Magical Mistakes(37)

“Do you care for her?” Alina whispered. “As you once did for me?”

Mikayla leaned forward, desperate for the answer as much as Alina.

“You left me,” Ciar replied. “You have no right to care now.”

“Then what am I doing here?” she demanded. “I came for you. To make amends for how I ended things. If you don’t want me, why haven’t you sent me home before now?” She tried to move closer but Ciar kept her firmly at bay. “You remember how it used to be with us,” she murmured. “We can have that again. Forget Mikayla. Look to our future. We can have everything we’ve ever dreamed of. Choose me.”

“Don’t you dare.” The words were out of her mouth before Mikayla realized what she’d done.

Ciar twisted to look back at her.

She hesitated for a moment, wondering how to phrase her protest. “She has betrayed you over and over. You are no fool, Ciar. You can’t really go back to her.”

“And he’d be better off with you?” Alina snarled.

She didn’t look away from Ciar’s gaze. “Yes, and he knows it. You and I, Ciar. Tell me you don’t see the future I do.”

Alina hissed at her, baring her teeth in an inhuman gesture. “You speak of betrayal? Despite what you think you heard, you know nothing about me.”

“I know you like power,” Mikayla said. “And I know Rouke is your latest meal ticket.”

She stiffened at the accusation, her eyes widening.

“Is it true?” Ciar asked her. “Are you involved with Rouke?”

Alina clenched her jaw and stayed mutinously silent.

“He’s dangerous,” Ciar told her. “As well you know. He’ll do anything to get ahead, including eliminating anyone in his path.”

“Your little magical pet is trying to set me up,” Alina charged. “She’s trying to turn you against me. Don’t let her succeed, Ciar. You know me. Far better than you know her. Trust me.”

A slight smiled curved his lips. Hope leapt in Alina’s eyes at the sight. “Yes,” he murmured, lowering his head. “I do know you.”

Rising on her tiptoes, Alina tried to kiss him but Ciar pulled back.

“I know how vicious you are, Alina. I loved you for it once,” he told her. “You would risk anything for power.”

Growling, she twisted her hands free from his grip and pushed away. “Mikayla is warping your mind.”

“No,” he said. “This is about you and me. I trusted you once before and look where it landed me.”

“It’s different now.”

“It’s not,” he replied softly. “Even if we might wish it was.”

Mikayla flinched, pain stabbing her.

Desolation filled Alina’s face. She looked like a woman who had finally realized she couldn’t have all her dreams and didn’t know which ones to leave behind.

“Do you care more for your witch than you do for me?” she asked finally.

Ciar opened his mouth but had no answer. He glanced back at Mikayla as if trying to decide what to say.

As much as she wanted to hear his answer, a brush of cold magic played over her skin.

“Ciar,” she snapped, calling up her power in case she needed it. “Something’s coming.”

Both demons stiffened as if they too felt the approaching storm. Something was moving toward them with a power darker than anything Mikayla could command.

“Demon magic,” Alina hissed. Black nails elongated from her hands as she prepared to defend herself.

Across the playground a tear appeared in the air. Black space lay beyond the rip, a portal to a dark world. Mikayla flinched as the icy magic battered her. Witches did not deal well with energy that black.

A hand emerged and gripped the edge of the tear. As the rip between worlds widened, a body dragged itself from the darkness.

A man dropped from the portal, landing awkwardly in the sand. Behind him the portal closed with a last pulse of dark energy.

“Rouke,” Ciar growled.

The man stood, brushing the sand from him. “Hello, cousin,” he replied. “I believe you have something of mine.”

With a puff of smoke, Ciar turned back into a poodle.

“Crap,” Mikayla breathed.





Chapter Nine




Rouke looked the way Mikayla had always imagined demons would look. Big, powerful and mean. He towered over them all, Ciar included. Whereas Ciar had the compact body of a fighter, Rouke was far heavier. Thick muscles filled his large frame, making him appear more beast than man. His black hair was cropped short to his head, leaving nothing to soften his scarred face. Mikayla could easily see why Alina had wanted to cause a coup and replace this man with Ciar. She couldn’t believe any woman, even the power-hungry Alina, would want him. Cruelty shone from his silver eyes and Mikayla hated the way he stared at Ciar like a bug to be crushed.