Breathless Magic

Breathless Magic

The Star-Crossed Series

Book 6.5

By Rachel Higginson

Copyright@
Rachel Higginson 2014

This
publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other
applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are
reserved, including resale rights: you are not allowed to give, copy, scan,
distribute or sell this book to anyone else.

Any
trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be
the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There
is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.

Any
people or places are strictly fictional and not based on anything else,
fictional or non-fictional.

Other
Books
Out
Now by Rachel Higginson

Love
and Decay, Episode One

Love
and Decay, Episode Two

Love
and Decay, Episode Three

Love
and Decay, Episode Four

Love
and Decay, Episode Five

Love
and Decay, Episode Six

Love
and Decay, Episode Seven

Love
and Decay, Episode Eight

Love
and Decay, Episode Nine

Love
and Decay, Episode Ten

Love
and Decay, Episode Eleven

Love
and Decay, Episode Twelve

Love
and Decay, Volume One (Episodes One-Six)

Love
and Decay, Volume Two (Episodes Seven-Twelve)

Love
and Decay, Episode One, Season Two

Reckless
Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 1)

Hopeless
Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 2)

Fearless
Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 3)

Endless
Magic (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 4)

The
Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 5)

The
Relentless Warrior (The Star-Crossed Series, Book 6)

Starbright
(The
Starbright
Series, Book 1)

Sunburst
(The
Starbright
Series, Book2)

The
Rush (The Siren Series, Book 1)

Bet
in the Dark (An NA Contemporary Romance)

Striking
(The Forged in Fire Series) a co-authored Contemporary NA

To Eden
and
Kiran
,

My favorite couple of all time.

You’re
real to me.

Chapter One

“Aren’t you dizzy?” my good friend Seraphina asked from
across the room. Her model-long limbs were draped over a plush, velvet ottoman
that was older than me- much older. She twirled her shiny blonde hair on the
tip of one of her fingers and her beautifully angelic face did a fantastic job
of masking the sharp pain I knew was hidden underneath her happy façade.

Seraphina was broken and hurting and that was why I’d asked
her to stay with me at the Castle.

But right now she was bothering the bejeezus out of me.

“I’m not dizzy,” I told her snappishly. “I’m
worried
. I have a lot to be worried
about.”

She sighed, sounding utterly exhausted with me. “Eden,
pacing the length of the room for hours at a time is not going to bring Lilly
back. It’s not going to wake up that human. And it’s really not going to make
your husband happy.”

I glared at her. “I don’t want to make my husband happy.
He’s the reason that pacing is the only activity I haven’t been banned from!
He’s the reason I’m stuck in this stupid Citadel to begin with instead of out
there!” I waved a wild arm and pointed out a random window that I was pretty
sure did not point in any direction I wanted to go. “I should be on a mission
right now! I should be actively searching for Lilly! Or at the very least I
should be allowed to try to take Ophelia’s Magic before it bonds with her
blood.”

Seraphina rolled her ice-blue eyes and released another
exasperated sigh. “First, my lovely Queen, if you take her Magic now, she could
very well die. The Magic might be the only thing keeping her alive. Second, she
might be nothing like her sister. She might realize exactly how wonderful Magic
is. She might be normal.”

“Olivia’s normal!” I defended the girl I hardly knew at all.
Seraphina pinned me with a look until I finally relented. “Alright, she’s not
exactly… normal. But she’s sweet.” I laughed before I could stop myself. “Fine,
she’s not exactly
sweet
either.”

“What you are trying to say,” Seraphina corrected me with
the tone of someone who knew everything. “Is that she’s good for Jericho.”

“Well, she
is
good
for Jericho.”

“As long as she stays Immortal,” Seraphina said quietly. It
was the first time in a long time I’d heard her drop her usual guard of
perfected elitism and sound unsure.

“I’m not sure she has a choice about that,” I agreed in that
same anxious tone. Olivia and Jericho were clearly in love. Well, maybe not in
love yet… but very close to it. I had never seen him look at a girl like that-
not even me. And the way he protected her, as if he could shield her from every
terrible thing left in this world just by keeping her close, was something new
with him, too.

He had never behaved towards me with that same defending
assertiveness. It was one of the reasons I’d been so drawn to him. He let me
have absolute freedom without once trying to hold me back in a time when all my
freedom had been restricted. But that was him, he didn’t try to control, or
possess. He was very much partnership-oriented.

