Chapter 14 #2
“Come on,” he said, scooting back and taking her with him as he sat up on the side of the bed. “Let’s get you something to eat. We had groceries delivered before. I know there’s plenty of food in the kitchen.”
“Give me a minute, and I’ll be right with you,” she said, pointing toward the bathroom.
He sighed, bent to kiss her lips in a lingering caress that almost made her forget her hunger for food in favor of a more sensual type of hunger, but he let her go and got up, finding his discarded boxers on the floor and tugging them on before he walked out of the bedroom.
The place was sort of wrecked. Their clothes were strewn all around the place. She stood and made a grab for some of the clothing, stacking it on a chair. Then she turned and saw the bed. The sheets were more than rumpled. They were totally askew.
Marigold blushed as she thought about how they’d gotten that way.
Gavin was a terrific lover who had shown her things she hadn’t even known existed.
He was energetic in the most delightful way, and though she didn’t have anything to really compare him to, she thought he was a resourceful and inventive lover, though definitely not a neat one.
Her cheeks were hot as she tried to repair the damage to the bedding but gave up after a few minutes of tugging and tucking.
She was too hungry to mess with this right now.
She wanted to clean up a bit, then go see what he was doing in the kitchen that was causing such savory scents to waft through the open door of the bedroom.
A few minutes later, she joined him in the kitchen.
She’d pulled on a pair of lounge pants and a soft T-shirt that she’d ordered the day before and had been delivered that morning.
The clothes Gavin had bought for her were the most comfortable she’d ever worn.
Of course, she’d never been able to choose her own clothing before.
Someone on Jeremiah’s staff had done it, and the clothes had just appeared in her closet.
She’d worn what she’d been told to wear on the occasions she’d be seen in public, and the rest of the time, her wardrobe had been limited to black skirts that were basically all the same and gray or black tops that were also similar.
She had been intended to blend into the background but still look presentable to anyone who might see her.
No thought for her comfort or desires had been entertained.
“Do you want more?” Gavin broke into her thoughts as he offered her more of the chicken he’d cooked to perfection.
“No thanks,” she replied, blotting her lips politely with a napkin. “It was delicious. My compliments to the chef.”
He lowered his chin in mock modesty. “The chef is glad you liked it,” he bantered back before scooping the remaining piece of chicken onto his own plate.
The man ate more than any other person she’d ever seen, but he didn’t have an ounce of fat on his spectacular body.
Shapeshifting must use up a lot of energy, she thought idly, watching him with fascination as he chomped and chewed, smiling occasionally at her scrutiny.
She found herself smiling back. Just being around him made her happy.
As they sat quietly, enjoying the meal, she thought back on something that was niggling at her mind. They’d been talking about Robert and Rowan earlier, and something occurred to her that might be important.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Gavin said as he cleared his plate.
“Not sure they’re worth that much, but something we were talking about earlier is on my mind.
Robert and Rowan. I was sent to their house to help them accomplish something magically for Jeremiah.
He only ever lent me out when the magical work he wanted done was too much for the mage or mages he assigned to the task.
They used my power when their own alone wasn’t enough.
But somehow, Robert and Rowan didn’t need my energy boost. They never called on my power. They never hurt me,” she whispered.
“So, they might have better souls than the rest of your relatives. Maybe they couldn’t stomach the idea of causing you pain,” Gavin offered.
“That’s what I’ve always thought, though I’ve never said it out loud before today.
The thing is, I didn’t think much beyond my own power.
I know I told you they looked totally drained after they accomplished whatever it was Jeremiah demanded of them, but they hid it from him when he came to pick me up.
I saw them both, and they looked like hell, but they put on a really good show when he arrived to get me.
Come to think of it, they might’ve used a glamour spell to hide how bad they both looked after using all that power. ”
“A glamour spell?” Gavin prompted when she’d been silent a bit too long.
“Oh, sorry. It’s a kind of spell that makes you look beautiful to whoever sees you.
A really well-done glamour is undetectable, even to other mages, but you have to be pretty powerful to pull it off, from what I’ve heard.
The thing is, if they had the kind of skill and power to do whatever Jeremiah wanted them to do without using any of my magic, and then still had enough to cast a glamour that was good enough to fool him, even for a short time, they must be way more powerful than anybody realizes,” she finished, looking up at him to see what he thought of her possible discovery.
“And they trusted you with the knowledge,” Gavin pointed out.
“They did,” she realized slowly. “I could have ruined them if I’d told Jeremiah, or anybody else in the family, for that matter.
The mere fact that they’d hidden their true natures from him would have caused a huge problem.
He controlled everyone and everything in the family.
If he saw them as a potential threat to his power, or even magical rivals, he would have killed them.
At the very least, he would’ve tried to leash their power if he could manage it.
He’d done it to Ash when he was younger.
Jeremiah didn’t want anyone around who was more powerful, magically speaking, than he was,” she said.
“So, Robert and Rowan were taking a big chance when they chose not to abuse you and use your power. You would’ve known their secret and could have revealed them.
They were counting on the fact that they’d treated you well to keep your silence, but it was risky for them.
If they’d been exposed for hiding their true power, Jeremiah would’ve been unhappy with them,” he said, using a milder word on purpose to emphasize his point.
“He would have definitely punished them in some way, which might’ve easily led to their deaths. They were taking their lives in their hands when they chose not to abuse me,” she realized so belatedly that she felt stupid she hadn’t realized this before.
“When the time comes, if it comes, I’ll want to talk to them before anything else,” Gavin said. “They might actually be on the right side of things, though they’re stuck in the wrong family. Just like you, only their power wasn’t stymied by trauma.”
“No, they are both full mages, taught in the family tradition by their own parents, as far as I know,” Marigold told him. That thought made her sad.
If her parents had lived, would she have grown into her power under their tutelage?
She thought she probably would have. As it was, she might never be able to get past the blockage to touch the magic that dwelt deep down within her soul.
Her birthright as a mage had been stolen from her, and that didn’t sit well.
Her chest tightened with the thought of what might have been, of the childhood she’d lost. If her parents had lived, she might have been trained with care, her power shaped and nurtured instead of chained and siphoned.
She might have grown into her power as naturally as breathing.
Instead, it had been twisted into something small and fearful, with only moments of brightness when it was forced out of her.
The ache was so sharp she almost couldn’t breathe.
Gavin must have sensed it. He didn’t try to argue or offer false comfort. Instead, he shifted the mood with a sly smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth.
“And now for the best part,” he said, his eyes gleaming as he pushed back from the table and strode toward the freezer.