mythean arcana 06 - master of fate (5 page)

He parked the snowmobile a dozen feet in front of the gate, then swung off and returned to the barn for his. He heard Aurora climbing on, but didn’t turn around to watch her swing her leg over the hulking metal machine. He grabbed two helmets off the shelf and climbed atop his vehicle, then directed it outside. 

Aurora and Mouse sat watching him, two sets of golden eyes bright in the dark. He tossed the helmet to her and she snagged it out of the air.

He looked away before she could put it on. Just the sight of her was stirring up feelings he’d thought long dead. Between the beastly snowmobile vibrating beneath him and the sight of her, he was a fucking disaster.

“Start it up,” he said. “But easy on the throttle.”

Aurora’s engine roared to life and the snowmobile shot forward. She shrieked, her laughter echoing through the snowy night.

Something in his chest tightened. He ignored it and squeezed the throttle. It took only seconds to catch up to her. She was stopping and starting, clearly getting a feel for it.

“I’ve got it!” she yelled. “Let’s go.”

“Head away from the moon. When you see the glow on the horizon, go that way. I’ll follow you.” All the better to keep an eye on her.

They set off toward the soulceress city that sat roughly west of his home. As they rode, swirls of color wavered in the sky—green, blue, yellow. The Aurora Borealis was out in full, painting the night in brilliant shades.

He kept his gaze trained on her. Occasionally she would speed up and laugh, her earlier tension evidently forgotten. The sound made his chest ache and his hands tingle, reminding him of how things used to be. How
they
used to be. How
he
used to be.

Before the Seer had gotten her torturous hands on him.

He shook his head hard, banishing the memories that clawed at his mind. He’d vanquished that demon and he’d sure as hell make sure it stayed down. 

It had no place in his life, especially now that Aurora was back. The woman he’d wanted more than anything, and the one who had been the reason his life had been torn apart.

Did she know it? The role she’d played in his downfall?

Unlikely. The girl he’d known, though wild, had been kind. She’d not have been able to look at him normally tonight—at least somewhat normally—if she’d known what had happened to him after she’d left. He’d have seen it in her eyes if she’d known.

He shook the thoughts away and focused on the cold night. The moon set the snow to glowing. It stretched as far as he could see, a pristine white canvas. The Vatnajökull Glacier was the largest in Iceland. He’d made his home at the edge of it since he’d left Scotland, but this was the first time he’d had anyone from that old life here with him.

“I think I see it!” she called.

He dragged his gaze from her and looked toward the horizon. The glow was faint, but discernible. It was stronger than before, and they were still several miles away.

He glanced back at her. She’d sped up her machine. “Slow down!” 

He hit the throttle on his own, but had gone no more than a dozen feet when the hum of her engine cut off abruptly and the machine died.

He yanked his vehicle to the left and killed the engine, then leapt off and raced the short distance to her. He didn’t want whatever had hurt her snowmobile getting his too. It was a long walk back. For small bursts, his wulver speed rivaled that of the snowmobile. Wulvers, his father’s people, shared the spirit of the wolf. With it, they possessed the wolf’s speed and heightened senses.

“Damn it!” Aurora said as she climbed off. Mouse hopped out of her carrier and landed lightly on the snow. “It just died.”

He grunted and tested the controls. Nothing. He popped the hood in the front and looked at the engine. “Looks normal.”

Aurora frowned at the horizon. He followed her gaze to the glow that emanated from the now visible soulceress city. They were still a couple of miles away, but he could see the barest hint of the tall, gray stone walls that surrounded the labyrinthine city built by long-ago soulceresses. If his clan had built a place that strong, they might have survived. As it was—

He shook the thought away. Her arrival seemed to have dredged up all his demons. He hadn’t had these thoughts in years. Centuries. 

“I can feel the magic of the city even here,” Aurora said, a shiver in her voice. “Do you think it killed the engine? Some ancient spells kill modern devices.”

“Aye. The glow is messing up the soulceress wards.” Soulceresses had been fierce about defending their home. They’d have put wards on it that limited the advantage of an approaching enemy. Technology they couldn’t understand would have definitely been a threat. “It’s been expanding, but this is even worse than I expected. We should have been able to get much closer before the wards stopped us.”

She shivered. “Did it kill your machine too?”

“No, I was behind you. The magic hasn’t reached quite that far yet.”

“But it’s getting stronger, isn’t it? Whatever is wrong with the portal is warping.” 

“Portal? How do you know it’s a portal?” The university hadn’t given him any details. 

“Long story.” Her tone was dark.

“Shit’s getting worse here. I think I ought to hear it if we’re going up against it.” Even he could feel the unnatural magic vibrating on the air. It had an oily, evil quality that made the wulver part of his soul shiver. This was becoming more than just the quick and easy fix he’d anticipated. “If we’re to get any closer, we’ll have to walk or ski. We canna do that tonight.”

Aurora rubbed her arms, her teeth chattering. “Good. Let’s get out of here before the magic reaches any farther and kills your snowmobile too. We’ll come back when the sun is up.”

He nodded. “We’ll tow your machine back.” He bent down to grab the handlebars so he could push it back toward his. As soon as he put some force on it, the metal screeched. The machine crumbled, metal twisted and broken. He jumped back. “Bluidy hell!”

“Oh crap!” Aurora stumbled back.

Mouse turned to smoke, a weird familiar’s trick he hadn’t seen in centuries. Her ghostly black form flowed toward the broken pile of metal to investigate. He’d forgotten the protective maneuver that familiars sometimes used when they didn’t want to be hurt by anything on earth. 

He moved forward and kicked some of the broken metal with his boot. All the pieces of the snowmobile were there, but each was a tangled mess edged with rust.

