Outside the cage, I hear my name, but I can’t see anything through the movement of that water. But things are suddenly clear as the water slows, and stops. The magic laid on the entrance above me starts to shift, and I go cold with brand new terror. The cube is solid now. Red light flows across the outer edges of this box, drawing glyphs in jagged marks that I’ve never seen before, but are like the one that rendered Ariana invisible. I know by the dark energy coming off them that this is old magic. Older than I’ve been alive and likely older than my mates.
It fuses with the cube and locks it. One solid piece now. Unbreakable. And no holes. No air. The bubble Emma and I are in is small, and I haven’t been conserving any oxygen at all. Already the walls are drawing condensation, and I notice that the air feels thin.
She even planned for this. Knew that I would try to save Emma at any cost, and thought of a way to get what she wanted. Placing my hands directly on the surface of our cage, I reach down and do what I never wanted to do again. I plunge into the well of the Goddess’s magic entirely, and unleash it.
It melts the surface of this ice or diamond—whatever the hell she’s trapped me inside of—but nothing more. The magic she’s chosen isn’t magic, I realize. It’s a binding. Old enough to have been used against the gods. Ariana is hell-bent on killing Cerys. I don’t know how deep or how far she searched for a way to trap this kind of power, but I feel it. I know that it’s older than the remaking itself, and if I used every ounce of power I was given, it will not be enough.
Outside, I see my mates running. They realize what’s happening and are blasting the outside of the cube with magic and their blades, trying anything to get through. But that won’t work. I know it won’t. Brae flinches away from the cube when he rests his hand on it, flesh burning.
I’m calmer than I probably should be. But this is why I wanted to make sure I mated with them. We knew that this might happen, and Ariana forced our hand. I push all the love in the world at them through our bond. Everything is hazy, and there doesn’t seem to be enough air. Why is that? I pull in another breath and another, but it’s thin like I’m on a high mountain. I can’t remember why.
I lay down beside Emma. It was so nice of her to visit. The thought floats through my head like mist burning off in the sun. I wish she would do it more often. The last thing I hear is gunshots.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
________
KARI
Deja vu. That’s what I feel right now. Am I really awake? Didn’t this happen just recently? Where I was pinned between Verys and Urien, pretending to be asleep? But that morning I don’t remember everything hurting like this. Why does everything hurt? Again? I thought that I wasn’t cursed anymore.
“Ow,” I say. “What happened?”
Verys’s eyes fly open, and I feel the overwhelming joy he feels, followed by him trying to be gentle with me even though every instinct in him wants to crush me to his chest. I take a deep breath, and my lungs ache. Suddenly everything comes flooding back, and I sit up in spite of the pain. “Emma. Where is she?”
I nearly leap off the bed, and Urien catches me around the waist and hauls me back. “Hold on, Kari. Take it slow.”
“I need to see her.”
Verys takes my hands and holds them. “Okay. But you need to rest as well.” But he releases me. “She’s down the hall.”
I hate the fact that I feel weak, and I ignore the fact that I’m in pain, going straight for the door that I don’t recognize on this floor. Emma is lying in a beautiful plush bed, the bright turquoise bedding is so her, that I have no doubt the house made this room to allow her to be the most comfortable. Her eyes are open, and she’s staring at the wall.
“Emma,” I say, rushing to the bed, but she doesn’t really respond. After a minute she seems to notice that I’m there, eyes drifting over to meet mine. The emptiness in them is terrifying. She’s not taken the way Kiaran is, but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a cost to this. “How are you?”
“I don’t know,” she says softly.
After a long silence, I lean over and hug her. “You’re safe now.”
She slowly shakes her head. “I don’t remember most of it. There were…dreams. Terrifying dreams. And when there weren’t, there were—” she cuts off. “It’s all fuzzy.”
“Everything will be fine,” I tell her. “You’re safe now.”
Looking over my shoulder, I see Urien hovering. I didn’t even think to ask, but I need to. “I’ll be right back.”
