Seduced by Magic (4 page)

His heart clenched at the thought of this beautiful woman, missing for so long. Where had she gone to? Or where had she been taken? He refused to believe that this woman was dead. No, his gut told him she was alive, and by the gods, he intended to help find her.

Damnation
. How could a simple picture make him want her so?

He tried to ignore the irrational stirring in his gut and his groin. He was to be mated with one of the women within the D'Danann High Court. His bonding with Airell of the House of Torin would bring together two powerful houses—there would be no room for trifling with other females for anything besides sex. Least of all a part human, part Elvin, witch.

He handed the picture back to Silver whose gaze was pinned on him as if she knew his thoughts. As if she were aware of the primal urges within him every time he looked
at the picture of her sister, who smiled with such mischief in her eyes.

Irrational.

His was an ordered world. He was methodical and never impulsive. Such a woman would never be an attraction to him.

Silver placed the picture back onto her desk. “Why don't we meet up with the others at Enchantments?”

Silver, Hawk, and Tiernan headed out of the aging building to the store the witches had rented just a few doors down from the apartments. Over the past few weeks since Samhain, the witches, along with Jake, had combined monetary and physical resources—not to mention a good dose of magic and D'Danann muscle—to remodel and open the once boarded-up store. There were still things that needed to be done, but it looked remarkably well considering the short length of time the witches had had to put it together.

They had made it into a New Age café similar to Moon Song, a store/café that Silver had run for the D'Anu Coven before she was banished. They had named the new store and café Enchantments. It was in what Silver said was the most New Age and one of the most artistic parts of San Francisco—the Haight-Ashbury district.

All Tiernan cared about was the fact that Cassia cooked and baked the best food he had ever eaten in all of the Otherworlds. D'Danann were notorious for the amount of food they could consume. He was no exception.

Enchantment's kitchen was the main gathering place for the D'Danann and witches. It afforded more room than Moon Song had, which was an added benefit. The warriors could eat their fill with most of the witches cooking for everyone. The warrior women could match the men bite for bite, and still remain toned and muscular.

When they reached the kitchen of Enchantments, Tiernan's
stomach rumbled. The kitchen smelled of spices and fresh-baked pumpkin bread.

Silver called to Cassia who was wiping her hands on her apron. The blue-eyed, curly-headed witch was part Elvin and had an ethereal glow about her now that her true identity had been revealed. Before she had let her true self be known, she had acted the part of a clumsy, inept witch to better protect Silver from the dangers she had faced before Samhain.

Tiernan grabbed a slice of warm pumpkin bread and Hawk scooped up a chocolate chip cookie.

As he ate the bread, Tiernan dug the piece of parchment he had found out of his pocket and handed it to Cassia.

“Where did you get this?” Her eyes widened. “I don't recognize these runes at all.” She shuddered and goose bumps appeared on her forearms. “All I can tell is there's something very wicked about them. This paper is shrouded in evil.”

Silver quirked an eyebrow at Tiernan. “What's that?”

He shrugged. “I do not know.”

Cassia kept the parchment close as she drew out her black and gold rune stones. She tumbled them onto a clean portion of the counter and studied them. “The stones give no additional clues save that we are in grave danger.”

“So what's new?” Silver sounded flippant, but her eyes held that same dark concern that had been present ever since she saw the vision of the coming of Balor and of Copper.

Cassia gave the parchment to Silver. Immediately the witch started shaking so hard the parchment trembled in her fingertips and she looked as if she might faint or throw up. Or both. Tiernan would have taken her by the arm to aid her if Hawk had not already been at her side. “This is the circle,” Silver said in a hoarse whisper. “Copper was tied down in a circle just like this when I scried with the cauldron this morning.”

Rhiannon took the parchment from Silver. The moment the witch's hands touched the parchment her face paled as it had earlier. As she held it tighter, she said, “I get the feeling of immeasurable evil.” She inhaled and slowly let out her breath. “I see a door within a massive room. The circles are engraved into the floor with the runes scraped or carved into it.”

