Page 79 of Hidden Kingdoms

He pulled back, releasing my hair, hands now pawing at my chest as his oily voice dripped across my skin. “Let’s take a look, shall we?”

He tugged hard, the sound of tearing fabric jarring me from the panic I was descending into, and the pain that was pounding in my head turned into drums of anger instead.

I wasn’t going to let this creep touch me without putting up a fight. I tried once more for the power that was raging through my veins; I could feel it. This vortex of magik that was mine, my body was vibrating with its force, but I couldn’t do anything with it. I couldn’t make that connection to form it to my will.Frustration grew on both sides. It wanted release, but in this moment, as a steady thud filled the air, I didn’t know how to do that.

Was that my heart? Or just the blood rushing in my ears?

The tug grew insistent and as another rip echoed through the corridor and cool air touched the skin on my breasts, I let out a scream of fury. Or was that a roar?

I managed to press my hand against his face forcing his head back, and I felt it then, my magik bunched inside me like a coiled spring. As I made the connection with him, it released. Whipping through my hand to shoot straight into his face, it sent him flying away from me and crashing into the opposite wall, landing with a sickening wet thudbefore he slid to the floor—a red smudge streaked down the wall in his wake.

31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

ELODIE

Pure euphoria rushed through me as my magik raced, crackling over my skin. I urged it to slam into him once again, throwing his body roughly against the stone wall as a hideously reassuring snap greeted me. His body now a void as the repulsive gleam in his eye was extinguished.

I tipped my head back, almost dizzy with the high the power was pushing my body to. A smile stretched over my lips as I let my eyes close, revelling in the way I felt. Magik caressed me inside and out, every nerve alight and chasing away the remnants of his touch.

The pounding of my heart was no longer fuelled by fear as I opened my eyes to get a better look at the slumped form in front of me. It was then I realised the thundering wasn’t in my head at all.

Whipping my head to the side, I barely had time to register the mammoth form that was in front of me before huge hands gripped my waist, carrying me backwards away from the mess I’d made as though I weighed nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Stopping short of the stone wall I had earlier been slammed into.

When had I gotten so close?

Panic didn’t grow inside me at the unexpected touch of another; my magik was still flowing. Sparks were leaping around my hands, but they made no move to attack as the smell of leather and crisp mountain air floated around me.

I tipped my head back, knowing I’d meet the icy, blue eyes of the biggest man I had ever seen. His face was close to mine, drawn into a deep scowl that instilled not a single ounce of fear within me.

Eagerly I traced the hard planes of his face. If Kaius had been moulded by angels, then Marcellus had been hand-carved by the gods. Hewn from a slab of granite, each strike of their hammer clawing away to reveal this magnum opus. Each pass of their chisel forming the wide jaw and harsh slopes of a face that called to a primal part of me I didn’t understand.

I almost expected him to be frozen in place, a living statue under my hands as I lay them on his broad shoulders to steady myself. The raw strength radiating from him had me relaxing into his grip even as his fingers tightened on me.

My toes barely skimmed the ground as he held me up, his body vibrating against mine and my magik crackled against him. He gritted his teeth but didn’t let go. My heart was urging me towards him, trying to pull us closer together which seemed irrelevant considering he was holding me pressed against his hard body, and I could feel every slab of stone that built him.

Marcellus’ magik was reacting to my own. Swirling around us, the sharp, burning smell of a thunderstorm grew on the air, and a breeze tangled through loose strands of my hair, whipping it around me and soothing my aching scalp.

I slid my hand along the hard muscles of his shoulder, desperate to connect with him. Fingers whispering across the jagged scar that ran down his neck, never quite touching it as he glared down at me.

Risking his wrath, I pressed forward, softly stroking the raised pink lines.

Marcellus sucked in a sharp breath through his nose before his hands slid around me, bringing me closer in a way that had my body heating under his attentions.

Questions burst through my mind, but I pushed them away—now wasn’t the time.

Energy raced across his skin, and I delighted at how his eyes widened under the ghost of my touch until he stepped back enough that, while I was still bracketed in his arms, my body was no longer pinned against his.

As I fell back to settle on my heels, my hands landed on the solid swell of his biceps, the bite of his power was buzzing like static between us. Marcellus’ fingers tightened against my waist, and I gasped as magik rushed back into the place deep inside me it resided.

Sudden and unexpected, I deflated in his arms as a sickly, empty feeling crept over me. He held me up as I fell limp against him, his energy calming as whatever rush I had been on abandoned me.

Memories of the guard’s hands all over me, him chasing me through the corridors, assaulted my mind as I came down hard from the absence of my magik. The pain in my back and scalp now screaming at me in punishment for forgetting.

Had I killed him?

It wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it.

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