“Is she okay?” I ask him, stepping into the hallway.
Urien crosses his arms and sighs. “Physically, yes. I was able to repair all the damage done to both her and you. Mentally, I think only time will tell.”
“Okay, thanks.”
He puts a hand on my arm. “I have guards ready for when she wants to go home. She won’t be unattended.”
“Thank you,” I say, smiling, “but I want her to stay here for now.”
“Of course.” He kisses my forehead before departing.
I need to go talk to my other mates so they can be okay with me being alive. But I also need to make sure that she’s all right. “Listen,” I say, sitting back down on the bed. “You can stay with us for as long as you need to.”
“No.” The word is loud and forceful. She’s suddenly animated. “No, I don’t want to stay here.”
“I swear to you that it’s safe,” I say. “I promise. Nothing can get through the shield here.”
Emma rolls to the other side of the bed and stands up. She already has clothes on. “I waited because I wanted to make sure that you were okay, but I can’t be here. The shield doesn’t matter to me. I can’t be in Allwyn. I can’t. I can’t.”
Those last words are nearly a sob, and I freeze. Guilt builds in my chest. This, no matter what anyone says, is my fault. She’s the one who has to live with it, but I do to. “Okay,” I say. “That’s fine. We can take you home.”
“I’m sorry,” she says without looking at me, and she hugs me quickly in the same way. “I just need to be home.”
Emma disappears out of the room, and I’m left staring after her. That’s not exactly what I had expected or hoped. But neither was it fair of me to have expectations of her to begin with after what she just went through.
Brae finds me still sitting on her bed a few minutes later. “She’s gone. Aeric took her home.”
“Okay,” I say, fighting the sadness. “We can’t tell her about Urien’s guards. If she doesn’t want to be in Allwyn, she won’t want fae anywhere near her. But she can’t be left defenseless.”
He smiles. “They’ll be perfectly invisible.”
Leaning into his chest, I let myself lean into the feelings of loss and confusion. “Is she going to be okay?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yeah.” I reach for his hand and stop when I encounter a bandage. “You burned it.”
Brae lifts me into his arms. “I did. It’s healing well though.” He carries me back to my bedroom, and lays me out on the bed.
I want to argue that I don’t need to be in bed anymore, but my body would really fucking argue that point, and now that they can feel me there’s no way that I could even lie about it. “I don’t remember much after that.”
“The gun. It broke the sigils just enough that we could blast our way through the rest of it.”
“Why would it do that?”
“Cerys. She knew that humans would need some sort of protection against gods and fae. It’s more powerful than we let on. That gun saved your life.”
“And Emma’s.”
I don’t say anything more. Luck or fate? I’m again at those crossroads. I was told by the Goddess that Kent was meant to be here with me. And he was a New York City police officer—one of the only people with access to the weapon that could save me. All the luck and coincidences are getting harder to ignore. And that means that I have to trust fate. That I’m meant to have this power and to do something with it.
“Do you think I’m predictable?” I ask.
Brae laughs. “You’re anything but. However, you’re a good person, and I think that’s what Ariana meant. You have loyalty to your friends and you care about people. That doesn’t make you predictable, it makes you strong.”
That’s true. But if I can’t ignore the coincidences that line up around me, I can’t ignore the fact that even with careful planning, Ariana has been steps ahead. She’s reached out into the future to imagine every possible consequence, and prepared for all of them. That’s how deeply she believes in what she’s doing. And yes, in a way that does give her some of the power. I need to surprise her. Do something she doesn’t believe I’ll ever choose.
Aeric steps into the room, followed by everybody else. Outside, the light in the sky is fading. Brae kisses my cheek. “We had an idea, if you’re all right with it.”
Tingling anticipation tickles my spine, and I blush, because I have an inkling about what their idea might involve. “Oh?”
“For tonight, at least,” he says. “We want to sleep with you. Here in your bed.”
