The Secret Trinity: Reign (Fae-Witch Trilogy, Book 3) (3 page)

“Okay, let’s get started,” Fio
na said, coming over to stand with
me in front of the fireplace.

“Morgan, are you ready?” Fiona asked, and I looked over at Morgan with a furrowed brow, still uncomfortable with using her as our guinea pig.  Although Morgan insisted that the
Fae
-Witch Magic we used didn’t hurt, I found it hard to believe.

Adam had kept my secret, as I had asked, and followed along with my lie when I told everyone that Liam didn’t have a chance to use any Black Magic on me before we escaped.  This, how
ever, was not the case.  I vividly
remember
ed the pain of feeling as if
my ribs were being pulled back one-by-one
, and my heart exposed
to be ripped out through my chest, as they attempted for hours on end to break my
sealment
wit
h Clay.  I shuddered
internally,
just thinking
about it.  I knew that our magic was pure, and shouldn’t cause pain, but it still made me uneasy.  No one but Adam knew what I had been through, and he hadn’t pushed me for details about why my Soul Keeper was some big bad secret.  I sensed that my grace period was dwindling, though, before he got curious and started asking
more
questions.

Everyone stood up; expect Morgan, who still sat on the couch.  Grant walked over to Morgan, and she assumed her pose, resting her head in his lap.  She concentrated on her breathing and stared blankly at the ceiling as Grant soothingly stroked her hair.  A week ago, this sort of public display of affection would have been hastened by Morgan, which only made me more suspicious that our spell experiments did cause her pain. 

Clay’s hand glowed golden with light as I watched him roll in the iron cauldron through the kitchen and park it next to the couch.  He and Jeremy looked at each other and simultaneously walked into the next room to do their own work.  Both of them were refusing to assist with my plan.  They instead locked themselves in the study pouring over books from the library while we worked
on
our spells.  Today it was time to try a new tweak in our spell.  Fiona began to walk around the couch, and Kayla, Adam, and I quickly fell into step like follow the leader.  We slowly circled Morgan lying on the couch as we began to recite the chant.

After an hour of conducting the counter
sealment
spell on Morgan with zero results, we decided to call it a day.  We made plans with Fiona to meet at the library after tomorrow’s defense mee
ting to continue our research.

E
veryone was starving by t
he time we wrapped things up. 
We didn’t like leaving Adam at the house alone and bored, so we had been spending a lot more meal time at Grant and Morgan’s place instead of eating out.  It was the girl’s turn to cook, so we made a quick trip to the general store before returning to whip up some dinner for our group. 
This
was the perfe
ct excuse for some girl time, and i
t was a good thing too
, because t
he guys seemed to think that macaroni and cheese passed for a homemade meal around here.

“Could you hand me that tomato?”  I asked, while snagging a piece of cucumber to eat from the cutting board in front of me as I chopped up a salad.  Morgan tossed me a plump ripe one from across the room while she continued to unload the grocery bags piled on the kitchen table.  I caught it mid-air without looking up and swiftly set it down, slicing it in half, when Kayla began to laugh.  Morgan and I both paused in our activities to look for the source of her amusement.

“What’s so funny?”  I asked, because there was nothing obvious that I could pick up on.  Kayla’s chest shook with laughter as she tried to talk.

“I was just thinking that if Morgan had thrown a tomato at your head like that a few weeks ago, it would be a sauce in your hair right now,” she explained, still laughing.

“What, you mean like this?”  I asked.  Picking up a tomato half from my cutting board, I pressed it against the side of her head, twisting it until it was a mushy, oozing mass in her hair.

Kayla slowly turned to face me, her mouth agape as she wiped tomato juice from her temple.  I looked over at Morgan and I could see she was trying hard to not vocalize her laugh.  She was tearing up, and her face was turning as red as the tomato from holding it in.  Suddenly, a handful of flour landed on my shirt, and I looked down in surprise as the flour dust puffed over my face.

