Emrys

By Brianna Somersham

Immortality was not what it was cracked up to be...

 

Being immortal, Emrys thought he had learned all the hard lessons centuries ago. After hundreds upon hundreds of years spent mending other peoples broken lives while wishing for someone who could mend his own, he'd learned in the worst ways possible that seeking compassion from others only led to broken trust and trampled hearts--and bodies left mangled and bloody.

 

He would never know true love, or so he believed, until...

 

Deep within a forest in medieval Wales, a chance encounter with a beautiful girl changed him. Myrddin was everything he could have wished for, all he had ever dreamed of having. For once, he was not afraid to dare to love. Soon, however, reality began to haunt him.

 

He could not live as half a man...

 

Beautiful Myrddin knew nothing of his terrifying gift and she could not know-ever-for he knew he could never bear to have her look at him in fear should she somehow find out the truth. Doing what he believed best, he left her before pain could be inflicted-from either side-never knowing he was leaving behind his salvation...and yet, he could not end his suffering, for he would never die.

 

Centuries later, he is reunited with the beautiful Myrddin, only to be reminded that history is bound to repeat itself, often in the most painful of ways...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brianna Somersham
• Release date: Dec 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781386105084

Brianna Somersham

Brianna Somersham lives her days surrounded by gorgeous men whose fondest desires are catering to her every whim. Or that’s what she’d like to happen, anyway. In actuality, she spends her days both writing and not writing, which is a complicated process. One of these days she will figure out how to balance it all, but until then she'll keep doing what she's doing. Aside from that, she often fantasizes about traveling to other countries one day in the far off future. Whether or not that will happen is another thing entirely. Visit Brianna on the web and comment on her blog at: http://www.briannasomersham.com

Book preview

Chapter 1

Sometimes being an immortal was the most friggin’ boring thing he could be. Life went on for an eternity and he went with it, never aging, never changing. He watched everything else progress at what seemed like light speed and listened to people hark about the end of the world, the final days, the end of all things as they knew it.

He smirked to himself.

If they were to catch even a glimpse of the things he knew they’d be shocked out of their little white panties.

He’d completed the assignment he’d been given after Mina and Steven’s wedding in record time and was waiting for further instructions from Merlin ‘cause God knew Merlin had more for Emrys to do than stand around with his thumb up his butt.

Merlin always made sure Rys had something to do when he had finished up with whatever project he’d been undertaking. Most times he let him know what was next on the agenda before he finished the current one.

Rys shook his head and smiled. Much as he hated to admit it, he appreciated all the old goat did for him.

The leaves rustled on the ground with the gust of the stinging wind as it blew across them, upsetting the limbs of water oaks, maple trees, pine trees, and beeches along the way. He closed his eyes and listened to the music of nature as his feet carried him along to some unknown destination.

Suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, his mind slipped to a time that was best forgotten, grasped and held onto the memory of a maiden he’d thought long buried (the memory, not the maiden) and his heart clenched.

Remembering the way the sun glinted off her raven tresses and brought blooms of color to her perfect skin always had that affect on him. The way the corners of her mouth tipped up when she knew something he didn’t and the sparkle in her green eyes when she laughed almost made him want to go back in time to see her again.

The sweet lilting symphony of her voice when she would sing lullabies to her infant brother and the gentle way she would hold the baby in her arms as she rocked him to sleep had made him want things he couldn’t have.

Myrddin.

Emrys hunched his shoulders against the chill winter air, pulled his coat tighter around his body and kept walking through the dense woods he had manifested himself into not an hour ago.

The name whispered and echoed through his mind unbidden. Unwanted. He opened his eyes, trying to banish the memories to that forgotten place in his mind but the buggers refused to leave. He hated when that happened. They usually only showed up in five or ten year intervals, and once he’d gone a blissful 500 years without thinking about her, but here lately they’d been plaguing him every two weeks or so.

It was damned aggravating.

Emrys sighed heavily and trudged on, following where his feet led him. He’d walked a good half a mile or so when he smelled the acrid tang of smoke drifting on the breeze. Closing his eyes he focused his senses on the smell to better tell where it was coming from. An image of a comfortably sized cottage straight out of a fairy tale, complete with a white picket fence and a trail of smoke billowing from the cottage’s pale chimney bloomed in his mind.

