Sigils and spells, p.63
Sigils & Spells, page 63
It didn’t make it better when he’d proudly proclaimed he wasn’t a “boy” because he was a “man.” He’d only been laughed at to the point he wasn’t sure if it was with him or at him.
Which was why he planned to call his twin today, on this lonely Saturday, since he had nothing better to do other than homework. That and—with Halloween approaching—he worried more and more about the silence from his brother. They used to be so close, and then after last Halloween, the distance had done nothing but grow.
“Is everything all right?” Dylan asked when he picked up after the third ring.
Trepidation coursed through Daniel. “Why wouldn’t it be? I call you all the time.”
A long pause preceded, “Just making sure. Bad feeling in my gut, like something is coming. Not sleeping well.”
“Are you having nightmares again?” Daniel scooted back on his bed against the headboard. He should have called to check on Dylan sooner. Instead, he’d been worried about his relationship with Ravyn and school, both of which were important, but so was family. Was anyone ever really able to perfectly balance everything that mattered though?
Perhaps he was being too hard on himself.
“Yeah,” Dylan said, and took a deep breath. “The same ones again. Creepy hooded figure in the shadows, and then I turn around and there’s a headless figure on a horse. I run, only to witness some cult. Druids, maybe. I don’t know for sure.” He paused, then softly, barely more than a whisper, he added, “They cut off a woman’s head while in the middle of these standing stones with a big idol of some Celtic deity. She looks like Penelope every time…”
If he hadn’t been sitting, he would have fallen over. “You never told me all the details.” Especially not that the woman killed in his nightmare looked like his girlfriend. “Just that there was a Headless Horseman in it.” Their mother had dropped a glass decanter full of juice at the mention of his dream last year. It had been that dream and their mother’s reaction that had inspired Daniel’s interest in the Horseman, and led to recollection of the Dullahan folklore. “Do I need to come home?” He was sure Ravyn would understand.
“No. You are safest where you are.”
What the hell did that mean? “Dylan, I—”
“I’m serious, okay.” His tone left no room for argument.
“I’m going to figure out what you and Mom are hiding. Even if it has to wait for Christmas break.” It was true he’d been a little preoccupied this semester and hadn’t visited enough, but the break between semesters would give him a good bit of time at home.
Dylan sighed heavily. “We aren’t hiding anything.”
That was a lie, but his brother obviously wasn’t going to share anything with him at the moment. “Be careful. If you need me, I’m only a call away. I can be there in about seven hours, depending on traffic.”
The first bit of warmth during the entire call came through the phone. “I love you, baby bro.”
“Dude. We were born the same day. Just because you technically were born first doesn’t make me your baby brother.” They had this argument a lot, but it was always in good fun. The normalcy it brought now was needed. Comforting.
“Yeah, well, whatever.”
The call ended not long after that. For the first time in their lifetime, he felt disconnected from his twin. He didn’t welcome it one bit.
*.*.*.*.*
Ravyn glanced at the text from her mom and frowned.
Tarot readings the past week have been dire. You need to come home. At least call us. Samhain is a terrible time to be around the unsuspecting.
No, she wasn’t going to let her family take away her first happy Halloween experience. So the veil between the mortal realm, spirit realm, and beyond was thinnest on that night. Hadn’t it always been? Besides, she was almost to Daniel’s dorm, and she’d missed him all day! A conversation about doom, gloom, and curses wasn’t a good mood setter.
Her phone vibrated again and she looked, unable to stop herself.
I keep drawing the Lovers and the Tower. Ravyn, whoever the young man is, do you really think your romance is worth the consequences of what you are?
Anger coursed through her. Why couldn’t she be normal? Why couldn’t she have relationships, boyfriends, dances, and dates like everyone else? The Lovers card was self-explanatory. The Tower meant impending disaster.
It didn’t necessarily mean it was her fault. In fact, the bad thing could be happening to her and have nothing to do with Daniel.
