They look at each other and Ransom shrugs.
Corwin gives a soft sigh. “Warner is... easily distracted. He took off ahead of us and he could be anywhere now.”
I whack Ransom in the arm suddenly, which I tell myself is just because he’s the closest, but anyone with working eyeballs could see Corwin is actually standing closer to me. Maybe I’m still a little pissed that the asshole twin hasn’t corrected his lie about being mated to me like his brothers. I tamp down the urge to bring it up. If I let that come out, it won’t help my case if I try to indulge in a twin sandwich before I go home. What was I mad about again? Oh, yeah.
“You all took off and left me in a big pile of hay that decided to try and set me on fire!”
“There are enchantments in these woods,” Corwin begins to explain.
“There were,” Ransom says. “I think they are gone now.”
“Are you okay, Ruby?” Ax asks, making me jump. He shifted from lion to human out of eyeshot and now he’s at my side, giving me a look of concern with just a hint of ready-to-kill-whoever-dared-hurt-me. I practically melt into his touch when he strokes my back.
His gaze locks with mine, and I actually see it when my eyes glow gold at him. The color reflects in his eyes. He smiles slowly, reaching out to stroke the side of my face.
“We are truly mated,” he says. “Your soul shines for mine.”
“Well, we didn’t quite get time to seal the deal before,” I remind him, my voice low.
“Do you want to find some bushes, my bitch?”
I choke back a snort and shake my head. “We’re not exactly alone right now, Ax.”
He grins at me, his blue eyes seeming to sparkle. “There will not be many times when we are truly alone, Ruby. If you are mated to all of us, this is how it will always be.”
Now my panties want to melt right off. So much so that I do a quick visual check to make sure the magical clothes I’m wearing haven’t actually melted away at the crotch. Panic over. Apparently my witch-brain knows the difference between fantasy and magic.
I hear Corwin clear his throat and turn to catch Ransom glowering at Ax. His gaze flickers to mine and then falls to the forest floor. Jealousy. My stomach clenches at the sight of it. I know what it’s like to want something you can’t seem to grab hold of. Something that others seem to be given so easily. I know exactly how Ransom feels right now, but I doubt knowing this would do anything to help him. I don’t know what it is inside me that makes this weird mating thing happen. I don’t know how to make it happen with him.
“We should get moving,” Corwin says. “These woods aren’t completely safe, even now that the main enchantment has been lifted. There could be residual magic creeping around.”
“What about Warner?” I don’t like the thought of leaving him behind, but if we don’t know where he is I’m not sure what other choice we really have.
“He will find us when he’s ready,” Ax tells me, taking my hand. “He is likely already on his way to the Emerald City.”
Corwin nods. “He likes to go on ahead. As the eldest he feels it’s his responsibility to shield us from those who would harm us. As much as possible.”
Ransom starts to walk, and Corwin falls into step beside me, taking my free hand. We walk onward, out of the woods and back to the yellow brick road.
Chapter 22
We fall into a semi-comfortable silence as we walk onward, which suits me while my energy is low. Removing The Woodcutter’s curse was draining, and now the thought of physically exerting myself on top of that is making me groan. So I try to distract myself from my tired feet by attempting to start a conversation, and considering there’s one brother missing right now, my thoughts keep straying to him.
“So how did Warner hurt his eye?” I ask, glancing from Ax to Corwin. Ransom is walking slightly ahead of us and I’m not sure he’s even listening.
“It is an ugly story...” Corwin starts as Ax blurts, “Our father’s old pack hunted him down.”
“Another lion did that to him?”
Corwin nods slowly. “There were two of them. They were sent to bring him back to the pride to be questioned. He was tortured and he killed them both before they could bring him to them.”
I let that information sink in before asking, “How do you know about it?”
Warner doesn’t speak, and while it would be obvious something happened from his injuries I can’t understand how they would know what the pride’s intentions were.
