Spring Rain (The Witchling #4)(24)

She rolled her eyes.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “As for my conditions,” he continued. “One, you check in. Daily. I’ll text you my new number in a few hours.”

She waited, relieved he was agreeing. She was on the verge of yielding to his pleas and returning home with him, even knowing the danger she posed.

“Two, did you just tell me you love me?”

Fire engulfed them and filled the air around them. Earth magick quieted it quickly, and Beck laughed. Embarrassed by her magick’s response to the question she didn’t want to answer, Morgan pulled away and snatched the phone out of his hands.

“That’s a yes,” he said, eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“Get out, Beck!” she snapped.

A slow smile spread across his face. “You are so beautiful, Morgan. I missed you.”

“And you are about to help me set this hospital on fire!” Any hope she had of him not taking her outburst the way she didn’t want him to vanished.

Beck touched her lightly. His earth magick swept through her once more, calming her. “Daily,” he repeated.

She sighed. “Fine. Tell your ass of a brother I need a new credit card.”

She waited for him to leave. She was ready to explode into flames as it was. If he lingered, she’d melt the both of them and everything in the vicinity.

“I will figure this out. I swear it,” he said quietly.

Come home with me. They were the most astonishing, humbling words she had ever heard. Her instincts had screamed for her to agree. Her magick had always whispered what was between them – a primal promise of belonging – that she tried hard to ignore. There was no denying it anymore. She’d put time and distance between them, and the instinct only became stronger. Her fire wept with the need to feel his gentle magick, and she had never wanted to curl up in someone’s arms and simply … stay. Let him protect her from her world, from herself.

Beck walked towards the door. The sound of it opening sent her magick into a second panic, convinced their potential final meeting shouldn’t end the way their first parting did

“Beck,” she said quickly. Her mouth went dry, and she licked her lips nervously. With a deep breath, she forced out the words. “I want you to find a way. I want to come home with you.” It sounded lame aloud, not quite the romantic sentiment she meant to tell him, but the words, the ones she’d never spoken to anyone, wouldn’t come.

“I know.” He winked. “And I will.” Opening the door, he and his Light swept out of the room.

Morgan sagged. Her energy was almost spent, her hands trembling and head pounding with the effort it took to confront him without letting her fear drive her off or her heart make her melt to his wishes.





Chapter Eight





Beck closed the door. Of all the emotions he expected to feel, joy was not one of them, yet was foremost. Not anger or despair or disbelief. It was happiness – pure, Light-fueled happiness. Touching Morgan was always a bit of a shock; her charged fire magick was strong, and it leapt into him when he was close enough to touch her and began poking at the calmer earth magick.

The result was an escalation of emotion, particularly of desire, that took some effort to suppress.

But at least he knew now he wasn’t the only one who felt what was between them. Morgan had all but acknowledged it. It rubbed him the wrong way to leave her and return home, but the Master side of him knew he couldn’t put the lives of thousands of Light witchlings ahead of his emotions.

He’d do as he swore. He’d find a way, because he couldn’t live a life without her, either.

“What is wrong with you?” Decker asked warily from the bench seat where he sat next to Summer. She was staring at him in bewilderment, too.

Morgan’s fire magick clung to him, and tiny flames were visible in the air around him.

Beck wiped the sloppy smile off his face but wasn’t able to suppress the jubilant emotion resulting from Morgan not only being alive but admitting to loving him. “We came to an arrangement,” he said. “She’s going to stay away from northern Idaho for now, until I find a solution that lets her return without hurting the Light. But I’m assigning someone to go with her.”

“You’re letting her go?” Decker asked.

“It’s her choice,” Summer said.

Decker glanced at her a bit uneasily while Beck tried not to smile. Biji was right about there being something going on between the two. “Just need to figure out who to send,” he said.

“Connor,” Decker suggested.

“Noah,” Summer supplied.

“Noah?” Both twins said at once.

She nodded her head down the hallway. “He’s already here. He helped Biji, Morgan and me, and I have a feeling his black eye is from helping save Morgan last night. He wants to undo what his sister did. Why not give him a shot?”

Beck curbed his initial response, that he didn’t want Dawn’s brother, who also kept the secret about Morgan being alive, anywhere near Morgan. By the look on Decker’s face, he was dwelling on a similar line of thought.

“He’s the only person Dawn might listen to,” Summer added. “When she had us all tied up, she wouldn’t let any of her idiot lackeys hurt him.”