Beyond taking his falcon form and working over his forge, Tavin hadn’t used much magic since his self-imposed exile. He marveled at Sorcha’s power; it slammed into his, scouting out deficiencies and filling them. Combined magics were always strongest, and between the two of them, they covered witch, Druid, and demon power.

He’d only meant for tonight to be experimental, a bare beginning, but once they began, he was caught up in her enthusiasm—and his own.

“Let’s try that borderworld transit once more,” she said, pushing hair back from her sweaty forehead.

“Aye, ’twas a wee bit on the rocky side,” he agreed.

“Only on account of you were worried we’d end up on one of the demon-controlled worlds by accident.”

He nodded. “’Twas a fifty-fifty proposition, lass. What do ye say we bring blades this time?”

She grinned. It lightened her features and made her look young and carefree. She might still be on the youngish side as magic-wielders went, but she’d never been carefree. His heart had gone out to her when she’d told him bits and pieces of her past, but he knew better than to cluck over her or offer sympathy. She was proud, and she’d reject anything that looked like him feeling sorry for her.

“So long as I can bring the one I used in John O’Groats,” she replied.

“Ye liked that one, eh?”

“It fit my hand perfectly, and it had enough heft to create a good swing.”

“Done. It’s in the car. I can run up and get that one plus another for me.”

Sorcha tossed her discarded vest over her shoulders. “Waste of time. Let’s teleport outside, grab the weapons, and we can leave from there.”

The words were no sooner out of her mouth than he felt the bite of her power snatching him. One moment, they were in Sean’s workshop. The next, they stood next to his ancient Renault. He opened the hatch and moved aside while she rooted through the pile of craft-honed steel. Once she’d extracted the longsword and its belt and sheath, he hunted for a heavier blade.

“Why not bring one like mine?” she asked, casting her gaze over the one he’d selected.

“This way, we’ll have a choice.” A corner of his mouth twitched downward. “I can cut off two heads in a single swipe with this one.”

“Are you truly thinking we’ll have to fight our way out of something?” She raised a blonde brow. “I’ve ended up on a few borderworlds. Most have been empty.”

“And the others?”

“Demons, but at that point they recognized me as one of them.”

“Maybe they still would,” he ventured.

“Not a chance. The word’s gone out long since that I defected. Hell doesn’t tolerate traitors. Or much of anyone else, truth be told. Are you ready?”

He slammed the hatch to make sure the latch engaged. He was more than ready, but it was because combining their magic was heady, intoxicating. He’d started to talk with her about how unusual everything about their joined power was but had held back.

At first, he’d thought it might be a fluke, but as their magics warmed to one another, enchantments became easier and stronger. They’d built spells from all the elements, varying the amounts to check how it impacted the results. A quick teleport into Inverness had provided humans to doublecheck invisibility spells and telekinesis and the effects of mind control.

Sorcha had stopped a fight between four drunken band members. By the time she was done, they were slapping one another on the back and exchanging apologies.

He’d moved groceries from a storage shed behind a supermarket to a homeless shelter. The grocery chain would never miss the few crates, and the shelter would make good use of the unexpected bounty when they located it the following morning.

“Tavin?” She tapped his arm.

“Sorry. Got distracted. Some of my magic may be a wee bit on the rusty side from disuse, but I’ve never seen the like of what you and I create together. Not only that, ’tis effortless. I don’t have to reach for results. They just happen, exactly as we visualize them.”

She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “While I agree it’s easier when we work together, I’m not used to my spells failing.” She smirked. “Of course, I mostly call on magic when I’m running away from someone who wants to hurt me. Means I’m motivated to make things happen right on the first try.”

“Why not stand and fight? Your ability outshines almost everything I’ve come across.”

She looked away, perhaps uncomfortable with his compliment. “If something were truly important, I would have. But I’ve never been attached to anywhere I’ve lived. Probably because I’ve come to expect I’d be leaving sooner or later.”

“You went back through the liminal boundary hunting for me.”

