Library
English
Chapters
Settings

6

Chapter Six

Marina swallowed, feeling the constriction of fear that tightened within her throat as she laced her fingers together nervously and stared back at the Wizards. They watched her. Caise with his eyes of molten gold. Kai’el, his gaze the palest blue, eerie as it seemed to sear her soul.

Could she do this? Could she trust either of them to lie upon her bed with her, to touch her as a lover and not feel the shadows of a nightmare past pressing in upon her?

It had been years, she reminded herself, since that horrifying attack. She was stronger now, she had grown in her own confidence, in her own strengths. Her magick was still much weaker than theirs, but she could feel her mother’s powers encompassing the room. Here she was sheltered, protected, as she was in no other part of the land.

“Why?” she asked them both then. “Why must you attempt this courtship of me?

What is it, Wizard, that you seek, that only I will do?”

She was no fool. They had not declared the Rite of Reception, nor petitioned for courtship, but it was a courtship all the same.

“We seek our true Consort, Marina, nothing more,” Caise answered her, his voice dark, throbbing with hunger. “You are that Consort. Whether you wish to admit this or not, it is true.” He held his hand up to ward back the objection rising to her lips.

“Wizards know their mates when their magick touches them. They search endlessly, tirelessly for that alignment. We understand your fears, Princess, as we understand your suspicions. We ask only for the chance to prove the truth of our words to you. To prove that you will not be mistaken in placing your trust with us. Nothing more. But nothing less.”

It was no more than she had suspected herself.

“Why not merely petition for the Courtship?” She shook her head in confusion.

“Do you believe we wish to force anything upon you?” Kai’el seemed to snarl the words. “Did we want a forced mate, my lady, then we would have merely gone the quickest route and demanded Rite of Reception. We would want acceptance, not forced compliance. Now, do you accept our bargain, or do we fly alone come morn?”

She propped her hands on her hips, facing him with a frown.

“You are as impatient as a child,” she scoffed, covering her attempts to hide her fears by chastising him instead.

“And you are withholding my treat,” he grunted in reply. “Make your mind up, woman, and put us out of our misery.”

“Fine.” She flounced to the bed, throwing herself on it, forcing herself to stare back at them, holding her body stiffly. “For that, you may watch. Your brother may touch.”

39

Lora Leigh

Sweet Sentinel, was she insane?

Her heart jerked to her throat as Caise rose slowly to his feet, his erection outlined clearly beneath his leather breeches.

“She will not go through with it,” Kai’el warned him as he stared back at her, a smirk on his sensually full lips. “Look at her, laying as stiff as our cocks. She will jump and run before you ever have the chance.”

“You are without decency.” She flushed at the explicit language. “Did I not give my word?”

“We must place a time limit on it.” Caise paused at his brother’s words as Marina stared back at him in horror.

“Have you lost your senses?”

“As much as you may have wished your beauty dims my senses, I must say, I have not.” He smiled mockingly. “I know you, Princess.” He shook his finger at her chidingly. “You will allow the most meager touch, hoarding the pleasure like a miser does his gold do we not watch you carefully. So I say, for every moment you allow touch, that is the length of time you are allowed upon the owl’s back. A moment for a moment you may say. Are we still in agreement?”

She thought little of his wagering, but could find no argument to counter it.

“I control which touch I receive,” she further bargained. “It is at my discretion.”

He inclined his head with a slow sigh. “Unfortunately, that shall I agree to. Though I fear you intend to cheat us greatly.”

Aye, so she had intended to until she glimpsed the regret in the gazes of both men. This made no sense to her. Why beget a bargain they knew they could be so easily cheated within if there was no intent to force their will upon her? Not that she would have actually cheated, she assured herself, fighting desperately to distract herself as Caise neared the bed. But, there was complying with the rules and then there was…

“Lay on your side, Marina.” Caise paused at the side of the bed, the length of his erection appearing huge as she stared up at him. “Turn your back to me, I will but hold you. Nothing more unless you wish it. Allow me to hold you, little one. This is all.”