“Strong magic,” Aurora said.

“Too strong. And new. This hasn’t happened before.” It gave him chills. “Let’s head back.”

He leaned down and pulled Mouse’s fluffy harness from the pile of rubble. It was streaked with rust, but at least it was fine. It was clearly too harmless for the magic to have affected it. As he turned to walk to the machine he’d left a dozen yards back, his step stuttered briefly. They’d have to share the snowmobile. A cold sweat broke out on his skin underneath his jacket, but he picked up the pace.

He stopped near the machine and kicked it.
Thud.
The machine stayed standing. 

Damn. 

He didn’t want to walk, but part of him almost hoped they’d be forced to.

He attached Mouse’s harness to the front of the seat and said, “You can sit in front of me.” 

At least that way, he’d be more in control. She couldn’t reach around him with her hands and touch him. Warily, he watched her climb on. Mouse followed. The machine looked a whole lot smaller with them on it.

He braced himself, then swung his leg over the seat. The heat of her body hit him first, though he wasn’t touching her. Then her familiar scent. Sweet and clean. Had he not been sitting, it would have sent him to his knees. He did his damnedest to keep an inch of space between them, but the incline of the seat prevented it. His heart thundered in his chest, almost deafening him. 

He hadn’t touched anyone in three hundred years. How many times had he longed to touch her just once more?

A second later, she was nestled between his thighs. The heat of her burned him, a fiery pain that made his cock harden and his stomach turn. 

He sucked in a harsh breath.

Focus.

It took everything he had to ignore her. Even then, he failed. With a grimace, he reached around her and clutched the handlebars. The machine roared to life. They set off across the snow, the force of their momentum pushing her back against his chest. Memories of his torture assailed him, making a cold sweat break out on his brow.

How the hell was he going to endure the remaining miles?

CHAPTER FOUR

Western Scotland

1660

The bark of the big oak bit into Aurora’s hands as she held on to the big branch. Her darned skirt kept catching on the smaller branches. If she was going to keep sitting in this tree, she really would have to convince her mother to let her wear breeches.

Mouse meowed a quiet warning and Aurora’s attention snapped back to the ground. There he was. The one she’d been waiting for.

“Good eyes, Mouse,” she whispered. She conjured a fish for her familiar and put it on the tree limb upon which Mouse sat. Mouse leaned down to devour it. They’d been sitting up here for two hours waiting to see if the man would return, as he had every day for the past week.

He was approaching her, weaving between the large oaks that separated them, his brown woolen cloak falling from his broad shoulders. He had to be at least six feet tall and so handsome. Easily the handsomest man she’d ever seen. Aurora imagined he was probably a few years older than she. 

He was close enough now that she could make out his eerie silver eyes. They scanned the forest as though looking for something, the same as every other day. What was he looking for? She scooted behind the cover of the leaves so that he couldn’t see her and inspected him more closely.

His dark hair was a shiny mass that flowed back from his beautiful face. She couldn’t get over how handsome he was. And he was a Mythean like her.

Not that that meant much. Bitterness jabbed her. Mytheans wanted to kill her kind as much as mortals did. But oh, how she wished she could speak to him. A friend. She loved her mother and was elated that she was pregnant—soon Aurora would have a sibling—but she was
seventeen
. She wanted to meet someone her own age.

“It’s been long enough, I think,” he said. “You can come out now.”

She gasped, then slapped a hand over her mouth. Mouse perked up her ears and peered down.

He had never spoken before. Was he speaking to
her
?

“Aye, you in the tree. Come on down,” he said.

Oh, this was
not
good. It was one thing to gaze upon him from afar and have fantasies; it was another thing entirely to actually speak to him. Her mother had made it very clear what would happen if they were discovered to be soulceresses. 

Burning.

And Aurora believed her. She had more than enough proof. It was not a good time to be a soulceress—or even a poor mortal woman that the stupid mortals thought to be a witch.

“All right, if you will no’ come down, then I’ll come up,” the man said. He swept the brown cloak back off his shoulders and reached for the lowest branch. Aurora had to use a bit of magic to boost herself up, but he didn’t.

She crowded back against the trunk as he began to climb with strong, sure movements. 

Her heart pounded in her ears as she watched him come closer. Mouse hissed and the sound snapped Aurora out of her fear. She had Mouse to protect, along with her mother and unborn sibling. If he got too close, he’d feel her soul leach the power from his. He’d know what she was, and then she’d be in trouble.

She reached a hand toward him and shot magic from her palm. It tore him away from the tree and sucked him up into the air to dangle above the ground in front of her.

“What the bluidy hell?” He couldn’t move except for his mouth.

“Why do you come here?” she demanded, fear fighting with her delight at finally talking to him.

His gaze snapped to where she sat a few feet above him on her branch. “To see you, of course.”

“Me?”

“Of course. I felt the magic. You’re Mythean.”

“So what if I am?”

“Let me down first and then we can talk.” 

“No’ until you tell me why you care that I’m Mythean.”

“I wanted to meet one of my own kind.”

Aurora was desperate to believe him. That he just wanted to be friends and not that he was planning to report her existence and location to anyone who might want to burn her at the stake—which was everyone. She longed for a friend her own age. And he wasn’t just a potential friend. He was a boy. A handsome one.

“How am I supposed to believe you?” she said.

“I’ve known you were here a whole week and have no’ told anyone who might want to harm you.”

“Harm me? So you know what I am?”

“A soulceress is my guess. I’ve felt you drawing on my soul every time I’ve come here.”

She paused. It was probably true. And no one had come to the cottage she shared with her mother, demanding to know if they were consorting with the devil. And gods, she wanted to believe him so badly. “Yet you continue to come back?”