From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4)

by Stacey Marie Brown

  He gripped my chin, his gaze searching my face with so much love. I didn’t even know I was crying until his thumbs brushed the tears from underneath my eyes. A grin hooked the side of his mouth.

  “Human.”

  “Viking.”

  Sirens wailed in the background, but I ignored them as I pulled his mouth to mine, telling him with my kiss everything I couldn’t say in words.

  He breathed me in, his hands tugging through my hair, bringing me closer. His mouth moved over mine intensely. Full of passion, love, and happiness.

  I knew we would still have a lot of obstacles ahead of us. But with this man by my side, I could handle them all. There was nothing we wouldn’t fight or challenge. We could barrel through anything, even if we had to lie, cheat, and steal. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him or my family.

  This was the life I had always yearned for. This was the love I wanted.

  A Viking, a monkey-sprite, a pirate, two teenage girls, and a kooky aunt.

  Nope, Disney had nothing on me.

  EPILOGUE

  (5 Years Later)

  The uneven planks of the porch slid beneath my bare feet, my steps lazy and heavy. I sighed deeply, inhaling the thick air. You could feel a touch of chilliness as the season shifted to fall. Suddenly, I missed Seattle. The knowledge that I could be there any time to check on things eased the homesickness as the leaves turned.

  The sun dipped halfway behind the mountain and ignited the hills and rooftops in unbelievable reds, purples, and deep blues. This was home too.

  I split my time between the Pacific Northwest and Peru, sometimes in the same day. For practical reasons to be close to the children’s shelter, we lived close to Lima in a pretty village called Barranco. I also jumped to Machu Picchu to hike quite often. That place would always hold a special place in my heart.

  I rubbed my arms, feeling the scarred symbols rub against my skin on my arm. The stone’s mark. Everyone knew how I got them, but no one knew sometimes I still felt them throb. It was as if the stone was taunting me, telling me I would never be too far from its reach. The scars it left on me went more than skin deep. My hands trembled from time to time, the restless feeling itching my soul, reminding me of the days of being an addict were never far behind me. The weeks after handing it over to Lars had been tough. Withdrawal had been even worse than death. Lots of late nights with Ryker holding me in the shower as I vomited and cried. I never wanted to go back to that again. But deep down, I felt it. It owned me and someday it would come for me. Seeking its revenge.

  “Zoey?” My name rang out from inside the two-story villa, causing me to jump.

  “I’m outside,” I called back.

  Movement followed my words. “We’re back from the beach.” Lexie stuck her head out of the open sliding glass door.

  I swiveled around to see my eighteen-year-old sister standing before me. Her wavy black hair had grown down her back. She wore a bikini top and white, flowing cotton pants. She had matured into an extremely smart and stunning woman.

  “You girls heading over to Casa de la Miel?”

  Lexie took a step out, walking smoothly over to me. It had taken a few years after the operation that removed her false legs for her to heal, but she had been on her prosthetic legs for more than two years now and was adapting well to them. We almost lost her on the operating table, but the girl was a fighter. She made it through.

  “Yeah, Annabeth is just grabbing us something to eat. We’re going to change and then head there.”

  The moment the words left Lexie’s mouth, Annabeth yelled from the kitchen. “Sprig, get out of there! And stop double-dipping. Licking your fingers doesn’t count as them being clean.”

  “He will never learn.” Lexie chuckled.

  “Oh, he knows. He just gives us those eyes, and we let it go.”

  “Yeah, not hard to see who rules this house.” Lexie nudged me, throwing her arm around my shoulder. She had grown taller than me, especially with her prosthetics. She goaded me about it every chance she got.

  “Zoey?” Annabeth came to the door. “Sprig is now curled up in the honey peanut butter jar. Asleep.”

  I snorted.

  “I’m not eating that.” Annabeth’s nose scrunched up. “Full of monkey hair now.”

  “There’s another one in the pantry,” I told Annabeth. She nodded and disappeared back into the house. Her colorful swimsuit cover flittered after her.

