Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond(4)
Author: Kim Harrison

And the instant he realized why he had failed these seven years, her gaze went past him to the palace, lit up and replete with joy. Her eyes closed, and panic hit him as he saw everything fall apart. Shit, she was going to walk.

"Ceri, I would love you forever," he blurted, not faking his distress. Not now. Not now when he’d found her weakness!

"Gally, no," she sobbed as the tears fell and tiny blue butterflies rose about her.

"Don’t call me again!" he demanded, the words coming from him without thought or plan. "Go to your cold bed. Die old and ugly! I would make you wise beyond all on earth, keep you beautiful, teach you things that the scholars and learned men have not even dreamed of. I will survive alone, untouched, my heart becoming cold where you showed me love. Better that I had never met you." He looked at her as a sob broke from her. "I was happy as I was."

"Forgive me," she choked out, hunched in heartache. "You were never just my demon."

"It’s done," he said, making a hitch in his voice. "It’s not as if I ever thought you would trust me, but to show me heaven only to give it to another man? I can’t bear it."

"Gally-"

He raised a hand and her voice broke in a sob. "That’s three times you’ve said my name," he said, crushing the now red rose beneath his foot. "Let me go, or trust me. Take down the wall so I may at least have the memory of your touch to console me as I weep in hell for having lost you, or simply walk away. I care not. I’m already broken."

Expression held at an anguished pain, he turned his back on her again, shifting his shoulders as if trying to find a new way to stand. Behind him, he heard a single sob, and then nothing as she held her breath. There was no scuffing of slippers as she ran away and no lessening of the circle imprisoning him, so he knew she was still there. His pulse quickened, and he forced his breathing to be shallow. He was romancing the most clever, most resolute bitch he’d ever taught a curse to, and he loved her. Or rather, he loved not knowing what she would do next, the complexity of her thoughts that he had yet to figure out-an irresistible jewel in a world where he had everything.

"Do you love him?" he asked, adding the last brushstrokes to his masterpiece.

"No," she whispered.

His hands quivered as adrenaline spiked through him, but he held perfectly still. He would’ve given a lot to know which card she held crushed in her grip. "Do you love me?" he asked, shocked to realize he’d never used those particular words to seduce a familiar before.

The silence was long, but from behind him came a soft, "Yes. God help me."

Algaliarept closed his eyes. His breath shook in him, hid excitement racing through him like a living ley line, burning. Would she drop her circle? He didn’t know. And when a light touch landed on his hand, he jumped, looking down to find a blue butterfly slowly fanning its wings against him.

A butterfly? he thought in shock, and then he realized. She had broken the summoning circle, and he’d never even felt it go down. Oh God, he thought, a surge of what was almost ecstasy making his knees nearly buckle as he turned, finding her standing before him, nervous and hopeful all at the same time. She had let him in. Never had he taken anyone like this. It was like nothing he’d ever felt before, debilitating.

"Ceri," he breathed, seeing her without the shimmer of her power between them. Her eyes were beautiful, her skin holding a olive tint he’d never noticed before. And her face . . . She was crying, and he reached out, not believing when he ran a white-gloved hand under her eye to make her smile at him uncertainly. It was a smile of hope and fear.

She should be afraid.

"Gally?" she said hesitantly.

"Do you really love me?" he asked her as the butterflies swarmed, drawn by the scent of burnt amber, and she nodded, gazing at him as tears slipped down and she hesitantly folded herself into his arms.

"Then you are one stupid bitch."

Gasping, she flung her head up. Pushing from him, she tried to escape, but it was too late. Silently laughing, Algaliarept wrapped his arm around her neck, grabbing her hair with his free hand and pulling her across the garden to the nearest ley line. "Let me go!" she screamed, and gathering herself, she shouted, "celero inanio!" sobbing as she flung the entire force of the nearest ley line at him.

With a quick thought, Algaliarept deflected the burning curse, chuckling as flickers of light blossomed to show where the blue butterflies burned before they hit the dew-wet grass. In his grasp, Ceri hesitated her struggles, aghast that he had turned her magic into killing something she loved. "Do that again, and I’ll burn anything that comes round that corner," he encouraged, winding his fist in her hair until she began hitting him with her tiny fists.

"You lied! You lied to me!" she raged.

"I did nothing of the kind," he said, holding her close and dragging her out of the circle so that the people now running toward her screams wouldn’t be able to trap him easily. "I’m going to keep you forever young and teach you everything I know, just as I promised." She was panting, her struggle hesitating as she waited for the help that wouldn’t be able to free her. Closing his eyes, he smelled her hair. "And I’m going to love you," he whispered into her ear as she began to pray to an uncaring god he’d teach her not to believe in. "I’m going to love you within an inch of your life, then love you some more."

Anticipation high, he reached for her inner thigh. The instant his fingers touched her, she screamed, fighting to be free. A fierce smile came over him and his blood pounded in his loins. This was going to be everything he wanted. A distraction for as long as he cared to make it last.

"Let me jump you to my bed so we may begin your tutelage," he said as the bobbing torches came closer.

"No!" she cried out, wiggling as her hair came undone to fall about her face. She looked so much more fetching, her color high and rage making her eyes sparkle.

"Wrong answer," he said, flooding her with the force of the line.

Her eyes widened, her small lips opening to show perfect teeth. Gasping, she bit her lip, trying not to scream. Almost she passed out, and he let up the instant she started to go limp. That she wouldn’t scream made him smile. She’d scream before it was over, and finding her breaking point would be . . . exquisite.

"I’m giving you everything you want," he breathed in her ear when she could think again, hanging in his grasp as she panted. "Everything and more, Ceri. Let me take you." He could knock her out and take her by force, but if she gave in entirely to him . . . it would be beyond anything he’d ever accomplished.