MagicalMistakes by Victoria Davies Page B

eyes of Mikayla’s infernal
sisters he’d been able to transform immediately. But whether he was a demon or
a dog, Ciar had no words for the storm this one woman was capable of stirring
up.
    “You don’t either,” she said, pausing by the window to look
out at the new world.
    She moved just how he remembered, with the grace of
nobility. How many times had he watched her walk, marveling that she was his?
    He shook his head to clear it. The past was past.
    “This is my home now.”
    “Your family misses you.”
    He snorted. “Misses the target so conveniently painted on my
back, maybe.”
    “Ciar,” Alina said reprovingly.
    “Why did the witches bring you here?”
    She turned back to him with the same half-smile curving her
lips that he remembered. “They weren’t very informative. Secretive bunch,
aren’t they? But I wasn’t really in the mood to ask a lot of questions.” She
drifted closer, gliding across the distance separating them. “They said you
were in trouble, Ciar. I didn’t protest after that.”
    He caught her wrist when she reached out to touch him. “Why
would you care?”
    “Harsh,” she whispered.
    “Fair,” he replied.
    Alina didn’t try to tug her hand free. Instead she stepped
forward to press her body against his. Ciar hissed at the contact.
    “I don’t know why it was so important for me to come,” she
whispered. “But I know I’m thankful for the chance.”
    “You made your choice.”
    “Teivel is dead.” Pain laced the quiet words. It was a pain
Ciar was more than familiar with, one he experienced every time he heard his
brother’s name.
    He pushed her away roughly. “I know that.”
    “Did you grieve?”
    He bared his teeth at her, an inhuman gesture, but Alina had
a habit of awakening the demon in him. He’d spent months in the human world
learning to control his more basic instincts, to blend in with the mortals
around him, and within minutes Alina had managed to rip away that thin veneer
of civility. “What do you think?”
    “I think many demons wouldn’t have. But you have never been
like the others, Ciar.”
    “Defective, you mean?” How many times had he heard that
before? As a second son he should have been all muscle and no brain. He should
have lived to support his betters, not think for himself. He was too unpredictable
for the demon world and too violent for the human one.
    She shook her head. “There is more to you than your
ambition. More than your brawn. You know as well as I that is rare among our
people.”
    “Your people,” he corrected. “I left for a reason, Alina. I
have no intention of going back.”
    For a moment she was silent. “Not even if you could go back
with me?” she asked finally.
    Ciar paused, thinking of the years he’d spent wishing for
just that future.
    “This is our second chance, Ciar,” she said. “I know I
screwed up the first time but I swear to you, I won’t repeat my mistakes.”
    “A second chance,” he mused. “Perhaps it’s not one I want.”
    A knowing smile curved her lips, one that said no man would
ever turn down an opportunity to be with her. The smile irritated him. It was
too knowing. Too self-assured.
    Worst of all, it wasn’t Mikayla’s.
    “Hell,” he swore, dragging a hand down his face. The witch
had really done a number on him if he was thinking of her while looking at the
woman he had once thought to spend his life with.
    “Don’t you remember how it was with us?” Alina continued.
“For years it has been your face I see in my dreams at night. Not Teivel’s.”
    “You did that to us, Alina. Not I.”
    She stepped closer again. “Fate brought us back together. Do
you not even want to find out why?”
    He dodged her when she reached for him again. “I like this
world. I have a life here. It’s not one you fit into.”
    “This isn’t your home. Come back with me, Ciar.”
    For a moment he thought about the realm he’d left behind so many
years ago. It was a dark, violent place,