by Alex Lidell
“That’s Krum.” I pull my head back only enough to mutter the words. “Owalin’s wardsmith. Why?”
“Because he is currently making his way out the back door,” Tye supplies.
“So go fetch him,” River says, his lips already returning to mine. “I’m busy.”
“You’ve been busy.” Taking the chair opposite Krum, River lays his forearms on the table and cocks his head as if he had all the time in the world for this conversation. And to be fair, he is immortal, so there is that.
Around the elegantly appointed suite, which was Sage’s receiving room only a day earlier, the other males of my quint as well as Arisha, Gavriel, Katita, and the mortal kings all listen in attentive silence. The humans’ faces run the full range of emotions, from Arisha and Gavriel’s morbid curiosity, to Katita’s fury, to utter fear and confusion—the latter especially prevalent on guests from kingdoms on the other side of the continent, who’ve never been close enough to Mystwood and Lunos to give the immortal realm much thought.
“I’ve never been one to idle, true.” Krum tries to open his palms in an irreverent gesture, but the chains Thad forged to shackle the fae wardsmith will not allow the motion. With his silver-gray hair swept back and easy, smiling eyes, he still makes more than enough impact. “There is little more enticing to a magic scholar than working with ancient wards.”
“Then we have fortunate news,” I say, crossing my thighs and smiling at him. With River, Krum, and I the only ones sitting at the interrogation table, I feel like a fish fluttering about a glass bowl for others’ entertainment, but River insisted I sit beside him. “You now get the pleasure of closing the wards back up.”
Krum gives me a condescending look, an impressive feat for a shackled male with a split lip. “That can’t be done.”
My stomach tightens, an uncomfortable shiver running across my skin. Somehow, I believe him. This, the wards, was the entire reason for our coming here. For all that we went through in the mortal world. To hear that it can’t be done…
River’s hand flattens on the table’s wooden surface. “I little like what I’m hearing, Krum.” His words, while quiet, ring with enough menace to flay open a soul. “You are the one who wedged the wards open.”
“I meant what I said, Your Majesty.” Krum shrugs, nary a flicker in his pale eyes. “Your displeasure can certainly rearrange my face and bones—but it will do nothing for the wards.” He purses his lips, regarding River and me as if we’re a pair of slow-witted students he has no time to school. “Oh, stars take me. The only reason I was able to drive a wedge into the wards is because they were cracking already.”
“We are aware of the crack,” River says. “Fixing it is the reason we came to the mortal realm to begin with.”
Krum laughs. “Fixing it? You swaggered from Lunos to the mortal realms thinking that you would, what, patch up ancient magic created in a time when any dozen fae warriors were more powerful than today’s entire world of Lunos combined? How exactly were you planning on accomplishing this feat? A bit of putty, perhaps? A needle and thread?”
My jaw tightens. We needed to find the leak before we could assess how to close it, but saying as much out loud just now sounds more defensive than anything.
“I discovered the leak in the wards dozens of years ago,” Krum continues. “It was how I convinced Owalin to bring the Night Guard here, to live in the mountain in wait for when the gap opens wide enough to be useful. Maybe back then, if you’d been smarter, if you’d studied and paid attention as I did, you might have been able to slow the ward’s breaking. But now? Now there is nothing to be done.”
“But you put in a wedge,” I say, my mind jumping to the time when magic flickered in my blood for a moment before disappearing again. “You can take it out. You’ve done it before.”
“I am happy to encourage it.” Coal takes a step forward, the carved angles of his face so deadly, even I want to shrink away.
“Wallop away,” Krum tells the warrior impassively before turning back to me. “A test, yes. I’ve run several of them during the decades. But did you wonder why it was so very short? Did you ask yourself why, if I was going to test something as important as the return of magic, I didn’t let it stay open for several hours? Enough to perhaps give Owalin and his warriors a chance to exercise the power held in shackles for so long?”
