Obsessed (56 page)

Behind the binding that gagged his mouth, Zanden screeched as his skin split. Wounds suddenly gaped over every exposed part of his skin. Blood poured from the cut flesh, drenching his face, soaking his clothing.

“We must rid Dair of the Sorcerer now,” Ranelle urged, her voice insistent. “Find the beast, Liana.”

The magic raging between the three heart-sisters was so great that Tierra could see what Liana saw with her seer’s vision as the Tanzinite quickly searched for their means of disposing of the Sorcerer.

At a dizzying pace, Liana’s vision flew across the Mir Plain, into the D’euan Forest and to Merth Darkling—

Straight to a lycidian dragon just stumbling out of his lair.

A full-grown, very large, and very hungry looking dragon.

Using what they had practiced over and over again together with To’en, the three women joined hands and focused their powers on the bound form of Zanden.

Sparkling magic whirled around them like a cyclone. They sent the twisting column toward Zanden, whose eyes had been blinded by blood pouring from his wounds.

Leaves and earth spun, caught up in the magic funnel.

The halias concentrated on the magic, sending it to Zanden.

’Round and ’round it twisted, shimmering with a silver light as it encompassed the Sorcerer.

And then he vanished from their physical sight.

With Liana’s magical vision, the heart-sisters watched as the Sorcerer’s body was dropped directly in front of the dragon.

The beast lowered its head and sniffed.

Zanden fought against the magical ropes with his powers and with his body.

Tierra and her heart-sisters struggled to maintain the hold on the magic, but Tierra felt it slipping.

They were too far away.

The dragon roared and fiery breath encompassed Zanden. The Sorcerer shrieked as his clothing and hair caught fire.

Tierra cried out in frustration as their connection with the spellbindings snapped. The magical ropes vanished.

Still aflame, the Sorcerer stumbled to his feet.

The dragon opened its fiery maw, its teeth closing in on Zanden—

Everything went black. The vision ended—their connection severed.

“Can you see?” Tierra yelled, her body shaking with adrenalin and fury. “We have to know that he is dead.”

“I cannot.” Liana shook her head, her face white and her hair trembling around her shoulders.

“Together.” Ranelle gripped their hands tighter. “Try again.”

Tierra felt their collective exhaustion as they again focused on Liana’s sight.

They traveled over the plains, into the D’euan Forest and Merth Darkling. Finally they saw the dragon—

But no sign of the Sorcerer.

The dragon was chewing, his teeth glinting in the murky light. They heard a loud crunch from the beast’s maw, not unlike the snapping of bones.

With a big fiery belch, the dragon turned around and lumbered back into his lair.

“No!” Tierra’s cry yanked the women out of the vision and back to the clearing. Her chest grew tight as she released Liana and Ranelle’s hands. “Send me to the dragon’s lair at once. I must find out if he still lives.”

Ranelle’s eyes widened. “We cannot all three go at once—we would have to send you alone.”

“It is far too dangerous.” Liana shook her head.

Tierra turned her gaze on Liana. “Can you sense if he still lives?”

Liana took Ranelle’s and Tierra’s hands in hers, and said, “Let us look together.”

Holding her breath, Tierra closed her eyes. Again they traveled to the dragon’s lair…but saw nothing.

Yet an overpower sense of evil slid over Tierra’s skin…the same feeling she had felt when she had first met the Sorcerer in the D’euan Forest.

“Send me.” Tierra clenched her jaw as the three women returned to the clearing. “We cannot take the chance of that bastard surviving.”

“Look.” Liana gestured toward the battlefield. “The Sorcerer’s power over his armies has been vanquished.”

Tierra whirled to stare out at the Mir Plain. The remaining soldiers from the Sorcerer’s army were fleeing, scattering in all directions, including the traitorous Nordain. Even the irani darted around the sky in apparent confusion—as though unable to determine what to do now that the Sorcerer was gone.

“Zanden must be dead.” Ranelle stepped beside Tierra. “Why else would such chaos reign amongst his people? You do not need to take this risk, sister.”

“It is my choice to make.” Tierra turned her furious gaze on her heart-sisters. “I will not jeopardize our lives, the men we love, our children, or the people of our world, by simply hoping he is dead.” She planted her hands on her hips and looked from Ranelle to Liana. “Now send me.”

