Fated to the Traitor (Portal City Protectors Book 4)

by Georgette St. Clair

  There she rested.

  His heartbeat.

  His redemption.

  Her water-like hair melded with the storming seas around her, whipping around her face. Her lips were pale in real life, her body held in stasis within her only free space. He’d touched her so many times in dreams. Gripped her hips as he sank deep inside her. Heath knew the salty taste of her lips and the cool rush of her touch across his chest.

  But those were phantoms, mere impressions of what would be reality.

  Asherah’s eyes were closed, her slender fingers crossed over her stomach, her white dress exposing her shoulders and the top slopes of her breasts but covering the rest of her. He forced himself to move slowly, reaching out with his senses to find any threats.

  Try as he might, he could only focus on her.

  Wraith disappeared in a blast of shadow and he felt the familiar weight as it settled once more on his back.

  “Asherah.” His voice was rough, deep with longing.

  Look at me, baby. See me. I’m here.

  But she didn’t respond.

  A soft change in the air signaled her projection coming to stand at his side. She looked up at him with a soft, sad smile.

  “I don’t know how to wake up, Heath. I want so badly to look at you. To say your name for the first time. But I’m too deep.”

  Heath lifted his hand, knowing he couldn’t touch her when he was awake, but he cupped her chin as best he could. “This is the last dreamscape, Asherah. I want you to see the real world now. Your sister is waiting. Life, with me, is waiting. I won’t leave you behind.”

  She shook her head. “Even awake, I told you I can’t leave this place.” Asherah pointed to the runes spanning the archway above her head. “They are tied to my blood. Once I passed them, I never could again.”

  “Can they be broken?”

  “Not without killing me. It is why Skuld was able to leave me alone so many times. It didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t get past them. And my death would …”

  Her voice trailed off, but he knew. She didn’t mean her physical death. She meant her consciousness. If she passed those runes, she’d be what Skuld had always wanted: retribution on Silva and anyone who tried to protect her. She’d raise the sea and send it crashing down on the residents of Encantado.

  Blood … she was tied by blood.

  Just the thought forced his fangs to elongate in his mouth as he hissed. Heath wanted her taste, to mark her, to make her his. She’d given so much of herself within their dreamscapes, but this would be different. She’d be his for all to see.

  Blood.

  Blood!

  “Asherah, what if you had different blood?”

  She blinked, confusion marring her face as her brows furrowed. “Impossible.”

  “But it’s not. Show me your teeth, baby.”

  “I have long thought you odd, Heath, but this is lunacy.”

  He liked the way she talked. The odd turn of phrase she always used because she hadn’t been modernized.

  Heath smiled. “Do you trust me?”

  “With my life.”

  Asherah’s instant response made his chest swell with pride. He’d done so much wrong, fucked up in more ways than he could even name. But this small Fae, a princess in her own right, trusted him. She didn’t have to think, didn’t have to ask, and she knew his entire life.

  She’d given Heath his truth and had faced it with him.

  “Then show me.”

  She rolled her eyes, something she’d picked up from him, and bared her teeth. As a Seelie, her canines were nowhere near as sharp as his, but they were slightly pointed. Would it be enough? There had to be some way when she was meant to be with an Unseelie.

  Taking a deep breath, he began to reveal something he hadn’t shared with her. “You know I’m Unseelie and we can survive by feeding.”

  She nodded, and he continued. “When we Fate, we only need to feed from our partner. I have … wanted to feed from you since the moment we met.”

  Asherah blinked, a slow motion as she took in what he said. He stood rigid, holding on to hope that she wouldn’t be disgusted. That her Seelie ways, much lighter compared to the darkness of the Unseelie, wouldn’t color her view of him.

  Humans had always been infatuated with the idea of daywalkers who lived forever and sank their teeth into veins, bringing untold pleasures to the humans. Even some paranormals loved it too. But the Seelie, they’d always been different. They had looked down on the Unseelie for their need to feed. That base instinct was below their more intellectual pursuits of knowledge and expansion.

