by J. Kearston
“It’s hard doing it on anything besides myself, so I only play strip poker because it keeps people’s attention divided elsewhere.” She continues rocking between Lucien and me, and I count down from ten, trying to keep myself steady. “I actually lost all but one hand.” Running the fingers of her free hand through her hair to brush it out of her face, she smirks. “In all honesty, I’m terrible at poker.”
With a low growl, he breaks. Shedding his shirt, he unzips his jeans as he stalks closer, eyes narrowed. Lucien plucks at one of her nipples the same moment that Atlas strokes a hand over his cock, bringing it to Cambria’s lips.
She grips the base as he palms the back of her head, tangling his fingers in her hair. Flicking her tongue over the tip and trying to tease him, he pushes himself into her mouth with a feral sound and she’s forced to swallow him down. The mood that had been fading away is reignited with a vengeance as she braces one hand against his thigh and the other on Lucien’s stomach.
Atlas fucks her mouth in shallow thrusts, Cambria sliding her hand from his thigh to stroke the length of him that she can’t swallow down. I drive into her harder, faster, and each slap of flesh forces her to take Atlas’ cock deeper down her throat.
With a low rumble emanating from his chest, Lucien slams into her harder twice more before stilling, head thrown back as he rides the wave of his release. Wrapping a hand around her throat, she clenches tighter around me as I buck my hips, and when I finally come, I swear, my vision blackens around the edges.
Her muffled screaming as she follows me over that edge has Atlas releasing a steady stream of curses, spilling inside of her mouth. She continues to stroke what she can’t take, swallowing down every last drop until he’s as much of a shuddering mess as the rest of us.
With languid thrusts, I eventually pull out of her, bending to kiss her shoulder. On shaky legs, I grope for a discarded shirt to start cleaning up before collapsing onto the bed. My boxers smack me in the face a moment later and I glance up at Atlas rolling his eyes.
“I’ve seen enough of your bare ass to last me a lifetime. Cover up, will ya?” Atlas finishes fastening his pants and starts heading out of the room.
“Don’t want to stay?” Cambria asks, and I don’t bother concealing the judgmental glare I send his way behind her back, her self-conscious tone not well concealed.
He hesitates. “I don’t exactly trust that someone who might break in would trip and fall into the tank with our guard fish. One of us should stay awake to keep an ear out.”
She nods, but even Atlas isn’t so stupid as to think she’s fine and agrees with him. She heads to the bathroom to clean up, and the three of us devolve into a hushed argument, immediately biting our tongues the second we hear the toilet flush and the door crack open.
“But technically,” he cautiously adds, “I could do that from here. I’m just jumpy lately.”
Even though it looks like she sees through all of it, she flops onto the bed, rolling over me as I whoosh out a breath, and settles between me and Luce. “If solitaire is that interesting, have at it. But we can push the other bed closer to make room for you if you want.” There’s a heavy beat of weighted silence where I can hear my own heartbeat, stuck in an ominous state of waiting.
“I’d like that,” he eventually whispers, and without being asked, I get up to scoot the other bed beside this one. He settles in beside me, keeping his distance, but reclining back against the headboard, settling in for the night.
“Smack me when you start to drift off, okay?”
He gives me a mock salute before folding his arms behind his head, and we all settle into a state of deceptive normalcy. Though we’ve done this countless times before, no one pretends to be unaware of the shift in the dynamic, unsure of exactly where to go from here. So instead, like the cowards we are, we all refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room, hunkering down for the night and being grateful that for once, we might be able to actually sleep without anyone trying to slit our throats in the dead of night.
Chapter 15
Cambria
“It’s like they’re trying to make a portal via whirlpool.” I stare down at the fish tank of agitated changelings, knowing it means we need to call it and head back. A two day reprieve was amazing, but we all knew it couldn’t last.
My eyes snap up to meet Dorian’s, explaining nothing, but he knows how my mind works by now and I don’t have to. “Bermuda triangle.”
