Chapter Seventeen
Andre tried to scramble onto his knees, but didn’t argue when I pressed him back down into the pile of pillows.
Even if he was feeling better, it didn’t mean he should be doing most of the work. And I wasn’t going to let him hurt himself doing it. He could prove himself right where he was.
“Bloody hell, Poppy,” he groaned against my throat. The heave of his breath felt like a warm breeze stirring my hair. The smell of him so close was beyond intoxicating. “You’re so beautiful.”
His lips mapped my throat, leaving tingles in their wake.
I was sure he’d swallow my pulse in his mouth when he began to nibble my neck.
The layers of clothing between us seemed like an unbearable inconvenience, but I could barely get my fingers to stop shaking long enough to undo the buttons of his shirt.
Everywhere we touched, I flushed with the warmth of his love as delicious tingles erupted any and everywhere he touched me.
“You’re glowing, Poppy,” Andre said.
“You don’t look so bad yourself.”
He laughed. “No, I mean the tips of your hair are glowing.”
I wanted to believe he was pulling my leg, but when I looked down, I found my hair throwing a golden glow not only over me, but the glow was shifting, washing the heavy beams and plush furnishings in a honeyed light. Andre leaned back against the pillows, the quilt pooling around him.
“Oh… well, that’s new,” I started, shaking my head. “And I have no idea why my hair is doing it.”
But soon it wasn’t just my hair. It was my entire body that was radiating a strange, golden glow. I had no idea why, but it wasn’t a painful experience so I tried to just shove it to the back of my mind.
“You are so damn silly. And beautiful,” he sighed happily.
Slowly, gently, he reached for my face, tilting it toward his. His touch was warm, grounding, and I leaned into it instinctively, the tension in my chest easing just enough to let me breathe. Our lips met, soft at first, a tentative press.
As to what in the world was going on with my hair and this glow?
I didn’t know. But at the moment, I also didn’t care.
All that mattered was this man in front of me.
My hands sank into his hair, pulling him closer, while Andre’s arms circled my waist. The room seemed to shrink around us, until only the pile of fabric, pillows, and the man in my arms seemed to matter.
When we finally parted, just enough to catch our breath, I kept my forehead against his. “You’re really okay? I’m not hurting you?”
“No, you aren’t hurting me. I’m more than okay. I’m happy.”
Power suddenly seemed to be thrumming through me, sparking anywhere our skin touched.
It was like a static electricity that actually made me jump as I looked around the room for a culprit.
But it was just us. Then I realized the golden embers dancing over my fingers didn’t just belong to me. They belonged to us.
Because I could suddenly feel another presence in the room with me.
Inside of me, even. Part of me. It was an inner light that had only just flickered to life inside my chest. It didn’t hurt.
On the contrary, it felt warm. Powerful.
And I was fairly sure it was the reason for the glow that was emanating from me—my whole body now.
“What is that?” Andre asked, voice low. So I wasn’t the only one sensing it. Good.
“I think... I think it might be...” I trembled under the realization. “I think it’s the Goddess.”
Which was all kinds of wrong, right? I mean, it should have been.
I was a gypsy. An outsider. I wasn’t a witch.
I never had been one. And, yes, I was part of the coven, but I’d been brought in ceremonially by a group of friends.
And yet, this didn’t feel like a promise between friends. This felt… sacred.
“You’re a funny child,” the goddess murmured. I could hear her voice in my mind. It was familiar and alien at once. Like it was new, and yet it had been there for all eternity.
“I’m not a child,” I replied in thought, cheeks burning. “I’m in my forties.”
The goddess laughed, soft and deep, like water lapping against stones. “You are but an infant. I am as ancient as the bedrock beneath the Hollow, and as young as the first seedling breaking through the soil.”
“You’re the Goddess,” I thought, mostly to make sure.
I felt her nod even though I couldn’t see her. “I am life. Motherhood. Renewal. Death. Everything that turns in cycles and circles. And I am in you now.”
Visions flickered behind my eyes. Shadows, faint at first, then more defined: the Hollow under siege, twisted figures whispering in corners, the Masked Lords moving with purpose.
One shape coalesced into Knox—familiar, yet alien, as though the essence of Knox had fused with something dark inside the goddess herself.
I saw it: parasitic, feeding, choking, a malignancy within nature itself.
“You see it,” the goddess whispered. “The cancer in the organism.”
“Knox?” I asked.
She nodded. “Knox is part of me, yet he is not. He is vicious. He seeks to strangle what I have nurtured. There will come a time, Poppy, when you will need every soldier you can gather to fight this evil.”
