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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Mathin broke your arm?” Andrea gaped at her, turning horrified eyes on Mathin, who’d halted in his play to watch them, an unreadable expression on his face. She was unprepared for Jasmine’s fierce response.
“If he hadn’t, I’d never have escaped,” she snapped, almost daring Andrea to contradict her. “Mathin received more criticism over that move than I liked. As far as I’m concerned, my opinion is the only one that matters. I owe him, big time.”
Andrea would have apologized, but Jasmine wasn’t done. “You don’t want to know what the place I was kept in was like. Not only did he rescue me while Keilor healed, he gave me the means to have children with Keilor, to grow old with him.”<
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Scent of Danger 30
“Jealous, my love? There’s no need.” Slowly he brought her hand to his mouth and brushed a soft kiss on the back. “Do you see me with anyone else?”“I-I’m not jealous,” she whispered, knowing it wasn’t true. The thought of another woman chasing him bugged her. Not that she was chasing him, of course. It was just that she despised watching fickle men in action“Hmm.” He brushed his whiskered jaw against the inside of her wrist, making her shiver. “I’m glad.”No longer cognizant of what he said, she closed her eyes, hoping for, expecting, his kiss.
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Andrea scowled. “It’s not like I’m going to stop him if he decides to go. It’s not as if we’re dating or something.” Even if the thought of him participating in some kind of bachelor contest did make her feel grumpy. “What’s the prize, anyway?” she asked, grudgingly giving in to her curiosity.“A date with any of the eligible women who chose to sign up as potential prizes, a red sash for any man who doesn’t have one, a small fortune in prismatic silver and a war stag. Not that Mathin needs the last.” Rihlia grimaced, tossing the end of her dark braid over her shoulder. “Bad tempered though he is, no one would argue that Mathin’s stag isn’t one of the best in the land.”
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What he wanted to do was fall on her like a ravenous volti. Only the constant distracting of his mind kept him from it. Well, that and rigorous physical exercise, which her call had torn him from.Perhaps it was time he showed her it wasn’t wise to tease a Haunt.Taking her left hand, he raised it up until they could both see the stone of her ring glinting in the sunlight. “What is this?”“A ring,” she answered cautiously, uncertain where he was going with this.“The ring I gave you and you accepted,” he reminded her in a firm voice. When her eyes flew to his he nodded grimly. &ld
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Shaken by his story, she stared at the stones. Were she and Mathin supposed to love so fast? Was Mathin even in love? He hadn’t said so. “He claims to want me because of these premonitions he has.”“Even better.” He shrugged. “If you can’t trust a vision, what can you trust?”Frustrated, she stared at him. “That’s not logical! I need more than that.”“Then you’ll always need more,” he said, standing up. He extended a hand and helped her to her feet. “If you love him at all, learn to have some faith in him. Watch him with his friends and the ones he cares for. Speak to them about him, watch how he responds i
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Mathin turned his attention to his blade as he flicked it off, transforming it back to the dagger she was used to seeing at his side. When he looked up again, his eyes were once again black.“Enjoying yourself?” He asked dryly, sending a warning glance at her herd of admirers.To a man they stepped away, clearing a space between them.Instead of closing the distance, he folded his arms and waited to see why she’d sought him out. The difficult and sleepless night he’d just passed had not left him in the best of moods.When Andrea walked toward him, determination in her eyes, his brow rose in grudgin
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He chuckled. “You’ll improve.” His voice dropped an octave. “I’m a patient teacher.”A quiver started in her belly and vibrated without ceasing as he levered out of the pool and lay beside her. She couldn’t look.“Today, I will not touch you.” He waited until she dared a look at his face. “Today is for overcoming your fear of looking.” When she looked back at her hands, he said nothing. Now was not the time to rush her.It wasn’t easy to face him. Nor could she quite look there, though she was dying of curiosity. For a long moment she simply stared at the muscled planes of his chest as he lay on his side, watching h
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Shocked mute by such a bald-faced declaration of dominance, she narrowed her eyes and looked away, ignoring him.Until the thing on her arms shifted.Alarmed anew, she shuddered and tried to pull it off, frustrated to discover it wouldn’t budge. “Give me your knife.”Obligingly, he unsheathed it and flipped it over, extending it to her hilt-first.The symbiont flowed seamlessly around the sharp blade, not the least perturbed. The only thing she succeeded in doing was nicking herself.Instantly the symbiont flowed over the bright s
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The challenger stabbed the end of his staff at Mathin, attempting to scorch his face.Without looking at his footing, Mathin shifted onto another post, delivering a wicked low swing that came close to cremating the warrior’s hope of future pleasure.If he was shaken, the man didn’t show it, coming back with a deadly rain of blows. So swift was attack and counter attack that Andrea couldn’t follow, could only tense in rising panic. Arcs of fire painted the gray morning, leaving a tracery of lighting over her vision. How could they see?A gasp rose from the crowd as the challenger suddenly flipped backward, coming to rest with perfect control on a pillar.
