Yew Queen Trilogy Read online

  Well, this was ironic. Spike, I texted back, thinking of how much Kaippa’s attitude actually reminded me of the smart-mouthed vampire from the old TV show.

  I looked up at Lucus. “My magic tried to kill me, but it’s also the reason I can survive three days without food or water?”

  “Your power doesn’t aim to destroy you, to destroy itself. You simply have no control of it and it is too great.”

  “Great?”

  “Strong. Impressive. Wide-reaching. You are incredibly gifted, Coren.”

  “Not feeling that vibe right now.” I climbed out of bed.

  “Your instincts are there. It will be all right. In fact, your magic will most likely extend your life expectancy.”

  “Whoa. What? How long do mages tend to live?” My palms began to sweat. This was beyond weird.

  “Perhaps two hundred years.”

  The room tilted, and I grabbed Lucus’s arm. He put a hand on my back and helped me stay upright.

  Lucus’s fingers tightened on me. “Do you need—”

  I shook him off and stood. “I need a minute. That’s what I need. Where is the bathroom in this joint?”

  He walked me to a weird closet restroom that I wasn’t overly excited about. It was basically a bench with a hole in it and a countertop with a wash basin and a pitcher. I closed the door and was glad of the privacy regardless of the environment.

  I pressed my hands against the door and took one slow, deep breath.

  Two hundred years.

  If I lived through the spell, through whatever training Lucus had in mind, I might see the next century in full. Hekla and Titus and Ami would be dead. Would I age? Would they notice I wasn’t growing older? Of course they would. What the heck was I going to do with this freakish information? I spun and leaned my head where my hands had been. I just wanted to go back to my life of baking and friends and punching things with Titus.

  Magic tingled at my wrists and across my chest.

  Or did I? Yes, this had been a nightmare, but it hadn’t been boring. Watching Lucus interact with the trees, seeing men fly, finding out I could possibly shoot lightning in the near future—it was thrilling. I missed my old life, but I didn’t really want to go back to doing things all the same way. Wiggling my fingers, I realized I wanted to layer in the new, wondrous elements, to live a life of…magic.

  I washed my face with the water in the basin and returned to Lucus, who was waiting patiently at his chamber door.

  I surprised myself by smiling. “I think I’m actually ready to train.” I really hoped Kaippa was wrong and that Lucus could help me learn to let my magic flow out of me when it was too strong.

  His eyebrows lifted. “Now?”

  Passing him, I headed into the corridor. “I’d rather not wait until my magic gets bitchy again, thanks.”

  “Understood.” Lucus chuckled.

  And off I went to learn how to be a fully fabulous magical version of myself.

  Chapter 26

  Silver moonlight cascaded through the casting chamber’s high windows and pooled in the center of the room, illuminating the markings—

  I sucked a breath. “Lucus. I can read them. Those symbols, I know what they mean.” The one closest to my boot had something to do with wind and rain, and the marking next to it cleared vision, though I wasn’t sure if it meant like eyesight or something way more Aunt Viv-ish like psychic stuff.

  “Of course you do,” Lucus said. “You’re a mage.”

  “You still sound super angry about that fact. You know I can’t help being what I am. It’s not like I was all ‘Hey, Universe, hook me up with some blood from a complete dumpster fire guy from the Renaissance, why don’t you?’”

  “I am trying to remember the value of choice and the weight it should have on my feelings. My heart and my mind know you aren’t my enemy, but my blood shrieks the opposite.”

  Not a fan of shrieking blood. “Okay. Well, my blood isn’t saying anything bad about you.” I turned to find him standing closer than I’d thought. His chest moved against my arm, and my skin soaked in his warmth and the tingling pleasure that emanated from him. His breath stirred my hair as he studied my face, the moonlight casting his shadow around me like a ghostly fortress. Yeah, his blood might have been screaming Get away from the evil mage but mine was singing He is hot as sin and actually pretty damn nice and we want to jump his bones.

  He pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear, the touch making me dizzy and the bond between us taut. I was keenly aware of my nakedness under his robe.

