Chapter Thirteen
Smoke flew from his lookout window with a loud caw to announce that Audrey was coming down. The nerves in Corvin’s stomach jumped to life again when she emerged from the tower. The sway of her hips and breasts as she walked toward him had the same effect as always—warming his blood, making his hands feel empty and his pants too tight. He ached to bury his fingers in her tussled hair, to see it spread out on the earth like a curtain of silken wheat.
The tentative smile on her face made his breath catch. Was it real? Did she really like her room? Had she forgiven him? Her body language was relaxed and confident, as always, but Audrey’s actions had seldom matched her feelings.
He’d decided to conduct an experiment and follow Roderic’s advice by completely blocking his empathic powers around her. He would not even use his second sight around her because he didn’t want to catch a glimpse of her aura.
Now they were on an even playing field. Yet somehow he felt at a drastic disadvantage.
“Everything all right?” Her smile wilted as she approached.
He grinned, trying to coax hers back. “Fine, yes—good.”
She squinted at him, skeptically.
“I have another surprise for you.”
Audrey followed him down a narrow path into the forest and pulled her training glove on. “Geez, is it my birthday or something?”
He stopped, and she bumped into him. He turned and caught her around the waist before she could fall back. She blinked up at him in surprise as he let her go, staring into her eyes. They were the softest blue he’d ever seen them. They seemed to change with the light and sometimes her mood. Now they were almost violet. “When is your birthday? I just realized I never asked—what’s your sign?”
A bitter expression twisted her mouth, and she broke their eye contact.
Panic filled his head. Had that been wrong to ask? He rubbed her shoulder, to comfort himself as much as her, but he resisted the urge to probe or influence her feelings.
“I don’t know when my real birthday is. We always celebrated the day Jack found me—April twenty-second.” She shrugged and slipped away from his touch and kept walking one pace behind him.
Corvin cleared his throat and held out his hand to help her cross a streambed. She ignored him and cleared the impressively large gap without a running start. As the brush got thicker and they had to huddle closer together to navigate, he said, “You know, after you’re initiated, you could have a reading.”
“A reading for what?”
“Your past, if you really want to know. There are ancient mysteries that are only revealed to those who choose to walk the Threefold Path.”
“That’s okay, I’m not really into all that woo-woo stuff.”
“It’s not woo-woo. You’re a part of the Legacy. We have Oracles who could determine what sign you are in this life and begin a regression chart. They could match it against their records and possibly discover who your family—”
Audrey charged past him, whipping him in the face with a low branch. “I don’t really care. They didn’t want me. That’s all I need to know.”
He was all too familiar with that sentiment, and also knew it wasn’t true. He’d often wondered why the other half of his bloodline hadn’t stepped up to claim him. Questioning his mother about it when he was younger had swamped her with grief and guilt, so he’d stopped asking. But whenever councilors from other territories visited, he found himself searching their faces for clues. He wouldn’t press. Everyone dealt with that sort of deep-seated hurt in their own way.
They travelled the rest of the way in silence. As they broke the tree line and entered the clearing, Audrey shaded her eyes and stepped into the sun. A fine mist clung to the grasses as the rays burned off the morning dew. The calls of meadowlarks echoed in the distance, and a doe and her fawn munched on mushrooms at the meadow’s edge. He watched carefully as Audrey took in the scene, and he couldn’t help smiling.
She appeared awestruck, and that was the perfect reaction to have upon seeing his favorite place on earth. Since childhood, he’d spent the accumulation of years here, lounging in the grass, reading beneath the peach tree, playing with the foxes, rabbits, and jays. He’d never brought another person here.
Let her in, Roderic had said. And so he was. He hadn’t expected seeing her standing here with that wheat-gold hair and that look of wonder on her face to feel so…right. His heart swelled, and his magic pulsed through his body outward in a wave. The hair on his forearms prickled. He smiled wider because he recognized this feeling. It was the same as when he’d found his calling. The feeling of destiny.
“So this is where you wander off to.” She froze when she spotted the deer, whispering, “Oh my gosh, Corvin, look! It’s Bambi!”
He chuckled and took her by the hand. “It’s okay, you won’t scare them. They know they’re safe here.”
Hopefully Audrey felt that way too. She let him guide her farther into the clearing, then released his hand to do a slow turn.
“You’re just full of surprises today.”
The pleasure in her voice made his heart featherlight, and the last bit of his worry slipped away. He let the satisfaction he felt show in his smile. “You have no idea.”
