Falling For Them Volume 2: Reverse Harem Collection

by Nikki Bolvair

  I scooted back on the exam table, distancing myself from him. “W-what do you mean?”

  Mom touched his arm. “Kenneth does have a heart, and when the Council requests for someone to vouch for you, keep tabs, and assure them you won’t share our secret, Kenneth or one of the others will.” Her tone became stern at the end, expressing she would not settle for anything less.

  Kenneth turned away, his doctor coat swishing as he paced and muttered.

  Mom turned back to me. “But you need to cool it. Kenneth is my husband, and I won’t allow you to talk to him like that. I don’t know what happened to cause you two to be so hostile toward one another, but it’s over. Things are different now.”

  I snorted. “Different because I know your secret, and that’s it. Nothing else has changed.”

  Uncle Henry entered the room in a panic. “Kenneth, the Everlys said their son’s magic was released, and none of their relatives reported inheriting his light—uh... Hi, Carly,” Uncle Henry stuttered. He was Kenneth’s younger brother and shared similar black hair and dark eyes, but he was taller. He turned to Kenneth and whispered, “What’s going on?”

  “His light,” I asked promptly, then bit my lip as my gaze dropped to stare at the floor, thinking. Shit, didn’t a light go from him into me? I raised my head to find them staring at me.

  “Uh, yeah... His light.” Uncle Henry nervously cleared his throat, his eyes moving back and forth between Mom and Kenneth.

  Mom threw up her hands. “She knows already.”

  Kenneth nodded. “We can talk freely.”

  Uncle Henry’s gaze strayed back to me as he explained. “His magic entered someone else.” Kenneth’s attention turned to me, and Uncle Henry shook his head. “No.” He gestured to where I sat. “Surely not,” he denied when he guessed at why Kenneth’s stare focused on me.

  My mom stood up and strode over to him. “Is it possible, Henry? Could Carly have taken his light unknowingly?”

  Henry seemed baffled by the question. “I don’t believe so.”

  Kenneth shook his head and ran a hand through his black hair. His gaze moved over my frame, scanning for any signs of...who knows what. I scowled at him. “It can’t be possible. Never in our history has one’s light transferred into a human. When a Lydent dies prematurely, their light always passes down to a relative. Magic stays with its own kin.”

  I remained quiet for a moment, neither denying or confirming. The kid’s light did go into me, and that obviously wasn’t normal. Would I die? What would that mean for me?

  Nervous now, I asked, “Can it kill someone?”

  They all whirled to me, and Kenneth answered, his gaze intent on mine. “It depends where it went.”

  I bit into my lip and gazed off to the side.

  Mom spoke next, “Carly, what happened today?”

  I twisted my fingers. “I’m a new lifeguard at the Aquatic Center down by Dad’s house. It was supposed to be my first day.” I shrugged, recalling what had happened. “They were teens, doing what teens do. Those boys were goofing off on the side of the pool. The lifeguards and I were getting prepared to do a safety check. It’s where we blow our whistles and have everyone get out of the pool, but...but when we blew the whistles, the one kid slipped, and his head slammed against the poolside before he went into the water. I went in after him. Did CPR. There was blood. So much of it. I-I tried to bring him back—” My eyes fell to the floor. “But he was just gone.”

  Uncle Henry came over and knelt to my level. “I’m sorry, Carly. Losing a life under your care will always leave an emptiness behind. But right now, we need your help. It’s imperative we know where the boy’s light went. Did you see it?”

  I nodded, but kept my stare on the floor.

  Then Henry asked that question. “Did it... did it go into you?”

  Ashamed for some reason, I answered, “Yes.”

  My mother sucked in a breath, Kenneth cursed, and Uncle Henry hugged me.

  “Nothing’s ever going to be the same, is it?” I whispered into his shoulder.

  He squeezed me tighter. “No, sweet girl, it isn’t.”

  Chapter Two

  Kenneth said the council, whoever they were, wanted to meet with me immediately so we all traveled by shim. The Lydents’ number one form of transportation was the glow that happened before someone appeared.

