Mathilda, SuperWitch (36 page)

Not this time.

(Especially not since I didn’t come prepared to spend the night so I was wearing one of The Institute dude’s wife beater t-shirts and an old pair of pajama bottoms that were about three sizes too big.)

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned as I reared up on the bed and pulled back the curtain.

Silence.

Darkness.

“Matty?”

Aidan!

The lights flashed on.

And there he was, barefoot and wearing jeans and a tight t-shirt.

“What are you doing in my quarters?” he asked.

“Your… what?”

“My quarters, what are you…” He stopped and watched me for a moment on my knees in his bed. “Damn, Ambrose,” he muttered to himself.

Ambrose?

Then he said, “I’ll find somewhere else to sleep.”

“Wait!” I stopped him and jumped off the bed, completely forgetting my scary sleeping attire. “What did you find out tonight? Anything?”

“
Only that Jeremy Bligh has apparently dropped off the face of the earth.”

“Shit.”

“You can say that again.”

“Shit.”

“Nice outfit.” He smiled, stepping back to take a good look at me.

“Shit,” I said it with real feeling that time. “Anything else?” I asked.

“Just that he may be with Darling, so much for him wanting to keep the traditional watcher-witch distance.”

Hmm.

“We forgot Jack,” I told him.

“We didn’t forget Jack. Wilding and I went back to London, tracked him down. The bomb was imported. Not a local job.”

“So Jack used his twenty-four hours wisely.”

Aidan shook his head.

“Hardly. Let’s just say Wilding can be,” Aidan pulled a hand through his hair and finished, “persuasive.”

Ack!

He grabbed me by the neck, pulled me forward and kissed my nose. “I have to go find somewhere to sleep. I’m shattered.”

“Wait!” I said again.

Aidan hesitated.

I kept talking. “I have to ask you a couple of things. I know you’re tired but… I don’t know when I’ll have time alone with you again.”

That got his attention.

* * * * *

Okay, so I was going to share some the things that kept me awake at night.

Might as well, right?

Nothing to lose, right?

Ding ding ding…
wrong answer!

Believe me, ignorance, my Book of Shadows, is bliss.

* * * * *

He studied me for a bit then walked into the room, sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me.

“Shoot,” he said.

Here goes…

“Okay,” I hopped on the bed next to him and sat cross-legged, “you’re the Mathilda Expert, yes?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve read The Prophesies, yes?”

“Yes.”

“So, way back, when you were telling me who you were, you didn’t know Josie. That’s bugged me for awhile. If you know The Prophesies, why didn’t you know Josie when you met her at the plumbers?”

“I study Mathilda, not her Spellbounds.”

“So?”

“I’m interested in you, Matty, only you, not your Spellbounds. And anyway, they’re rarely named, only described. I knew there was someone in town you’d bind yourself to but I didn’t exactly care who.”

“Oh.”

Well, that explained that.

And was kinda nice.

Interested in me and only me and all that.

“Is that it?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He nodded and then made to get up.

“No,” I amended.

He sat back down with a sigh.

Oh man, was I gonna do what I thought I was gonna do?

Yeah, I was.

“Aidan.”

He looked at me and then must have seen something in my face because he looked less tired, more concerned and leaned closer. “Yes?”

“Um, Althea Appleton told me… well, uh, she told me that, uh… Ash is a traitor.”

He stared at me, all tiredness gone.

Then he pushed off the bed.

I thought,
He’s going say yes, if he was going to say no he would have said no already so he’s going say yes.

Oh no. Oh no. I shouldn’t have asked.

How could I even trust Aidan to answer me? They’re at war or whatever.

“Don’t!” I shouted, “Don’t answer that! I don’t want to know.”

“This is a bit… complicated, Matty.”

Ack!

Complicated?

He said no more.

Okay, I was getting annoyed.

Okay, no, I was getting more than annoyed.

So, more than annoyed, I started to have a tantrum. “Why do they keep everything from me? Why? I don’t get it.” I slammed my fists into the bedclothes. “I know it sounds stupid but it’s… not… fair!”

Aidan walked to the window and looked out.

I wasn’t particularly fond of this response.

Therefore, I kept with my tantrum. “I’m a grown woman! I can handle it!”

Well, I couldn’t actually. But I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“There’s a reason, Matty,” he finally said.

“Whatever it is, it’s stupid,” I declared.

“No, actually, it isn’t,” he said and I shut up. “You know the vision you had where Wilding and I were caught in the bomb?”

“Of course.”

Like I’d ever forget.

“Well, that wasn’t planted in your head, that was a real vision. That was meant to happen. You changed the future. It’s part of your powers, part of being The Chosen One.”

Whoa!

“Really?” I said to his back.

“Yes, really.” He sighed and turned to me. “If it wasn’t, Josie would be dead by now. Poisoned. That’s the point. By saving Josie, in a way, you saved the world.”

Ack!

(Yay me!)

“The Witches Council asked the Directors and Elders, who, in turn, told Wilding and me to keep quiet. They didn’t want you to think of The Prophesies as fixed. They don’t want you to know what’s prophesied just in case you need to change it.”