Tiernan studied the drawing more closely. He could easily see now that the vertical rectangle could be a door, and the circles could be on a floor before it. A look of relief swept over Rhiannon's face when Mackenzie took it from her.

With an expression of distaste, the petite blond set the parchment on the kitchen table, then dealt her tarot cards into a Celtic cross. Among other things, the cards revealed grave danger and battles ahead, but also that a new friend would be taking a journey and an old friend would be returning.

After everyone had the opportunity to look at and evaluate the parchment, Tiernan left the store. He stood in the store's back parking spot and lifted his face to the sky.

At the same time he unfolded his great brown wings from his back, he shielded himself from sight. With a simple flap of his wings, he took to the sky in search of the damnable warlocks and the Fomorii.

Otherworld
The present

It could have been days, months, years. All Copper Ashcroft knew was that she had to find her way out, her way back home. And something was telling her that it needed to be
soon
.

“What is wrong, witch?” Riona, the Faerie queen who was trapped with Copper, flitted from around the bushes that hid the Faerie mound in their Otherworld prison. “Are you homesick for this San Francisco you are always talking about?”

“Yeah. What's new?” Copper shrugged and shifted on the smooth rock beneath the apple tree. She'd never had a melancholy personality, but a girl could only be trapped so long without getting a little tired of it. “Goddess, how I miss everything—working in the shop with Silver, my classes at UC Berkeley.” She'd been working on her masters in education, and also had a minor in Celtic studies and physical education.

“And then there's the city itself,” she continued. “The smell of the ocean, the sound of a foghorn, the clang of trolleys.”
Rock music. Dating. Restaurants. Department stores
.
Shopping! And sex. Definitely sex
. She'd never dated anyone seriously. She had too much fun going out with different guys and enjoying the company of her friends. But she sure liked sex.

Riona landed on Copper's shoulder. Her perfect, naked, six-inch body was the color of cream. Her hair was long and midnight black, her eyes amethyst and her wings a pale purple. Every time she opened and closed her wings, Faerie dust glittered in the evening air and Copper caught the familiar scent of roses.

“Mostly I miss Mother, Father, and my older sister, Silver.” Copper glanced at the Faerie queen. “I'm glad to have all of you for company, but I would love to see my friends and the D'Anu Coven of witches I belonged to—even that old crotchety high priestess, Janis Arrowsmith.”

What she wouldn't give to have Janis glaring at her right now. She swore the high priestess was always glaring. Of course during the time Copper had been gone, a new Adept would have filled her place as one of the thirteen female and male witches that comprised the D'Anu Coven, all descendents of the Ancient Druids.

Riona crossed her dainty little legs at her knees and started swinging her foot. “It
is
your fault, witch, that we are all imprisoned.”

“I just don't understand what happened,” Copper said for the millionth time. Was it really her fault? Her magic had rebounded off something—some kind of shield—and she'd sent herself into this Otherworld place.

“You are a very powerful witch,” Riona said softly, her voice like tiny bells in a gentle breeze.

Copper blinked. Riona complimenting her?

“I just know that spell would have worked if it wasn't for that shield,” Copper said, deciding to go on. “I am
so sure
the warlock will be responsible for something terrible that's going to happen. I was so sure the spell would work.” Thoughts of her sister, family, and friends being in danger and possibly
being hurt or worse made Copper's chest burn. What if something
had
happened and she wasn't there to help?

Not only had she sent herself to Otherworld, but she'd ended up inside a magical shield that surrounded herself, a meadow with a rock wall on one side, a mini-waterfall and stream, a pine tree, and the apple tree—everything contained within the shield.

All of the creatures and beings trapped within this housesized prison were apparently invisible to any being outside the shield who happened to be nearby. And none of the beings confined with her were happy about being held hostage. They blamed it on Copper's magic no matter what she said.

