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“No!” Fern screamed.
“For just a minute, stay here…”
“That will not happen!” Fern shook her head. It was getting harder and harder for her to concentrate. Calum was stronger than her and moved to stand. “Calum, STOP!”
As soon as Fern said it, everything ceased.
The fire returned to the bounds of the fireplace, and the wind quieted. Objects that had been tossed around the room fell to the floor. The smells of the highlands vanished until all that was left was the smell of smoke and ink. Even the drumbeats stopped.
The contents of the office slowly stitched themselves back together, with artifacts whisking themselves to their rightful places and books re-stacking across the floor. In mere moments, everything was back in its rightful place as if nothing had happened at all.
Calum’s face was frozen in shock as he turned to look at Fern.
“Fern…” he whispered it as if he was afraid to anger her again. “Look.” He nodded towards Fern’s hands. She looked down and shrieked.
“Oh my god! Make it stop!” Fern’s hands were glowing, the same shining gold that she saw in Calum’s eyes. Fern batted at her hands like she was trying to knock a spider off.
“Don’t do that,” Calum reprimanded sharply, his hands going to cover hers. “Don’t hurt yourself. Look at me.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hands and waited until Fern’s breathing calmed down.
When she finally took a deep breath and looked Calum in the eye, he climbed out from beneath the desk and helped her stand. They inspected the room in stunned silence, but everything was back to normal. Even the teakettle had been repaired.
“What was that?” Fern finally asked. She still sounded out of breath, and her heart was pounding. The dull, throbbing feeling of the magic in her bones hadn’t gone away. Now that they were out of imminent danger, she could feel it pushing her to focus on one thing.
Calum.
He had been studying a saber on the wall, and he turned to face her.
Fern snarled.
Chapter Eighteen
Calum was used to seeing magic express itself in a variety of ways. The easiest way to understand it was to know that you knew nothing. But even that hadn’t prepared him for the look in Fern’s eyes when he turned around.
While his magic had been bound for centuries, hers had just been actualized—and it was fighting for a way to get out. There was no mistaking the look on her face and the way her hands lit up in response to the curse’s full incantation.
The blood of an ancient seer had been in Fern’s veins all her life, and it was no longer interested in playing second fiddle. When Calum turned around to answer Fern, he saw it in her eyes.
She might not know what a mate was…but her magic did.
It would not wait any longer.
“Fern…” Calum spoke slowly, holding his hands out as if to placate her. “Take another deep breath and take a seat. I’ll explain everything to you.”
His own power flared up inside him in fury. It sensed that Calum was attempting to deescalate the situation. A flash of sharp pain went through his leg as magic, everything he still had, flooded his sensibilities to override them.
“What was that?” Fern repeated the question, taking a step closer to him. Her chest was heaving with her rapid heartbeats, and there was a thin sheen of sweat on her skin.
Stay in control. Stay in control.
Calum tried to reason with the baser parts of himself, but his vision condensed to one point. The surrounding air had gone stagnant. All he could see in the room now was Fern McEwan.
Her gaze was electric as she took him in, taking another calculated step towards him. There was a deep, frenzied obsession that had ebbed and flowed between them for weeks; Calum had been holding onto cursed knowledge that he wasn’t allowed to act upon.
Even now, he fought against the darker influences in his blood. The ones that were telling him to wrestle Fern down to the floor and take and claim and bite.
She didn’t look any more coherent than he did. He fought back a groan as her tongue flicked out over her lips.
“Calum…” her voice had dropped to a husky purr that went straight to his cock. “You said before that you didn’t want to talk about this,” she pointed to the space between them, “so I’m done talking.” Fern took another step forward, only a few feet from him now.
