Ritual Magic (6 page)

I shivered slightly at the sudden flush of
concern and insecurity that I was beginning to feel about the
future. Actually, I was insecure about the future even
before
I realized how I felt about Solomon. How would his
love for me and mine for him impact what came to us both?

Solomon pushed me away just enough to look
down at me with those glowing blue eyes, full of emotions and love.
"What are you thinking about? I can never keep myself from
wondering just how your mind works. You always seem to surprise."
He smiled down at me, gently caressing my face with the back of his
hand and sending tight tendrils of activity through my stomach and
spine.

"I wish I knew, Solomon." Another shiver ran
through my body.

He just smiled down at me, a man consumed
with fire and love, and he wore every inch of it in his eyes and on
the planes in his face. There was no lust in his eyes, not now,
because there was simply that complete knowledge that he had
everything that he ever wanted here, in his arms. He pulled me in
closer to him, releasing a deep sigh that seemed to echo up from
the depths of his soul.

"I'm consumed with you, Celeste. Everywhere
I turn, everything I see...it's all you. Every time I stand by your
side I'm afraid that someone is going to try to take you away, so I
stand fiercely against the world. I would completely annihilate
anyone or anything that would attempt to take you away from me.
Every moment is precious, I know, but I can't settle for just a few
moments. Fifty years has been nothing, even when you weren't mine.
I was able to see you, watch your movements and reactions, see your
face, your smiles, and hear your laughter. Everything you do keeps
me alive, and I thank you for it."

What in the world could anyone say in
response to that? It was like a woman's dream come true. Tilting my
head, I looked up into his eyes, which were now endless waves of
blue-green, deep enough for me to get lost in and never be able to
come back up from the raging torments of lust and love. I could
hear the ocean crashing in the background. Assuming it was the
ocean outside our window, there was still a small part of me that
was absolutely positive it was the effect that Solomon had on my
body. He reminded me of the ocean, my beloved ocean, and I
instantly yearned for him.

He smiled down at me now with a touch of
wickedness, his thoughts evident in the lift of the tips of his
lips and the half-lidded expression he was pouring down upon me. I
could see the spark in his eyes as my body reacted, heating up as
my heart began to beat wildly beneath my breastbone.

"Solomon, this is hardly the time or the
place." My voice shook again, making me angry that I was becoming a
weakling woman subject to hormonal fits and loss of vocal
stability.

Solomon continued to stare me down with
desire in his eyes, beating against my resistance like a hammer
against a thin pane of glass. A suspicious grin spread across his
angelic face as my gut told me that nothing good could come of
this.

At that very moment, someone cleared their
throat over from the armchair, drawing both of our eyes with a
quick snap of our heads. It was Leo who had called for us to come
back to reality...with eyes that appeared as rich as two deep
burning embers of red-orange. His expression was wary and more than
a bit annoyed.

"My dear, I believe that you need to hear
what we have been discussing." An arched eyebrow told us that
nothing that had gone on near the curtain had escaped his watchful
eye. He knew everything, and I was pretty sure that he didn't
approve.

Solomon and I turned towards the couch,
Solomon's hand now taking residence on the small of my back, his
fingers spreading out across my shirt and helping to guide me back
to the couch.

"And what could that be?" Solomon's voice
rang through the room, resonating on every reflective surface
within the touch of his voice.

"Our darling daughter has been sharing some
most distressing information with me." He waved us towards the
couch again, next to Cora as she fidgeted with her shirt, tugging
it down over her waist again.

"Cora, what is it?" Concern tainted my
words. What was going on? What was going to happen?

"Well, it's pretty simple, actually." She
paused to roll her lips between her teeth before continuing. "If we
don't get my other fathers to agree to the conception spell, there
will be a ripple in time that will affect the kingdom. Without the
combination of
all five
individuals, there will be an
imbalance of power and the kingdom will fall."

"Fall?" Solomon's voice was sharp. "That's
not possible! Who would be strong enough or even insane enough to
try to take control of the kingdom?" His voice was incredulous and
he shook his head fiercely from side to side.