Her eyes sparkled with interest, and he gestured to the covered box beside the boulders in the center of the glen. Audrey leaned over his shoulder to watch as he uncovered the box and gently lifted the golden eagle out. The bird’s heart was beating fast with excitement, and he opened his senses enough to pulse some calming energy into her. As an extra precaution, he’d also put a hood on her.
“Oh!” Audrey said.
The eagle instantly responded to her voice, tilting her head and closing her beak to listen. He’d often heard Audrey talking to the eagle when she thought he was sleeping in his chair in the mornings. The two of them seemed to have a sort of camaraderie.
“Are we setting her free already?”
“No. She’s not healed enough to hunt yet, but she needs to build her strength back up.”
“Shouldn’t one of the other Summoners help with this? Like Peter?”
He shrugged. “Peter would do well, but I don’t bring anyone to this place normally. Besides, she likes you.”
A small smile quirked her lips. “Oh yeah? Did she tell you that?”
“Perhaps.” He gestured for Audrey to sit on the ground. When she was settled, he dropped slowly to his knees and set the eagle on the grass between them. He waited a few seconds for her to sense her new surroundings. “Keep talking—she likes your voice.”
“Oh, okay.”
He reached for Audrey’s hand and set her to stroking the eagle’s back. She seemed mesmerized by the moment, but not nervous at all.
“How are you today, Honey?” Her tone was softer than he’d ever heard it. “Looks like we’ve both gotten some yard privileges. Are you excited? Wait till you see this place. It’s like a Disney movie come to life. You’re gonna love it way more than that cramped cage. You can stretch your wings here.”
In answer, the eagle dropped her head to taste the dew on the grass and tentatively stretched her good wing up and out. Audrey stroked it without hesitation, running her hand down the feathers in a way that birds felt like a tickle. She giggled when the bird kept her wing out, inviting her to do it again. “Are we going to take the blinders off her? Corvin?”
He blinked, slow to realize she’d been talking to him. “You named her Honey?”
“Huh? Oh…No, I just needed to call her something.”
“I like it. It suits her—the color.”
Audrey nodded and resumed her petting. “Yeah, I thought so too.”
“Let’s hope she lives up to the name and stays sweet,” he said, removing the hood. It was a moment of truth with all birds of prey. Most remained relatively docile when blinded, but that could easily shift once they scented freedom. Honey wouldn’t get far with one wing bandaged, but she could reinjure herself if she attempted to. As a precaution, he’d tied a lead to the bracelet on her foot.
It took Honey a moment to adjust to the sudden light, and he and Audrey sat still as she took in her surroundings. Corvin pulsed another wave of calm at her and noticed that Audrey’s shoulders relaxed slightly too.
“Let her see your hand—the one with the glove.”
Audrey kept her movements slow, and Honey gladly chewed on the thick leather, then pulled Audrey’s arm to the ground and pinned it with her talons.
“Good. Keep talking. See if you can stroke her back some more. Don’t be afraid—she won’t hurt you. If she bites, it will be a gentle warning.”
“I wasn’t really thinking that she would bite me at all, so thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I was not serious.”
“Talk to the bird, not to me.”
“Right. You’re heavier than you look, Honey. We’ve been feeding you too well. Good thing you’re gonna start getting some exercise. Don’t look at me like that—you know it’s true.”
The sultry rasp in her voice went away when she spoke to Honey. She sounded younger, more innocent, more… cute. He chuckled to himself.
“What?” She scowled at him. “You talk to them different too.”
“Birds?” He shook his head. “I do not. I sound completely normal when I talk to birds.”
“Fine, but it’s still different than how you talk to everyone else.” She stroked Honey’s chest, brushing over the bandages without a flinch from either of them.
He wanted to deny it, but he suspected she was right. He reached into the basket in his lap, and Honey finally noticed he was there too. He coaxed her forward by dangling a piece of liver. “I suppose that’s because I don’t really like people.”
“Oh, bullshit. You like Tilly, and Peter, and Roderic—does he count as a person?—and me.”
He glanced up to see her cheeks pinkening. She batted those crushed velvet eyes at him, and his breath caught. He dropped the bait. Honey lunged into his lap after it, and he had to catch her when her bandaged side threw her off-balance. He set the bird back on her feet and held the bait out to her. “Yes.”
Audrey blinked again, and he had a passing thought to keep confusing her on purpose just to see that look on her face. “Of course Roderic is a person, but I would say I tolerate him more than like him. Smoke is a person too, for that matter. I don’t differentiate the way most people do.”
“Well, there. See? You like people. Not many human people, but you’re working on it.”
“I am?”
