Taken by Storm (Storms of Blackwood Book 1)

by Elle Middaugh

  Those Storm Princes had become the foundation of my whole new world, and I wanted them—needed them—to be with me always. I had a terrible feeling this whole situation went deeper than anyone realized, and we were going to need to rely on each other's strengths if we hoped to get through the upcoming months and years alive.

  Our powers supposedly made us immortal, but I wouldn't put it past the Storm King to have found a way to slay a god. I mean, he’d killed Asher already, hadn’t he? And what about Rory? And all the other dead prisoners? The guys had mentioned that the Storm King might’ve had a sorcerer place a spell on him that kept him from dying. What were the odds that same sorcerer had a method of killing gods? If there was even a chance that one of us could die, then we needed to bond together and share each other’s strength and protection.

  I ran up to my room and talked it over with Speedy—just to make sure I wasn’t rushing into something stupid and reckless.

  “I have a theory,” I told him as he hung from my bed post.

  His masked face was smiling as usual, encouraging me to continue.

  “I think the king has a god-killing potion or poison or something.”

  He bleated loudly, then dropped from my bed and crashed to the ground.

  “Speedy, for fuck’s sake, this is no time to commit suicide! I need your opinion here.” I scooped him up and dusted him off, cradling him in my arms as I paced around the room. “The princes offered me a blood bond. A binding ritual to ensure we’re committed to one another. I’m thinking... if the king has the ability to kill us, then we’ll probably survive longer if we’re bonded together. Thoughts?”

  Speedy’s bleat sounded more like a groan, which was odd for him.

  I studied him closer, sifting through the fur of his head, shocked to find a patch of it was bloody.

  “Oh, Speedy boy, are you okay?” I wiped the sticky blood on my dress, instantly regretting my life choices. There went another gown I’d ruined with my repulsive peasant ways. “I can’t believe you actually drew blood this time. I’m, like, torn between feeling genuinely bad for you and being seriously upset that you’re trying to leave me.”

  He bleated again, and I snuggled him tighter.

  “Okay, I’ll do the blood bond, but only because you just told me to.”

  The bleat that came next was decidedly flatter in tone. Speedy was not amused.

  “I think I love them,” I admitted quietly. “I haven’t felt this way about anyone since Adam. It’s been years since he left me... I think it’s time to move on.”

  Speedy crawled from my lap and slowly moved across my bed, heading for the other side.

  “Oh, you’re not getting away from me now, Mister Sloth,” I said, scooping him back up. “Not after that dive-bomb you just took off the bed. Nope. I’m taking you with me—as suicide prevention. And, you know, for moral support.”

  I snuck into the hallway and over to each of the prince's doors, knocking only as loudly as I dared. The four of them stumbled out, shirtless, apparently undressing from the ball.

  Aphro-fucking-dite, they were hot. My mouth went dry at the sight of them standing there so deliciously half naked. I almost dropped Speedy on his head again.

  Maybe they really had been born of immaculate conception? Their bodies were definitely divine.

  "What's up, Jewels?" Rob mumbled, running a hand through his dark hair.

  "I want to do it."

  Dan smirked, perking up almost instantly. "Then you've come to the right place, baby girl."

  That made me snort. "The blood bond, I mean."

  "Blood bond?" Ben asked, eyeing my sloth with wariness and mild disgust.

  "What's a blood bond?" Dan glanced from brother to brother.

  "A magically binding ceremony,” Rob explained. “Whatever details and rules you decide upon get set in stone and in blood forever."

  Dan's brows furrowed. "And what exactly are we binding?"

  "Ourselves," Rob said matter-of-factly.

  "Ah," Ben mused, figuring it all out way faster than Dan seemed to.

  "I want to do it tonight," I added.

  Rob leaned back into his bedroom door and crossed his arms. "A couple hours ago, you were hesitant and scared. Why the sudden change of heart?"

  I shook my head. It really wasn't an easy question to answer, especially when my feelings were all over the place and my thoughts were just as chaotic.

