The Darkness of Shadoewynne: Book 3 of the Shadoewynne series

by Penelope Kein

  The cold air hit me and pebbled my nipples for a second before Travis was there. “Let me help warm those up.” He said with a smile before he sucked one into his mouth. I gasped, and my hips bucked against him. His voice broke as he said, “I will love you forever and always.” Travis didn’t move as slowly as Kait, and the warmth hadn’t gone away completely, so we quickly blew apart. He froze and stared at me, just like Kait had. I could feel them both, nestled even stronger in my head, and it seemed like a thread connected their hearts to mine. There was a strange triple beat in my chest as I felt the echoes of their hearts.

  David was more impatient than Travis had been, so he leaned in between us and began kissing me hard. Travis jumped. I think he forgot the others were in the room. I stifled a giggle as he moved away, trailing his fingers down my leg as he did.

  David settled himself above me, catching my eye before he took a deep breath and said, “Sugar, you are my everything. I will love you forever and always.” Even though he had pushed Travis aside, once he was inside me, he took his time. The warmth slowly grew along with the pleasure until we came together, the room echoing with our cries as the magic wound around us all, joining us forever.

  As I laid there in bed after we all cleaned up, the thundering of the four heartbeats in my chest drummed me off to sleep. I dreamed of us as a family, all happy, healthy, and laughing as we went about daily life.

  *********

  The next morning a pounding woke me up. I extricated myself from the tangle of limbs and threw on a robe on the way to the door. A butler was standing there, looking unperturbed, which was the exact opposite from the way he had been assaulting the door.

  He stepped back and bowed. “Hello, ma’am. We have found another sick dragon. We have arranged a carriage for you and it will wait until you are ready. Would you like your breakfast brought up now?”

  I blinked at the onslaught. It was too much information all at once this early in the morning. I ended up just nodding at him and he bowed before he turned on his heel and left. Kait was standing behind me when I turned around. He pulled me into his arms, so I rested my head against his shoulder. He rubbed the back of my neck and I groaned against him.

  I peeked up at him, only to find his brown eyes trained on mine. “I didn’t think I drank that much, but my head today says otherwise.”

  He smiled slightly. “My head doesn’t like me today either, and from the way Travis and David sounded, I think they feel the same way.”

  I smiled against his neck where I had been kissing. His arms tightened around me, so I nipped at the spot behind his ear. He moaned softly.

  A knock on the door had me whining. Can’t they just leave us alone? I mean, we are on our honeymoon, after all! I giggled at that thought. I’m on my honeymoon!

  Kait ignored my glare, and my internal musings, and answered the door. A bellhop pushed a gleaming silver tray piled high with platters covered with shiny domes into the room. He bowed, then left, and Kait shut the door behind him. The bottom of the tray held several pitchers, which appeared to be milk and orange juice, or reasonable facsimiles, as well as a steaming carafe of the local coffee substitute. When he removed the cover of one of the plate, the savory aroma of breakfast sausage reminded me how hungry I was.

  “Go get Travis and David up, so they can eat before it gets cold.” I transferred my glare to him before I nodded reluctantly. He’s right, but I’m not staying to make sure they are awake.

  I heard a soft snort behind me as I rushed into the bedroom.

  Travis was on the far side of the bed, with the covers pushed down to his waist. He was sleeping on his back with his arms flung out to the sides and his hair was throughly mussed. Even with a soft snore coming from his open mouth, he was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. David was closest to me and was curled into a ball with the covers pulled tightly around his shoulders in a child-like pose that just made my heart melt. His relaxed face made him look younger than he was. Since he was closest, I started with him.

  I leaned down and kissed his cheek while running my hands through his hair. He stirred, reaching for me. I allowed him to pull me on top of him as I sought out his mouth. He sleepily responded to me. After a moment, his arms tightened around me and he did some ninja-flip magic, tossing me to the middle of the bed and landed straddling me. His mouth barely left mine during the maneuver.

