Ariel stared out the window, her gaze following Valteri across the yard. She closed her eyes, savoring the image of his proud, handsome bearing, his hair loose and falling gently over his shoulders.
He really was edible.
The mere sight of him made her body burn as she imagined him again standing on the edge of the cliff, reaching to comfort her.
Of him naked in her bed, holding her close …
She clenched her teeth and cursed her weak human body. Why had that old bitch damned her to this?
Even now, that demanding need for him tore through her and robbed her of all sense. Made her not care about the consequences of staying with him.
How did humans stand this insatiable hunger? No wonder they risked life and limb, even eternal damnation, for a taste of each other’s flesh.
Opening her eyes, she shook her head and begged for strength.
As she stared up, she noted the intricate lines of the wooden rafters above her head. Strange to see their beauty there and how men had crafted them to protect themselves.
Never before had she needed shelter from storms or the cold. Such things were unknown in her world.
While they had buildings made of stone or gold, they weren’t needed for protection. They were there simply for convenience.
And though she’d always been “happy,” she’d never known the type of joy that filled her whenever she thought of Valteri.
If only she belonged here.
And Valteri …
Son of Jaden. How would her husband react if he ever learned the truth of his father? Where would he belong, then?
On earth?
Or with the other gods?
Guardians forbid that he ever reside with his father. Kadar and Azura would use him against his father, and there was no telling how they’d abuse him for their sick entertainment.
It was enough to make her lose her mind. And that wasn’t even counting the small matter of the old crone who wanted her dead.
But only after she watched Valteri die.
Ariel clenched her teeth against the bitter wave of resounding pain that reminded her she couldn’t escape the horrors of this world without a price that was too dear to pay.
The death of Valteri.
How could she break an unbreakable curse? Once such a thing was unleashed, it had to play out.
Why?
Those were the rules. She’d be yet another tragedy for poor Valteri.
Nay, she corrected, she’d be his last trial, and he was the first lesson for her.
A lesson on how to love. How to cry.
Damn them all for it.
What good could come of the newfound feelings inside her when they would only cause her heartbreak for all eternity?
One single tear slid down her cheek. Could she find some way to protect him, to keep him safe from all of them and their sick machinations?
A knock sounded on the door.
Ariel wiped the tear from her cheek and cleared her throat. “Enter,” she called, expecting Wace, but instead Mildred walked in.
Anger and hatred stung her breast, but as quickly as it appeared, it died. She couldn’t really hate the woman for what she’d done. Not after being in their world and sampling the raw intensity of their emotions, especially that of true human love. She well understood the woman’s motivations.
Her need to strike out.
But she’d never understand how Mildred could punish innocent people in her hatred.
What was wrong with her?
The crone moved forward with a tray laden with covered dishes. “Lord Valteri bade me set a table for the two of you to sup here this even.” She placed the tray on the small, round table that rested before the fire.
Ariel watched her slow, methodical movements as she prepared the table for their meal.
The woman appeared serene and completely at ease with her treachery.
Mystified by her cruelty, Ariel couldn’t understand the crone’s peace of mind.
“How could you?” she asked suddenly, needing an answer as to why the woman had betrayed them.
Mildred paused and looked up. “Bring you food, milady?”
“Damn an innocent man? Valteri had no part in anything. How could you curse him when he’s done nothing to you?”
The lines around her old eyes crinkling even more, she gave a malevolent laugh and continued pulling rounded covers off the food.
“Innocent? I dare you to try and convince the good Saxon people around you of his innocence. He and his kind have robbed our lands and stolen our dignity. Killed indiscriminately. And for what? Power? Land? To rule us? How is that innocent, I ask you?”
Ariel shook her head in denial and took a step toward her, determined to make her see reason. “He’s committed no more crimes than any other man in his position. Your own son was a warrior. Do you think he never killed anyone in battle?”
Snorting a denial, the crone lifted her empty tray before her like a shield and backed away. Her gaze heated by hatred, she raked a sneering glare over Ariel. “One more Norman dead and damned doesn’t concern me. Women struggle for months to give them life and what do they do with it? They use it to kill and destroy. To ruin us all! Damn them, and all men, I say.”
A shiver rushed through her body. How could anyone be so cruel? “Even your son?”
Her eyes changed. Deep, dark sadness and grief swam in the crone’s aged gaze and a wave of pity and empathy filled Ariel’s heart.
