My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel Read Free Book Online Page A

magehelds after you, I’m not going to know until they’re inside. On top of us.”
    “Magehelds.” She grabbed her arms and rubbed, because, shit, he was talking about magehelds like there really were such things. The world would be a damn scary place if there were such creatures.
    “Yeah. Magehelds, baby cakes.”
    “It’s true?” The question came out sounding completely genuine because, well, it was. But he made a face, and she hurried to add, “Magehelds. There’s really such a thing?”
    “Yeah, baby,” he said in a low voice. “There is.” He used his index finger to trace a line from her forehead to her chin. He didn’t touch her, but her skin sizzled as if he had. “What’s with you, gorgeous? You been living under a rock your whole life?”
    Oh, shit. Magehelds were supposedly fiends or demons controlled by mages, powerful mages, obviously. Their existence was a matter of hot debate among the practitioners she knew. The really powerful mages didn’t have anything to do with people like her, self-trained in magic. Mages like that were an insular elite, and to be honest, there was a lot of disinformation out there. Even her best friend, Maddy, who knew more than any of them, thought magehelds were most likely fables, like basilisks, ogres, and swamp monsters. Alexandrine’s heart dove straight to her toes at the idea that magehelds were real. “Are you sure?”
    “For fuck’s sake.” His voice was low and mean. “Am I sure. You’re shitting me, right?”
    In her attempt to educate herself about what she was, she’d come across references to magehelds more than once, but she just couldn’t believe something like that really happened. Magehelds had to do whatever they were told. They were, in fact, magically compelled to do so. No matter what their instructions were. According to the versions of the legends she’d read, back in the Dark Ages and beyond, when demons were running amok in the world, mages kept innocent humans safe by killing or controlling the demons. Hence, magehelds, for a demon magically held by one of the magekind. They were stories. Legends. Not real. “How do you know they’re real?”
    Xia leaned toward her, and it was sheer nerve that kept her from shrinking back. His expression was bland despite the tension in his shoulders. “How do I know?” When he spoke again, his voice was hard and bitter. “Because I used to be one, witch.”
    She did a mental free fall through the implications of what Xia was telling her. Disbelief, denial, and horror were the main ingredients when she landed.
    Xia rasped, “Why do you think I hate your father so much?”
    “My father is dead,” she replied. “My real father is the man who raised me, and he wasn’t a mage.”
    “Kessler is still your daddy. And the apple don’t fall far from the tree, if you get what I’m saying, witch.”
    “No,” she whispered.
    “Let’s get clear, Alexandrine Marit. If you woke up feeling like something was going to happen, I need to know about it. Because I don’t believe you don’t have any magic on tap. You’re a witch.” He bent his head to her ear and whispered, “Now, Alexandrine.” Damn, his voice was gold dripping with honey. “I need to know right now. Did you wake up thinking you needed to call for help?”
    “I didn’t think it.” She lifted her chin to stare into his eyes. “I knew it.”
    He let go of her. “Fuck.” But he wasn’t cursing at her so much as expressing a general observation on the state of the world right now. If there was even the slightest possibility that real-deal magehelds were coming after her, she agreed with him.
    The lights went out. Only, the lights in her apartment were already off. The glow from the streetlights disappeared without a sound, none of that electric buzz that sounded in the split-second before an outage. The room was darker than it ought to be. None of the electronic gadget lights in her apartment were glowing. The difference