CHAPTER SIX
Had Castian not assured me Samuel was well, the fact that he had yet to stir by morning would have had me frantic. As it was, I spent hours curled up in the plush club chair thinking and dreaming in a fitful reverie
The events of the previous day haunted me.
It was pointless to try to understand the actions of a madman. Somewhere on Abaddon’s journey for dominion, he not only lost his soul but his grasp on reality. I was not, nor would I ever be, his mate. I was a newling and though my age of eligibility recently passed, I had every intention of saving myself for a kind and honorable male.
Galan waited five decades into his eligibility for Jade. I wanted that kind of love for my own.
Whisking around my suite I opened the drapes and welcomed spring sun to wash the room. I enjoyed darkness—though nothing was truly dark with Elven night vision—but loved the golden haze of morning.
The sun wasn’t at a place in its seasonal cycle to bring us full heat yet, but the promise of the day to come grew with the champagne sunrise.
Selfish as it was, if Samuel was well, I needed him to wake and be on his way. Despite my personal situation, it was the week’s end and I committed to watching over the orphaned Were cubs while Bruin escorted Mika to the Modern Realm to visit her friends in Vancouver.
Looping the drapes into their tiebacks I gazed upon the grounds of Jade’s private home. Below, men trimmed hedges and aerated the lawn. As they made their passes from the perimeter wall and back to the courtyard, piles of cuttings marked their path. Sadly, the pool would be covered for months yet, a large black tarp stretched over the waters below.
I missed my late-night dips when headaches kept reverie at bay. Submerging to the silent depths always allowed the chaos of the world to silence.
Several of the men below gathered and bagged pruned branches, making ready for the colorful flowers and leaves to come. I had believed the greens of the rainforest were the most beautiful sight, but the multi-hued reds, yellows, and oranges of this forest a few months ago matched the resplendence of even the most splendid palette.
The hitch of Samuel’s breathing caught my attention as he shifted to his back.
What would it be like to be deprived of color? To spend endless hours and days in an empty void of sightlessness? It was near eight months since the explosion. The fact that he lost his vision being heroic would be little consolation.
Samuel’s breathing changed as he woke. He fell still.
“Fash not, Samuel. Castian Flashed you to my suite.” I poured a glass of juice and made my way to the sofa. He made no move so I perched on the edge of the cushion by his hip. “Are you well?”
A gasp hissed from his chest as he scrubbed his face. With his eyes clenched tight, he shook his head and opened them again. “Sweet Mary, mother of God.”
I set the glass on the table. “What is it?”
“I can see.” Samuel blinked and spun his glance across the room. I stood as he bounded to his feet, his gaze bouncing from the stained-glass light fixtures, to the area rug and all around the room. “Sort of. Mostly. Shapes and colors come at me. More like auras. Everything’s blazing in a mass of jewel tones, streaming from you, the furniture, the windows. It’s not sight exactly but I can make things out.”
“That’s wonderful, but how?”
Samuel walked along the sofa. With his arms extended he brushed his fingers over everything within reach. “Abaddon’s sorcery? Castian’s intervention? I dinnae care.”
He lost himself in the magnificence of the everyday items around my suite, the bouquet in the vase, the painted pattern on a bowl, the books stacked beside the sofa. He strode to the window, raising a hand to shield his eyes. “Jaysus, that hurts like the devil’s needles stickin’ in my retina.”
I grabbed his mirrored sunglasses from the table. “Take things slowly. Mayhap you should ease—”
Samuel stared at me with an intensity which made my ears warm. He raised his fingers, tracing my hair where it brushed my cheek, my collarbone, my shoulders. “Gods, yer just that beautiful.”
His eyes, still white, now held the focus they lacked since the accident. Where before they were striking, like an opal in sunlight, now they shone with understanding. He swept my hair behind my shoulder with deliberate slowness. “I forgot, ye see. The last time I laid eyes upon ye was when I brought ye out of those caverns all bloodied and unconscious.”
“You saved my life.”
He cupped my jaw, his gaze dropping from my eyes, down to my lips.
I swallowed, a queer warmth swirling low in my belly.
When I thought he might kiss me, he wrapped me in an embrace and swung the two of us into a twirling spiral of laughter. “Oh, let’s go out and see everything: the grounds, the leaves, the castle—everything. Are ye game?”
He released me and spun past the sofa. I flopped down to watch him whirl. “I am caring for the lion cubs at Bruin’s den today. Mayhap after—”
“I have to go with ye,” he said. “I am yer guardian after all. I—Oh!” Samuel caught sight of the rest of his things on the table and raced to pick up his wand. He stroked the carved wood like a lover caressing his long-lost beloved.
“Colligevirgorosas.” He swept his arm in an arc around my suite. Instantly, the ceiling rained glitter and rose petals. Soft, velvet ovals of ivory, lavender, red, yellow and pink, fluttered and floated amongst a sparkling shimmer.
As Samuel spoke his magic again and conducted the rhythmic dance of roses, I leapt from the sofa and plucked them out of the air. It was like living within a snow globe of joy. It was pure and light.
I danced and twirled, free of worry and able to breathe easy for the first time in ages. The next time I twirled past Samuel, I raised to my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Such fun. Gratitude, Samuel—”
“Lia!” Galan’s bellow echoed off the walls.
I spun toward the door. The petals and glitter vanished as quickly as they had appeared.
“Have you lost your senses?”
“I, uh . . . no.” I hurried to meet my brother as he strode toward us. “Fash not, Galan. We were merely celebrating the return of Samuel’s eyesight. He awoke just moments ago and can see well enough to do his magic.”