He pulled his fleece-lined coat closer to his body and hurried along, intent on finding the cottage and persuading its owner to allow him to thaw his frozen appendages. If he was lucky it was owned by an unattached female and he’d soon be warming all his appendages as well as aiding in the heating of the cottage.

He came upon the quaint white picket fence, thumbed open the latch and headed up the stone walkway. He knocked on the door and waited a moment for it to be opened. It swung in but since there was no one smiling at him in greeting, no person had opened it. He frowned and took a dozen or so steps inside.

Hello? he called out and was answered only by the crackling of the fire laid in the grate. He swung around as the door swept shut of its own volition.

His brow kicked up. He hadn’t thought there was another wizard living besides himself and Merlin. It looks like Mina was right, he thought. You really don’t know everything.

He called out again and was once more met with silence. But he wasn’t going to let that stop him from getting warm. Besides, it wasn’t the first time he’d made himself at home in a stranger's house when no one was there and it wasn’t about to be the last.

He walked to the cozy looking fire in the middle of the living room and stood with his arms outstretched, letting his chilled fingers and hands soak up the welcome heat. Once he was warmed up he turned his back to the fire and took the time to look around the living room.

Judging by the comfortable, homey atmosphere and floral designs on everything but the ceiling, this place belonged to a woman. He shifted as the smell of gardenias tickled his nose, bringing back those damned aggravating memories.

Myrddin had worn the scent and decorated her rooms with the blooms. He recalled one particular time when she had made a circlet with them to wear during the summer solstice, their scent drugging his senses even then as she had danced with him. That night, instead of lying with her as he’d longed to, he’d spent the lonely hours with a dairymaid by the name of Nelda to rid his mind of the nymph whom his body craved. To this day he was surprised he remembered the maid’s name.

He shook his head to clear it and wandered into the kitchen to see what grub he could rustle up for his rumbling stomach.

He stepped through the wooden archway decorated with live red roses and stopped dead in his tracks. There, at the head of the dining table with a book in one slender-fingered hand and a cup of hot chocolate in the other, sat the woman who haunted his memories with astounding repetition. She looked precisely the way he remembered. Nary a change had taken hold of her save for the fact that she was wearing snug denim jeans and a bulky white sweater in place of the flowing gowns she used to wear.

Myrddin. He spoke softly, not wanting to startle her.

She jerked her gaze to his and his stomach jumped like it used to when she would catch him unexpectedly with those deep green pools of winsome delight. The color drained completely from her face and her eyes widened considerably. She stared at him in such a way as one might stare at a ghost, which wasn’t such an appealing thought to Emrys. She breathed his name past her white lips an instant before her eyes rolled back and she slumped forward in her chair in a dead faint.

Emrys rushed forward and picked her up from the chair and carried her into the living room. He placed her gently on the soft sofa cushions and knelt at her side. He took his time drinking in her features despite the shouts in his mind telling him in flagrant terms why that was not something he wanted to do.

She looked exactly as he remembered. Nothing had changed in all this time. He reached out and placed a trembling hand to her cheek. He closed his eyes on a silent sigh. She had always been so soft, so tender, so damned innocent and pure. He had often wondered why she had chosen to spend her time with him, a despoiler of innocents even then, willing to bed any woman who would spread her creamy thighs for him if he crooked a finger in her direction.

Maybe because you didn’t let her see that side of you, idiot.

He clenched his jaw tightly and squeezed his eyes shut. Now was not the time to dwell on things best forgotten. He stood then, ready to leave, appalled by the way his whole body trembled as he gazed down at her.

He had to get out of there fast.

Had to get away from Myrddin and everything she represented. Everything he would never be worthy of. Everything he’d yearned for, for what seemed an eternity. He could never have something so precious and sweet. He would taint her with his worldly ways quicker than a seasoned whore could come.

He was halfway to the door when a hand to his arm stopped him. He turned his head and looked into the same green eyes that had beguiled him so long ago. A single tear rolled down