  We shimmed into the foyer of an upscale cabin with modern touches. Dark wood tones covered the walls while cream, sandstone tiles covered the floor in an offset pattern. A pleasant voice greeted us from behind. Startled, I swiveled around to catch sight of an older woman with graying hair. She nodded to all of us. “It’s good to have you back here, Kenneth, Henry, and Diana.” Her soft gaze shifted to me. “And you, Miss, despite the unfortunate events. We’ll go this way. Follow me.”

  Mom’s arm curled around my shoulders as we all followed the woman. We walked through a curved hallway lined with windows on one side, giving me a view of the pine tree landscape cascading down the mountainside. The only place I knew of in this state where pine trees grew like that was up north where I visited my mother from time to time.

  “Are we in Flag?” I asked, surprised to be so far away from the valley where I lived.

  “Yes,” the older woman responded as we drew near the dark, double-doors at the end of the corridor.

  She opened them to a stunning semi-circle of a great room with panoramic views of the forest below. A half-moon-shaped conference table dominated the center of the room with a sleek, cream quartz top that could easily fit twelve people. Instead, four luxury wingback chairs waited behind the table, three dark leather and one soft cream. Someone occupied each chair with the curved table separating us from them. A man and a woman, with the woman in the cream chair, sat on the left, while two men sat on the right.

  One of them was Uncle Patrick, Kenneth’s older brother. He stood and made his way to us. “Sweetheart, come here and tell me what’s wrong.”

  At first, I assumed he spoke to me, but then my mom’s arm dropped from my shoulders and she moved into his embrace. “Patrick,” she whispered. “What are we going to do?”

  Patrick bent down and kissed my mom’s forehead.

  I stared at the pair, puzzled. Mom had always been friendly with her husband’s brothers, but I’d never seen her hug one of them or act so comfortable around them. Either my mom became rather close to her brothers-in-law or something seriously strange was going on here—and I wasn’t talking about my situation.

  “Hi, Uncle Patrick. Uh, what’s going on?”

  Uncle Patrick smiled at me but still kept his arms around my mom. “I suppose you would be confused and right now is as good a time as any to explain. Lydents, that’s who we are, tend to marry in groups. I’m your mother’s third husband.”

  My jaw fell slack. “Th-third? As in…”

  Mom shook her head. “Honey, it’s not what you think.”

  I moved back quickly, but Uncle Henry stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “What am I supposed to think? It’s not normal, Mom. Why?”

  “Because it’s our way,” the woman in the wingback chair answered as she stood up. “You might not understand everything right now, but you will in time.” Her flaming red hair tumbled down her back as she made her way across the hardwood floor, her crisp, full-length white dress suit swishing when she strode over to us. Stopping by Uncle Patrick and Mom, she held her hand out to me with a generous smile and kind eyes. “I’m Myra.” Her nails were short and painted pink, like a young girl’s despite her being closer to her mid-forties.

  “Carly,” I returned as I took her hand, and instantly, the light within me I accidentally stole stirred. Warmth and comfort filtered from her grip to mine, and all the guilt, shame, and anger inside me melted away. It was an incredible sensation.

  With tears in her eyes, she let go after a moment and placed her hands on my shoulders. “His light, you did not steal it. He gave it to you freely. The Spirit Whisperer wanted him to. Yo
u are needed among our kind, and you won’t be the last. Do you understand? His light, his magic, it’s a gift. And that is by far the highest honor any Lydent could ever give. You’re one of us now, Carly.”

  She lifted her palms from my shoulders as I processed this information, stunned. I was one of them? Somehow, some way, this woman in front of me could tell if I was one of these Lydents or not.

  “So, it’s true?” the man who had sat close to Uncle Patrick asked. “She’s now Lydent?”

  The woman turned around to him and acknowledged it with a slight dip of her head. “She is.”

  My mind worked a mile a minute. “What does that mean for me?”

  Now, both men stood and approached us. I was surrounded. The same man who spoke a moment ago explained. “It means schooling at Hydrent school for magic, and rules that must be adhered to.” He paused behind Myra and studied me with keen interest. “I’m Gaston, Myra’s first husband.”

