“No!” she gasped. “Stop, please stop. Don’t force me to do this.”

His cock throbbed, his heart ached, but inside, a voice demanded that he do this. He could save her and save his sister, and he would be saving her heartbreak.

She would hate him for this.

Angrily, he tore open the placket of his trousers. He stroked her quim, even as she tried to escape him. Dexterous caresses of his fingers made her wet, but he knew she didn’t want this.

“Let me free you,” he growled. He sank inside her, his cock sliding in.

Heat gripped him, making him cry out with pleasure.

“No,” she cried. “I can’t hurt you. I can’t.”

“This is all on me,” he muttered. He drove his cock into her, slid his finger down to stroke her clit with his every thrust, and he sucked her nipple.

The assault of sensation was too much. He knew she didn’t want to come, but she couldn’t help it.

“Oh!” she gasped. Her hips suddenly rocked against him wildly. The climax took her, and tears streamed down her face as her body moved with her orgasm.

Did he have to give her five in a row? Or was this one soon enough after the other four? He had to try now. The words to the incantation were hazy in his mind. He couldn’t forget them now, damn it. Fighting to bring them back, Raven whispered them softly. They were Latin, and translated to:

I pledge myself forever to you, my heart to your heart, my life with yours,

And as yours, I take from you the burden placed there, the dark power, the pain you have borne,

Give me your power; give it to me through love,

Let me take your black burden from you, let me give you this gift of my deepest love,

Freedom.

Felie lifted her head, and he moved back from her to let her breathe. Raven stared into her wide blue eyes, searching for change.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her body slumped back against the wall. Bonelessly she began to fall, and he caught her in his arms. He scooped her up as her body began to shake.

Her skin burned as if flames roared over her body. Something touched her, and Ophelia screamed. Her eyes were wide open, but she could not see.

She reached out, her hands like claws. She had to fight free of this awful pain.

A sudden violent pain exploded in her chest. Her heart must have burst—that was what it felt like. A brilliant white light flashed in front of her eyes. All she could see were whirling silver stars.

“Ophelia?” Someone called to her. Her mother? She had not seen her mother for years. She reached out her hands toward the tall woman who wore white, and whose golden hair tumbled free around her. She wanted to hug Mama . . .

She flew into her mother’s embrace. Mama pulled her close, her skin smelling of vanilla, her hair of roses. Ophelia pressed her cheek to her mother’s bosom and cried.

Why was she crying?

She had not been able to hold her mother for years. This was her only chance—

“Ophelia.”

She forced her eyes open. Raven bent over her, and she lay on the floor.

“I can’t touch you,” he growled. “I’m so sorry. I want to touch you, but I can’t. I could hurt you.”

“Oh my God, my power is gone.” The awful pain was gone, leaving her numb. “I’m free now,” she croaked. “My power is gone. It must be. But you are going to die. Raven—”

“It was my choice,” he growled.

Raven hungered to give her one last kiss, but he could not. They no longer shared the power, so if he touched her, he could kill her.

He had done it. He had taken her power, forced her to climax against her will, and she would hate him forever. She didn’t know that he had been commanded to kill her brother years ago, but she did not need to. She hated him and his destruction was guaranteed.

Her sobs broke Raven’s heart. They hurt so much he felt as if he actually had a soul.

Ophelia had loved finding her pleasure. When they made love, she was so sweet and innocent as she had explored him. Everything she’d done to him had been amazing, and he had ruined it. By forcing her, he’d taken something beautiful for her and made it ugly. She would never forget this. Never forgive him.

Raven wanted to say he was sorry, but it was wrong to spout those words as if they made a difference. It would be a pitiful attempt to plead with her to not hate him so much.

He left her. To go to Jade’s home, give up the power, and die.

Lady Ophelia, it is Guidon. I must tell you why Ravenhunt took your power against your will. It was to save his sister. She is a prisoner of Queen Jade, and she will be killed if Ravenhunt does not give Jade your power by midnight tonight. That is why he hurt you.

Ophelia jerked awake.

Footsteps thundered in the hallway, slamming down on the floorboards with a force that spoke of anger. It had to be Raven. He was running back to her?

Rubbing her head, Ophelia pushed up from her bed . . . how had she gotten into bed? Raven had left her in the foyer. What had happened?

Then she remembered. She had come up to her room. She had meant to dress and chase him. But that was the last thing she could recall. She must have collapsed.

Ophelia slid her arms into her thick robe, tied the belt around her waist.

He hadn’t reached her room yet, but the slap of boot soles had stopped. He was not running anymore. But he was still coming to her, and she didn’t know what to do.

She hurt all over from the way he had pressed her against the wall and had forced her to climax by thrusting in her, stroking her clit, and sucking her nipples. She had struggled against him, and it left her feeling sore everywhere. Losing her power to him had exhausted her.

She hadn’t wanted Raven to take her power. She knew he was going to be destroyed—he had told her there was a secret in his past, something that would make her hate him. He had told her about the passage in Guidon’s book, about how they must prove their love could withstand the harshest tests. He did not believe it would, so her love couldn’t save him.

She had refused to hurt him. He’d forced himself on her.

Tears leaked to her cheeks again, and she brushed them away. She felt dead inside. She’d expected to feel happy when her power was gone. But that hardly mattered now, when she was going to lose Ravenhunt forever.

Logic told her she should not forgive Raven for forcing sex on her, for forcing her to harm him. Since the beginning, when he’d kidnapped her, this had been about what he wanted. But she believed Guidon’s words, the ones he had just spoken through her thoughts, were true.

Everything Raven had done was to protect his sister. She remembered the pain in his silvery eyes as he’d told her he had let his sister believe him dead. It hurt him that he could never be with his sister. Obviously he dearly loved the girl.

No matter what Raven had done to her, she didn’t hate him. How could she hate a man who was willing to sacrifice himself for a beloved sister? There was no hate in her heart and soul. She loved him deeply.

The footsteps sounded again. “Ophelia? Are you here?”

It wasn’t Ravenhunt. For moments she was utterly dazed. Memories flooded to her with the voice . . .

She remembered laughter as two young children ran to the plum orchard at their country home and gorged on tart plums until their chins were sticky with juice. Then playing ring-around-the-rosies until one collapsed and was sick, and the other was the winner, or playing hide-and-seek in the enormous gallery by hiding behind their father’s collection of Grecian statues.

“Harry.” Her voice was a mere whisper. She was too stunned to speak with force.

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