She nodded and caught the basket when he tossed it to her. She reached in for a piece of meat without any prompting, and Honey forged through the grass back toward her. “Yeah. You took on a novice—your first. Now you’re teaching classes. I think it’s progress.”
“Are you saying you think I need to be rehabilitated?”
She giggled. “Maybe.”
He grinned in response and caught the basket. She might have been poking fun at him, but the important part in that message to him was progress. It meant he was on the right track.
Maybe you don’t need your powers to connect after all.
What if he could just relax and be himself? And wasn’t it odd that had never occurred to him before? Maybe Audrey and Roderic—two of the admittedly few people he liked—were on to something.
He moved a few steps back and sat down. Honey was already heading his way, having figured out the game. Her gait was steadier. She was already adjusting to moving with the bandages on. He fed her a giblet, then tossed the basket to Audrey. Honey hopped at the basket as it passed over her head.
“Won’t she get sick of this? We’re taunting her. I don’t want to see her pissed off.”
“No, you don’t. But she knows it’s for her own good. It’s physical therapy. With snacks. It’s all good for her, the moving and the eating. Soon she’ll be flying from one to the other of us, and when she catches the bait in midair, she’s ready.”
“To be set free?”
He nodded, swallowing the knot in his throat at the hopeful lilt in her tone. Audrey still saw herself as a prisoner, and until that changed, he was still just another warden. He wanted to be more than that—a friend, a lover—but that wouldn’t be possible unless she chose to stay and follow the Threefold Path.
She’s wild—she has to come on her own.
He’d tamed some of the wildest creatures, but he’d never faced a challenge like this. The only thing that seemed more impossible than convincing Audrey to accept the truth of her birthright and commit her soul to following the Threefold Path of the Zyne was earning her trust. But he’d been alone for so long—dammit, he wanted it all. He was sick of dalliances that went nowhere, sick of the way others at the Arcanum gave him a wide berth and whispered behind his back. He didn’t want just a quick tumble or torrid affair. He wanted a companion…a mate.
As Audrey smiled and laughed in his meadow, that feeling of rightness swelled up in him again. Warmth blossomed in his chest.
Courting this woman was going to take an avalanche of patience, especially without using his magic. She was guarded, moody, untrusting, and a talented liar. But underneath that, she was simply another wild creature fate had placed in his path. She was strong and sweet and good, and in some primal way he’d never experienced before, he was drawn to her. Every instinct he had screamed at him to protect and comfort and adore her. Despite the mistakes he’d made, despite her circumstances, she had befriended him. She saw him and accepted him as he was. But could she ever take that leap and love him?
Because you’re already falling.
An hour later, the bait basket was empty, but Honey had caught a fifth wind and was happily chasing butterflies around the meadow while he and Audrey lounged in the thick grass.
“We should have packed a basket of treats for us,” Audrey said when her stomach rumbled loud enough to catch the eagle’s attention.
Corvin smiled to himself. He loved her enthusiasm for food, even if it stemmed from going hungry far too often. The extra weight she’d put on suited her—not just filling out her ample hips, but her face looked healthier and more youthful too. Though it was still easy to forget how young she actually was, since her eyes told a much older story.
“Would you like a peach?” He nodded at the far edge of the tree line, where a large peach tree sat like a squat decoration among the towering cedars.
“There’s no fruit on that tree,” came her logical reply.
He winked and strode past Honey—who barely paused in her chase—to stand at the foot of the giant tree. He held his palm under the lowest branch and pulsed magic into it. The branch shivered, and buds burst forth in a froth of fluffy pink. As his magic flowed into them, the flower petals rained around him, and two large pieces of fruit bulged, causing the branch to drop the heavy fruit right into his palms. He twisted them free and sauntered back to Audrey to hold out the largest and ripest one.
“If you had three, I could juggle for you.”
He settled next to her as she took an exaggerated bite and moaned in pleasure, closing her eyes.
“Oh, god.” She grinned as a bit of juice dribbled down her chin.
He took a bite himself to avoid leaning in to sip the sweetness right from her lips.
“Why is there a peach tree out here in the middle of the woods?”
“I planted it. I found this place when I was a boy. The plants led me here. I was eating a peach at the time—they’re my favorite. So, I decided to plant the pit. I used what little magic I had, and it took root that day. Whenever I wanted to run away, I would come here, and I always had food. Since then, I’ve woven my own magic into this place. The plants and animals know me. They let me pass, while they help keep others away.”
Audrey tilted her head, studying him with a teasing smile.
“I know what you’re thinking—even then I was antisocial.”
