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The only thing I could do that would be even more stupid would be to attempt to run. Even if he were actually asleep, rather than trying to catch me out, it was dangerous to try to escape a bargain. Even weaving some sort of spell of protection around myself would be cheating and it could be instantly swept away.
I needed to stay put, stay on my guard, and hopefully, by the morning, this would all be over. Surely if Gabriel were going to do something about our deal, he’d have done so by now?
I climbed into the four-poster bed, propped up the pillows, and just sat there, trying to stay alert. However much I tried to empty my mind, the sheets smelt faintly of Gabriel. I could hear his steady breathing, and his aura filled the room from floor to ceiling.
I was bone-tired, but between all the adrenaline of the evening and the knowledge that Gabriel was there with me in the room, the risk of falling asleep seemed low.
And yet, at some point during the night, my exhausted body must have overruled my watchful mind, because I suddenly found myself waking up, with sunlight streaming through the windows.
There was no sign of Gabriel in the bedroom. He’d seemingly let me sleep in. I wandered downstairs. Gabriel was already up and about, dressed for the day and cooking sausages on the old-fashioned stove. His father was still nowhere to be seen.
“I’ll take you back shortly,” he said. “Breakfast first. I don’t want to face your family’s vengeance on an empty stomach.”
At his words, some of the tension that had lingered since I’d arrived fell away. I’d made it through the night. He was taking me home. I was almost off the hook.
“Nothing for me.” The sausages smelt delicious, but one of the first lessons we learnt was never to accept food from enemies. At worst, it could be drugged. At best, it put you in their debt. Things were looking up, but I still needed to maintain a little caution until I was actually away from enemy territory.
Gabriel studied me intently, with a frown on his face, as though surprised I was being so cautious, surprised I was still afraid of him.
“All things considered, I took a little too much magic from poor dear Brendan last night,” he said, in an oddly placating tone. “Let me give you some back. As long as it equals out, he can’t object.Everything for the family. That’s your motto, isn’t it?”
I frowned in turn, caught off guard by such a strange and surprising offer. The idea seemed to have come from nowhere, and was the complete opposite of what we’d supposedly agreed. “Will it be Brendan’s magic, or will it be yours?” It was a stupid question, the sort of thing someone newly come into their powers would say. Magic doesn’t work like that. But even so, there was some essence of Gabriel in his magic that I simultaneously longed for and yet didn’t want anywhere near me.
“My magic, mostly,” he replied, as though my question made perfect sense.
I shuddered. Magic exchange occurred in two opposing circumstances. It was a sacred, magical, quasi-romantic occurrence, perhaps between actual lovers, perhaps just between best friends, family members, or the closest of business associates. Or it was the sort of thing that had happened on the previous night, when Gabriel had torn some of Brendan’s power from him through force and pain. It wasn’t something you calmly and logically did with an enemy you barely knew.
But stronger magic was stronger magic after all.
“Go on then.” I was proud of how confident I sounded.
He walked over to an old sofa in the corner of the room and beckoned for me to follow.
I sat down beside him. “Will it hurt?” I wasn’t sure if I meant me or him. All I could see was Brendan screaming on the floor.
“Why don’t you find out for yourself?”
He turned to face me, placed his right hand on my sternum and his left hand on my waist, then touched his forehead to mine. I shivered. This felt far more intimate than the experience I’d escaped last night.
After a few seconds, heat arose in the three places where his body was connected to mine. I closed my eyes to avoid looking at Gabriel or thinking overly logically, and simply focused on the sensation.
The heat spread round my body, as though something physical were being injected into me, and the points of contact grew hotter and hotter. At first, it felt like lying in the sun. Then, like standing right by a radiator. After a few moments, as if I’d stepped into a bath that was far too hot. What did it feel like for him? Could he feel the heat, too, or was he growing colder and colder as the warmth of the magic left him? Perhaps he was on the opposite trajectory, from pleasant summer breeze to falling into an icy pond.
At the precise second when the heat-feeling changed from discomfort to pain, Gabriel moved his head and left arm away and the feeling disappeared. All that remained was a half-jittery, half-energised feeling, like I’d downed four coffees in a row.
“How much did you give me?” I whispered.
“Enough that you’ll notice. Not so much that it’ll make any appreciable difference to my powers. I need you to be strong.”
He tapped each of the fingers of his right hand against my chest, one at a time, three times each, to close the connection. Then he leaned back and stared at me in silence, with the same admiring expression he’d worn last night. I returned his gaze, allowing myself to look into his strange eyes and really study him. With some of the fear evaporating, I could appreciate just how gorgeous he actually was. And how oddly right it felt to sit by his side: calming and exhilarating in equal measure.
It was a huge relief, obviously, that he hadn’t actually forced the issue the night before. Sex in those circumstances would have been a violation and probably left me traumatised as hell. But there was a guilty part of me that couldn’t help wishing that I could have enjoyed a more conventional night of passion with the hottest and most intriguing guy I’d ever spent time alone with.
He raised one eyebrow, as though he could tell what I was thinking. It was probably only my imagination, but that didn’t stop a deep blush from spreading all over my cheeks and chest.
He leaned back towards me, as though he were going to commence the magic transfer again, but this time, he touched his lips to mine. I gasped slightly, then kissed him back, wrapping my arms around his waist to draw him closer. It was the gentlest, sweetest kiss, our lips only just open, our tongues only just touching. But my heart raced, and my stomach fluttered with a thousand times more intensity than I’d ever experienced before. I wanted to rip off his clothes. I wanted to curl up in his arms. It was almost impossible to keep in mind the way he’d hurt my brother, dragged me here, or made my family sick with worry.
All too soon, he broke the kiss with a little sigh. “We should get you home before your family come and burn this place to the ground.”
