Page 78 of Her Dreadful Will
“Better than amazing.” She arched her shoulders, swung her arms, twirled around—she felt like herself again. More herself than ever, in fact. “I feel like I could check all the hyacles and have energy to spare.”
“Don’t waste it all,” he warned. “As the moon wanes, its light is less powerful, and harder to use to refill your aura. You don’t want to run out of radiance too soon.”
“We have to do something with it, though,” she said. “There’s no way I can sleep right now. Let’s go somewhere, and you can start teaching me chaos magic.”
“It’s almost midnight, Soleil. We’ve both been through a lot today, and we should sleep.”
“Aw, poor baby. Is it past your bedtime?” She sauntered closer and trailed a finger along his collarbone.
Exasperation and desire battled in his eyes. “I’ll teach you,” he said. “Soon. But not tonight.”
And she knew he was saying “no” to more than the lesson.
“Fine.” Soleil spun away, peeved. But even as she moved, she felt a sudden influx of very human weariness, despite the fullness of the magic thrumming through her body. Achan was right, as per damn usual. So irritating. “You should check on Florence before we head back,” she said crisply.
“In a minute.” Achan’s voice came from immediately behind her, and his hands closed over her shoulders, turning her to face him. He backed up two steps and crossed his arms. And then he looked Soleil up and down, taking his time, his gaze a warm and reverent touch along her legs, her waist, her breasts, her neck. Letting her know that she was beautiful. That she was wanted, despite the apparent rejection.
Soleil’s legs turned quivery and weak, her skin flushing hot. When he reached her eyes, she smiled at him. “You done?”
“Not even close. But it will have to do for now.” He walked over to his clothes and shook the necklace of teeth out of his pants pocket. Soleil put on her bra and pants while he was occupied finding the tooth. She was just pulling on her shirt when he nodded. “Florence is fine. Asleep, calm, and breathing. Dreaming, I think.”
“What about Zillah?”
Achan dug around in his pocket and extracted a tooth. “Damn it, where’s the other one?”
Soleil raised her eyebrows. “You’re keeping themloosein your pocket?”
“Just until I can make a tag and add them to the string—” He swore again, then groaned with relief. “Ah, here it is. Okay, hang on.”
After a few seconds, he shook his head. “She’s out too. Drunk, if I had to guess.” He stepped into his pants and hitched them up around his waist, stuffing the teeth back into his pocket.
“So much magic.” Soleil could taste it—reckless freedom, and power that felt beautifully limitless. An expansive landscape, endless sweeping vistas and broad plains of possibility. “We can do anything we want with it.”
Achan canted his head, his gaze far too perceptive. “We can do anything that fits within the purview of your thesis.”
“Oh. Right.” Fences fell into place around the fields of possibility, and walls rose cold and unyielding above her.
“Hey, don’t worry.” Achan stepped closer and tipped her chin up with a finger. “There’s plenty we can do without breaking your vow to the Convocation.”
“But if I use magic selfishly, even for practice, they’ll find out.” She lifted her hand, showing him the charmed vow ring on her pinkie.
“Oh, that? I can work around that. They’ll never know.”
She didn’t miss the malicious delight in his tone. “Someday you have to explain to me why you hate them so much.”
“Someday.” He began gathering the supplies. Soleil picked up the electric candles, clicking off each one. Most of them had fallen over during the moonlight session.
“Can you fix the messed-up grass?” she said. “If you don’t, the others in the coven will know we were here without them.”
“So?” He shrugged. “I’m their leader. They don’t tell me what to do. No one does.”
“I suppose that’s true.” A secret part of her, closer to the surface now than ever before, revolted at the thought, and resented the idea that he could be stronger than her, stronger than anyone. It was easy to hold herself back when she knew she could take control of someone at a moment’s notice. Faced with the one person she could not touch, she chafed at the exception.
For a wild, hot moment, she craved the control of him, ached to slither through his shield and explore the essence of his will—to align his impulses with her own purpose.
Yielding to the urge, she placed her ring-laced right hand over the mandala on his bare chest and hurled her magic against it.
He sucked in a quick breath. “You’re hurting me.”