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Scent of Danger 81
“Wonder what that was all about,” Mathin muttered at her side.“I don’t know, but I’m beginning to feel like the unappreciated fairy godmother,” Andrea complained.His grin sent firecrackers popping clear to her toes. Mathin took her glass and set it down. One quick tug pulled her into his arms, slightly bent at the perfect angle for a kiss. “I think I can do something to change that.”A superb dancer, Mathin twirled her around the dance floor, his grace as beguiling as his dark good looks. The man danced like he made love, and every burning look was enough to set her blood aflame. Schemes and plans for others were lost in the dreamy whirl of pleas
Scent of Danger 80
The next morning, well before the party was to begin, Leo presented Mathin and Andrea with a copy of her notes and sketches. “A gift,” she said simply.Mathin was more excited than Andrea would have dreamed possible. “Do you know how much I’ve wanted something like this?” he demanded of Leo, his eyes glued to the pages. “It’s almost impossible to get any information on the Beasts in the Dark Lands.”Leo and Andrea exchanged pleased looks.“Wait a minute.” His brows furrowed as he stared at the page. “I’ve seen this picture somewhere else, only…”
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“At least there’s that.” More silence. “I never did thank you for all you’ve done for me and my wife.”“It was nothing.”“It was something,” Mathin returned forcefully. “And I won’t forget it. If there is anything, at any time, that I can do for you, you have only to name it.”Scy searched his face. “Be careful what you offer, brother.” He smiled a little. “I might accept.”“Do that.” Mathin left, satisfied that Scy would turn his words over.
Scent of Danger 78
Mathin stilled. Taking her hand, he placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “He stayed home with his wife, my love.” His tone became sorrowful. “They lost the baby.”The color drained from her face. Her eyes welled. “No,” she whispered, and slumped to the bed. Jasmine had been so happy!He didn’t try to make it better with platitudes, just held her. “I know.” He rubbed his face against her hair. “I know.”She grieved, but even as she cried for her friend’s loss, in her heart Andrea had to wonder. Had the baby been lost because of some unavoidable defect, caused by the mixing of such alien blood? Might the child have been born
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“Can you help her?” Andrea tried to control her shivering. Scy kept one eye on the swordsmen while his symbiont worked on Leo’s head. Still unconscious, she didn’t move.“I’m trying.” He handed a gun to her. “Fire if you get a clean shot. If anything happens to Mathin, you won’t have time for more than one. Got it?”“I...yes.” Determined to control the contractions that squeezed her lower belly, she tried to keep her eyes on the fighters. It wasn’t easy. Not only were they moving in a virtual blur, but the cramps distracted her. They didn’t feel like the false contractions that had squeezed her whole stomach as the pregnancy advanced. No, these were lower, more intense. They felt like t
Scent of Danger 76
Shivering as much from the spookiness of that as from the damp chill, Andrea glanced toward the dim light coming in from the single exit. A brackish puddle had collected in the sunken depression under the stone tiles, and it reflected a bit of the light and the occasional shifting shadow of a guard. Odd how she’d never felt so wary of her Haunt, but then they’d gone out of their way to put her at ease. There was nothing remotely friendly about these dark warriors.Every now and then Leo would stand up to stretch, but her chains didn’t allow her to lift her arms past her hips. The bolts in the floor were very solid; she’d tugged on the chains enough that she’d bled, trying to loosen them.“I’m sorry.”
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The cycle eased out of the gate, gathering speed as it headed up the road through the village. Naked fields flashed by as the woods edged closer.“Hang on!” the Ronin tossed over his shoulder, and suddenly they were flying.Eyes narrowed against the wind and flying insects, Mathin felt the rope bite into his wrists where he’d looped it. He held on as best he could with the toes of his boots against the edge of the platform as the cycle began a series of fast maneuvers around the trees that blurred past. The slight lip on the edges wouldn’t prevent him from flying off on one of the turns if he weren’t careful.As if to prove his point, the platform took a sharp dip,
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“I wasn’t going to ask her any,” Leo protested. “Scy…” When he continued to ignore her, she placed her body right in front of him. “This is very important to me.”A light like golden foxfire hazed his blue eyes. His body began to tremble. “Don’t,” his voice was hoarse and he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes from Leo’s mouth. “Don’t get so close to me, woman, unless you want to get close to me.” His nostrils flared as her eyes widened. “I’ve long run out of herbs, and you’re provoking far more than my temper.” He brushed past her.“I’m not afraid of you!” she yelled at his back.
Scent of Danger 73
Mathin read his wife’s latest letter, and then sat in silence before the fire in the banquet hall.This might be difficult.He took a long drink of his wine, smiling without humor. His wife had a gift for understatement.Thought you needed to know…Had he? Had he really? He crumpled the edge of the letter in his fist and then tossed it aside. For most of his life, he hadn’t known about these strangers spawned of his father’s madness. No doubt they were content to keep it that way as well. What did his wife think, that the three of them could take up friendly relations as easily a
