Mara #2
The lightning above Tiana gathers and thickens, pulling together into a shape that’s solid and bright.
The bolts twist and braid around each other, crackling and spitting, until they’re no longer lightning at all.
They’re chains. Thick, electric chains made of pure white energy, humming with power so intense I can smell the ozone from where I’m standing.
“I need to get your head checked,” Tiana says, and the calm in her voice puts my hackles up. “But this will do for now.”
She flings her arms forward and the chains streak across the clearing.
They hit Aaron and wrap around him fast, across his chest, his arms, pinning everything to his sides.
The electric shock that rips through him drops him to his knees and he roars, his back arching, his teeth bared.
Blue-gold light fights against the white chains and his whole body shudders from the current running through him.
“Tiana, stop!” I yell, but she just looks at me and grins.
“Isn’t this how he bonded you?”
“Not exactly,” I manage, realizing she has a point.
Aaron lets out another roar, lower and deeper this time, and starts straining against the chains. The muscles in his arms cord and the tendons in his neck stand out and his magic pushes back against the white light with everything he has.
“Oh, shit.” Torin leans forward. “He’s about to break out of them.”
“Not for a couple of hours,” Tiana says, but her confidence doesn’t last. Torin points at Aaron and she follows his gesture, her white eyes narrowing as the chains start to fracture.
Aaron’s entire body is glowing blue-gold now, and the electric chains are cracking along their length like glass under pressure.
“He’s never done that before.” Tiana’s voice drops. “What the hell?”
The chains shatter. The electric energy explodes outward in a burst of white sparks and I throw my arm over my eyes against the flash. When I drop it, Aaron is on his feet, standing in a haze of light with the broken pieces of Tiana’s chains floating in the air around him like shrapnel.
But he doesn’t let them fall. His hands come up, fingers spread, and the fractured chain links stop mid-air.
I watch his magic wrap around every broken piece—blue-gold light threading through white energy, pulling each broken link back into place, reassembling them one by one until the chains are whole again.
Tiana’s chains, rebuilt with Aaron’s magic woven through them.
He turns toward the Witching Glen. The cottage barrier is still glowing behind us, golden light pushing through the cracks where the seal is failing.
Aaron pulls his arm back and throws the reassembled chains forward.
They streak across the clearing, slam into the cottage, wrap around it, and sink into the barrier.
White and blue-gold light merge and the cottage groans as the chains constrict, sealing every crack and snuffing the glow until the barrier goes dark, solid, quiet.
Tiana goes rigid. The white drains out of her eyes and her normal dark irises come back, and she’s staring at the sealed Glen with her mouth open.
“Oh, shit,” she breathes.
My mate is standing there with his magic still pulsing through chains he stole from his sister and used to seal the thing they’ve all been trying to hold shut. My lion rumbles low inside me and I know this isn’t the time but I can’t help it—my mate is very powerful.
“I’ve gotta go check on Nala and my pup-cubs.” Torin is already stepping away, edging toward the tree line. “This is Blackwood business anyway.”
“You’re leaving?” I turn to him.
“Hell yes, this is out of my league.” He gives me a look that says he’s not sorry about it. “Keep the shirt.” He breaks into a run and disappears into the trees.
Tiana rolls her eyes. “Damn wolf shifter.”
She reaches out and grabs my arm, her grip firm even with her bruised hand. “Aaron needs to calm down,” she tells me. “I’ve never seen him like this. It’s like his magic is overpowering him or something.” She starts pulling me toward the portal but I snatch my arm back.
“Don’t make me tie you up.” Her voice goes sharp. “I need to get you looked at.”
“I’m not leaving him like this.” Aaron is still facing the Glen, his shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths, and the glow is fading from his skin in slow pulses.
The portal beside us flickers. Tiana glances at it and then back at me.
“Fine.” She crosses her arms. “Stay with your man so he can lock your ass back up.” She lifts her bruised hand and inspects it, flexing her fingers with a wince. “I’m going to Wintermoon Medical for myself anyway.”
