breath became a fierce act of will.
“You know,” he said, firelight playing across his features. “You know where we must go.”
“Yes,” she said, meeting his gaze and hoping he couldn’t see the dark edge of hunger shining in her eyes. “I know where I hid the Artifact.”
“Then we go. First thing in the morning.” He stood, drawing her to her feet, to lead her back to bed.
“Torin, wait.” She leaned into him, wrapped her arms around his middle and burrowed in close. “Just hold on to me for a minute, will you?”
“For eternity,” he pledged, his arms closing around her.
She hoped so, Shea thought, closing her eyes, only to see again the dark images that had awakened her.
Shea saw herself holding her shard of the Artifact high, moonlight glinting off its dark surface. She felt the push of the black silver as it crept along her skin, sinking into her heart, her very bones. She watched helplessly as her eyes and hair turned black.
As her mouth curved into a smile and her hand reached out to strike Torin down.
Chapter 46
The blackened ruins of a long-dead castle stood on a cliff overlooking an angry sea.
Torin had drawn on the magic and in a long series of jumps had flashed them all the way to southeastern Scotland. The trip had taken two days, since they’d rested to ensure that both of their energies weren’t overly drained. It would have been too risky to be close to the black silver in a weakened condition—not to mention the fact that they had no idea if their pursuers would once more ambush them.
Shea had worked spells and used astral projection, but she hadn’t seen any trouble coming. Only long days and one long night spent in Torin’s embrace. The mating sex was richer, deeper now, as if each of their souls had claimed a slice of the other, bonding them so completely that there was no Shea without Torin. No Torin without Shea. As it was meant to be. Their minds were attuned. They didn’t need to speak their thoughts to be heard. And still the mating connection continued, incomplete yet overwhelming.
The wind moaned as it ran through the knee-high grasses and across the rocks. A sudden slash of sunlight spilled out from behind a cloud and the baaing of sheep in the fields made the scene seem like a painting come to life.
Only ten miles from St. Andrews and the tourists who streamed through Scotland, this cliffside ruin might as well have been on another planet.
Shea stepped out of Torin’s arms and took a deep breath of the cold Scottish air. The scent was familiar, teasing a series of vignettes to spring to life in her mind. A blazing forge with a blacksmith bent over the fire. A maid hurrying down long hallways with fresh linen. A kitchen boy stealing a cookie and dodging a slap from the cook. Tiny things all, taken separately, were no more than a blink’s worth of time. Taken together, they were, simply, a lifetime.
“It’s still here,” she whispered, her gaze taking in both the castle and the cliffs beyond. “I was worried that maybe erosion would have sent the castle sliding into the sea.”
Torin stepped up behind her, laid one hand on her shoulder and asked, “The shard is here?”
“Yes,” she said, speaking quietly enough that she wouldn’t disturb the ghosts still going about their daily business. Even though she couldn’t see them, she felt them. Spirits who either couldn’t or wouldn’t move on, but instead clung tenaciously to the familiar. “It’s on the chapel wall.”
“A church?” Torin turned her in his arms and looked into her eyes. “You put a shard of the Artifact that Lucifer himself was after in a chapel?”
She smiled and lifted one hand to cup his cheek. “Hate to use a cliché, but as I recall, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” Shea turned to look at the castle again. “I was scared, Torin. After that battle with the demons, we’d literally had the hell scared out of us. We each knew how potent the black silver was and how important it was to hide it where it would be safely kept for eight hundred years.”
“And you chose this place.” His gaze lifted to sweep the surrounding area, searching, as always, for a potential threat. “Why?”
Shea looked up at him. “Now it’s you who doesn’t remember.”
He frowned and shook his head. “Remember what?”
“This castle.” She swung one hand out to