There wasn't a chance I'd obey him.

He can rot. But I was lying in my chamber. Nervous.

See you in my bed. That's what he'd said to me.

And what Hawk wanted, he often got.

He can't have me.

"Mary Mage..." As if summoned by my thoughts, I heard his voice breathing into my room. "It's time you come to me."

"Not a chance." I flipped onto my side and yanked the coverlet over my head. "Go away."

"You made a vow."

"No one said I was a woman of my word!" I defended impudently.

"You will be."

***

"I'm not coming to you, Hawk. Go away!"

"Remember, Mary Mage...I could take you right where you are. Ravish you as you lie."

"No." I squeezed my thighs closed fearfully. Thinking of how he'd entered my chamber as a water dragon and taken me against my bedroom door as I'd tried to escape him.

"There's no escaping me..." His voice rumbled along the back of my neck as though he were suddenly under the blanket behind me.

I started when I felt a hand sliding my chemise up my thighs. Panicked I swatted it down but it immediately pulled up again to my ribs.

Though I could see nothing, I felt the heat of a hand on my side. Rolling across the front of my flat belly and sliding lower to just graze the top of the next of my womanhood.

***

"No!" I sat bolt upright. Panting into the darkness.

"Come to me..."

"Never!" I shook my head adamantly.

There was a long silence and I thought perhaps he'd given up on taunting me for the night. I blew a relieved breath and collapsed backward. Blonde hair streaming over the bedding around me.

"You will come to my bed tonight, Mary Mage. And you will please me."

"I'll die first." I whispered toward my ceiling.

I could hear his dark chuckle.

"We'll see about that."

***

In Hawk's room he strolled from a corner of his chamber and moved a few potion bottles on a work table near the fire. Adjusting them until finding the one he sought.

A potion he was designing and now intended to test.

Even as he'd projected his spirit from his chamber to taunt Mary he'd been tending the potion. Adding the bits of ingredients.

Now he wandered to the mantle and pulled down his favorite book. Opening it a third of the way in revealed a tiny lock of blonde hair.

Her hair.

He dropped it in the fizzling potion. Making it hiss in steam as it reacted. Finding his prey. He lifted it. The bright pink color reflecting in his green eyes.

Eyes which slowly flecked with yellow until they'd fully turned. Suffused with his power.

"Ker-dan." He whispered slowly.

Then waited.

***

I was nearly asleep when I heard Hawk's voice whispering in my chamber again.

One word.

A word I don't know.

What does Kerdan mean? But before I could fully formulate the thought I found my legs rising of their own volition. My hands pushing the coverlet aside as I strode from my bed wearing nothing but my thin chemise. A bit of clothing which I knew hid nothing.

My nipples were visible through it and the dusting of blonde hair at the crux of my thighs.

I'd never leave my chamber wearing only this.

Yet I was.

Am I dreaming?

"No. You're not." His voice answered my thoughts.

"Stay out of my mind!" I hated when he did that. And it wasn't something I understood.

I couldn't do that.

***

Why are my legs moving? I couldn't get them to stop. And my feet were veering me through the corridors.

"That's right, Mary...Come to me." His haunting voice breezed through the corridors. Echoing along the walls.

"No." I said. But for some reason I couldn't get my body to stop moving in the direction it was. By now it was clear that I was under some manner of spell which was driving me straight to him.

"Stop, Hawk. Make it stop."

"I'll stop when we're done."

I could hear the smiling triumph in his voice. The annoying gloating note that always made me crazy. Strangely, I saw a brief vision of him laying naked in his bed. His head propped up on his down pillows. A palm tucked under the back of his head. His gold eyes watching the door.

Waiting for me.