He was crouched to my level. Nearly nose to nose with me. “Now, summon a bird.”
He reached out a hand.
I didn’t want to take it.
But his eyes narrowed threateningly.
He’s going to make me.
Better my terms than his. I slapped my hand in his and felt his large fingers fold around it. Seeming somehow final and ominous. Lightning currents poured through me from where he touched me.
Glancing at his face I saw a bit of white light shudder across his green irises, turning them briefly white as we both stood. Him pulling me up.
What was that?
My immediate reaction was to cut the connection, but his grip was unrelenting. And when I tugged backward, he reflexively pulled me in.
I was still straightening and was yanked off balance. He used the momentum to turn me, so I faced away from him.
He stepped in so he was flush against my back and caught my wrist and lifted it.
<Oh, no. My head shot up.His purposeful look immediately putting me on edge.He strode across the Training Garden and caught my arm. Before calling over his shoulder. “Markus!”Markus, nicknamed Magus by Hawk, was the most promising of the senior mages. An auburn haired, green eyed mage in training. One we all knew Hawk shared all his spells with. Hawk favored him enough to nickname him a mage’s title.I wonder if he gifted him what a mage could do with a woman’s lock of hair? I grimaced. Remembering that word he’d said so many times.Kerdan.Markus immediately stepped forward and started lining the other mages up with the arrow stands.Oh, no… My worst subject. I was frowning over my shoulder as Hawk drug me away on stilted legs.“Don’t worry about it.” He said harshly over to me. “You won’t be rejoining them until after I&rs
“But not this morning, Mary Mage. This morning I’m going to do to you exactly what I said I would.”I blinked at him anxiously.He slid his arm down the wall next to me and slid his hand beneath my gray mage’s robe and swept one side off my shoulder. Letting it fall to the ground behind me. He reached across to the other side and did the same. His hand brushing my breast on the way by.Making me hiss an indrawn breath as my nipple hardened at even that meager touch.His gaze fell to that taut bit of flesh and he flicked a thumb over it as he made an appreciative sound. “Take your clothes off, Mary.”I made a whimpering sound as I tipped my head back in defeat. Straightening my arms to let the robe fall over the bush next to me.“Now the dress.”“Hawk…” I tried pleading one more time. “What would make you let me go?”“An icy day in Hell, Mary.&r
He let the tip of him put pressure against my entrance. Letting me feel him.I know what’s coming now. I closed my eyes and prepared myself as much as I could. Still, I was nowhere near ready when he abruptly entered me. Burying deep into me. Making my hips feel as though they needed to part to allow him to probe my depths.My mouth opened and my head reflexively tossed up as I struggled against the urge to scream at the sensation of him filling me. But I knew Warlord was close by and knew that everything I seemed to do was wrong and everything Hawk did was right.And I remembered him telling Hawk to “fix me.”“I doubt when he told you to ‘fix me’ he was telling you to mount me.” I hissed.Hawk caught the ends of my blonde hair along my lower back and rolled them around his fist. Then reached forward to scoop one breast before letting his chest drop against my back so his heat surrounded me entirel
“What are you doing?” I asked.“Feeling your soul.” He said under his breath.I frowned at him. What’s that mean?“Hawk?”“I told you, you’d understand eventually, Mary Mage. When mages link, they exchange magic. Enhancing their own.”“I don’t understand.” I shifted slightly. Feeling achingly vulnerable with him still resting inside me but unmoving.Seeming more interested in sensing me than in filling me.“Every mage has magic.” He lifted a hand with fingers spread wide to symbolize one’s magic.“It has gaps in the things it can’t do and the knowledge the mage doesn’t have.” He outlined the spaces between his fingers with the pointer of his other hand. “But when they link then her magic can seep in and seal those gaps.”He linked his other hand upside down through the firs
The impact of Hawk’s statement wasn’t lost on me. It implied that training and leading the mages was awful.“Why is it so dreadful?”“Because when I fail. One dies.”I stared at him, jaw agape. My blue eyes blinking widely. I’d never considered what it must be like for Hawk to train us. Only how insufferable he was to endure the instruction of.“Come.” He caught my shoulder to turn me. “It’s time we return to the Training Gardens.”It was the last thing I wanted to do.No, that’s inaccurate. I don’t want to be alone with Hawk again.The only thing worse than enduring his cruelty was experiencing his vulnerability.***I heard Magus giving bold instructions even before we rounded the last turn, and they came into view.Mages were back to practicing casting arrows.In Hawk’s absence, Magus commands were
Hawk stood motionless near the trees behind me, waiting for me to react to his nearness.Or to his baiting.“Be careful with Magus.” He cautioned.“Why?”“Because he likes difficult women. And I’d not favor him growing fond of mine.”I stiffened. Mine?I’m not his. Did ‘mine’ mean plural? It dawned on me for the first time how the other women looked at him. Wanted him.There could be more.It’s unlikely I’m his only toy. But something in me coiled and tightened at the image that the night I’d taunted him and left him, he’d rose and gone to another’s bed.Would I have really expected otherwise? I glanced at his hard features over my shoulder. Is there anyone colder?“How many do you have?”“Not nearly enough.” He returned. Catching my
I walked back to my bed with a groan and flopped down to commence staring at the ceiling.The last thing I needed to consider, was the most dangerous on my mind.Especially when I don’t know who is peering in on my thoughts.Magus had spoken about fleeing the Guild as if he knew a way. And he’d talked about Hawk wanting to go.But if I brought it up and it was a trap, Hawk could have me killed.Warlord would destroy me for even perpetuating such an idea.But if it was true and I said nothing, no one would take me with them.And I could hardly remember how sweet freedom had tasted at this point...***But it came down to how much I truly trusted Hawk.The man who’d violated me.The man who was training me.The man who’d unlocked my power. Who’s sharing his with me.Yet, he was still the devious, dark bully.Bu
Stumped by Magus’ rationale, I left the Main Room on numbed feet but as I reached the stairs to head up toward the girl’s dorm, I caught wind of voices speaking low from the dark next to the stairs.And one of them is Hawk.His voice speaking in a confidential tone is what caught my attention. He was always so loud.Dominating and confident. He doesn’t sound like that now.“I’m trying everything.” Hawk reiterated. “She isgetting better.”“Not soon enough.” The commanding tone was unmistakable. It always sent scared shivers down my back.Somewhere in the back of my mind I could recall hearing it the night my parents were slaughtered, and I was brought to the Guild.I don’t know if he did it. But nonetheless his mere presence or his voice never failed to remind me of that evening. To send chills quaking down my body. Making even m