Page 107 of When Storms Ruin

His hand moved higher, the shirt coming with it as he cupped my breast, letting out a low groan himself. The library door opening had us springing apart, but to my relief it was only Puck.

“Ten minutes?” Puck laughed, pointing at his watch with a grin.

“I’m coming,” Nik groaned, turning back towards me.

“I wish,” I whispered, my voice ragged as I caught my breath.

Nik turned to me with a wicked grin, his eyebrow raised as Puck slipped back out the door so we could gather ourselves.

“Naughty little thing,” he crooned, running a hand through his hair with a laugh.

Despite everything that had happened yesterday, I found myself smiling. I rose from the table and adjusted my clothing, making sure my hair was still pulled back and wasn’t mussed or out of place.

“Let’s do this,” I said, my voice holding more resolve than I felt.

Nik turned towards the door, holding his hand out to me as he said, “Are you ready to bind yourself to me, forever?”

We met Tess and Puck in Zion’s office, where Zion and Annelise were already waiting. She fumbled with her hands in her lap as we joined them. Without a word she beckoned us to follow her, and we made our way down the hallway, up the spiral staircase and out of the cottage.

The grimoire was safely tucked under my arm as we walked.

“Where are we going?” Tess called from behind as we made our way through the winding cobblestone streets of Siraleth.

“We need a place of immense power to complete the binding,” Annelise explained, not glancing over her shoulder.

Zion was quiet beside her.

I knew where we were going…I had seen it. The grimoire had shown me. We were going to the place Osiris, my father, was slain.

The place Donika killed him and almost killed her.

We crested a hill, and I could see the rubble mound before me. This ground was marked by an immense amount of magic, and you could feel it running up through your feet and into your bones. My magic responded in kind, and was at the tips of my fingers, waiting.

We found a level place among the rubble and Zion and Nik helped to clear a space free of the stray cinderblocks and rocks.

Annelise wasted no time on explanations and began right away. The others stood back as Nik, Annelise and I stood in the center. Annelise circled us, salt dripping from her hand as she went. The salt would keep the magicinsidethe circle, and with a spell of this magnitude it was of the utmost importance.

Once we were enclosed in the circle Annelise held her hand out for the grimoire, and after a moment of reluctance I complied. My hand felt empty without it, and I had the sense that the grimoire felt the same.

Itwantedto come back to me.

Annelise flipped to the page with the key spell, running her fingers delicately across the parchment. She recited the words I had heard in the vision, the words that had allowed her hand to reach into the page. She turned the book towards me, her expression expectant.

“Hac voce te voco, clavem. Prodeunt,” I chanted as my hand spilled into the page, disappearing at the wrist.

When I pulled my hand back out of the book, the key was within my grasp, as if it had been a physical thing all along. The crystal caught the light of the sun high in the afternoonsky, blinding me for a moment. When my vision cleared a shock of energy ran up my arm, stinging the scar on my shoulder where the lightning had struck me. I almost dropped the key from the shock of pain, and I had to concentrate to keep it held within my grasp.

My magic surged forth hungrily, anxious to feed into the key. It was as if it recognized this ancient magic on its own, and knew what would happen next.

Annelise closed the grimoire and set it on the ground before us.

“Nik, would you like to do the honors?” she asked.

Before I could ask what, exactly, he was about to do, he waved his hand and a small black cauldron appeared before us with a single glass goblet sitting atop a pedestal.

I raised an eyebrow at him, but he only laughed.

“Shapeshifter magic,” he explained with a shrug.

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