  “I mulled over our situation while you slept,” he said, “about how I might make your role more comfortable.”

  Was he talking about the fact that we were fated or about me breaking their curse and freeing them to eat the world like a Hot Now donut from Krispy Kreme? I was going with the curse thing. “I appreciate that, but until we see if I can even do anything, it’s kind of a waste of time.”

  He blinked. “I suppose. I have little doubt you’ll accomplish some change.”

  If I could gain control of my magic, maybe I could just off them all. Ugh. I hated that I’d even thought of that. It was rough. But at the same time, they were monsters. Not all bad, but monsters indeed.

  My eyes adjusted to the moonlit chamber, and I left Lucus to find the unicorn skull, as one does. But where Kaippa had left the skull there was now a large, plum-colored book with tattered edges. Two twined snakes marked the cover.

  At my touch, they slithered.

  I breathed in, feeling magic rushing through me. My heart jumped. Was I going to have another attack? I fisted my trembling hands, wishing I could throat-punch my magic into behaving.

  A warm hand touched my shoulder. Lucus looked from me to the spell book. “Feel your magic. Trust yourself. If you’re ready, open it. I know the simplest spells will be at the beginning.”

  I couldn’t feel any magical instincts. Nothing. “Right.” I exhaled and opened the book anyway.

  The scent of something like salt and burning herbs filled my nose. Markings like the ones on the floor danced over the front page, shifting to become readable.

  To raise your energy, for a fight, for defense

  Rub two henbane petals between the palms

  Breathe the scent

  Focus on your aura

  Place hands on either side of throat and drag toward heart

  Despite my fear, a smile tugged at my mouth. “This is a recipe. I can handle recipes.”

  Lucus beamed, wearing a grin I hadn’t seen before. “Perhaps you have been working magic all your life. People love your baked goods, yes?”

  Heat sparked inside me, and I glared. “I worked for years at baking while my friends were partying. I gave up soccer, college, time with my mom.”

  A memory of my mother surfaced, her flour-dusted fingers handing me a measuring cup. Gold biscuits for the gold girl, she’d said, using Aunt Viv’s nickname for me. Mom had been gently teasing, and we’d both grinned thinking of crazy but sweet Aunt Viv.

  I’d burned the batch that day. Because Mom had the first of her cancer pains.

  Swallowing hard against the hot edges of that grief, I lashed out at Lucus. “The skill didn’t magically appear. And I’m good at it with no magic to help me. Don’t discount my ability and hard work, Lucus.”

  He had the decency to look abashed. “Apologies. I am merely trying to understand.”

  Mom’s loss still felt like a pit in my stomach, an endless, hollow darkness. The waves of loss hit me at the strangest times. Gone for a year, then back again with no warning, and then I was as angry and grief-stricken as I’d been the day I’d lost her, the day that made me regret every moment I hadn’t spent with her.

  I flipped Lucus off. “Understand this.”

  His sincere gaze settled on my left hand, where Mom’s sapphire ring blinked in the moonlight. “You have lost someone dear.” He touched Francesco’s red silk at his belt. “I do understand that.”

  It made
me feel like a jerk. I sighed. “Sorry. Yeah, my mom died five years ago. Five years ago…” I paused to consider, and then blinked at the realization. “Today, actually.”

  Lucus took my hand and kissed Mom’s ring. “I honor your fallen.”

  My tongue grew thick. I couldn’t seem to find something to say. I wiped unshed tears from my eyes.

  “Do you need a moment, or would you like to continue?” he asked.

  I coughed. “Please. Let’s just move on.”

  “Is that what you always do when you feel the grief? Move on?”

  He was getting dangerously personal. “Look. I appreciate the sentiment, but I didn’t ask your opinion on how I deal with my own shit.”

  He raised his chin, his gaze going chilly. “Understood. Now, what about your friend Hekla? She saw through the curse’s block. Did you intend for her to see me that day at your home? Do you think you worked magic then?”

  It was only when he asked that I remembered my wish and the purple light that had blinked over my eyes. “I think…yes, I might have done the magic thing.” I explained what I’d seen.