“All of you?” Given the size of this bed there’s plenty of room, but we’ve only ever done that by accident before.
Aeric nods his confirmation. “All of us.”
I laugh, aching happiness filling my chest. “I’m not going to say no to that. But you’re all wearing too many clothes.”
“I could argue the same thing,” Verys says while me makes quick work of my pants. Brae tackles my shirt, and it’s a mess of hands and limbs stroking my skin. Fleeting brushes of magic and teasing pinches here and there.
“I’m no match for five of you,” I say, more than a little breathless at their attention. “You’re going to kill me.”
Aeric smirks at me. “Little deaths only, remember? But I’m not sure you should be allowed to come. Not until we’ve all had our turn.”
My eyes go wide with shock. “No.”
His smirk only deepens as he leans close to my face. “What did you just say to me?”
“It won’t be possible.”
Kent laughs, pulling me closer down the bed. “Let’s find out.” He strokes himself a couple of times before fitting his cock into my pussy. Even without magic, Kent is an excellent lover, and he knows which buttons to push to get me close. It doesn’t help when mouths meet my skin, tongues tasting each nipple and a daring one teasing my clit from one side. Aeric kneels above my head, slipping his cock deep down my throat, working me in long strokes that are the opposite of Kent’s relentless, delicious, pounding.
It’s the first time all five of them have done this together. Even the other night Kent stood aside. Now I have cocks sliding in me from each direction and magic swelling inside me, threatening to break. They’re not holding back either. I gasp for breath when Aeric pulls back, and I beg them. “If you don’t want me to come then you can’t do this,” I say. “You can’t go this hard this fast.” And Kent is going fast. He’s hitting that place deep within that brings me close right away, and I can barely breathe. I’m overloaded with sensation on every front. And then Kent slows down. Deliberately pulling back even though he’s close. His hand falls to his cock, stroking himself as he moves to my side and wraps my fingers around his shaft. “Finish me.”
“See? On the contrary,” Aeric says, not bothering to hide his joy or amusement from me. “I think we can do that pretty easily.”
They move, Verys sliding home into my pussy as Kent takes Aeric’s place between my lips. “You’re all traitors,” I moan, holding back for a moment. “Conspirators.”
Kent pushes deeper, and my words are silenced. It’s good too, because I’m dizzy with silvery, fiery pleasure. My entire body is a mass of arousal. So much that I can’t breathe. There’s no way I’ll be able to stop myself. Not with the way Verys is cascading his power into me, creating ripples and tide pools of that gorgeous shining sensation. But just as Kent groans and spills himself down my throat, Verys steps back. His magic fades and that toe-curling orgasm that was within reach evaporates. I shout around Kent’s cock, and he laughs, pulling back and taking his new position at my breast.
“How long did it take you to come up with this plan?” I ask. “The torture Kari plan.”
Verys doesn’t press himself into my mouth at first, instead offering his balls between my lips. Yes. Everything. I want everything. Every part of them the want to give me.
Urien drives into me. “I’m pretty sure that this is the plan to give our mate one of the best orgasms of her life.”
I can’t respond, mouth now full of cock again, but they keep going. Urien drives me so close that I scream in perfect, exquisite agony when it’s taken away. And Brae uses my pussy for a slow, thorough fuck that makes my legs shake and back arch. I taste every one of them and my skin is painted with their lips. “I blame you for this,” I say to Aeric when he steps between my legs. I’m high on sensation. I might as well be dynamite with a lit fuse right now.
He rubs the head of his cock over my entrance, teasing me. Taunting me. Letting a tiny bit of shimmering spice and power leak from him into me. Verys seals his mouth over my clit, and I’m positively aching with need. But I’ve come this far, and I need to hear him say it. “I’ll happily take the blame for this,” he says, sliding in. “Just one more, Kari.”