“He didn’t dare hold it open longer lest the flow of magic shattered the gateway completely,” Arisha says quietly, her face coloring when the entire attention of the room shifts to her. Eyes widening, she tries to step back—only to hit Tye’s large body instead. The male puts both hands on her shoulders, squeezing lightly.
“Go on and tell them, braids,” he mutters into her ear.
The girl swallows. “He knew that once the magic started flowing fully, he could no longer stanch the flow. And he didn’t want to release the dam until Owalin’s warriors were ready—especially since they knew there were other fae somewhere in the vicinity.”
“Ah, so you do have a thinking being among you,” says Krum, nodding to Arisha respectfully—before swinging a gaze that is anything but to River. “But no need to take our word for it. Wait until Lunos sends experts. It little matters. The truth is the truth: there will soon be no mortal realm, and the humans can return to their rightful place as servants to the higher beings.”
Silence grips the room in an icy wave that seems to freeze everyone in place. My own blood chills with Krum’s words and with Arisha’s fallen face that tells me she believes the male. That everything we sacrificed to come here was for nothing. Even River’s face is a frozen mask, the sparks of failure dancing in his gray eyes twisting my gut.
“We need to raise an army,” King Zenith of Ckridel says finally, his words hitching as he shatters the silence. A murmur of slow concern echoes from the other monarchs in the back of the room. “There might be no stopping magic from coming into our world, but we can stop the magic wielders who bring it.”
“No,” I whisper, softly at first, then with force. “No. Whatever the answer is to this, it isn’t war.”
“She’s right.” Stepping forward, Katita stands beside the table with River and me, regal and polished once more in a simple forest-green gown, her golden hair gathered in a nest on top of her head. “We don’t need to build an army. We need to build an alliance. This Academy was built to bind together the children of the powerful continental families, and it has worked. And this year…this year, we’ve been fortunate. Because we had yet another family join us. A deputy headmaster. An instructor. A healer. A student. And even that rogue over there, who should by all rights have been banned from the Prowess trials.” She jerks her head toward Tye, the small quirk at the corner of her mouth taking the sting out of her words.
“When we were going to lie down and surrender, it was Leralynn who reminded us that the power lies in our own hands. Our unions. Our alliances.” She turns to Arisha. “Now that the wards are open, how quickly will the magic spread throughout the continent?”
Arisha bites the end of her braid, her blue eyes glazing in calculation. “It’s hard to say,” she mutters, “but given that it took decades to spread from the rip on the mountain to the Academy, I would imagine it will be years until it creeps through the Ckridel kingdom. Decades before it covers the continent. But it will.”
Katita nods, turning back to her father. “Then I propose we open the Academy immediately to our friends in Lunos. If King River would agree, let us invite faculty and students from Slait to join us here, to learn and grow together.” The princess turns slowly, until it is me she speaks to alone, our whole complex history laid out clearly on her face—competition, rancor, partnership, and finally, respect. “Maybe, if we do this right, if the Academy becomes a place of learning known throughout both our realms… Then when your children come of age, you will want them to come study here. To spar and learn and fight and discover truths with the royals of our world. With the children I will one day bear.”
16
Lera
“Do you need help, lass?” Tye asks, climbing through the window of my bedchamber to land with a flourish on a small open spot in the middle of the floor—a feat made more impressive by the clothes and bags spread on every other surface. Minion, testing each item of clothing for rip-worthiness against his claws, arches his tiny back and hisses at the guest.
Arisha rolls her eyes. “You’ve been able to use the door for months now. Do you just enjoy making this seem…illegitimate?”
“Yes, of course.” Tye blinks in surprise at the question, his messy red hair and sparkling grin making the image irresistible—and he knows it. “Why wouldn’t I enjoy it?” After picking his way across the room, he grasps my hips and lifts me up for a thorough kiss that sends tendrils of warmth all over my skin, the little prickles of fire heading right down to—
I smack him, wriggling down to the floor as I close my thighs quickly.
