NocC 021 - Jessa Slade - Dark Hunter's Touch - Harlequin 2012-08 by Nocturne Page A

desolate, for
the gate to bloom, but before his eyes sprang up a circle of ivy. The leafy
tendrils wove into the steel lattice. Through the barrier, the Queen’s cries
sounded far away.
    Imogene touched the heart-shaped leaves. “Where does the gate
open?”
    “Someplace we can make our own magic.”
    Imogene slipped her hand into his. “Take me there, Vaile, my
love.”
    He kissed her, hard and quick. “I’ve been dreaming of taking
you again, ever since that night. But I have loved you far longer than
that.”
    She touched the curve of his lower lip, and her blue eyes
glinted with promises of passion. “As I am yours.” But she looked back over her
shoulder between the wrecked doors. “We phae have
given up our dreams for illusion. Are they all as lost as I was?”
    “You might have been lost, but you found me. You would make an
excellent Hunter. Or maybe savior.”
    “I doubt the Queen will see it that way.”
    “Her lies and stolen power can’t last. I fear it is the court
of the steel-born phae that will come undone in the
end.”
    He took Imogene’s hand and slipped his last piece of blue
amber—the ring—over her finger. He raised her hand to his lips, soothing the
iron burn across her knuckles; that story would have to wait until they found
their new sanctuary.
    When the gate magic flared, she raised herself up to kiss him.
Her fingers brushed along his jaw and dropped to his neck. The studded collar,
long welded in place, sprang open, and he caught his breath.
    She half closed her eyes, and the wind of her knack spread his
wings with a caress from shoulders to talons. A few wayward wisps tickled under
the vanes like bubbles. He had to smile. “I felt that.”
    Her answering smile lifted his heart as she stepped into his
arms and crossed with him into the gate. “You caught me, Hunter. Just as I
wished.”
    *

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    *
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ISBN: 978-14592-3564-9
    Dark Hunter’s Touch
    Copyright © 2012 by Jessa Slade
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