to her coaxing plea and touch, “I’m powerless when it comes to you.”
“It has nothing to do with me. It has to do with giving your respect to Noah’s need for privacy and maintenance of pride. If the tables were turned, knowing the process I must go through with him to find his mate, would you want an audience? Would you want someone watching as you revealed the parts of yourself that feel the way you do for me?”
“I’ve never made a secret of my love or need for you, Corrine.”
“But imagine, for a moment, if you had to show the world the loss of control, the pure drive of lust that first led you to try and capture me, even in spite of the law and the fact that your own brother would be forced to punish you should you get caught?” Corrine brushed soft lips and a softer whisper over his ear. “Remember that feeling, Kane, that you felt the moment Jacob did catch you? The shame attached to hunting down an innocent human while under the influence of the full Hallowed moon? Remember what you felt before you learned that it was okay for you to love me?”
“Sometimes,” he sighed quietly, “I forget what life was like without you.” He smiled against her lips as she tried to heal that injuring thought with her lush little mouth. “But I’ll never be able to leave you if you keep kissing me.”
“Mmm,” she agreed, her lips rubbing enticingly over his.
The pressure of Kane’s mouth suddenly disappeared, along with the support of the rest of his body, leaving her to stumble against the banister he had vacated as she waved frantically at the sulfuric cloud of smoke his sudden teleportation had left behind. She coughed just as a second cloud of smoke skidded into the foyer from beneath and around the cracks of the front door.
This cloud coalesced with a sharp twist into first a column, then the tall, sturdy figure of the Demon King. Corrine instantly hid her waving hands behind her back, smiling at Noah with hopes he would be a little too preoccupied to realize her husband had sensed his arrival with barely enough time to retreat.
“Good evening, Noah.”
“Good evening, Corrine. Did you rest well?”
“Very well. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I may ever be,” he assured her.
Corrine reached to take his hand and led him deeper into the house. She’d long ago set aside a room for this purpose, and though it had gotten very little use searching for Druids, she used it often in meditative practice. Noah followed with unusual silence and a forced serenity, but he couldn’t help but admire the sanctum Corrine led him to.
It was draped in dark fabric, with no lights save the multitude of candles she had lit on every surface and in every corner. Each stick of light was settled on glass, filling the room with refracted prisms that changed and danced along every surface. The floor was covered with pillows, all shining with satin and velveteen colors.
The candles gave off a variety of scents, from simple to exotic, but he was also aware that small metal dishes of herbs had been set to smoke. They infused the room with a haze and a spiced scent as rich and pure as the Earth itself.
“Before we begin…”
He turned to look at her. “Yes?” he asked.
“You said you have dreamed of her.”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything specific you can remember that you think might help you to go back to her and what you already have sensed about her?” She smiled softly when he gave her a perplexed look. “You’re not the first to dream of your mate, Noah. In my limited experiences so far, the people I’m questing for have always had a singular memory, a trigger that instantly brings them to that place beyond the waking state where they have met their soul mate. Simon, for instance, always heard music when he dreamed of Tirana. “Fortune, Empress of the World,” to be exact. Not what I would call romantic, but that’s not for me to judge.”
“For what purpose must you know this?” the King asked, coldness lacing his tone.
“Noah, if you close yourself off on a simple detail like this, we won’t make any progress. We’ll just be wasting our time. Please,” she said, softening her intent as she touched his arm and leaned closer to his personal warmth. “Trust me. I’ll never reveal what happens here to anyone. Kane has even made remarkable effort to distance himself from me for this. You know we’d never dream of betraying you.”
“No,” he decided, “you would not. And I do know that. I meant no insult.”
“Come on, I can tell there is something that makes you think of this woman.”
“It will sound…”
“A little strange? Yes. I know. Three others before you have said that very same thing.”
Noah laughed at that, shaking his head ruefully. “I should have known this would not be a bland experience. Very well.” He cleared his throat and flicked stormy green-gray eyes up to meet her gaze. “Sugar,” he said at last. “Spun sugar, to be exact.”
“Cotton candy?” she clarified.
“Yes. That is the modern name for it.”
“Okay,” she said simply. “The taste of cotton candy it is.”
“No. Not the taste. The scent.” He sighed with frustration when she lifted a brow. “Have you never been close by while someone spun sugar? It is a scent in three dimensions. You smell the strands that fly away into the air, but you taste it, too, and you feel the sweet stickiness against your skin.” Noah suddenly stopped his impassioned description, flushing uncharacteristically when he realized he had followed a tangent that was far more intimate and revealing than he would have wished to share under any other circumstances.
“I understand,” Corrine said gently, taking his arm and leading him into the center of the room.
She kneeled down on one side of a large, curved dish with twigs and coal arranged within the center. She indicated that he should sit on the opposite side and he did so, settling into the comfort of the pillows. The haze of herbs and incense quickly cocooned the Demon King with a soothing influence.
“Light this,” she instructed softly, touching the edge of the metal bowl with a single finger. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, closing her eyes as he performed the elementary task of concentrating on the bowl and letting the carefully arranged items within burst into flame.
Noah felt the energy in the room shift sharply, sweeping around him with soothing pressure, forcing him to relax further. For the Druid who was only rudimentarily familiar with her power, it was a massive accomplishment to manipulate the Fire Demon’s energy without his permission. If she hadn’t drawn him so suddenly into this focused, calming state, he might have had the knee-jerk reaction to resist.
Corrine had been practicing time and again for just such a moment. She’d felt weakness and powerlessness when she should have felt just the opposite upon meeting her Demon mate. She had spent the three years since then fighting tooth and nail to make up for that. She’d been her own best form of a Druidic occupational therapist, always pushing herself, always wanting and reaching for what she felt she’d been cheated out of early on by a cruel twist of fate.
Now she absently waved
