Spellbound

normality?”
    “Do you know what it’s like to be different, to be odd?” he tossed back furiously. Then he hissed through his teeth. “I suppose you do,” he muttered. “But I hated it, hated seeing how it worried my parents.”
    “It wasn’t meant to be a burden but a joy. It was part of her, part of me that was passed to you, Calin, that small gift of sight. To protect you, not to threaten.”
    “I didn’t want it!” He shoved back from the table. “Where are my rights in all this? Where’s my choice?”
    She wanted to weep for him, for the small boy who hadn’t understood that his uniqueness had been a loving gift. And for the man who would reject it still. “The choice has always been yours.”
    “Fine. I don’t want any of this.”
    “And me, Calin.” She rose as well, slowly, pride in the set of her shoulders, the set of her head. “Do you not want me as well?”
    “No.” It was a lie, and it burned on his tongue. “I don’t want you.”
    He heard the laughter, a nasty buzz on the air. Hecate hissed, arched her back, then growled out a warning. Cal saw fear leap into Bryna’s eyes even as she whirled and flung herself in front of him like a shield.
    “No!” Her voice boomed, power and authority. “You are not welcome here. You have no right here.”
    The shadows in the doorway swirled, coalesced, formed into a man. He wore sorcerer’s black, piped with silver, on a slender frame. A face as handsome as a fairy-tale prince was framed with golden hair and accented with eyes as black as midnight.
    “Bryna, your time is short.” His voice was smooth, laced with dark amusement. “There is no need for this war between us. I offer you such power, such a world. You’ve only to take my hand, accept.”
    “Do you think I would? That a thousand years, or ten thousand, would change my heart? Doomed you are, Alasdair, and the choice was your own.”
    “The wait’s nearly at an end.” Alasdair lifted a hand, and thunder crashed overhead like swords meeting. “Send him away and I will allow it. My word to you, Bryna. Send him away and he goes unharmed by me. If he stays, his end will be as it was before, and I will have you, Bryna, unbound or in chains. That choice is your own.”
    She lifted a hand, and light glinted off her ring of carved silver. “Come into my circle now, Alasdair.” Her lips curved in a sultry dare, though her heart was pounding in terror, for she was not ready to meet him power to power. “Do you risk it?”
    His lips thinned in a sneer, his dark eyes glittering with malicious promise. “On the solstice, Bryna.” His gaze flickered to Cal, amusement shining dark. “You, warrior, remember death.”
    There was pain, bright and sharp and sudden, stabbing into Cal’s belly. It burned through him like acid, cutting off his breath, weakening his knees, even as he gripped Bryna’s shoulders and shoved her behind him.
    “Touch her and die.” He felt the words rise in his throat,heard them come through his lips. He felt the sweat pearl cold and clammy on his brow as he faced down the image.
    And so it faded, leaving only a dark glint like a smudge, and an echo of taunting laughter.

C HAPTER 5
    Cal pressed a hand to his stomach, half expecting to find blood, and worse, dripping through his fingers. The pain had dulled to numbness, with a slick echo of agony.
    “He can’t harm you.” Bryna’s voice registered dimly, made him aware that he was still gripping her arm. “He can only make you remember, deceive you with the pain. It’s all tricks and lies with him.”
    “I saw him.” Dazed, Cal studied his own fingers. “I saw it.”
    “Aye. He’s stronger than I’d believed, and more rash, to come here like this.” Gently she put a hand over the one bruising her arm. “Alasdair is sly and full of lies. You must remember that, Calin. You must never forget it.”
    “I saw him,” Cal repeated, struggling to absorb the impossible into reality. “I could see through him, the table in the hall, the flowers on it.”
    “He wouldn’t dare risk coming here in full form. Not as yet. Calin, you’re hurting my arm.”
    His fingers jerked, dropped. “Sorry. I lost my head. Seeing ghosts does that to me.”
    “A ghost he isn’t. But a witch, one who embraced the dark and closed out the light. One who broke every oath.”
    “Is he a man?” He whirled on her so abruptly that she caught her breath, then winced as his hands gripped her arms again. “He looked at