Free The Romance Novel Cure by Nina Ceves Page A

and began to read, after locating the part I was reading:
     
    * * *
     
    Sera faced the buffeting wind and raised her hands. She traced the ancient, sacred runes into the wind, her fingers strong and sure. She opened her hands and closed her eyes, summoning the power within her, unleashing the magic locked in her soul. She called upon her ancestors for help, and took one step forward.
    — And fell to her knees in the center of the Fire Trial, where Silas lay, bound, on the large, stone altar.
    “Thought you’d get way that easily, huh?” she smirked at him.
    His eyes were widened in shock.
    “You can’t be here,” he gasped, “get out, leave — now!”
    “I told you it pisses me off when you tell me what to do,” she snapped. “You said you’d try to remember how you phrase things.”
    “Sera!” shouted Silas, enraged.
    “Don’t shout at me,” she frowned furiously. “I told you!”
    By that time she was close enough to touch him and she leaned over him, gently touching his face and body.
    “You’re okay,” she breathed in relief.
    “Sera!” He fought against the cords that bound him with their evil spell.
    She heard the sound of rushing wings and wind behind her.
    “Yeah, I don’t think so,” she said, whirling around, holding her hands aloft.
    White light poured from her hands, pushing the encroaching dark sider shifters back. They snarled and rallied, scrambling over one another to attack Sera and Silas. There were countless dark siders, their leathery wings and protruding fangs colliding with one another. She gritted her teeth, closed her eyes. “I can do this! I have to!”
    She lifted her arms slowly and turned her palms outward again. Frowning, she took a deep breath. The dark siders were so close she could smell their fetid scent and see the cracks in their hides. She did not rush, though, as she closed her eyes and summoned her power. She visualized them gone, eradicated. She breathed in and out, slowly.
    There was a screeching sound, as though steel were being wrenched into pieces. There was a scent of sulfur. Then, silence reigned.
    She turned back to Silas and held her hands over him.
    “Mmm,” she let her glance linger appreciatively on him. “Tempting to keep you tied up like this, now that the bad guys have been kicked out.”
    She whispered, slowly trailing her hands above him and the cords began to fade and disappear. Silas was free.
    He sat up and Sera was in his arms. She trembled and felt his heart beating wildly.
    “What have you done?” asked Silas, despair in his voice.
    “Just what you would have done,” she answered fiercely. “Now, come on!”
    “Don’t you see? By sacrificing myself, I would have kept you safe! This isn’t over…”
    “And let them win? And let them take you from me? Not on my watch.”
    She pulled him up and off the altar, and although she was trembling with fatigue, she closed her eyes, held out her hand, and whispered. Holding onto Silas with one hand, she stepped forward —
    — and landed in her bed in the cottage by the marshlands. She sobbed with relief, not letting go of Silas’s hand.
    “Where —? How on earth?”
    “I brought you home with me,” she said, her voice shaking. “Figured we were up to our third date by now.”
    She opened her eyes to see Silas looking down at her, wonder in his eyes.
    “How?” he whispered again.
    “You think I’d let the man of my dreams go? Just like that?” she whispered back. “I found my power. It took — it took almost losing you.”
    “Do you have any idea,” he asked, anguish drawn in heavy lines on his features, “how many times I’ve lost you? My soul knows the cost of these losses, Sera.” His hands traced her face and his lips pressed kisses on her brow…
     
    * * *
     
    Greta was silent. I waited.
     
    “Don’t stop,” I whispered.
     

Greta
     
    “You’re sure you don’t want to get some sleep?” I asked softly.
    Ben’s face was pale; dark circles beneath his