  "I was stupid for hesitating before. It was more... a fear of the bond itself... than it was a fear of who I was being bound to. I want you guys—all four of you—and I want to give myself to you in return. I want nothing and no one”—I exchanged a knowing glance with Cal—“to come between us. I have a feeling we're going to genuinely need each other in this fucked-up life we’re living."

  Rob nodded, apparently pleased with my explanation.

  "And how exactly do we do this bond ritual thing?" Dan asked no one in particular.

  The Spirit Prince stroked his plush bottom lip as he thought to himself. "I think we'll go to the graveyard."

  Dan raised his brows and waited. “And then what?”

  Rob pushed away from his door and shrugged. “Then we’ll say the binding words, seal it in blood, and ta-da. Blood bond complete.”

  “I don’t know about this...” Cal said, making my heart race and my eyes narrow. Was he already considering backing out? “Have you ever even done one of these things before?”

  “Not personally,” Rob admitted, “but as ruler of the south, I’ve officiated hundreds of them. I know how they work.”

  “What’s in the south?” I asked stupidly. “Why do they do blood bonds there and we don’t?”

  “Dead things,” Dan said, wiggling his fingers creepily.

  I rolled my eyes, crossed my arms, and stuck my tongue out at him.

  “No, seriously,” Ben said, coming to Dan’s aid. “Dead things. Vampires, zombies, spirits, demons.”

  “Angels?” I asked.

  “No, they stick with the harpies and avians,” Rob informed me.

  “So, the winged things stick together.” I guess it made a certain sense. “And the dead things stick together. And the living things.”

  “And the scaled things,” Dan added. “There are a number of merfolk and sea shifters that group together.”

  “I see.”

  I didn’t really.

  I couldn’t understand why any one group needed to hide away and segregate themselves. The world was big enough for all of us, wasn’t it? What if a harpy wanted to marry a mermaid? What if a shifter wanted to marry a vampire? It should have been a thing.

  “So, now that we’re thoroughly off track,” Rob said in a sigh, “why don’t we head to the graveyard before we run out of moonlight.”

  “The ritual requires moonlight?” I asked, sidling up to Rob as he put an arm around me.

  Ben chuckled from my other side, eyeing Speedy like a round of Swamp-ass Fever just waiting to happen. “Oh, Lexicon, what are we going to do with you?”

  I grinned and rolled my eyes. “Bind yourselves to me, I guess.”

  Chapter 31

  The moon hung full and low in the sky, glowing in a soft white light that made the graveyard look more pleasant than petrifying, and the air was warm and sweet thanks to the wildflowers that had overtaken most of the stones.

  I didn’t even know Nightshade had its own cemetery, though I supposed with as old as the kingdom once was, they’d have gone through a number of dynasties that needed a final resting place.

  As we walked, Rob nodded, smiled, waved, and said hellos. If I didn’t know he was the Spirit Prince, I’d have assumed he was batshit crazy and speaking to his imaginary friends. When we reached the middle of the yard, Rob held out his hands and spun around.

  “Who here would be willing to bear witness to our blood bond?”

  “We need witnesses?” I asked, leaning into Ben’s ear.

  He sniffed out a quiet laugh and shook his head. Apparently,
I was being my usual intelligent self. It wasn’t that I was stupid. I was just evidently sheltered for most of my life, despite the fact that I thought I’d been harshly overworked.

  “Thank you,” Rob said, waving... something... over to our general direction. A spirit maybe? Then he turned the other way and waved at them too. “Come on, don’t be shy. Pack in tight and make a circle.”

  The air at my back became cold, and recalling the sensation from last time, I had a feeling there was a spirit or two standing directly behind me. It made me want to shiver for reasons beyond the cold.

  “All right,” Rob said, loosening up his limbs like he was about to enter a fight. “Let’s get started. This is an official blood bond ceremony between Alexis Ravenel and the Storm brothers. Oh, shit, I almost forgot."

  Rob turned to the air around us and stood on tiptoes as if he were peering overtop of heads.