Ranelle and Liana exchanged looks of fear and understanding. “Be wary,” Liana said to Tierra. “I could not bear it if anything happened to you.”

“Be prepared,” Ranelle added. “I love you, sister.”

“I love you both.” Tierra’s gaze dropped to Renn’s form, and her lover stirred in his sleep. “If anything should happen to me, tell Renn I did this for us and for our child.”

Tears glittered in Ranelle’s silver eyes and Liana’s sea green gaze. They each stood to either side of Tierra and clasped one another’s hands so that Tierra stood in the middle of a small circle.

A wind-storm of magic surrounded them as the three heart-sisters concentrated. Tierra felt a tingling sensation through her limbs, radiating throughout her soul.

And then it felt as if she had taken leave of the world as everything around her turned to white.

* * * * *

Renn blinked, a sense of confusion filling him as he looked up into the boughs of a pine tree. His head felt as though he had been on an all night drinking binge.

Had he been drugged? Where in Hades was he?

In a burst of memory he remembered everything—the battle, being surrounded by Zanden’s minions, the blue mist…and the Sorcerer coming after Tierra.

Renn bolted to his feet just as a blinding white light filled the clearing. He staggered from the force of the light and from the effects of his drugged-like sleep.

When he could see, Ranelle and Liana were standing before him, their hands linked.

“Where is Tierra?” he demanded.

The women gasped and released their hands.

“She had to know if Zanden was truly dead.” Liana’s eyes were filled with tears. “We did not want to send her.”

He looked from one woman to the other. “Send…her…where?”

“To Merth Darkling,” Ranelle replied. “To the dragon’s lair where we sent Zanden to finish him off. Only we could not be sure he died.”

Renn clenched his fists, his fear for his heartmate vibrating through his body. “You must send me there as well.”

The women exchanged startled glances. “Do you think we can?” Ranelle asked. “Without Tierra?”

“You must try.” Renn towered over Tierra’s halias. “Now.”

Ranelle and Liana stood to either side of him, stretching their arms out to reach all the way around.

As a wild white wind surrounded him, Renn prayed to the gods with all his soul. Let me be in time…

* * * * *

Tierra stumbled and barely kept to her feet as the magic storm released her. She whirled around, getting her bearings, her hands raised, prepared to spellbind anything that moved.

Smells of charred flesh and hair filled the clearing and Tierra almost retched as bile rose in her throat. Nothing moved—the dragon apparently deep within his lair. And the Sorcerer…was he truly gone?

Her gaze dropped to the charred leaves at her feet. Black, sticky blood covered some that were not burnt. Her skin chilled and she began to tremble as she saw that the trail led away from where she stood.

She snapped her head up—

Only to see a grotesque figure materialize from out of the woods.

Charred hair and flesh, bleeding open wounds…

Zanden.

Tierra flung out her spellbindings, spinning them around the Sorcerer.

He waved them away like they were nothing more than a fragile spider’s web.

“You have made the gravest of errors.” His voice was rough, damaged, as he advanced toward her, dragging one mangled leg behind him. “Now that I can no longer control my armies…now that I no longer seek you three bitches at the same time…you can be the sole focus of my energy and powers. I can kill you with a thought, and your magic is useless against me.”

Again Tierra flung out her spellbindings. Again Zanden waved them away.

Fury filled her as she stepped back. “You bastard.”

“But I will not give you a painless death.” He raised one blackened hand and Tierra felt his magical grip around her neck. “I intend to make you suffer.”

His grip tightened and Tierra’s breath gurgled in her throat. Stars flashed behind her eyes as she struggled to breathe.

“Bitch!” The Sorcerer raised his hand and shoved it down.

A force drove Tierra to her knees.

She was frozen in place. She could not breathe. Could not move.

My babe!
Her thoughts blasted through her head, trying to summon the strength to defeat her attacker, for the sake of her child. For the sake of everyone she loved. For Renn.

The effect seemed only to slow the bastard—and even that, very little.

Zanden stepped closer, dragging one foot behind him. “It pleases me to know that I am the last sight you will have in this world.”

Tierra’s vision blurred as the grip grew tighter around her throat. In her confused sight, she thought she saw Renn. A dream image.