Her expression turned solemn. “That was truly important. I couldn’t walk away and leave you there. My bird would have found its own way out. That it remained absent told me you had to be in trouble, and it was watching over you.”

He was touched beyond words by her concern. He started to thank her, but he already had several times over. The temptation to draw her into his arms was close to overwhelming, but she’d scuttled away from him every time he’d touched her. Something had altered from when she’d snuggled into his arms in the car.

Had his refusal angered her? Made her determined to maintain distance between them?

“We should go.” His tone was brusque to mask his attraction and his need.

She turned her penetrating aquamarine gaze on him, her features shuttered and unreadable. “I’ll start the spell.”

“Less fire than last time.”

“You sound like Gloria, though I’ll admit an hour with her was worthwhile.”

The air developed the incandescent glow typical of Sorcha’s enchantments. Burnished copper flowed into lighter shades, and the scent of her power permeated everything. Vanilla. Wildflowers. Herbs. Each time, the mix was a little different, but he’d know that smell waking from a dead-to-the-world sleep.

“Planning on helping?”

Her question broke through, and he understood he’d been lost in staring at her and breathing in the scent of her power. He slid the sword belt beneath his jacket and buckled it into place. Enchantment flowed from the earth beneath his feet, and he fed it into her casting.

Sean’s courtyard faded, and they floated in the dark, airless void between worlds. This part was a lot like time travel.

“How far should we go?” she asked, using telepathy because it was damned difficult to converse when you couldn’t breathe.

“Your choice.”

She threaded her fingers with his to strengthen their connection. Regardless of her rationale, he loved the touch of her skin against his. Maybe he’d been a fool to turn her loose earlier, but he meant what he’d said. She was different, special. He didn’t want just a tumble in the hay. He craved far more than that.

Power surged through him, linking him with Sorcha. It formed an infinite loop, glowing brighter every revolution until he was surprised he didn’t burst into motes of brilliance scattered through the universe.

Worlds flashed by, giving him a peek at their contents. It was how he’d selected the last one. He’d waited for one without a trace of life on it—to be certain they wouldn’t roll out into a band of hostile demons. Not that they were the only evil scattered about. Trolls, giants, Furies, Sirens, Harpies, Medusa, the Minotaur, and odd combinations like griffons, kelpies, and hydras could all be found on various borderworlds.

Long ago he’d picked what he thought was a deserted world to get away from his Druid kin for a while. The Minotaur had come out of nowhere, intent on his destruction. Tavin had barely made it out of there. Nowhere to hide, and the Minotaur was unbelievably fast for its bulk. Smart too and skilled in strategy.

“Here,” Sorcha announced.

Their spell dissipated, and a mysterious world came into focus, stretching around them. Three moons were transiting a deep-violet sky, providing plenty of light to see by. A pale, icy ocean licked glowing reddish sand. Mountains ringed their side of the beach. Trees with white bark and orange foliage grew in groves, their leaves rustling in a brisk breeze.

Sorcha turned in a full circle, taking it all in. “This is surreal.”

“It is, indeed. And cold.” He still had hold of her hand while he paid out a thin thread of magic, hunting for anything alive.

“I scanned before I picked this world,” she said. “I’m fairly certain it’s deserted.”

Tavin almost withdrew his magic, but he wanted to verify her assessment.

Sorcha laughed and drew a circle in the wet sand with the toe of her boot. “What? After all that hype about how powerful my magic is, you don’t trust me?”

“Don’t take it personally, lass. I scarcely trust myself. Humor me. Take a look in that stand of trees. The one to our left.”

“I tell you, there’s nothing there. I’ll prove it.” Sorcha took off running toward the grove, the saber rattling against her legs.

Tavin raced after her. “Sorcha! Don’t be stupid.”

She was quick, but he was faster, courtesy of his long legs and being a man. He caught up to her a few feet from the first tree. The leaves were rattling far harder than they had been, though the wind hadn’t changed. He didn’t try for elegant. He jumped on her and drove her to the ground.

She writhed beneath him, hissing in annoyance. “Christ! What is this? A soccer match?”

“Use your head, wench. We’ve never been here before.”

