A Little Magic(68)

Before she could snatch her hand away, Flynn closed his own over hers. “Power,” he murmured. “You feel it. Can all but taste it. A seductive thing. And inside, you can make yourself think there’s nothing impossible. Look at me, Kayleen.”

She already was, could do nothing else. Wanted nothing else. There you are, she thought again. There you are, at last.

“I could have you now. You would willingly lie with me now, as you have in dreams. Without fear. Without questions.”

“Yes.”

And his need was a desperate thing, leaping, snapping at the tether of control. “I want more.” His fingers tightened on hers. “What is it in you that makes me crave more, when I don’t know what more is? Well, we’ve time to find the answer. For now, I’ll tell you a story. A young magician left his family. He traveled and he studied. He helped and he healed. He had pride in his work, in himself. Some said too much pride.”

He paused now, thinking, for there had been times in this last dreaming that he’d wondered if that could be so.

“His skill, this magician’s, was great, and he was known in his world. Still, he was a man, with the needs of a man, the desires of a man, the faults of a man. Would you want a man perfect, Kayleen?”

“I want you.”

“Leannana.” He leaned over, pressed his lips to her knuckles. “This man, this magician, he saw the world. He read its books, listened to its music. He came and went as he pleased, did as he pleased. Perhaps he was careless on occasion, and though he did no harm, neither did he heed the rules and the warnings he was given. The power was so strong in him, what need had he for rules?”

“Everyone needs rules. They keep us civilized.”

“Do you think?” It amused him how prim her voice had become. Even held by the spell, she had a strong mind, and a strong will. “We’ll discuss that sometime. But for now, to continue the tale. He came to know a woman. Her beauty was blinding, her manner sweet. He believed her to be innocent. Such was his romantic nature.”

“Did you love her?”

“Yes, I loved her. I loved the angel-faced, innocent maid I saw when I looked at her. I asked for her hand, for it wasn’t just a tumble I wanted from her but a lifetime. And when I asked, she wept, ah, pretty tears down a smooth cheek. She couldn’t be mine, she told me, as much as her heart already was. For there was a man, a wealthy man, a cruel man, who had contracted for her. Her father had sold her, and her fate was sealed.”

“You couldn’t let that happen.”

“Ah, you see that, too.” It pleased him that she saw it, stood with him on that vital point. “No, how could I let her go loveless to another? To be sold like a horse in the marketplace? I would take her away, I said, and she wept the more. I would give her father twice what had been given, and she sobbed upon my shoulder. It could not be done, for then surely the man would kill her poor father, or see him in prison, or some horrible fate. So long as the man had his wealth and position, her family would suffer. She couldn’t bear to be the cause of it, even though her heart was breaking.”

Kayleen shook her head, frowned. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make sense. If the money was paid back and her father was wealthy now, he could certainly protect himself, and he would have the law to—”

“The heart doesn’t follow such reason,” he interrupted, impatiently because if he’d had the wit in his head at the time, instead of fire in his blood, he’d have come to those same conclusions. “It was saving her that was my first thought—and my last. Protecting her, and yes, perhaps, by doing so having her love me the more. I would take this cruel man’s wealth and his position from him. I vowed this, and oh, how her eyes shone, diamonds of tears. I would take what he had and lay it at her feet. She would live like a queen, and I would care for her all my life.”

“But stealing—”

“Will you just listen?” Exasperation hissed through his voice.

“Of course.” Her chin lifted, a little tilt of resentment. “I beg your pardon.”

“So this I did, whistling the wind, drawing down the moon, kindling the cold fire. This I did, and did freely for her. And the man woke freezing in a crofter’s cot instead of his fine manor house. He woke in rags instead of his warm nightclothes. I took his life from him, without spilling a drop of blood. And when it was done, I stood in the smoldering dark of that last dawn, triumphant.”

He fell into silence a moment, and when he continued, his voice was raw. “The Keepers encased me in a shield of crystal, holding me there as I cursed them, as I shouted my protests, as I used the heart and innocence of my young maid as my defense for my crime. And they showed me how she laughed as she gathered the wealth I’d sent to her, as she leapt into a carriage laden with it and fell into the arms of the lover with whom she’d plotted the ruin of the man she hated. And my ruin as well.”