Visions of Magic Read Online Free

not.”
    â€œDenial alters nothing. You are who you were always meant to be.”
    She threw her head back and glared at him. “And what’s that?”
    â€œMine,” he said.
    Yes, her body answered. Her blood felt thick and hot in her veins and her heartbeat was jittering crazily in her chest. Staring up into those pale gray eyes unsettled her and she wondered if he knew that and played on it. How many other women had he brought here? How many others before her had he swept in and carried off?
    â€œI’m not yours. I’m not anyone’s,” she argued as she eased to one side, trying to put some distance between them. It didn’t matter what her body felt; her mind was in charge and that was how it was going to stay. “And I’m not a witch. I didn’t set fire to that man.”
    â€œYou did,” he told her, his voice deep and even. “You’re a hereditary witch, Shea Jameson. The power runs through your bloodline. Your aunt, your mother, you. Even now, I can feel your power emerging. Growing. You feel it, too.”
    â€œNo,” she said, shaking her head wildly and looking around her for an escape that simply wasn’t there. “Look, ever since my aunt Mairi was . . . burned at the stake, people have been watching me. The MPs. The Bureau of Witchcraft. Right after she died, I even changed my name and hid for a while. But even BOW didn’t seem interested in me anymore. It’s been ten years since Mairi died and I’ve never shown any sign of power. And I don’t feel a damn thing emerging.”
    â€œYou’re lying. To me. And to yourself.” He braced his hands on the railing on either side of her, effectively trapping her and holding her in place. “I was at the school. I watched the man approach. I waited for your power to erupt. For your survival instincts to force you to remember who and what you are.”
    Shea glared up at him. “You watched? You saw that man attack me and you did nothing?”
    â€œIt was necessary for me to stand back while you unlocked your powers. You’ve been fighting against their emergence for too long.”
    â€œThat man died ! ”
    â€œHe was nothing,” Torin said with a barely concealed sneer. “A predator. A human who lived his life on the misery of others. If you had not stopped him, he would have brutalized more women as he had done to others before you.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter,” she argued, realizing that she was never going to be able to get the mental pictures of what she’d done to that man out of her head. “That doesn’t give me the right to—”
    â€œSurvive?” He snapped the word at her and Shea shoved ineffectually at his broad chest. He didn’t even budge. But the contact between them sent heat flashing through her, like a sudden fever, enough so that she had to take a breath before she felt steady enough to say, “I didn’t mean to kill him.”
    â€œThen master your powers before it happens again.”
    â€œMaster something I didn’t know I had until today?” She laughed shortly and felt the sound scrape against her throat. “Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?” She sighed, feeling the crushing weight of this oh, so miserable day fall down on top of her.
    â€œYou’re not alone in this,” he said softly, drawing her eyes up to his again. “As I’ve said, I am Torin. Your Eternal.”
    â€œMy Eternal,” she repeated tiredly. “What’s that mean exactly?”
    â€œIt means you are right where you are supposed to be, Shea Jameson.” He touched her cheek and she could have sworn she felt the heat of flames rising up in her again. “I will stand beside you in this.”
    God, it was tempting to believe. To trust. To think that she wouldn’t have to stand alone against whatever would happen next. But she couldn’t do that.