  "Does anyone have a knife? Anybody? No, that's not a crude pun about your incorporeal forms. Yeah, at least one if not five. Okay, thanks."

  A few seconds later, five knives just randomly appeared in his hands.

  I gasped and hopped back an inch or so, even though I knew damn well where they’d come from.

  "All right," Rob began again, passing out the blades. They were all different shapes and sizes. Plain, ornate, curved, double-sided, jagged... "Now, we'll go around the circle and state the laws of the binding. For every rule we make, we should also make a cut. But it’s the blood being mixed together at the end that’s the most important.”

  I nodded, hooking Speedy onto my arm so that I had both of my hands free. “Okay."

  When he was finished passing out the blades, Rob took his position back at the front of the group. "I'll make the first rule. This bond is between Alexis and us Storm brothers, not a soul more. Especially not exes. If you agree, say 'agreed' and slice yourself.”

  “Where?” I asked, as everyone else made their cuts.

  "Palm, forearm, thigh, it really doesn't matter. Just draw blood."

  "Okay. I agree," I said, slashing a thin line into my palm. It stung immediately, making my hand want to ball up into a fist.

  Rob grinned. "Good job. Who's next?"

  "Me," Cal said. "We agree to always be transparent with each, no matter how small the truth may be, so that there are never any secrets of any kind, even inadvertent ones.”

  “I agree,” everyone said, making a second slice.

  "We keep it fair,” Ben added. “No brother gets more or less attention, especially sexually."

  "I agree," we all said, and I sliced my palm a third time.

  "Anyone else?" Rob asked.

  “Nope,” Dan said, glancing over at me for confirmation. “I’m good.”

  I took a deep breath. “This bond will allow us to share in each other’s strengths and protections, uniting us as one.”

  There was a thoughtful pause—probably because no one, not even me, knew exactly what I meant by those words—and then one by one, everyone uttered “I agree” and sliced their skin again.

  My hand burned a little extra hot that time, suggesting that I’d cut too deep. I made a fist and a crooked line of blood squeezed through my fingers before dripping onto the protruding soil of some unmarked grave. Gross.

  “Okay then,” Rob said. “We join our hands, making sure the blood mixes all the way, then we say the incantation. Repeat after me. By Hades, Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter.”

  We slowly repeated the names.

  “I swear my life to the magic and blood of this bond.”

  We repeated him again, glancing almost nervously at one another as we uttered the words. There was a spark though, an anticipation buzzing throughout our circle. I could feel it. We weren’t just scared; we were excited.

  “Nothing shall break it, nor come between the souls involved.”

  We repeated the sentence; then Rob finished the incantation.

  “In the name of the gods, we are bound.”

  “In the name of the gods, we are bound,” I said, finishing the ritual along with the others.

  Energy surged, rushing through me like a gust of wind through the tunnels of my veins. My hair whipped around my face, and the gale tugged on my dress. The guys’ hair tousled, and their pants wavered in the breeze—they hadn’t bothered to throw on shirts, thank the gods.

  When the wind died down and my hair once more fell onto my shoulders, a strange sensation tugged at my heart. A pull, like an anchor or a tether drew me intimately closer to each of the princes. It was almost as if our souls had been combined somehow. Like we were no longer complete on our own but only as a group.

  “Oh, my gods,” I whispered, staring at each of their faces in turn. “This is real. The bond really happened. I can feel it.”

  Dan grinned almost shyly for once. “So can I.”

  “Me too,” Ben agreed, a warm smile lighting up his face.

  Cal nodded. “We are now committed, 100 percent, to the group dynamic, no matter who we talk to, dance with, marry, or anything. We should trust each other 100 percent too, because this is as real as it’s ever going to get.”

  “Agreed,” Rob said, collecting the knives and handing them back to whatever ghost they’d come from. When they disappeared into thin air, Rob rubbed his arms. “Thank you.”

  The coldness dissipated, and I assumed our crowd of spectral witnesses had wandered off, possibly back to their graves, or wherever else spirits liked to chill.