Hands—not Aeric’s—pull my legs wide. As wide as they’re able so that I’m open. On display for these men who love me. Brae grunts, spilling sunny gold on my tongue, and I feel myself slip in to a state of nothing but perfect rapture and euphoria. It’s pure and white, and I am made of it.
Aeric places a hand on top of my stomach, pressing, holding me down so that I don’t move while he takes what he needs. All of this was his idea. To show me the change in him. That he wants us together as a unit. There’s nothing scary here, just mutual love, satisfaction, and—tonight not withstanding—all the orgasms I could ever want.
It’s no accident that he’s the last one to fuck me. He wants to be the one to say yes to me. I pull his bond up to the forefront, and I push gratitude through it. And love. And everything I’m feeling. I fling it straight at him and close my eyes, sinking into surrender. Tonight I’m not just yielding to Aeric. I’m yielding to all of them. To the Goddess. To fate.
Aeric falters in his rhythm, and in that bond I feel him grow so close. His eyes lock on mine, and he smiles, and nods. He doesn’t tell me when, or command it, it just happens. One moment the pleasure is rolling through me, and the next minute it’s consuming me. I’m a super nova ready to burn the world down with the magic that I’ve been given. I’m a girl so far in love with these men that I can’t see straight. I’m caught in a storm of magic, but this kind doesn’t want to eat me alive.
My scream is one only of molten bliss, and whatever pain I had is banished from my body. It feels like being at the core of a sun and perfectly content with the heat. I will happily be engulfed in these flames.
Every single one of them is touching me when I recover. My head is pillowed on Brae’s chest, and Aeric has an arm slung around my hips. Hands and fingers tangled everywhere, and it feels as natural as breathing.
Urien chuckles softly. “Told you.”
“I will admit that you’re right,” my voice is scratchy from the screaming and their use of my mouth. “But that’s not something we can do all the time. You’re going to give me a hard attack.”
“Maybe we should rethink the term ‘little death,’” Brae says absently, running his fingers through my hair. “That seemed like a pretty big death.”
“Don’t change it unless you want a fight with the French,” Kent says, and I can almost hear him rolling his eyes.
Verys raises his head. “Is there a story there that we need to know about?”
“Don’t ask,” he mutters, and I collapse into laughter.
“I love you,” I say, fighting through the giggles. “Every one of you.”
Aeric’s lips meet my ribs in a
gentle kiss. “Even when we torture you?”
“Even then, I’m afraid.”
We grow quiet then, and in the gathering darkness, some of them sleep. I don’t. I’m actively burying my thoughts so they don’t sense them. Nothing will ever make me happier than this—being loved and accepted by these men. But the danger isn’t over. Not by a long shot. They would all walk into hell for me without question, but I don’t want them to do that. I want them to be safe and happy and free.
The feeling in that hallway, when Emma was gone, I don’t ever want to experience that again. And even though Emma is one of my best friends, losing one of these perfect, beautiful men sleeping with me would be a wound I’m not sure that I could ever come back from. I push that fear deep down low, where I’m sure that I’m the only one that will ever be able to find it.
Ariana thinks that I’m predictable, and she’s already thought of ways to hurt me. Torture me, kill me, and steal the Goddess’s power while my body is still warm. So I need to take back that power.
Next to me, Aeric stirs in his sleep, and I brush the hair off his face. For once, I’ve exhausted them enough that they don’t wake up at a simple change in my breath. My heart aches with love, and the knowledge of what’s coming.
The only way I can see to beat Ariana is to take her by surprise. And to do that, my mates—my lovers—can’t see it coming. They love me too much and too deeply to let me, and I love them too much to stop them. There’s a chance in the world that it won’t work. And that I’ll die in the process. But it seems like I was chosen, and for the first time, it feels right to embrace that.
I cuddle closer to my mates and try to sleep, though my mind is racing. I know what I have to do.
To be continued…
Want to know what happens next? Aeric, Brae, Kent, Verys, Urien, and Kiaran are waiting for you Breathless.
Shameless: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Carnal Court Book 3) Page 15