"The shadow demons. If I am not conceived,
if I am not born, mother will be killed and all will be lost." Cora
almost sounded like she was whispering and her voice floated above
the room like a mist. We all simply listened to the cascade of
emotion as if it were the echo of falling tears.

Solomon's hold on me tightened as he drew me
into his strength, making it clear that he would never leave my
side if it were his choice. My heart pounded in my ears and my mind
registered the beat of Solomon's speeding heart against my
shoulders.

"She dies?" His voice shook as he asked the
painful question.

Cora nodded at me as if I were the one
asking, our eyes making contact before I realized what she was
doing.

Mother, I'm sorry
, Cora's thoughts
touched my mind and I released a quick breath through my mouth
before anyone else caught the action. Cora's eyes were full of pain
and concern, but I nodded at her without replying. She knew what I
would have said anyway.
It's okay. We will do what we
can.

My head swirled with thoughts that would
have best been left alone.
I die. I actually die. How could that
happen? By the hand of a shadow demon? Who were these demons?
I
had just come into contact with my very first three demons, but now
they held my morbid future in the palm of their hands, or better
yet, at the tips of their wicked claws.

The horrid black eyes flooded my memory as I
fought to keep my eyes from closing. My active mind wanted to
recall their wicked faces, their frightening bodies and razor sharp
claws. I wanted to hide from the future, but my mind kept dredging
up clear images in my mind's eye of my future killers. I had to
fight the desire to whimper as the images of the shadow demons
cascaded through my mind, but I couldn't show weakness in front of
anyone in this room. I doubted that they would be able to handle
the queen of the realm showing that kind of weakness.

I just nodded at Cora to continue, like I
was simply accepting my fate.

"But I'm the answer, Dad. I'm the key." Cora
said the words with conviction. "I am the ultimate bodyguard for
Mother. I am her sword, her killing blow. I am the one that saves
her life and allows her to save the kingdom."

Silence reigned and we all avoided making
any kind of movement or eye contact.

"And how is that, Cora? Where am I during
all of this? I would never allow anything or anyone to get close to
the queen, much less harm her. Why am I not the one that saves
her?" Solomon shook with what could have been anger but, judging
from his words, it was fear.

"You aren't there, Dad." Cora shook her head
as her eyes pleaded with Solomon's intense stare. "You have to
believe me when I say that I am not at liberty to share any more
information."

She nodded as she straightened and pushed
off of the couch again to begin pacing the room. She stopped short
of the coffee table and assumed her father's military stance. "I am
her protector, her blade, her fist of power and strength. I am a
weapon honed by my fathers, designed to protect and serve the
queen. And that is what I do—protect and serve. It is my destiny,
and you will be my guides, my mentors. You four will be everything
to me as well as my honing stones." Her chin lifted slightly as she
squared her shoulders and spoke, "I am a force to be reckoned with,
just like my mother. I have power flowing through me and I am a
weapon of unparalleled strength, unmatched by anything forged and
magical." Every word flowed from her lips like liquid metal, molten
and scorching. She didn't sound like she was bragging because it
sounded like she was speaking from a script she had practiced for
the majority of her life.

Solomon looked at me with intense anguish in
his eyes. It was clear that he was frightened that he wasn't going
to be by my side in the future. He wasn't sure if he was alive or
dead, and there was no way to ask Cora about it. He couldn't ask
her without expecting her to break her vow not to reveal anything
that would cause an issue in the future.

"I am the answer."

What happens to
you
when
you
blackout? Well, when it happens to me I travel. No, it's not the
kind of 'pack your bags—you're going on an amazing adventure' kind
of travel. It's the kind where you are chased by demons, meet the
men you're going to love and lose, and possibly even change the
future. It's the kind of travel where you have to watch out for
that pesky cockroach you aren't supposed to step on because
then
the evolutionary
ladder
would be completely
screwed. Yeah,
that
kind of travel.
My life sucks big
time!
I never get a BREAK!

