Blood In Fire (Celtic Elementals Book 2) by Heather R. Blair Read Free Book Online Page B

vanished. Then she scooped the moonlight from the bowl and with a flick of her fingers sent it arcing back into the sky.
    Fand’s insipid laugh echoed behind her. Aine gritted her teeth.
    “Pretty! Do it again, Aine! Do it again!”
    “Hush, sister!” Aine hissed, darting away from Fand and the scrying pool at top speed. She was trying to figure out what had just happened, and how to keep Bav from finding out she hadn’t exactly kept her promise. This was so not going to be good.
    In her haste, she missed the tall, fair-haired form of her lover leaning against the archway to the throne room.
    That wasn't surprising to Lugh, as he had deliberately dimmed his sun-bright essence until he blended into the shadows of Ti'rna No'g.
    Lugh, king of the Tuatha de Naanan, watched Aine flee down the long hall and frowned. His own eyes of sunny blue narrowed. His paramour was a complex woman, even for a goddess. He knew that she found it difficult to ask for help or counsel from anyone, but that didn’t stop him from wishing she would come to him just once, instead of trying to handle everything on her own. Especially after that last mess.
    In time, he told himself. In time.
    She was just learning what love was, after all. It was a hard lesson. One that some never got the hang of, not even after centuries. He thought of Bav and sighed heavily.
    His interference in this mess would not be welcome; not by Mac, his old mentor and foster father, and certainly not by Bav…though maybe by Aidan. It was hard to tell with that one.
    Yet, it was important a king keep his eye on the plots swirling within his court, and while it was usually beneath him to worry overmuch about his courtiers’ dealings with humans—or former humans—Aidan was a special case.
    Lugh was well aware that the vampire was in possession of a weapon of potentially infinite power, something that could remake the world as the Tuatha de Naanan knew it. One wrong breath placed along O’Neill’s path could tip the balance one way or another. Aidan had proved more than once that he was incredibly unpredictable.
    Lugh scrubbed a big hand over the dark stubble on his jaw with a curse. Even as the king of the gods, he could wield only so much power. He could alter the spell, and divert part of the problem to Mac—and so he had , by twisting those words in Aine’s mouth—but in the end, Aidan’s choices alone would be all that held them back from hell. He’d seen that much of the road ahead, but no farther.
    The world could end in blood and fire next week and there might not be one damme thing he could do about it.
    Still…
    Lugh watched Aine disappear into the chamber they shared, her almost transparent blue skirt swishing over her pert, little backside. His lips curved. There was no reason not to enjoy every second until then. Aine would be feeling quite agitated just now, and not a little guilty. No reason he couldn’t harness that combination into something fun and distracting for the both of them.
    She’d thank him later.
    Probably.
     
    Aidan was sitting on her bed when Heather emerged from the shower, toweling her hair. When she lifted her head up, flipping a full yard of tangled black hair over one shoulder, she saw him there and her eyes narrowed.
    “What’s that look for?”
    “"Tis me face, I canna help what it looks like, love.” He tried to subdue what he knew had to be a pretty self-satisfied smile by just a hair. “Blame my mam and da.”
    “Oh haha—whatever—keep your smug self to yourself then. Do I have any of my clothes around here, or is my luggage impounded, too?”
    “I got a bag before the guards took it away, just in there.” He waved a hand to the wardrobe next to the bathroom, a bulky thing carved with stags that looked as if it could have led straight to Narnia.
    He watched her reach inside and yank out the bag he had taken from the Jag.
    “Got everything ye need then?”
    She gave him a pointed look as she knelt down to pop the