Magic In The Storm (17 page)

“I have the power now, Kat. I know I do.”

“But...”

“I’m sorry, but I no longer have the time to
be careful. I must do this. My birthday is coming in a little more
than a month. I must have my full powers before then. Kat. I am
running out of time.”

He moved away from her, grabbing the bag he
used for collecting herbs. Going to his little chest of drawers, he
pulled out a change of clothes and stuffed them into the bag.

“Is there nothing I can do to convince you to
at least wait a little...”

“No.” He placed some dried meat and a loaf of
bread in the top of the bag. “Not only do I have to find out where
my magical powers are coming from and how I can attain my proper
destiny, but I have to find Adriana as well.”

“Adriana?”

“She left here without a word to me. I’m
going to find out why.” He stopped what he was doing and turned
back to his cousin. “She’s important to me. I cannot just let her
go.”

Kat nodded slowly, not breaking her eye
contact with him. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to.
Morgan could see the sadness in her eyes.

“I love you, Kat, but it is time for me to
leave,” he said softly, putting his bag over his shoulders so that
it lay across his body.

“And the animals? And the forest?” she
asked.

He shook his head. “They will have to live
without me. Look after Oberon for me, will you?”

“You’ll be back. You won’t break through the
ring of the forest,” she said quietly, but without certainty.

“Perhaps I’ll see you next in London.” He
bent and gave her a light kiss on her cheek and then left his
cottage.

“Wait! Morgan!” Kat called as she ran out
after him. He stopped and turned back. She was tugging at her ears.
As she reached him, she put out her hand. He took it, only to find
that she was handing him something.

“Here, take these,” she said, handing him her
gold earrings. She reached around and unclasped her necklace and
handed that to him as well. “You’ll need money in London. This is
all I have.”

Her gift touched him—maybe she did believe in
him after all. Giving her a hug, he said, “Thank you.”

<><><>

Morgan led his horse, Apollo, to the furthest
east edge of the forest. It was the direction he would need to take
to get to London, so why not start there? It was also the closest
to the main road, and furthest from the abbey. He would not ride
across the border for fear of harming his horse. No, he would have
to walk across and then call for him.

He could just see the road through the thick
trees. It beckoned to him, but still his fears crept through his
mind. Could he do this? What if he couldn’t? He had not been out of
the forest—not for six years. And before that he had never been off
his brother’s estate. Not once in his entire life had he stepped
off of Vallentyn property.

Until now.

He boldly stepped toward the edge of the
forest, slipping around trees. He continued moving forward until
his legs simply refused to go any further. He was only a short
distance away from the border—but his feet simply would not
move.

His heart began to hammer in his chest.

He would move! He would leave!

Branches blocked his way, surrounding him
like bars on a cage. Sweat trickled down his forehead, and prickled
at his lower back too.

Life waited for him beyond this forest. The
answers to all of his questions. His destiny lay out there, waiting
for him. He only needed to go out there and claim it. He only
needed to escape.

With great effort, he moved one foot forward
a few inches. He stood steadfast, refusing to move back into the
forest as his mind kept urging him to do. Taking a deep breath, he
slowly moved his other foot forward. It was almost painful making
his limbs to move, but he forced himself to stay with it.

Once again, Morgan stopped to catch his
breath. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He tried to move his
foot. It only moved an inch and that was with a great deal of
effort.

Where were those new powers when he needed
them?

He had to get out of this forest! He was so
close. There was only one last row of trees between him and
freedom.

The only way to gain his destiny was to seek
it out himself. He had to take control over his own life. His foot
moved another few inches.

He was getting closer, but still the edge of
the forest might have well been miles away.

He had to be like Adriana. She knew what was
important to her. She knew what she wanted more than anything else
in this world and would do anything to attain it.

He moved again, but it was getting
increasingly harder. He stopped to catch his breath. Never had he
moved so slowly in his life and yet he felt as if he were running
mile after mile.

He
would
be like her—he moved another
inch. He would give up everything to get his powers, to attain his
destiny... he stood, breathing heavily. He would do anything to
find Adriana and get her back into his life.

His foot moved forward again. He respected
Adriana, admired her, and most importantly, she made him happy.

He took another step forward.

She made him happier than he had ever been in
his life. She made him feel incredible things he had never
experienced before.

He took another step.

He had to find her. He had to be with her
again. If he could get to London, he would be able to discover why
she had left so suddenly. If he had done anything wrong, anything
to have hurt her... he would do whatever was in his power to make
it up to her. But he had to see her. Had to talk to her. He
couldn’t live another day without at least making an effort to be
with her.

His legs felt as if they weighed hundreds of
pounds each. But he would make it, he told himself again and again.
Slowly but surely, he would get out of this forest. Adriana, the
woman who had changed his life, would be waiting for him. If only
he could get to her.

The moment his foot crossed the tree line
onto the verge next to the road, a burst of flames shot from the
ground and began to engulf his leg. With a wave of his hand he
willed the fire to go out, just as he had done earlier in his
cottage. It disappeared, leaving only a blackened singe mark on his
boot. He shook his head in amazement as the magic worked so easily
once again. How... why? No, that was for later.

He looked behind him at the dense wall of the
forest. A shot burst from his lungs. Laughter followed with a
happiness he’d never in his life imagined. Only being with Adriana
had ever felt this good. He had done it! He had walked out of the
forest! He was free!

Apollo joined him a moment later on the road
heading east. Heading to London. Heading to Adriana.

A
driana did not
waste a moment lying in bed. This morning she was finally going to
get up and get back to work.

Enough was enough. She had moped around Lord
Devaux’s small London house, allowing the household to run itself
with its usual efficiency, for the past three days while she had
sat brooding over Morgan.