Galan’s glare slapped me with the force of a blow. “What do you mean he woke moments ago? Here? He spent the evening here in your suite?”
“He did, but—”
I grabbed for the suede of Galan’s vest as he blew past. A bull in a rage, he lunged, struck Samuel’s jaw and locked his fingers around his throat. My suite erupted in a blur of fists and fury, the pent-up animosity of nearly a year detonating.
Samuel thrashed, grabbing Galan’s hair with one hand while pounding his face with the other. The two of them tumbled backward in a flurry of oaths. The coffee table stood no chance of survival as they landed full-bodied on its surface. With a mighty crack, it gave way to their weight and they lay in a heap of splintered wood.
“Stop this!” I yelled. “Please, stop.”
Samuel’s face had flushed as red as elderberry wine. He grabbed a chunk of the walnut table and struck Galan a sharp blow to the head. Blood sprayed across the rug and stained the silver of his hair.
“Galan, let go of his throat! Samuel cannot breathe.”
The two of them continued to fight and kick and grapple.
The second crack to Galan’s skull dazed him enough Samuel rolled to the side and gasped for air. Galan swiped blood from his eyes and tried to regain his hold. Samuel’s fists flew in a wave, striking again and again. A fluid stream of his strange accent filled the air.
“Whoa! Whoa!” Bruin raced through the open door, grabbed Galan with one hand and yanked him from the brawl. His other hand he held out to keep Samuel at a safe distance. Not that there was any danger. The male was still on hands and knees, gasping for breath.
“Well, this is fun,” Bruin said, glancing between them. “And I love a grand-ole donnybrook as much as the next bastard, but I think we’ll call it a draw for today. Did either of you meatheads consider what this living room romp will do to my sister? Shit boys, Jade’s supposed to be avoiding stress. How do you think she’s going to react when Galan saunters up to her looking like he’s been Freddie-fucking-Kruegered?”
Samuel crawled to the sofa, coughing in spurts, dragging wheezing breaths into his lungs.
“Anyone want to tell me what this is about?” Bruin looked from Samuel to my brother and back again. “No rush. I can play this game all morning.”
Galan used the back of his hand to swipe at the unceasing blood trickling down his face. The scarlet stain bloomed from his scalp, transforming the lengths of his matted silver hair to the same deep red as his bridal braid. As macabre as it looked, it accented the purple mass swelling over his left eye.
Galan’s gaze met mine. “Samuel took liberties with Lia.”
Bruin turned to Samuel. “You can’t be that fucking stupid, can you?”
I gasped. “He absolutely was not. Not stupid and not taking liberties. Castian set him unconscious on my sofa for the night after Abaddon attacked us. He only woke minutes ago and discovered his vision was partially restored.”
Samuel stood on unsteady legs and started another bout of coughing. His face flushed brilliant pink as he rubbed the finger marks on his throat.
Bruin smiled. “All right, Merlin. Congrats my man.”
“Samuel took no liberties,” I repeated, my fists clenched. “I kissed him on the cheek in congratulations. Galan insanely overreacted.”
“Overreacted? You invite a male—a male who you know I despise—to sleep in your chamber for the evening and instead of asking him to leave the moment he awakens you show him affection?”
“Castian placed him here. It was not a planned event.”
Samuel laughed. “So much for your heartfelt speech about owing me a debt of honor for rescuing your sister. That didn’t last long, did it, Elf?”
“Only as long as it took for you to besmirch my sister.”
I gripped the layers of my skirt. For the first time in my life, I fought the urge to strike my brother. “How dare you say such a thing? I did naught to deserve disapproval. Abaddon came for me while you were off tending to your other family. Samuel defended me and was struck down because of it.”
“Defended you, did he? Are you so daft you cannot tell when a male is manipulating you?” He raised his finger and pointed over my shoulder. “That Ud ‘Raan wants nothing more than for me to die a hideous death so he can bed my wife. If you think his overture of defending you is genuine, the Scourge addled you more than I feared.”
The air in my lungs solidified. “Addled? For the simple sake that I kissed a male on the cheek? I have kissed Aust and Tham and a dozen males without you acting like a barbarian. And what of your sexual indiscretions, brother-mine? For decades, you pleasured the women of our village, trysts in the grotto, late nights in the forest. Did you think me so addled then that I did not notice simply because you entertained outside our home?”
Galan’s shoulders drew tight and his gaze narrowed on me. “That was different. I was of the appropriate age . . .”
“As am I. My sixth-decade birthing day has come and gone. My time of courting is upon me and if I wish to kiss ten gentlemales on the cheek I am within my rights to do so.”
“That wizard is no gentlemale. If you give him heed, he shall have you on your back and be pressed between your thighs in—”
The slap across his face was hard and fast. My palm and heart both stung from the impact. I pointed to the door, my fingers trembling and my knees about to buckle. “Get out of my suite. If this is how you wish to speak to me, I want you out of my sight before I say the hurtful things on my tongue.”
“You cannot—”
“Get out!”
“This is my marital home, Lia. I am the male of the manse. You cannot order me—”
“Fine, I shall leave.” I grabbed my jacket and scarf from the chair and raised a trembling finger into the air between us. “Know this, brother-mine, I worried and prayed for Jade and the young. I missed you, shouldering more heartbreak and loneliness than I thought I could bear. And when evil threatened me and I needed your support most, you failed me. I know not this male standing before me, but he broke something precious between us today.”
Galan paled, looking stricken. “Lia stop. Apologies. I—”
I shook my head pivoting for the door. “Your apologies mean naught to me. Go be with your mate, Galan. Go be with your family.”
“Stop! Where are you going?”
“Anywhere away from you.”