  God, that was hot!

  My hips were moving against his, when Kait called from the other room.

  “Remember why you’re in there, Princess!” His words barely registered in my heated brain. The flip had woken Travis and he was kissing the other side of my neck. I gasped against David’s mouth. “Princess!”

  “OH! Food, in, other, room.” Travis sucked on a particularly sensitive spot, drawing another gasp as I attempted to complete my mission. “Gonna, get, cold.”

  “What was that, Sugar?” David murmured against my nipple. When had my robe disappeared? I couldn’t think or respond.

  “She said, breakfast is here, and it’s gonna get cold. Come on, horn-ball.” Kait pulled David up and Travis reluctantly sat back. I pouted at Kait, who stared at me sternly. “What happened to not waiting to make sure they were up before coming back to breakfast, Princess?”

  I gaped at Kait until he let his stern mask slip and he smirked at me. “Bastard! I thought you were mad for a minute!”

  He snickered as he held out his arms. “I didn’t think you would get distracted that easily, or I would have joined you.” He kissed me quickly on the lips. “But, the food is getting cold, and cold eggs are gross.”

  “Yes, they are. Come on, guys, we can finish this later!”

  Kait tossed a large shirt at me on my way out of the room. I caught it, put it on, and sauntered into the sitting room where my husbands were waiting. I grinned. My husbands.

  It had a nice ring to it. Travis had made me a plate, which he handed to me as I sat down. David put a cup of the coffee substitute on the table next to me. I had been avoiding it since we got there, using the powered coffee Kait had brought instead, but we had run out the day before. When I hesitantly took a sip, its chocolate, nutty flavor pleasantly surprised me, like a hazelnut hot chocolate with caffeine. The plate contained French toast, scrambled eggs and fruit. It looked like I had gotten most of the fruit.

  “Doesn’t anyone else want fruit?”

  They all made faces at me, so I shrugged and ate it all. The kitchen here was superb. We changed before we headed out. The heat outside made me feel slightly nauseous and I immediately regretted eating all that fruit. David rubbed my back as we climbed into the carriage.

  “I guess we should have warned you more than just by making faces. The heat here can really make you sick.”

  I just nodded as I sunk down onto the cushion.

  “So, what’s the dets? Same as before?”

  Kait nodded. “Yep, we head out into the jungle, find the sick dragon, fix it, then we can come home. We need to try to find the source of the ailment, too, which is why the boys are with us. They will scout the area to see if there is anything unusual.”

  “Well, hopefully, we won’t be accosted by brownies this time.”

  “Don’t go following random feelings being thrust on you and we won’t have a problem.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him and his eyes darkened. He leaned forward. “Princess, you know what I say to that. I have a better use for your tongue.” I grinned at him and winked. He smiled as he sat back. “I’ll take that as a promise.” Heat pooled in my core. Oh yes, please.

  The carriage turned translucent again and took us into the jungle. This time we followed a tumbling stream up into the mountain. Pretty waterfalls and still pools occasionally punctuated the smoothly flowing stream. In one large pool, just under a waterfall that fell at least fifty-feet, three blue-skinned woman washed their clothes. They screamed and dived into the pool when we approached, leaving their wet clothing behind on the swiftly drying rocks. T
he carriage continued on without pause, but when I glanced back, I saw them resurface and take up their clothes again, barely even glancing at the retreating carriage.

  Chapter 18

  After about forty-five minutes, the carriage finally stopped and sunk to the ground. David climbed out first, then held a hand out for me gallantly. I giggled as I took it and he kissed the back of my hand. I wiggled my eyebrows at him. He grinned, then pulled me in for a kiss, dipping me back while he did. When he stood us up, Kait and Travis had already moved off into the jungle. He laughed, then darted off to find them.