That wasn’t my own heat tickling my sex—that was the bastard sending tiny sparks of literal fire sneaking toward my apex. Right in the middle of my packing. With Arisha watching. Thanking the stars that Arisha’s mortal nose lacks the ability to scent just how quickly my body roused to Tye’s intentions, I give the male the best glower I can summon while pressing my legs together.
Arisha snorts. Clearly, what my friend lacks in smell, she makes up for in eyesight—my heating face clueing her in to exactly what instincts are pulsing about. Gathering the remaining shreds of my dignity, I brush down my light blue gown, which arrived in a chest of at least a dozen others in River’s sister Autumn’s luggage three weeks ago.
Once Katita’s plan was affirmed by the other rulers, the choice for the initial cadre to the Academy turned out to be the simplest one to be made yet. Retrieving the Mystwood key the Night Guard once used from their mountain lair, Shade shifted to wolf form to deliver the news to Lunos. A week later, he returned with Autumn and her mate, Kora, along with Kora’s quint, to take on the Academy billets for the coming semester.
With her brilliant mind, Autumn will make an incredible deputy headmistress to the Academy, taking the place River was now vacating. As for physical training, anyone who thought trading Coal for Kora would bring about a more pleasant experience in the sparring ring was going to enjoy a shock. Although River decided against sending fae students to the Academy this year, we both hope to identify a handful of candidates to start the following semester.
“Any word on the new headmaster?” I ask Tye. “I imagine Sage will no longer be gracing these halls with his brave leadership.”
Tye picks the hissing Minion up by the scruff of his neck, the kitten clawing the air in indignation. One set of green eyes locks on another, and Tye lets loose a low feline growl of his own.
Minion goes limp and cute at once, licking his little nose piously with a pink tongue.
“River is proposing Princess Katita for the post,” Tye says, dropping the cat onto a pile of my lacy underwear. Of course. “Given that it’s her vision, after all—which goes to show the importance of keeping your mouth shut, lest you get tagged with extra work.”
“Katita?” I frown. “Isn’t she a bit—well, young?”
“She’ll have plenty of old arses around her to make things appropriately stuffy. With the Academy on Ckridel lands, the humans see it as fair, and she does have more experience driving immortals out of their minds than anyone else. She’ll have things sorted out here quickly enough. Or not. It will be amusing either way.”
Arisha makes a small choking sound, turning away quickly when Tye and I twist toward her.
“What are you hiding, braids?” Tye asks. “I don’t think it’s hair ribbons.”
“Autumn asked Uncle Gavriel and me to stay in the Academy,” Arisha mumbles.
“My condolences.” Tye leans back on his heels, his hands going to his pockets. “Though I am not clear as to why you find that uncomfortable, given your odd sense of humor. Plus, weren’t you always going to stay?”
“Not just as a student.” Arisha cringes. “River’s sister wants me to liaise between the fae faculty and human students. She thinks surviving sharing quarters with Lera counts as qualification. She’d not mentioned the Katita factor before I agreed.”
Tye throws back his head to laugh. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you something to help.”
“What’s that?” I ask, frowning at the male.
“Wine, of course,” Tye says seriously. “A great deal of wine.”
“What are we doing here?” I ask, following River through the once-more regal Great Hall up to the mezzanine balcony where we danced on Ostera. As if in reminder of those times, the Academy bell strikes midnight, the sleeping grounds drawing a collective breath of cool night wind. Under the full moon, the balcony looks like something new altogether, vases of flowers and silk ribbons in the blue and gold of the Slait kingdom now filling the space.
Stepping up to the rail, I see the beautiful mortal world sprawled lazily for miles in every direction, the sheep fields once more free of soldiers’ tents, the rolling hills disappearing into the darkness. Somewhere far away, the Great Falls waterfall cascades down through the silent night, an echo to the phantom violins that once played an intoxicating waltz.