  What did he want me to say? “Uh, hi?”

  “There are rules with magic and regulations to keep us safe.” The other man flicked his hand, and a silver band wrapped around my wrist.

  I jerked back as the weight of it settled. I lifted my hand, inspecting the adornment. It was a plain silver bracelet that wrapped around my whole wrist. “What is this?”

  Uncle Henry patted my back. “Don’t worry. Saul just put a restraining bracelet on you. You’re new and...special. We need to make sure you don’t get into any unwanted trouble.”

  “It’s for you to keep an eye on me? That’s a bunch of—”

  Mom’s hand whipped out to take hold of my raised hand with the new restraining bracelet. “It’s fine. Right?” She smiled, giving my hand a quick squeeze with a hopeful expression. “You barely spend time with me anymore. This will be good for us, all of us, and now, you get to know everything.”

  Mom practically glowed with excitement. My shoulders dropped, and I returned her squeeze. “It’s not like I have a choice, anyway.” I glanced down at my red swimsuit, now dry. “Is there something I can change into?”

  “Here.” Myra flicked her wrist, and in a flash, she dressed me in a short black dress with white horizontal stripes, my shoulders barely covered with cap sleeves.

  On my feet, I now sported wedge sandals with leather straps, and on my toes, purple nail polish peeked through. My sandy blonde hair, once gnarly from pool water, now curled in clean waves at my back. I didn’t think I’d ever been this dressed up before.

  When my attention returned to Myra, she wore a smug expression.

  I shifted on my feet. “Um, thanks?”

  She looked pleased. “I didn’t do too bad.” She gestured to my mom. “We’ll have to schedule a shopping trip.”

  I groaned. I just wanted to get out of here and go home. Dad must be concerned.

  ~

  Mom took uncle Patrick’s car when we left, since we shimmed directly to the council’s home, and now we were driving through the forest of pines, vastly different from the desert setting I’d been in only hours before. Mom chattered nonstop about how sorry she was for not leveling with me about her other husbands. An uncomfortable topic for me, since they were the men I called uncles! She agreed it was out of the norm, but she fell in love and didn’t think I’d understand. She wasn’t wrong. How did her relationship even work with all of them? I shook my head, trying to rid those thoughts. I didn’t need that image in my head.

  As Mom pulled into the long driveway, I exhaled and remembered the first time I came up here…

  *For a young girl like me, the place appeared gigantic. Just like now, tall pine trees loosely lined the driveway up to the house, but instead of soft snow that had blanketed the ground before, brown dirt with pine needles now covered the road. Back then, when we pulled up to the house, boys had been in the large front yard, trudging through the thigh high snow, gathering up snow to build two structures across from one another as if they were on teams. At the time, I thought they’d been putting together an igloo of sorts, but I was in for a treat. They’d built dugouts. A place to gather snowball ammo and shelter from incoming fire.

  I’d met Hale and Zander before, and the two of them greeted me at the car door, excited to introduce me to their friends.

  “Hey, Hannah!” Hale tugged me out of the car and onto the slush-filled ground. “Come see what we’re doing!”

  That’s when I met Baxter and Colten. I recalled being full of life, young and free. They let me play, even though I wasn’t very good. I think, initially, that’s why they kept me around. I was an easy target.

  “Stop hitting me!” I’d growled, wiping the snow from my face.

  Baxter laughed, shoving another fist full of snow in the back of my jacket. “Then move it, Car!”

  I whirled around and smacked him right in the face with the snowball I’d packed in my hands. He jerked away and the snow on his face turned red.

  “Ahhhh!” he cried, bending over and holding his nose as it bled.

  I instantly felt sorry. “I’ll go get my mom.”

  Before I could run off, he caught me by the sleeve of my jacket with his free hand and peeked up at me. “No, Car,” he whined. “I’m not a sissy.”

  The other guys came near. Zander gave him more snow and plopped it on his face while laughing. “Here, this will help. She knocked you good, Bax.”

  “Ouch-ouch. Man, not so hard.”

  Colten hit Braxton’s shoulder while sending me a friendly smirk. “Spilled blood makes you one of us, Car.”