His eyes widen before glancing at the changelings and back at me, shaking his head and chuckling. “Don’t do that to me, love. I’ll never sleep again.”
I finish dumping the last of the fish food in the tank to tide them over for a little longer since we still need to finish loading the car and drive back to the ring. We’re better off saving Atlas’ energy for creating one when we have a permanent place to stay again over here. I’m not the only one leery about setting one up so close to the cabin and risking Belinda or her family unintentionally getting caught up in this mess.
Dorian and Atlas take the backseat this time, the tank between them on the floor, and I ride up front with Luce. Knowing just how long of a drive is ahead of us, I held one of the comforters hostage, cocooning myself inside and wadding part of it up against the glass as a makeshift pillow. The summer heat is starting to ebb away in favor of the approaching fall, some days sweltering, and the next, jacket worthy.
It’s one of the only things I’ve never been able to adapt to, how quickly the seasons change on earth. Faerie is practically frozen in time; the weather constantly temperate and the only advancements coming from technology. And even that is far slower than that on Earth. We have electricity, sure, and some basic appliances for convenience’s sake because if the fae are one thing, it’s self-serving. But with as many that look down on the mortal realm and humans, it’s harder for the ones that don’t to get people on board with new ideas on a widespread scale.
“You’re extra quiet today,” Lucien murmurs, side-eyeing me quickly before refocusing his attention on the road.
“I mean, if two days of getting dicked down wasn’t enough to wear me out, you three would be offended. You should take it as a compliment, really.”
“Cambria.” Just that one word, calm and understanding.
Sighing, I twist in my seat. “I’m bummed that we have to go back.”
“Me too.” After a short stretch of silence, he admits, “I’m finally starting to feel like myself again. Like I have a finite amount of energy to work with and ration instead of...instead of that high I was riding in the shadow court,” he glosses over, and both men in the backseat have completely halted their conversation to blatantly eavesdrop.
“I have a new appreciation for how subdued you become after a few days here-“ he swallows “-and that you’d keep coming back and putting yourself through that just so we could spend as much time here as possible.” An exhale, long and slow, that rattles his chest. “Because of how much of a bitch fit I threw about wanting to carry on with our lives here, rotating your need to go back into the schedule like it was an inconvenience.”
If he wasn’t driving, I have no doubt he’d be closing his eyes, seeking patience and pinching the bridge of his nose. Instead, he white knuckles the steering wheel.
As it groans under the pressure, he lessens his hold with a self-deprecating grimace. “And you didn’t fight it. You just kept pushing your limits of how much you could tolerate for my benefit.”
Fisting the blanket around me, I rub my fingers over the smooth fabric to keep my hands busy. “It was hard on you to accept in the first place, I wasn’t about to make it worse for you. Whether or not we slept together, we were bound for the rest of our lives at that point. I wasn’t about to make you hate me anymore than you already did. I’d just left living with people that couldn’t stand to look at me, I wasn’t about to go back to that if I could do something to prevent it.”
“You were so flippant about it,” he presses, looking strained. “But
it’s only been two days and I can feel it, Cambria.”
“What’s he talking about?” Atlas demands and I can’t bring myself to answer, just turn back to gaze out of the windshield, leaning into the comfort of my blanket against the glass.
Lucien pulls over onto the side of the road and smacks the hazard lights button, wrapping an arm around the seat as he turns around. “After the first day, it’s like you’re slowly bleeding out. You can feel yourself dying with no way to put pressure on the wound, nothing tangible to heal. You just...start fading away.” I can feel him boring holes in the side of my face. “You made it seem like you were just getting rundown by day three, not that it physically hurt, that you could feel yourself dying!”
Finally, I shift in my seat to look at him. And for the first time, I don’t have any witty retorts just dancing on the tip of my tongue to deflect away from the severity of the uncomfortable conversation.
“And now that you know how I grew up, can you blame me? For flirting hard with that line and wondering where the point of no return was?”