Not that I was jealous now, but I was a bit astounded. It
had been so long since we were together… and he was single this whole time. I
worried about him a lot. We were friends. We would always be friends. And I
just wanted to see him happy and settled.

Seraphina stood up and followed the same path I’d been pacing.
The huge, carved fireplace in the center of Kiran and my apartment had become
somewhat of a walking track for me lately. “I just hope she doesn’t get bitter
about it, you know? They deserve a real shot at happiness.”

“That’s very sentimental of you.”

“It’s not like I hate
all
love,” she laughed humorlessly.

“Sera…”

“Stop, E.” She spun around and hit me with the full force of
her intimidating gaze. “We are supposed to have soul mates. That’s supposed to
be our thing. Only, I don’t have a
soul
mate
. I have a string of
douchy
ex-boyfriends.”

“Hey!” I tried to stick up for my husband but she continued
on, ignoring me.

“And so fine, I’m a little bit of a vicious shrew right now;
but that doesn’t mean I don’t think other people deserve to find happiness.”

“That’s very benevolent of you,” I grinned at her. I knew
she would find happiness. I even knew she’d already found her soul mate. They
were just stubborn as hell, and
loved
to hate each other. It turned them both on in this really gross way that I
never wanted to think about.

“I can be benevolent,” she huffed.

The door opened then and Kiran stepped inside our west-tower
apartment that took up the entire wing. He glanced impatiently between
Seraphina and me; the frown that drew his eyebrows together deepened. He
stalked toward me in all his dominating, I-run-this-Kingdom, ocean-blue-eyed
glory and I practically melted into a puddle at his feet.

It wasn’t fair that he was so breathtakingly gorgeous, or
that I could feel his charged, anticipating Magic like it ran through my own
blood. Just by being in the same room as him, feeling his presence as it sunk
into every pore and vein in my body, made my knees wobble together and heart
pick up speed with my own secret expectations.

I was supposed to be mad at him.

“Out, Seraphina,” he growled at my guest. “I need my wife.”

She all but choked on her laughter, but disappeared quickly.
Although I heard her mumble under her breath on the way out, “See?
Douchy
.”

I suppressed a smile because he was, in fact, being a little
douchy
and stepped away from the man I made eternal
vows to.

“I thought you had a meeting.” I narrowed my eyes on him
when he started unbuttoning his gray oxford.

“I canceled it.” His words were clipped and short, his eyes
hungry and his body taut with repressed tension.

My stomach flipped.

We’d been married for years now and I had to wonder when he
would stop doing this to me. When would the butterflies stop? The consuming
desperation to touch him, love him… be with him?

He could as easily infuriate me as he could melt my bones
and start a fire so hot I thought I would burn forever in the blazing inferno
that was solely him.

I loved him with a fierceness that was so complicated at
times I knew I’d never understand it; but then I would realize how simple this
was, how natural it was to love him, how easy it was to fall into this devotion
and never leave it. Maybe our love was multifaceted and deeper than oceans, but
it was the simplest thing to feel, to know and to be.

Still, I had a point to make.

Right?

“The Witch will be angry,” I told him. My back was to the
cold, stone wall by now, my fingers pressing into the gritty rock desperate to
find some secret passageway I’d somehow missed over the years.

“The Witch can burn,” he grunted.

And then he was in front of me, his hands hot and possessive
on my hips. I could feel the heat of him through my silk blouse, the Magic that
vibrated and hummed in his blood just below the surface of his golden skin. Our
Magic lit with a thousand colors in the room around us and I felt my own body
thrum to life with the nearness of my husband.

But I couldn’t let him see me fidget. “That’s not very
nice.”

His telltale smirk twisted his lips and he leaned in so that
he was just a breath away from my mouth. “You’re right. It’s not. But then
again,
I’m
not very nice.”

I opened my mouth to argue with him and the bastard took
full advantage. His mouth crashed to mine in a worshipful reverence that made
me whimper. His tongue invaded my mouth with a sweetness that belied his rough
grip on my hips.

We’d done this enough by now that our kisses had become
somewhat of a routine. Our mouths moved in practiced tandem that was
comfortable but still sexy, familiar but infinitely successful in making us
desperate for more.

There were beautiful, exciting moments in the first parts of
love: the butterflies, the tingles, the newness of every touch and feeling. But
the depth and intimate knowledge that came with being together for years was
something I would never give up or trade for anything.