Marina bit her lip though she did as he asked. And she thought of owls. Huge Snow Owls that would carry her above the land, allow her to gaze down in wonder…

Merciful Sentinel. Her gaze clashed with Kai’el’s where he sat in the chair, leaning forward, watching with such hungry intent, such envy for his brother she forced herself to still the words which would bring him to her bed as well. Was she insane?

She couldn’t close her eyes against his as she felt Caise lowering himself behind her. She couldn’t fight the demand that she share that small connection, despite her repeated, desperate insistence that she owed either of them nothing.

“Shhh,” Caise whispered behind her, forcing her to still the unconscious whimper that left her as she stared beseechingly back at Kai’el. What was she thinking, to believe 40

When Wizards Rule

she could do this? She could feel her chest clenching with terror, her eyes dampening with the struggle to rein in her emotions, despite her body’s insistence that the warmth at her back was most welcome.

“Kai…” Regret shimmered inside her. She could not.

“The Snow Owls have the softest feathers,” Kai’el whispered as Caise settled at her back, his broad chest cushioning her, his hand lying lightly on her hip. “They are softer than the finest silk against your flesh, Marina. As you fly, they enfold you, wrapping you in warmth…”

She wanted to fly. How desperately she had longed for such adventure. She forced herself to breathe deeply, evenly, holding Kai’el’s gaze, seeing the compassion, the heat in his eyes, as well as the envy as she felt Caise’s fingers in her hair, testing the feel of the curls.

“Unlike most Wizards, I do not feel Caise’s emotions. Neither his anger, nor his pain,” Kai’el sighed as he watched. “I cannot feel the silk of your hair, nor smell the scent of your sweet flesh. But I can watch, see his fingers tangling within the mass, and I dream of silk softer than even the feathers of the Snow Owl. Watch him inhale the scent of you, and imagine a field of flowers in riotous array, and know even that scent is incomparable to what he knows at this moment.”

Her lips parted. There was no artifice in his words, there was no deception nor deceit. There was hunger, blazing and intense instead.

“I see him against you, Marina, and I ache with such hunger, but ‘tis an ache far better than any I have known in my life. It is a gladdening ache, for if I cannot smell your flesh or touch the softness of your hair, then there is none other I would wish to know it rather than Caise.”

The bond of the Wizard Twins went deep she knew, but to hear it throbbing in his voice touched a chord inside her. To be a part of such a bond would be, as her sister Brianna had said, a paradise unsurpassed. To know something was hers and hers alone, that someone walked this land who belonged to her soul and no others.

“Kai…” She whimpered his name as she felt Caise smooth her hair behind the shoulder left bared by her dress. His fingertips glanced her flesh, their calloused rasp bringing to mind the dream of flowers and a pleasure unlike any she had ever known before.

“How brave are you, Marina?” he asked her then. “Brave enough to soar above the land, to feel the wind whipping through your hair? Brave enough to endure the touch of one who would give his life in exchange for yours? To find pleasure rather than pain?”

Her lips parted in a gasp. Behind her, Caise stilled, and she wondered if he were watching his brother as well.

“I don’t understand.” Her voice was ragged, her breathing choppy. 41

Lora Leigh

“Let me direct your play, Marina,” he growled. “Allow me to direct his touch. You will know then what is coming, be prepared for each caress. And then, little one, we shall see how brave you can be.” There was just enough mockery in his voice to have her watching him in suspicion.

“You think I cannot do this?” she asked him. “That I must be led as a child into uncharted waters?”

He chuckled, though his expression held little amusement and much arousal.

“Prove me wrong.” He shrugged. “That or allow me what satisfaction I can find in the fact that you did not choose my touch as well. What say you, Princess?”

What say you?

Her eyes narrowed.

