Spring Rain (20 page)

Probably that she wanted to save him the way
you want to save her. I do not know his reasons.

Beck frowned, some of his urgency fading
with Sam’s calm acceptance of Morgan’s rather freaky skill. “Who in
their right mind would want to be burned alive?”

Someone who has a reason to be made
Light.

Beck shook his head. Before he was a Master,
he had never broken any rules, never dared to color outside the
lines. He had never been a risk taker like Decker, either, and to
think his counterbalance risked everything – her soul, her life,
Noah’s life – to test a bedtime tale … it was a reminder of how
different they were and what it meant to have a counterbalance.
Summer had become Decker’s foundation and Decker pried the shy yet
powerful witchling out of her shell. Morgan was the one who would
push Beck to take chances while he kept her from diving over the
edge.

Counterbalances were opposites in many ways,
a realization that hadn’t yet sunk in during the short time he had
been drawn to Morgan. He hadn’t known how far she was willing to go
to try to help him, and she couldn’t know how close to the Darkness
she’d gotten.

It was terrifying to know she’d jump into
the Dark to save him.

Where is Morgan?

With a start, Beck realized he had left her
at the lake.

Bring her here. I need to warn her about the
danger of what she’s doing.

“That I agree with!” Beck vanished
immediately and emerged from the fog at the cement pier.

Morgan was curled up at the end of the pier,
shivering.

With mixed feelings about what she’d done,
he hurried to her and bent, lifting her off the ground. “You okay,
Morgan?” he murmured. Her fire magick flowed into him the way it
did every time they touched, rendering him fevered. He pushed back
to calm it, and the fire fizzled and turned to embers under the
calming influence of earth magick.

“Yeah. Took more out of me than I expected,”
she admitted and pressed her cheek to his chest. “Where’s
Noah?”

“He’s fine. Alive.”

She glanced up at him, hearing the tightness
in his response. Beck forced a smile and hugged her close to him,
whisking her away to Sam in the forest.

White fog cleared once more to reveal Sam.
Beck set Morgan down. No part of him wanted to let go, and she
seemed uncertain on her feet. He wrapped an arm around her to keep
her against his body. For once, she didn’t resist.

“Is he Light?” she asked, looking up at him.
The emotion in her gaze provoked the protective side of him, and he
touched her face, his worry easing.

“Yeah.”

Morgan appeared surprised then relieved.

“You should’ve told me,” he said, unable to
help it.

“You would’ve tried to stop me.”

“Damn right I would have! Do you know what
you risked, Morgan? Sam says if he died, you could’ve gone
Dark!”

She gazed up at him, and he saw in her eyes
she knew that, but chose to do it anyway. “What else am I supposed
to do, Beck?”

“Talk to me! Stop locking me out!”

“I called you when I was done.”

“You tortured the poor guy nearly to
death.”

She twisted free of his grip. “I didn’t want
to!” she snapped. “I was … I had to … Beck.”

“Look, Morgan, you have nothing to prove to
me and everything to lose if something goes wrong. I can help
you.”

I don’t need help.
He didn’t have to read her mind to guess what she
was thinking. She lifted her chin, familiar defiance causing sparks
to fly off into the wet forest.

“Next time, you tell me,” he said firmly,
not about to back down like he normally wanted to in the face of
her anger. He was quietly furious that she took such a risk and
hurt she hadn’t trusted him enough to come to him.

She said nothing. He felt the increase of
activity in her fire magick and watched her hand go to the pocket
where the stone was kept.

“It’s not bothering me,” he told her.

“I plan on keeping it that way.” She took a
few precarious steps away from him. “I’m sorry if I disappointed
you, but I need to do things my way, Beck. I need to find out who I
am and what I’m supposed to do to help you. You can’t do that for
me.”

“You never disappoint me, Morgan,” he said
and summoned his earth magick to help calm his agitated blood. He
pushed some towards her as well so her pinging fire magick stopped
tormenting him. “I just want you to talk to me. Do you have any
idea how dangerous that was? What might’ve happened if I couldn’t
save him?”

“Would you have tried to stop me if you knew
what I intended to do?” she fired back.

He clenched his teeth, his jaw ticking.

