Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“This is bad.” I shake my head, watching the water around us. I decide to cast a spell to calm it down. “Gods of my element, goddesses of seas, lend me your power to put the water at ease. Calm the storm and temper the tide, smooth out the waves on which we ride. Protect us herein and those on the land; settle yourself before this gets out of hand.”
That should have worked, but it does nothing.
“Xander, what is this?”
“Lorelei.”
My head whips around at the horrific sound of his voice, and I scream when I see that he’s torn to shreds. His skin hangs loosely off his bones, and I try to get over to him. Before I can, the boat capsizes and tosses me into the water.
“Lorelei.”
I gasp and sit up, thrashing as if I’m still under that horrible water, but then I’m suddenly in Xander’s strong arms, and he’s rocking me, holding me close.
“Shh,” he coos. “You’re okay. It’s okay, Lorelei.”
He hasn’t called me by any term of endearment in years.
Because I forbade him to do it.
Because of what happened.
“Why are you here?”
The briefest look of hurt crosses his face. I would have missed it if I didn’t know him as intimately as I do.
But I do know him.
My body still hums from that fucked-up dream. And the worst part is, I’ve been having similar ones almost every night. Memories of our time together, back when things were so good that I thought nothing could ever tear us apart. And then, the end of the dream is so messed up I stay awake the rest of the night, trying to calm down from it.
“You were screaming,” he says flatly, standing from the porch swing where I’d curled up for a nap.
Napping is another thing I’ve been doing. Thanks to horny and messed-up nightmares at night.
“Really?” I wipe my eyes and frown. “Weird.”
If he’s going to be so close to me, my body really needs to calm the hell down. Because Xander is the one person in this universe that I can’t have.
Not ever again.
“It was only a nightmare.”
His eyes, those beautiful black eyes, narrow on my face as if searching for answers that I’m not willing to give him. “What kind of nightmare?”
“Just a stupid one. Tomorrow is October. Breena and Giles just got married less than a week ago, and Samhain is just around the corner. That means we’ve got some stress going on here, you know?”
I shrug like it’s no big deal, but he and I both know it is a big deal.
We’re trying to lift a curse that’s been in place for three centuries.
“Xander, I have a question.”
“Anything.”
I lick my lips and stand, wrapping my arms around my middle as I walk closer to the water that laps against the shore barely twenty yards away from my little cottage.
“Do you think we really got rid of the…thing that tried to kill us over Beltane?”
I turn to find him frowning at me. Goddess, he’s a beautiful man. In every way. And my body, my heart, it all yearns for him every time I look at him.
It’s a form of torture that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Because I can’t have him. After what happened before, there’s no possibility of us being together.
“No, I don’t.” His statement brings me back to the here and now.
“Why didn’t you say something at the time?”
“Because we all needed to believe we had. We needed the respite, and it wasn’t a danger to us then.”
I worry my bottom lip and shift my feet.
“It’s not gone. I know it’s not.”
“Is that what the nightmare was about?”
“Maybe,” I whisper and look back out at the water. I take a deep breath and then look at him once more. “You said I was screaming, but how did you know that?”
“I was flying overhead.” He says it so matter-of-factly I have to blink twice.
“Why were you flying over my house?”
“To check on you, of course.”
“Xander, I don’t need you to check on me.”
“Too fucking bad.” His voice is still calm, his face impassive. “I can fly wherever I godsdamn well please, and if that means I want to look in on you to make sure you’re safe, then I fucking will, Lorelei. You don’t have a say in that.”
“You’re so damn irritating.”
“Back at you.”
He makes me want to pull my hair out at the roots, but I also want to run over there and hug him in gratitude. Because as much as I insist that I don’t need him, it does soothe me knowing that Xander’s looking out for me.
He’s the most powerful witch and the strongest man I know.
“Also, we can ride together over to Jonas and Lucy’s place for dinner,” he adds.
“Are you going to give me a ride on your back?”
“I was thinking we could go in your car like normal people.”