His chest rumbles with his growl. “But it wasn’t to escape anything, it was to make my life more convenient. After things developed between all of us, why didn’t you say anything? You had to know that we wouldn’t want you to suffer, would gladly rework things to spare you any pain, especially when it was one of the only things going on that we could actually control.”
I free my hands from the blanket, braiding my hair over my shoulder, constantly needing something to fiddle with. “Because it helped ease some of the crushing guilt, that pain. Cody might not have actually been my brother, but I killed him, Luce.”
“You were just a kid-”
Blood heating, I snap. “So was he!” My hand slams down on the dash in front of me, the harsh slap that stings my palm helping to ground me before I spiral too far. Still, every nerve ending is alight, my skin feeling too tight.
“It was no different than how I was already slowly dying, Lucien. It was just the difference of having a few breaths of fresh air with you guys to break up the constant state of suffocation I spent every day in. So blame me if it makes you feel better; I’m used to it. But don’t lecture me like I was hiding some dirty secret and betrayed you. It was a shit situation and it’s not like I didn’t prefer hanging out here with you guys rather than in Faerie. It wasn’t exactly a sacrifice on my part, and not worth bringing up like I was trying to manipulate you into sacrificing what little time we actually had over here when you’d already given up so much.”
The car is dead silent, and rather than hide from it, to wait it out by gazing out a window until they move on, I twist in my seat until I’m facing Atlas and Lucien, Dorian in my peripherals.
“Anybody else have something they want to get out?”
Dorian tilts his head. “I think this is the first time I’ve actually seen you mad.”
Tongue in cheek, my stomach twists. “There isn’t much use wasting energy being pissed about the things I can’t change. I’m better off focusing my efforts on what I can control.”
Lucien’s brow is furrowed as he tentatively speaks. “It might be.” At my confusion, he elaborates, “I think you gave me a burst of your energy when you snapped.”
Atlas chimes in, glancing at his feet. “Changelings look less agitated too.”
Now that they point it out, I turn inward, and realize...I feel more awake. Like I just stepped from Faerie again. All of that exhaustion that stems from being cut off from the source of my magic has pretty much faded away.
“Wait a second,” Dorian cuts in. “But you produce energy naturally. That’s why you’re always needing to burn it off, why you were overloading the night you were drugged.”
Frowning, I hold my hands splayed out in front of me, staring at my palms. “To a degree, I suppose. But not enough to counteract what Earth-“ my eyes fly up to meet his “-sucks out of me. Because too much energy builds up to chaotic proportions so I need to keep it at a manageable level, but being on Earth drains it quicker than I can naturally produce it. We grew up thinking that if we spend too long from Faerie, our lack of connection to Her makes us wither and die. But it’s just that when we’re on Earth, the rings are siphoning the magic from here faster than we can naturally replenish it, like a vacuum.”
Atlas rubs his temples. “So if we got rid of all of the fairy rings, Faerie would naturally only have the magic it produces, but so would Earth? So if it were left alone, it would have its own magic.” He exhales, dragging it out. “So humans would start developing abilities after enough time? Maybe just minor ones, and the more powerful fae would weaken?”
I share a look with Lucien. “And if we cut off the connection, then we could stay on Earth forever without it draining us. We could be rid of the fae for good, not have to worry about Elorie hunting us down, and just...live our lives.”
Lucien’s lips press into a thin line. “But you likely wouldn’t be immortal anymore, just have a slightly longer lifespan than most humans.”
I don’t think he realizes that the thought actually makes me want to weep with relief. “Nobody should have to live forever. It’s too much to ask someone to endure.”
Dorian whispers, “But what about the changelings?”
My face drains of color, glancing at the fish swimming along innocently, oblivious to their fates being decided right in front of them.
“What if we brought them over here with us? Then even if they created rings, it would be in the reverse, draining Faerie and fueling Earth?” I already realize the problem as soon as the desperate hope is out of my mouth.
