Cherry Adair - T-flac 09 (44 page)

“You’re sure Bean didn’t—”

“I’m just discovering that the baby
has
powers, but I’m pretty sure
that
wasn’t one of them. I think I need to sit down.”

“Yeah.” He gave her a worried glance as he herded her toward her single bed. “Good plan. Need something to drink?”

She shook her head as she sat on the edge of the mattress.

Caleb sat down beside her, keeping three feet between them. Maybe she needed to lie down. Be held.

Comforted. That had been pretty damned scary. And he was familiar with magic.

“I think—No. Never mind. That’s crazy.”

“You have a theory?” Despite what had just happened,
whatever
the hell that was, he didn’t want to talk about magic. Not now. But the alternative was to say good-bye and walk away. “Let’s hear it.”

“It’s way out there,” she warned. The glow from the bracelet illuminated her cheek as she scooped her flyaway hair up off her neck and twisted it into a knot. He loved her neck, especially the sensitive spot just below her ear. He wanted to kiss her there. Just lean over and press his mouth against the soft fragrant spot right—there.

She looked so sweet, so damned adorably sweet and sincere, Caleb’s heart squeezed. He imagined kissing away the twin lines between her brows. Damn it, he wanted to do a number of things that would start up the entire conversation that had already swirled around the drain. “Try me.”

“You told me that Magnus gave Nairne three pieces of jewelry as engagement gifts, right?”

What did the
Curse
have to do with what had just happened? Other than every Edge wife croaking for five hundred fucking years to prove the Curse was powerful and in effect, there’d been no magical clues
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to how to break it that he knew of. He doubted the flashy show a minute ago was it.

“Well, yeah, but, sweetheart—
that
had nothing to do with the Curse.”
No matter how badly we’d both
like to believe it could be.
The thought, however, was intriguing.

Oh, shit,the “sweetheart” had slipped out. She didn’t appear to have noticed. She bent her knees up on the bed to fully face him. He could feel the heat of her jean-clad legs almost touching his hip. Cheeks flushed pink, she was practically vibrating with excitement. She touched her fingertips to the gleaming circlet. “I’m positive the baby had nothing to do with what just happened. Aren’t you?”

He wasn’t positive at all. He had no idea what powers his son had in vitro. “I suppose so.”

“I
know
so. Wasn’t you, right? Wasn’t me. Who else
is
there? The ghost of Flood Street? ‘When you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’” Her voice gathered speed as she talked, and he couldn’t take his attention off her mouth. “I think that bracelet, the bracelet my mother found in the Paris flea market, and had engraved, was one of the three pieces of jewelry that Nairne rec—Caleb?! Are you even listening?”

Not so much. All he had to do was shift slightly and he could take her down. Flat on her back. He’d be right where he longed to be. A little kiss wouldn’t hurt…

She punched him in the arm. “Talking here.”

“I’m hanging on your every word,” he assured her. He liked when she said “S” words the best. Loved the way her pink lips puckered…

“Your great-great-whatever-grandfather gave her three pieces of jewelry as an engagement present, right? And when he broke it off with her she threw them back at him and cursed him. I honest to God think that the bracelet was one of those pieces.”

Had she moved closer?

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He was too stunned to move out of her way. And God only knew, he didn’t
want
to. She reached up and traced his cheek with her finger, her beautiful eyes alive with love and anticipation.

She was buying that the Curse had just been broken.
“‘Only freely given will this curse be done’
?”

It was practically tattooed on his synapses. His heart started knocking as hope slowly unfurled. “And?”

“The thing that had to be given freely,” she said softly, “was that bracelet. The other two pieces she threw back at Magnus must be for Gabriel and Duncan to receive to break the Curse forever.”

His heart leapt. Was it possible? After five
freaking
hundred years, was it
remotely
possible she was right? “Why
this
generation? Why us?” As skeptical as he was, Christ, he wanted to believe she was right.

That
finally,
at
last
Nairne’s Curse was broken…

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She was too close. Her nearness muddied his thinking, and made him
want.
He could smell the promise of her skin. Longing welled up inside Caleb in a tidal wave. With a groan he turned to her. Cupping her face, he tunneled his fingers through her hair. “I hope to hell you’re right,” he whispered against her mouth before he kissed her. And he only did that because not to kiss Heather now would have killed him stone dead.

Touching her tongue to his, she sighed, then tightened her arms around his neck. Caleb couldn’t help himself, he put his heart and soul into the kiss. It was like coming home.

But then he’d known it would be.

God help him, she’d better be right, because that one small ray of hope was enough for his brain to hold onto for dear life. Her dear life.

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He cupped the back of her head, his thumb stroking the soft, sensitive skin beneath her ear as he broke away from her.

This required a leap of faith.

He held her gaze. “I do love you,” he told her thickly, taking a verbal running jump across the dark chasm the Curse had set between them. “Love you with every fiber of my being. More than I ever imagined loving anyone. More than I could have dreamed, if I’d ever allowed myself to dream.” He closed the few inches between them and kissed her again, long, slow, and deep.

When Heather opened her eyes again it was to find herself quite naked, and on a bed the size of a small island hung with burgundy velvet drapes. Sunlight streamed through a high, arched window, flooding the opulent room with buttery light and gilding Caleb’s bare shoulders to gleaming bronze. He lay, head propped on his hand, watching her. Heather smiled, filled to the brim with happiness. “I’m guessing we’re not in Oz anymore?”

“Edridge Castle,” he admitted, sliding his hand over the gentle curve of her tummy. “I’d like my brothers to meet you. When we get around to getting out of bed. In about a week or three.”

“Hmm.” She wound her arms around his neck, pushing him onto his back, and sliding her body over his.

“It’s not going to be easy, you know.”

“Having to deal with two wizards?” he asked sympathetically, running his hands down her back.

Her smile felt as though it started at her toes and worked its way all the way through her body to curve her mouth.

“
Training
two wizards.”

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He nibbled her throat. “How long do you think that’ll take?”

“Bean and I are already negotiating terms. You’re a hard case. At
least
fifty years.”

He smiled as he kissed his way up her neck to her jaw. “With time added for good behavior?”

“And extra time for very, very bad behavior,” she whispered against his mouth. “We’d better get started—Bean? It’s time for your nap, sweetheart.”

Edge of Fearis a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Ballantine Books Mass Market Original

Copyright © 2006 by Cherry Adair

Excerpt for
Edge of Darkness
© 2006 by Cherry Adair
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All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BALLANTINEand colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book
Edge of Darkness.
This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

eISBN-13: 978-0-345-49349-1

eISBN-10: 0-345-49349-4

www.ballantinebooks.com

v1.0

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To Rhonda Pollero

For curses, Curses, and laughter.

With the magic of hindsight,

I agree.

I
do
owe you

all the muffins

and bagels in the land.

A special thanks to

Heather Wieker from Sea-Tac Airport.

See? I was quite serious.

And for David, with love

Duty o’er love was the choice you did make

My love you did spurn, my heart you did break

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Your penance to pay, no pride you shall gain

Three sons on three sons find nothing but pain

I gift you my powers in memory of me

The joy of love no son shall ever see

When a Lifemate is chosen by the heart of a son

No protection can be given, again I have won

His pain will be deep, her death will be swift,

Inside his heart a terrible rift

Only freely given will this curse be done

To break the spell, three must work as one

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Contents

Title Page

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Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-nine

Except of Edge of Fear

Preview for Edge of Darkness

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Don't be afraid...take yourself over the edge!

Copyright Page

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