She wished she were as certain.
Sarah splashed his arm playfully, trying to appear more relaxed than she was. “Tell me. Was it like the other book? Recipes and bad poems?”
His sigh was telling. “Right now I wish it was, but no. It was Aaron Winston’s journal. It was…Sarah it was everything. A confession. A psychotic rant. A self-hating, tell-all Magian manifesto.”
“Manifesto?”
Lorie seemed to be in a state of disbelief. “They weren’t just friends, Sarah. Robert, Aaron and the others. They all had something in common. Envy. Of other Magian’s powers. Of privilege. Of their siblings. They formed their own society and made lists of the people they despised. Ways to get rid of them. To rule.” He shook his head. “They were delusional, but harmless at first. Until that night. He wasn’t even sure what it was about that particular night that had set them off, but no one walked away from that Triune without blood on his or her hands. And Winston, the only one of them skilled with spell craft, became their savior and the person they most feared. He used his abilities and their connections to make it all go away. Records. Memories. He even instigated the trials and deaths of innocent humans condemned as witches, as a distraction. An echo of what really happened, the scars left on our world from the act that couldn’t be entirely erased.”
She was shaking in disbelief. “I can’t even comprehend that kind of madness. It’s—”
“A nightmare I know,” Lorie’s voice was hoarse. She’d always known about the massacre, but for him, for everyone else, it had simply been erased. Whole families wiped from the town’s history. From the Magian archives. It was a massive undertaking for so small a group.
“You were his price, Sarah. He wanted you to remember. Wanted you to be blamed and punished for the deaths. He’d concealed the second book to ensure he would always have access to you, and the other was given to the library, in the hopes that it would be buried forever.”
“If you hadn’t had those dreams about me, it would have been,” she whispered. “What about Jackson? Did he mention Jackson Abbott?”
Lorie reached down and lifted her out of the tub, uncaring of the water that soaked through his clothing as he pulled her into his arms. “Yes. Robert let something slip in a drunken rant and Jackson, knowing his brother, started looking into it. The journal didn’t go into detail, but we know that he got too close to the truth. I know they all came to believe you were the key to their undoing. Their witness. It was only Aaron Winston’s obsession with you that kept you alive.”
She held him in silence, trying to take it all in. She’d suspected one of them was to blame for what happened, but she’d believed Aaron had let others in to do his killing for him. She’d had no idea that she’d merely been one piece of what was turning out to be a complicated puzzle.
“What about the Winstons? Aaron and his brother?”
Sarah lifting her head from Lorie’s neck to see Con in nothing but an apron, carrying small plate with one piece of burnt toast. She would laugh, but she could see by his expression that he’d heard most of what was said, and was no happier than she was.
Lorie tilted his head. “I’m not sure, and that worries me. He mentioned being immortalized. Talked about continuing the work started at that Triune. But trying to decipher his plans from his insane ramblings? I’ll need Tucker’s help for that.”
“Don’t worry about it right now.” Sarah stood and took Lorie’s hand, shooing Con back as they left the bathroom. “We need to get you out of those wet clothes before your family arrives.”
“They won’t be here for hours.”
“Which is why we have to hurry.”
She walked him to the edge of the bed and reached up to undo the top button of his shirt. He was distracted, and with good reason, but she couldn’t stand to see him like this. Lorie had been her angel. Her hero. He had saved her from a twisted man’s curse, stood by her despite her own doubts and fears. Despite her grand schemes for vengeance.
How could she do any less for him?
She slid the now-open shirt off his shoulders and dropped it on the floor. “Now for the pants.”
“I take it this means no one’s going to eat my toast.” Con set the offensive black square on the table, wiping his hands on his cooking apron. “And after I slaved for hours.”
“She knows,” Lorie muttered. He watched her in silence as she unbuckled his pants and knelt to remove them. “Are you trying to distract me, sweet Sarah?”
“Maybe a little.” She looked up at him, allowing everything she felt to show through her eyes. “I’m also loving you.” She reached behind her to tug on Con’s apron to pull him closer. “Both of you. With all of my heart. Forever.”
When she’d moved Con to stand beside Lorie she made an attempt to be stern. “My turn to be obeyed. Sit.”
They sat on the edge of the bed. Exactly where she wanted them. “Now let me.”
Lorie slid his hand in her hair, an expression of wonder on his face as he watched her. The worries he’d been carrying, for the moment, brushed aside. “Let you what, honey?”
She untied the knot in Con’s apron and tugged it off his lap. “Let me love you.”
Sarah licked her lips, lowering her mouth onto Lorie’s hardening length while wrapping her fingers around Con’s erection. Hers. They were both hers. She could feel their magic reaching out for hers, and she welcomed the union. The sparks that were always just under the surface, waiting to emerge.
“I’m wearing that apron from now on,” Con groaned, lifting his hips to meet her stroking fist. “Especially if it gets this kind of reaction.”
Sarah laughed, the sound vibrating against Lorie’s shaft and he groaned. “No more jokes. I want this to last.” His hands tightened on her hair when she swirled her tongue along his skin in the way he loved. “So good, Sarah. That feels so good.”