Starbound (22 page)

We met at the clearing, lounging on a quilt my grandmother had made me as a child. Pieces of my childhood were sewn into each square patch. When she had given it to me, she told me that the thread was woven with magick. I had believed it then, and lying next to Seth, I believed it now.

Nothing bad would happen to me today. Not with Seth beside me, and my grandma’s protection.

He stared up at the cloudless blue sky, and I stared at him. The trees were still naked with just the tiniest green buds, except for the towering pines and the needles that littered the ground.

“Why did I let you talk me into this?” Seth asked, pushing a curly wisp off my face.

My skin glowed at his touch. “Because you miss my sparkling personality.”

He arched a brow. “Is that so? And it wouldn’t possibly be that you crave affection?”

Hell yeah it was, but he didn’t need me to stroke his ego any. His dark head was already filled with too much.

“Hmm, that is a hard point to argue since you bound yourself to me. I would say, though, that it is you who craves me.”

I watched as his green eyes darkened. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I can think of a few things.”

“I just bet, and all of them will get us in trouble. More importantly, get
you
in trouble.”

“Not all of them,” I said, trying to sound offended. “We could try a little experiment.” I gave him my irresistible smile. Flirting with Seth was the most fun I’d had in a very long time. It was spontaneous, effortless, and entertaining. I enjoyed seeing the many sides of Seth, and the different glint in his eyes that went with them.

His eyes latched onto mine. “I know what you are thinking, and I am going to say no.”

I lay on my stomach, playing with the blades of grass. “What’s the harm now? You already gave yourself to me.”

He snorted. “You
would
think like that.”

I angled my head toward him, looking down at his face, all sharp angles. “You have no idea what I am thinking.” I leaned in closer.

“Oh yeah, I think I have a pretty damn good idea what’s running through your head,” he said, dark and seductive, our lips nearly touching.

We were both playing with fire, testing how far we could lean over the edge of the cliff, not exactly smart, but oh so rewarding. “I’ll show you.”

I kissed him.

Heat poured from his lips, and I simply closed my eyes, losing myself in the warmth of the moment. Somehow I always ended up in his lap. He flipped me around so that I was under him. His body pressed into mine, and I sunk into his embrace. My arms slid up his chest, wrapping around his neck and keeping him close. One of his hands framed my face. The other was at the bottom of my shirt, inching it higher. Neither of us was ready to let the other go anytime soon, which was fine by me.

His hand tightened at my hip, deepening the kiss, and tangling more than just our bodies. A light drizzle began to sprinkle from the sky, falling heavier with each kiss, but we couldn’t have cared less. It felt glorious; he felt glorious. Our bodies were so hot I was surprised that the rain didn’t sizzle off our skin. His touch was magnetizing, as I sighed-slash-moaned against his lips.

With impatient hands, he worked his way one-handed up under my shirt, and I sucked in a breath at the feel of his fingers on my skin. I placed a kiss at the hollow of his neck, oblivious to the storm stirring around us. Then the sky opened up and cracked with a deafening roar. It was the final straw that got our attention. We both jumped, but Seth kept his arms securely around me, holding me tight.

We couldn’t believe what we saw. The sky had turned an ugly shade of dark grey, draped in moving storm clouds. A tree beside us erupted into sweltering flames. Wide-eyed, I was about to go into cardiac arrest, and I couldn’t decide if it was Seth or the burning tree that had my heart stopping. Burying my head in his chest, I inhaled the scent of him before it all turned to swirling shit.

Thunder and lightning joined the downpour, but the flaming tree only raged on, impervious to the rain. He pulled me to my feet. We stood for a moment, staring at the roaring fire that licked the limbs of a tree.

Seth dragged a hand through his ragged hair. “Remind me never to agree to any of your so-called
experiments
again.”

I whacked him on the arm. “Shut up.”

He tugged me to his chest. “This is just an omen of things to come, Kats. We’ve opened a floodgate, and the curse is nipping at our heels.”

“Does everything have to be so bleak between us?”

He frowned. “Bleak is an understatement.”