Ax frowns a little when I glance his way. He doesn’t look at me so I turn to Corwin.
“Though he can’t speak, Warner is able to communicate through a mind-link.”
“When he chooses,” Ax adds in.
“He doesn’t often choose to do so,” Corwin says, shrugging. “I believe he was so close to dying he couldn’t help it. I saw what happened when I touched him. We all did.”
“So what did you guys do?”
“Warner refused to let us challenge the pride,” Ax says, a bitter note in his voice. “He showed us images of slaughter. Basically showing us we would die if we dared try to attack them.”
“The pride is vast. He was trying to protect us,” Corwin adds, keeping his voice level though his grip on my hand tightens a little.
“It was cowardly not to go after them for what they did to him,” Ax mutters, his gaze on the ground.
“It would have been a death sentence, brother.”
Ransom, who’s been silent throughout the conversation, and keeping a few steps ahead of us the entire time with no indication that he was listening to a word, chooses now to stop walking and turn to us.
“There’s no use treading back over the past. It will not do us any good.” He looks as if he has more to say, but he stops and shakes his head before he opens his mouth again. “It will soon be nightfall. There is a small town up ahead where we can look for shelter until it’s safe for Ruby to be out under cover of darkness again.”
“Which town were you thinking of, Ransom?” Corwin asks.
He points up ahead. “We are close to where Dorothy landed the first time she came. We may even be able to take shelter in the house that was hers.”
A house with a bathroom! I can hardly wait.
“Tonight, that can be our shelter. Tomorrow will be a treacherous day.”
“Treacherous how?” It can’t be worse than The Woodcutter or the straw golems, surely.
Ax gives me a grim stare. “We will have to get close to our father’s pride’s territory. You saw what they did to Warner. If there’s one thing they hate more than half-breeds, it is witches.”
Corwin nods, his expression solemn. “We will have to be extremely careful.”
We walk on in silence, an ominous tone set now for our journey. We’re about to crawl through hell. I hope it’s worth it.
Chapter 23
Dorothy’s house is freaking old. Also, there aren’t shriveled up witch legs under the house, but I guess it would be kinda grizzly if there were. It’s sitting haphazardly in a slightly overgrown field next to a small town, and by small town I mean miniature. The place is probably about the size of an average shopping mall and everything in it looks like it was made for little plastic dolls with fake-ass smiles and big-boobs. I feel like a giant. The guys steer me clear of the town and on toward the apparently abandoned house.
“So how come this place is... Oh.” I’m walked inside and instantly know why people aren’t trying to live here or turn it into some kind of curiosity museum. The sneezing and coughing I do as the insane amount of dust fills my lungs makes my chest hurt. I groan and quickly imagine the house clean and tidy. It only takes a few seconds to brighten up.
“That won’t last once night falls,” Ransom reminds me, his mood dark as per usual.
I roll my eyes. “So grab a broom and get ready for nightfall, because I’m not living inside a dust-bunny.”
He scowls as he moves into the other room. I glance around the hallway. Without the
dust and mess, it’s pretty ordinary looking. Kind of disappointing.
“So where did the witch go?” I mean, it’s been a while, but I feel like that just means the legs should have turned into remains by now. “I mean the one this house fell on.”
Corwin shrugs. “There’s an elemental side to magical beings. Some turn to dust when they die. Others melt away. Some become smoke on the breeze. Others burn away to nothing. I am not sure which fate befell that wicked one.”
Yikes. “Hold up. Which am I?”
Ax looks me over. “I believe you are fire.”
Corwin nods. “If the golems tried to burn you, it’s likely because that is your weakness.”
“Pretty sure anyone would die if you set them on fire.” Is it weird that I find this oddly reassuring? Maybe I’m just super glad my weakness isn’t water. I can see how a girl might eventually turn green and warty if having a shower would kill her. I’m just super glad that isn’t to be my fate.