  I followed him slowly, since I didn’t want to trip and hurt my ankle or something. The bond told me exactly where they were and I could even hear a little of what they were thinking if I concentrated. After a second or so, though, I had to force myself not to listen. All the guys were thinking about what we would do later. Or I should say, what they wanted to do to me later. I felt my face, and my core, heating at their thoughts.

  Kait called out, “Found it!”

  I put aside their thoughts, and mine, and rushed to his side. This dragon was in even worse condition than the last, with hardly any scales remaining. Its color was a mottled grayish green, which did not look natural at all, and the gums visible through its open, panting mouth were almost white. Each breath was a labored gasp.

  Concerned it was a hopeless cause, I placed my hands gently on its head. It didn’t even stir at my touch; not even a flicker of eye movement said it recognized that someone was here. The dark power laid over it completely, swamping its mind and its body. Tears welled as I attempted to pull the dark power away, but it would not relinquish its grasp on the dying animal. Sobs escaped me as one last breath huffed out of the dragon's open mouth, then silence descended on us. The slow beat of its heart faltered before ceasing completely.

  Kait pulled me from the dead dragon and buried my face in his chest. I couldn’t help weeping as I mourned this wonderful creature. If only we hadn’t been fooling around this morning, or we hadn’t taken so long for breakfast, maybe we could have saved it. Kait pulled back a bit and tilted my head until my eyes met his.

  “There wasn’t anything you could do, and the extra fifteen minutes this morning would not have made a difference. It was most likely too late when they found him. Now, David and I will give him a proper burial and we will go back to the hotel, okay?”

  I wiped my eyes and nodded. He was right. We didn’t take that long to leave and the dark power had permeated every bit of the dragon's body.

  “Don’t touch him, okay? He’s saturated with dark power.”

  “All right, but we will need to cleanse you later. You touched him.”

  “Okay.”

  David had stepped up to Kait’s side, and when Kait nodded at him, he closed his eyes and held out his hands. Kait did the same. Their breathing evened out, then the forest floor shook a bit. The dragon's body settled further into the undergrowth. The floor shook again. That was when I realized Kait and David were digging under the dragon. There would be a tremor, then the body would sink, then another tremor. This went on for about twenty minutes until only the tips of its wings were visible. The ground rose up around it, covering it in a mound, then plants began creeping up its sides. First the vines, which grew flowers as they climbed, then the surrounding bushes grew up the mound. Almost forty minutes later, there was no sign of the dragon, or that it was the resting place of such a magnificent beast.

  We were a somber party on the way back to the carriage. I was not in the mood to flirt and the guys sensed it. The carriage ride back was quiet, and when we arrived at the hotel, I went up to the room and crawled into the bed. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted.

  *********

  A few hours later, Travis woke me up. “Come on, Babe, dinner is waiting for us downstairs. You skipped lunch; I’m sure you’re hungry.”

  I sat up and stretched. He was right. I was more than hungry; I was starving. My stomach growled as I swung my feet over the side of the bed.

  “Thank you for letting me sleep. I needed that. It felt like I failed the dragon and I just needed to process it.”

  He rubbed my back. “One of the hardest lessons is that even though we have this extraordinary power, we can’t control everything, and there are many things that can’t be healed, even with magic. The best we can do is to learn from it and do what we can.”

  “True. I had begun to think that I could heal anything. It was a hard blow to be hit with reality like that.”

  He walked around the bed to stand in front of me. He held out his hands, then pulled me up and against him once I put my hands in his. After kissing the top of my head, he said, “Come on, let’s go have dinner.” I nodded so he led me to the sitting room where the others were waiting.

  “Today’s meal is waiting for us on the veranda. It’s the outdoor seating area for the restaurant.” Kait whispered. Now that I paid attention, the guys were all dressed somewhat formally, with button-down shirts tucked into their dress slacks. I was still in my jungle-exploring clothes from earlier. I glared at Travis as I turned back around to the bedroom to change.