“I did it, Beck. Noah didn’t die.”

“But someone else might if you try it again.
If you go Dark because of this, if you try it again and I can’t
save someone, Morgan, you –”

“Ruin your plans to save the Light. I know.”
She turned away from him. “I need to know what I am and I’m sorry
if I’m disappointing you.”

He heard her hurt then,
but didn’t know how to fix it. “You’re my sweet, fiery Morgan,” he
softened. “My angry guardian angel with the largest heart in the
universe. Yes, my plans were at risk but so are
we.
We’re in this together,
Morgan.”

“Why did you bring me here?” she whispered,
guard up.

Frustrated, Beck’s heart sank. He felt the
tug of the stone, the flicker of coldness mixed with her fire. “Sam
wanted to talk to you.”

She faced the yeti. Whatever he said to her,
Beck wasn’t able to hear.

“Yes, that is the plan,” she replied
somewhat archly and crossed her arms. She listened and sighed with
a glance at Beck. “You know why, Sam.”

The yeti chortled.

Her gaze dropped as the
silent conversation continued. Morgan’s shoulders slumped, and she
dug her hands into her pockets. “No, it’s
not
fair,” she agreed without any
heat.

Beck itched to know what they were talking
about, but held his tongue, studying Morgan as she spoke to Sam.
Every time he saw her, she took his breath away. She was beautiful
and in a way very different than he had seen before. Her fire
magick gave her a glow that magnified the sultry innocence he had
always been crazy about. She kissed and reacted with abandon, too
inexperienced to know how to rein in passion he knew would be
explosive if he didn’t keep his earth magick between them.

The glow was stronger this night, possibly
from her recent release of magick. With a perfect shape, long legs
and eyelashes that made him think he’d never given the small hairs
the credit they deserved, she was the perfect package, down to the
stubborn insistence that she had to protect him that drove him to
want to spend two days straight in a gym.

She would never disappoint
or inconvenience him. He didn’t know how to tell her he was
concerned more for
her
soul than anything else without sounding like he was telling
her what to do. She was close enough to touch, but he didn’t, and
his earth magick grew insistent as it tried its best to fend off
her unstable fire. The easiest way to calm her was direct contact,
but he dared not get too close at the moment.

“My amulet?” she was asking. “Why?” There
was dismay in her voice.

Beck, we can’t sense her because of the soul
stone, but she’s Light.

Beck stood where he was, certain he
misheard. “What did you say, Sam?” he asked, unwilling to believe
something that would change his world without hearing it again.

She’s Light.

“Morgan, let him have your amulet,” Beck
said softly.

“I know already I don’t fit in!”

“Morgan.” He shifted her to face him and
rested his hands on her shoulders. Every time he touched her, he
wanted so much more. To take her into his arms, to kiss her, to beg
her to trust him enough to just … sit with him forever and talk.
“Please.” His magick flowed into her, and he felt her relax.

She sighed and reached into her pocket,
pulling it out. She held it up and stared at it.

Beck began to smile and then laugh. “If all
she had to do was fry some Dark witchling, we could’ve figured this
all out months ago!” he exclaimed.

Morgan didn’t look away from the amulet that
glowed faint pink-white, its brilliance illuminating their
surroundings. “How …”

The trial. She had to learn to use her
magick to fight the Dark and to trust someone – you, Beck – to help
her. We are all fortunate that Noah lived, or this would’ve had a
different result.

Clearly hearing the words, Morgan lowered
the amulet and shivered, moving closer to Beck. He instinctively
wrapped an arm around her once more.

“But what does it mean?” she asked, gaze
going from him to the yeti. “How can I carry the soul stone and be
Light?”

It should strengthen your ability to control
its influence.

“Morgan, you’re Light,” Beck added. He
sensed she wasn’t registering it or was too overwhelmed to know how
to respond. His heart began to swell and his adrenaline rose once
more as he realized what that meant.

He had a partner, a mate, a counterbalance,
and neither of them was alone.

“Sam,” he said, excitement tearing through
him. “Does this at all affect her duty to the soul stone?”

No.

“Can it still hurt the Light?”

It can.

