mythean arcana 06 - master of fate (11 page)

Aurora glanced back up at the man in the carriage and raised an eyebrow. “Did you just say
pound some sense into me
?”

“Aye, if that’s what yer needin’.”

“Oh, I need plenty of things,” she said. Lightning struck in the distance and he wondered if it was from her. The rain came heavier, soaking his shirt. He could feel her magic in the air. Her hair waved faintly with it. She was eerie like this, but he liked it. He’d always liked her.

The man’s face slackened as he gazed at her.

“What year is it?” Aurora asked.

“Sixteen sixty-four.”

Felix heard her slight intake of breath. So close to the time when her mother had been killed and she’d begun her path to madness. Only three years after. Worse, it was still the height of the Burnings, when Mytheans had hunted soulceresses. 

“Lovely,” Aurora said. Darkness crept in on her mind. This was not one of her favorite years. Her mother was dead by now and she was insane with her stolen souls. “Do you live around here?”

“Aye. Just over the hill to the east I have a cottage.”

“A nice one?”

“Aye.” There was pride in his voice, despite his bovine expression. Her magic made him her slave, but it wasn’t hard to make him cooperate. There wasn’t much going on between his ears. “Finest in the village.”

“Anyone else live there with you?” she asked.

“Nay. Been trying to get my hands on the local widow, but she’ll have nothing to do with men. Too poor to be picky, but rebuffs me and all the lads in the village. But one more hard winter, and she’ll cave.”

What an arsehole. “And you’ll marry her?” 

“Nay, I’ll no’ have to.”

She made a disapproving noise. “Well, I wish I could say I approved of your modern sensibilities. I too think marriage can be overrated—particularly if it’s to you. But I somehow doubt you’re intending to respect the widow’s boundaries.”

He gazed at her stupidly.

“Of course. You can’t even conceive of a woman having boundaries.”

More stupid staring.

“I suppose your father was the most successful farmer around here, huh?”

“Aye.” Pride broke through the idiocy smeared all over his face. “Now I own the farm.”

“Oh, you idiot. That’s nothing to be proud of. Your privilege is smeared all over you. Your father gave you a position of power by handing over his farm and now you use that to stalk the local widow, who sounds like she just wants to be left alone. What? You’re going to lure her in with food and shelter?” She was on a roll now. 

“Aye?” He looked confused.

“I’ll tell you what,” Aurora said. “You’re going to go sleep in the woods tonight. It’s getting dark, so we’re going to use your cottage. Tomorrow, you’re going to deed your farm to the widow. Convince her it’s hers, free of charge. Don’t give up until she’s there. Make up a good lie. Whatever it takes. Then you’re going to go to Glasgow and make a living for yourself. Start from scratch, and make it honest.” She glanced at Mouse. Not only had she learned about feminism and classism in the twenty-first century, she’d learned about animal shelters. “Get a job that pays money and spend it on protecting stray animals. Cats and dogs. Even a rat or two, if you find one who will accept your help.”

She heard Felix’s snort of laughter behind her, but she was too incensed by this jerk and too pleased with her solution to pay much attention. It was frowned upon to work this kind of magic in the normal world. But they were in the past. The way she saw it, she was stuck in the in-between and there were no rules here. If this ever caught up with her, well, she’d done worse and survived, right? Compared to stealing hundreds of souls, this was nothing.

“All right.” The man spoke slowly, but she thought he got most of the message. 

She focused all her energy inward on the last of the power she’d taken from Felix. She gathered it up and focused it on what she’d told the man, focused all her attention on him, and said, “Do my will and know that it is your own. Grow the goodness that is in your heart.”

She forced the energy toward him as a ball of light. It zipped into him and his eyes lit. His expression brightened, determination to do good glowing on his face. Her will had become his. Better yet, he truly believed he was doing it because he wanted to be kind. She had a feeling that, with the expression he was wearing now, the widow would eventually believe him. 

He had a higher calling now. Not his god, but her. No one needed to know why he’d changed, just that he had. She funneled the last of her power to him to seal the spell.

Through clear eyes, she saw the man tip his head to her, flip the reins, then trot off down the road, headed for a forest in which to sleep. She sagged, her energy depleted. Less than a second later, the ground rushed up to meet her and the world faded.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Central Mexico

1661

“Keep your eyes closed,” Felix said. His hands covered Aurora’s eyes but she wouldn’t stay still.

“Hurry up! I want to see!”

This was the fifth ancient city he’d taken her to in the six months they’d known each other. When he’d learned how much she loved exploring ancient cities, he’d started aetherwalking all over the globe, searching them out. This was the best one by far and he wanted to make it special.

“Fine, fine.” He removed his hands and she gasped.

A tropical jungle stretched out before them. The tips of enormous step pyramids popped up here and there through the trees. They weren’t smooth sided like the pyramids in Egypt, but rather, looked like they’d been constructed of great stone blocks. She and Felix stood at the top of the largest pyramid, the warm sun beating down upon them. Jungle animals screeched in the distance, an exotic accompaniment.

“Where are we?” she asked, awe in her voice.

“We’re across the ocean, in the Americas.” He didn’t know what the local people called this place. Like all the cities he took her to, it had been long abandoned. “This land is to the south of the area that England is exploring. I believe Spain searches for gold here.”

