by Marie Mistry
“Take what you need,” he insisted, as we came up for air. “You’re going to have to learn to trust me, Sweetness. Especially with what I have in store for you.”
I shook my head, my thoughts scrambled by his hand gently caressing my horns.
“Do it for me, Sweetness.” His husky, commanding voice lulled me into a place of warmth and security, until all I wanted to do was obey him.
What harm could it do? I reasoned with myself as I floated in a bubble of desire. My power fluttered forwards, and I tensed, ready for it to try to leap for Blaze as it had for the Tester. But it didn’t. Instead, my power reached out to caress his, coaxing what he was offering through our joined mouths, taking only just enough to keep me going. When I had it, I drew back, but Blaze kept me close, his mouth descending on mine one final time, tongue tangling with mine in a final possessive dance that left me feeling claimed when he withdrew.
“That was amazing,” he said, keeping a hold of my hand as we started walking again.
“It was different from before,” I whispered. “My power didn’t leap for you as it did for the Tester.”
“We’re mates.” Blaze explained, “Our power recognises its other half. It’s why mates can’t intentionally harm each other with their power.” He frowned. “You didn’t take enough though.”
“I took enough to tide me over. I didn’t know your sub-caste or how easy it was for you to generate power, I wouldn’t want you to feel drained.”
He laughed. “I’m a Violence. I can generate enough power just by going to the gym in the mornings,” he said.
“What are you doing in the gym that’s violent?” I wondered aloud.
“Vice has a designated sparring ring for security officers; all the Wraths use it when we need to.” He grinned.
I rolled my eyes. “Of course, they do.” I paused. “What were you going to say, before you zoned out?”
He was quiet for a while. “I was asking if you saw anything that might identify them. Where they were meeting? Their clothes? Accents?”
“London,” I muttered. “They were in a conference room high up in London. I could see St Paul’s and the Gherkin from the window, and they had modern art on the walls and an oval table.” I sighed. “I didn’t see much of anything else, so I’m pretty useless to you in that respect.”
He pinched my chin gently between his fingers, tilting my face to look at him. “You’re not useless,” he said, “And I refuse to have you disparaging yourself in my presence.” He let go and continued walking. “How many people are honestly prepared to learn about a serious plot against them?” he asked. “And the Strange God is always selective about what he reveals, even to the seers. I only see the details if I really work for them.”
The Carnal Tower appeared before us, lit up in the darkness like a beacon of home.
“Blaze, what am I supposed to do about all of this?” I asked. “You’re right, I’m completely out of my depth to the point where a lot of the time I feel like I’m drowning. I have no idea what to do about the people who want to kill me because I have a sub-caste that I didn’t choose and horns that I never wanted. And then there are supposed to be seven men in my life by the time we get to the solstice ball in July. I’ve only met three, and unless I somehow discover the other four by then, I’m doomed to die. How am I supposed to find them? Just launch PK missiles at everything male in the school and hope for the best?” I fisted a hand in my hair in frustration. “This is all too much for one girl,” I whispered.
“Do you want me to back off?” Blaze asked, his face completely serious.
“No, not at all. I’m sorry it came out like that. You’re just too easy to talk to,” I admitted as we reached the door. “I just feel a lot like the fate of the demonic world is resting on my shoulders, and I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.”
He took the hand that was scrunching up my hair and gently pulled it away to kiss it. “Have you told the others that you feel this way?”
I shook my head. “Aeron and I haven’t even had a chance to breathe in so long. We just about manage to recharge each other’s power before falling asleep. Daron barely knows me, but he’s stuck mated to me; I feel like I’ve already burdened him enough.” I sighed. “I shouldn’t really be burdening you. You’ve probably got enough on your plate as well.”
“I’ll never have too much on my plate to listen to you,” he promised. “I can’t speak for the others, but I got the feeling that we were on the same wavelength. I also believe they were chosen for a reason, so perhaps you should lean on them more. Did you know Daron has a full computer set up in his room, despite there being no plugs in the dorms? He’s been hacking into the school cameras when he thinks no one is watching for weeks. And Aeron can get past all the barriers surrounding the school without anyone noticing. It’s been driving me crazy trying to figure out how he does it.” I sighed, and he stroked a hand down my shoulder. “Don’t worry about things too much. What more could you possibly be doing right now? Some things just have to happen in time.”
Shrugging off his hand, I stepped towards the door. “I suppose you’re probably right,” I muttered. “But I don’t like feeling this powerless to change my own destiny.” I paused. “Thank you for walking me back.”
“I had hoped to make it a nightly thing,” he murmured. “If you’ll let me, that is.”
I smiled softly. “I’d like that,” I told him honestly.
“Sweet dreams, my mate.” He kissed my cheek chastely, but it still sent a bolt of heat through me.
