was mistaken when he mentioned them still being in her service. Cuglas and Daniel deserved better than what she’d undoubtedly had them doing the past centuries after my death.
“I didn’t think I’d like being tied up like this so much,” Cliona muttered from her spot next to me. We had loosely formed rope around our hands, so they wrapped behind our backs. It wasn’t an actual knot so we could still escape, but it gave the illusion we were incapacitated.
If Orla were the fae I remembered her to be, the odds were on her side.
Fae were cunning creatures who used words as weapons and took advantage of fools in many circumstances. Orla was no exception to those generalizations of my people; except she had an unnatural thirst for violence that was unmatched with anyone else I’d met. They called her the Lady of Arms, and she truly found delight in her title and the weaponry she’d hoarded over the centuries.
“You like being tied up,mo peata?” I muttered against my mate’s ear, leaning as close to her as possible. Her scent was faint being in this cave overnight, but the essence of patchouli and rain managed to cling to her.
Cliona didn’t answer, instead looked up at me and bit her bottom lip.
I lifted an eyebrow at my devious little pet. “I’ll keep this in mind for when we get back to your cottage.”
“Really? You’d tie me up?” The excitement flashing in her eyes made my cock hard as stone instantly, which wasn’t ideal given the circumstances.
“It angers me you think I wouldn’t. I will do anything to your body you wish for, Cliona. You only have to ask, or simply trust in me to provide you pleasure.”
“Can wenot? I beg of ya both, my sweet lovebirds. I don’t need Orla smellin’ yer arousal before we even open the bloody portal,” Rory said in a more serious tone than he’d been using. He was worried for his sister, that was plain to see by anyone. It was hard to rationalize the same fae with the one I’d grown to know over the last several months. This new fae was witty, social, and more cunning than I’d given him credit for.
Cliona didn’t apologize for our scents. She offered a nod in his direction as a go-ahead.
Rory stepped into the center of the cavern and held out a crystal with some runes etched into it I didn’t recognize. He spoke some hushed Gaelic into the stone and then stepped away and allowed it to float above his hand. The stone started to glow a bright greenish blue as it continued to hang mid-air. Rory stepped back, and the light expanded until I was worried it would show Dom and the others where they hid in the shadows. Luckily, before it came to a full circle, it dulled and swirled into an abyss void of any color.
Cliona’s breath quickened next to me, and I hated I couldn’t hold her to my chest. She was probably feeling enough emotions from the last day, let alone being here without her magick in the face of a threat to HOMES.
The swirling dark of the circle formed from the rune rock suddenly flashed the same aquamarine color. The next moment three bodies step out of it. They were fae, and large, and definitely part of her inner protective circle if their markings were any indication. When I woke, my markings were gone, but I had my own runes inked onto my temple and neck by her when I was in her service.