  After the battle with DMG, Annabeth chose to come live with us instead of her maternal grandparents. I forced her to at least contact them and let them know she was alive and all right. They didn’t try to fight for custody rights, and I was grateful.

  Annabeth and Lexie bonded immediately. You couldn’t separate the two. They looked nothing alike but identified as sisters, through and through. The first couple years after Rapava’s fall, we lived in Seattle during the school year and in Peru the rest of the time. Travel was easy enough.

  Annabeth had graduated and wanted to stay in Peru more. She woke up many nights with either nightmares of being trapped underwater, drowning, or being held down by a faceless figure. At fourteen her innocence had been ripped from her in the most disgusting way when she was forced to do things no one should ever have to. It became mandatory for her to see a counselor. But because of what happened to her, Annabeth liked to stay close to us.

  “I’ll go get Sprig.” Lexie leaned over and kissed my head. “You want a sandwich?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “No. I’m good.”

  “Come on, it could be tasty,” she teased, stepping back across the porch. “You know he farts in his sleep.”

  “Ah, come on. Like I’m not nauseated enough,” I yelled after her.

  She giggled evilly all the way back in the house.

  I twisted back around with a smile, watching the last bit of the sun dip below the horizon. Magic danced in the air, thick and unnaturally bright over the forested mountains.

  Lars’s warning had come true.

  Two years earlier the realm between Earth and the Otherworld collapsed, forcing the two worlds to mix. A lot of things did not survive. Human technology and Earth’s infrastructure were pretty much destroyed, but rebuilding with new materials got better every day. It was like we were back in the Industrial Age again, building and exploring new ideas. This time we were starting fresh and more environmentally healthy.

  Dr. Rapava had always been afraid of a war between humans and fae. In a way his fear came true. But like the Unseelie King had warned me, it had been a fight between Light and Dark fae. Humans got caught in the middle, but the casualties were as devastating as Rapava had predicted. The Seelie Queen broke the barrier between the worlds. Now the deep secret of the fae became known to all. And the human world still wasn’t handling it well. The new Seelie Queen, the first Druid to ever reign, was doing her best with the help of Lars, trying to put our worlds back and bring our two species together. But centuries of tradition and fear would not go away overnight. If ever.

  “Sprig! Get down off the fan, or I’ll turn it on. You threw up last time, remember?” Lexie’s voice sailed out to me on the deck. I smiled.

  Then I felt a change in the atmosphere. Energy sparking. Someone came up behind me.

  “That smile better be for me,” a deep voice growled in my ear.

  “No.” I whirled around, throwing my arms around the man behind me. “But you could make it be.”

  It had been six months before both of our jumping abilities even partially returned and about a year before we could completely control them again. Never a day went by that I wasn’t thankful for being fae, for having these powers, and for this man in my life.

  Ryker’s hand slid up along my jawbone, tilting my head to his. His mouth pressed to mine, his lips devouring mine. I opened my mouth to deepen the kiss. His fingers dug into my hips as he lifted me up, my legs wrapping around his torso. One arm skimmed my back, the other crushed my head into his.

  After fiv
e years, he still set fire to my veins. I never seemed to get enough of him.

  His kiss turned hungrier. Our breaths caught.

  “The girls are in the kitchen,” I mumbled against his mouth. “But the moment they walk out that door…?” I lifted my eyebrows.

  “We lock a monkey-sprite in the bathroom?”

  “Exactly.” I smiled.

  “The hammock or the Chevelle in the garage?”

  “Both.” I grinned mischievously.

  For my last birthday he surprised me with a Chevy Chevelle. To everyone else it looked like an old classic car, to me it represented our union, changed by the night we both confessed we were in love with each other. Not surprising, we spent more time on the hood or in the back than we did driving it.

  “I like the way you think.” He kissed me again, his tongue slipping past my lips. I groaned and squeezed my legs tighter around him, desire invigorating my skin.

  “If you don’t stop, everyone in this house is about to get an incredibly kinky view of my ass.” He brushed his lips over my ear and nipped.