“I do not trust your direction in the least,” she snorted. “But go ahead, Wizard Sashtain, let us see how well you ply your intuitive powers. What touch will I accept, which will I not. We can even raise your wager. Each time you go too far, and I am forced to call a halt, doubles the time I have gained upon your great Owl.”

He laughed. Throwing his head back, gleeful amusement gleaming in his eyes, he inclined his head in agreement. “It will be as you say and I will wager for nothing in return. Now little one, let us see how well we do together. As you lay there, you will watch me. I will give Caise the command, you will have two seconds to decline or touching commences. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” she spoke rashly, and knew well she did.

“To begin, Caise will first show you the differences between his flesh and your own. As you watch me, his fingers will caress but your bare shoulder.”

She waited the two seconds, her gaze holding his easily until she felt the touch of Caise’s hand on her bare flesh. She could not halt her flinch, but she did not object. Curiously, there was no pain, no fear. The roughened pads of his fingers smoothed over her as she felt his breathing become rougher at her back.

“You should see his face.” Kai’el’s voice was low, his gaze reflective. “He gains much pleasure from the feel of your skin, Marina. Have you ever known pleasure from touch alone?”

She had, but never sexual pleasure. And never had another’s touch heated her as this one did.

Caise’s fingertips slid over her skin, from shoulder to neck, sending shivers of sensation racing through her as she watched Kai’el’s hands clench on the arms of the chair.

“Very good.” His voice was rough, guttural with the hungers suddenly whipping through the room. Not just those of the Wizards, but she realized hazily, her own.

“Is the feel of his hands upon your flesh pleasant, my Princess?” His voice was low, rasping across her senses even as Caise’s fingertips rasped across her flesh. 42

When Wizards Rule

“Yes.” She could not deny him, no matter how she wished to. Answering him was imperative, seeing the flare of response darken his once pale eyes filled her with an ache to see them darken further.

He licked his lips slowly, his gaze moving from hers to the sight of Caise’s fingertips playing across her shoulder.

“His lips now,” he growled. “He will caress your arms with his fingers, your shoulder with his lips. Can you bear such a touch, my Princess?”

She shuddered, not in fear, but in longing. She should be screaming against such caresses rather than lying submissively beneath them.

She waited the two seconds, steeling herself against the coming touch. In years, no man’s lips had touched her, not since that night. Not since fetid breath had filled her senses as her attacker forced his kiss upon her.

“Such fear I see in your eyes,” Kai’el crooned as she felt Caise’s fingers trail down her arm.

Like a whisper of the phermona, a bit rough, like unbrushed velvet sliding over her. She could feel him behind her, his head lowering.

“He’s hungry, my Princess,” he whispered. “As hungry as I. His eyes are like brass, rather than gold, dark, filled with his need of you. Sweet, hot need.” His voice throbbed as a shudder raced over her flesh and Caise’s lips touched her flesh. She gasped, her gaze holding desperately to the naked need and the compassion in Kai’el’s eyes. No pity there, no mercy, but emotion, as thick and as hot as the hunger that filled his gaze.

“Such courage.” His voice gave her strength as her fists clenched at her sides, her body held stiffly as heated male lips pressed to her flesh. She expected the wet feel of slobbering lust, as she had before. Instead, his lips were heated, though dry, smoothing over her skin in a gentle kiss before they opened, and his tongue tasted her quickly.

Marina jerked at that touch, feeling a heaviness invade her limbs. Her heart was racing in her chest now, her breasts becoming heavy, her nipples sensitive as the flesh between her thighs began to slowly awaken. Sentinels have mercy on her, but his lips were nibbling at her flesh now, his tongue stroking a heated, moist path across her shoulder that had her fighting for breath against the pleasure. True, unshadowed pleasure.

“Kai…” She whispered his name beseechingly, not for cessation of the touch, but something unnamed, some need she knew not how to give voice to.

