Black City (A BLACK WINGS NOVEL) by Henry Christina

Author:Henry, Christina [Henry, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781101619544
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2013-02-26T08:00:00+00:00

10

SOMETHING FLASHED IN MY BRAIN—NATHANIEL RISING above me, naked and straining. I could feel my face turning red.

“There has to be another option,” I said.

Nathaniel looked at me. “Would it be so terrible?”

“This is not a conversation I want to have with your father looking on,” I said through gritted teeth.

“He is in danger as long as the spell is incomplete,” Puck said, and he looked like he was enjoying this immensely.

“You are an incredibly powerful being of old,” I said. “I find it just a bit absurd that you can’t wave your hand and fix this.”

“Even I have no control over the rules of magic,” Puck said. “You put the key in the lock. You must be the one to turn it.”

“Madeline,” Nathaniel said, and he approached me with his hands out.

He reached for me, pulled me close, put his face to my ear. I was sure Puck could hear anything we said, but it was nice that Nathaniel was willing to establish the fiction that we were alone.

As soon as he touched me I felt the thrumming anticipation that had haunted me ever since we’d first kissed. It may have been the compulsion of the spell demanding that I finish what I started, but it felt like a sickness, like a disease. I didn’t love Nathaniel like I’d loved Gabriel, but I wanted him more, and I hated that. I hated that I burned for him and there was no love between us.

“Madeline,” Nathaniel said, his voice low in my ear. “If you do this for me, it will not mean that you have to choose.”

“Nothing could make me choose before I was ready,” I said.

“And it does not mean that we must…culminate our relationship,” he said. “We need only to blend our powers together as we did before.”

I shook my head at him. “You know and I know that we wouldn’t be able to stop. And once we’re done, who knows what will happen? What about my baby?”

“Your baby would not be harmed,” Puck said loudly.

I looked around Nathaniel’s shoulder. “Excuse me, this is a conversation between Nathaniel and I. You could at least pretend that you can’t hear.”

Puck held up his hands in surrender and went into the living room. He sat on the couch and flipped through a celebrity gossip magazine that Beezle had picked up somewhere.

“I do not trust Puck, but I don’t believe that he would allow your child to come to harm,” Nathaniel said.

“Because my baby is a bargaining chip with Lucifer,” I said bitterly.

“Whatever the reason, your baby will be safe,” Nathaniel said. He lifted my chin so I would look him in the eye. “I would not harm you, either.”

If I didn’t do this, then he could come to harm. Everything in me was straining toward him. It was probably inevitable, but…

“I can’t do this now,” I said. “Not with an audience. Not with J.B.’s life in the balance.”

Nathaniel nodded, and he bent his head to mine. The kiss had a gentleness that I didn’t know he possessed.

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