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  RAVE REVIEWS FOR HELEN SCOTT TAYLOR

  THE MAGIC KNOT

  “[An] extraordinarily accomplished debut . . . So well written that it’s hard to believe it’s Taylor’s first.”

  —Booklist Starred Review, Top Ten Romance of 2009

  “Taylor’s wonderfully creative and lusciously sexy debut will cast its own magical spell over readers.”

  —The Chicago Tribune

  “This is just one of those books that captivates you from the first page. It’s different, emotional, full of evil, but with plenty of love to counteract those bad guys. Ms. Taylor is going on my autobuy list for sure.”

  —The Good, The Bad, The Unread

  “A fresh and sexy entrée into paranormal romance. In a market inundated with otherworld creatures, Taylor creates an engaging and believable fantasy world peppered with an intriguing mixture of magical creatures. It is beautifully written, and fast-paced enough to keep you on your toes.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “A really wonderful story of magic, suspense, love, and mystery.”

  —Coffee Time Romance

  “Taylor’s debut reads like a romance inside of a fairy tale. It’s sure to be a hit.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “If this is Helen Scott Taylor’s debut novel, I just can’t wait to see what she writes next. Definitely a new auto-buy author for me.”

  —ParaNormal Romance

  “An enchanting and magical tale delivering a mix of romance and suspense.”

  —Bitten By Books

  “This tale has all the components of a winning paranormal romance: intrigue, passion, betrayal and magic.”

  —The Romance Reader

  THE PHOENIX CHARM

  “Helen Scott Taylor has once again written a bright, enchanting story full of magic and mystery, adventure and romance.”

  —Beyond Her Book, the Publishers Weekly blog

  “A rich, imaginative world that beautifully blends fantasy and romance.”

  —RT Book Reviews, Top Pick!

  “The whole thing is too much fun.”

  —Everything Romantic

  “Good versus evil, life and death, magic, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, love of every kind imaginable, and, of course, romance . . . The emotion is raw and heartrending, the story is something you’ll not find anywhere else.”

  —The Good, The Bad, The Unread

  “Celtic magic and exciting adventure.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “A fast-paced story that held my attention from the first page to the last. I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

  —Night Owl Romance, Top Pick

  “A beautifully written love story that takes the reader on a journey through life and death and an eternal happy-ever-after.”

  —Coffee Time Romance

  “A story filled with vivid imagery, smoldering sex scenes and a pageturner of a plot. An absolutely wonderful read!”

  —Bitten By Books

  A DANGEROUS DESTINATION

  “How far up is the city?” Ruby asked.

  “You can’t really measure the height in earthly terms, because the Seelie Court exists in an alternate realm, but it’s about a thousand steps.”

  Ruby sucked in a breath. Her legs were already aching.

  Ignoring the misty blue nothingness on either side, she tried to forget they were climbing into the sky. Nightshade urged her forward. Finally, the signal came to stop. Ruby was sweaty and probably had a face the color of beetroot, but as they filed out onto a green marble terrace, the gleaming walls of the Emerald Palace towered above, framed by the perfect blue of a cerulean sky. Silver pennants fluttered atop an assortment of spires. Below the palace spread a metropolis of iridescent crystal buildings sparkling in the sun like a city of jewels.

  “Strewth,” Ruby gasped. It was the seat of Seelie power.

  Other books by Helen Scott Taylor:

  The Magic Knot

  The Phoenix Charm

  “The Crystal Crib” in A Midwinter Fantasy

  HELEN SCOTT

  TAYLOR

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  DORCHESTER PUBLISHING

  Published by

  Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.

  200 Madison Avenue

  New York, NY 10016

  Copyright © 2011 by Helen Scott Taylor

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Trade book ISBN: 978-1-4285-1177-4

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-4285-0990-0

  First Dorchester Publishing, Co., Inc. edition: November 2011

  The “DP” logo is the property of Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  Visit us online at www.dorchesterpub.com.

  To Glyn, who loves everything I write. Thank you!

  Thanks to Joan Leacott and Mona Risk for their helpful

  advice during the writing of this book.

  * * *

  Chapter One

  Ruby Macdonald woke to a frightful bang and the rattle of roof tiles. Something crashed onto the skylight above her bed, knocking the window wide. She instinctively ducked beneath her bedcovers, and a huge heavy object thudded down on the mattress beside her, making the bedsprings bounce and strain under the impact. Downstairs her two dogs started barking.

  After a second’s shock, Ruby yanked the covers away from her face. A dark figure crouched on the comforter near her feet. She recoiled against the headboard, a scream searing her throat. The streak of light coming through the bedroom doorway from the hall silhouetted the creature’s naked, heavily muscled chest and widespread black wings.

