Page 78 of Dreams of Magic

He nodded, then brushed his thumb across her cheek, drying away the tears she hadn’t known she cried. He looked so angry, “You’re done for the day. Let’s get you out of here.”

As much as she wanted to, she still had her homework to do for Cassie. She was definitely done with magic for the day though.“I still need to work with Marshall and Sorcha for a bit, but that doesn’t involve magic. Just throwing a few punches. I wouldn’t mind practicing on Colin’s face.”

Aiden chuckled, “You and me both, baby. Think you can stand?”

She nodded and got to her feet, glad when her legs held. She refused to look any weaker in front of these assholes. Just then Raven stepped up to her, “If you will let me, I can heal your throat.”

Sabine spoke up then, “I will take care of it.”

Kenzie shook her head at the council woman, then nodded toward Raven. Sabine did not look pleased, but after a moment she stepped back.

Raven gently placed her hands around Kenzie’s throat, and slowly a warmth seeped into her skin. She could almost see it in her mind, gold tendrils coming from Raven’s fingers, reaching for the injury.

She didn’t know if it was because they shared the power, but Kenzie could follow everywhere the magic touched, every path it took. It was so beautiful, so bright it was almost blinding even though it was in her mind.

She felt it as Raven slowly pulled her magic back and out of her body, and as the warmth faded, she opened her eyes. “That was amazing. Thank you so much.”

Raven smiled at her, “Of course. Now we are done for today so, I’m going to leave you and go do some research. I’ll let you know if I find anything.” She left quickly, before anyone could object.

“We will leave you to the rest of your day as well. Marshall, we will speak later.” With that parting comment, Sabine motioned for Colion to follow her. The other members had already left the field.

“Okay then. So, punching, is it?” Aiden chuckled as he pulled her in for a soft peck on the lips, “Are you okay?”

She nodded, “I’m better now. I guess I probably should keep my mouth shut next time. Apparently, Colin doesn’t like me.”

Marshall shook his head just as Sorcha joined them, “No, that’s not it. I don’t know what his problem is but something else is going on here. He’s pushing too hard, making it obvious he’s after something. We just need to find out what. I’m sick of feeling like I’m running around blind. Dad went to see if he could dig a little, and good thing too. If he’d been here when Colin pulled that stunt, he probably would have ripped his head off.”

Kenzie looked at him confused, “Why? You didn’t. And I told him it was okay to demonstrate, so it’s my own fault really.”

Marshall was already shaking his head, “No, that was a show of power and control. He wanted to show us who is in charge. He was making a statement. I didn’t knock him on his ass because right now, he would win. Plus, attacking a council member is punishable by death.”

“Oh. Well okay then. What an asshole!” Now she was kind of mad, even if she’d unintentionally provoked it. “Let’s go hit things.”

Aiden and Sorcha both chuckled and started heading back to the house. Marshall told her there was a gym here, so she figured that’s where they would practice.

Chapter 18.

Marshall

Marshall spent about thirty minutes with the girls and Aiden, showing them how to throw a good punch and working on their stances and blocking. It had actually been fun. The gym had several heavy weight punching bags, so they were able to get a better idea of how it really felt.

It was also a great stress reliever. Unfortunately, he was pretty much stressed to the max right now. No amount of exercise was going to fix it either.

The knowledge that there was a member of his pack, his family, who was betraying them kept eating at him. He knew every single pack member and couldn’t think of anyone that would do this. Even the nightmare twins, annoying as they were, he couldn’t see them going against the pack.

Everything was just starting to pile up and it was frustrating. The timing for everything just seemed too coincidental. Megan dying. He corrected himself, Megan being murdered. That had brought Kenzie here, then they find out they have magic, a spy both here and at the council, the attacks and the wards being crossed, and now the council showing up here.

It was like game pieces were being moved around and they were just waiting for the puppet master to make another move.

He was going to have to do everything in his power to make sure they were on the winning team. There was no room for error.

Just as he was reaching the door to his office, he heard footsteps behind him. He smelled her before he even turned, her scent tickling his senses and making his heart patter in his chest. She smelled like orange blossoms and honey suckle, with that light hint of woods. It was intoxicating and mouthwatering.

He braced himself for the shock he always got when he looked at her, then turned just as Sorcha reached him.

She seemed a little out of breath, like she’d been running. Since he’d just spent the last half hour with her and Kenzie, he figured whatever she wanted to talk about was private, so he motioned for her to proceed him into the office.

When he closed the door, she turned to face him, but kept her eyes on the carpet, “I’m sorry if I’m intruding but I wanted to ask you something.”