Enchant the Night - Amanda Ashley Page 0,69

seemed quite right. Discouraged, she decided to try on one more.

And fell in love. It was perfect. A sweetheart bodice. Long, fitted sleeves made of delicate lace. And a beautiful floor-length skirt. Callie bought the dress on the spot and arranged for alterations, which would take two weeks. She picked out a shoulder-length veil and a pair of white heels and left the store, smiling.

Filled with excitement, she didn’t pay any attention to the black SUV that pulled in behind her.

At home, she put the veil and the shoe box on the shelf in the bedroom closet and closed the door. When she turned around, Ebony was at her heels.

“I’m going to be a bride,” she said, bending down to stroke the cat’s head. “What do you think about that?”

The cat hissed and arched her back.

Callie huffed a sigh. “Why don’t you like Quill? He’s never done anything to you.”

Ebony stared at her through unblinking yellow-gold eyes.

“You’re impossible,” Callie muttered. “Just remember, if I ever have to chose between the two of you, you’re outta here.”

Tail twitching, the cat padded out of the room.

With a shake of her head, Callie went into the kitchen to fix a sandwich. She ate it at the table, then decided to take a walk in spite of the clouds gathering overhead. She grabbed a jacket, just in case, and headed out the back door.

She followed a meandering path that wound between tall trees. The air was fragrant with the scent of pine and damp earth. When she reached a fork in the road, she paused, then turned left. The trail led her to a narrow stream and there, standing in the shade on the other side of the water, she saw the buck she had healed the day before, easily identified by the faint scar on its shoulder.

The deer stared at her, ears twitching, nostrils flared, and then it picked its dainty way across the stream and nosed her hand. Callie stroked the buck’s coat, thinking what a rare and special moment it was, standing there in the middle of a forest petting a wild animal.

A faint noise sounded behind her.

In a flash, the deer was gone.

Callie whirled around, her heart pounding as her gaze darted left and right. Seeing nothing, she ducked behind a tree, then peered around the trunk. There! A flash of black moving through the shadows. Wishing she had Ava’s wand to focus her power, she concentrated on the man slinking through the underbrush as she tried to conjure a spell that would render him immobile.

She gathered her power and whispered the spell, but she must have done something wrong. She saw it hit the man, but it didn’t immobilize him. Instead, he let out a startled cry, then bolted away from her and disappeared into the forest.

Callie waited where she was for ten minutes before venturing into the open. She darted warily from tree to tree, but whoever had been stalking her was gone.

* * *

Quill paced the floor in front of the sofa that evening as he tried to tamp down the fear that had been churning in his gut ever since Callie had told him what had happened in the woods. “You didn’t see who it was?”

“Just someone dressed in black.” She shrugged. “I might have overreacted. Maybe it was just a hiker.”

“Maybe.” But he didn’t think so. “And your magic didn’t work?”

“I’m not sure I cast the right spell.”

He grunted softly. Took a deep breath. Callie was here. She was safe. But he couldn’t stop worrying. “I’m going to go out and have a look around.” When she started to rise from the sofa, he shook his head. “You stay here.”

“But . . .”

“Stay here.”

Callie glared at him, mutely defiant.

“Please, Callie.”

“Oh, all right.”

“I won’t be gone long.” Quill caressed her cheek with his knuckles, then went out the back door.

With his preternatural senses, it was easy to follow her tracks. And just as easy to pick up the trail of the Knight who had been following her. A quick inhale carried the faint signature of Callie’s magic. He paused, frowning, when he detected a second signature. He recognized it, too. It belonged to the black witch employed by the Knights of the Dark Wood. He’d never seen her face but she’d come to the rescue of a Knight who had attacked him.

He grunted softly. No wonder Callie’s incantation hadn’t worked. The black witch had cast some sort of counter-spell on the Knight to protect him. No