Chapter 19
Her heart was racing, and it had nothing to do with the mist that had attacked Scott and everything to do with his touch. Elodie could barely think of anything else. His hand was large and warm, his skin callused. He held her securely. Gently.
Seductive, tantalizing heat slid through her. Need roused, stirred. She swayed with the longing that suddenly engulfed her. She was awash with it, drowning in it.
And it felt wonderful.
Scott’s deep blue eyes were locked on her.
She saw his desire. Sexual tension crackled around them.
She should release him and return to her room, but she wouldn’t.
She couldn’t. She felt something again. It was astonishing and exquisite and startling.
Oh, how she had missed this. How could she have forgotten?
How had she gone so many years in that gray fog, walking around like a zombie?
Every nerve ending crackled with sensation, and an awareness swirled through her that left her hot and cold at the same time. It was an overwhelming attack on her senses, but she never wanted it to end.
Scott’s thumb softly rubbed the back of her hand. She shivered at the contact, wanting more. So much more. Years ago, she would’ve taken it. But she wasn’t that girl anymore.
Are you not?
When had she stopped feeling? When had she stopped going after the things she wanted? When had she given up? It was time she remembered who she was. It was time she embraced life as she once had.
She moved closer to Scott. Their bodies were almost touching. Another surge of longing inundated her, and her heart pounded. Her blood rushed. She leaned forward and lifted her mouth to his. Their lips brushed. The contact made her skin sizzle with awareness, and her lips yearn for another taste.
She pressed her body against his for a deeper kiss.
The moan that rumbled through Scott’s chest made her stomach flutter in excitement.
Elodie was so wrapped up in the sensations running through her that she didn’t realize that Scott had pulled away until he said her name.
She blinked a couple of times until she could focus on him.
Embarrassment flared within her. Had she misread the signs?
“That thing could return. I’d never forgive myself if my attention was diverted and you were injured,” he said.
Because she couldn’t do magic. Because she couldn’t protect herself.
Mortification joined her humiliation. She moved away until Scott no longer touched her.
She forced herself to nod as if his words made perfect sense.
The difficult part was that they did. She understood why he was being cautious, but that didn’t make the embarrassment any more bearable. “Of course.”
“Elodie,” he began.
“There’s no need,” she said over him.
He grabbed her hand when she started to turn away. “I’d like to stay. Just in case the mist returns.”
It wasn’t as if she could send him back out into the night to possibly be killed. Who knew where the mist had come from or where it was now? For all they knew, it was waiting for one of them to leave the cottage.
Elodie shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her, when in truth, she was glad he wanted to stay. The cottage was difficult to handle during the day, but at night, it was pure agony. “The wards might keep it out, but it would be nice to have someone here.”
“Just in case,” he repeated, searching her gaze.
She didn’t know what he was looking for. Elodie shivered now that she wasn’t near his heat. She gently pulled her hand from his and wrapped her arms around herself. “You can use Elias’s bed.”
“I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
“Sure,” she said and took another step back. “Make yourself at home.”
He nodded, still watching her. Elodie finally gave up and turned on her heel.
She hurried to her room and closed the door before diving under the covers in an attempt to warm her suddenly frigid body.
Try as she might to forget what had transpired between them, her mind drifted to the way Scott had taken her hand.
How he had held it. The look in his eyes.
The brief touch of his lips.
She hadn’t misread the signs. There was something between them.
Scott fisted his hands at his sides as Elodie walked to her room.
He licked his lips, taking in the brief taste of her.
It had taken everything he had to stop the kiss.
He’d been sent to convince Elodie to join them, not seduce her.
Sure, he had used such tactics before, but he didn’t want to do that with her. He—they—needed her trust.
When he finally told her everything, he didn’t want her to think that he’d used sex to gain her confidence. And if he gave in to the desire that burned as hotly as fire through him, that was exactly what would happen.
George had told him to secure Elodie’s aid by any means necessary.
Scott wasn’t sure why he didn’t want to lie or seduce Elodie.
Maybe it was because she had already suffered so much in her life.
Or perhaps because she had opened herself to him without him using his magic.
There seemed to be some trust building, just as he wanted. But it was happening naturally.
And it left him shaken.
He turned to look at the front door, his thoughts on the mist. Why were these things attacking Elodie?
Did whoever was after her know how important she was to his organization?
Was this about them? It didn’t make sense that someone would want to hurt Elodie for something that’d happened so many years ago.
Then again, the degree of hate people carried gave him pause.