“Nay.” Mildred’s voice cracked. “My son was the finest of any born. Unlike the other callous fools of this world, only goodness beat in his breast. He would have been a great man had he been given the chance to live.” The fire returned to her eyes. “And you took him!”
The accusation stung her. Ariel hadn’t understood the woman when first they met, but now she knew only too well what love felt like.
“I took a warrior who fell in battle.”
“Nay!” The platter shook in her furious grip. “He was healing. Just as I was about to cure him, you came in and stole my precious James from me! You murdered him!”
Aghast, Ariel stared at the woman. How could the crone believe something so ludicrous? “I had no part in his death. At all. He died of his battle wounds.”
“Nay!” she cried, dropping the platter and covering her ears. “You lie!”
“You know me better than that.” Ariel reached out a comforting hand, but Mildred recoiled from her touch. “I speak the truth. You’ve damned me for something I didn’t do. But it doesn’t matter what killed him. ’Twas his time to leave and naught could have saved—”
“Nay. I”—she pounded her breast with her fist to emphasize her words—“was his only hope. I could have saved him had you not stolen him away.”
Ariel shook her head. “I swear to you that neither of us could have done aught to save or kill him. Your son’s time had ended. But if it gives you any solace, he’s happy now. He has meaning in what he’s doing.”
Her ancient lips quivered and tears filled her hollow eyes. “He was happy here with me. If he’d had a choice, he would have stayed.”
Ariel sighed heavily. “His time here had ended. And he made his choice on where he wanted to be.”
She shook her head in denial. Moving across the room, she eyed Ariel like a feral beast wanting to rip her heart from her breast and feast upon it. “I’ll have your soul damned for what you did!”
Ariel prayed for the right words to make her see reason. Before it was too late.
“Don’t forget that your own soul will be lost through this deal. You sold yours for a useless curse against two innocent beings. If you step back now, it won’t be too late to reclaim your bargain. But if you don’t … you will lose. Everything. Will your vengeance be worth an eternity of torment?”
The woman pursed her lips.
Ariel moved closer, hoping that she was finally getting through to her.
Instead, Mildred bolted.
The door slammed shut behind the old woman.
Damn it!
Why couldn’t she make her see reason?
Where did this leave her? Pain coiled around her heart. Once a curse had been posed, nothing could remove it, except its fulfillment.
But could she prevent it? If she left Valteri and isolated herself away from any other mortal, maybe she could stop the curse.
All she had to do was never care about anyone. If no one died, it would be averted. Simple.
She could do that. Right?
“Ariel?”
She started at the voice behind her. When she turned around, her heart stilled. There before her stood her senior Arel Raziel.
Though he’d always been handsome, he’d never been more beautiful to her than he was at this instant, standing in a ray of sunlight, his alabaster wings glistening. His golden eyes glowed as he watched her, a sad smile hovering over his perfect lips. “Raziel?”
“Aye. I felt your turmoil. And had to come.”
Ariel crossed the room and drew him into a tight hug. Joy and relief coursed through her body. “I’m glad you’re here!”
Raziel squeezed her tight then pulled back, where he stared into her eyes with an earnest look that stole her happiness. “Thorn has apprised us of your situation. But there’s naught we can do. Even now, I risk much by coming to you.”
“Seriously?” She was aghast that no one would help her in this.
“Aye.” Sighing, he tucked his wings down and shook his head, his face grim. “You know that we’re not supposed to interfere with the course of human events.”
“This isn’t human! Curses are beyond their ken.”
“The crone made her choice and so you were transformed.”
She wanted to throttle him over his nonchalant tone. Over the fact that …
He was as unfeeling about her plight as Mildred had accused her of being with her son’s life.
Dear God, now she understood the old woman’s frustration and hatred.
It reeked. And as with Mildred, she wanted to strike out and make him feel the weight of her pain. To understand what it was he was putting her through and asking her to suffer.
But she knew that was impossible.
“What am I to do?”
Raziel looked away and shrugged. “You must fulfill the curse.”
Anger and agony choked her. “Is there no other way?”
“None. And now that you’ve lain with a man … you knew the consequences. You made your choice.”
And none of them would have any mercy on her.
A chill ran down her spine. Fear pounded in her heart and she dreaded the next question she must ask. “Am I damned for what I will do to him?”