  It took me a minute to find something suitable. We had mostly packed casual clothes, but I noticed that, once again, someone had gone shopping for me. There were quite a few outfits hanging in the closet I didn’t recognize. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t hang anything from my suitcase. The only reason I even thought to look in there was the door was slightly open.

  I picked out a nice, light floral sundress that complimented the colors of the guys' shirts nicely. There was a pair of white sandals that matched the dress at the bottom of the closet. Somebody had thought of everything. It was cute how the guy's eyes all lit up as they saw me. Talk about making a girl feel special.

  Kait grinned. “Of course we try to make you feel special. Because you are.”

  “Awww. But that’s not why I love it. It’s because you do it without trying. It just feels so genuine and it makes me feel that much more loved. Now, before we get all sappy, let’s go eat!”

  They all laughed. We flirted and enjoyed ourselves on the way to dinner. The food Kait had pre-ordered for us was excellent, even though I didn’t know what it was, and the wine paired with it perfectly. A slight breeze kept most of the heat and humidity from us and the sunset was phenomenal. I was on cloud nine.

  It continued like that for a few weeks. We would go out in the day and save some wildlife, it wasn’t always dragons, then feast in the evenings. We lost no more animals. Kait had apparently read the lobby staff the riot act, so they were more actively looking for sick animals, ensuring that we reached them faster.

  It was just another day, about three weeks later. The office had sent a bellhop up mid-morning to report another sick dragon and we were on our way to save it. With the extra practice I was getting, my healing skills had improved, and now I didn’t even need to touch the animal to heal it. After about a ten-minute trek through the woods, we came upon the animal. It was a smaller dragon, about the size of Gill (who had taken up permanent residence in our room), and it was snuffling around the clearing. Its skin looked clear, and it wasn’t losing scales yet, so it wasn’t too far gone. I just needed it to hold still for a second so I could wrap it in my healing energy.

  I was following it as it walked in a circular pattern with its snout to the ground as I tried, unsuccessfully, to probe it with magic. Suddenly, it fell to the side and froze. Its legs were sticking straight out, and every few seconds it would gasp. Blackness slowly overtook the rainbow colors of its open eyes.

  Shit! I jumped toward it and shoved my healing power at it. Since it was so small, it lifted slightly off the ground as I wrapped it in the magic power. The darkness bled out of it quickly and it settled back down to the ground. It sat up, shook its head, then went back to snuffling like nothing happened.

  A second later, it collapsed on the ground again, in almost the same position. This time, its tongue was hanging out
of its mouth. I sighed and healed it again. The darkness was barely there, but it was easily overwhelming the small animal. Once healed, it sat up, shook its head, then continued to snuffle through the dead leaves.

  Less than a minute later, it fell over again. This time, I walked over to it, picked it up, then set it down in the middle of the clearing. David went over to examine the spots where it had fallen. I healed it and it moved on, this time heading off into the jungle, happily rooting through the undergrowth and debris on the ground. I shook my head as I watched it walk away.

  When I was sure it wouldn’t have another attack, I looked back to David, who was poking at something on the ground with a stick and talking seriously with Kait, who had his arms crossed as he listened to David. Travis knelt next to them, nodding along with David's words. I walked over to them and listened to the conversation.

  “…This rock right here seems to have more of the dark power in it, but these around here are contaminated as well. I would like to take them back to study, but I don’t think it’s safe to touch them. I was thinking of weaving a basket with my powers, and tongs to pick them up, but I don’t think it will shield them enough. Do you know a way to shield them?”

  Kait stared into space while he was thinking.

  “What about if I used my magic to fill the holes in the basket like I did in your mind when we isolated the sickness?” I jumped right in with my suggestion.

  Kait finally focused on me. “Good idea, Princess. I think you should try it.”

  David was just staring at me with a frown. “I don’t know. I didn’t remember that.”

  I had forgotten that he remembered nothing from when he was sick. I forced a smile. “It’s fine, I’ll show you what we did. Make your basket, and I’ll weave my magic in, then we can figure out a lid.”