  “Like that would be a first.” I pulled his mouth back to mine. He crushed his hand into the back of my head, inhaling me. I was past caring who was around. But he pulled away, setting me back down on my feet.

  “Did you get the stuff?” I sighed.

  He tilted his head in a what do you think? expression. “I already distributed it around to the clinics and left some for us at Casa de la Miel.”

  “Thank you. Wish I could have gone with you.”

  “No. Way too dangerous.”

  I pouted, but I knew he was right. At least for now. I had to admit I started counting down the days till I could join him again.

  Ryker and I would never be nine-to-fivers or be typical in any way. Some might think it wrong, but robbing from the corrupt drug cartel to give back to the clinics, orphanages, and less fortunate felt right. We were thieves. And we were damn good at it.

  Since the collapse of Earth and the opening of the Otherworld, a lot of fae got in on drug trafficking. Illegal drugs would never go away, and people took advantage of the weak state of the world. Ryker and I took from those.

  That was just one of our businesses. The other was in Seattle. Lars helped Kate and me establish a new form of DMG, what DMG first started out to be. He bankrolled it and offered his ideas on what he wanted us to accomplish, but otherwise left it to Kate and me to run. She was the lead scientist with a ton of researchers under her. I was more the face of it, and the ideas person. I jumped to Seattle all the time to collaborate on new research projects. We were still trying to help find a cure for cancer and a variety of disabilities, but without the killing, kidnapping, and torture.

  When not with Kate or pilfering with Ryker, I tried to create a new format for orphanages and foster care. There was an even greater need for help with children whose parents died in the fae war. Hence Casa de la Miel—Honey House. Wild guess on who named it. It was still new, but Lima became my test case, a place for orphaned kids with and without special requirements who needed homes. We wanted to get them a better education and medical coverage while providing a place where they felt loved and wanted. This was all funded by the money Daniel left me. It was exactly how he would want me to use it. I hoped someday my new format would take off and start moving around the world.

  “Why is the bottle of rum empty?” a man’s voice bellowed from the doorway, his footsteps on the deck treading on the wood.

  I glanced past Ryker.

  A tall, dark, sexy pirate stood there with an empty bottle in his hand, waving it around.

  “Because you finished it last night and just don’t remember.” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh. Right.” Croygen nodded. “Never mind. Is there another one somewhere?”

  “There’s beer in the fridge,” Ryker mumbled, though he kept his hands cupped to my face, lightly kissing my jawline.

  Croygen snarled. “Beer?”

  “Yes.” Ryker straightened and glanced over his shoulder. “You will have to suffer unless you want to get your lazy ass in the jeep and go get more. How about you do that and take it back to your own house?”

  “I don’t have a house.”

  “I know.” Ryker sighed, turning back to me.

  “I have a ship.”

  “Which you’re never on.”

  “The bed is comfier here,” Croygen grumbled, then made his signature cocky smile. “I’m starting to think you don’t want me to live here anymore. Nah, that can’t be true. I know you love having me here.”

  Ryker growled, while I grinned. Croygen was right. I did want him here. The house was big enough, and I loved it filled with people. Not just people, my family. I sometimes would tear up when heading down the stairs in the morning, hearing them laugh, bicker, and talk together. Truly a dream come true.

  “Here you go.” Lexie popped around Croygen, holding a sandwich on a paper plate for him. She had changed out of her bathing suit to a tank top, pants, and zip-up hoodie.

  “Thanks, little shark.” He took it, smiling at her.

  “I’m not little anymore.”

  His gaze roamed over her striking features. “Don’t I know it,” he mumbled and turned his attention to the sandwich.

  A soft blush covered her cheeks before she turned to Ryker. “You want one? Annabeth is making a whole bunch to take down to the shelter.”

  “I’m good. Thanks,” Ryker said to her, but his eyes were on Croygen. She disappeared back in the house.

  Croygen’s gaze followed her.

  “No.” I shook my head. “Absolutely not.”

  “What?” Croygen’s head snapped back to me.