  Her mother had carted her all over the place, searching for supernatural creatures. Ruby had met many strange beings, including tiny leprechauns in Ireland and beautiful people who could breathe underwater, but after everything she had gone through back then and her mother’s horrible death, she had tried to forget. She hadn’t wanted to believe her mother’s claim that Ruby was the result of a nocturnal seduction by a beautiful winged angel, even though she knew she wasn’t like other people.

  Ruby’s blood thundered in her ears. Was her father really an angel? And was history about to repeat itself? Although the intruder’s gleaming black skin and leathery wings suggested he was more demon than angel. She had never seen anything like him in her travels, but she vaguely remembered seeing his likeness in a book.
/>   The creature spat white stuff at her. Ruby dove to the floor and grabbed out from under her bed the baseball bat she’d hoped never to have to use. She jumped up, getting a firm two-handed grip on its wooden handle.

  “Keep away from me or you’re dog food.”

  Instead of pursuing her, the winged man clambered off the other side of the bed and dragged a hand over his mouth.

  “Bloody bird,” he bit out in a deep British accent. “Closed my eyes for half a second and the damn thing hit me in the face.” He spat out something else that Ruby realized was a feather. At over six feet tall, his powerful body dominated the room. Yet his cultured voice was so at odds with his appearance that Ruby had the crazy urge to laugh. Without taking her eyes off him, she bent to snap on the bedside light.

  She had wondered if he was completely naked, having noticed his bare chest, but he wore black jeans and boots. His eyes shone an unnerving silver in a savagely beautiful face. He swept aside his long black hair with a careless hand and folded his wings against his back.

  “Who are you?” he demanded, his head angled arrogantly as he pinned her with his gaze.

  “Oh no, laddie.” She pointed at him with the bat. “You’re going to tell me who you are first.”

  He ruffled his wings against his back, looking disgruntled. “I’m Nightshade.”

  In her experience, these supernatural beings usually had strange names. “What are you?” Ruby demanded.

  His nostrils flared and his jaw clenched. “I don’t appreciate that tone of voice.”

  Despite his fierce expression, she didn’t sense any real malice in him, and she had always been very perceptive about the nature of “supernaturals,” as her mother had called them. “Tough. You land on my bed in the middle of the night; you answer my questions.”

  He narrowed his eyes. Ruby held his gaze and tightened her grip on the bat. As they stared each other down, a tingle of excitement ran up her spine. She had thought she never wanted to see another supernatural after what happened to her mother, but there was something about this one’s vibrant male energy that set her nerves singing.

  He gave a hiss of reluctant surrender. “I’m a nightstalker.”

  Yes, that did ring a bell. She wished now she hadn’t burned all her mother’s supernatural books. “Is that some type of demon?”

  He bristled. “I’m not a bloody shadow elemental, woman. I’m a fairy.”

  “A what?” The bat sagged in Ruby’s hands while her brain scrambled to process. She had thought fairies were tiny with translucent wings. A slightly hysterical giggle burst from her lips.

  “What’s so funny?” he demanded.

  “I thought fairies were small.” At his scowl, she had to stop herself from grinning. He was so easy to get a rise out of. “Don’t fairies wear sparkly dresses and have bells on their slippers?”

  A growl broke from the back of his throat. She raised her bat again, wondering if she’d pushed him too far. Time to change the subject.

  “To answer your first question, I’m Ruby Macdonald.”

  He grunted, his gaze tracking down her body, then back to her face. “And this place is?”

  “Glenskelly Lodge. I suppose you realize you’re in Scotland?” She watched him take stock of his surroundings, absently ruffling his wings against his back. Ruby stabbed a finger toward the ceiling and added, “It sounded as though you damaged my roof.”

  The nightstalker glanced up, his nostrils flaring. “It wasn’t my fault. The damn bird should have looked where it was going.” He flexed his shoulders before raising a hand to rub one. “Bathroom?” he demanded.

  “You use bathroom facilities?” The leprechauns who had helped her and her mother when she was small had lived in caves. But, come to think of it, some of the others supernaturals they’d met had seemed very civilized. Still, she couldn’t imagine a man with wings sitting on the toilet or lying in a bath.

  “Of course, woman. This is the twenty-first century.” He tapped the cell phone on his belt. “Where I come from we make use of modern technology and live among humans. Although most do not know what we are.”

  Ruby pointed the bat at the door of her en suite. Nightshade strode inside, leaving the door open. He washed his hands and face, then wiped himself dry on her towel before dropping it over the side of the bath.

  “Make yourself at home, why don’t you,” Ruby said under her breath.

  The nightstalker wandered back into the room, blinked, and rubbed his eyes. His hand went to his shoulder again, and he looked exhausted. With a sigh, he glanced at the open skylight. “Sorry about the intrusion,” he offered reluctantly. “Don’t often get birds flying at night.”

