Highlander's Magic (Highlander Heat #2)

“He still lives, and soon he’ll be freed. I’ll see to it.” He clamped his hand over mine. The silver in his eyes swirled to life, as if he were about to spell.

“Don’t even try it. I may be unskilled, but I’m tough.”

“There’s a spell which turns back time.” He tightened his grip on me. “We should never have met. Don’t you feel it?”

Inside me an urge to be even nearer burned, and I was quite close enough.

“The bond.” He threaded our fingers together. “You’re my mated one, and damn it. This shouldn’t be happening.”

Oh my goodness. The truth blazed in his eyes. That’s what this was. I’d never in my life felt an attraction to any man. Sure, I’d had plenty of male friends, but none had ever stirred me the way Guy had from the moment I’d seen him. We were mated, the soul-bond pulsing to life between us.

Crap.

I was mated to a warrior. Only half our people were soul-bound. “What do we do?”

He fisted his hands at his sides. “At times I’ve felt the male’s drive within the bond toward Earth, and at other times Magio. I expected my mated one was a Peacian since it’s only your people who have the freedom to travel. It’s why I stayed away.”

“So you decided to let our bond pass?”

“There’s a war, and we’d never suit. Wouldn’t you do the same?”

“I would have wanted to know, so at least”—I fluttered my fingers between us—“I could move on.”

“You’re a friend of the girls. It isn’t going to be easy to move on.”

“Our meeting doesn’t have to change anything. I go to school in New Zealand and that’s a long way from here. Same with Peacio.”

“Then I doubt our paths will cross.” He rubbed his thumb along his chin. The cleft in the center added to his intense look. “Why would you go to an Earth school if you’re a Peacian?”

“I was charged with keeping an eye on Faith a very long time ago. I’m also attending culinary school there next year.”

“You favor the art of cooking?” He frowned. “My mother did too, before she passed. She made everything, from the bread each morning to the Sunday roast dripping in gravy. I was only small, but I’d pull up a stool to stand on and help her peel the vegetables.” He slowly reached out and caught a length of my hair. Gently, he wrapped one of the long spiral curls around his finger.

“I’m so sorry about your mother, Guy.” I scraped one foot forward, touching my toe to his, needing some form of connection too.

“She had the biggest heart, the gentlest smile, and hair as black as midnight, so long it touched her waist, right about”—he smoothed down my sides and cupped my hips—“here.”

Heat raced through my veins and I shuffled my other foot forward. Closer was better, and no doubt due to the bond at play. “You miss her?”

“Always.” He slid his thumbs into the small gap between the waistband of my cutoffs and t-shirt. “She was life itself, which is why I appreciate the here and now. You never know when someone will be gone.”

My chest tightened, his loss cutting into me far more than it should. “She sounds wonderful.”

“She was.” He pulled back a little and fingered his necklace. From the center of the thin strap of leather, a small gold ring dangled. “It’s been so long. I almost forgot. My mother bequeathed her ring to my mated one. She gave it to me to hold onto until the time we met.”

“What? No. We might be mated, but we’re not doing anything about it, right?”

“Right.” He lifted the necklace free of his head. “But I still made a promise.”

“No, really.” I shoved against his chest. “Stop. Put that back on. Promises like that can be broken.”

“Not this one. My mother wanted the woman I was mated with to know her in some way. This ring was her gift to you. I’m only the keeper, passing it along.”

I backed up until my shoulders knocked the hay bales. “I said stop.”

“Her wishes were precise.” He crowded me from the front, making it impossible to get away, and then slipped the necklace over my head. “This was what my mother wanted. It feels good to see to her last request. Don’t deny me that.”

Nothing could have shocked me more. Off balance, I rocked onto my heels, gripping the band of gold, his mother’s precious gift from the past. “This is crazy.”

“I’ll know you have it. That’s all that matters.” Guy’s brow pulled down as he clasped my hand. “We really should end things now, before our soul-bond deepens further.”

“You mean release each other?”

“Exactly. I’m the last enchanter in my line, and even though I’m only nineteen, Donaldo has already requested I find a warrior woman and continue it. I have to ensure the ability to enchant doesn’t die away with me.”

Damn, this was all happening so fast. “Shouldn’t we take some time before we decide on such a step?”

“My destiny is not with you, Silvie. It’s elsewhere.”

“For eighteen years I’ve dreamed of being mated.”