She set her half-eaten fruit aside and wiped her hands on her thighs. “I wasn’t going to say that. The first time I ran away, it was to a tree fort. Well, sort of. It was the hood of an old Chevy, an umbrella I found at the dump, and some fallen branches. I hadn’t thought ahead to pack any food though. If I’d had a magic peach tree, I might still be there.”
“What were you running away from?”
A fog settled over her gaze as she stared at Honey in the meadow, seeing something in the distant past. “I don’t remember. I ran away from so many fosters. Some of them were probably good people, but they weren’t Jack, so I wanted nothing to do with them.”
He was surprised at her honesty, so he forged ahead. “You’ve mentioned Jack before. Who was she?”
“She was my mom, sort of. She found me outside a truck stop when I was a baby and raised me until I was nine. Then she died. Heart attack. And I bounced between the foster system and juvie until I turned eighteen.”
His chest tightened in sympathy. He wanted to reach out to her, but he was afraid to disturb the air and break such a rare candid moment. It was a challenge to keep his powers at bay and not wrap her in a swath of warm comfort. It made so much sense now, why she would value the memories she had. Good or bad, they were—literally—all she had. What an insensitive bastard he’d been to suggest she’d be better off without them.
“The Synod has many jobs you could do after your initiation. We don’t just recruit and train initiates, you know. There are dark forces at work that must be combated, immortals who go rogue. You could join the guardians and go very far, if you wanted to.”
“And if I don’t want to?”
“Then complete your term of service, and go on to live however you like.”
“Assuming I’m willing to give up a year or two of my life for a cause I don’t believe in, do you really think they’d make it that easy to leave? What’s to keep them from lengthening the sentence?”
“This is not a prison, Audrey.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re a councilor’s son. I’m a nobody. As soon as I’m not useful to them, they’ll toss me out with the rest of the trash.” She gritted her teeth and her eyes turned hard. “I can’t lose my memories.”
“I promise I will not let that happen.” He leaned back beside her, and it brought many of her tempting curves within easy reach, so he grabbed his fruit and bit into it. “They are not your enemies.”
She finished her peach and seemed to be mulling over what he said, but she very well could have been lost elsewhere in her own thoughts. Not being able to read her was maddening. And if he asked what was going on in that head of hers, she would probably make a joke or change the subject. When he didn’t say anything more, she finally shrugged. “The system is jacked no matter what world you live in.”
“I can’t say that I disagree with you on that.”
“Then why do you stay?” She tossed the remnants of her peach and the pit toward the trees, then turned a guileless look on him.
“I’m content with my life here.” In part, she was right. The life of a councilor’s son was fairly privileged. If his mother ever followed through on her threat to dismantle his post, that would be another story. He wanted to forgive her, to repair their relationship, but that would require her to admit she had been wrong—not a frequent occurrence.
Audrey cocked her head. “That’s exactly my point. You’re not a council lackey—I’ll give you that—but I don’t see you serving some higher good either. You rescue animals, not witches. You could do that anywhere. Why here?”
The back of his neck heated as he faced her scrutinizing stare. “I believe in the Threefold Path. Protecting the Legacy means keeping it united.”
“Sounds like a cop-out to me. Do you actually believe the stuff you say, or are you just parroting it back?”
He frowned, an uncomfortable feeling under his skin at her line of questioning. “I’m not brainwashed, if that’s what you’re implying. All souls are free to choose their own way.”
She snorted. “Doesn’t seem like it to me. The Synod keeps everyone on a pretty tight leash.”
“They have their reasons,” he said, and even to himself he sounded sullen.
“Hmm. They and not we?” He scowled at her and she shrugged. “I’m just saying. There’s a whole wide world out there, you know.”
He saw an opening to turn the tide of the conversation and pounced on it. “Of all the places in the whole wide world, I’d choose to be right here. With you.” He winked and took another bite of his peach. It was too big of a bite, and juice sprayed everywhere as he tried to close his mouth.
Audrey giggled and caught a stream of juice running down his chin as he swallowed, then licked her finger.
A cord of heat snapped to life within him at the sight, and before he could stop to consider what he was doing, his lips followed, seeking her sweet mouth.
She gasped out a surprised breath just before their lips met. The peach juice tasted sweeter from hers, and he dove in and sought more, thinking the whole time that any minute she would shove him away.
She didn’t. Her legs tangled with his, and she pulled him on top of her. The softness of her body beneath him lit a fuse, and he was on a countdown until all his pent-up desire from weeks of wanting burst forth and started them down a path there was no turning back from.
He eased back enough to break their kiss and gaze into her eyes. They were heavy lidded and dazzling, but told him nothing. He sighed and shook his head. “I wish I knew what you were thinking.”