“So, Ash is a traitor, will I change that?”

Aidan shook his head. “Darling, Wilding isn’t a traitor.”

“You know that? For certain? Or are you just saying –”

“Yes, I know. For certain. The Prophesies state that you will marry one of us and one of us will…”

He stopped but he didn’t start again.

“What? One of you will what?” I prompted.

Pause.

“What?” I pushed.

Big sigh.

“What!?” I was getting kinda louder.

“One of us will father your children and one of us will die for you.”

What?!

“
What!?
” I jumped out of bed and started pacing as well as chanting. “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap. You’re joking.” Aidan kept his place by the window and watched me while I paced. He looked serious. He didn’t speak. He wasn’t joking. “Oh shit, you’re not joking. Why did you tell me this? Why?”

At that point, I forgot that I pushed him to tell me.

He didn’t remind me of this. Instead, he said, “Two reasons, one, because I don’t want you thinking Wilding is a traitor. He’s a lot of things and one of those is, he’s loyal to you.”

Thank the goddess for that one.

Aidan kept on. “Althea Appleton is a drunk and she’s a meddler and she’s an oracle for God’s sake. Never trust one of those.”

Great. Never trust an oracle.

So noted.

It made no sense but whatever.

Aidan continued, “And two, because you might be able to change it”

“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap,” I chanted again, still pacing.

Aidan started toward me but I put up my hand. He stopped.

“So, you realize that it could be you… that…” I gulped, “dies?”

“I’ve known since I was a little boy and my grandfather introduced me to the Mathilda Prophesies and explained my part in them. Just as Wilding has known what his destiny was since he was young. We’ve both grown up knowing we’d either marry you or bleed for you.”

“
Oh Great Goddess and all things under the moon and the stars,” I breathed.

I wanted to cry, I really did, but I was getting sick of crying.

“You’re telling me your choice is a lifetime of tantrums, drama and ‘does my butt look big in this?’ or… death… and you’re sticking around?” He made no response so I asked, “Are you nuts?”

He started to grin.

Holy shit.

What if it was him, Aidan, who was going to die?

What if it happened tomorrow?

What if it happened tonight?

I put my hand to my mouth.

“I can’t bear this,” I told him on a whisper.

His face got gentle. “Yes, you can.”

“No, I don’t think I can. What if something happens to you, soon, tonight, tomorrow? How will I, we haven’t… you and I haven’t… but Ash and I…”

I stopped.

Aidan’s body went still.

“Ash and you what?” Aidan asked.

“Well, Ash and I at least have…”

I stopped again because his grin was gone.

Oops.

Uh-oh.

“Ash and you have at least what?”

“Aidan, you have to know this is an impossible position for me to be in.”

“Ash and you have what?”

His voice was icy and he was coming toward me in that stalky way again.

“Aidan, you’re stalking me,” I told him as I backed away.

“Damn straight, Ash and you have what?”

I stood my ground and he stopped in front of me. I was a big idiot for saying anything at all. In my defense, I
had
just learned one of the men in my life was going to die for me and I thought that was a pretty good excuse. But since I did say something, I had no choice (obviously, because he was being stalky and looking broody) but to finish it.

So I stood on tippy-toes and whispered in his ear, as quickly as I could, about the Big O and Ash sleeping in bed with me.

It was only fair.

What were the words? He had a fifty-fifty chance to “bleed” for me.

Ack!

When I was done, Aidan rocked back on his heels.

“I see.”

“I feel like I should apologize,” I told him. “But these aren’t exactly normal courtships, you know. Neither of you have taken me to a movie or on a picnic or dinner… oh wait, you’ve taken me to dinner, um… kinda twice… but…”

Shit.

I was babbling.

Shit!

He started stalking me again.

I moved back.

“I thought you were shattered… you were gonna find another bed,” I reminded him.

“I’m thinking I might stay in here tonight.”

Oh boy.

There we were, me retreating, him advancing.

This man was either going to die for me or give me three babies.

Okay then.

Why was I running away?

I stopped and he covered the distance in two strides, swung me up like I weighed as much as a bag of sugar and tossed me on the bed.

He pulled off his shirt.

Six pack, check!

(Oo, and those nice, sinewy forearms, oh my…)

“I feel stupid in this outfit,” I shared because I was nervous and couldn’t think of anything else to say. I was staring at his abs like I was going to take a bite out of them and my whole body was shivering.

“Take it off.”

Yikes!

“No!”

“Okay, I’ll take it off.”

Man, oh man.

I fall for them, don’t I? Every bossy word out of his mouth made my nether regions quiver. I was ready for him before his knee hit the bed.

Then his knee hit the bed. Then his body hit me. Then his mouth hit mine.

He kissed me, hard, wet,
deep
, ohmygoddess, my insides melted.

He did this for a long time. Then his lips slid down my cheek and with his mouth on my neck, his hands trailing my body, he whispered, “You want me to stop?”

I didn’t say anything as his fingers pulled at the multitude of fabric at my waist and his tongue did amazing things to the area around my ear.

“Darling, now is the time to say if you want me to stop,” he murmured.