AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Two
Blake
I’d sensed her magic the moment she set foot outside MacPherson House, a ripple across the moors and the peaks. The first woman I’d ever loved. The woman who eviscerated my heart when she fled Scotland two decades ago when we were seventeen.
Tamsin.
My spirit wolf lets out a howl and I make my way down from the hills by the light of the moon. In this form, I can move quickly over the earth. I eat up the distance between us, passing my house in the hills and skirting the western finger of the lake. Even in the dark, I can see perfectly, and within minutes I’m coming up on her fast.
Tamsin stands alone at the edge of the moor. Her pale skin and white-gold hair glow in the night, as does her magic. Magic she’d bound before she left this place to go to Manhattan and study medicine. Why is she here now, after all this time? With her magic, no less?
She stands her ground as I approach. I slow when I’m a few feet away. In my dire wolf form, I tower above her. Her eyes widen as I stop a mere six inches away and my wolf sniffs the air between us. Gray eyes, like the mountains. She’s cut off most of her hair. It used to hang halfway to her waist but now it’s chopped short, just past her ears. She’s wearing form-fitting navy pants and a white collared blouse, complete with a fancy belt and several silver bracelets at her wrist. The wild witch I knew as a teenager is gone.
I call on my magic and release my spirit wolf, shifting back to human form. It’s a much cleaner process than an actual werewolf or shifter, the change being magical, not physical. An animal still lives inside me, though, a spirit I bonded with through a clan ritual as a teenager. Each Blackstock Clan warlock goes through the same rite of passage.
“Blake,” Tamsin says, her voice breathy.
Her eyes rove over me same as mine had assessed her. I wonder what she sees. How have I changed, and how am I the same?
“You told me you were never coming back to Scotland,” I say by way of greeting.
She winces and I realize my words are harsh, but I need to know, right now, what’s she’s doing here.
“Something came up,” she says slowly. “Something very important. I wouldn’t have returned if it wasn’t necessary.”
“Do you care to elaborate? I see your magic is back, too.” I cross my arms over my chest and stare down at her.
Tamsin crosses her own arms, and her eyes take on an edge of steel. “I did not make either of these choices lightly, Blake Blackstock. I trust you realize your greeting is less than polite.”
I feel a flash of fire in my core. There’s the feisty witch I once knew. Perhaps she isn’t lost beneath the perfume and designer couture, after all.
“Apologies,” I say with a small smile. “But did you expect any less? We made promises, Tamsin. And you’ve broken yours.”
She frowns. “I had to.”
“Maybe if you told me what’s happening, I’d be more understanding. But you’re giving me little to go on.” I stalk around the side of her, the wolf within too full of energy to stand still any longer.
“The less you know, the better,” she says. “But I’ll tell you this much: Luciana is sick, and I’m here trying to find a cure.”
“And your magic?”
“Another witch unbound it accidentally.” Tamsin’s eyes take on a haunted look and she shakes her head, as if seeing images there she’d rather forget. “I haven’t been able to get them bound again, but I will. Nessa can take care of it, no doubt.”
Her eyes follow me as I circle her. I can see that swirl of magic at her core, green and gray like the hills around us. It smells of heather and stone and water. She is tied to this land, whether she wants to be or not.
My mind fills with images of our youth together. Tamsin, face bright, hair always tangled by the wind. Hiking in the hills or riding our horses or having picnics in hidden glens or abandoned castles. And, of course, that one night. The night seared in my memory forever. We’d been each other’s firsts. I had thought each other’s finals. But then a terrible accident took Tamsin’s parents. Everything changed that day.
“So, this is just temporary, then?” I ask, ceasing my pacing to stand in front of her.
My blood thrums in my veins, and my heart hammers. Seeing Tamsin is like taking a breath of air after being submerged beneath a frozen lake. It had taken me an eternity to move on after she left. Or so I’d thought. I realize now, with breathtaking clarity, that I hadn’t moved on at all. I’d just been coping. I’ve had many, many lovers since she left, but if I’m being honest, I’ve only ever loved the one.
Tamsin meets my eyes, her expression unreadable. Cold almost. “Just until I find a cure for Luciana.”
“And then you’re leaving for Manhattan again?”
She nods. “Yes. As soon as I’m finished here.”
I take a step closer to her, and my wolf can hear her heart accelerate. “Then we have nothing further to discuss. Goodbye, Tamsin.”
