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Chapter 15

Isabella woke up the next morning feeling relaxed. The stress of the last few weeks with all the revelations and the ones she was sure would keep coming had her wound tight. But the wonderful man beside her, her husband, had taken all that away.

The early light filtered through the windows, the errant rays illuminating his toned abdomen. It had been the second thing she'd noticed about him, after his eyes. She was, after all, a woman and even as a stranger, she saw his appeal.

"Do you like the view this morning?" Edward's sleepy voice rasped.

"I do, especially since I'll be seeing it every day for the rest of our lives."

"Maybe we can undress and I can see my favorite —"

A knock at the door interrupted his thought and Isabella moved to let the servants in. Breakfast was set on the table and Isabella requested that someone return in an hour to help them load up their carriage to return home.

Once they were alone again, Argus emerged from his carrier and sniffed around. Edward uncovered a small plate to reveal some dried grass and carrot slices. He placed it on the floor and Argus happily began to chomp away.

"Did you request that for him?" Isabella asked.

"I always do. He's your familiar, Bre, that makes him family."

Isabella looked at him confused. "But I didn't know I was a witch when I found him. How do you know he is more than just a pet?"

"Not knowing what you were doesn't change what you've always been. Besides, think of how he came into your life. He found you, and you named him. Giving something a name gives you power over them. Also, there are quite a few times when his actions were more than what a regular rabbit would do."

Isabella thought over Edward's words and realized he was right. "I had never even thought about it, but you're right. He's a part of our magical little family."

The pair ate their meal and then packed and dressed. Servants showed up to bring down their belongings and their carriage was ready in the courtyard when they exited the palace.

As they rode past the gardens, they waved to Queen Alice, who was taking a stroll through the roses.

It was a much shorter trip returning to town than it had been to the castle. When they arrived it was back to business for the pair of them.

After their chores were done, Edward went to check on his parents' home so he could be close to them as he tried to learn more about his faerie powers. Isabella found the next journal in the sequence and began to test out potential powers.

The incantations for controlling the weather had no effect on anything, though Isabella wondered if her mood had some slight power over the weather as they often matched. There were a few other cases of trial and error, when Isabella reached the section on energy magic.

Isabella sat on the ground outside with Argus and began with the breathing exercises listed in the journal. She felt the calm envelop her and her breathing grew deeper. Lifting her hands, she held them in prayer position with a gap of about an inch between them. She focused on the directionality the energy should flow, from her dominant hand into her non-dominant one. She could feel the power growing and was shocked by how strong it was.

She pictured it in her mind's eye, giving it a color as her mother's words suggested. She saw it as a deep blue light, shimmering as it moved. With another deep breath, she reached out her right hand and focused on the journal that was sitting on the edge of the table. Her breath caught as she watched it shift before it flew to her hand.

Isabella let out a shriek of joy at her finally finding an ability she seemed to have. Turning back to the page, Isabella read where her mother mentioned other things to try to test the strength of the ability if she could move objects.

She stood and walked over to her work table, holding her hands out in front of her, she fell forward and stopped a foot from the table's edge. Deep breaths and focus kept her from crashing into the table. With a push back, Isabella was once again standing upright.

Isabella knew that focusing her energy was the key to using her abilities, so that was where she was going to spend her time for now.

The ten days that followed the wedding were filled with work, both on their skills, and for Isabella, with her patients. Her birthday was a quiet affair, with Edward eager to celebrate his wife. On the afternoon of September twenty-first, Edward approached Isabella with a request.

"I'd like to spend tonight at my parents' home. Would you be willing to go out there tonight?"

"Yes, that sounds like a wonderful time. I'll pack us some food and we can bring clothes. Should I pack Argus' things?"

"I think we can spend the night away from him," Edward told her.

The pair finished up around the house and at twilight, Edward led Isabella to his parents home. They put away their belongings and re-emerged into the clearing to see it filled with blinking fireflies. Isabella gasped and turned to Edward.

"How is this possible? Fireflies haven't shone in hundreds of years."

"These are all faeries waiting for their witch. It seems that my awakening has caused them to return. They can only communicate through their blinking, but they won't be as clueless as I was when they change into their human form. They'll have time in the world to understand the world around them."

"This is beautiful," she whispered.

"Not nearly as beautiful as you," Edward responded.

His lips found hers and though she didn't see their retreat, she did see the light in the clearing slowly grow dimmer as the fireflies flew away. He lowered her to the ground and stripped off his own clothes before helping her with hers.

When they were bare before each other, he covered her with his body and sank into her heat.

Their movements were slow, deliberate. Edward wanted to savor their time in the woods, in a place so connected to his past, to their shared past. The woods were where Renee first saw him with her when Isabella was still a child and he was trapped in his insect form. He knew that his strength and power came from this ancient place.

Not far from where they laid, were remnants of the tracks used for cargo transport that King Carlisle had laid across the country centuries ago, overtaken by the woods when they fell into disuse and disrepair.

Edward focused all his attention on his wife, his charge, his Bre. She was his reason for living and the reason he was conscious to experience the wonder around them. Her smooth skin against his, her breast cupped in his hand as they kissed and moved as one. They murmured words that made little sense, but were perfectly understood as they were spoken against her neck and his shoulder.

The bite of her nails as she gripped his ass and the cold, wet and hard feel of a stone beneath her heel as she used it for leverage as she thrust upwards.

Their orgasms raced through them, the leaves settled on the forest floor rising with the force of Isabella's release. Edward's gasp was more horror-filled than awestruck and Isabella immediately cupped his cheeks.

"Edward, what's wrong?"

He shook his head as if to clear it. "I don't know."