“I was thinking more like that,” Kayla said as she reached into the flour bag to grab another handful.  We all paused, looking at each other, unflinching, for what felt like only a second.  Before I knew it, food was flying everywhere.  I ducked down, opening the fridge door to use it as a shield and grabbing left over macaroni from its container, hurling handfuls over the door, hoping it would land on the intended targets.  I peeked over the door only to have a chunk of smashed banana land on my cheek.  I quickly grabbed the chocolate sauce from inside the fridge door and did a somersault roll to hide behind the island counter.  I popped the top and sprung up from the ground while squeezing a fountain of the sweet confection at them.  Shrieks and squeals escaped Morgan and Kayla when the chocolate sprayed on them.

“What are you doing?!”  Adam asked in a shocked voice from behind me.  I whipped around to find the guys all standing with their arms crossed at the kitchens door with amused grins on their faces.  The girls and I froze instantly and the only movement was the white smoke of flour clouds hanging in the air.

“Isn’t it obvious?  We’re making dinner,” Morgan said, and Kayla and I lost it
,
curling over with laughter.  The guys all looked at each other like we were crazy, but it felt good to laugh like that again.  It reminded me of what I was fighting for, of
who
I was fighting for.  I finally composed myself and stood upright again.

“Do you dare come in and help us,” I said tauntingly, holding my chocolate
syrup
bottle up like a weapon at the guys, all still standing at the door.  Clay broke from the pack and walked right up to me.

“Game on,” he said, with a daring look to match.

“Do your worst,” I said, pressing my
palm
to his cheek leaving a perfect chocolate
hand
print on his face.  Clay raised his eyebrows, flicked his eyes to his cheek, and when they returned to me, his expression told me that I was going to pay for that.

A few hours later
,
I was back at the cottage hosing off.  After the guys got involved, the kitchen looked like a war zone by the end.  Grant ended up running out for some takeout, which we ate on the kitchen floor after cleaning
it
up so we wouldn’t spread our ketchup-covered clothes to the rest of the house.  I laughed to myself as I worked the shampoo through my hair, trying to lather out the sticky, melted ice cream on the crown of my head.  Clay had snuck up behind me during the food fight.  He nailed me with melted globs of vanilla; a payback for his chocolate syrup drenching.

When I got out of the shower, I threw on some yoga pants and a tank top and snuggled up with a big blanket in the oversized chair b
y my bed.  Now that I was flour-
free, I was ready to dive into a new history book that I had borrowed from King Bryan’s extensive collection.  It was a recounting of our last recorded war with the
Famorii
when Danu was our
Aira
Queen. 

Hours of reading later my eyes were becoming heavy
,
and I knew it must be late, but I kept thinking about the ice cream in my hair, and the fact that I really woul
d have rather eaten it than worn
it as a hat.  Giving into my sweet tooth, I wandered into the kitchen and dug around in the freezer until I discovered a buried treasure of mint chocolate chip.  When I turned around, I sucked in a sharp breath and slammed into the chilly open freezer door.

“You know, that is getting really old,” I said to Clay in an agitated but quiet voice, not wanting to wake Kayla, whose room shared a wall with the kitchen.

“I really didn’t mean to sneak up on you this time.  I think you were sending me your sugar wave length or something, because that is what I came in here looking for,” Clay said rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he pointed at the ice cream container in my hand.

I looked over his sleepy eyes and dark disheveled hair before moving my gaze down the length of his chiseled torso to where a peek of bare skin caught my attention.  His athletic shorts
hung daringly low on his hips giving me a teasing glimpse of his washboard abs.  I also found myself wondering if he was wearing anything underneath his shorts, because there was no waistband in sight.  Clay cleared his throat, and when I looked up I knew my cheeks were burning red hot, despite standing in front of the opened freezer door.  Crap!  It probably looked like I was staring at his crotch.  I did not need to give Clay any more excuses to swoop in with his dangerously sexy touch.