He lay full length on top of her, and the motion of her body as she tried to free herself was doing wicked things to him. His cock sprang to a full-blown erection and pressed into her bottom. She must have felt it because the sounds coming from her changed from annoyance to soft moans.

Embarrassment sparred with arousal. He loosened his grip, intent on rolling off her and apologizing, but she twisted beneath him until she lay next to him. Her mouth was full and soft and enticing, and she twined her arms around his neck just before she kissed him.

The sabers jangled against each other but weren’t in the way. For the same reasons she shouldn’t have run off half-cocked, they shouldn’t do anything that diverted their attention from the borderworld. With warnings tolling deep in his mind, he kissed her back anyway.

The luxury of feeling all of her against him overpowered common sense. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as he plunged his tongue into her mouth. She tasted of magic, sweet and heady. The kiss began at 110 percent and took off from there. The points of her nipples jammed into his chest, and she captured one of his legs between hers, pressing the heat of her core against him.

His hips settled into a rhythm, thrusting against her belly. He was so hard, his cock ached, and his breath came in harsh gasps against her mouth. If he didn’t watch it, he’d orgasm in his pants. He had to slow things down. Get them home, back to Sean’s where they’d have a bed.

The borderworld had been cold when they arrived, but frost had gathered on them while they grappled with one another. The trees were making an absolute cacophony of noise, like nothing he’d ever run across before.

Tavin ripped his mouth from hers, arousal fading fast.

She gazed at him, heat lust warm in her eyes. “What? We need to take some clothes off, yes?”

“Sorcha. Something’s not right here.”

“Silly. They couldn’t be righter.” She tried to draw him into another kiss.

“Look.” He shook bullets of frost off his sleeve. “We’ll freeze if we stay much longer.”

The desire in her eyes turned to confusion. He untangled his arms from around her and sat up. Thick, gray clouds had rolled in, and it was so cold he began to shiver. Orange leaves had blown off the trees and formed an unbroken circle around them. He didn’t understand exactly what it was, but he recognized evil intent.

“Get up carefully,” he instructed. “Do not step on those leaves.”

Sorcha nodded and flowed to her feet. He joined her. The leaves intuited their intent, and the circle moved inward. “What happens if they touch us?” Sorcha asked.

“I doona wish to find out.” He started toward the rustling orange boundary, intent on jumping over it, but it changed shape, became an undulating orange viper with hundreds of eyes peppered across multiple heads.

Tavin drew his blade. He heard the swish of metal against leather as Sorcha drew hers. “Whatever this is, if it can change shape, it can regenerate itself,” he said, looking for a break in the thing’s body. Anywhere his blade would buy their freedom.

“If it can, then it’s driven by something else. Maybe someone’s hidden in the trees, or maybe something a long way from here has hold of the puppet strings.”

He didn’t question her assessment. He swiped the blade downward in a lethal arc. Three of the viper’s heads rolled off, spewing gray-and-green ichor that smoked when it contacted the layer of thick frost coating the ground. The wound sealed over fast; new heads began to form.

“Didn’t faze it,” Sorcha muttered. She leapt in place. The viper rose to match her height. “Mmph. Didn’t think it would be as simple as jumping over it.”

Tavin looked at his blade. Where it had connected with the viper, the metal was bubbling, melting before his eyes. He wiped the sword against the ground, but it didn’t slow things down.

“Either sheathe it or leave it here,” Sorcha said.

Tavin didn’t want to risk sheathing it. If the viper’s blood was enough to make a steel blade decompose, his leather sheath had no chance at all. He laid the blade on the ground and extended his hands. Sorcha grasped them.

“Our best way out is teleporting, but it won’t be easy,” he cautioned. “Borderworlds have a hell of a pull when they don’t want you to leave.”

“Got it,” she said, sounding calmer than she probably was. “We run wide open and don’t stop until we’re free.”

“That’s my lass.” He didn’t have to add that if they didn’t leave this place, and damned soon, they’d be dead.

