“Are ya sure?”
He nodded. “Maybe we will see each other in your dreams.”
Tears trickled down her cheeks and she smiled. “I would like that.”
He kissed the palm of her hand. “Move back. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Hugging herself around her waist, she moved a few steps back. With a last nod toward her, Malvo closed his eyes again and setting the blade over the palm of his other hand he started to speak the words of the incantation.
As he spoke, he could feel a charge in the air swirling around him. The energy crackled over his skin. The air was hot and heavy and he found it difficult to breathe. He was nearing the end of the spell. He raised the dagger high over his other hand, and with the last word, which he bellowed over the stringent echo in his mind, he brought the blade down.
In an explosion of pain, Malvo yelled and dropped to his knees. Slowly he opened his eyes and stared at his bloody hand. The dagger still impaled his flesh. Gingerly, he took hold of the hilt and pulled it out, letting it fall to the floor.
It was then he noticed the ground that he was kneeling on. It wasn’t the rug from his living room. It was a different color and pattern. Lifting his gaze, he searched his surroundings. His heart leaped into his throat and he could barely take in air.
Kiara stood a little ways from him, tears running down her face, smiling at him. “You’re free, Malvo. You freed the both of us.”
Slowly, he pushed to his feet and looked around the library, the place where he’d first cursed himself and the others. He spun around the room and laughed. He was truly free.
Kiara ran to him and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her and spun her around. She laughed then kissed his cheek.
He turned his head and found her mouth. He kissed her hard and long, until they were both breathless. He set her down on her feet and looked around the room again. A shiver rushed down his spine from the cool air in the room.
“Is it night or day?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I donna know.” She grabbed his hand. “Let’s go find out.” She pulled him across the room and out the double oak doors.
They walked through the house, hand in hand. When they reached the front door, Kiara opened it. A cool breeze swept over his na**d body. Smiling, he shivered again.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the door and out onto the veranda. Pulling Kiara closer, he wrapped his arm around her as the sun began to fill the dark sky. The first rays of beautiful radiant sunlight streamed over his face warming his skin. And he smiled, his heart filling with more than just the sight of a new day. It was the dawn of a new lifetime.
Epilogue
Still cradled under Malvo’s arm, Kiara turned her head toward the house, as if drawn by another power. She sensed that her calling wasn’t finished. She’d been called to the house not just to free Malvo. She needed to free herself.
Tugging on his arm, she led him back into the house.
“What are you doing? I still wish to see the sunrise,” he asked.
“Well, for one, ya need some clothes, and for another, I feel like…I don’t know, that something’s missing. That I’m not finished what I’m supposed to do.”
She led him into the living area, a room she’d previously ignored. But something told her she needed to enter. When she did, she gasped in surprise.
There were other people in the room, four other people. Two women and two men, well, one man and one creature, a gargoyle she surmised by the expanse of his dark leathery wings thrust out behind him.
But it was the two women who drew her attention. She’d seen them before, in Malvo’s viewing wall. Her sisters.
The six of them stood staring at each other, each pair occupying part of the room. Malvo tensed beside her. This was the first time in over one hundred years that the men had been near each other in the same dimension, in the same room even. She could feel the animosity rising with every second. She imagined it was taking tremendous amounts of restraint for the men not to rush onto one another and rip the others apart. Kiara suspected that each of the women had something to do with that restraint.
The man to the right, Bacclum, who she remembered from her first dream, seemed to grow in size. His body tensed, his muscles flexed. She knew he was powerful. She’d seem him fight with Malvo. Her sister, with the beautiful dark skin, wearing sunglasses to hide her eyes, set her hand on his arm. It was a warning, Kiara knew.
The massively built gargoyle opposite him scowled and flared his strong wings. A gust of wind whipped over Kiara and Malvo. She imagined he could do a lot of damage with just one of those powerful appendages. Her tall, golden-haired sister stood beside him, lightly stroking her fingers up and down the edge of one wing. It looked like she was petting him. To appease him possibly, to keep him tame?
They stood like that, the six of them, gauging the situation for what seemed like an eternity. Until one of them broke the strained truce.
Her dark-haired sister took off her sunglasses and tossed them to the ground. Slowly, a smile spread across her face as she looked at first Kiara then the other woman. The smile was genuine, warm and inviting. Kiara could feel something inside her melt—the hardened crust around her heart maybe, or the sense that she was completely alone. Looking at both her sisters, both with the same gift as she, she thought maybe she wasn’t alone at all.
“I am Dominique.” The dark-haired woman took a step forward.
Bacclum pushed in front of her, as if to block her from moving forward, as if to keep her safe from the rest of them. Dominique placed a slim hand on his cheek. His gaze went to hers and Kiara watched as he seemed to relax. His shoulders sagged a little and he stepped to the side to allow her to continue.
She moved into the middle of the room, her hands out to the sides, reaching for Kiara and her other sister.
“I am Petra.” The blonde woman stepped forward. But her gargoyle guardian moved as well, wrapping his leathery wings around her like a cocoon. A safe and secure cocoon.
Smiling, Petra set her hand over his arm, sweeping her thumb over his skin. It was enough of a message for him to back off. He dropped his shield and took a distancing step back. Petra moved forward and clasped Dominique’s hand in hers. They both looked at Kiara.
Kiara hesitated. She didn’t know what she was waiting for. Here were two women, her sisters, offering her something. A chance to be a part of a family. A chance to belong with others like her, with the same gifts and curses lain inside them. She wanted that connection. She’d always longed for a chance to belong.
She glanced at Malvo. He gave her one of his rare beguiling half-smiles, then set a hand on the small of her back and pushed her forward. Surprise must’ve registered on her face, because her sisters laughed.
That brought a smile to Kiara’s face and she stepped forward, her chin up, pride swelling inside her. “I am Kiara.” And with that she set her hands into her sisters.
The second their flesh touched a wave of power cascaded out from their joined hands and swept the room, causing the paintings on the wall to fall, the furnishings to shake, and the windows to rattle. This brought bigger and brighter smiles to the three women’s faces.
It was the start of something great. Something powerful, filled with magic and possibilities. And Kiara found she couldn’t be happier, here, with her sisters at the beginning of it all.