Renn appearing from nowhere, behind the Sorcerer.

Renn’s voice as he bellowed a curse filled with fury.

Renn’s muscles flexing as he swung his sword.

Renn’s blade flash through the air…slicing through Zanden’s neck.

The Sorcerer’s charred head flying across the clearing and rolling to a stop in front of the dragon’s lair.

Air rushed into Tierra’s lungs and she collapsed onto her side on the forest floor.

“Tierra!” Renn shouted as she rolled on her back, trees spinning above her.

In the next moment his beautiful face was above hers and she struggled to focus on his precious features. “It’s really you,” she murmured as he swept her into his arms and held her tight to his chest. “I wasn’t dreaming.”

“I thought I had lost you.” Renn’s voice was hoarse, choked with emotion as he pressed his lips to her forehead, her cheeks, her nose. “I could not bear it if you left me.”

“Worry not.” She smiled and brought her hand to his handsome face. “The only place I intend to travel is back to Phoenicia and to our bed.”

With her halias to either side of her, Tierra walked barefoot upon the grass, through the castle gardens toward the rise to where her soon-to-be husband waited. Absolute certainty filled her, the knowledge that Renn was her heartmate, and that they would be happy for the remainder of their lives.

Sunshine warmed the gardens this morn of Renn and Tierra’s joining day, feelings of renewal, hope, and joy in the balmy air. Blossoms of every color suffused the gardens in brilliant arrays of reds, purples, oranges, blues and yellows. Standards of as many colors snapped and waved in the breeze, testament to representatives from almost every race upon Dair who had come to partake in the festivities.

Table upon table had been arranged in the garden where guests were already seated and waiting for the joining ceremony to begin. Voices and laughter rang out, the sounds of people happy and thankful to the gods and goddesses for all their blessings.

To Tierra’s left strolled Ranelle. The Nordain-Elvin Princess was clothed in a revealing gown of brilliant amethyst, her mahogany locks tumbling over her shoulders to her waist.

On Tierra’s other side was the Tanzinite-Nordain Queen Liana, who wore a scanty affair in a lovely aqua shade. The golden circlet of her station perched upon her moonlit tresses. Her hair flowed around her, caressing her shoulders with every movement she made.

Tierra’s curls were piled on top of her head with fiery ringlets cascading down her back. She was dressed in a gown that had been a gift from the Elves—an iridescent white concoction that left her shoulders completely bare. The bodice barely rose high enough to cover her breasts, her creamy swells nearly pouring out from the top. The sheer skirt frothed around her ankles, and she only hoped that her patch of red curls did not show through the gossamer material in the brilliant sunlight.

But then again, she rather looked forward to Renn’s expression when he saw her. Maybe he would throw her over his shoulder and vanish with her around one of the garden hedges.

Tierra smiled at the thought and her body tingled. She could not wait to be alone with her dark warrior.

Perfume of jensai blooms and roses surrounded Tierra as she and her heart-sisters walked through the extensive gardens. And was that the scent of lilies, too?

“You are the most beautiful of brides,” Liana said, turning her brilliant smile on Tierra.

Ranelle laughed, a note of pure happiness, the sound as precious as that golden day. “And to think,” she said, “we shall all be sisters by marriage now, as well as heart-sisters.”

As they strolled over the rise, Tierra took each of her friends by the hand and smiled from one to the other. “I am the most fortunate of souls on all of Dair to have you as my halias.”

Her gaze lifted to see Renn. The world around her seemed to slip away, and she was only vaguely conscious of her heart-sisters releasing her hands and moving slightly behind her.

Lords above, Renn was magnificent. His powerful physique, his chiseled jaw and hooded expression. In the sunlight his black hair shone like a raven’s wing, and his silver eyes focused only on her. Beneath his snug black tunic and breeches, his muscles rippled, and he clenched his hands into fists as though restraining himself. Holding back from rushing straight to her.

Tierra was of half a mind to turn around and run, just so that he would chase her.

And capture her.

It seemed it took her forever to reach his side, but then she was before him.

Renn took her hands in both of his and brought his mouth to hers. Slowly he kissed her, nipping gently at her lips, then pushing his tongue into her mouth. He tasted of spice and ale, and uniquely Renn—she could not get enough of him.