Michele Hauf - The Witch's Quest

Kelyn approached. “What was it you were saying about muscled men rescuing you?”

“I didn’t...” She’d not said anything about being rescued. But really? She might have to change her tune about the leaner versions.

“You didn’t what? Ask for rescue? Looks like you might be in need of just that.”

“I’m cool.” Why had she said that? Why the need to act as though death were not dragging her down into the earth?

Kelyn squatted before her, arms resting on his thighs. “I can’t win with you, can I, Valor?”

“What do you mean? Win?”

“You’re a hard woman to please, is all.”

“No, I’m not. All it takes is some good dark coffee to make me happy.”

“Coffee served up with muscles. Like my brother Trouble has?”

“What? What is it with you and your concern about me and Trouble? We only ever—”

He put up a hand to stop her from saying more. “Don’t need the details.”

“There are no details.”

Okay, well, there had been that one time. But she wasn’t stupid enough to fill the brother in on the salacious stuff. Trouble had probably already done that.

“I really liked you,” Kelyn said, looking aside now. He’d dropped his shoulders, and the sweat and troll dust glistening on his abs drew Valor’s eye. “For a while there.”

“What do you mean?” She met his lift of chin and then figured it out. “You mean...?”

He shrugged. “But then you tripped into my brother’s arms and that’s all she wrote. I always manage to lose the girl to him. What is it about him? He’s a big lunk!”

Valor smiled at that assessment. Trouble did have some lunkish qualities. Okay, a lot of lunkish qualities. But she had no idea Kelyn had...lusted after her? “Your brother and I are not in a relationship.”

“Trouble is never in relationships,” Kelyn said sharply.

Now he eyed her legs and squinted. He bent to study behind her, and there was nothing Valor could do to stop him, because she was stuck there.

“You’ve been pinned!” He gripped her by the shoulders. “What the hell? Why didn’t you say something? I thought you were just lying around, digging up—whatever weird stuff it is you witches dig up in forests. Did you plan on staying here the rest of the night without saying anything?”

“I don’t have much of a choice. I’m stuck! And my phone is in the spell box, which got crushed by the falling troll. I was prepared to die out here until you came along. And then your abs distracted me and I forgot to ask for help.”

“Really?” He gave her the most unbelieving look ever and slapped a hand over his glittery abs. “That’s your story?”

She nodded. “And I’m sticking to it.”

“You’re pinned, Valor! That only ever ends in death. How did this happen?”

“I was minding my own business, plucking some mushrooms—”

“Minding your own...? You were performing a spell!”

“Maybe.”

“Valor! Even if you weren’t, you’ve taken things.” He gestured to the mangled tackle box. “Nothing should ever be taken out from the Darkwood. Especially not for magics that are not faery blessed.”

“You wouldn’t mind offering me a blessing or two right about now, would you?” she asked sheepishly.

Kelyn laughed softly. “I haven’t such power.”

“Stop laughing. It’s not funny. I’m going to die here. I don’t know how to get unpinned. My legs... They’re getting sucked deeper and deeper. Kelyn...”

Now she surrendered to the worrying reality of imminent death. She gasped and heaved in breaths quickly. Was this what a panic attack felt like?

Kelyn gripped her by the shoulders and she had to crane her neck awkwardly to meet his delving gaze. In that moment, Valor wished she’d known about his affection toward her. He was a handsome man. And a kind one, from what she knew about him. Always volunteering around town, and he helped rehabilitate injured raptors from what she remembered Trouble telling her. The complete opposite of his boisterous and cocky older brother.

Curse her attraction to the bad boys.

“I can go for help,” he said.

She grabbed his forearms, keeping him there before her. If he left her alone, she’d die. Already she had been consumed up to her thighs. “Get help from who? There’s no one who can help me but a faery. You’re a faery. Can’t you do something? Your magic works in this forest.”

He sighed heavily and shook his head. “I can fly and I’ve strength immeasurable and can even work some cool spells with my sigils, but I am mortal-realm-born. I’ve not half the power of those from Faery. And if you’ve been pinned by a faery tree, then you are in need of serious enchantment to get free. How long have you been here?”

“A couple hours? I came here around six.”

“It’s almost midnight, Valor.”

“Shit. I’ll be dead before morning.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

He was sweet. But if he had no faery powers to defeat this pinning, she didn’t know what he could do. She’d already insulted him once. She didn’t intend to go to her maker having insulted him a second time. “Thanks. Maybe... Could you try my cell phone?”

“Where is it?”

“In my box.”

Picking through the crushed plastic tackle box, he found the purple phone, but with a few taps at the cracked screen, he announced, “It’s dead. Technology doesn’t work here in the Darkwood. Hey, Blade’s place is at the other end of the forest. I can run there and make a call—”

“No.” She stretched out an arm, her fingers groping desperately. Kelyn’s fingers threaded with hers. It was a natural clasp, something that felt hopeless yet bolstered her courage a little. “I don’t want to be alone. Just stay with me, please?”

“Of course I will.” He folded his legs and sat before her, not releasing her hand from his calming clasp. “We’ll think about this. We’ll come up with something.”

“Actually, what I want you to do is listen to the things I need you to tell my friends.”

Kelyn bracketed her face fiercely. “Don’t talk like that. You will not die.”

“Lying about my fate isn’t going to change it. I did a stupid thing. The universe renders payment for stupidity.”

“You were not stupid. Just...stubborn.”

“So you’ve heard about me?” She tried a little laugh and it actually eased the tension between her shoulder blades. Valor blew out a breath.

And in that moment, when she knew death was her only option, she decided she couldn’t walk out of this world without one last thing. “Kiss me,” she said suddenly.

“What?”

“You want to, don’t you? I mean, if you had a thing for me?”

“I did, but...”

“Please, Kelyn? I want the last thing I remember to be a kiss from a handsome man. I want to be held in strong arms. I want to know passion—”

And he kissed her. The sudden connection seared a delicious heat onto Valor’s lips. Kelyn’s arm wrapped across her back as he slid down onto the moss beside her and pulled her in tightly against his hard body. His other hand clutched at her hair. Hungrily she took from him, falling into his sweet taste, his open and easy manner. He felt like something she’d always wanted but had never known to ask for.

Why had she never noticed he’d been attracted to her?

Because she’d been too busy tagging along with the bad boys. Or those men who could only ever consider her one of the guys.

When he parted from her, their eyes lingered upon each other, as if to look away would end the kiss, their connection—her life. So they held gazes in the quiet darkness, dappled by a beam of moonlight that sifted through the latent troll dust in the air about them.