There was nothing graceful or elegant about what came next. Sorcha slammed her magic into him, and he herded it into the strongest spell he could muster. He didn’t bother visualizing Sean’s. That part could come later. His only target was away from this borderworld.

“Hurry,” Sorcha urged, sounding far less sanguine than she had a moment before.

The totality of his attention was on their spell. He couldn’t spare any to look at the orange monstrosity or ask Sorcha why she’d urged him to move faster. The viper could have turned into a dragon for all he knew. Fire would be a welcome addition to this bizarre world. Anything to cut the infernal cold. It was sapping him, but he ignored it.

Heat from Sorcha’s hands seeped into him, almost as if she intuited what he needed. He waited, letting the spell build. The moment it peaked, he ignited it. The borderworld shimmered but didn’t vanish.

“More,” Sorcha shrieked.

Energy pulsed into him. He latched onto it and gave the spell one more huge boot in the ass. This time, an outraged howl scored his eardrums. The viper closed around them. Wherever it touched him, it burned with an icy heat that tried to cleave flesh from bone even through his clothes.

He pushed harder than he ever had. Dug deeper. Opened magical channels he had no idea he even possessed. Finally, the borderworld exploded, leaving them floating in the airless void between worlds.

He and Sorcha were locked in each other’s arms, their bodies still alight from the magic they’d summoned to escape. Both of them were panting in short, harsh gasps.

“We did it.” She tilted her head and looked at him, her expression feral and defiant.

“By the skin of our teeth, lass.” He panted harder. “No air here. I’ll get us to Sean’s.” he finished in telepathy.

He summoned a visual of Sean’s castle, but had a tough time hanging onto it. Sorcha helped. When his mental image wavered, she overlaid her own. It took far longer than their outward journey, but they finally fell out of the ether between worlds.

He had no magic left to cushion their fall, so he shielded her with his body. They landed with a heavy thud between the castle and the carriage house. “Are ye all right, lassie.”

“Of course. You’re who fell on your back in the dirt,” she retorted. “I should be asking if you’re hurt.”

“I’m not. Aside from the spots where that horror touched me. The wounds are deep, but they’ll heal. On the plus side, we have material aplenty for that report Arlen requested.” He let go of her and rolled to a sit. Standing would come once he got his wind back.

She rose to a crouch. “I’m sorry. Running off like that was stupid. You called it. I was showing off, and it was a really bad place for me to do that.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand what got into me, but I nearly got both of us killed.”

He started to tell her it was all right, but it wasn’t. Not really. Instead, he angled his head until he captured her gaze with his own. “’Tis a good thing ye realize it,” he said in Gaelic. “We’ve all used our magic for ill-advised stunts. ’Tis how we learn wisdom.”

She rolled her eyes. “What did you ever do to rival that?”

He snorted laughter. “Landed on the borderworld where the Minotaur lives. ’Twas just as close a call, but the Minotaur is smarter than that orange thing. Faster too.”

“Pfft. You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

He shook his head. “Truth. Cast a spell if ye doona believe me.”

The tight set of her shoulders relaxed. “I guess you’re right. We learn by making mistakes.” She stumbled upright and extended a hand. He grasped it and joined her.

“We can leave your blade in the Renault.”

Nodding, she let go of him and unbuckled the belt holding it in place. “Too bad about yours.”

“I can make another. I’ll vary the magic for the next one. Perhaps ’twill be stronger.” He detoured past the car and dropped both belts and her longsword across the folded-down rear seat.

Somehow, her fingers ended up laced with his. Together, they walked slowly inside.

He should let go of her, bid her a good evening. What was left of it anyway, but he couldn’t get the words out. He didn’t want to leave her side. They were at the bottom of the main staircase when he let go of her hand and turned her to face him, hands atop her shoulders.

“I—” His throat wouldn’t cooperate, so he started over, feeling like he was fifteen and asking a girl out for the first time. Except this was ever so much more than that. “Lass, I—”

She threw her arms around him. “After all the magic that’s passed between us, we don’t need words,” she murmured just before she rose on tiptoe and crushed her mouth over his.