“Oh my. There are so many pyramids.” Her face glowed with excitement. 

In the last six months, he’d lost his mind over her. She was quick witted, funny, and loved adventure like no one he’d ever known. He was so certain she was his mate that he wanted to propose this minute. But with her mother advancing in her pregnancy, Aurora had made it clear she didn’t want to leave home until Avera no longer needed her. She loved her mother fiercely—so fiercely that he wondered if there was room in her heart for him. Her dedication to her family was one of her finest qualities.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the blanket he’d laid out with a picnic that he’d delivered to this place earlier. It sat right at the top of the huge stairs that led up the face of the temple. There was an altar behind it.

She turned to him and grinned. “Felix!”

“We’ll eat, then we’ll explore.”

She smiled, then leaned up and kissed him. The softness of her lips always hit him the hardest, stealing his breath and clouding his mind. Their first kiss had been nearly four months ago, while sitting on the roof of her favorite building in the soulceress city. He’d never wanted anything as badly as he’d wanted that. 

They’d been watching the amazing colors streak across the sky that often came during the colder months, when she’d leaned over and pressed her lips to his. He’d had to stop himself from devouring her. Since then, they’d shared kisses and soft touches, and though his body was strung tighter with every day, he’d wait years if that was what it took. She was it for him—his mate. The woman he would spend the rest of his life with. But she was younger than he—eighteen now—and her life was in such turmoil with her mother’s pregnancy and the witch hunts that he didn’t want to add the extra pressure.

She pulled away from the kiss and sat on the blanket, beckoning for him to join her. He followed like a big dumb dog, besotted with her. They sat and enjoyed the cheese and wine he’d brought. Something so fine wasn’t available in their village, but he’d gone to Edinburgh for it. He laid out a little platter of cheese for her familiar Mouse, of whom he’d grown quite fond.

With words, they rebuilt the city as it once would have been, imagining the life of the people who’d built the monstrous pyramids from great stone blocks. Aurora liked to pretend there’d once been soulceresses in charge of the stone city. He was happy just to listen to her build a world with her words.

She caught his gaze and asked, “What are you looking at so fondly?”

He grinned. She knew, but asked him anyway. “You. Always you. You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met.”

She leaned over and kissed him. Her lips tasted of the sweet red wine he’d brought and his heart raced. He lived for these moments. He loved it when she touched him. Though he’d been with other girls, there’d never been one like her.

With a groan, he sank his hand into her hair and deepened the kiss, pressing his tongue inside her mouth to taste her sweetness more deeply. Her hands came up to grasp his shoulders and he wanted her to run them all over his body.

They kissed like it might be the last time, though he hoped that time would never come. He pressed her back until she lay against the stone that formed the top of the pyramid. The jungle around him faded as his attention was absorbed entirely by her. He could kiss her like this forever, reveling in the softness of her form and the heat of her lips.

He ran his lips down the side of her neck, laving the soft skin with his tongue. If he had his way, he’d kiss her everywhere, taste every inch of her flesh. But she was careful not to let him get too close. As she’d said, her mother hadn’t planned her pregnancy, and though she wanted the child, Aurora thought these times were too dangerous to willingly bring another soulceress into the world. She wouldn’t risk a child who would have to run from witch hunters its whole life. Worse, pregnancy sapped a soulceress’s strength, leaving her incapable of using her power to protect herself until after she gave birth to the baby. Aurora was terrified of the risk since no method to prevent children was foolproof.

But he loved kissing her. The sounds she made and the way she moved beneath his mouth drove him wild. His shaft grew until it pressed hard against his breeches and he moaned.

She moved against him, her hips pressing against his cock. He shuddered.

“You like that?” she whispered.

“Minx. You know I do,” he said against her lips. He kissed her hard, then reached down to her skirt and pulled up the wool fabric. She shifted her hips to help him and his heart raced. Would she let him touch her the way he’d been dying to? They’d been getting closer to this every time they found a quiet moment alone. Was it finally here?

He reached between her thighs, and when she didn’t press him away, his heart thudded hard. Her curls were soft against his fingertips. 

He continued to kiss her while tracing his fingers lower, hoping to distract her with kisses while his fingers finally stole a touch of what he so desperately wanted. 

She gasped when his fingers brushed over the soft, wet lips of her sex. The slick feel of her made him shudder. His heart pounded harder when she didn’t push him away.

“Aye,” she whispered. “That.”

His fingers parted her folds and explored, reveling in the slickness of her feminine flesh. His cock throbbed, painfully hard, as he found the little bud at the apex of her sex. He rolled it between his fingers, delighting in the cry she gave. It echoed sweetly in his ears.

“You’re so soft, so wet,” he said as he traced his fingers lower to the opening that he was so desperate to know. She had no hymen, he thanked the gods, no doubt due to all the trees she climbed and horses she rode. She’d said she’d never been with a man before and he believed her. 

A thought occurred to him. “Do you touch yourself?” he asked her as he traced the opening of her sex. “Like this?”

“Aye,” she said, no shyness in her tone.

“Really?”

“It’s been—” She gasped. “—six months. Just because I want to go slowly with you does no’ mean I doona want.”