  “You know what,” Ryker growled. “If you even think about touching her, I will kill you.”

  “Me too.” I nodded.

  Croygen’s eyes widened. “Oh come on, give me more credit than that. She’s a kid.”

  But she wasn’t anymore, and he had noticed. We all had. Lexie’s crush on him had grown over the years, even though he always treated her like a little sister. Lately that seemed to be shifting, his gaze lingering a little longer, his teasing a little flirtier. He almost seemed nervous around her. If I hadn’t witnessed it, I would have thought it a tall tale, but Croygen seemed smitten. In her presence he was kind, sweet, patient. His eyes focused only on her when she spoke. And Lexie was growing stronger, more relaxed, and confident in herself. I could see their connection. They laughed a lot, and in my gut I felt it was inevitable. There seemed to be something between them you couldn’t explain.

  Croygen had changed. He helped Ryker and me with our “business” and took side jobs every once in a while, but mostly he hung out with us, living in the house. He wasn’t a saint, but he no longer seduced every woman who walked by.

  “Bhean!” Sprig tore around Croygen, a black pair of underwear trailing behind. He clambered up my leg to my shoulder, adjusting his “cape.” “Bebinn is not letting me have any more honey.”

  “You’ve had half a bottle.” A head of long, wavy blonde hair stuck out the door, defending herself. Her beauty was almost unearthly. She could easily be mistaken for a fairy. We’d celebrated Annabeth’s twentieth birthday the month before. She helped me at Casa de la Miel full-time. She had found her calling helping displaced children. Annabeth wanted nothing more than to stay at Honey House with me, while Lexie had a restless spirit. She was ready to go out into the world and explore it.

  “Sprig, you know you can only have one,” I chided him.

  He huffed, folding his arms.

  “Such a tight ass, huh?” Ryker said to Sprig, patting my behind.

  “Seriously.” They high-fived each other behind my back. “Especially lately.”

  “Don’t encourage him. You know what happens when he overdoses.” My lids narrowed on the Viking. “I’m always going to be the bad parent, aren’t I?”

  “Yep.” Ryker winked and chuckled.

  “Zoey?” Lexie joined the group on
the porch, with our Border collie, Matty, following her out. Yes, Sprig named him too. “Kate just sent a message marked urgent.” Phones and computers were victims of the collapse. The Unseelie King had started a new system for both, much higher tech.

  “Urgent?”

  “Yes…very urgent.” A smile broke over Lexie’s mouth. “She wants to know what date you decided on for the shower.”

  I groaned, my hands automatically going to my tiny protruding belly. “I told her I didn’t want one.”

  “You know how well she listens.” Lexie grinned playfully, giving Matty the crust of her sandwich. He gobbled it up in one bite, his eyes on her till he realized she didn’t have anything else, then he wandered over to me. I rubbed his head and behind his ears. He was a family dog, but Matty mostly followed me around. He must have sensed the change within me because in the last few months he rarely left my side.

  “I’m barely four months and she wants to start planning all these things.” I leaned my head into Ryker’s arm. “Why couldn’t that have been one of the customs that disappeared?”

  “Sucks to be you.” He wrapped one arm around me, kissing the top of my head. One hand rubbed my belly.

  “I don’t care. Tell her she can pick one.” I shrugged.

  “Okay.” Lexie turned to head back in, motioning to Annabeth. “We’re going to take off. Be back after the kids go to sleep.”

  Annabeth waved to us. “See you later. Love you.” She never left the house without telling us that.

  “Love you too,” I said back. “Check the stock Ryker just left, will you?”

  “Sure thing.” She waved and disappeared into the house.

  “I’ll go with you guys.” Croygen abruptly rounded after the girls. “I have to head into town anyway.”

  “Rum?” Lexie glanced over her shoulder at him, a playful smile etching her mouth.

  He nodded.

  “You’re such a cliché,” she teased.

  “Cliché?”

  “A pirate drinking rum? Come on.” They walked deeper into the house.

  “Tradesman! I am a tradesman,” Croygen’s voice exclaimed.