“Such beauty.” The chair floated closer to the bed, drawn by her, pushed by his magick, she wasn’t certain and didn’t care. Suddenly he was at the edge of the bed, leaning close to the mattress, his gaze following each stroke of Caise’s lips. “I would wager your taste is more intoxicating than that of the finest Elixir,” he groaned as 43

Lora Leigh

Caise’s lips settled at the indentation between neck and shoulder, his lips suckling at the area with the utmost gentleness as his tongue tickled at the flesh. She breathed in harshly, her eyelids becoming heavy, her body tensing. What strange sensations. Her mind felt hazy, yet so alert that it immediately responded to the slightest touch, making her flesh so hypersensitive that the lightest touch was an agony of pleasure.

“’Tis magick,” she gasped. “’Tis not natural.” She couldn’t help but tilt her head, to allow him greater access to the nerve-ridden area.

“No magick,” Kai’el growled. “See you even the faintest thread of power, Princess?

Nay, not so. We will not force the alignment, we swore this to you. This is pleasure, nothing more.”

There were no trails of power, no threads of magick reaching out from them. How then were they were bringing such sensations? Surely this could not be natural?

A ragged cry left her lips then as she felt Caise’s teeth rake over her shoulder, heard his muted groan behind her as his fingers settled more firmly against the flesh of her arm, stroking with long, heated motions as his tongue tasted her neck.

“Sentinel’s teeth. His eyes are closed, Marina, his senses immersed in the pleasure of touching you. Such pleasure must surely be paradise.”

He was stroking himself. She couldn’t see his hand to be certain, and knew he had not released his male flesh from his breeches, but she was certain of it. Rather than being repulsed, her palm itched, causing her to clench one in the quilt beneath her, the other in the folds of her gown.

“Would you kiss him, Marina?” Kai’el asked her then. “Turn and part your lips for him, allowing him to possess the sweet taste of you?”

She stared back at him, her breathing harsh, her lips parted, as his gaze demanded either a denial or submission.

“I see your lips, and all I can think of is the sweet taste of paradise,” he groaned, his expression tightening into lines of extreme hunger, blistering need. “Of feeling them part beneath mine, your shy little tongue peeking out to welcome me in, licking at mine in invitation. I do not know if I can even bear to see my brother possess that which I am denied. But I will, Marina. I will watch him, and when I retire to my lonely chamber I will close my eyes in dreams that it was I, rather than Caise, tasting paradise.”

Her tongue peeked out, swiping at her dry lips in nervous need as a groan shook his large body and his gaze centered on the action.

“Will you allow the kiss?” He was demanding, needing.

Marina fought to breathe as she fought to break contact with his gaze. She would turn to her back, give him what he wished for, but she could not break his gaze.

“Merciful Sentinel,” he whispered as a longing whimper left her lips. 44

When Wizards Rule

What was she to say, to do? Tremors of sweet agony raced through her body. She ached, she needed and knew not what she ached for. She knew she could not turn from him, even to do as she longed to.

When the two-second mark passed, she felt Caise move as he drew her to her back, his shoulders rising above her as his broad palm cupped her cheek and turned her face toward him.

His eyes were molten gold, hot and intent as they locked with hers, his expression tight, the angles of his face thrown into stark relief from the hunger filling it. Marina felt her fingers gripping his wrists. One to the hand cupping her jaw, the other to the hand at her hip. She needed something to hold onto, needed an anchor amid the chaotic sensations tearing through her.

“I fear…” Her breath hitched as she stared back at him helplessly, remembering the darkness of that night long past and the smothering moisture of lips that stifled her screams, teeth that bit at her lips, bringing the taste of her own blood to her mouth.

“You are as precious as sunlight,” he whispered then, his lips fuller, sensual as he stared down at her with nothing but tenderness and hunger. Stark, unrelieved hunger that sent conflicting needs crashing through her. The need to flee, the need to taste the sensuality pouring from him. “I will share but a taste with you. No more than you wish, my love.”

A taste and no more. She shook in his grip as she stared up at him, feeling her lips tremble as his head lowered, hearing her own whimper as his lips touched hers. And there he but lingered, staring back at her, his eyes so filled with regret at her fear as she gasped beneath the heated warmth.