And maybe if she kept living in denial, the blissful ignorance would protect her from the damage awaiting either or both of them. Knocking on Daniel’s door, she quickly wiped away the tears welling in her eyes and tried to plaster on the smile that had been real a few minutes before. Trust her mom to ruin it.
“Hey, you…” His sentence died when he took in the sight of her. “What’s wrong?”
So much for trying to hide her upset. “Nothing,” she fibbed, but damned her tears for attempting to fall a second time. She was going to wreck her makeup if she didn’t pull herself together. “My mother reads Tarot and is trying to scare me home, apparently.”
He stared at her, standing there in his doorway, perplexed. “You’re upset over a card reading?” Daniel shook his head. “I didn’t take you as someone who believed in that sort of thing. The goth fashion aside.”
“I don’t.” She rubbed her eyes. “Not really. I believe that if people believe in what they say enough they can manifest those things into being. I don’t believe in curses.”
At least she hadn’t until recently.
“Ravyn…” He shook his head and then moved out of the way, gesturing her in. Once she was inside, he shut the door and turned the lock. “Roomie is away this weekend, by the way. Otherwise,” he paused and then placed a hand on her cheek. She pressed her face into his palm, needing the connection to him. “I don’t understand what Tarot has to do with curses.”
She laughed, but even to her ears she sounded crazy. Could she tell him her secret? Maybe a partial truth, and not the part where she turned into a bird? “My family has a pattern of only daughters being born, no sons. And every man we fall in love with dies, like…soon after the babies are born.”
Daniel blinked but didn’t say anything.
“Well,” she said, “Aren’t you going to be scared to date me now?”
This time he laughed, but the laughter sounded genuine. “If this is an attempt to break up with me, please be respectful enough to just say it.”
On the bright side, her tears had stopped. Now, though, she was growing irritated by the fact she couldn’t explain. “I’m not trying to break up with you. My mother on the other hand would love it if I did.” She sat down on the bed and crossed her arms. “All I wanted was a normal college experience, since I was denied the childhood and high school years I deserved. Is that so wrong?”
No longer laughing, Daniel took a seat next to her and pulled her into his arms. “No, Ravyn, it’s not wrong. I’m sorry your family has not let you have the freedom to grow and live as you would have liked.”
She leaned into his warmth and wrapped her own arms around his waist. He smelled good. A combination of some kind of bay rum and fresh laundry scent. It comforted her in ways she didn’t quite understand. If Ravyn had her way, she’d curl up into his lap and never leave. “I have that freedom now. I don’t plan to relinquish it again.”
“You shouldn’t. It’s your life; do what makes you happy.”
She grinned up at him and kissed the underside of his chin. Daniel didn’t have much in way of facial hair, and the stubble was coarse but not unpleasant. He hadn’t shaved that morning. Probably hadn’t expected to see her all day. “I like that plan.”
“What plan?” He cupped her face in both hands and kissed her deeply. “I stopped paying attention when your mouth was on me.”
“Put yours back on mine, and maybe I’ll repeat myself—after.”
Her comment got a chuckle out of him before he acquiesced. Their kisses grew more fervent with each brush of a lip, pass of a tongue. Before long she was underneath him on his bed, arching into his touch as he ran a hand down her hip and to her backside.
“Daniel,” she whispered, her voice husky with desire. “Make love to me.”
He paused long enough to study her features, as though suspecting it was all a joke. “Are you sure. I don’t mind waiting until you’re ready.”
If her body igniting due to the need coursing through her wasn’t indication enough, she didn’t know what was. “You told me to do what makes me happy.” She leaned up on her elbows and bit her lip in a teasing fashion. “I’ve decided what makes me happy is you.”
The way his eyes darkened with interest and passion did nothing more than fan the fire within her. He moved over her until he was directly between her thighs. Right where she wanted him, despite all the meddlesome clothes in the way. “You want to do me, hmm?” He couldn’t even keep a straight face and she giggled along with him. “That can be arranged.”