“You know I cannot answer that. I don’t make those judgments. But if I were you, I wouldn’t count on any leniency.”
The knot in her throat tightened as she thought of her husband. “And what of Valteri? What will happen to him?”
That vacant stare was really beginning to piss her off. “Do you truly need my answer?”
Nay. What she needed was his compassion.
A modicum of mercy.
He and the others already knew the circumstances of Valteri’s life. What would happen if he fell into Kadar’s hands.
Yet not even those events, in all their horror, would be enough to save his soul or his life. “Then there’s no hope?”
He tsked at her. “There’s always hope.”
“But—”
The door opened and Raziel burst into a thousand shimmering fragments.
“Ariel?”
She blinked, her heart thumping, her eyelids as heavy as if she’d awakened from a sound sleep. As she stared into Valteri’s confused eyes, Raziel’s visit almost seemed like a vague dream.
Had Raziel really been here?
Or had she imagined it?
Valteri looked at her with a sharp frown. “You’re pale. Are you all right?” Gently, he took her by the arm and led her toward the bed.
“Aye,” she whispered. “’Twas a passing moment of dizziness.” She hated being dishonest with him, but the last thing he’d want to hear was that she’d been visited by an Arel in his home.
Suspicion hovered in his eyes as if he doubted her excuse. “Then I’m glad I decided we should take our meal alone tonight.”
Ariel smiled, but the insincerity of the gesture blistered her conscience. She couldn’t stand not telling him the complete truth, but after the last time …
She didn’t want to make him angry again.
“I’d like that very much. However…” She glanced at the food. “We need Wace to bring us our supper.”
“Excuse me?”
“I fear this may be tainted.”
His scowl deepened. “How so?”
“Just trust me, Valteri. I wouldn’t advise eating it.”
“Oh.”
She knew that he assumed someone may have spit in it. Her fear was that Mildred might have added poison as a special seasoning.
If his lesser fear would clear their meal, she wouldn’t argue.
Without a word, he opened the door and called for Wace to come clear their dishes and bring new ones.
But as the boy obeyed him, a newfound agony consumed her as she thought over what she must do. She’d have to leave him. If he was to have any hope whatsoever of living, she couldn’t stay here.
Sooner or later, Mildred would kill him.
Therefore, she’d savor these last few hours and be grateful for them. Maybe that would be enough to ease the ache of a human lifetime spent alone.
Then again, what if she wasn’t human? What if she was still immortal?
Horror filled her. The crone had put her in a human body. But what if she still didn’t age?
What if she were damned to this form until she found someone else to love?
There was a nightmare she hadn’t even contemplated.
Dear gods, no!
Because in her heart, she knew that she’d never love anyone else. Not like this.
No other man could ever equal Valteri. Biting her lip, she watched as he doffed his mail and set about washing the grime and sweat from his face and chest. A myriad of scars crossed his back, attesting to the brutality of his life. Yet he never spoke a word about it. Never complained or whined.
He endured. How many could do that with such grace and dignity?
Without hatred filling every bit of their hearts?
He was unique and kind. No one else would ever win her heart with the ease that he did.
Looking away, she longed for a way to take each and every deep, brutal mark away and to erase the memory he no doubt carried from the moments he’d received them.
Moments he’d never let steal his kindness or his humanity.
Even now, she wanted nothing more than the courage to bridge the distance between them and touch those rippling muscles of his back, to slide her fingers over the ridged planes of his stomach.
Every nerve in her body danced with desire, and a heated throb pounded in her blood, demanding she yield to its call.
How could she even think about leaving him?
Her unique gem?
He needed her, and though it pained her to admit it, she knew she needed his smile. His touch. It almost seemed worth the price of her soul to stay with him and make the most of the time they had together.
But that time would bring an even higher price.
His life.
She shivered. Nay, that price was far too dear.
Nothing was worth that. She could never be so selfish.
Rising from the bed, she retrieved a tunic for him from the chest by the window. He wiped his hands on a towel and his features softened as he took the tunic from her hands. “My thanks.” His rich voice stung her with regrets.
Ariel offered him a smile as Wace finished replacing their meal, hoping he couldn’t read the thoughts in her mind. Or see the sadness in her eyes.
He shrugged his tunic on and she clenched her fingers into a fist to keep them from reaching out for his comfort.
If she left him, he might yet survive this ill-begotten curse. But if she stayed and he died, then she would be every bit as much to blame as Belial and the crone.