Riona patted Copper's shoulder, her touch as soft as flower petals drifting upon her skin. “Believe it or not, I have confidence that one day you
will
free us all.”

Copper's eyes widened in astonishment as the Faerie queen flitted away to return to their tiny Sidhe, which was a mound, some bushes, and a garden of assorted flowers, not farther than a stone's throw away. Riona had never before expressed any faith in Copper. What was this little world coming to?

She looked up to the sky. It was an overcast evening with swirling dark clouds gathering overhead. Interestingly enough, they still had changes in weather, which meant that the walls couldn't be limitless and there was no ceiling. Yet none of the Fae had been able to fly high enough to get out.

The moon went through its usual phases, too, but no matter how she tried, her moon rituals wouldn't work and she received no visions from the ritual. She wasn't a seer of course, but in the past the goddess had sometimes been helpful during moon rituals.

Copper decided she might as well do something active instead of moping on the rock. She stood and grabbed one of the higher branches of the apple tree, gripped its rough thickness, and started doing pull-ups. She'd kept in shape by doing pull-ups, sit-ups, arm curls with rocks, and managed
other toning exercises, as well as jogging around the circumference of their prison. She even practiced her softball pitching for amusement by throwing rocks at the shield, and sharpened her reflexes by dodging them as they rebounded back at her.

While she performed her pull-ups, her mind returned to the dream she'd had last night. It had been so freaking intense.

She'd been crawling along a recently made tunnel, the smell of fresh earth confirming it was newly dug. The walls had glittered with veins of ore and an occasional gem. She had squinted. Dark shapes loomed in and out of her vision.

In her dream a sudden chill had pricked her skin with goose bumps and she'd felt an icy wash of fear.

In the next moment she had dropped. She'd plunged through the blackness, screaming . . .

She thought for a moment she saw a dark being as she fell, a being with fire for hair, but it was only a flash before she woke. Her breathing had been heavy, as if she'd been running the circumference of the prison.

She'd woken with her heart pounding in her ears, feeling as if something horrible were going to happen. Even the thought of the dream made her stomach clench.

“Get a grip,” she mumbled as she finished the last pull-up, then got down to the grassy ground and began doing guy push-ups. She used her upper body and the strength of her arms to do the push-ups as her toes dug into the grass, balancing her.

Her braid fell over her shoulder as she continued her workout. Of course the copper color of her hair was the reason her mother had named her Copper. Moondust had named Copper's sister Silver, after the shade of blond hair she'd been born with. Both were unique names that had caused a lot of teasing as the girls grew up. Neither one of them had minded—much. From a young age they had been
encouraged by their mother to enjoy their differences, and that included being witches.

Copper finished her push-ups, feeling a little sweat break out on her skin. She picked up a good-sized rock, bent over, and braced her other hand on the rock beneath the tree and started working out her triceps.

She watched a pair of Faeries gathering nectar from a bright purple bloom in the waning light. Riona perched on a white flower nearby. Her arms and legs were crossed, her foot swinging as usual, her wings slowly opening and closing, while she watched the male Faeries putting the nectar into delicate bags made of leaves. All the Faeries were tiny with perfect naked little bodies and translucent wings that released sparkling dust of different colors, depending on the Faerie.

Several Faerie children played hide-and-seek among the flowers and the trees along with Zephyr, Copper's bee familiar. The Faerie children's sweet chatter sounded just like water trickling over the rocks at the spring on the other side of the meadow.

“Dammit. How did this happen?” Not for the first time she wondered why the Ancestors and the goddess allowed her and all these beings to be trapped. She switched arms to work out her other triceps.

When she finished working out her upper body, she started jogging around the confined space. She knew when she had reached a wall because it shimmered before her, taunting her. If she touched it, she would receive a shock that frizzed her hair. She wondered if it would become permanently bushy if she kept experimenting every now and again to see if the barrier would finally let her through.

She scowled at it as her bare feet pounded soft grass. “Freaking wall.”