“Saying goodbye to the place where we fell in love with you all over again,” River says. The other males step out of the shadows to stand with us, their stunning moonlit faces stealing my breath.
“Isn’t that what the farewell feast tomorrow is for?” I ask, curling my hands around the smooth banister, my voice light despite a lump forming in my throat. Deep inside my abdomen, a tiny body shifts and yawns. The twins are no more than three months along, but I feel them already.
“I wanted a night with just us here.” River’s hands brush my shoulders, sending ripples of warmth over my bare arms. “Us and our memories. Before our lives change forever.” His palm slides gently over my midsection, my fingers closing over his.
“If you’ve not noticed, River, our lives have been changing forever every few months since the lass walked into them,” Tye says, snatching me from River’s arms.
Now that I look closer, I see the males are all dressed differently. Tye wears the red-and-gold colors of the Prowess team uniform, Shade the soft gray cashmere he wore as the Academy healer. River’s tailored coat is as regal as all his clothing, but the garment he chose for tonight is the deep red one he wore the most during our time here. And Coal… Well…
He is in black fighting leathers, though his blond hair is loose to his shoulders. I grin. “I see that nothing so small as lost memories and freed magic can get you out of these.”
“Oh, I imagine something that can,” Tye murmurs loudly enough to make Coal glower. Tye flashes him an impertinent grin before tracing a thumb along my cheek. “Or someone. Unless you are shy now that you are with cubs?” The last is said with enough of a challenge to have me striding up to Coal to unbutton his leather jerkin one brass clasp at a time.
Click. Click. Click.
The male stands rock still as I slide the leather vest off him, the hardness building inside his breeches the only sign of my effect on him. The only outward sign, that is. Inside me, my magic wakes to Coal’s rousing purple power, the two forces pulsating with the need to connect with their mate.
Swallowing, I brush my hand down Coal’s muscled chest, resting my palm on the hard squares of his chiseled abdomen.
Coal shudders. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispers, his hands opening and closing at his sides without ever touching me. “When we… Things tend to break when we couple, mortal. A lot. I don’t want to add you and the cubs to the list.”
“Good thing we’ve three other males to keep us in line,” I say. The male inhales shar
ply when my hand drops to his waistband. Lower. My heart quickens, my body already warming with a need that makes every details of the male’s face stand out in sex-clenching clarity. The powerful square jaw. The sculpted muscles that shift like liquid silver in the moonlight. The musky metallic scent that makes my toes curl.
“One problem of toying with your food, lass,” Tye says as his sensual drawl caresses my back, “is that you miss the predator behind you.” The male’s hands deftly undo the little hooks along my dress, the click click click an invitation for Shade and River to help ease the fabric off my shoulder until it spreads on the balcony floor like a pool of midnight. Until it is me who stands naked before the four males, the barely noticeable bump on my taut belly drawing the starlight to itself.
Dropping to his knees, River runs his lips across my abdomen, my sensitive skin caught between his heat and the chill of the night. When I opened my mouth to draw breath, Shade is there with a low growl, pressing his full lips over mine, his tongue stroking the inside of my mouth in deep possessive strokes that have heat spreading through my entire core.
Down lower, River pushes my thighs apart, the chill air brushing my open sex for a moment before his hot tongue slides between my folds. I gasp against Shade’s lips.
And moan when Coal’s warm mouth closes over my neck from behind, nipping lightly with his teeth. His callused hands knead my bare bottom, his fingers traveling dangerously close to my back opening. He thrusts his hips against me right as he bites my neck harder, the hard bulge against my flesh making me desperate beyond reason to be filled by it.
My eyes widen, my heart already gasping with the sensation coming at it. Twining my fingers in River’s hair, I whimper against Shade’s deepening kiss, which grows more primal and possessive with every stroke of the shifter’s tongue—River’s echoing licks down below trapping the storm growing inside me, making me buck. The male grips my hips and pulls me against him hungrily.