Her eyes twinkled with laughter as a small smile curled her mouth. “I was wondering what took you so long. I’ve been throwing you ‘kiss me’ signals for the last hour.”
It was his turn to smile before dipping his head to trail kisses across her chest and neck. She tasted even better than she smelled. “I was afraid if I started, I might not ever stop.”
“Mmm. You say that like it’s a bad thing.” She wiggled, nestling his swelling erection into the cleft of her thighs. Her hands danced up his sides, and he started to sweat from the heat of the sun, the heat of the moment, the questions he should be asking piling up while his mouth was otherwise occupied.
“Not immediately, but what about after?”
“Hmm?” She was grinding against him now with one leg wrapped around his hip as she explored the planes of his back under his shirt. “You think too much.”
Everything she was doing felt amazing, and his thoughts were growing foggier with every beat of his pounding heart. His cock was already trying to hot-wire his brain, fully on board with Audrey’s plan of less talking and more friction. It was also making it harder not to open up his other senses. He needed concentration to shield completely, and that was quickly unraveling. But if he didn’t get this out in the air now, he would regret it. He braced himself above her, easing some of the sultry heat lapping between them. “I’m serious. This will change things. With the council—”
“I don’t care about the council.” She nipped at his chin with her teeth. “Nothing has to change if no one knows.” She pulled his face down to her, kissing him deeply and desperately, making it hard to breathe, much less think.
“I would know,” he managed to mumble between kisses. He rolled to his back and pulled her on top of him. She followed the motion smoothly, their bodies already on the same page. “And I don’t want…” She sat up, straddling his hips, and ground herself against him, inciting a groan that derailed his train of thought.
“You want this.” She lifted his hands to cup her breasts.
He sucked in a sharp breath as their weight settled in his palms, firm, and so luscious. His thumbs stroked over the nipples subtly defined beneath her T-shirt, and they responded by hardening, just as he’d imagined they would. “Gods, yes, I want this…”
“Then you better stop talking, before I change my mind.” A look of challenge crossed her face, and the next thing he knew, the thin cotton was gone, and her bare breasts were in his hands, then his mouth, as she reached down to stroke the aching bulge in his jeans.
“Audrey.” It was all he could say as her hair fell in a golden curtain around him, smelling of roses and grass. He envisioned taking off the rest of her clothes and her baring him…taking him into her mouth as he held her hair in his fist, sliding her silken wet pussy up and down it as her breasts bounced in his hands.
What had he been trying to say?
It doesn’t matter now…this is what you want.
“Yes,” he said in answer to her unfastening his belt. The fuse had blown. She was right—there was nothing stopping them.
… before I change my mind. Except for that. He was on such delicate ground with Audrey. It was important to him that she knew he wasn’t using her, didn’t expect anything from her. And that she understood this meant more to him than just pleasure. She meant more to him.
“Wait.” He squeezed her hips until she stilled, and pulled back from the next kiss. “You know you don’t have to do this. I will be there for you, Audrey, either way.”
Confusion ruffled her brows as he searched her eyes for the truth. And then it was like a steel door slammed shut between them. One moment, she was warm and dreamy, the next, hard and distant.
She looked across the meadow, and now he couldn’t be sure if the blush creeping up her neck was from desire or fury. “You think I’m in the habit of throwing myself at any guy who feeds me and gives me a place to stay?”
“What? No!” This was so much harder without his powers to help him.
“You think I feel like I owe you anything for keeping me here against my will?” She grabbed her shirt from the ground beside him and pulled it roughly over her head. When she went to move off of him, he squeezed her hips harder.
“That’s not it at all.” He sat up and pulled her tighter into his lap, bringing them nose to nose. He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head to the side. He rested his forehead against her cheek. “I just…don’t want you to have any regrets. About me.”
She huffed and shook her head. “Then you shouldn’t have ruined the moment. That’s what they call a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
He didn’t try to stop her as she got up and stormed across the field and into the forest.
What was he doing wrong?
He’d done everything Roderic had told him. He’d tuned out his powers. He’d opened up about his feelings. He’d stopped trying so hard. And it had worked. He’d had Audrey on top of him. All over him. His hands and mouth all over her. Until he pushed her too far. He stared across the grass at Honey, who had barely lifted her head at Audrey’s departure. He reached out to her and sensed she was more at peace than she ever had been since coming to stay with him. At least one thing was going right. He lay back on the grass and stared up at a patch of clear blue sky beyond the treetops. He would give Honey another hour to enjoy her freedom and give Audrey time to calm down.
Then, like with any wild thing, he would start again.