Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

When Adalasia had finished, she was surprised that Sandu added his powerful safeguards to her weave as well. She watched him carefully, the graceful movement of his hands an artistry in itself. Everything about Sandu was graceful and flowing. She viewed him as a deadly poet, one of the fallen angels, all too ready to go to battle when necessary. Maybe too eager for the fight but not aware of it, because when he was in battle mode, all emotion was pushed so deep, he had no knowledge he felt it.

She could look at his face forever. An eternity. Those sensual lines carved deep. Those eyes of his, so dark they were black obsidian but burned with fierce red flames that took her breath and caused answering flames to roar deep inside her, like a runaway fire burning out of control.

He suddenly looked directly at her and smiled. The moment he did, her heart stuttered. She wasn’t certain how she managed to stay standing when he made her feel as if her knees had gone weak.

“I believe Nera and her spies will have to stay out in the cold this night,” he announced. “Tell me what you need to say. Let’s be done with secrets between us. We have too many enemies, minan ewal emninumam.”

Adalasia sank down onto the bed. She wasn’t going to fool herself into thinking she didn’t want Sandu with every breath she took. “The card. The goddess card. I told you how important that card is, that it holds the blood of your line.”

Sandu nodded.

“The card holds great power, Sandu. Much more than I explained to you. I carry it on my person at all times next to my heart. I told you that. She can ultimately determine life or death.” She spoke the last in a whisper, feeling as if she were betraying her family’s legacy. Mothers told their daughters what she was giving him. Wives never told their husbands. She counted on the fact that he was the one her family had waited for all those centuries. His soul passed from mother to daughter in the hopes he would continue to live.

Sandu stood by the window, his large frame draped casually against the wall, but suddenly he seemed much more alert. “Adalasia, I think it best if you tell me exactly what you mean by this power the card holds.”

“I told you my mother was murdered. She was, but . . .” Adalasia tried not to remember walking into her home and finding her mother’s body. The goddess card was exactly where it always was on her mother. Over her heart. “She allowed my mother to die. She could have kept her heart beating, but she didn’t. My mother had passed your soul to me when she gave birth to me. If for some reason you aren’t the one, Sandu, she will ensure that I will die. The cards will disintegrate. I don’t know what will happen at the gate.”

There was silence in the cottage. Absolute silence. Then she heard the wind. Branches scraping against the windows, making an eerie sound as if stick figures were trying to enter. She stroked her throat with nervous fingers.

“Is this card capable of stopping your heart, Adalasia?”

There was something in his voice that frightened her. Protectively, she placed her palm over her heart. “Don’t think about trying to take her from me. She would fight you, Sandu. She might try to kill you. I don’t exactly know what would happen.”

“Show her to me.”

She had known he would make that demand. It was one of the reasons she hadn’t told him about the exact power the card wielded. Sandu was a law unto himself. He seemed every bit as powerful as the goddess card. She was positive Sandu was Liona’s brother. Would they recognize each other through their bloodline? Was she wrong? The pull between Adalasia and Sandu was so strong she couldn’t imagine that she was wrong.

He didn’t repeat his command, but it was a command. He didn’t take his gaze from her face, but those red flames began to burn over her.

Adalasia sighed. “No one has ever seen this card but the women in my family, Sandu. This isn’t easy for me.”

“I am your lifemate, Adalasia,” he said gently. “You are my world. If this card is a threat to you in any way, I have to know.”

She would only be a threat if Adalasia had chosen unwisely. If she was making a terrible mistake by agreeing to take this last step into Sandu’s world. She knew she had entered Andre and Teagan’s guesthouse with the intention of at least consummating her physical relationship with Sandu but, more than likely, also agreeing to that last blood exchange. It was a terrifying but, in her opinion, after everything that had been said, a necessary move. She couldn’t allow her fears to in any way give Nera and her army the advantage.