She gives Aaron one last glare—and walks through the portal.
Aaron is still glowing. His breathing is heavy and his hands are still curled into fists and nothing about his posture says this is over. My lion presses flat inside me. Whatever’s driving him tonight hasn’t let go yet.
“Oh, no.” I take a step back. “I am not getting locked up again.”
“MARA!” Aaron’s roar rips through the clearing and my lion flinches inside me.
I spin and leap through the portal. The magic pulls me through and I land in a crouch on the front steps of Wintermoon Medical, palms flat against the cold ground. Tiana is by the entrance with her arms crossed.
“I knew you’d come to your senses.” Tiana’s mouth pulls into a smirk. “I know lion shifters hate being caged.”
I hiss at her but I don’t look away from the portal. It’s closing—the edges pulling inward, the light dimming, the tear between the Glen and the Medical entrance shrinking fast.
“Well, come on.” Tiana turns toward the door. “Don’t just stand there and watch—“
She freezes. So do I.
Aaron’s fingers lock around the edges of the closing portal.
His hands grip the light itself, the magic bending and sparking against his skin, and I can see the strain in his arms as he holds it open.
The portal fights him—it shudders and crackles and tries to close—but Aaron digs his fingers in and pulls.
He tears it open. The portal rips apart under his hands like fabric and he steps through.
Blue-gold light trails off his skin and he stands in front of Wintermoon Medical like he didn’t just tear a hole in the air with his bare hands.
The ripped edges spark behind him before they dissolve into dust.
“What the fuck?” Tiana whispers. Her fear hits my nose before she finishes the word—sharper than Torin’s, deeper, the scent of a sister watching her brother become something she doesn’t recognize.
I move behind Tiana and my hands find the back of her cloak and I hold on. The woman who glared at me all semester is the only thing between me and whatever Aaron has become tonight.
“I take it he’s not supposed to do that,” I say.
“No.” Tiana’s voice is barely above a breath. “I’ve never seen a warlock or a witch tear a portal open like that. Not even Amir.”
Aaron stands there with the dust of the torn portal settling around him. He locks onto me behind his sister and his magic pulses once across his skin.
“Give me my mate,” he snarls.
Tiana steps aside. I hiss at her but she lifts her hands and says, “Here you go, brother.” So much for solidarity.
My feet are planted and I’m about to tell him he can wait out here until he remembers how to act like a person, but Tiana flicks her wrist. My body slides forward across the ground like I’m standing on ice and I crash into Aaron’s chest.
His arm wraps around me, his skin touches mine, and the glow stops pulsing. It smooths out and dims and the heat rolling off his body drops back to something warm instead of burning. My lion settles inside me and my tail curls up and brushes the sweat from his cheek.
Tiana tilts her head. “I take it you’ve calmed down.”
Aaron leans down and presses his lips against my forehead. The kiss is gentle, nothing like the magic that was just tearing through him, and I close my eyes.
“Yes,” he says. Then he looks up at Tiana. “I’m sorry. I... I can’t explain what just happened there.”
Tiana holds up her bruised hand. “Oh, blow me. I’m still telling Mom.”
She turns and stomps toward the entrance and I watch her disappear through the doors cursing under her breath. I look up at Aaron.
“You are a very dangerous warlock,” I tell him.
He grins at me, dark and sharp, and my lion stirs because that smile should scare me and it doesn’t.
His hands slide to my thighs and he lifts me. “When it comes to you, Mara,” he says, “I am very dangerous.”
I lock my legs around his waist and wrap my arms around his neck. My tail comes around to stroke his cheek and I hold on as he carries me toward the entrance. I press my face into his neck and breathe him in—coffee, sandalwood, the fading edge of magic and blood.
I don’t know what’s coming or what broke open tonight that can’t be sealed back shut, but I’m going to be right here when it arrives.
Aaron carries me through the doors.