Read Online Love's Magic by Traci E. Hall - Free Book Online

her kindly at first.
    “My journey requires but me, besides the servants will need to get to know their new mistress. It will not take me long. I promise to look after your brothers.” His dark eyes were hiding something, but Celestia had no idea what. The man had more secrets than the forest had trees.
    “The servants will not need to know me, not if you get the annulment granted. Then I can return home.”
    “Then you will not need to pack over-much. Why must you argue?”
    “Why must you boss me? I know my own mind! And Nicholas, you are not well enough to travel a week on the rainy roads.” Without thinking, she reached out to grab his wrist. “It could be dangerous, and you could relapse, then you’ll be sorry I didn’t have my herb—”
    As her hand clasped his scarred skin, her fingers received a chill so cold her teeth immediately started to chatter.
    She saw the concern on Nicholas’s face, but she was unable to speak. An odd sense of disembodiment caused her to sway first to the left and then the right. She’d had some wine, but she wasn’t drunk. No, no, she thought with a groan. Another vision so soon? Why had she touched his bare scars, knowing that his pain affected her so strongly?
    It seemed as if Nicholas’s voice came from far away as she sank to the grassy ground in a swoon. Fog and ghostly murmurs swirled through her consciousness, and it was as if she was being warned away from Nicholas.
    Warned away from Falcon Keep.
    Or was she being drawn toward it?
    “Celestia, what’s wrong?” The sound of Nicholas’s worry made her struggle toward awareness, but it was impossible to shrug off the icy touch of the otherworld.
    It was rare to be visited by spirits—it hadn’t happened since her grandfather had passed on a few years ago. She had not been afraid, not of him, and when she’d told her family the next morning that Grandfather had died but sent a message of love for them all, her odd announcement had been accepted as fact.
    Her grandmother had bowed her head in prayer, asking God to let the old badger into His heavenly home, then cried buckets of tears. The message confirming his death came a sennight later.
    This was not the warm spiritual embrace of her grandfather. This was frightening and strange, and she felt as if she should be listening for some sort of message. Which was made more difficult with everybody around her talking so loudly.
    She blocked them while opening her mind to accept a glimpse of her future, whatever it might be. With Mary Magdalene’s courage bolstering her own, Celestia reached for the clouded image, searching for answers. The journey ahead would be difficult, but she couldn’t get a clear vision of why. Damn fog, she thought irritably. It was not natural.
    The tantalizing scent of apples calmed her, but then suddenly, out of the murky edges of her subconscious, she visualized an arrow shooting forth from the woods. It whistled as it catapulted through the thick air, setting Celestia’s nerves on alert. Oh, no, she thought, turning in slow movements, realizing that she could be too late as the white feathered arrow flew straight for Nicholas’s heart.
    The shaft was already covered in blood.
    Terrorized by the vision from which she could not run, Celestia opened her mouth and screamed with all her might.
    When she came to, she found herself bundled in Nicholas’s arms and he was rocking her to and fro, whispering soothing nonsense into her uncovered hair.
    Leaning her cheek against his fast-beating heart, she realized that his tunic was soaked with her tears. What must he think of her?
    “Perhaps you could tell the baron that I am mad? ‘Tis a good reason to grant an annulment,” she whispered against his muscled chest.
    “This is no time for jesting,” he answered hoarsely. “What happened to you? You sounded so afraid, and you were calling my name.”
    Her sister Ela piped up, “I told ye she was having a vision. Ye should not have touched