“Arrange it nowwwww,” she whined and ran her hands under his shirt. The muscles in his stomach flexed at her touch and she groaned. “Daniel…”
“Okay, okay.” He rose up and pulled his T-shirt over his head one-handed, then tossed it away. “I thought I was supposed to be the impatient one.”
“Better not be.” She toyed with the button on his jeans and grinned as his breathing deepened once she had him unfastened and unzipped.
He stalled her hand before she could lower his pants, scrambling out of the bed to his desk drawer beside the headboard. Daniel ripped the corner off a condom wrapper with his teeth as he crawled back in bed then spit over his shoulder. Ravyn couldn’t help but snicker when the piece of wrapper stuck to his cheek instead of falling to the floor. Reaching up, she retrieved it and flicked it away.
The passing minutes felt both like seconds and hours somehow at the same time. Things moved as though in slow motion, yet time seemed unbearably fast. Each moment passing so swiftly into the next leaving the former a memory that would live on repeat in her mind, of that she had no doubt. As he finished removing his pants and then rolled on the condom, Ravyn undressed, feeling his gaze travel every part of her like an intimate caress.
And then he returned to her embrace, pushing between her legs with such gentle reverence that tears threatened to return again. It only hurt a little, but Daniel distracted her with deep kisses and one hand between them, petting her above where their bodies were joined until the pleasure of the fullness outweighed discomfort. She whimpered as he began to move in earnest, stroking something she couldn’t name within her. The pressure built like musical notes approaching some great crescendo, except she was the instrument, and Daniel never missed a note.
Ravyn didn’t know how she knew it, but this was the man for her. The one she’d been destined for. As her head dropped back on the pillow and she cried out in release, she let the tears fall in earnest.
She might have just sealed his fate, and she’d done it with selfish abandon.
CHAPTER 11
Don’t be nervous.
Easier said than done, that. Seriously, one would think Daniel had never gone to a dance before, and he was technically an adult now. In the time that passed since Ravyn and he had been intimate, it was as though something had shifted. What he did, how he acted…it all mattered. Not because she was shallow or anything, but because she mattered to him. Childhood was over. Every choice he made affected his future.
He wanted Ravyn in that future. It wasn’t like he was considering marriage or anything like that so soon, but he didn’t want to mess it up. Daniel wanted to be a man she found desirable and dependable. Everything she could want.
As he lifted is hand to knock on the door to her dorm, someone cleared their throat from behind him. Daniel turned, smile fading as he realized Gabe stood there, appearing no more overjoyed to see him. He wore black dress pants and a white button-down—at least it looked like it might be a white button-down—under a black hoodie. He also wore, and what a shock, black sneakers to complete the ensemble.
Meanwhile, Daniel had tried to mix things up a bit. He’d chosen a burgundy pair of slacks and a matching jacket. His dress shirt was black. Red and black felt like a good choice for Halloween, after all. He damned sure didn’t wear sneakers with his dress clothes. His mother had made sure he knew how to dress when the occasion called for it.
“Keep sneering at me like that, pretty boy, and see what happens.”
Daniel started to retort when the door behind him opened, and he turned. What were words? He suddenly couldn’t form any. The vision in front of him wore a plum-colored dress so dark it was nearly black; its skirt was cropped short in the front but trailed long in the back. She had chosen a pair of patent-leather, high-heeled boots that encased her fishnet-encased legs to just over her knees. And the bird skull pendent held around her neck by a black velvet ribbon fell beak first into the top of her cleavage, like an arrow directing his gaze. Completing the look with curled hair, loose around her shoulders, dark purple eyeshadow and black lipstick and nails, his girlfriend had never looked sexier, and he wasn’t sure he was going to make it to the dance at all.
The things going through his brain, which he became fairly sure had short-circuited, would frighten her. Surely.
“I swear to every god that every person has ever worshiped that I will lock you in a closet if you don’t stop drooling in the middle of the hallway, pretty boy.” Aggravation seeped from Gabe’s voice. “I don’t want your saliva on my shoes.”