My shirt was plastered to my body. My jeans were suction cupped to my thighs, and I was probably going to have to cut them off me. In short, I was miserable.

Seth pushed the wet hair off of his face. “We better take cover before it decides to hit us next. I’d really prefer not to get struck by lightning.”

I nodded as he took my hand. Another round of angry light crashed across the sky. Soaked to the bone and shivering we retreated to the safety of his truck. My hair was stuck to my face. Seth shook his head, spraying drops of water at me. “Hey,” I complained.

He grinned like a total shithead, looking absolutely adorably drenched. How the hell does he pull that off? “I should probably get you home.”

My heart cartwheeled. I wasn’t yet ready to let him go, especially when we spent so little time together. Stupid curse. It was like a sinkhole, sucking away all the sands of time.

He dropped me off at my house and gave me one lingering sullen kiss goodbye. I ran like the wind through the house, up the stairs, and into my room. The second I shut the door, I picked up the phone and waiting for Seth’s voice to answer.

“Hey. Did something happen?” he asked, concern lacing his dark tone.

“No. I just needed to hear your voice.” I fumbled with the phone as I stripped off my wet clothes, discarding them where they fell.

“Kats,” he said my name sternly. “This isn’t helping. We have to stop. Already we are too deep, too attached.”

You can say that again.

He had spoken the sacred vow, bounding his heart solely to me. For Seth, even if we never found a way to break the curse, he could never truly love fully, but I was still free to do so. Just the thought, however, filled my chest with needlepoint pangs.

I sighed, plunking down on my bed in nothing but my undergarments. My room felt gloomy, missing the usual rainbows that scattered over the floor and ceiling. No sun. No rainbows. “I know. It’s just…bullshit. I can’t stop thinking about you, about what will happen tomorrow night, what we might learn.”

The radio was playing softly in the background through the phone. “Tell me about it. It is all I’ve thought about since we found the book.”

I turned on my side, fiddling with the tassels at the end of a pillow. “Do you think it will work?”

“I don’t want you to get your hopes too high.” He exhaled a long uneven breath. “I won’t be able to handle your disappointment.”

Or his own. That was what he didn’t say. “So maybe we don’t break the spell. It doesn’t have to be the end of us.”

“You know it does. It is not a matter of
if
, Kats. It is a matter of
when
. We both are going to have to accept the fact that there is a stronger possibility that our futures are different…apart.” He struggled to get out the words.

Talk about a buzz kill.

Chapter 22

Katia

Elena was the last to arrive at the clearing. Her studded nose ring glinted off the moonbeams, and her midnight hair shone under the starlight as she stepped through the dark evergreens. Needles snapped lightly under her buckled boots. “By the worried look on your faces, I am guessing you thought I would bail. You guys suck.”

None of us denied her accusation. It was true. For the last twenty minutes we had been pacing, biting our nails, kicking rocks, and for every minute that ticked by, the pit in my stomach grew.

Elena was lucky that we needed her, because I wanted to jab her in the eye socket.

For the kind of spell were we going to conjure, we needed a complete circle. Without Elena, the four of us wouldn’t have enough power to ensure our safety. And even with the full circle, it wasn’t fool proof. Something still could go wrong.

Gulp.

I did not want anything to happen to them, not because of me.

Seth had come straight from work. His jeans were ripped and streaked with grease, and the smells of oil mingled with his woodsy scent. It made my sensory system have a freak-out moment. I tried to keep a straight face, but I might have closed my eyes for just a few seconds and enjoyed the warmth that came with his proximity. It literally glowed inside me.

Even Elena with her shit-o-rama attitude couldn’t diminish that light. But I knew a darkness that could.

“Let’s just get this show on the road,” Zeke wisely suggested.

Elena had her eyes locked on Seth. “She doesn’t deserve you,” she said to him as she passed by.

I spun around, my curls flying in the air around me. My target—Elena. I took one step after her before an arm wrapped around my waist, restraining me. My back hit Seth’s chest.

“Let it go,” he murmured in my ear.

His silky voice tickling the nape of my neck immediately extinguished my anger and started a different kind of fire. My muscles went lax in his arms. “You can let me go now.”