  “So, you’re not going to marry Bria?” I asked Cal hopefully. It was pretty much a given at this point, but still, I had to be sure.

  He took one elongated stride between us and cupped my face in his hands. “I’m not going to marry Bria.”

  Then he gently touched his lips to mine, sealing his words with a kiss of promise.

  “But,” he said, and I had a feeling it was a really big but, “you’re not going to marry anyone else either.”

  The air had warmed, but my blood went suddenly cold. “What do you mean? I have to. Your father is forcing me to.”

  Cal shook his head. “No. He isn’t. He’s coercing you, yes, but he can’t force us to play exactly the way he wants. He wanted my union with Bria to fall through. So be it, but we’re preventing the war with Timberlune. He wanted you to choose a Storm Prince to marry? Well, fuck him. You ended up with one—or four, but who’s counting?—just like he wanted. But we’re not giving him the satisfaction of a marriage. At least not between two of us.”

  I swallowed, but my spit was thick and sticky. “You want me to marry all of you?”

  Cal’s eyes never left mine. “Either that or none of us.”

  I turned from him to face the others. “Do you agree with this?”

  To my surprise, they all nodded.

  “I think not marrying at all would really stick it to the man,” Rob said with a blue-lipped grin. “But I’m cool with either.”

  “You look cool in general,” I said, eyeing him curiously. “As in freezing cold.”

  He shook his head, and I heard his teeth chattering. “It’s just the price of my magic. I’m used to it by now.”

  “No way,” I said, moving over to him. “You helped me with my magical consequences, let me help you with yours.”

  He sniffed out a wobbly laugh. “How you going to do that?”

  “By letting you piggyback me?”

  I handed Speedy off to Cal then clambered up onto Rob’s back.

  He chuckled and shook his head. “This seems to be helping you more than me.”

  “Oh, hush,” I said, snuggling in closer. “I’m keeping you warm. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Do you guys really think we should boycott the marriage?”

  “I don’t want your mom to get hurt,” Ben said gently. “But I don’t want us to be pawns in the Storm King’s game forever.”

  Dan shook his head. “I despise seeing you flirt with my brothers instead of me, but I also hate seeing you sad. The no PDA thing wouldn’t have to
be a rule if there was no stupid marriage. You could just be not-so-secretly dating us all. I think that’d make things a lot easier on all of us.”

  “Or a lot harder,” I conceded, thinking of how miserable the Storm King was bound to try and make us. He wanted control, and us defying him like this was the farthest thing from control he’d probably experienced in decades.

  “What’s he going to do to our moms and loved ones?” I asked, not even wanting to hear the answer.

  Cal shook his head. “In order to keep them safe, we’ll have to be smart about it. Trap him in an ultimatum of our own. Make it so that he’s the one who has no choice but to play along in our game for once.”

  “How the hell are we going to force him into a situation like that?” I wondered. But then I remembered the slimy old servant’s story. “Unless...”

  All of their faces grew stern; even Rob turned around and glared at me. “Unless what?”

  “Unless the story I heard was true.”

  “And what story was that?” Cal asked, glancing between me and the guys with a strange sort of expression. It made me feel like he knew something I didn’t.

  I took a deep breath and recalled the important bits. “The story goes that the Storm King is sterile. And that you four are not actually his blood-born sons.”

  “That’s heresy to say, Jewels, you know that, right?”

  “He’d fucking kill us on sight if he thought we weren’t his sons,” Dan added, looking a little edgy. “Please don’t tell me we’re contemplating letting this news out of the bag?” Dan asked. “What good is it going to do? It’ll only paint targets on our heads.”

  I wasn’t so sure. “It would make his reign illegitimate. I mean, yeah, he still conquered each kingdom, but... he’s been keeping his control through you guys and the queens. Otherwise, he would have just killed them and never bothered with children. He knows the people are at least partially satisfied because one of the original heirs of each kingdom is still wearing a crown. But if the people found out you weren’t the blood of the king...”

  “Then they might rise up against him,” Ben finished, a glimmer of hope sparking in his eyes. “You guys, we could start a revolution.”