Page 16 of Fighting for Her Heart

“I can fucking see the one in your hand.” Ryker shakes his head. “Watch where you aim that thing, little dove.” He chuckles, putting his hands over his heart.

Smiling, Ember drops the stake to her side, and then the smile vanishes as she turns to Evanora, her eyes wide. “Why am I the only one of us who can see the property from the road?”

“Because that spell was cast to protect you,” Nora says.

Ember frowns. “But so was the one hiding the stakes and I never saw them before today.”

“I hid those from you, because…because I didn’t want to alarm you.”

“But I can see them now…” Ember looks around the room again, clearly trying to put pieces of this puzzle together, but it is a puzzle that even I cannot solve, and I consider puzzles one of my specialties.

“Evanora.” I step forward. “This raises another of my many queries. Days prior to our escape, I was able to enter this propertywithoutEmber. I was searching the underground waterway, looking for escape routes and testing the distance of the swim. I climbed up the well, entered the property and saw the house.”

Nora nods. “The well is inside the property line. That’s why you were able to enter without Ember or me.”

“Fascinating.” This new information sparks so many thoughts and questions. Keepers of magic are secretive about their methods, their books and writings are well protected by spells themselves, and I am anxious to learn all that Evanora is willing to share.

She turns toward the windows. “It’s not long before dawn. Why don’t you all go into the bedroom. Let me take care of the windows, and I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out.”

“Using magic?” Axe growls.

“No.” Laughing, she shakes her head. “As soon as the stores open, I’ll go to town to get fabric for curtains.”

“And what about the fucking stakes?” Ryker frowns.

Nodding, she gestures around the room. The walls brighten momentarily with an eerie blue glow, and then several sets of stakes appear strapped to the walls, along with two crossbows, one near the front door and the other near the entrance to the hallway.

Ryker starts grabbing the weapons off the wall and Axe joins him in the effort.

“Don’t want our wake up call to be a murderous ambush.” Ryker glares at Nora, in between collecting the stakes.

“Are there weapons upstairs in my bedroom too?” Ember asks her mother, who nods.

“I’ll go get those.” Ember heads toward the stairs.

“And there are some in the kitchen,” Evanora adds.

“I’ll get those.” Axe heads there, carrying the weapons he’s already gathered.

Nora looks down toward the ground.

I lightly brush the witch’s arm with my fingers, hoping to offer some consolation. I for one understand why she went to these lengths to protect the Illuminant.

“I will retrieve the weapons from the main floor bedroom.”

Chapter Six

Ember

It’s barelyan hour before sunrise and the four of us sit on the mattress together. I can’t wipe the smile off my face. Ryker put all the weapons into the armoire, tossing them in with force, along with two huge duffel bags he brought back from Philadelphia. He wanted to burn the stakes, but Axe convinced him that there wasn’t time before sunrise.

Ryker’s still so tense, so I reach over to take his hand. He’s been back for a couple of hours and we haven’t done much more than kiss. My body is throbbing with need for him and I can tell that at least part of his tension is his desire for me too.

“Shall we start the experiment?” Zuben asks.

“Experiment?” I turn toward my tall vampire, who’s looking even more serious than normal.

“We must test your powers as the Illuminant,” he says. “To do this, one of us must feed from you and then see if he can take sunlight.”