  Hale slung an arm over my shoulder and pressed a hand full of snow in my face, softer than I did to Braxton.

  Shaking my head, I spit it out. “Ack, no.”

  I guess that saying was true, boys like girls who could hold their own. After that, the guys and I did nearly everything together, and I struggled to keep up with them. Up until the day Kenneth made it clear I didn’t belong here…

  *I shook out of my memories, taking in the homestead, as Mom parked in front of the three-car garage of the two-story mini-mansion cabin.

  While traditional cabins had brown exteriors, Mom painted this one a soft gray, accenting it with fire-red steps and a front porch floor that led up to the chestnut front door, surrounded on either side with peek-a-boo stained-glass windows.

  “You’ll have your own bathroom this time,” Mom stated carefully before she got out.

  My gaze darted to her as I unbuckled. “They moved out?”

  She knew full well who I was talking about. “Yep. Both of them and a few of their friends.”

  My brows scrunched as I got out of the car. “With Baxter and Colten?”

  “Mm-hm.” Well, that wasn’t unexpected. My stepbrothers and their friends were closer than anyone I knew. I’d probably add me to that as well if it wasn’t for the fact I wasn’t around a lot. But when I visited, the five of us always found time to hang out. “Where to?”

  Mom gave me a knowing look and nodded her head in the direction opposite of the cabin. “Next property over.” She walked to open the door that entered the laundry room on the side of the house. “You know, they ask about you from time to time, wondering how you’re doing.”

  I schooled my features as we entered the kitchen, but my heart skipped. I cleared my throat. “Really?”

  In the few years I did live with my mom full time, the five of us had grown close. From the snowball fight with us kids playing together, something happened. Back then, I would have never guessed it, but now as I thought back, the friendship was soft and instant.

  Mom turned on the lights in the kitchen. “Really. They miss having you around.”

  I sighed. Mom didn’t know why I moved away. I was too embarrassed to tell her, and she always seemed so happy with Kenneth. I didn’t want to ruin that for her.

  Mom put her purse down on the counter and continued through the living area to the stairs that lead up to the second floor.

  “Since they moved out, we’ve changed things,” Mom explained as
we trudged upstairs and down the hall, to stop in front of Zander’s old room. She opened the door and walked in. “This is your room now.”

  I followed her in to find a queen-sized bed with a dusty-plum comforter situated in between two blind-covered windows. A million pillows in all different sizes were stacked against a shaker-style headboard. Off to the right was a dresser with an antique mirror above it. On the left side, a door I assumed led to a closet.

  I was never supposed to have been in Zander’s room before, and at first, I’d just seen it in passing. There was a big personal boundaries speech about it, and now I knew why. My stepbrothers probably practiced magic in their rooms.

  When we got older, Kenneth caught me in this very room with them. The three of us had been on Zander’s bed, my stepbrothers on the outside edges while I sat in the middle, watching a movie. Kenneth was not pleased.

  “It’s slightly bigger than the one you were in before, and of course, we redecorated it for the next time you came over. I know purple is your favorite color, and creams and gray go well with it,” Mom said, pulling me back to the present.

  I walked over to a window and hummed an agreement, my thoughts scattered like the pine trees across the side yard. I still struggled to process everything, even though my mind seemed to be numb. Everything was going to be different.

  My gaze drifted from the side yard to the distant cabin next door where a light glimmered. It was something someone would take for granted as the sun glinting off the window pane, but I knew better. Someone had just shimmed into the house. I snorted. At least the Lydents didn’t have to worry about oil price spikes. I guess that was one good thing about magic.

  “Do you like it? Some of the stuff is from the old bedroom, but the rest is new. Well—” I turned around, and she gave me a rueful smile. “New to us.”

  I wrapped my arms around my body as I leaned back against the wall and breathed. “It’s nice, but Mom, what am I going to do about my life?” I threw my hands up in the air in a careless gesture. “I have a job, well, at least I hope I still do, and Dad, he’s going to freak when he realizes I haven’t come home. Even if I called him to say I decided to move up here with you, it’s kind of sudden, and also hard to believe.”