LITMIR.BIZ

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I alone, who can free you from this spell. One of life’s ironies, I suppose, is that the same person who hurts you is the very one who can save you.” Not allowing himself to consider his own actions, he unsheathed his scepter and raised his arms high in the air. The jeweled hilt glistened in the moonlight, creating shafts of colored light that speared onto the sand.

      “Flesh and blood thou may be,” he chanted, focusing all his energy onto his mother, “but stone is all the eyes shall see.”

      “Do not do this,” she uttered once more, her eyes wide with horror.

      He closed his ears to her pleas. Had she listened to his pleas all those spans ago? Nay. She had seemed all too eager to abandon him. Scowling, he finished his curse. “Cold as marble, hard as rock, with this curse I thee lock. The Stone Queen you shall forever be, unless my life’s blood sets you free.”

      Wind suddenly burst forth, beating through the night like a devil’s breath. Lightning erupted from the sky and crashed against the sands. Bit by bit, her flesh hardened to silver stone.

      There. ’Twas done.

      But he did not feel the relief, the ease of suffering, he’d hoped for. Nay, he felt…shame, a trickle of sorrow and need. Deep, abiding need for all that he’d ever longed for, but had never possessed. He reached out, then let his hand fall to his side. She stood so beautifully before him.

      His shoulders slumped. “Should I set you free already?” he asked, though he knew he wouldn’t. “I am going to search for Jorlan. You know that, do you not? Just because you sent him to another world does not mean I cannot find him.”

      Overhead, the stars slowly disappeared as thick gray clouds formed. A roll of thunder echoed, then stilled. It was as if the emotions churning inside him were changing the weather. “You and I both know time passes differently from one world to the next. One day has passed in Imperia, but how many days have passed for Jorlan? Is he free? If so, is he old and wasted away? No matter what his age, what his life, I will bring him home. Time and distance have no hold upon me.”

      Percen knew he shouldn’t leave Imperia. But he would do it. He would take leave of this world and never return if it meant finding his brother. The Druinn needed him, for something dark hovered just over the horizon. Something the citizens of this land were not prepared for. He did not know what it was, a war, mayhap, but he knew many lives would be lost soon. Yet his vengeance meant more to him than the safety of his world.

      Droplets of rain began to fall, splattering upon the sand and stone. Several drops landed on his mother’s face and ran down her cheeks like tears. “If I present him to you, will your heart fill with joy and make you at last feel tenderness for me? True tenderness, not the empty emotion you professed this day?”

      Silence.

      Silence so thick it cast an oppressive shadow across the white sands, and at that moment it seemed as if even the rain dared not pitter-patter. Percen dropped to his knees, pressed his forehead against her midriff, all the while craving her arms around his shoulders. “If I give him back to you, will you truly love me? Mayhap even love me more than you love him?”

      Again, silence.

      He expected nothing different, but could not stop himself from hoping for a sign that she heard him, that she welcomed his need to please her. But as he gazed up at her face, her expression clearly proclaimed: You are my greatest disappointment.

      And it did not have to be so.

      “I will find him,” Percen said finally. Purposefully. He pushed to his feet and stroked a hand across her soft white cheek. “I will search the galaxies, if need be, and find exactly where you sent him. And then, sweet Mother, I will bring him back to you.”

      Broken and destroyed.

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      WHILE KATIE MANEUVERED the enchanted transportation along the winding roads, Jorlan weighed his options. The woman was obviously in a temper. Her breath was coming in short, shallow pants and her fingers were clutching the steering wheel as if it would fly out the window if she let go. He needed to gently sway her from her pique so that she could at last admit her desires for him. But how?

      He could make her laugh with a story of his childhood. He could whisper sweet, seductive words in her ear. Or he could simply wait until her anger crumbled on its own.

      “I don’t think this is going to work between us, Jorlan,” she said.

      A dark, primitive blaze uncurled inside him. “It will.”

      “Of course it works for you. You gain everything and lose nothing.”

      “So I must lose something to win you? Then so be it. Name it and it is gone.”

      “That’s not what I meant.”

      “I have less than thirteen days, katya. ’Tis a mere flash.” He had considered begging before, dropping to his knees and begging her for her affections. His desire for permanent freedom far surpassed any pride he harbored. “You have only to tell me what you need of me and I will do it.”

      “I don’t know what I want from you, okay? I only know I can’t give my heart or body easily. Besides that, it’s hard to think of you as the love of my life when I know you consider me nothing more than a necessary burden.”

      “Then I—”

      “We’re from different worlds,” she rushed on, slicing his apology to a halt. “I have enough trouble with Earth men.”

      “Just because you have trouble with men of your own world,” he growled, “does not mean you will have trouble with a man of Imperia.”

      “No, it just means I have trouble with any man who wants to screw everything female.” Katie parked the vehicle, emerged, then strode inside the old house, all without uttering another word. She was beyond angry now, that much was obvious. Her shoulders had been stiff and her chin high and she had never once glanced back to see if he followed. He didn’t. He remained within the enchanted transportation.

      The day was not fraught with the promise he’d first supposed.

      Screw everything female? He had already proved those words for the falsehood they were by declining the girl, but he only now realized the full extent of what had transpired inside the café. He, a man who had been without bodily contact for more than nine hundred spans, had been unable to summon a single shred of awareness for any woman save Katie since obtaining his freedom.

      The simple fact was that he was fast becoming obsessed with Katie.

      “Katie,” he said, wanting to hear her name aloud. “Pretty, courageous Katie James. How can I want you so desperately, yet want no other?” Though he hated himself for it, he did want her desperately. Wanted, if only for a little while, to be the center of her life. Wanted to tear down her resistance and bend her so completely to his will that he could take her whenever, wherever he wanted. More than that, he wanted her cries of love to ring in his ears long after he left her.

      For the first time, however, he considered what would happen to her if he were to win her. Would she suffer greatly if she fell in love with him and he simply abandoned her? Curse it, she claimed she did not need a man’s protection, physically or emotionally. Why should he consider her well-being his responsibility?

      Obsessed. Aye, he truly was obsessed, for not even Maylyn had affected him like this. He’d thought of her, but not constantly and she had never confused him. He’d wanted her, but it had been a gentle kind of want, a need to cherish and show tenderness. Now, with Katie, he felt anything but gentle, and all traces of tenderness had already dissipated. He felt an ache, an all-consuming desire that constantly battered against his reservations. He felt a need to dominate, a need to ride her harder than he’d ever ridden a woman.

      What did it mean that he simply had to have her, whether she returned his affection or not? That he simply had to taste more of her? Her lips were too sweet, her scent too delectable, and her body too ripe. What

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