I shook my head as I cussed underneath my
breath. "This week of mine is one crazy, chaotic mess and I would
like to get off now...
please!
"

My voice echoed into the mist surrounding
me, dropping in the heaviness of the quiet and finally succumbing
to the death that all of my other calls for help had met with. I
circled around on the same spot that I had been occupying for the
past three hours. My legs should have been tired from the standing
but, strangely enough, it was as comfortable as sitting down.
Guess my butt won't get any bigger from all of this standing.
Stay here for the rest of my life and never have to worry about a
thigh master again. Tempting.

Sighing, I began to look upwards from my
desolate spot. There was nothing above, behind, before, or beneath
me—it was as if I was surrounded by clouds, but clouds would have
never been able to support my weight.
So where AM I?

I attempted to walk for the hundredth time
but felt my legs pull at me like they were weighted down with 200
pound weights on each foot. I grunted as I grabbed my right leg and
attempted to drag it forward. Nothing happened.

"You know, I always gave you more credit for
being creative, girl. It's a shame that you are acting like such a
fool right now," a deep male voice sank in the chilly mist, drawing
my attention away from my internal thoughts of frustration.

My head turned to the side and an icy
claw-like rawness began to crawl up my spine as I registered the
beginnings of a shape...an extremely male shape, growing and
forming right before my eyes.

Expelling a ragged breath, my eyes watched
in alarm as the colossal body formed with firm muscular legs and
feet encased in Roman style sandals. He was wearing a
Scottish-style kilt in blues and greens, he had an eight pack
stomach of washboard abs, monstrous pythons for biceps, and a neck
as wide as a basketball on top of shoulders that could hold the
entire first string of the basketball team and still have room for
more.

Gulp!
His long, wavy rich brown hair
seemed to be peeking out at me from behind his shoulders, swirling
lightly with the breeze. It was odd because I couldn't feel a
breeze heavy enough to actually
do
to his hair what I was
honestly seeing. It was undulating in waves...like the actual
ocean.
Double gulp!

Usually, by now, I would be gasping for air
and thinking about how hot this guy was, but he didn't instill
hormonal fits in me. He actually instilled instant fear, and my
desire to see his face was extinguished by my internal desire to
actually keep
my
face right where it was. Looking at this
man felt dangerous for some reason. Every instinct I had told me
not
to look, but like those dummies escaping Hades, you just
had to see what all of the fuss was about.

My eyes darted up to catch two enormous orbs
of deep blue-green swirling in the sockets of what appeared to be
an extremely tanned and buff...bodybuilder.
How could a body
builder cause me to blackout? Well, maybe with his amazing pecs of
steel? Or was that buns?

"Raven, honestly. Can't you control your own
thoughts?" The voice sounded perturbed by my internal dialogue.

Clear your mind, Celeste
. I told
myself.
Be like the wind.
I began to giggle to myself.
Come to the dark side—we have cookies!
That last one was
just to get his goat—he was clearly listening to my thoughts.

"Raven!"

My eyes snapped open and I was immediately
staring stone-faced into those orbs of ocean waves—pounding circles
of fierce seas cresting and falling and forcing the ocean to
resonate in my mind. I could hear the wail of the wind crying over
the waves as the foam appeared after waves disappeared into even
more waves, churning up the foam in a soft, delicate lace. All of
this I caught in just a glimpse.

That's when the sensation hit me—I was
shaking from intense power as I felt my mind being washed clean and
reorganized. My body went rigid and my head snapped back as if I
was being filled with magic—incomparable magic that had no
beginning and no end, flowing, growing, swelling. It was limitless
and I was inhaling it just as I was exhaling it. The magic swelled
through every cell in my body and escaped out of my fingertips,
leaving small streaks of blue swirling with the mist that was
moving with sentient agitation. My eyes became beacons in the misty
void and I could see two blue-green pillars of light pointing
straight into the heavens above. At least, that is where I
guessed
the heavens would be if I wasn't inside a misty
prison of
nothing
.
Calm thoughts, Celeste, calm
thoughts
.