She caught her breath on a sob.“I love you, Gabriel.Always.”
Will you share your magic with me?
“Take.Have.”She was weeping freely as she repeated the refrain, remembering how she’d first tantalized him with it, and how it had become a declaration of deepest love.She would give him everything of herself, if only he would live.She almost believed she could feel his magic strengthening around her, silver chains of moonlight under her skin, the refreshingly cool water that formed his silent core, and she reached for him in longing, pushing her magic toward him.
More, please.Just like that.
Letting out a watery laugh, because it felt so good to imagine that rapport with him again, she opened all those channels she’d been working so hard to keep closed.And it felt like unclenching a muscle grown tight with strain.The floodgates opened, and she poured her magic and love into Gabriel, giving him every last fiery bit of herself, imagining sending him a shower of bloodred rose petals.
He drank her in, his magic flowing into and around her, bracing and enveloping her in a bubble of fiercely protective love.She had the sudden urge to lie down and cover her head.Probably she had lost her mind, but this was so much better than sanity.So she allowed herself to sag into the hard cradle of wall and floor, curving her body into it, pressing her face into her hands so that all the world faded away and nothing remained but the sacred flow of her magic and his, freely exchanged in purest love.
So comforting was this imaginary embrace, that she didn’t even startle when the roof came off.
Meditation wasn’t Gabriel’sstrong suit, so though he started out in a seated pose, trying to ignore the outside world, he ended up standing just inside the verge where the smaller saplings met the open meadow, House Sammael towering above in all its malevolent grandeur.With Selly’s hand clasped in his, coolly fresh as water from hidden spring, huge and bright as a full moon just touching the horizon, he reached for one of those towers, seeking the bloom of rosy fire that was his beloved.
Alise stood nearby, Han behind her with his hands on her shoulders, ready to defend them against attack.And Jadren flanked their other side, sword in one hand and machete in the other, as he shifted from foot to foot restlessly.“Even if you can reach her, you can’t access her magic without touching her,” he argued, not for the first time, either.Another reason quiet meditation hadn’t been an option.
Gabriel ignored the argument—not for the first time—and extended his senses toward Nic.She was there, hot and bright as midsummer sunshine, bursting with magic, frustration, and despair.Oh, Nic…
His heart bleeding for her, he sent all his love, wanting to wrap her up in it.She responded to him ardently, as she always did, her magic and love full of scarlet passion.He imagined asking her to share her magic, and she laughed that he asked.Take.Have.
It poured into him like a draught of the most potent wine conceivable.If wine could be made from roses, it would taste and feel like this.Gloriously inebriating, deeply nurturing.Beside him, Selly gasped.
“What?”Jadren demanded.“What’s happening?”
“Shh!”Alise hushed him sharply.
Gabriel laughed, a breath of air, giddy with the flush of Nic’s magic.She was there.Alive and well, sensually overpowering.He groaned his pleasure, the perfection of the exchange, feeling as if he’d sunk into the hot embrace of her body, shuddering with need only she could satiate.“Just like that,” he murmured.
Hoping she understood, he urged her to take cover.Then, taking the bountiful magic she’d supplied, he pulled moonlight into hooks, digging them into the eaves of the slate roof capping the tower.Then pulled.
“Dark arts take me!”Jadren yelped as the roof spun up, then crashed into the crevasse below.
To be fair, all the others, even Selly, who’d felt him do it, exclaimed in astonishment.Gabriel smiled in grim satisfaction, tightening his hold on Nic, reassuring himself she was whole and well.
“That’s all well and good,” Jadren declared, sounding as if it were anything but—though a faintness to his voice showed he was impressed by the feat.“Now what?Are we going to fly over there and haul her out?”
“No,” Gabriel answered, finding the silver threads that wove back and forth between them.“She’s going to fly out.”
Nic gazed inbewilderment at the open sky above, gray clouds scudding in a high wind.Apparently her insanity had progressed further than she’d guessed—though, did insane people know they were crazy?—leading her into illusions of freedom along with the wish-fulfillment of feeling Gabriel’s magic intertwined with hers.Getting to her feet, she nevertheless gulped great lungfuls of fresh air, the chill bracing after the cloistered air of the tower.
For an illusion created by her own longings, it was surprisingly realistic.It even felt like her blood brightened, her system energized by the sight of a world beyond her dismal prison.Silvery moon magic sang along her nerves, and cool water coursed through her bloodstream, Gabriel’s essence running along her skin with sensual caresses.As in the arcanium, the silver threads he’d embedded in her with erotic precision glowed just beneath her skin, tightening in a web that—
She barely managed a gasp of astonishment before she morphed into alternate form.The room suddenly looked much smaller, the bland curving walls taking on strange new dimensions.And the sky… Oh, the sky called to her.
Fly.Fly to me, my heart.
Gabriel was here.No one else could have pushed her into alternate form.Unless this was all a dream.
Well, if so, then she was going to fly in her dreams.They would give her the escape she craved.Though she’d never actually flown, a dream would be a wonderful place to try it out.She spread her wings, the sensitive feather tips brushing the walls on either side, and pumped down.
And crow-hopped a minute bit into the air before landing with a thud.
Dreams werenotsupposed to be this realistic.Maybe it was simply another depressing nightmare.
Fly.I know you can.
You are not real,she crossly informed the sense of Gabriel.Hmm.Maybe they were both dead, and they were struggling through some sort of purgatory of the afterlife.Like an old tale, where the lovers struggled to find each other.As with all those tales, it seemed, living it wasn’t nearly so swooningly romantic.It was just a miserable slog.
Her keen hearing picked up the sound of boots on the tower stairs, soldiers calling to each other in excited tones.Huh.Maybe some of thiswasreal and the roofhadblown off, attracting attention from her captors.In which case…
The Iblis lock on the door clicked open.
In which case, this was her one chance at escape.Summoning all the spine and determination she possessed, she launched herself to the top of the wall, talons digging in as she bobbled there.The drop below was precipitous and terrifyingly deep, made all the more alarming by her acute long vision.She could actually see the sharp rocks far below at the bottom of the crag, and her avian brain assessed the distance with brutal clarity.If she didn’t manage to take wing, the fall would kill her.
“Stop!”Sergio Sammael shrieked, hitting her with a dose of nerve-frying pain.
Of course, if she stayed, she’d just wish she were dead.Better to reach than fail for not trying.
She took the leap and fell through the air.