She had done little else than think about
that fateful, wonderful, horrible, embarrassing afternoon with
Morgan. How could she... But no. She was not going to go through
this yet again. Not today. Today, she was going to get to work, and
get that man out of her mind once and for all.

And she was going to be married. The thought
still made her seethe with rage. But there had been nothing else
she could have done. Lord Vallentyn wasn’t going to stand up to his
mother, Lord Devaux wasn’t going to give up the marriage settlement
Lady Vallentyn had promised him.

And she’d had to get away from Morgan.

If she hadn’t put a good distance between
them, goodness knows what she might have done. She might have gone
back, as she had been so very tempted to do. And once there, would
she have been able to keep her hands from his hard, muscled body?
Would she have not wanted him to touch her and make her feel... No!
She must not think such things! There had been no choice. She had
had to leave.

And the only way Lord Devaux had agreed to
leave quickly was for her to accept Lord Vallentyn’s marriage
proposal. So she had.

There was no other way, she told herself
again, and again. She’d no choice in the matter—the alternative of
losing her art was simply unacceptable.

Lord Vallentyn would be kind, if weak, and
hopefully wouldn’t bother her overmuch with his attentions the way
Morgan had. He would certainly never make her feel the way Morgan
had. No, she need have no worries about Lord Vallentyn making her
feel so incredible, so amazingly...

“Ugh!” Adriana shook her head vigorously, as
if doing so would dislodge these unwanted thoughts. Hopping out of
bed, she quickly washed and dressed with the assistance of her
maid.

There was a lot of work to do in preparation
for her wedding. It was time she got started with it.

Her companion, Henrietta, had been
wonderfully understanding these past few days. After Adriana had
informed her she didn’t wanted to talk about her time at Vallentyn,
Henrietta had hardly asked her any more questions. Well, yes, she
had tried to pry some information from her, but only at odd
intervals and only one question at a time. And the moment Adriana
had told her to stop, she had done so.

Adriana made her way down to the breakfast
parlor noting the sterile good taste of the house. Not a speck of
dust littered a surface, not a hint of warmth permeated the walls,
no smell dare linger. She had thought, when she was younger, to try
to make the house a warmer place, more like the home of her
childhood, but Lord Devaux had nipped that in the bud quickly. This
was his house and its sole purpose was to further his position in
Parliament. That did not lend itself to pretty decorations—not even
flower arrangements on the hall table.

As she reached out a hand to open the parlor
door, she realized with a start that she hadn’t even asked
Henrietta once about her time with her family while Adriana had
been at Vallentyn. How dreadful! She really should have asked.

Well, that was going to be corrected. In
fact, it would be corrected right now.

The sun was making its usual attempt at
coming in through the long windows, but, as always, was stopped
short by the tree that stood near the back of the house.

Adriana sat down at the table across from
Henrietta and gave her companion a big smile. “Good morning,
Henrietta. You are looking very pretty today. Is that a new
dress?”

Henrietta stopped pouring milk into her tea
and narrowed her already small brown eyes at Adriana. “Good
morning,” she replied warily. She looked down at her plain gray
dress, which, unfortunately, accented the gray that was beginning
to streak through her brown hair. She then resumed preparing her
tea, stealing looks in Adriana’s direction every so often.

“No, it is an old dress, although I did add
some new lace to it while I was away. Is everything all right this
morning?” she asked, suspicion slowing her voice.

“Yes. Perfectly all right. I have decided to
stop moping and get to work. If I am going to marry Lord Vallentyn,
I imagine I’ve got quite a lot to do before I can turn over the
running of the house entirely to you and Mrs. MacAllister,” Adriana
said, pouring out her own cup of hot chocolate from the pot the
footman had just placed in front of her. She was about to take a
sip when she stopped at a thought. “I wonder if Lord Devaux is
going to keep Mrs. MacAllister on or require you to do
everything?”

Henrietta spread some jam onto her toast,
still stealing odd glances at Adriana. “I don’t know if Lord Devaux
will want me to stay on at all if you are not here. I suppose I
shall have to inquire.”

“He mentioned to me that he would be counting
on you to take my place after I was married. But I hope he doesn’t
expect you to do everything.”

Henrietta carefully cut the toast in half and
then asked, “Is there a date set for your wedding, then?”

“No. But I imagine it can’t be too far off.
Well, a year at most. But we will have to arrange for my trousseau
and I don’t know what sort of arrangements there will be for the
wedding itself. I don’t know what Lord Devaux and Lady Vallentyn
might have in mind.”

Adriana stood up from the table, suddenly
feeling awkward sitting still. “I think I will go and see if I can
have a word with Lord Devaux right now. Perhaps he can answer some
of these questions before he leaves for Parliament today.”

As Adriana reached the door, she turned back
toward her companion. “Oh, I forgot to ask, how was your visit with
your family?”

“It was fine, thank you. My father has passed
nearly all of his responsibilities on to my brother—his gout, you
know.”

Henrietta droned on another few minutes about
her family, but Adriana didn’t hear a word.

With the mention of responsibility, she
remembered how Morgan had made himself responsible for all of the
animals in the forest at Vallentyn. He worked so hard to keep them
all safe and healthy. She wondered how he was faring with that one
foal who still hadn’t fully recovered from his bout with the
pox.

“...but she seems to be doing remarkably
well, considering.”

“Good, I am so glad to hear it,” Adriana
said, cutting into whatever it was Henrietta was saying. “Well, I’d
better catch Lord Devaux before he leaves.”

She loved Henrietta dearly, but today Adriana
just didn’t seem to have the patience to listen to even the very
little that Henrietta said.

She walked quickly to the library, where her
guardian could usually be found when he was home. A knock on the
door elicited no response so she questioned the footman at the
front door and found that she had indeed missed him, and only by
fifteen minutes.