Scott shoved a hand through his hair and made his way to the front room.
He stoked the coals and added more wood.
It wasn’t long before the room was aglow in firelight.
He tried to rest, but his mind was too busy.
He sat on the sofa for a while before pacing the room, then the house, trying to dispel the desire that burned inside him.
He stopped beside Elodie’s closed door but heard nothing inside that gave him pause.
He retrieved his mobile and found the screen smashed, but it still worked.
Scott sent a quick text to Filip to tell him what’d happened.
Then he went back to his pacing. He checked the doors.
The wards were strong there. When he peeked through the curtains, he saw the thick mist. Scott hurried to the next window to find the same.
It covered the entire cottage. But the mist wasn’t trying to get in.
Or was it?
Everything was warded. He stilled and listened.
The eerie silence from outside was unnerving.
Slowly, he walked through the cottage. The flicker of the fire drew his attention when he reached the front room again.
He made his way to it, his heart lurching.
Every window and door was shut and bolted, adding another layer of security to the wards.
But the flue was open, so the house didn’t fill with smoke.
“Fuck,” he muttered and quickly sent another warding spell directly to the fireplace, just as something tried to bank the fire.
“I’ll kill you!” her father bellowed.
Tears coursed down her mother’s face. “Stop, Edward. Just stop. There’s no need for this. Please!”
“Da, no!” Elias shouted.
There was screaming. So many screams. And then silence.
Her ears were ringing. She blinked. The blood. Where had it all come from?
Elodie came awake with a start. She tried to hold onto the dream, but it faded with each beat of her heart until she couldn’t remember even who was in it or what it was about. She threw back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Just as she was about to rise, she paused.
Something wasn’t right. The fear that thudded through her, leaving ice in her veins, wasn’t about the dream. It was something else entirely.
“Scott,” she murmured and jumped up.
Elodie threw open her door and rushed from her room. She glanced at her parents’ door and then headed to the front of the house. She found him facing the hearth with his hands outstretched, and his lips moving quickly with a spell.
She didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t as if she had magic to help him.
You used to.
She quieted her subconscious as her mind struggled to find a way to assist him.
One of the curtains wasn’t closed all the way.
That’s when she saw the thick, gray mist. Elodie didn’t need to look outside to know that it covered the cottage.
Her head swung back to Scott. How long had he been fighting it?
“What do you need?” she asked as she ran up.
He didn’t look her way, didn’t stop his chanting. Elodie could join the chant, but what good would it do without magic? She was utterly useless. She couldn’t help Scott and couldn’t call anyone to them without putting them in danger. Unless…
“Rhona,” she said.
Scott furiously shook his head, never breaking his concentration on the spell.
Elodie threw up her hands. Scott then jerked his chin to the pile of wood.
She frowned. What about the pile? There was plenty there to last the night and well into the morning.
Then she glanced at the fire itself to see that it was going out.
Elodie grabbed some logs and set about making the fire grow. She worked quickly, sweat beading her skin, her face burning from being so close to the flames. She didn’t move until Scott’s hands gently pulled her to her feet.
“I think we stopped it,” he mumbled wearily.
She faced him and saw the paleness of his skin. “Rest.”
“Water. And something stronger,” he said with a weak smile as he collapsed into one of the chairs.
Elodie ran to the kitchen and grabbed some water, the bottle of Dreagan whisky, and two glasses. Scott downed the water first. Her hands shook as he poured them both some whisky. His breathing was still labored when she handed him the glass.
“How close was it?” she asked.
He met her gaze over the rim of the glass before taking a sip. “You doona want to know.”
Close, then. “You should’ve woken me.”
“I didna have time. How did you know what was happening?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t. A bad dream woke me.”
“What was it about?”
“I can’t remember.”
He grunted as he downed the rest of the whisky. “It’s a good thing you woke when you did.”
She watched how he tried to keep his eyes open. “You should go rest.”
“I need to recharge my magic.”
“What can I do?” Hopefully, she had it, and they wouldn’t be required to go anywhere since they couldn’t leave.
His head lolled to the side. Elodie grabbed the glass, catching it before it could hit the floor as his fingers loosened.
She got the throw from the sofa and covered him. Then she looked at the fire. Who wanted her harmed? And how would she stop it?
Magic. She had promised Scott she would try her magic again. Tomorrow, she would give it a go. Because she should be able to protect herself. If something were after her, she didn’t want anyone else getting hurt simply because she was afraid to see if being back on Skye might return her magic.
One way or the other, she would have a definitive answer tomorrow.