caught her hand in his and kissed her fingertips, stroking her skin with his tongue. “The past is gone, Shea. All we have now is the present. And our future if we can claim it.”
Staring into those pale gray eyes, she felt his belief in her and clung to it. “We will.”
They crossed the wooden bridge and stepped through a short tunnel, stopping just before entering the inner yard. On the left was a “modern” caretaker’s cottage that looked to have been built more than a century ago. It was empty, thank heaven, Shea thought, reaching out with her power to scan for intruders. But there weren’t any tourists around, for which she was grateful. Because she felt those who waited for them. Felt their tension. Their eagerness to kill.
Staying to the shadows, she whispered, “We have to pass through the inner yard. Haven is through the great hall and into the chapel.”
“The chapel?”
She grinned. “Through the chapel.”
Torin nodded and said, “Wait here. I’m going to flash into the yard to draw our enemies’ fire so I can pinpoint their locations.”
Shea took a breath and blew it out. Grabbing hold of his shirt, she said soberly, “Be careful. If you get shot, I’m going to be seriously pissed.”
It was his turn to grin. “I’ll remember.”
He was gone in a brilliant explosion of flames. An instant later, as if from a distance, she heard a shout, then a gunshot that shattered the air and wiped away all traces of the past.
“Stop! ” Kellyn shouted at the idiot who had disregarded her orders and fired his weapon early. In a raging fury, she reached out to him, fisted her hand and watched as his eyes bulged and his throat closed. Without air, he dropped, lifeless, and his weapon clattered to the stones below. She scowled briefly at the dead fool, then glared at the chaos in the castle yard. Bullets were flying from every direction now that the one man had shattered the silence.
The men sent to do her bidding were scattered all along the ivy-covered stone walls, each of them with a clean line of sight into the yard below. Before setting up this ambush, they had cleared out the caretakers and chased off the damn tourists.
It should have been simple.
If she had been doing this her way, it would have been over and done.
The men her partner had sent had left their black SUVs behind the castle on Kellyn’s orders, rather than blocking the old portcullis with them. For God’s sake, they’d done everything but blow bugles to announce their presence. If she hadn’t been here to rearrange things, Shea and Torin would never have even approached Haven.
As it was, they’d been alerted to the danger now. There was no hope to salvage the situation. Kellyn looked below and saw that Torin was already moving to fight their attackers. Shea was standing half hidden in the shadow of a stone staircase, lifting her arms, calling on the elements to protect them.
Disgusted at the failure of yet another plan, Kellyn did the only thing that was left to her. Speaking into the radio in her hand, she ordered, “Concentrate your fire on the man. No one hurts the witch.”
Bullets chewed up the lavishly tended lawn and spat chunks of stone from the surrounding walls. Rain dropped from the heavens and Kellyn cursed, knowing the storm had been called by Shea.
This was all going to hell too fast.
Shea watched her Eternal flash with dizzying speed from one corner of the yard to another, drawing their fire, never slowing. They couldn’t hit him; bullets smacked into stone walls and chewed up the tidy lawn. Finally, he came back to her side with a smile. “We’ve made our point. They know now we won’t be so easy to surprise again.”
Reaching for Torin’s hand, Shea said, “Bring the fire.”
Fingers linked, palms touching, they stood against their enemies, a united front. Shea waved her free hand and murmured a chant.
From those who attack us in this field
Moon, my Goddess, fuel my will
Help me create a protective shield
To honor you, no blood will we spill
An invisible, magically created cloak lifted from the earth, reaching toward heaven, encircling Torin and Shea, protecting them both from the bullets flying around the inner ward of the castle.
As the shield grew in intensity, Torin drew on their combined strength, called up his fire and sent it rushing out in a wall of flame that swept across the yard and into every