Beck cursed. The brief moment of elation was
followed by the knowledge that Morgan couldn’t step foot on campus
and couldn’t get near the Light. “Then what difference does it make
that she’s Light and not Dark?”

For one, you can be
together, provided you never directly touch the stone, Beck,
Sam said with a snort.
But the stone remains a threat to the Light until she learns
to bind it.

It was a compromise of sorts, one Beck found
frustrating – yet encouraging. They were one step closer … The
quiet instinct of the Master of Light warned him if Morgan had
turned Light, it was also because there was a much greater
challenge ahead, one that would require both of them to face.

He didn’t dare voice the concern aloud.

Morgan was gazing at him. “I won’t hurt
you?”

“I never cared if you did,” he replied.

She rolled her eyes. With some hesitation,
Morgan then slid her arms around him and hugged him. Beck sighed
deeply. He had never experienced a hug that was this sweet, this
long in coming. He nuzzled her hair and breathed in her scent,
enjoying the warmth of her magick as it fluttered along his skin
and sank into him to the bone. Her body fit against his perfectly,
her plump breasts pressed to his chest and her face nestled into
the muscle between his arm and chest.

“Will you let me take care of you?” he
whispered. “I promise, I won’t touch you if you don’t want. I want
to make sure you sleep and are safe.”

Morgan was silent for a long moment, the
fingers of one hand tapping his chest as she thought. He knew they
had some way to go before she’d trust him for more than a kiss and
hug, and he was happy to wait and ecstatic to think they’d be
together until that moment came when she was ready.

“Just for one night,” he added. “Stay with
me tonight and rest.”

“Okay,” she whispered finally. “I brought my
mom back with me. I have to let her know I’m okay.”

“Text her. You’re in no shape to go
anywhere, but to sleep.”

She grumbled something he didn’t hear before
saying more loudly, “Then tomorrow, I go back to taking care of
you.”

He chuckled. “Fine. Sam, later,” he called
to the yeti. Without waiting for a response, he whisked them both
away to his room at his parent’s cabin. The fire was low, and the
bedchamber smelled of the cookies waiting for him by the fire.

Easing back, Beck peered down at Morgan’s
face. She appeared exhausted, pale and weak. He pushed red curls
away from her features and resisted the urge to do more, to touch
her more, instead, releasing her. His earth magick remained strong
within her, settling her fire. Morgan still clutched her amulet in
one hand and watched him step away.

“Shower’s through there. I’ll set out
clothes and get more food,” he said with some awkwardness, wanting
the distance and all the emotions and worry between them gone. “I
can sleep on the floor or in Decker’s room.” He didn’t wait for her
to agree but left quickly, the idea of Morgan naked in his shower a
little too much after his taxing day.

Beck made his way down to the kitchen,
unaware of the effect of his night until his unsteady hands went to
retrieve something from the fridge. He closed the door and watched
the trembling. He wasn’t entirely certain what emotion was the
strongest right now: profound relief, his remaining fear, the
warmth stirred by Morgan’s fire.

He had the answers to some of his most
gut-twisting problems and none to others. It wasn’t a full victory
to know Morgan was Light and if anything, it felt a little like
defeat. She had bloomed overnight while he was no closer to
figuring out how they were going to defeat Dawn or be together.

He stood before the bank of windows
overlooking the lake. It was starting to thaw in the spring
weather, with the middle black and the edges frosted greys and
white. Rain pelted the windows while the below freezing nights
turned the melted snow and slush into ice. Frozen branches of trees
sparkled in the light given off by the veranda, and puffy grey
clouds covered the sky. Extinguished candles under protective
covers outlined the two pentagrams – one black, one white – where
his parents meditated daily.

Shaking away the darker thoughts, he
microwaved leftovers for Morgan and returned to his room.

Dressed in his t-shirt, sweatshirt and
sweatpants, she was seated beside the fire, her red curls wet and
her face tucked in the crook of the arms wrapped around her knees.
Her magick was sad, and he sensed rather than heard her tears. She
glowed this night, and he was able to see her Light. It gave her
subtle sultriness a flare of innocence, a combination that stirred
his blood and interest in too many ways for him to give her the
peace she probably needed.