His breath was scented with mint, fresh, clean, with but a hint of wine. His lips were not overly wet, but rather a warm, barely damp sensation as they rubbed against hers, tempting her to take him, to accept more of his kiss. She had never been kissed, not truly. Her hands tightened on his wrists as she fought to show him she would take more. Despair filled her now at her own inexperience. She would kiss him fully, revel in the taste and the touch if she but knew how.

Regret filled his gaze as his head lifted.

“No.” Her hand flew from his wrist, tangled into the golden strands of hair that curtained over the sides of his face. “I do not know…” She swallowed tightly. “I have kissed no other, Caise. I…” She licked her lips in a quick, nervous movement that immediately drew his gaze. “I do not know what to do…” She was on the verge of tears, could feel the dampness filling her eyes as despairing need whipped through her body.

His gaze heated further as understanding filled his expression.

“I could show you.” His grin was rakish, wicked. “Do you wish me to teach you, my love?”

45

Lora Leigh

There would be no taming this Wizard nor his twin, she knew that then, but with such pleasure as a reward, what sorceress would wish to?

“Slowly?” she asked, staring back at him as she fought back the demons within her own mind. “I would know your kiss. Slowly.”

“Aye, slowly it is.” His smile was more tender than wicked as his head lowered once again. “Part your lips for me, beloved. Let us explore together.”

Explore. That was no word for the inferno of heat and pleasure that tore through her body as Caise’s lips took hers. Slowly. The fingers of one hand threaded into her hair as his head tilted, his lips sipping at hers, nibbling, stroking, sending arrows of longing straight to her womb where they clenched that weak muscle violently. How fickle was her feminine flesh to come to glorious, blistering life with so small a caress?

Or was it truly such a simple touch?

But the pleasure. It was unlike anything she could have imagined. It wrapped her in heat, in trailing fingers of sensation that seemed to caress her entire body. It sensitized her, pushed back the shadows of fears and the demons of darkness which had kept her hesitant to allow any other male near. But this touch, this caressing, challenging, rakishly wicked kiss he was bestowing so slowly, rubbing against her lips, his teeth taking a second to nibble, to open her lips wider, was more pleasure than even the dreams of flowers.

His tongue stroked at her lips before slipping inside, teasing hers to play, a sensual challenge she could not help but to accept. A dare that she eagerly met as her lips opened to his. Like pieces of an interlocking puzzle they fit, lip-to-lip, tongue-to-tongue as muted moans began to fill the room.

She was intoxicated on his taste, his touch. It sank into her very pores, spreading throughout each inch of her flesh, overwhelming her with pleasure. Her senses were on fire, the heat building throughout her in ways she could have never known existed. Kai’el’s voice was but a distant murmur, easing through her senses, his explicit words, rather than shocking her, spurring her to greater hunger.

“The day shall come, as his lips possess your kiss, mine shall linger between thighs of the sweetest alabaster in a kiss filled with passion’s nectar…” Her pussy spasmed at the image his words conveyed. Caise, his lips nibbling at hers as Kai’el’s kiss possessed the secrets of her womanhood. Could she bear such a touch?

Her clenching pussy assured she could. She felt empty, aching—gods, how she ached deep within her vagina as her clit swelled and pulsed in a silent plea for ease. Aye. She could bear it. Shadowhell, she was beginning to crave it. Distantly she realized her hands were now locked in Caise’s hair, her nails pressing to his scalp, holding him to her as Kai’el seduced her with his words.

“Your nipples like ripe little berries, hot beneath my tongue, Princess. As hot as summer’s riches…” Her nipples ached, grew harder. “Your cream flowing to my 46

When Wizards Rule

tongue, liquid passion, searing my senses as your sweet syrup flows for us…” Her thighs clenched as she felt her juices ease from the tortured depths of her cunt. Sweet Mother Sentinel, she needed such caresses.

