“That is more than fair, as I had expected our little X to put up a fight. She has never liked being dictated to.” He smiled, and Exerilla saw pride light up his handsome face.
He had, like her friends, always called her X. She shrugged and smiled at him. “I don’t like it now, either. However, I have known Vance a very long time and would not insult him by refusing to have a few dinner engagements with him and see how we feel about each other.” Would her father see that she was lying?
Evidently, her father was too pleased with the outcome of this, for he merely bowed in his Old World style before the dark cloud that had delivered him into their home enveloped him and took him and Vance away.
Her mother grabbed Exerilla’s shoulders and said in a tone that sounded desperate, “Hurry—there is no time to waste!”
She knew what her mother wanted, and although she also knew that her mother was only trying to protect her, she just couldn’t comply.
How could she?
It wasn’t as though her mom wanted her to go off on some summer vacation. Her mother wanted to send her into the past, and not any recent past, but nearly two hundred years in the past.
How could she give up all her plans, not start graduate school in the fall?
She couldn’t believe her father would use a compulsion spell to make her marry el creepo.
She couldn’t believe he would force her to do anything. He had never done so before.
She wouldn’t do it.
Why should she? Why the past, why England? Why?
According to prophesy, Ravena is the only one who can rescue a powerful sorcerer trapped in another dimension—but the prophesy doesn’t promise she’ll survive the experience. Read her story in
Hungry Moon: Quicksilver
~ Prelude ~
1575, Scottish Highlands, where many honored their clans and chose to follow the old ways
Quinn MacValdane had a great deal of weight on his shoulders, but those shoulders were huge and certainly capable of carrying the burden. The weight, however, was unlike any other he had ever lifted, and he was tired of constantly having to deal with it. He just wasn’t ready to get married!
He was more than six months away from turning thirty and tired of the nagging as his birthday drew closer. He had to get out and away from it!
Mayhap he just needed a tussle with the pretty tavern wench, Sarah, to loosen up his nerves? Och but he liked her full breasts. The notion of her naked body under him made him smile, and he felt his dick spring up, ready for action.
A crackle of twigs made him look around and hold his lantern up.
He had heard the rumors but had shrugged them off. He wasn’t concerned—why should he be?
He was a sorcerer with supreme powers and had naught to fear from the beast.
Thus, he proceeded into the woods to take the shortcut to the town tavern. He grinned and hummed to himself, much like a boy at the thought of a few drinks with his friends and then a bit of fun with Sarah. She was a lovely, full-bodied woman …
He heard something again.
His hearing had always been extraordinary, and it told him now that something moved stealthily through the woods at his back and was eating up distance between them.
Once again, he held up his lantern and looked around—not afraid, but wary, very wary, for he knew that something evil was at his back.
He touched the silver-tipped sword that was tucked at his belt. If something rabid was out there, it was time to put an end to it! And, bloody damn, he was just the man to do it. He would enact his shield, protect himself from getting bitten, and finish the beast once and for all. The shield would protect him from the dangers of a rabid bite.
Everything in the forest seemed to go still.
Nothing seemed to move. Even the crickets had ceased their chatter.
Warily he started forward again.