I watched him as he turned and walked back into the darkness till I couldn’t see him anymore. Then I closed the door softly and walked straight into Nelly.
“So, you’re mated.” She grinned. “Care to tell Auntie Nells why you thought you could keep that a secret.”
Chapter 22
I looked around the otherwise empty common room.
“Nelly, you can’t say a word!” I pressed, panic quickly settling in my stomach.
“What? Why not?” She looked at me like I’d grown a second head. “There haven’t been matings in centuries! This could be the start of something coming back!”
I shook my head. “It’s not what you think. I promise you, it’s not.”
“What is it then?” she demanded.
I pushed past her to the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of wine from the cooler and pouring myself a glass while I tried to decide how much I could tell her. Nelly was my friend, and she’d always been my defender in everything I did. I was closer to Lulu and her than anyone else in the Caste. I could never tell Lulu, for obvious reasons, but Nelly was responsible where her sister was not, and serious where her sister was bubbly.
I took a long gulp of wine.
“I have seven mates,” I told her. “I can’t tell you who they all are, because I don’t know all of them. And I can’t tell you how I know I have seven because I’m pretty sure you won’t believe me.” I rubbed at my forehead with my free hand. “Matings aren’t coming back, because they never left…”
“Of course they did, no one has found a mate in hundreds of years.”
“Not true,” I mumbled. “People have found their mates in the unshown.”
Nelly just gaped at me, and I used her pause to start walking up to my bedroom. We made the entire trip with her silent and uncomprehending behind me, her voice only returning as she flopped onto my bed while I closed the door and locked it.
“Why has no one said anything?”
I shrugged. “Can you imagine if they did?” I took another gulp of wine before putting my glass on the dresser and searching my drawers for a nice set of lingerie. “If someone admitted all the mates were unshown, two things would happen. Firstly, unshown would be bombarded with the full power of every demon who wanted to find a mate. Secondly, the entire social order would change. Unshown would be mated to demons from all castes at all levels of society, and we’d have no one left to do all the drudge work they’ve been forced in
to for thousands of years. Whilst I agree that the unshown must be treated better, I don’t think I’m willing for them to be injured en-masse as they would be if they were outed.”
Nelly shook her head. “That makes sense, but your mate outside wasn’t unshown. He was Wrath.”
I nodded. “He is. And Aeron is my mate, and so is Daron from Envy.”
“What about Krossian?”
I shook my head. “There’s no way…” I trailed off, my hands pausing in their search as I tried to remember an occasion when I’d used my power on Bane.
I couldn’t think of one. Even in Maddox’s duelling lessons we’d never faced one another.
“There’s no way,” I stated firmly. I couldn’t be Aeron’s mate and his half-brother’s. That would be too coincidental.
Nelly shrugged. “Strange. Is it something to do with those horns?”
I winced at how close to the truth she was. “It is,” I admitted. “I think we can just assume most of the crazy I deal with is because of the horns.”
“Like the Tester. She was too crazy for it to be just because you were a Succubus.”
“Please Nelly. Don’t guess too much,” I begged her. “It’s not safe.”
“Are you safe?” she demanded. “I’m the mentor here. I’m supposed to be keeping you safe, not the other way around!”
I turned to face her. “I’m not safe,” I admitted. “But do you think that Aeron would let anything happen to me? Do you think Blaze would?”
She frowned. “I don’t know shit about this Blaze,” she said bluntly. “But… I’ve known Aeron since I got here, and he’s been duelling like a master since he went through his showing on the second day. If he can’t keep you safe, I doubt anyone else in the school could.”
I smiled slightly. “I’m as safe as I can be, given the circumstances. Overwhelmed, confused and honestly more than a little bit scared, but I think I’m safe tonight.”
Her shrewd mind didn’t miss anything. “What about tomorrow?”
I shrugged, resuming my search for the perfect lingerie for mating Aeron. “Can anyone really say how safe they’ll be tomorrow? People die all the time from things as silly as a fall down the stairs or not swallowing properly.”
I found what I was looking for: a babydoll of black and burnished gold lace that made my hair pop and reminded me of Aeron’s eyes. I was just checking it over when Nelly surprised me by hugging me from behind.
“I don’t care what you say about it not being safe. Lulu and I just want to know what’s going on with you. We both care, even though we haven’t known you a long time. You’re one of our closest friends here.” She let go of me and waited for me to reply.
I sighed, using my last-resort argument. “Lulu is too chatty. She’d blurt it without thinking, and I don’t want you to be in the position where you have to keep things from her.”
She frowned. “If you think Lulu betrays her friends’ secrets, then you don’t know her at all.”
I winced. “That’s not what I meant.”
