Share
Chapter Six
Tara was so absorbed in her reading that she didn’t hear Brandon climb the stairs. Assuming he was in bed she’d taken the servant’s stairs to the kitchen and hadn’t bothered to check the rest of the house before heading back to the den with tea in hand.
“You’re up late,” Brandon drawled lazily as he leaned his tall muscular body against the door frame.
“Did I wake you?” Tara asked in a voice just above a whisper as she gently closed the book and carefully set it on the antique side table next to her winged back chair.
“I’m a little big for that fainting sofa. I thought I’d try a bed instead,” he said while rubbing and flexing his neck for emphasis. “What were you reading?” he nodded his head toward the book
she’d just set down.
“I was seeing if I could find anything in this book about the shadow people,” she replied hesitantly.
A
Related chapters
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Seven
She’d awoken in the comforts of the colonel’s tent in their camp about three miles east of where she fainted. Disorientated at first, the sight of Brandon sitting trussed in a chair nearby quickly brought her to her senses. Tara cautiously sought out signs of any soldiers before crawling as quietly as she could to his side and seeing what she could do about the ropes binding him.“Leave it,” he whispered. “It isn’t worth angering them. The colonel seems like an amiable fellow. I’m hoping to talk him into releasing us.”She stopped pulling at the ropes, totally confused. Here they were alone and, in a position, to escape and he talked about chatting his way to freedom. Had he lost his mind? They knew nothing of these people. The colonel spared her a horrendous ordeal, but does that mean that he’d allow them their freedom? Brandon was clearly a Southerner, after all. She didn’t want to take that chance. Shaking
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Eight
Tara observed her dinner companions while she sat at the long, elegantly set table and waited for dinner to be served. The view before her was amazing. Having come to the conclusion that she and Brandon were not in Shadow Land, but had stayed in the same area, but gone back to the time of the civil war, she watched in wonderment and listened with fascination almost forgetting the reason they came.Dining in the original magnificence of her home -mixed with a potent wine and candle light- caused headiness for Tara that carried on throughout the meal. She was seated opposite Brandon with Aidan between them at the head. Although he watched her every move from the corner of his eyes, Brandon’s focus never left the colonel, nor did his conversation. If Tara hadn’t known better she would have thought the two well acquainted.She fidgeted in her chair as her suspicions arose. Why would Brandon be so calm and relaxed in the presence of their Yankee captor when he w
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Nine
Brandon stretched across the soft feather mattress and looked at the ceiling. This was the very same room Tara put him in whenever he was her guest. He thought about the faded disrepair that awaited the room. It was always a shame to see things go downhill and deteriorate. It was fortunate Fiona’s spell worked enough to convince Tara’s grandmother to will it to Tara with enough stipulations to prompt the girl to keep it and live in it. He hoped that living in it would jog her memory, but the veil wove itself tight around her even her studies with Maggie weren’t pulling it free. Between the veil and Lucy’s forgetting spell, he wondered if she’d ever recall her life with him and the good days before Alana made a mess of it all.Brandon met Lucy just before the onset of the war. He was immediately smitten by her beauty, poise, and charm. He was delighted to discover she had a head on her shoulders as well. She, on the other hand, was res
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Ten
Fiona straightened her back and admired her handiwork in the enormous garden that occupied acres of land. Although pleased with the progress she made with tending the myriad of vegetables, herbs and flowers that were grown in order to keep her pantry well stocked with supplies for both food and magic, she longed for some time to simply sit on her porch with her dog at her feet and rock the day away. Memories of her life in the twenty-first century doing just that were weak, but she could still pull bits and pieces of them up if she tried hard enough.Her recollections of her final moments in that life were the strongest. She could still feel the searing pain as Dominic’s evil creatures tore her apart before her soul managed to escape Maggie’s body. She could still pull the memory up with such vivid clarity.She was grateful she’d magically shared her soul with an infant in her family lineage of the twenty-first century and gone through the process of
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Eleven
Tara fidgeted with the waist of her corduroy walking suit. It was such a tedious outfit to put on and she dreaded doing it all over again, especially since the events of the last few days caught up with her and she felt abnormally tired. Keeping on the underskirt and pantalets, she positioned herself as comfortably as she could on the thick, feather mattress and did her best to sleep. Unable to accomplish total relaxation, her sleep was restless and fitful, leaving her attire in tussled disarray.Without the assistance of an attendant, she was unable to rectify the damage done to the alignment of her clothing before Joshua offered her a quick breakfast of coffee and cold biscuits to be eaten while they walked to the stables. She did her best to tug and adjust with her free hand, while she balanced the biscuit and coffee in the other hand and followed him to the stables. Noticing her dilemma, Joshua smiled to himself, but made no offer to assist. When they reached the stable,
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Twelve
Tara’s mouth tasted like she chewed on an old cotton rag for the majority of the night. To add to her misery, her head felt like someone slammed a hammer across her skull more than once. The room looked as out of focus as the rest of her. The faint murmur of voices in the distance sounded familiar, but she couldn’t think who they belonged to nor could she understand the words.****Joshua’s nostrils flared with rage and his eyes glowed with a wicked orange hue as he interrupted his heated conversation with the old wizard to observe Tara’s stirring. The old fool obviously gave her far too potent a dosage of the potion he admitted to slipping into their stew.He’d been up and about for several hours with minimal residual effects.“If you’ve damaged her in any way old man,” Joshua spit from between clenched teeth, “you’ll feel not only my wrath
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Thirteen
Fiona watched the shooting star make its way across the rich blue sea of the cloudless night sky while she listened to Brandon’s footsteps steadily approach. They were solid steps belonging to a man of strength, determination and confidence. The brilliant moon cast his shadow past her long before his actual arrival. She regretted involving him with this mess. After all, he was just a time traveler with no magical skills to speak of. Placing him in such a risky position when she summoned him to her in the future almost cost him his life at the mercy of that demon. Was that really fair?“You’re deep in thought,” Brandon said in a hushed tone. “Am I interrupting?”“Not at all,” Fiona replied. “I was just thinking about what to do next.”“I’ve had some thoughts of my own. If you don’t mind I’d like to pass them by you,” he volunteered.Fiona looked at him long and
The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Fourteen
Flames danced around the light show of elusive sparks as Joshua put another branch he’d obtained from a seasoned fallen oak tree onto the fire. His mind raced with concern as he watched Lucy’s health dissipate with every passing hour. He was baffled. She looked healthy to the naked eye. She showed no symptoms of disease yet grew weaker and weaker for no apparent reason. He’d hoped the old wizard would create a potion to heal her. Now he was faced with the dilemma of taking her to Balthazar in her weakened condition or seeking aide from an old witchdoctor who lived in the most remote depths of the mountains. He weighed the pros and cons of both and decided that it would be far more advantageous for him to deliver a healthy and vibrant young enchantress to the Lord of Shadow Land than to show up with the shell of a woman who lay snuggled beneath the woolen blankets he’d brought along.Joshua sighed. He’d never been to the witchdoctor and only
Latest chapter
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Twenty-Four
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Twenty-Three
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Twenty-Two
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Twenty-One
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Twenty
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Nineteen
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Eighteen
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Seventeen
- The Search for the Crystal Key (Book 2 of Dark Escape Duo) Chapter Sixteen