  Unseelie were warriors and not above violence in any way.

  When Asherah opened her eyes, a pink swath dusted her cheeks. “You want to drink from me?”

  “Fuck. Yes.”

  She sucked in a breath, her chest quaking, and Heath fought not to take the heavy weight of her breasts into his hands. Neither of them would be able to feel it here, anyway.

  “And you want me to–” She froze, jerking her head back on a cry.

  “Asherah!”

  Her small body tensed, and he was powerless to help her. Part of her visage faded. She jerked again and more of her body disappeared.

  “Don’t leave.”

  “I think,” she whispered, panting. “I think I’d like very much to find succor in you.”

  Those words sent a haze spilling into his mind, his cock hardening in record time. Yessss. What he wouldn’t fucking give for that.

  “Heath.”

  He froze, every part of him disintegrating and slamming back together in an instant. Her voice was like a squall crashing over him and rolling him in an undertow. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think; he could only fight to remain alive.

  He forced his gaze to the swirling water.

  And came face to face with every fantasy he’d ever envisioned.

  Asherah stood on her feet, arms wide as she sent the sea into a greater fury around her, her aquamarine eyes glowing and teeth bared.

  Fucking fangs delicately covered with golden filigree. Unseelie fangs.

  “How?”

  She shook her head. “It matters not. Take me. Change who I am inside forever more. Break me from my prison and give me everything you have promised.”

  He eyed the turbulent waters, but it wouldn’t matter. It could take his skin from his bones and it still wouldn’t stop him from having her.

  Heath stepped up to the water, only a hair’s breadth separating them.

  “I intend to, sorossalin.”

  Glittering tears filled her eyes. “Am I?”

  “My soul? Always.”

  He took that final step, steeling himself against the rip of the water.

  Instead, it kissed Heath with warmth, the sharp speed nothing like the soothing touch that occurred.

  Her tinkering laughter met his ears as he took a breath. Under-fucking-water.

  “It seems even my seas love you too.”

  Even my seas love you too.

  Love you … too.

  Heath crashed his mouth to hers. They didn’t have time for a proper Fate, for him to take his slow, sweet time with her body and stake his claim while he was inside her. There was still a battle going on, but he savored her. She moaned, a soft sound filling his mouth as he pushed his tongue between her lips.

  The taste of her in real life was better than anything he’d had in the dreams. Salty and sweet, like a candy that couldn’t decide which it wanted to be. He explored the flavor, enjoying the bite and soothe.

  He’d never had anything to compare this to.

  Her small fingers dug into his armor as he pinned her to him. Their hair mixed and twisted together as he watched expressions run across her face. Happiness. Desire. Need. And even a trace of fear.

  She’d been so new to touching him. So fresh and sweet. While she’d had him in every way imaginable in the dreams, this was different.

  This was real.

  He wo
uldn’t rush her.

  He eased back on the kiss, sipping at her lips a moment before nipping his way over her jaw. “The place to bite is right at the crook of my neck, where it meets my shoulder. You’ll feel the vein. Let your fangs lead you; they know what to do.”

  Asherah nodded as he lifted her into his arms to allow her access to his neck. She was so tiny, and he could hurt her easily with his strength.

  A wave slapped him across the face.

  “I’m no weak thing, Kieran of the Shadow.”

  He chuckled as a softer wave rubbed away the sting. “Duly noted.”

  And then he lost his mind when she took on long, silky lick over his vein before biting down, hard. He was going to come all over his armor. She hit he spot perfectly, her little mouth sealing over the wound as she sucked.

  Fuck. Me.

  To keep from lifting her dress and ripping away his armor so he could take her right then, Heath attacked her throat. It was rough, dangerously close to rabid, when he sank his teeth into her. Much crueler than he intended, but she screamed against his throat, wrapping her legs around his waist and grinding against him.

  Yep. I’m going to die. I’m going to fucking die.