And still Caise’s lips possessed hers, eating at her, licking at her as he consumed her with pleasure. She arched into him, feeling his hands as they smoothed over her waist, to the sides of her swollen breasts, to the thighs clenched against the pleasure tearing through her. Against her hip she could feel the hardened length of his cock pressing against her, thick and hot, she could feel its demanding throb through his breeches and her gown. And she needed more.

“We would feel you, Marina…” Kai’el’s words were broken, his voice hoarse, weaving through the arousal as pleasure overtook her. “Your sweet tongue against us, your hands caressing as we caressed…”

She could hear his arousal building in his words, just as hers built in her body. She imagined them both beside her, her fingers caressing warm, naked flesh, her lips opening, not just for eager tongues, but for the hard, burgeoning length of a cock as well. The need to taste them brought a shattered cry from her lips as Caise’s kiss deepened.

“Gods, Marina…” Kai’el’s voice was hungry, his words shaping the visions filling her mind. “Would you touch in such a way? Your lips opening, your tongue curling about my flesh, destroying the last of my control?”

Aye, she would. She whimpered with the need as the kiss she shared with Caise turned desperate, their ragged moans filling the air around them.

“There, love…” Kai’el’s voice was strained, his breathing hard and heavy. “Ah gods, I will lose what little control I possess this night.”

She arched slowly, turning more fully into Caise’s arms, the pleasure astounding in its richness, the sensations rioting through her overtaking her mind. She wanted, nay she needed, to rub against him, to feel him breast to chest, hip to hip, caressing the most sensitive areas of her traitorous flesh.

His arms surrounded her as she turned to him, a fractured groan filling her ears as his kiss deepened. She could not have imagined it deepening, becoming hungrier, but suddenly, it did just that. Her neck was arched, his lips slanting over hers as his tongue thrust forcefully against hers. It probed and licked before withdrawing, tempting her to follow. And follow she did. She demanded then and he gave. Her tongue licking at him, battling with his for supremacy as his body shifted, and she felt his erection notching into her thighs.

Marina froze, a whimper of hunger tearing through her chest as she felt a blooming heat rising within her. She was flying and needed no owl to carry her. As the heat and hardened length of his cock pressed against the fiery knot of nerves at the apex of her thighs, she sensed the flight beginning.

“Gods…”

47

Lora Leigh

Suddenly Caise’s lips were no longer upon hers, his body no longer pressing tight against her. One hand gripped her hip, the other her shoulder as he held her from his touch, denying her the sensations lifting her from within herself. Marina struggled to open her eyes, to part her lips and force the beseeching words from between them when she saw the surprise on his face, the direction of his gaze. She turned slowly, blinking, staring up at Kai’el.

His fingers were buried in his brother’s hair as though to tear him back, his face twisted into a grimace of sublime pleasure as threads of violet magick whipped over both men. They swirled through thick strands of hair and over broad, heaving chests. Most frightening, though, was the fact that the magick was devoid of blue or gold power—it was her power only. And it was thickest between Kai’el’s thighs, obviously milking the broad erection, suckling, stroking it. Just as she had imagined doing. Her magick. Her power.

Alignment.

“No.” She struggled between them then, jerking quickly away as she stared in horror at the phenomena.

The power was not returning to her. It sang through the air, whispered in shades of incandescent light as it sizzled over their bodies just as pleasure still whipped through her veins.

“Enough. Make it stop,” she gasped, stumbling from the bed, fighting the need to return between them, to give them whatever they wished. To see forever the agony of pleasure twisting their expressions.

Kai’el released his brother’s hair slowly, his jaw bunching with the effort it cost to move, but his head was still tipped back, the magick, though dimmer, still racing across his body.

She had done this. She blinked in shock, uncertain, confused as the power refused to move back to her. It lingered, because her hunger lingered, her needs. A whimper left her lips as Kai’el’s eyes met hers, the darkening depths filled with an agonized pleasure, a satisfaction which terrified her.

