Spellbinder (Moonshadow #2)

When she woke again, her head still dangled at an odd angle, and her neck hurt. Everything hurt. Around her lay a quiet, cool forest wreathed in night.

Someone carried her in thin, strong arms. She tried to move, but her hands and ankles were bound. A new, sharp spike of pain dug into her head, over her right eye that was gummed shut. Despite the persistent dizziness and disorientation, panicked conviction settled like ice in her bones.

She was being kidnapped.

Angling her jaw, she moved her mouth experimentally. She wasn’t gagged. If she was anywhere near London, there had to be houses… some kind of neighborhood nearby. Drawing in a deep breath, she tried to scream.

The sound came out in a breathy, thin mutter. “Help me.”

The person carrying her looked down at her. She caught a shadowed glimpse of a wild, inhuman gaze as he remarked, “You just won’t stay asleep, will you?”

“You can’t get away with this,” she croaked. “Let me go.”

The creature lifted his head and looked straight ahead. He said grimly, “I’ll get away with it.”

This time when the world grayed around her, she didn’t go fully under. Cotton wool filled her head, which ached abominably.

I must have a concussion, she thought dimly as she struggled to come more alert. There was a reason why she couldn’t black out, some kind of danger. She had to remember.

As if from a great distance, she sensed when they came to a stop. Full awareness returned as the creature set her down on a hard, rough surface. Cold dampness seeped into her jeans, and she could smell rich, loamy dirt. He had laid her on the ground.

When he left her for a time, she struggled wildly against her bonds, but she was too securely tied. When he returned, he lifted her head and shoulders to wipe her face with a wet cloth that smelled dank, as if it had been dipped in a river.

As he cleaned away the gummed blood around her eyes, her vision became clear. She looked around. They were in a clearing, and over the tops of nearby trees, the darkness of the night sky had begun to lighten.

Panic skittered like mice running over Sidonie’s skin. It had been a long time since the accident. Hours. How far had they traveled by horse? Where were they?

Was she even in London anymore?

Suddenly the pain in her head lessened, and she could think again. A tingling spread through her body and other aches eased. While she might not have magic sense, she’d had magically based medical treatments before. The creature had thrown some kind of spell to heal her.

That had to be a good sign, didn’t it? He couldn’t mean to slaughter her here in the woods if he cared enough to heal her.

Looking up at his strange, shadowed face, she said, “You were the one. You were stalking me.”

“No,” he said. He set aside the cloth and gathered her into his arms. “I was stalking someone else. I found him in Glasgow and started to follow him. When he came to London, I followed him there too. He kept going to your concerts, and it was unusual. Unlike him. For some reason, you… matter to him. So I took you.”

She tried to follow what he was saying, but while he spoke English clearly enough, he sounded insane. “But why?”

His face twisted, and tears began to spill down his cheeks. He rocked her and sobbed. “Because you’re perfect. You’re so perfect I couldn’t have found a better weapon if I had tried.”

“I’m no weapon,” she whispered, staring. “I’m just a musician.”

“I’ll give you to her, and she will be horrible to you. And that will matter to him. With you, I’ll drive a wedge between them so deep it will tear them apart. And they need to be torn apart. You have no idea the damage they’ve caused or how many people they have killed over the years. You have no idea the kind of damage she did to me. If she isn’t stopped, she’ll target a friend of mine, and I will not let anything happen to my Sophie.”

Killed?

Sidonie was tired and cold, damp, and so scared that tears began to leak out of the corners of her eyes as well. This creature wasn’t human. He wouldn’t think in human terms. Maybe he really was crazy. Did he even recognize he had committed a crime?

Even though it was futile, she twisted her hands, trying to find purchase against the cords that bound her wrists as she forced herself to say in a soft, cajoling tone, “Can you please listen to me? Just listen. Whatever you’re planning, I can see it matters deeply to you, but you don’t have to go through with it. You have time to rethink everything, and—and I’ll help you. I promise. But you have to let me go first. I can only help you if you let me go.”

The creature’s gaze focused on her. There was so much emotion in his strange eyes, so much grief and rage, it held her transfixed. “I don’t expect you to forgive me.”

Renewed panic jolted through her. “There’s no need to talk like that. You haven’t gone too far yet or done anything that isn’t fixable. We can—I can—I have money. Resources. Whoever your enemy is, we can go after her together.”

What the hell was she saying? She had never “gone after” anybody before in her life. Her worst enemies had been rivals at school, and her biggest battles had been won through music competitions and grades.

But she could tell by his stony, unmoved expression that nothing she said was getting through to him.

What else could she promise? The need for revenge was driving him. She ran through all the famous revenge scenarios she could think of, but they were all based on fictional characters. Dropping that idea, she focused on another one.

His friend mattered to him.

“You’re worried about your Sophie,” she said rapidly. “We can get protection for your friend. I have contacts with a good security company.”

His gaze met hers. “Did they protect you from me?”

Her breath caught. Before she could come up with another argument, he wiped his face with the back of one hand and drew out a knife. As her panic escalated, he used the knife to cut a strip of cloth off the bottom of her shirt and forced it between her teeth as a gag. The tears still streamed down his face, but his expression had turned stony with resolve.

“Listen to me,” he said harshly. His strange gaze was lit with a feverish light. “Take my advice for what it’s worth. Don’t tell her about me, or why I took you. If she considers you a threat, she will have you killed—or if she thinks you have any information that might be useful to her, she will do much worse than have you killed. And if you’re smarter than me, if you have it in you to bow to her will and pander to her every whim, it will go easier for you. Because even though I regret the need to do this, you are only one person and your sacrifice will mean so much to so many. I’m afraid you’re going to have a tough time now.”





Chapter Three





Sid had fallen into a nightmare so strange she had no idea how to dig herself out of it. As she stared, the creature eased her away, stood, and his body shimmered and disappeared, to be replaced by a gigantic, thick creature with tiny eyes and skin the color of gray rock.