staring into the mirror at him. “Look, Shea. Look at your body and mine. See what is happening.”
She did and at first, couldn’t see what it was he wanted her to. Their reflections were blurred through her passion-glazed eyes, but at last she was able to focus. She looked at his hand on her breast and narrowed her gaze as his long fingers moved over a dark spot above her nipple.
“What is that?” She leaned closer to the mirror. Just over the dark pink areola of her breast, there was a bloodred mark. Elongated, with a slightly teardrop shape, it was almost like an oddly shaped birthmark, but she knew it wasn’t.
“The mating brand,” Torin told her, a satisfied tone to his voice.
She shifted her gaze to his. “A brand?”
He shrugged. “A tattoo of sorts, then. Our bodies, when mated, create this mark. I have a matching one.”
Shea turned around to face him and looked at his left nipple. The same dark red mark was there as well. Her fingertip stroked the edges of it. “What is it? It looks like a teardrop.”
Shaking his head, he bent to place a kiss on the mark above her breast. “It is a flame. A single flame to mark the beginning of the mating. Over the next month, the brand will grow and expand, marking each of us as belonging to the other.”
She belonged.
Finally, at last, she knew where she belonged. She’d spent her entire life trying to fit in. Trying not to be the square peg in the round hole and it had never worked. There was always something different about her. Even before her aunt had shown her that their family carried witchcraft in their bloodlines.
She took a breath and slowly released it.
“Over the next month?”
“Yes. The mating is slow, giving witch and Eternal time to enjoy each other and the changes that happen between us.”
She stroked one finger across his warm, muscled chest and smiled when he hissed in a breath at her touch. “Changes?”
“We will gain strength from each other, Shea.” His hands moved up and down her body as if he simply couldn’t touch her enough. “The brand begins it, linking our bodies and souls. As the thirty days pass, the brand will spread across our bodies and with each new flame that appears, the bond between us will be that much stronger.” He dipped his head to claim a quick, hard kiss. “When we touch, we will be able to combine our magic to increase our joined strength.”
“And when the thirty days are up?”
“My heart will beat and if Belen is pleased with me, I will gain more power.”
“What kind of power?” she asked, leaning into his hands.
“I don’t know,” Torin admitted. “The mating is something of a secret even to us. None of us knows what will be until it’s finished.”
“Your god didn’t give you many details.”
“What god does?” he asked, one corner of his luscious mouth curving upward. “The goddess Danu, your goddess, was no more generous with information.”
“Danu?” Shea shook her head and tried to think. But it was so hard with his hands on her.
“The Mother goddess,” he told her with a shrug. “She who created witchcraft and chose the women to wield it.”
“There is so much I don’t know,” she whispered, leaning her forehead against his chest, listening to the silence where there should have been a heartbeat.
“I will share with you everything I know,” he promised. “But for now, you must know we have only until the next full moon to complete our mission. To find what was once hidden and get it to safety.”
“What is it?”
“Black silver,” he said and those two words dropped like icy stones into the room.
Shea swayed unsteadily as images raced through her mind at his words. A dark element created by witches, she thought. Black silver was imbued with power that had grown quickly and completely out of control.
“The Artifact,” she whispered, not sure where that word had come from.
“Yes,” he said, stroking his fingertips along the side of her breast. “You remember?”
She shook her head, frowning as her mind turned away from the memory. “No. Not really. It’s just that when you said ‘black silver,’ I got a flash of something—but it was gone too soon for me to grab it.”
“You will,” he said. “You must.”
“Right.” She nodded and looked down to where his fingers stroked lazily over her newly born tattoo. “You said there were others, like me. Awakening witches. Will we all