As she stared at the Twins in horror, she knew deep inside the meaning of the sight. Her magick racing over them, tempting their own, though they held it carefully in check. Had they released their own powers, then she would have had no choice… No choice.

Marina trembled at the thought. Had they allowed the alignment her magick was so obviously seeking, then she would have been forced to submit to the Joining, then and there. There would have been no question of it, no matter her fears, no matter her needs or her secrets. They would have possessed her. Not just her body, but all that she was would have belonged to them. And in that instant she realized the betrayal she would have dealt those she fought with had she done so. She was part of the Sorceress Brigade, the backbone of the power they wielded. Should her magick align into a joining with these Wizards, then her secrets would be theirs. 48

When Wizards Rule

She stared at Caise and Kai’el, her needs, her desires pounding within her as they eased slowly from her bed, staring back at her silently as she clenched her hands in her gown to force herself from touching them, from pleading with them to do the unthinkable.

Caise sighed, his molten gaze watching her in disappointment.

“Trust is built, Princess.” His voice was rough, his breathing still harsh. “Trust, like love, like magick, cannot be betrayed when it is true. You have no need to fear us.”

But she did. They suspected her already, suspected her participation within the Sorceress Brigade. Gods help them all if the Wizard Twins learned just how many of the women they sought as Consorts had sworn their lives and their protection to Covenan. With the vows to the land that many of them had made, they could not be taken from it, no more than she herself could be taken from it, and survive. But how would she survive if she gave her heart to these men, only to have them leave?

“Leave.” She forced the word from her lips, forced herself to deny what she knew she could not yet have.

Kai’el shook his head pityingly. “For now.” He nodded sharply. “We fly at first light. Should you be within the courtyard, you may fly patrol with us. If you are not there…” His shoulders shrugged negligently. “So be it. You shall have to wager once more to gain another chance. Good eve, Princess.”

They left. Marina watched in surprise as they stalked from the room, the door clicking too quietly behind them. Anger echoed in the near silent sound, vibrating around her, stronger for the sheer control the Wizards had exerted in reining in their emotions.

“Well, Princess, you erred on the side of idiocy.”

Garron’s voice had her swinging around, staring back at him in shock.

“Dragon, you should announce yourself,” she snapped, her own anger rising now, her loss of control stinging her pride as nothing else could have. “These rooms are private. You do remember the meaning of this word, correct?”

Mockery gleamed in rich black eyes as he stared back at her, a leathery brow arching in sarcasm.

“And do you remember the meaning of caution?” he questioned her then. “You do not play with Wizards in such a way, child, or you may find more than your fingers burned when the night draws to a close.” He shook his massive head as he breathed out wearily. “The children of Sellane shall be the death of me. For now, my dear, you have nearly aligned yourself with your Wizards, at the very moment when you must hold your secrets closest. Tell me, which is more important? The childish games you play with your friends, or the Wizards who just left this room? Choices, choices, my dear. Have fun making them.”

She had never accused Garron of delicacy or of tact. Mocking, condescending, forever butting his nose into business not his own, yes. Tactful, no. Why though did he 49

Lora Leigh

suddenly seem more mocking, less comforting than normal? The sarcasm in his expression was deeper, his black eyes appearing angry.

“Be gone with you,” she snapped. “I have no time for your male machinations nor your riddles.” She sighed wearily.

“Keep up this idiocy of playing with these Wizards and you will find yourself in much more trouble than you imagine,” he grunted. “Beware, Princess, they will not be controlled as you seem wont to control them.”

And in that second Marina knew the choices she must make come morn, would never be easy for her to settle within herself. She and her warrioresses had hidden for too long. Perhaps now was the time to show these arrogant males that they did not fear them, and that they would not allow themselves to be taken from their lands. Nor their lands taken from them.

It was now time for the Sorceress Brigade to be revealed.

50

When Wizards Rule

Download the app now to receive the reward
Scan the QR code to download Hinovel App.