I felt his lips curl against my hair. “I’m not quite ready yet.”

I rested the back of my head on his chest. “Your timing sucks.”

He chuckled, and the sound made my heart feel about a thousand pounds lighter. “The story of our lives.” He kept an arm around my shoulder, guiding us toward the circle.

Olivia and I lit the large white pillar candles strategically placed around the stone circle. Above us the shadowy branches arched in a canopy, and the shady new moon was a beacon of a fresh start. Kneeing, I placed the ancient book in front of me. A pulsation of impatience emitted from the cracked and crinkled leather bindings. Unable to resist, I ran my hand over the pewter symbol that was branded on the cover.

Scents of lavender, vanilla, and sage wafted in the air. I inhaled deeply to calm my irregular beating heart. We needed to trust in the circle. In our magick. In each other. Easier said than done.

Olivia’s violet eyes were huge.

Elena blended with the darkness, except for her pale face. She looked like she was going to throw up.

Seth’s troubled green eyes were zeroed in on me, like he was afraid I would disappear.

And Zeke, well, he was the exception. The expression of excitement made me shake my head. What a weirdo.

Me, I was a freaking mess.

As I opened the book to the spell I had marked off, a hum traveled through my blood. My fingers might have trembled slightly, because I knew that it was time.
Here goes nothing.

I looked at each of member of the circle. Seth to my right. Olivia next to him. Then Elena and Zeke on my left. My stomach twisted, but I took a deep breath. “I call upon the new moon, to break the threads of time not spun. Space and universes collide, let our spirit take flight and soar, to the past that links to mine. Show me here; show me now. As I will, so mote it be.”

A wind kicked up, picking up pieces of hair off my neck and blowing them forward in my face. The wind grew, whistling, and the candles around the circle flickered, forming shadows on our faces. The milky moon was still high and bathing us in its soft glow. Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes, leaving me wondering if I had screwed something up. Nothing seemed different or out of place. I felt the same, no surge of magick as I’d expected.

Then the air stood still. Not a peep out of the woods surrounding us, not even a twitch. Silence stretched out as I waited for that pivotal moment when the spell kicked in, sweeping us to another time, another place.

Again nothing happened. Disappointment weighed heavily inside me. Just as I was about to suggest we try the spell again, crapola broke out.

“Are you sure that was even a spell?” Elena asked.

Through clamped teeth I ground out, “Can you cry underwater?”

“Guys, focus,” Olivia said.

“Errr, this is going well,” Zeke said.

“
This
is pathetic,” Elena said with a huff. “Give me the damn book.”

“Like hell.” I clutched the book to my chest.

“It is obvious you don’t know what you are doing. Let an experienced nixie handle the difficult spells,” Elena said with an air of superiority.

“Um, guys.” Olivia’s voice quivered.

I was on the verge of decking Elena. “Experienced my skinny ass. You don’t know which end of a pixie stick to tear. If you recall,
I
was the one who found the book.”

Elena’s eyes were practically spitting fire. “The only thing you are experienced in is which jock you are going to bang this week.”

I gasped.

“Guys, something is happening,” Olivia said with concern.

“She’s right,” Seth said.

“Of course I’m right,” Elena and I both answered.

Suddenly, the air around me turned cold, and a chill trickled down my spine. A dense white mist rose up, covering the ground so I couldn’t even see my feet. “Are you guys seeing this?”

“Uh-huh,” Zeke said, staring at the fog, unmoving.

“We’re not blind, Puddy Kat,” Elena sneered.

“Christ,” Seth muttered. “It’s freezing.” He rubbed his hands over his arms.

“Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore,” Elena mumbled, eyeing me.

I rolled my eyes, getting to my feet. Seth was right beside me. We stepped outside the circle side by side. His body was on alert, ready for the unexpected. There were whispers coming from the edge of the woods, too quiet to make out what they were saying.

My boot snapped on a twig, vibrating through the forest like a canon. I followed the voices carried by the wind, but the winds played tricks. Every time I thought I was going in the right direction, the voices would move. I glanced behind me just to make sure I wasn’t crazy.