  The first slick of her blood against his tongue was magical. It was her, from her emotions to her spunk. The way she laughed and the soft tears in her eyes. Her spirit filled him, and he scanned so many things. So many visions of darkness and hurt. Of power and failure. Skuld, sweet and kind and then dark and horrid.

  Her memories.

  “Niamh? The Crone’s Feast Day in our homelands is this eve. Shall we go?”

  Niamh turned, her spiked crown of silver and diamonds resting on her head matching the glittering silver dress she wore. “The Naming is today, sister mine. Did you forget?”

  “I am not taking a marriage contract, Niamh. The waters have already told me of my Foraltin.”

  “As you’ve told me, over a century from now. By then our alliance will be strong and you may annul on the grounds of the Fated. It is allowed, if it’s to occur, in these joinings.”

  “I have said nay.”

  “And I have said aye. It’s your place as princess, Asherah.”

  “And what is to become of your Naming?”

  Niamh swallowed, her shoulders hunching. “We will be Named together, sister.”

  “Together?”

  Asherah watched her sister lift her head and square her shoulders. She knew. “No.”

  “It is done.”

  “We will not marry them, sister. They are nothing better than slavers.”

  “You are falling into idle gossip. There are no slaves in Seraph. The agreement of indentured servitude from Daemon is on the basis of punishment. They are criminals, Asherah. Criminals who owe a penance to their crown. That is all. Once they have fulfilled their sentence, they return to their lands. Just as criminals of Seraph go to Daemon for punishment. It has kept the balance by doing so for thousands of years.”

  “They abuse them, Niamh.”

  Niamh slammed to her feet. “I have ensured they don’t.”

  The memory shifted, swirled, and Heath couldn’t let go.

  Asherah ran, her soft shoes not meant for the woods, but she couldn’t stop. She had to find Niamh. Had to tell her, show her what they were doing. Explain how wrong she was, by no fault of her own.

  She’d trusted the wrong ones. Too young to take the crown when their parents died suddenly. Too immature from not having lived.

  But Asherah knew the truth. Knew what was causing this.

  “Come, come, little princess. We only want to take you somewhere safe.”

  No, they wanted to hurt her. She could hear it in their voices. Her control of the sea was only so strong at her barely seventy-five years. She was a baby to their kind and wouldn’t reach her next pinnacle until having lived a century. Then she would be able to fight. Then she could destroy. The best she could do now was send up walls to block their path, but it would only last for so long.

  A dark, hooded figure stepped into the path in front of her, and Asherah skidded to a stop.

  “Why are you running, child?” Only red lips and pale skin were visible in the person’s profile.

  “I need to get home.” Asherah could sense the ancient power in the woman before her. The strength in her words.

  The woman turned her head to the side and pushed the hood back, exposing her beautiful face. Her eyes closed and she listened for a moment before she lifted a thin mirror from under her cloak and watched the surface.

  “I will save you, Asherah Danaan of the Sea. I will take you to the palace. Come with me.”

  The figure spun, lifting her arms and bringing forth a swirling dark mass. Asherah recognized a portal into the In Between.

  She backed up, afraid to go, but the yelling behind her got louder. The men were getting closer. His men who would make sure she was silenced before the Naming.

  “Come, little one. I will get you to her. I know you’re afraid, but this is the only way.”

  Asherah took her hand, letting herself be led into the portal.

  It wasn’t until they were through it that she realized she would never leave again.

  Skuld had taken her. He’d known it, but seeing it pissed him off. Heath couldn’t get all the information he was receiving, or even make sense of it all. But from what Asherah had helped him remember, and the part he just saw, something clicked into place.

  Skuld was a mastermind to the Fae destruction, and Silva had been a damage casualty of it all. And that bastard Joran also played a part in it.

  For now, Heath would only focus on his mate. He’d get her out of here and face this later.

  He slid his teeth from her skin and sealed the wound with his tongue. “Asherah, we have to go.”

