Rhiannon, shrouded in the last evening light, stepped into the room and very deliberately closed the door behind herself. Pru felt her stomach clench.
Surely she wouldn’t…
Lisa, obviously not in possession of all of her faculties, didn’t seem to recognize that she was in the presence of an apex predator.
She let go of Pru, slamming the fridge shut in the process, and turned fully toward Rhiannon.
“Wow, never in a million years would I have figured that this prude here would nail herself a cougar. Would you look at this kitty cat…”
The exaggerated swagger took her to Rhiannon’s immediate proximity. Pru closed her eyes to what was going to come. Except there was only silence. And then the distinct clack of stilettos. Coming closer.
“And who might you be?” Rhiannon’s tone was inscrutable. Any minute now something decidedly drastic would occur.
Lisa, still entirely oblivious to the danger she was courting, smirked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, kitty cat?”
Rhiannon sighed and looked at her crimson-tipped nails.
“I wouldn’t, actually. In fact, I would very much prefer to have never met you. Because I really dislike spending my nights at the town jail.” Lisa’s smirk was wiped clear off as Rhiannon took came closer still. Lisa towered over her, taller by a full head,but that didn’t seem to faze Rhiannon. Another step brought the women chest to chest.
Something in Rhiannon’s face must’ve finally gotten through Lisa’s drunken state, because she retreated until her back hit the breakfast bar. Rhiannon did not stop advancing. Behind her, Pru could see the skies darken, the clouds ominous. The lights in the room flickered on and off. Lisa’s eyes were hollow, Rhiannon’s strangely alight.
“Though the town jail is not entirely awful and I hear they even have a sheriff on the island these days, an old classmate of mine, so the night there might even be worth it. We’d reminisce of the olden days of yore, when young hotheads were polite to their elders…” Rhiannon’s smile was lethal. “No, my time would not be wasted. And you know why I’d gladly agree to do it?” Lisa shook her head like a marionette now, her string cut and her joints broken.
Rhiannon grabbed Lisa’s chin and lowered her face till they were eye to eye. Pru gulped, and she was certain it had been audible.
“I’d spend my Tuesday night in the Nest’s jail just to teach you a lesson. Nobody talks this way to Prudence. And nobody, and I mean especially the likes of you, is allowed to come into her apartment. Do you understand me?” When Lisa didn’t move, Rhiannon jerked her chin, mimicking a nod. “Good girl.”
Under normal circumstances Pru found that epithet slightly overdone in romance novels, and definitely unsuitable for this situation, but suddenly her entire body was on fire and it had nothing to do with the craft. And everything to do with the words and with Rhiannon saying them.
“Oh, and one more thing.” Rhiannon’s hold on Lisa’s chin tightened. Thunder shook the windowpanes. Pru winced. Rhiannon’s voice had taken a low, ominous quality, that of a hurricane unleashing. “If you ever put your hands on her…There will not be enough of you to pour into a gin glass to set on a table by the bunk bed in the aforementioned jail. Am I being understood?” Rhiannon jerked the chin up and down again, Lisa visibly wincing.
As Rhiannon stepped to the side and let go of her, Lisa bolted out the door. Patches chirped and jumped in place before stumbling all the way to the entrance and sniffing the air as if checking that Lisa was truly gone. Pru had to laugh at the possum’s antics.
“Well, that was fun.”
Rhiannon’s voice was low as she flicked her hair back from her face, and Pru wondered if she should sit down. Her knees were very weak. And yet, the emptiness in Rhiannon’s eyes told her its own story, and Pru knew it would be up to her to offer what Rhiannon sought most in this very moment. Her guilt was entirely misplaced, but Pru knew exactly how to grant this absolution. She had been craving it for weeks anyway.
13
RHIANNON, PUNISHMENTS & PHTALO GREEN DOORS
Rhiannon’s heart beat in her ears, loud, deafening, refusing to allow her to think clearly. One minute she was watching the ocean devour the last rays of the sun, and the next she was running, heels and all, toward Prudence’s studio above Book Nest.
Her palms were ice cold, a cold that had nothing to do with the evening chill and everything with a tall brunette putting hands on her?—
Stop it, Prudence is nothing to you!
Goddess, she was losing her mind. She was slowly losing what was left of her mind. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the image of Prudence being accosted. Those gray eyes held so much fear. Could Prudence have shaken this woman free? Probably? Maybe, even possibly, considering that she did have the gift. It was only a matter of time before she’d have freed herself had Rhiannon not showed up.
Probably? Possibly? Rhiannon closed her eyes and leaned on the counter in front of her. She couldn’t believe the things running through her head. Prudence was almost hurt, and shehad been barely in time. She bit her lip, hard, tasting the coppery tang, letting it center her, ground her.
Her blood sang in her veins, a dangerous song. One that became even more dangerous as a duet once Prudence’s hands encircled her from behind, pulling her back flush to her own front. Soft lips nuzzled her nape and the voice whispered snippets of words that could have been apologies. Rhiannon squeezed her eyes harder, her entire body going rigid.
Perhaps feeling her apprehension, the arms relaxed and fell away, and Rhiannon felt tears threaten. What was this about this woman? Did fate have to throw her in Rhiannon’s path now that she was hardly alive, clawing her way out of the grave of grief and guilt?
So what was a little more guilt on top of a lifetime of it? Rhiannon shuddered at the thought of what she could’ve done. What she almost had done. What her craft, despite the spell, had almost wrought. The power in her supplied the visions of blood and death, of the ways she could’ve handled Lisa… Her power had come so close to doing just that, to breaking free.
