“Arim, what’s happened to you?”
“What? Besides the fact that I’m naked and bound in front of you? Blame that bastard of Shadow, Sava. He and Jonas conspired to toss me to the enemy. But hear me, witch. I’m not helpless. Not at all.” Power flared in his gaze, and I was taken aback, not sure what to make of this odd situation.
I rose up on my elbows, careful to keep myself shielded by my hair. Flexing a hand, I tried to call forth blue flame, familiar Dark Lord energy. Nothing. Focusing, I called upon my weakened power to clothe myself. Again, nothing. What the hell had Jonas done?
“Lexa?” Arim’s gaze narrowed on me in what might once have passed for concern. “Explain this,” he ordered in a deep voice.
“You already did,” I answered coldly, scared and determined not to show it. My magic was all I had. Without it, I would surely fall to the demons, and I couldn’t imagine an eternity anywhere near the Pit. “Obviously, I had Sava and Jonas bring you here. Now shut up while I try to think about what to do with you. Should I kill you first or torture you slowly?”
The untrusting bastard. Peering closely at him, I saw a flicker of his energy constrained yet still there. He hadn’t lost a part of himself. He hadn’t sacrificed one iota of his stern, stupid moral principles to do the right thing.
Angry and hurt when I shouldn’t have been — really, what did I expect from a Light Bringer? — I scooted backward off the bed.
“Lexa, come here.” He sounded weary, no longer furious.
I, however, still was. “Screw you. I have better things to do.” The first order of business was to throw on some clothes. With no other alternative, I showed Arim my naked backside as I walked to my closet. Throwing the doors open, I found empty hangers. Same with my dresser.
After I’d stormed through the house, I found nothing with which to clothe myself. No towels, sheets, drapes, or loose fabric anywhere. I could only thank the Dark that large trees blocked my windowed living room from the neighbors.
“What are you doing?” I heard Arim yell from the bedroom as I stalked around my living room.
Thoroughly confused, I tried to think. What did I know?
Jonas had drugged me. Sava had drugged Arim. I had no power, and Arim was bound by Dark-hide in my bedroom. Yet even limited by the magic rope, he should have had the power to call a few spells. Instead, he bellowed at me. So, Arim must also be unable to summon his magic.
I turned the focus of my mind inward, a trick I’d learned as a young child to circumvent magic I didn’t like. To my consternation, I found what I was looking for. An Aellein spell meant to cloak those within its confines.
Apparently, Sava and Jonas conspired to put Arim and me together, sans clothing, for the unforeseeable future.
“Shit.” I gnawed on my lip and sat bare-assed naked on the couch. It was then I noted the scrap of paper on the coffee table. In precise handwriting with a masculine slant, I read, “The Mountain has come to Mohammed, as they say. Enjoy yourself and work out your differences. I’ll be back to collect you both soon. You’re safe here from outside influence. But I can’t guarantee how safe you’ll be from each other. You’re both magic-free, at least. So try to fix what’s been broken. Because one way or the other, I’m dragging you both back to Tanselm. Sava.”
The minute I dropped the note from my hands, it dissolved into nothing.
Damn you, Sava. And Jonas, you interfering Darkling. When I get my hands on you…
A noise alerted me that Arim stood in the doorway of my bedroom. Standing, he was that much more imposing, his head brushing the top of the doorframe. As before, his gaze traveled slowly over me from head to toe.
“I gather you’re as clueless about all this as I am.”
Not anymore, thanks to Sava’s note. “Sava’s a dead man.”
“On that, we agree.” Arim strode forward, having somehow managed to break free from the rope holding his ankles together. But his arms remained tied snugly behind his back. He continued toward me, his impressive body taut with muscle as he closed the distance between us.
Like clockwork, my body lit up like a firecracker. Arim’s reaction, a thickening erection, showed he was likewise affected. His black eyes glittered with need. He stopped a hair’s breadth from me, his shaft so close I could reach out and touch it.
My mouth dry, I licked my lips and leaned back, not caring how weak I might appear. If he leaned one inch closer, I was going to grab him. And I didn’t want to touch him lest I lose all sense of why I should avoid him in the first place.
“One thing that’s never changed, Blue. How you make my body ache.” His voice was thick with raw desire.
My pulse reacted on cue, racing toward a disaster waiting to happen. “So what?” I cleared my throat and glanced away. Anywhere but at the solid flesh so dangerously near. “Lust is an easy affliction to salve. It’s the hate and mistrust that keep us apart. I see no reason to change that now.”
His silence disturbed me, but I refused to look at him again.
Until he stepped so close our legs touched, his body heat bleeding into mine.
“Don’t you?” His quiet question snapped my gaze to his with lightning speed, despite my intention to will him away. “Why did you step in front of the blast meant for me, Blue? Because I’ve had a lot of time to wonder about that. I still don’t understand.”
“And you never will.” Because I don’t understand it myself.