  “That was magic. But perhaps it only surfaced that day. Your magic woke in response to me.”

  He certainly had an effect on me, that was for sure. “Maybe.”

  Lucus strode across the room to a tall wooden cabinet. The twining snakes from the spell book cover were carved into the doors. He took a glass jar from a shelf inside and brought it to me. “Henbane, I believe.”

  I removed the large cork stopper, and a sickly scent crawled out of the container. Reaching in, I felt dry leaves and petals. Delicately, I stripped one dried flower of two small petals. They looked harmless in my palm, small and unassuming.

  Lucus replaced the cork and put the glass jar away in the cabinet as I rubbed the petals to dust between my palms. The scent I breathed in was musky and too sweet, like rot, and as I inhaled the odor, my head grew light. I peeked at the recipe—the spell—as Lucus stood nearby, his gaze on me. The next step was to focus on my aura. Lucus was the expert on auras.

  “When you see someone’s energy, what does that feel like?” I asked.

  “It comes naturally to my kind, but let me think. I suppose one could describe the sensation as a rush of…presence? A sudden torrent of who that person is and what their strengths might be.”

  “Does it feel hot or cold?”

  “Neither, but if you forced me to choose one, I’d say it feels hot.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to sense my own aura, my energy, imagining its golden shimmer as it hummed and surged from within me, pushing its way into the outer world. Aunt Viv would’ve loved this.

  “It does feel kind of warm,” I said quietly, my eyes shut and the dangerous scent of henbane in my nose.

  “You are so beautiful, tocco d’oro.” Lucus’s voice rumbled through me, and my aura increased its reach. Was that because we were fated mates? I still hated thinking of that, of being forced to be with a guy. No way. That was not going to be me. But I couldn’t deny the pull he had on all of me or the dizzying combination of attraction and calm I now felt around him.

  The humming of my aura grew a little louder. “It sounds like a song.”

  “Your aura?”

  “Yeah.”

  I opened my eyes to see him laughing, wonder sparking in his green eyes. “Amazing,” he whispered, his gaze traveling all over me like gentle hands, brushing the curve of my waist, the line of my collarbone.

  Recalling the final step in the spell, I placed my dusty hands on my neck at my pulse points, then dragged my palms down over my chest to stop at my heart. Energy rose like a wave inside me, and I gasped.

  “Well, that worked,” I said. “I feel like a million bucks over here.”

  My skin was flushed with warmth, and my muscles felt nicely toned like I’d been working out for a few months. Which I definitely had not. And yeah, I hadn’t died from the first spell. This was promising. Maybe I could learn to control this magic and not end up as a purple splat of power on the walls of a cursed castle. I smiled at Lucus, and gratitude for his help in all this madness poured over me.

  “You look like you’re made of gold.” Lucus came forward and touched my temple. His finger slid down my throat, stopping at the robe’s neckline. His gaze snapped to me, and heat jolted my core, making me dizzy. “Coren?”

  Lucus’s thunder-like voice, quiet and strong, held a thousand questions. My chest rose and fell too quickly, and I couldn’t stop staring at his intense dark green eyes.

  His lips parted. “I…”

  I gave him no time to finish whatever he might have said. Desire raised her head and threw me at him, my body ringing like a struck bell. My hands were everywhere—palm across his cheek, fingers in his hair, a thumb rushing over his hipbone. His horns shimmered into view as I pulled him close, and he snarled as his wings cracked open wide. Wild shivers ran up my legs as he lifted me and pinned me against the wall. My robe parted, belt sliding loose, as Lucus used a free hand to shift his trousers below his hips, and at the skin on skin contact, I sucked a quick breath. The feel of his body hot on mine was divine. I drew his pointed ear into my mouth, my tongue darting over the tip. A slow growl rumbled in his chest, vibrating my breasts as he dragged his lips over my collarbone and whispered words in fae. I was shaking, breaking apart at the edges, a bonfire of desire enflaming every inch of me.

  “You are certain?” Lucus asked hoarsely into my ear.