Not trusting his ability to speak, he didn’t even comment, just moved to the side with Ravyn as she fully exited the room. Aoibhe had dressed in a white ethereal lace gown that fell to her ankles and had braided her hair in a half-up, half-down look. He did a double-take, thinking she had done some sort of face paint on her cheek, but at second glance, Daniel saw nothing. A trick of the light, nothing more.
Her friend was very pretty tonight, but Ravyn took his breath away. “I think you should wear tall boots and fishnets every day.”
Giggling, Ravyn took his outstretched hand and he pulled her close to him. “You are looking pretty hot yourself, Mr. O’Connor.”
“Oh, stop.” He brushed a bit of hair out of his eye. He needed a haircut. If he put it off any longer, it would be as long as his brother’s. “You’re going to make me blush.” And give him a massive…ego.
Faux gagging finally snapped him out of his stupor. Daniel glared over his shoulder at Gabe. Aoibhe had placed a hand on his arm as though trying to divert his attention back to her. Whatever she was doing, it seemed to work.
Momentarily.
“Do we really have to spend the evening with them?” he asked the pale-haired beauty.
“Nope,” Daniel bit out.
“Yes,” Aoibhe said with a glare of her own. “At least until we get there. Then we can go our own ways.”
Gabe grunted, Ravyn giggled, and Daniel groaned. What a fun lot they all were.
Surprisingly, though, the walk down to the gymnasium, which had been turned into a dance floor not unlike a high school, wasn’t too painful. Gabe behaved, seeming happy enough to have Aoibhe on his arm for the night. The general consensus among the group was to go check it out, then go their own way when they got hungry enough to walk to the cafeteria or wherever else the night led them.
Daniel knew for a fact that his dormmate hated school functions he didn’t have to go to and had disappeared to the mainland for the whole weekend with some friends he had in town. Just in case they needed a place to be alone. Without the prospect of Gabe and Aoibhe walking in on them.
Okay, so he was definitely doing a bad job of staying in the moment and not thinking with his dick. He was a guy. Somehow, he didn’t think he was going to grow out of this way of thinking, but he was trying not to.
And then he’d see that creamy thigh peeking out under the skirt, above the boots, through those tights. Gah. A woman’s thighs were his favorite part of the female body. He couldn’t help but be distracted thinking about those fishnet-encased legs wrapped around him..
“What is with all the moths?” a female student asked, swatting the air in front of her and her date, as they exited the gym. Daniel caught the door and held it open for everyone in the group. Before following them, he looked back toward the softly lit campus. Fluttering insects floated in and out of view. There were a lot of moths lately. Seemed like they had finally moved away from Ravyn’s dorm toward the rest of the island.
As he took a step into the building, he paused. And frowned. Around the corner, in the tree line, two red dots hovered about six feet or so from the ground. Were those…eyes?
A chill swept through him, and he jumped when Ravyn grabbed his wrist and tugged him toward the entrance. “Come on, silly. Let’s dance!”
Daniel turned to look back to where he’d seen the weird red eyes, but nothing remained except a few flittering moths.
*.*.*.*.*
Ravyn couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. Okay, maybe she’d never had fun like this. Daniel spun her around, and laughed when she nearly tripped. They’d discovered early on that she got dizzy easily, but that didn’t stop them from twirling and spinning as much as possible. And though she really could not dance to save her life, she was having a great time anyway.
Daniel hadn’t allowed her to fall. He made sure he was there to catch her when she faltered.
Would he always be?
As that question made her stomach tingle with awareness of him and excitement to see where their relationship would lead, she couldn’t help but wonder how her friend had faired tonight. Aoibhe and Gabe had disappeared some time ago. Whatever the allure Gabe held for Aoibhe, Ravyn wasn’t sure she saw it. Maybe because he absolutely refused to be nice to Daniel or her. To each their own though.
Leaning in as he held her close, Daniel asked, “Are you getting hungry yet?”
