He certainly had an effect on me, that was for sure. “Maybe.”
Lucus strode across the room to a tall wooden cabinet. The twining snakes from the spell book cover were carved into the doors. He took a glass jar from a shelf inside and brought it to me. “Henbane, I believe.”
I removed the large cork stopper, and a sickly scent crawled out of the container. Reaching in, I felt dry leaves and petals. Delicately, I stripped one dried flower of two small petals. They looked harmless in my palm, small and unassuming.
Lucus replaced the cork and put the glass jar away in the cabinet as I rubbed the petals to dust between my palms. The scent I breathed in was musky and too sweet, like rot, and as I inhaled the odor, my head grew light. I peeked at the recipe—the spell—as Lucus stood nearby, his gaze on me. The next step was to focus on my aura. Lucus was the expert on auras.
“When you see someone’s energy, what does that feel like?” I asked.
“It comes naturally to my kind, but let me think. I suppose one could describe the sensation as a rush of…presence? A sudden torrent of who that person is and what their strengths might be.”
“Does it feel hot or cold?”
“Neither, but if you forced me to choose one, I’d say it feels hot.”
I closed my eyes and tried to sense my own aura, my energy, imagining its golden shimmer as it hummed and surged from within me, pushing its way into the outer world. Aunt Viv would’ve loved this.
“It does feel kind of warm,” I said quietly, my eyes shut and the dangerous scent of henbane in my nose.
“You are so beautiful, tocco d’oro.” Lucus’s voice rumbled through me, and my aura increased its reach. Was that because we were fated mates? I still hated thinking of that, of being forced to be with a guy. No way. That was not going to be me. But I couldn’t deny the pull he had on all of me or the dizzying combination of attraction and calm I now felt around him.
The humming of my aura grew a little louder. “It sounds like a song.”
“Your aura?”
“Yeah.”
I opened my eyes to see him laughing, wonder sparking in his green eyes. “Amazing,” he whispered, his gaze traveling all over me like gentle hands, brushing the curve of my waist, the line of my collarbone.
Recalling the final step in the spell, I placed my dusty hands on my neck at my pulse points, then dragged my palms down over my chest to stop at my heart. Energy rose like a wave inside me, and I gasped.
“Well, that worked,” I said. “I feel like a million bucks over here.”
My skin was flushed with warmth, and my muscles felt nicely toned like I’d been working out for a few months. Which I definitely had not. And yeah, I hadn’t died from the first spell. This was promising. Maybe I could learn to control this magic and not end up as a purple splat of power on the walls of a cursed castle. I smiled at Lucus, and gratitude for his help in all this madness poured over me.
“You look like you’re made of gold.” Lucus came forward and touched my temple. His finger slid down my throat, stopping at the robe’s neckline. His gaze snapped to me, and heat jolted my core, making me dizzy. “Coren?”
Lucus’s thunder-like voice, quiet and strong, held a thousand questions. My chest rose and fell too quickly, and I couldn’t stop staring at his intense dark green eyes.
His lips parted. “I…”
I gave him no time to finish whatever he might have said. Desire raised her head and threw me at him, my body ringing like a struck bell. My hands were everywhere—palm across his cheek, fingers in his hair, a thumb rushing over his hipbone. His horns shimmered into view as I pulled him close, and he snarled as his wings cracked open wide. Wild shivers ran up my legs as he lifted me and pinned me against the wall. My robe parted, belt sliding loose, as Lucus used a free hand to shift his trousers below his hips, and at the skin on skin contact, I sucked a quick breath. The feel of his body hot on mine was divine. I drew his pointed ear into my mouth, my tongue darting over the tip. A slow growl rumbled in his chest, vibrating my breasts as he dragged his lips over my collarbone and whispered words in fae. I was shaking, breaking apart at the edges, a bonfire of desire enflaming every inch of me.
“You are certain?” Lucus asked hoarsely into my ear.
In answer, I gripped his hips. He was silent, his gaze deadly serious when he locked it down on me. He shifted his weight, then thrust into me. Pleasure roared through my veins at the feel of him. Painfully slow, he drove forward again, making me beg for more.
An ecstasy unlike anything I’d ever known built up inside my core, growing, rising, shrieking to release as he thrust again, filling me and breathing my name. My hands were in his hair. His horns brushed the side of my face. I bit his shoulder, the scent of ancient forests clinging to his nectar-sticky skin as he drove forward, faster now, wilder.
“Coren,” he growled, his mouth parting and his eyes squeezed shut.
An electric thrill lit my entire body. The world outside of us and this moment submitted to the pleasure, and I moaned with release, shaking, trembling with joy, my skin on fire with the glow of the moment.
Both panting, heartbeats in sync, we set our foreheads together, his eyebrow quirking up toward his hairline.
He set me down gently, and I straightened my robe, tying the belt as he led me toward his chamber and that washroom of his.
“I wish I could