The beginning was hard for us, even after we were together.
Our new relationship was plagued with insecurity, mistrust and only the shaky
promise of a future. Throughout our short marriage I could see how easily this
ache could die out instead of intensify. The comfortable familiar wasn’t always
sensual or exciting; sometimes it could fall blah and forgettable. But we
tried. We actively made an effort to let this routine push us into something
smoking hot and passionate.
 
Each touch
was a promise for something more intimate, each kiss a reminder of flames that
could be so quickly stoked.

And because we let this craving for each other deepen and
intensify every day we were together, every minute we let ourselves give into
it… I knew we would be alright in ten years, in one hundred years. In one thousand
years. And every day after that.

Kiran broke from my mouth to trail wet, scorching kisses
down my throat and across my collar bone. His fingers nimbly began unbuttoning my
shirt, pushing it roughly away before the top buttons were undone. They popped
off easily as he tore the blouse from my arms.

“Kiran!” I gasped.

“I’ve felt your irritation all morning.” His words were a
gruff rasp on my tingling skin. “I know you’re angry with me. I know you’re
upset that I don’t want you involved with the missions, or healing dangerous Magic;
but you have to know it’s because
I love
you
, more than myself, more than anything on this Earth.”

“I know that,” I whispered, surprised by how moved I
always
was by his eternal promises that
never wavered.

He continued, “While you grow my children in this body that
belongs to me, there is a lot that you cannot do.” He emphasized his words by
splaying his hands across my growing belly. They stretched over my swelling
stomach, branding my body like he claimed- as his. My heart kicked into
overdrive and all feminist thoughts of equal rights and girl-power flew out the
window. I had this thing for when he talked to me like this… with that accent…
um,
yum
. I could not help it. And I
for sure couldn’t resist him. His voice softened just enough and became more
teasing, “While you may not be able to chase down bad guys, there are still
plenty of activities I will allow.”

And then he set off to show me exactly which activities he
meant.

However, we were more than just a married couple in love… we
were rulers of a Kingdom at war.

Not five minutes later, whilst Kiran had me with my legs
wrapped around his waist on the way to our massive bed in the middle of our
massive bedroom, there was a knock on the door.

“Let’s ignore it,” he mumbled into my mouth.

I nodded because I was incapable of coherent speech at this
point.

“You’re Highness,” the Guard called through the heavy door.
“Sebastian has returned. You’re needed in the Throne Room at once.”

Kiran let out a defeated sigh and I slid down his hardened
body.

“I’ll go see what this is about.” He let his hands glide
down my side with wistful reverence and then pressed the sweetest kiss to my
forehead.

Sometimes those light, loving kisses could bring about just
as many butterflies as the charged, passionate ones.

I ducked into our bedroom and dug a new shirt out of the
closet. Not paying attention to the color or style, I slipped it over my head
and followed Kiran to the doorway. Maybe Sebastian had returned with news of
Lilly.

“The priest and the Shape-Shifter,” the Guard was saying
when I joined Kiran in the front room.

Kiran stumbled, letting his back smack into the door behind
him. “Gabriel and Silas,” he rasped out.

“Sebastian brought back all that remains,” the Guard
finished. His dark brown eyes flickered to me with sympathy and his own grief.

“What?” I asked dumbly. I couldn’t think of any other word.
I couldn’t get any other sound out of my mouth.
All that remains?
What could that mean?

How horrific was their
death
?
 

Kiran grabbed out for my wrist and yanked me to him. I fell
easily into the warmth and safety of his body. I was too shocked to cry, too
stunned to feel the building anguish yet. Those men… they were more than
mentors, more than friends. They had become family over the years and
represented such a poignant period in my life where they were not only guides
to the uncertain journey of rebuilding the Resistance, but pillars of strength
and stability.

Without those men to point me in the right direction, I
would have been lost. Without those men to stand by my side and unite the
Kingdom with me, I would have fallen before I even began.

Without those men to encourage me when there was no hope, or
push me when I wanted to stop, or remind me why I fought for justice, peace and
equality, Lucan would still rule, my brother would still be in captivity or
dead and the rest of the Kingdom… the rest of what
could have
happened was even more unthinkable than I could imagine.

“We’ll be there in a moment,” Kiran told the Guard.

I heard his polished boots click down the hallway with his
retreat, but my eyes were shut tight and the shock I felt moments before had
begun to turn into heart-wrenching pain.

And then it hit me all at once.

With a gasping sob, a dam released from behind my eyelids
and tears poured onto Kiran’s chest. He clutched me against him with all his
strength and I felt his entire body heave and shudder as his own emotion surged
with mine.