“Yes, but most people would not catch fire quite so easily,” Corwin says. “So you must be mindful of that, Ruby.”
“You’re telling me I’m highly flammable?” I have to laugh. It feels like a joke. My fiery nature taken literally.
“I suppose,” Corwin says, before shrugging apologetically and going through the same door Ransom did.
Ax smiles suggestively when I turn his way. “I think we are alone now, Ruby.”
I glance down at his ready cock and smile back. “Then let’s make the most of it.”
Chapter 24
There are two bedrooms upstairs. The one with the smashed up double bed is clearly our best option, but it’s going to take work to be useable. I clap a hand over my face as the loudest sneeze ever blasts out of me. Ax raises an eyebrow my way. How can he not be bothered by this?
Ugh. Dust covers everything like an inch of black snow has fallen in the room.
I can fix it, but who knows how long it’ll last?
“When is nightfall, anyway?” I ask as I pull down the zipper on my cat-suit.
“Soon,” Ax tells me, with a shrug.
Right. They probably don’t have the same ways to measure time here that we do in the real world. I mean, in my world. Whatever. This is getting way too confusing.
I magically make the room dust free and fix the broken-down bed.
Ax grins at me as I step out of the cat-suit.
“We’re going to have to make this fast,” I tell him as he leans in close and runs his hands over my shoulders and down my back.
“No. I wish to take my time with you on our first mating.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call it that,” I murmur after he brushes his lips against mine.
“Call it what? Mating?” He raises an eyebrow at me. “What would you have me call it instead?”
What would I have him call it? I shrug. “Getting down and dirty?”
He laughs. “You have such amusing turns of phrase.”
Then he lifts me up and puts me down on the now perfect bed. It creaks a little when he climbs over me, but all I care about is how good it’s going to feel when he’s pressing me into the mattress with that incredible body of his. No movie star has ever had a body quite this perfect, and let’s be real, attractive guys with a flirty nature tend to have a list a mile long of all the women they’ve humped and dumped. I’m only into that if I’m horny, and I always know what I’m getting into. Ax is like a sweeter, innocent version of a typical player, and it only makes him more irresistible. Of course it helps that he’s the first guy who’s ever licked me out as if that was the main course.
He moves between my legs, his shaft rubbing lightly against my slick entrance.
“Are you ready for me, my bitch?” His voice is breathy and I see naked desire when I lift my gaze from his body to his eyes.
“Of...”
I’m cut off when something snaps suddenly, and the mattress slides down at the bottom, causing us both to stumble. The bed breaking is the least of our problems though, which I realize about three seconds after I burst into a fit of hysterical sneezing.
Ax helps me up from the dust-laden, destroyed bed. I shake myself off once he places me down on the floor. Ugh, I can’t even look at the bed. The room is a dirty, rotten mess again. Must be nightfall.
I pick up the old lady nightdress. I suppose I should be thankful that at least I don’t turn into an old lady when my magic fucks off, but it would be nice to have some notice when it’s about to happen.
“We must clean up this room,” Ax tells me, determination in his gaze.
I nod as I shake the floor dust off of the nightdress. “I can’t sleep in here when it’s like this.”
He smiles slowly. “I was not thinking of sleeping.”
Of course he wasn’t. I slip the nightdress on and look around, wondering where we should start. I idly brush dust off my dress as I move, noticing my hands looking a little grimy. Yuck. Better get used to it, Ruby. This place is disgusting. Don’t even think about looking at the soles of your feet.
I touch the back of my head when I pull my long hair back and instantly regret it. Feels gritty back there now, gross. I’ll be using my magic to take care of that in the morning, but right now I get the feeling I’m only going to get grimier with every passing moment.
“Okay,” I say, trying to let Ax’s determination rub off on me since nothing else is going to while the place looks like a dirt bomb exploded. “Let’s get started.”
