Free The Gauntlet by Karen Chance

brushed dirty hair out of his eyes,
causing a little cascade down the back of his ruined shirt. “Of
course. What did you expect?”
    “I…wasn’t sure.” He licked his lips and drank
a little more with her help. “We…had a deal, but…many people…”
    She frowned slightly. “What deal?”
    “I help you…you…help me.”
    “I did help you,” she said, the frown
growing. “Winnie wasn’t the only one who wanted to stake you.”
    He shook his head, sending a cloud of dust
into the air. “No. You promised…”
    “I’m not going with you,” she told him
flatly. “I have a child to think about. I have to get her out of
England.”
    “You…you’re Great Mother now,” he protested.
“You can’t leave.”
    “Watch me,” she said viciously. She gestured
around at the tumbled rubble. “This is what the Circle brings.
Nothing but ruins and destruction, everywhere they go. I’m not
raising a child in constant peril!”
    If he’d had any saliva, Kit would have
pointed out that the Circle hadn’t turned a perfectly good, if
slightly dilapidated castle into a pile of rocks. But he didn’t,
and she didn’t give him the chance in any case.
    “And as for the other, you cannot have a
coven of one. And I’m shortly going to be the only one left.
Everyone else is going back to their own people, to regroup, to
plan, to hide…” she shrugged. “It’s a new world, now that the
covens are gone. And we each have to find our own role in it.”
    He lay there, watching the last rays of the
setting sun blaze through her glorious hair. And wished his damn
throat would unfreeze. He had a thousand things to say and no time
to say them. “If you’re not…going to stay. Why look for me?” he
finally managed.
    She bent down, her face softening, sweet lips
just grazing his. “To say thank you,” she whispered. “Winnie will
never understand but…I was there. I know. You could have finished
what you started.”
    “Not…unwilling.”
    She smiled, a little tearfully. “And if ever
anyone was to convince me…”
    He caught her hand as she started to rise.
“Stay,” he said urgently. “You don’t…I can show you
things…wonders—”
    “You already have.”
    She kissed him, with feeling this time, until
his head was spinning from more than just the spells. She didn’t
say anything when she drew back, but she pushed his hanging mouth
closed with a little pop. Then she jumped to her feet and ran for
the distant tree line.
    But after only a few yards, she stopped,
paused for a moment, and then ran back. And relieved him of his
ring. “Travelling money,” she said, with a faintly apologetic look.
And then she took off again.
    Kit stared after her until the gathering
shadows swallowed her up. Witches. He’d been right all along. They
were completely mad.
    He smiled slightly, his lips still tingling
from her final touch. But what glorious madness.
     
    The End