A Battle of Blood and Stone (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 4)

Carrick needed a way to push Finley to access her powers.

Finley didn’t respond. He could tell by her expression she was on board with that plan, but he could tell something else was worrying her.

“Now lay your worries on me,” Carrick demanded, bringing a hand up to brush her hair back over her shoulder.

“I have got to tap into my powers,” she huffed, pulling back and sitting on her haunches again. “It’s ridiculous I’ve been gifted angelic light or whatever the hell it is, and I can’t do much more than put a bubble over myself. Which is great for rainy days here in Seattle, but I already have an umbrella.”

“I’ve got an idea on that,” Carrick replied, and Finley blinked in surprise.

“Like what?” she asked with excitement.

“Not going to share until I’m sure about it.” It was an answer she didn’t like, but she didn’t stay focused on it long as a light started gleaming in her eyes. It made him uneasy.

“I’d like to try to contact Zora again.” Carrick opened his mouth to argue, but, to his surprise, Finley clapped her hand over it. She chastised him with a shake of her head. “If in the worst-case scenario, Kymaris gets the Blood Stone and things go down on the October new moon, then we have to start acting now to figure a plan to get Zora out. We can’t do that until I can build some trust with her and she can hopefully provide us information to help us.”

Carrick wasn’t totally opposed to this because time was indeed running out. But he felt he needed to point out something once again. “What if she’s in league with Kymaris? What if she’s your enemy?”

“She’s not,” Finley asserts with a confident lift of her chin.

“You don’t know that.”

“Fine,” she huffed with a scowl marring that beautiful face. “But we’re never going to know until we at least try to make contact. I need to have a conversation with her so I can start judging her loyalties. We’re in the dark where she’s concerned, and we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

She made an excellent point. They did need more information about Zora, and, as long as Finley didn’t give important information away, the risk was minimal.

Unless Zora had the type of power to kill Finley, but she hadn’t the last time a connection was made.

She had warned her off with a powerful zap of electrical current, though.

Carrick stared up at Finley, the woman he would love throughout eternity, and struggled against his need to protect her at all costs. But he also knew Finley—from her very first incarnation as Eireann—was a woman who wouldn’t take a backseat. It would stifle her if he made her do that. It would crush her.

“Okay,” he promised, taking a moment to enjoy her bright smile. “Let’s give it a go with Zora, but I want to be here.”

“Of course,” she assured.

“And,” he drawled, wanting to put one more stipulation into place. “I want to try this idea I have about tapping your powers first. I’ll need a day or so to arrange that if it can be. But I want you to have some control over the light inside you before you contact Zora.”

Finley wasn’t as happy about that, but she reluctantly agreed.

“Want to go back to bed?” Carrick asked. He didn’t need the sleep, but Finley did. He really had to stop keeping her up through all hours of the night. Perhaps he could slake his thirst for her with quickies during the day.

He was lost in that thought when he realized Finley’s hands had gone to the waistband of his pajama pants. They were merely held over his narrow hips with elastic and a drawstring.

Her fingers worked at loosening the string, and he held his breath as he watched. He didn’t try to quell the thickening of his cock just at that simple maneuver.

When she pulled the strings, his gaze moved up to hers. Her eyes were burning, yes… definitely with passion, so he knew he was in for something special, but also with an emotion he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

She brought him clarity. “I thought when we went to the Hall of Histories, the memories would change something in me. Make me feel deeper for you.”

Finley paused, and Carrick waited to see where she was going.

“But,” she continued. “The most it did was make me understand you better. I was able to see the depth of your feelings and commitment to me. It didn’t do anything to bolster what I felt for you.”

Carrick didn’t like that. It sounded ominous.

It sounded like she was pulling away.

He never expected her to have the same depth of feelings for him that he had for her. That would just be impossible, but he thought the Hall of Histories would surely have bonded them tighter.