“Mikhail, if she looks at all unwell, you’ll stop her, right?”
“Absolutely.” The two stubborn he-men nodded to each other.
Morgaine threw her hands up. “Fine. Now, let’s get this done. She shoved a box of sea salt at Mikhail. “Start on the opposite side of the altar, pour this salt around us, and don’t leave the circle once it’s been cast.”
He glided around her in a wide circle, spreading the salt. When he finished, he moved to the spot she indicated and stood across from her, hands clasped behind his back.
Morgaine picked up her wand, pointed it at the North until blue light flowed out of its tip, then she rotated in place and drew the circle over their heads chanting, “We stand in circles of light that nothing may cross.”
She remembered her promise to increase her own strength and lay down on the floor.
“Is she okay?” Sly shouted.
“I’m fine. It’s part of the ritual. Now, please stop worrying anddon’tinterrupt—no matter what, okay?”
Sly didn’t respond. She’d just have to hope he behaved himself. At least Mikhail still hadn’t invited him in.
She lay with her hands crossed over her chest as if dead. Closing her eyes, she went into trance, then slowly sat up and mumbled, “On, Oron, Doron,” she raised her voice as she rose. “Radoron, Gorradoron, Rogoradoron!”
Next, she took the small ball of parchment paper on which she’d written the spell and set it on fire in her censor. Holding the twigs she’d brought with her over the smoke and taking in a deep breath, she looked up and cried out, “Goddess, hear me. Turner be turned, burner be burned; Let only good come of this wood.”
She spit on each stick, broke them in two and tossed them into the fire. Then she said, “The curse will die with the fires’ death. So mote it be.”
She watched the fire in trance until the last flicker had disappeared and a few tendrils of smoke rose from the glowing embers. “It is done.”
She opened the circle and came out of her trance.
Mikhail still looked vaguely uneasy. “Let me try something, just to be sure the curse has been broken and we don’t have to worry about freak accidents anymore.”
“Of course,” Morgaine said. “What did you have in mind?”
Mikhail strode to a workbench and plucked a pair of scissors out of a drawer. Jogging up and down the aisles of wine racks he shouted to some unknown power, “Hey, I’m running with scissors here!”
When he returned unharmed, he and Morgaine laughed and shared a congratulatory high-five.
Back in their room for the night, a combination of victory and relief filled Sly. Morgaine had succeeded. She’d lifted the curse, resealed both doors, and more than earned the respect and gratitude of her friend. He hoped she was as proud of herself as he was of her.
“You did it,” he said as they slipped into bed.
She grinned. “Yes, I did. Now I hope both of us willdo it,if you catch my drift.”
Sly laughed and pulled her soft, naked body against him. “I think I know what you mean, but just to be sure, why don’t you show me?”
One side of her lip raised in a knowing smile, then she feathered the tip of her tongue down the column of his neck until he groaned.
“I could let you do that all night, but you’re the one who deserves something special.”
She lifted her head and smiled. “Oh? Like what?”
In one smooth motion, he had her positioned on her back with her legs spread. He knelt between them and scooped her up, lifting her mound to his face.
“Like this, love.” Sly’s tongue flickered softly along her labia.
She arched and moaned.
Her eyes dilated and her heartbeat quickened as she watched him continue to explore her. Morgaine pulled in a shuddering breath when he slid two fingers inside her, slowly and gently. Moaning, she ground her hips against his hand.
He mimicked a rhythm of love making as he stroked in and out of her core. After several moments of caressing her intimately, he lowered his head and found her clit with the tip of his tongue. She bucked and gasped.Good.She was almost as sensitized as he wanted her to be.