I shivered as my heart hammered behind my ribs. She was talking about a war, and I was fairly sure she was talking about a war with the Masked Lords. Then that had to mean they were eventually going to attack us?
“What… what do I have to do?”
“You are receiving a miracle,” the goddess answered, teasing again, brushing through me, warm and vital, a current of alchemy and life.
“You have this power now—but with every gift comes a duty. A responsibility. You are my daughter, Poppy. A witch, as well as an alchemist, as well as a gypsy. You are favored.”
“Favored?”
“Yes. You have been given sight and touch for a purpose.”
Images danced through my mind then: images of soldiers, allies, the coven, my friends.
Those were followed by images of magical wards blazing.
And suddenly I could see Haven Hollow itself—as if it were a living thing.
I could feel the goddess shaping the energy around it, guiding the flow.
And then I could only focus on Andre beneath me—steady, real, warm—anchoring me.
“Do you understand, Poppy?” the goddess whispered. “You are still learning. And by pledging yourself to me, you have opened doors you would never have touched otherwise.”
“I need to make sure I’m ready.”
“You are ready in ways you cannot yet know,” the goddess said. “And in ways you will have to learn. But for now… feel this. Know it. Let it teach you. Let it remind you what it is to be alive, what it is to be loved, and what it is to protect life in all its fragile beauty.”
My chest rose and fell, my breath coming in short spurts as the visions faded slowly, leaving me dazzled, trembling, and unshakably aware of the gift—and the burden—flowing through me.
“What’s going on?” Andre asked, voice low, reverent. I wondered if he could feel her here, too. Or if I looked like a crazy person.
“I don’t exactly know how to explain it,” I started breathlessly. “It was… the goddess. She’s… well, she’s inside me. I... I didn’t just join the coven symbolically.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think… as far as my magic is concerned, I’m half witch. Somehow I’ve opened the door to something—something beyond just alchemy.”
“What does that mean, Poppy?”
“It means… I’m going to have power. A lot more than I want, I think. Starting now.” And then I felt a sureness within me that what I was saying was correct.
“You have the ability within you to heal, Poppy,” her voice suddenly sounded in my mind again.
And then I looked at Andre. “I… want to try something.”
“Okay.”
I knelt beside him, and when I focused on what I was about to attempt, the air grew thick with the scent of salt and smoke—scents which hadn’t been there only seconds earlier.
Andre looked slightly alarmed, but didn’t argue with me when I began working on his buttons.
Once I’d removed his shirt, I touched his skin over his heart, and I closed my eyes.
I could feel an incredible power suddenly taking hold of me.
Energy suddenly blossoming up and filling every part of my body.
When I opened my eyes, I watched as gold light bled outward from my fingertips.
Andre inhaled sharply, as the golden light channeled itself into a stream, threading from my hand into his chest.
“Solve et coagula.” The words sounded in my mind. “Dissolve the corruption, bind the essence anew. Alchemy is one of the ways my world touches yours, little witchling. I speak your language, if only distantly.”
“Solve et coagula,” I repeated the words aloud.
And then I knew what I had to do next. In order to share this healing energy fully, I had to meld my body with his. Andre’s eyes flew open wide when I undid the buttons on his pants.
“Poppy?”
“It’s okay,” I whispered as I carefully inched them down his long legs.
He looked a little surprised when I shoved his boxers down next.
That was when I realized he was ready for me.
So I didn’t waste any time. Instead, I shifted my own panties to the side and settled astride him, the fullness of him inside me drawing a satisfied sigh from my throat.
Our energies met like two metals in a crucible, resisting for a moment, then fusing.
The light between us rose in waves. And as we held each other, as close as we could possibly be to one another, a bridge was formed between our bodies.
The bridge drew my health down into him, carefully sponging away any pain and discomfort he was feeling, leaving only pleasant tingles in its wake.
The reaction built until I thought I’d split. Then, slowly, the heat softened. The shadows of pain withdrew from him, dissolving into vapor that shimmered and vanished. What remained was a slow, luminous rhythm—his pulse answering mine, his aura bright and whole again.
When the final flame guttered out, I held my hands to his chest, fingers joined over his heart. It was hammering as hard as mine. He was warm and sweaty. So was I. He stared at me for a long moment before framing my face with his hands.
“I feel right as rain.” He paused.
I smiled down at him. “Now, if you feel better, I could do with a proper thank you.”
His gaze twinkled. “I think I could show you my most effusive gratitude for the next few hours. If you’re not busy.”
“My schedule can be negotiated.”
“Excellent. Then I have a few ideas regarding how to spend the rest of our evening.”