Chapter 25
Ransom and Corwin are shouting at each other by the time Ax starts cleaning up the room to make it nicer for me to sleep in. I take off the hindrance of a nightdress once I realize my birthday dress won’t be too comfortable to sleep in. Whatever I’m wearing is going to need burned after the cleaning is done, I’m pretty sure. I throw on my red dress with a sigh, before storming down the stairs and into the kitchen.
The guys shut up the instant I step into the room. Corwin’s gaze is locked on his twin. His arms are crossed and his jaw is tensed. Ransom’s sullen stare could fell trees. He leans against the wall by the open back door and briefly turns his head my way before giving the woods outside his death-stare.
“What’s going on?” I use my most irritable tone, the one I mastered during my high school years, when virtually everything in existence pissed me off constantly.
Corwin shakes his head. “Ask Ransom.”
Someone else is apparently regressing to their teen years too. I turn Ransom’s way and he scowls, still staring into the woods.
“He doesn’t believe we’ve mated,” Ransom mutters, refusing to lock eyes with me.
Okay, I’m not sure what to say here. We haven’t, according to the signs they use. But considering it’s also the word they use for screwing, it wouldn’t really be too big of a lie to tell Corwin we have. I clear my throat.
“We have,” I say, quietly but clearly.
Corwin glances at me and his expression softens. “You have?”
He believes me over his own flesh and blood? That really doesn’t say much for Ransom’s character, if his own brother can’t trust what he’s saying without getting into a shouting match.
I bite back on telling him that it doesn’t matter. That I’m leaving soon so any talk of mating is meaningless. I won’t still be here to mate with any of them. My gaze moves to Ransom instead.
He gives me a fleeting smile, to express gratitude that I didn’t expose him as a liar, but something’s still on his mind. I get the feeling he’s probably used to butting heads with his brothers, so I don’t think that’s it. We aren’t mated, no matter what we tell Corwin. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s still bothering him.
“There are two bedrooms upstairs,” I start, about to disclose the sleeping arrangements. Considering how well I’ve been getting along with Ax, I’d prefer to share the double bed with him. Especially since we already made plans to wear out the mattress. Even if he can’t fix the bed frame and we wind up on the mattress on the floor, I c
an’t think of anyone else I’d rather share the room with.
“I will sleep outside,” Ransom says.
“You cannot,” Corwin tells him, already starting to get riled back up.
“We need to clean both rooms up before we can use them,” I say, going to the kitchen cupboards to check if there are brushes or cloths or something we can use to help make the task quicker.
“I will shift and keep watch outside,” Ransom says, altering his plan and glowering at his twin. “Will that satisfy you? I will keep watch while you spend the night with our mate.”
I raise an eyebrow at them. “Excuse me?”
“No, brother. You may share Ruby’s room tonight. I am sure she will enjoy your company this night, when you are in such a fine mood.” Corwin juts out his chin as he goads Ransom.
“Stop talking about me as if I’m not here,” I snap.
The both stare at me. Corwin has the good grace to look ashamed, but he isn’t as quick with his apologies as he was to snap at his brother. What the hell is going on with these two?
“I am sorry. This has been a long day and it has worn out my patience,” Corwin tells me. “Tell us what we need to do, Ruby, and we are at your disposal.”
At my disposal? Why do those words make me slick between the legs? Ransom nods, his gaze drifting salaciously down my body.
“Twin sandwich!” It pops into my head and out of my mouth before I can stop it.
“Twin sandwich?” Corwin frowns. “This sounds like a type of food, but I don’t believe...”
Ransom grins at me, his mood finally lifting. “No, brother. We are the twins. It is a human colloquialism.”
I raise my eyebrow at him. “You know about colloquialisms?”
“I know about a lot of things, Ruby. You might be surprised.”
“I’m sure I would be.” Oh hell, we’re flirting now. My earlier intentions to have Ax share my bed are being blown to pieces. Then my gaze finds Corwin’s frown and I realize at least one of us isn’t fully aboard the ménage train.
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