  In answer, I gripped his hips. He was silent, his gaze deadly serious when he locked it down on me. He shifted his weight, then thrust into me. Pleasure roared through my veins at the feel of him. Painfully slow, he drove forward again, making me beg for more.

  An ecstasy unlike anything I’d ever known built up inside my core, growing, rising, shrieking to release as he thrust again, filling me and breathing my name. My hands were in his hair. His horns brushed the side of my face. I bit his shoulder, the scent of ancient forests clinging to his nectar-sticky skin as he drove forward, faster now, wilder.

  “Coren,” he growled, his mouth parting and his eyes squeezed shut.

  An electric thrill lit my entire body. The world outside of us and this moment submitted to the pleasure, and I moaned with release, shaking, trembling with joy, my skin on fire with the glow of the moment.

  Both panting, heartbeats in sync, we set our foreheads together, his eyebrow quirking up toward his hairline.

  He set me down gently, and I straightened my robe, tying the belt as he led me toward his chamber and that washroom of his.

  “I wish I could say that was a mistake,” I said, “and that we really shouldn’t do that again, but I don’t think I can sell that lie right now.” I was floating. Euphoric. I didn’t know how much of it was the spell I’d just worked, or Lucus, but all would be well with the world. Angels, yeah, the whole deal.

  His knuckles brushed mine as he escorted me into his bedroom, the magical trees expanding over our heads. “And you know I cannot even attempt such a deceit.” His smile was made of sin, and I loved it so hard.

  I tidied up, then returned to find him sprawled across the bed waiting for me. I crawled in beside him, glad he’d glamoured the wings away for comfort’s sake. He put an arm around me and pressed a kiss against my hair. After a talk about the differences between cannolis and croissants, we dozed. I was happy to put off my plotting and the untangling of the mess my life had become. I had always been a joie de vivre kind of gal, and if fantastic sex with an alpha fae lord didn’t qualify for an hour or three away from life’s problems, I didn’t know what would.

  Chapter 27

  Lucus and I worked on two more spells. One more was successful—a recipe for hearing that helped me eavesdrop on Baccio and Aurelio in the courtyard. They had been chatting about Kaippa and how long he should suffer. But the second spell was proving difficult. It was supposed to draw moisture to me so I could create a fog. Sounded cool, but so far the pitcher of water Lucus had provided was
just as full as it had always been, and I had no cool haze at my magey fingertips. My head was pounding.

  “Listen to your instinct. What spell do you wish to try?” Lucus nodded toward the spell book.

  “I don’t have magical instinct like you. This is all crazy to me.” Feeling super itchy and irritated, I turned pages in the spell book. “I’m telling you, I can’t—”

  The slightest hint of what might have been deemed instinct flickered in my gut. I hadn’t had too much queso like last Friday night, so perhaps my magic truly was trying to tell me something.

  “What is the spell?” Lucus peered over my shoulder at the spell.

  An illustration of clasped hands showed above an incantation. I couldn’t believe I knew what these words meant, let alone that I used them. Blowing out a breath, I focused on the words as they spun, then fixed themselves into letters I could read.

  “It says Protection.”

  “That sounds like a perfect choice.” Lucus glanced at me, eyebrows lifted. His scent drifted through the air, all pines and spice.

  “It does.”

  The spell read:

  Clasp hands at heart

  Remember your worth

  Feel the earth’s energy rising through your feet

  When the warmth reaches your palms, open arms wide

  “Sounds simple enough. This one has a fae vibe to it.” I stepped away from the book and clasped my hands.

  Lucus’s eyes widened. “In what way?”

  “I have to harness the earth’s energy.”

  “Truly? I wouldn’t have thought mages could do such a thing. I thought it all came from potion work and your own power.”

  “Maybe this mage had a fae friend and learned a thing or two.”

  Lucus’s mouth lifted, and he nearly smiled before the happiness faded from his face. “You are the only mage I’ve met who wasn’t fully intent on acquiring power at any cost.”

  “What about the Mage Duke’s daughter? You loved her. She didn’t seem evil.”

  He blinked and chewed the inside of his lip.