The Gathering Darkness (43 page)

“Flannel? All you could come up with, is flannel?” Marcus teased, looking down at himself.

“I like you in flannel. Besides, it’s designer flannel.” I looked down over my own designer apparel that I’d put together. “Nice,” I said, more than satisfied with my look.

“Very nice,” Marcus said, eyeing me in a new way.

“One more thing,” I said. Knowing I only had a couple seconds of magic left, I waved my hand toward the kitchen table. A take-out bag from my favorite chain restaurant in Boston appeared. Two cheeseburger meals complete with shakes.

“Mmm, I’m starving,” Marcus said.

“Hey, do you feel that? “ I asked, feeling slightly heavier than I had a few seconds ago. “No more tingling. The magic is gone.” My face fell.

“Come here. No sadness tonight, remember?”

Marcus took me by the hand and led me to the sofa. We sat sideways, facing each other. The spark in his eyes grew warm and fluidic like chocolate fondue.

“We don’t need magic to have fun, and we’ll make our own tingles.”

As he said it, he reached underneath the back of my shirt and laid his hand on my back. A tingle shimmered up my spine.

I gave him a warm smile. “I thought I’d never feel that again. I’ve missed you so much.” I squeezed him as tight as I could, breathing him in. As always, he smelled fresh. I’d gotten everything right.

“It must have been awful for you. I know it would have killed me to see you in a coma.”

“It was hell, that’s for sure. Worse than anything that had happened in the past two days.”

He pulled back to look at me. His eyes dropped to my neck. “Where’s the amulet?”

“I sent it home. It’s safe with the grimoire. I don’t think I’ll wear it anymore.”

“You don’t want to live forever?” His eyebrows rose in question.

“Not if forever is without you.”

Marcus gifted me with one of his brilliant and rare smiles that melted my insides. I had a feeling they wouldn’t be so rare now. He cupped the sides of my face in his hands.

“Brooke, I love you more than my mind can even comprehend.”

I nodded, knowing exactly how much that was. “That’s about right. If you can envision that amount of love times infinity, then you’ll know how much I love you back.”

“I already know.”

While gazing into my eyes, he lowered his mouth to mine. My lips felt like mush beneath his. I tangled my fingers through his shampoo-scented hair and pressed his face to mine. An endless amount of delightful tingles raced through my body. My eyelids became too heavy to hold open, so I let them fall over my glazed eyes and basked in the moment.

After a couple of minutes, Marcus pulled away, leaving me weakened and wanting more. I pried my eyes open.

“I have something for you.” He pulled something out of his shirt pocket and held it out to me. It was a familiar looking silver pouch.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Open it and see.”

I picked the pouch up off his hand exposing, a thin, pink, slanted scar across his palm—a symbolic reminder of our little ritual on the wharf. I lifted my scarred hand to his and compared. The scars didn’t match. Mine was three times as long, ending halfway down my wrist. Marcus winced when he saw it for the first time.

He took my hand in his and pressed his lips to the scar.

“Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. If you hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t have remembered our past. And I cherish those memories—most of them.”

“I almost killed you. I thought you were going to bleed to death in front of me.”

“I can’t imagine how that felt, but I
didn’t
bleed to death.”

“I wouldn’t have lived without you.”

Marcus’ serious turn-about scared me.

“It’s over. If things hadn’t happened exactly the way they had, then maybe we wouldn’t be here, together. Maybe one of us or both of us would be dead.”

“Maybe you’re right, but it will always cause me pain to look at this.” He held my hand up in front of us.

I looked at my scar. “Well I like it. I liked the whole blood sharing thing we did. So what if it didn’t go exactly as planned? It still worked.”

“Okay, I’ll try to get over it.” His eyes softened again. He smiled and said, “Open your surprise.”

I took my hand back and tipped the pouch, gasping with delight when I saw what was inside. Two aqua pieces of fairy quartz tumbled into my palm.

“How did you know about them?”

“Back on the Island, you said you’d left them in the hospital, so while you were conjuring up food, I used my last seconds of magic to conjure up something special for you. Something precious from your fairy realm.” A smile touched his eyes.

I stared at the fairy quartz, too overwhelmed for words.

“Come on,” he said. “I’ve still got a job to do.” He took my hand and stood up, pulling me with him.

I cleared my throat and swallowed past the lump. “What job?”

“I still have to fix you.”

I smiled. “I think you need some fixing too.”

“Then we’ll fix each other,” Marcus said, clutching me close to him.

“Okay, but first, let’s eat.”

Tomorrow we would mourn. Tonight we would lock away the hurt and sorrow and bask in our new happiness. We wouldn’t let anything, not even the death of Uncle Edmund, take this night away from us.

Tonight we would make our own magic.

Tonight we would fix each other.

© 2012 Lisa Collicutt

Curiosity Quills Press
http://curiosityquills.com

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Lisa Collicutt
is a native of Nova Scotia, who takes daily ocean views for granted. She left her urban life far too early and finished growing up in rural NS, where she met her husband and had their son. But a big chunk of her soul remains in the city.

Besides riding on the back of her husband's Harley (because she doesn't yet have her own bike license), Lisa’s passion is writing. Her imagination is like an unleashed pet. It requires her attention every waking hour, whether she’s at her day job, in a store line-up, or driving from point A to point B. Her pet plays on the fringes of her mind, attempting to capture her attention with story after story.

Lisa can't imagine writing without an element of magic. But besides that, she likes to transport the reader back to their first love. There's nothing like a captured glance, or the brush of an arm, or that first time when her lips touch his, to send shimmers of tingles over your body and release those caged butterflies.

Enter Lisa's imagination where light ends and fantasy begins. But heed these warnings: It's dark . . . It's magical . . . You may experience tingles.

To the handful of family and friends who I shared my imagination with early on: Samantha, Robyn, Rosalie, Karen, Carol, Tina, Trish and Jenny—okay, two handfuls. You pointed out my mistakes, gave my characters fashion advice, laughed and cried with them, and cheered me on. Robyn, you even managed to sneak in a few awesome lines here and there. You were the incentive that kept me going.

To Author and writing tutor Michael Crawley for your words of wisdom – I did it.

To Author Krystal Wade who I hold fully responsible for my happiness in this publication.

To the rest of my team at Curiosity Quills: My resilient editor Verity Linden—to call you a trooper would be an understatement—you’re a dragoness who can’t be slain. Ricky Gunawan who brought my imagination to visual life. Jade Hart, Jessa Russo and Olga Alekseyuk for presenting me with everything I needed during my publication journey.

To all the CQ Authors for your support along the way.

And to you, the readers; because of you, my amazing journey continues.

Because you’ve all played a part in the existence of The Gathering Darkness, I sprinkle you with hearts and magic dust.

. . . Thank You

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© 2012 Lisa Collicutt
http://darkedgedromance.blogspot.ca

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Cover Design by Ricky Gunawan
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ISBN: 978-1-62007-092-5 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-62007-093-2 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-62007-094-9 (hardcover)

Ever, by Jessa Russo

Some girls lose their hearts to love. Some girls lose their minds.
Ever Van Ruysdael could lose her soul
.

Seventeen year-old Ever’s love life has been on hold for the past two years. She’s secretly in love with her best friend Frankie, and he’s completely oblivious. Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s dead, and waking up to his ghost every day has made moving on nearly impossible.