  She pulled harder on him, rubbing her body against him and withering.

  “Baby, I know. But we have to leave. As soon as I have you somewhere safe, I promise to give you everything you need.”

  He had to pry her from his throat and set her away from him before spitting on his fingers to seal the wound. She was wild for more, red staining her lips and a flush spreading over her skin.

  “More.”

  “Later. We have to get you somewhere safe.” He took her hand and turned to leave.

  “But it’s not finished.”

  Heath looked over her shoulder. No, it wasn’t. The markings that should be on her were not present, but he knew why. To properly Fate with her, he’d have to be inside her, climaxing as they fed from each other. This was only a fix, a way to get their bodies coming together.

  It was already happening. When he inhaled, she exhaled, and their hearts beat as one. It would have to hold until he got her free.

  “Just focus on staying by my side.”

  It wasn’t that he wasn’t taken with heat. That he didn’t want to ignore the outside world and have his way. But his alarm was screaming at him, and her safety meant more than getting his dick wet.

  He tucked her to his side and gripped Wraith in one hand. “Can you control your water to protect you so I can still fight? Or maybe extend it to my men?”

  Asherah took a deep breath. “Your men are Heart Tethered to you, so I can ensure my seas don’t hurt them by recognizing part of you in them, but it will not be as comfortable for them.”

  Heath nodded. “As long as they’re safe, I’m okay with that. Ready?”

  “Yes. Always.”

  Heath lifted her into his arms and raced toward the door. He prayed the runes would fade and wouldn’t hold her there. And if she became a Fury, he’d bring her back. She tensed as they reached the boundary.

  “Close your eyes and trust me.”

  She did as instructed, and he streaked them past the runes.

  Nothing happened.

  Asherah stayed tucked against him, clenching a fist, but no rage overtook her. She took a deep breath, proof she was still alive. “We are free.”

  Heath slammed
out of the room, and Eiravel and Cynes roared a battle cry as her water expanded to take them. They struggled, swinging their hands in panic.

  “I never want any of you to mention my wet dreams again. I just watched you fuckers dry drown.”

  “How?”

  “What?”

  Eiravel and Cynes blinked, breathing under the water.

  “My Foraltae is controlling the waters. It’ll protect us until we can get to Kallan and Teague.”

  Cynes grunted, his face going red where the water brushed by too hard. “Fuck, that hurt.”

  “I cannot make it painless for you,” Asherah said. “I’m sorry.”

  Cynes crossed a fist over his heart and bowed. “It is fine, um … what do I call you?”

  “Asherah Danaan of the Sea.”

  Eiravel blinked. “Did you just fucking say–”

  “I did,” Heath affirmed.

  The men dropped to their knees. “Princess.”

  “Don’t do that,” Heath ordered. “We can save that shit for later.”

  Eiravel and Cynes looked to each other and then spoke in unison. “As we are bound to Kieran of the Shadow, as too are we bound to Asherah Danaan of the Sea, by heart and mind. May the link be unbroken and the tie binding.”

  Heath blinked, completely wowed when two thin, gold ties extended from Eiravel and Cynes’s hearts and seeped into Asherah’s.

  “What the fuck?” His two closest men had Heart Tethered to her.

  “She’s yours, and we will protect her as we do you,” Eiravel promised. “Let’s go. Kallan is probably cursing us to all sorts of hell.”

  They raced back down the tower, sliding by the ravaged bodies of the Hollows they’d faced.

  Skuld had much to answer for.

  When they reached the bottom, Kallan and Teague stood on either side of a woman who looked just like Skuld, except her hair was blond and the horns around her ears were black.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Heath lifted his sword, prepared to fight.

  “I have answered this, Kieran of the Shadow. I am no one and everyone.”

  That voice. She had brought him to the In Between. “I know you.”

  She nodded. “It is enough, for now. I have held the block for as long as I can. Return to your people and protect your Foraltae. Skuld will stop at nothing to get her back, I assure you.”