She could never do that to someone who’d suffered as much as he had.
To someone she loved so dearly.
Desperate for another solution, Ariel touched his cheek, savoring the rough whiskers that scraped against her palm. He closed his eyes and she ached to make him believe the truth of their existence.
Too bad she didn’t have a way to expose Belial’s demonic form. If Valteri could see what he really looked like, then they’d know him for what he was.
Not only Valteri, but Belial’s pawns would recoil in horror of his true, hideous appearance and either forsake or fight him.
But as a beautiful man, his beauty deceived them. It weakened their resolve, and they listened to him. That was the worst part about his kind. They used their looks to make others more vulnerable to their guile.
Once they were sucked in, it was almost impossible to get them out from the demon’s glamour.
Many would kill themselves rather than admit they’d been duped. The weak-minded were such easy prey. And so hard to save.
She’d never been able to get them free.
Thorn and others of his ilk had some success, but not always.
Those who want to be deceived will always be deceived.
And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves. For the workman is worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into a house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Not everyone could ever be saved.
That was what broke her heart.
But she could save Valteri. And she was going to.
No matter what it took.
Valteri held a chair out for her. “Come, milady.”
Ariel sat down, reveling in the close proximity of his body while he adjusted her chair. His warm, rich scent invaded her head and she breathed it in deeply. She’d miss that the most. That, and the feel of his arms wrapped about her.
Swallowing, she reminded herself why it had to be.
Valteri filled their cups, his fingers brushing against hers as he placed her goblet near her sliced trencher.
“Thank you, milord,” she whispered, but the tightness of her throat made the words painful to utter.
Valteri took his seat and for the first time, she allowed herself to look fully at his face. Instead of the usual tenderness in his gaze, she noted a tenseness, a guarded barrier that shielded his emotions from her.
She frowned in confusion and reached for her knife. “Does something vex you?”
He sliced the roasted venison Wace had brought for them, and placed a large portion on her trencher. Glancing up at her, he shook his head. “Nay, why should it?”
Her frown deepened at the faint sarcasm underlying his words. For a moment she wondered if she imagined it, but as he set about filling her trencher with lamprey and apples, she saw the tightness of his grip, the tautness of his jaw.
“Have I done something to offend you?”
Cocking an eyebrow, he sat back in his chair and studied her with an unreadable stare that set her hands trembling. “Why would you think that?”
The look you’re giving me? She barely bit back that sarcasm as she held no doubt it wouldn’t endear him to her at all.
Instead, she shook her head and looked back at her food. Something was amiss, but Valteri made it obvious that he had no wish to discuss it.
Irritated, Ariel drew a trembling breath and concentrated on her supper.
They ate their meal in awkward silence.
Valteri repeatedly downed his goblet of wine only to refill his cup. She frowned as he again filled the goblet to the brim and ignored his food.
Though redness laced his eyes, he didn’t act drunk, but heaven knew he had consumed more than enough wine to intoxicate three or four normal men.
Trying her best not to pay his strange mood any heed, she ate slowly but didn’t really taste her food. Indeed, everything she tried tasted like unseasoned porridge.
At last he looked up at her with a grave frown that made her wish he would again ignore her presence. “Tell me, Ariel, why did you marry me?”
What an odd question.
She swallowed her bite of food and considered why he’d asked her such a thing.
Taking a deep breath, she considered how best to answer. Was he afraid that she had regrets?
Did he?
The only regret resting in her heart came from their differences.
Didn’t it?
And without hesitation the answer entered her mind. “I wanted to.”
He swallowed his food and took another drink of wine. “Why? Why would you bind yourself to a hated stranger, a man not of your kind? One who conquered your people?”
His words startled her. Lowering her knife, she leveled her gaze with his. “You are a noble man, Valteri. You follow your conscience. That makes you my kind.”
He snorted a denial. “What conscience is that? The same one that took your virtue?”
Then, he leaned forward against the table, his gaze piercing her with its probing intensity. “Come to think of it, I didn’t take your virtue that first night, did I?”
Her heart stilled at his implication. A shiver of foreboding darted up her spine and she tightened her grip on her knife. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve given much thought to you this day. Things that had escaped my notice found their way to my mind and at last I know what to call you.”
Ariel tensed at the seriousness of his voice, the emptiness of his eyes. “And what is that, milord?”
“Witch.”