Dark Tremor (Mated by Magic #2) by Stella Marie Alden, Chantel Seabrook

and hissed against his chest. One more tremor and the hole spread open to twenty feet or more and the loose dirt fell away from their bodies.
    After a few moments the ground went still, and so did Terra. Her head lolled against him, her breathing weak, face pale.
    Jace sucked in a long, shallow breath and tried to clear his mind. The cat meowed pathetically as he held Terra’s unconscious form tight. After the dust settled, he blinked up at the blinding midday sun. Adrenaline, mixed with Terra’s scorching energy, made his heart beat like a jackhammer.
    “You all okay down there?” A rescue worker lowered a rope.
    “Yeah, but we need to get her out.” He kissed the top of her head, still buzzed on the energy she had produced. 
    A soft moan escaped her parted lips. Despite the dirt streaked across her face, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. And holy hell was she powerful. He hadn’t realized that the members of the Earth clan could produce that much energy.
    “Terra.” He brushed his lips against hers, then pulled back when he realized what he’d done.
    “Jace,” she murmured, her eyes still closed. She wasn’t waking up, but with how much energy she burned, it was to be expected. 
    “You’re going to be all right.” On his life, he’d make sure of it.
    Rescue workers lifted Terra up on a board, but Jace insisted on climbing on his own. Once out, he all but kissed the ground. The damn cat, none the worse for wear, rested in his lap while he held tight to the scruff of his neck. They seemed to have reached some sort of accord as he patted it and it purred.
    There was something about almost dying that made a person reassess their life. One thing was certain, Terra wasn’t just a witch. She was a damn powerful one. And quite possibly a perfect match for him.
     
     

Chapter 10
     
    From his penthouse suite in Vegas, Mic watched the desert scene unfolding on the TV.
    “Shit.” He snatched the remote of his seventy-five inch Samsung and turned up the volume.
    A blonde bombshell spoke in front of the camera with that news-anchor hyper-concerned face. “They can hear them, Jim. Thank goodness. They’re alive.”
    The TV switched to a helicopter view of a sunken pile of rocks in the desert. At least fifteen police cars and as many ambulances parked nearby with lights flashing. A crane and a bulldozer puffed diesel smoke while a crowd of over a hundred cheered behind yellow tape.
    His cell phone vibrated on the granite bar, Mic glanced at the incoming number, and answered, “I said scare them, not bury them alive. How the hell can you fuck her if she’s dead?”
    “Listen, Mr. Luggerio, I can ex-”
    The whole building swayed and the dishes in his cabinet rattled as Mic’s blood pressure skyrocketed. “Shut up. I want to hear this.”
    The camera zoomed into a worried-looking man, captioned, ‘CEO of Extraordinary Earthships.’
    “...due diligence was done before we built. Seismic studies showed no faults in the area. This was a terrible, yet unavoidable accident...”
    The guy squirmed some more, and the camera zoomed to a fissure in the desert floor. The pattern was recognizable, at least to a witch. Dammit all to hell. What were his men thinking? They’d expose them all.
    When the TV went to commercial, Mic changed the channel. A recent video of one of the Fialko brothers flashed across the scene. A close-up revealed him dressed in a tux, exiting The Marquee with a high-priced escort on his arm.
    “Sources say, Jace Fialko, brother to billionaire, Jack Fialko, was here for some rest and relaxation when...” The announcer went on with some drivel about the family. Who gave a rat’s ass?
    What the hell is he doing in my desert?
    Before he could focus on that problem, another face popped up on the screen.
    It can’t be.
    Stunned, he walked across the pristine oak floor and stood nose to nose with the TV screen. An emergency worker placed a woman on a stretcher and the camera zoomed