“Then there’s nothing to stop the fae from coming over here and just taking this place over as their new home before they lose too much of their power or humans evolve enough to develop abilities to defend themselves. We’d be in a similar situation, just in a new place.” Dorian’s words are kind, yet they hurt as much as if he’d slapped me with them.
But as much as I want to be free, I’m not about to sacrifice an entire innocent race to accomplish it. “So we follow through with our original plan.” The words twist my stomach, but I force confidence that I don’t really feel into my voice. “We fortify the prison, burn the ring after we get there so no one can follow us, and turn it into a sanctuary. Then just hope that everybody kills each other off so we’re the last men standing and swoop down in a few decades to plunder the ruined kingdoms like a merry band of pirates. Maybe we leave a couple of changelings on the loose to hurry the process along.”
***
“Okay, that’s the last of it.” Lucien doesn’t even sound winded as he sets the bags down.
We stand outside some of the bedrooms inside of the prison’s walls, the tunnel lit up better now that the broken light bulbs have been replaced. Atlas and Dorian are off in the kitchen, scrubbing out the fridge and stocking it with groceries and basic supplies. I wish I’d had access to a ring the last time we bought a house; makes moving ten times easier. Though admittedly, with as massive as this place is, it’s still a hell of a lot of hauling shit.
“We’re going to have to take separate bedrooms,” I point out with a sigh. “Three people would be the max we could cram into one, but it’d be a tight fit.”
Lucien opens the door of the one in front of him, running his hand over the wall. “We’ll get Atlas to take a look. Maybe we can knock out a couple of these walls and put up some support beams, expand them into one long room.”
“Project for a later date-“ I give him a small smile “-we’ll make do, like always.”
We start stripping off the dusty old bedding and replacing things, getting four rooms set up. “I distinctly remember your claims about missing your space,” he teases as we fight with the last fitted sheet.
“I can remember things fondly while still acknowledging the need for them to change.”
He meets my eyes. “You do know that I envy you, right?” At my snort, he straightens to his full height. “I’m serious. The way you
take everything in stride, rolling with the punches and finding something good no matter the situation. You’ve had every reason to just...give up, and you haven’t, not even when there wasn’t so much as a light to be seen at the end of the tunnel. I can’t say I’d have been able to do the same. If it wasn’t for Dorian, I wouldn’t have been able to keep myself in check.”
Bending to grab the blanket, I start dragging it over the mattress. I’ve never bothered with making my bed before meeting the guys, but I can’t deny that it makes every day feel like a fresh start, a clean slate no matter how yesterday ended.
“Maybe a part of me knew I was waiting for something.”
He smirks. “Best orgasms of your life?”
Keeping my face a blank mask is the greatest challenge I’ve ever faced. “No, a pet that my cousin finally can’t manage to kill. Talk about conceited.” He rolls his eyes as I break into a grin. “But I mean, you three are a close second.”
We head back through the tunnels, cutting across the skywalk to get to the opposite side and re-enter the tunnels there. It takes a while, but we eventually make it to the kitchen where the guys are just finishing up. Only after we’ve taken a break to recoup does Dorian slide the fish tank onto the table. We all agreed it would be better to wait until we got all of the moving done so we didn’t lose track of them through our multiple trips through the rings, not wanting to risk one of them getting loose on Earth.
Placing my hands on the outside of the tank, I close my eyes and start humming softly, pushing energy into the water. The thought of having one thrash in my grip as I pull it from the water doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, and Fates forbid, if I dropped one of Dorian’s babies, he’d never let me live it down.
“Stop, stop, stop!” he shouts and my eyes fly open just in time to see him flipping the tank onto its side and pour water everywhere.
The changelings tumble out onto the table and floor as they morph into carbon copies of me, and I cringe at how I almost fucked up. There would have been no room for them to change without busting the glass, potentially hurting them and destroying our makeshift playpen.
