Powerful Magic Read Free Page A

a thick and heavy bear skin.   Wrapping it around her, he rocked back on his heels, wondering what he would do with her when she woke.   After that thought came another; he found himself strangely curious as to the color of her eyes.
               Fool .   Chiding himself, Kenric added more wood to his fire, pleased as it crackled and danced in the modest stone hearth he'd created years ago in the cave wall.   It was close enough to the front of the cave that most of the smoke would flow out, yet near enough to the back to warm the entire small enclosure.
               Feeling the warmth, the woman stirred.   Her eyes fluttered open as she stared at the fire, then at the dim interior of the cave, and finally at him.  
               They were brown, he noted numbly, though a brown unlike any he'd ever seen.   Gold flecks danced in them, and the upward tilt of her eyes made her look mysterious and very, very beautiful.
               "Hell." She muttered, a foreign inflection to the familiar English.   "I'm in hell. It figures."
               Though he knew not what she meant by the last, Kenric moved closer.
               She gasped and tried to move backwards, the hard rock wall preventing her.   "Who...   who are you?"  
               It appeared she spoke English, though she spoke strangely. Perhaps the fear, so evident in the wide-eyed look of terror she wore, made her lose her capacity for normal speech.
               "I am Kenric of Blackstone."   Resigned, he waited for her to recognize the name.
               When she did not show any outward reaction, he was startled to realize he felt relief.   This meant then, that she was not one of those who, by the grace of King William, lived in his family's former castle and feasted on food that should have belonged to him, but never would simply because he was bastard.  
               The silence grew while she stared at him, still trembling.   When she finally spoke, her tone was flat and lifeless.  
               "Are you some sort of devil, or..."   her voice faltered, "a demon?"
               Shocked, Kenric narrowed his eyes, his hand going automatically to his sword.   He would challenge a man over such an insult.   Forcing himself to relax his hand, he inclined his head.   Since she was only a tiny female, and obviously fought off some sort of madness, he would allay her fears.
               "Nay, lady."   His gruff voice vibrated with the anger he suppressed.   "I am no devil, only a man."
               To his amazement, she smiled then, transforming her heart shaped face.   Kenric stared, spellbound by her shocking beauty.   He had not realized she was so comely.   The fire made her dark hair dance with golden lights, and her long lashed eyes seemed to glow like precious gemstones.   Color had returned to her face, enough to show him she had skin the color of new poured cream.   And those lips, those lush, ripe lips... they parted to speak again.
               "I guess this means I'm not in hell then."
               Cocking his shaggy head, he ran a hand over his rough beard and sighed.   Either she was mad or she had injured her head while stumbling around in the snow in her ridiculous costume.   That would explain her whimsical words.
               He found himself hoping for the latter.
               "You are not in hell."   He assured her, though sometimes he too had his doubts.   His life had become a sort of hell, ever since those from which half of his blood came had taken everything that had ever mattered to him.
               And could it be possible that she was one of them, here on another of Rhiannon's misguided missions?   How else to explain her strange use of English, the foreign inflection in her voice.   If Rhiannon thought to lure him with this one's sensual beauty, she