“It is,” Nelly argued. “Lulu is smarter than she looks. She doesn’t seem like she would be a nerd, but she has had nothing but near-perfect grades since she got here, despite everyone working so hard to label her as an empty-headed slut.” I blushed, knowing I was also guilty of that. “Give her a chance. Let me tell her what you told me about unshown being mates. When she doesn’t tell anybody, then you have to vow to tell us everything.”
I shuddered. “Nelly, you can’t expect me to be okay with that! It’s not my life on the line if you’re wrong, it’s every poor sod who had the bad luck to never go through their showing.”
“I’m not going to be wrong,” she promised, grabbing a sharp hairpin from my dresser and stabbing it into her palm, drawing a thin beaded line of blood. “Vow it in blood.”
I looked at her palm, then at my own, still clutching the babydoll. This was probably the worst idea in the history of bad ideas, but she was my friend, and if she was right, maybe I wouldn’t feel so alone anymore.
I dropped the lace creation in the drawer and took the pin from her. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I muttered, slicing a line down my palm and slamming our hands together, gripping tightly. “I vow by the blood of my house that I shall reveal to you why I have seven mates if Lucrecia Drabos doesn’t tell anyone about the unshown mates.”
“By the blood of my house I accept your vow,” Nelly said, gravely.
My horns burned the moment she finished speaking, and I collapsed downwards, my hands flying to my head as my vision swam and I felt it when the skin of my scalp tore.
“Shit, Lilith!” Nelly followed me down, eyes wide with concern, and then jumped backwards in shock. “What the hell is happening to your horns?”
I wanted to tell her I didn’t know, but the words faded along with my view of the world for a few seconds. I blinked, and Blaze was there, pushing Nelly away from me with enough force to send her into the wall.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” he demanded, bearing down on her like an angry bull.
Daron suddenly entered my field of vision, only there were two of him.
“Lilith? Lilith can you hear me?” His eyes assessed my hand then moved across my body till he finally stopped at my head, eyes widening.
“Blaze, stop. It wasn’t her!” I croaked. “Please. It’s not Nelly,” I wheezed, as my horns flashed with a pulse of pain that made me clench my teeth together. It felt like someone was squeezing the left one in a vise, but the right one had settled down to a dull ache.
“What the fuck is happening in here?” Aeron’s voice demanded as the scene swam in my watery vision once again.
“Her horns,” Nelly shouted, “Look at her bloody horns!”
Daron’s cool hands gently moved mine away from my head. “By the Strange God,” he murmured, studying them for a second before he moved his right hand towards the two rings I had adorned the left horn with that morning. Both bands snapped as he flexed his power, sending them soaring into his waiting hand. I was relieved as the pain almost halved, but Daron was moved aside roughly by a growling Blaze before I could thank him.
My redheaded mate lifted me like I was made of spun glass, depositing me on the bed so gently it was like he thought I would break.
“What?” I croaked, dreading whatever new crazy had shown up.
“Your horns grew,” Nelly explained, coming to perch on the opposite side of the bed from Blaze, despite his warning look. “The moment we completed the vow. They’re thicker and longer now.”
I gaped at her, but Daron helpfully handed me a hand mirror, dispelling all my disbelief the moment I saw myself. I took the thing from him wordlessly, looking at my horns in horror.
They had indeed grown, and were at least an inch longer and twice as thick, the difference easily noticeable at first glance.
“The last bit of pain was because it couldn’t grow past your rings,” Daron murmured, looking adorably awkward and apologetic as he passed me the shattered pieces of metal.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, looking at them in incredulity. “How did you break metal with your power? Wait, how are you all even here?” I asked, putting the mirror face-down and staring at my mates. Aeron I could almost understand as a coincidence, but Daron should have been in the Covetous Tower, and Blaze had been on his way home.
“I had a vision,” Blaze admitted. “It must have been the instant you made a decision that changed your path. The future cleared, and I saw you, dressed as I’d just seen you, and in pain on the floor. It only lasted a few seconds, but I figured you were in trouble and I ran back.”
I nodded and looked at Aeron. “I just came to see if you were okay,” he muttered. “The door was open, and these two were here.” We all looked at Daron.
He fiddled with his shirt-cuffs uncomfortably. “I… felt it,” he confessed. “The moment you were in pain, it was like a gate opened and I felt you again. It hadn’t happened since we mated, but I thoug
ht you might need me… I didn’t mean to barge into your personal space without permission, but Blaze was in here and I was concerned for you. I could feel that it was the bands on your horn that were hurting you too… So I used ferrokinesis to remove them.”
“That’s okay,” I mumbled, blushing at how sweet he was even as I wondered what on earth ferrokinesis was and why it sounded familiar. “Thank you.”
He didn’t immediately reply, staring into space. “I can’t feel you anymore. I wonder if…”