Before it could get too awkward, I promptly ignored his lopsided smile and turned to retrieve some spoons before we sat at the kitchen table to dig in.  I decided to save myself from dishes and lose the bowls.  It
was just Clay, after all.  Who
was
I
trying to impress, I thought, popping off the lid and eating a spoonful right out of the carton.

“Thanks,” Clay said when I pushed a spoon at him.  “This should be a proud moment for you.  Never have you looked more like a debutant Queen than you do right now,” Clay said, mockingly, while digging into his own bite.

“Shut-up,” I said at length as I swallowed down the minty treat.  This was so worth getting out of my cozy chair for.

“This ice cream would be better with some chocolate syrup, don’t you think?”  I asked, trying to suppress my smile when I thought of it dripping from Clay’s hair earlier.

He grinned, “I thought you came in here to
eat
the ice cream, but if you want to bathe in it again, let’s do this,” he countered, holding
up
the pastel green spoonful like he was ready to fling it at my face.

“Ok, ok, truce!  I don’t need a third shower today,” I concluded, taking another spoonful.  Before I could stop him, Clay grabbed my hand and pulled it toward him, stealing the bite right off my spoon.

“Hey!”  I said too loud, and I slapped my hand over my mouth
,
hoping I didn’t wake Kayla up.  I wasn’t too worried, though.  She might be a late night kind of girl, but when she did sleep, it was a proven fact that even a brass horn blowing in her ear couldn’t get her out of bed.

“It tastes better when you have to work for it,” Clay said, smiling proudly.

“Oh yeah,” I countered.  Yanking away his spoon still filled with ice cream, I devoured it in one big bite.

“Yum, I think for once you might be right,” I said, sweeping up a drip running down the side of the carton, licking it off my finger.

Clay was silent, and the energy between us instantly changed into something I knew led to no good.  I felt his eyes on me but could only stare at the table, while taking another bite in a desperate attempt to distract myself.  The moment the cold creaminess melted on my tongue, I found myself wondering what mint mixed with Clay’s cinnamon mouth would taste like.  I hated the effect he had on me.  I was doing everything in my power not to have those thoughts.  They made me feel vulnerable, and I didn’t like it.  I slowly dared to look up from the table through my lashes to find his eyes.  Maybe the tension was only my wistful imagination.

“Let’s find out,” Clay said huskily.  Suddenly the ice cream container was a green stain on the wall, and I could only hear the sound of spoons clattering to the floor.  I felt his hands scoop me up, and in one singular motion I was laying on the kitchen table with Clay’s piercing blue eyes only inches from mine.  I had to catch my breath, it all happened so fast, and I gave a sidelong glance to the ice cream splattered on the wall dripping down to the floor.

“Did I say I was done?”  I asked, returning my gaze to his
,
trying to calm down.  In less than ten minutes of being alone with him, I somehow landed underneath him on a kitchen table.

“I thought you wanted some dessert?”  Clay asked, a grin playing on his lips, almost touching mine.

“I did, but not this kind,” I stated in the most sarcastic voice I could muster.

“Are you sure?  Mint and cinnamon could be an intriguing combo, if you ask me.”  His voice dripped with seduction, and my throat went tight.  What did that mean?  Did he taste the sparkling cinnamon when we kissed too?  Did he just read my mind?

“Do you taste the cinnamon?”  I asked seriously shocked by this, and he flashed me a gorgeous smile, holding me tighter.

“Let’s see
.”  His lips pressed to mine, and it was the most delicious, sumptuous combination.  Warm sparks of cinnamon and cool sweet mint swirled around my tongue
, like some exotic candy from
Wo
nka’s
factory had found its way into my mouth, enticing me to wan
t more in the most forbidden manner
.  Clay’s hand swept up my side until he reached the back of my neck, pulling me closer to him
.  God
he was so sexy, I couldn’t stan
d it.  I just wanted to rip
his shirt
off
and give in to the moment without thinking.  But I was thinking about it and I had to stop!  Ok, stop!  Stop, you idiot.  Open your eyes and stop kissing these perfect lips.  I pressed my hands on his chest, pushing away from our kiss.