Page 12 of Witch's Exile
5
DEJA
My dream was different that night.
I saw Seth sitting cross-legged in a circle of candles. He was shirtless and barefoot with sigils decorating his body as well as the ground around him. They seemed to glow and pulse, but the light emanating from them was dark and moving like smoke.
He stared at me, saying nothing. I looked down to see that my belly was still flat. My hand moved down my torso until I felt that faint pulse of life from my womb. She was still in there, safe and protected.
"What is this?" I asked no one in particular. Just because Seth was there didn't mean he was the one behind the dream.
"I'm here because you fear me," Seth answered in the gentlest voice I heard him speak. "You're afraid of what I can do to you, your lovers, and your child." It was jarring to not hear that biting edge to his words.
"You won't come anywhere near us," I hissed, covering my lower abdomen with both hands. "I'll make you drown on the air in your lungs before you can even think about touching us."
His lips spread into a wicked smile. "Deja, if I was your enemy, you'd already be dead."
"You can think that all you want," I shot back. "But even if my lovers couldn't put you down, I'd have an army from Hell at my back, commanded by Lucifer himself."
The grin grew wider as he tilted his head in amusement. "What if I told you an army of Hell would rise up for me as well?"
"What?" I blinked. That was the last answer I expected. "But you're not a demon."
"Neither are you."
I tried to read his expression as my brain spun, but the candlelight dancing over his chiseled features revealed nothing. When I tried to move forward, I felt rooted to my spot. If only I could touch him for a second to read his shadows!
My voice barely reached a whisper. "Who the hell are you?"
"Our lessons have not finished." He ignored my question. "Your mind is getting stronger, Deja, but you have to push past the fear." He rose to his feet, the muscles in his shoulders flexing as he pushed himself up. "Soon you'll see that you have no reason to fear me."
Suddenly I was inside the circle with him, so close that my chest brushed against his. Despite my confusion and the paralyzing fear within me, my body had an automatic, chemical reaction to being so close to him.
I wanted to run away or punch him in his smug arrogant face, but at the same time I was dying to run my tongue across the sigils etched into his skin. His mouth parted as his eyes dropped to my lips and I found myself leaning in, aching to taste them. Only when he raised his hand to my face as if to caress me did I flinch and tear my gaze away.
"What are you doing to me?" I pleaded. "I don't want this!"
For a fraction of a second, his steely gray eyes registered pain as if the asshole actually had feelings I could hurt. Then his lip curled into a snarl and the bitter harshness returned to his voice.
"No more room in your little harem, I see. Just thought I'd check."
"For you? Never," I seethed. "Now get on with whatever you want in this dream so I can wake up and be with my real men."
He huffed out a dry laugh and flicked his wrist. In the next moment I was outside the circle again at a comfortable ten feet away from him.
"I delayed them for as long as I could but the hunters have found your trail," he said coldly. "They'll be on you in two days, maybe sooner."
Panic surged through me, but so did the need to see if he was bluffing.
"How do I know you're not lying?"
He shrugged. "Wait for them to come and slaughter all of you with angel-kissed weapons. Makes no difference to me." He stepped forward over the candles, seemingly unaffected by their flames. "And one more tip," he added with his signature arrogant smirk. "Don't try to catch Air with your hands. Capture it with your lungs."
Before I could reply, the sensation of free falling came over me. Instinctively I kicked my legs to find some sort of solid ground, and found myself in bed with warm skin beneath my cheek.
"Hey, love."
Ash's voice rumbled from inside his chest as I blinked myself awake. I watched his hands mark his place in the book he was holding and gently set it down on the nightstand.
