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The blood ran down her cheeks like tears

Paenther scented violets even before the witch stepped into the room She returned without her animals, her hair wet as if she’d just showered, her eyes hollow Without a word, without aze, she crawled up beside hiainst his hip He could feel her tre

As much as he hated her, he’d always had finely honed protective instincts too had hurt her He reminded himself he didn’t care But as he felt her slowly cal out in sleep, the tension eased from his own body

He wasn’t sure when he’d drifted off, but he woke to the sound of water dripping from the stalactites into the puddles scattered across the room and the feel of the witch’s silken head on his chest She had one arainst her neck That second arm was nearly within reach of his entle touch and her acceptance of his fury had taken the edge off his need for revenge

He blinked, feelingstrange Al Or as right The rage, the ever-present rage he struggled to contain day and night, the rage burned into his soul by Ancreta nearly three hundred years ago, had inexplicably left hiic?

Did he care?

Chained atop this cold stone, deep in the bowels of a second Mage captivity, he felt more at peace than he had in years Eased Whole in a way he hadn’t felt in centuries

Had she so hiined anyone could?

The implications rocked him He almost hoped it was just enchant of the tor fro he wanted was to need her More than he did already

Paenther woke to the sound of footsteps ainst the rock The witch startled awake, rearing up, filling hi of fear

In the doorway stood a e and hair a dozen shades paler than his skin His face was long, his lips thin, and his copper-ringed eyes blazed with a cold fury

Paenther’s ht, fury of his own raging through his body as he strained against his shackles until they bit into his flesh The strange peace he’d felt when he woke during the night had vanished with the woman’s fear

"Birik," the witch breathed, her eyes wide, her voice tight with dread

"I warned you," the Mage said coldly, and started toward thee latched onto her upper arm and yanked her off the rock As the witch sturabbed her shoulders, and slammed her back until her skull collided with stone with a sharp crack

Paenther’s body went taut with outrage, but the bastard wasn’t through He grabbed her face, holding on until the witch’s eyes widened with pain and the s flesh and blood assailed his sensitive nose

Finally, the Mage released her As the fragile woround, he leveled several hard kicks to her ribs and one to the side of her head, then strode out of the roolance

Paenther stared at the wo on the da down her cheek fro moments, the only sound in the rooers and the faint, thready beat of her heart

"Witch?" he called softly But she gave no indication she heard hithened as her ies of the assault until, finally, she stirred Slowly, painfully, she curled into a ball as if to protect herself from further attack But like the attack itself, she took the pain without a groan, without a cry Her suffering was somehow all the ut contracted as he re at her arm And how she’d suffered that time, too, without a sound

He wasn’t sure what to make of her She’d hidden what she was, enthralled hi he hated Yet noas forced to wonder if she’d had any choice in theas a gentle witch? One thing was certain, this one was nothing like Ancreta

His muscles bunched as she pushed herself onto her elbows, as if he could soled to sit up, then collapsed back against the ith a grimace that told hied and bloodied face and wanted to beat the hell out of the man who’d done this to her Birik

"Why did he beat you, little witch?" He didn’t know her name

She opened her eyes slowly, the blue depths dark with pain "I don’t know" Her expression tightened "I do know I just don’t knohy he’d punish aze "He wants"No," he snarled

Like hell she’d mount him His body quaked with the remembered fury and bitter helplessness of all those times beneath Ancreta

The dark-haired witch, so unlike Ancreta, sighed and tipped her head back, her gaze reaching the ceiling Perhaps beyond "I wanted to give you ti to allow it" Her voice broke as shein her eyes "I’m sorry"

She pushed herself to her feet, then stu forward, slowly, painfully Blood matted her hair and streaked her face

"Don’t" No way in hell was he accepting this His fingertips began to tingle with the imminent eruption of his claws

But when she reached him, all she did was curl her arm around his waist and lay her head on his chest, her face turned away

He stared down at the top of her head, confounded She never did what he expected He felt her body tre and felt the drip of hot tears onto his abdomen If his hands had been free, he’d have been hard-pressed not to stroke her back She was about to take hi need was to offer her so, she stood and wiped her eyes, then moved down to the end of the stone and cliaze Her misery was so sharp, it cut hi to do to hian to lose its grip on his mind and slip away

His body was flaccid He’d found her pain anything but arousing If she was going to use hian to dip that ripe mouth toward his shaft, his body froze

"Don’t"

She looked up, defeat in every line of her body "I have to"

"Use your hand"

Her brows pulled together as she watched hiht Then she reached for hiers softly around him His breath hissed into his an to stroke hiently and rolling theed between his legs Within moments, he was erect and ready for her

She wasted no ti him

His mind balked, still fully mired in all those other times with Ancreta But his body burned to feel this woth as it had once before

Taking firm but careful hold of him, she positioned him at her entrance and slowly tried to force hiht and dry, and her jaw clenched against the obvious discomfort