  “Looks to me like you were asleep at the wheel,” Ruby retorted. “So to speak.”

  He pinned her with a belligerent gaze but didn’t deny the accusation. His gaze roamed more slowly over her body, as if he were really noticing it. The tension between them shifted subtly. The annoyance melted from his face and he licked his lips.

  A prickle of awareness skittered across her skin, making her nipples peak beneath the tight jersey tank top, which she belatedly realized left little to the imagination. And her pajama shorts made her thighs look fat. She tossed the bat on the bed, hurried across the room to grab her dressing gown off the back of the door, and put it on.

  She considered him for a moment and remembered the kindness of many supernaturals whom her mother had intruded upon in her relentless search for Ruby’s father. Although the last thing she wanted to do was get tangled up in that weird world again, she strongly believed that what goes around comes around and it was time to reciprocate. “When it’s lighter out, you can check my roof’s not damaged where you hit it. First I think you need to sleep. Before you fall over.”

  Winged ebony brows rose in surprise. “You’ll let me stay in your house?”

  “You can go outside and sleep in the dog kennel if you’d rather, but I think you’re too big.”

  He scowled—an expression with which Ruby was fast becoming familiar. She’d always been good at sensing the energy of people and animals, she’d been told it was a gift, and she was certain this stranger didn’t pose any danger to her. He was exhausted and he could hardly check into the nearest hotel. And, now he had dropped in on her, she might as well take the opportunity to question him. She was determined to rid herself of the annoying power she’d inherited from her supernatural father. Perhaps Nightshade could help.

  * * *

  Nightshade narrowed his eyes on the woman’s back while she made up the bed in her spare room. He couldn’t pick up her psychic signature in the way he would expect if she carried fairy blood, yet she wasn’t completely human. The house resonated with strange energy. It was as though he could feel her in the wood beneath his feet.

  She turned and bent over the bed to tuck in the sheets, and her breasts swung forward and made the dressing gown gape. All thought of psychic signatures disappeared from his brain. Excitement raced through him at the thought of standing behind her and catching those breasts in his hands. She was no slender creature like the Cornish pisky women from the troop with whom he lived; she was only just over five feet tall but with buxom curves. He’d never seen a full-bodied woman like her. And although his fangs burned within his gums with the desire to taste the sweetness of her blood, they did not slide out over his lower lip. Instead, the tight heaviness in his groin dominated his awareness. For the first time in his life, his instinct to mate was stronger than his desire to bite.

  “One bed ready for occupation.” She straightened and put her hands on her shapely hips with a long exhalation of breath, then flashed him a quick smile, her hazel eyes twinkling. The small diamond stud in her nose glinted in the overhead light. She was so different from other females he knew, with her short spiky red hair and the many piercings in her ears.

  “Thank you,” he mumbled, uncomfortable with being in her debt. He wouldn’t have blamed her for tossing him out after he’d crashed
onto her bed in the middle of the night. She had a sharp tongue, yet she must have a kind nature to have offered him a place to rest.

  “Would you like a cuppa before you turn in?” Then, without waiting for his answer, she bustled past, leaving a trail of sweet floral fragrance in her wake.

  This healthy well-built woman would produce big strong babies. Could she be the right woman to give him the son he longed for?

  * * *

  “Come on. You’re dead on your feet,” Ruby said, beckoning Nightshade into the guest room after he’d silently drunk his cup of tea. She’d been hoping he’d be chattier. As she stood aside to let him pass, she noticed scratches marring the smooth skin of the shoulder he’d been favoring. The impact with her roof must have injured him, but his black skin hid the damage.

  He slanted her a sideways glance through his hair as he sat on the edge of the bed to pull off his boots. “Thanks.”

  “Want me to look at your shoulder?”

  “No.” He made to lie down.

  Ruby hurried across to the bed and caught his wrist. “Yes, you do.”

  Sinews flexed beneath her hand like tensile steel cables, and a shock of response burst through her at contact with the leashed power of his body. Drawing an uneven breath she released him and leaned over to examine his injured shoulder. A sticky trail of blood had seeped from a nasty gash to run down his back beneath one of his wings. He must be in pain but she would never have guessed. The smell of blood mingled with the unusual scent of almonds and the musky male fragrance of his skin.

  “Leave me be, woman. Let me get some rest.”

  He turned his head toward her, and she stared into the brilliance of his silver gaze, looked so close she could see every hair in his dense ebony lashes. His face was a study of masculine beauty, his strong jaw and brows giving a rugged cast to his otherwise fine features. For a moment she couldn’t breathe, then she pulled back and rested her hands on her hips, determined not to show he affected her.

  “Sit tight for a few minutes. I’m going to dress that wound or you’ll ruin my sheets.”