by Ophelia Bell
“On the contrary, sister,” Assana said. “You have an advantage no other female has.”
Vrishti blanched. “Did you read my mind?” She wasn’t sure whether to be offended or just surprised.
“Just a glimmer after the taste you gave me. Your bodily fluids carry bits of your essence, letting me connect to your mind. If you had let me comfort you, I could have seen more. You are the daughter of Summer. At the equinox, you will become Summer. This is something I can never achieve—taking my mother’s place as leader of the Haven. She is immortal and eternal, but the ursa leaders are ever changing with the seasons. Please remember me when you ascend. I promise you now that I owe you a great debt for your forgiveness today. If there is anything I can do now to ease your mind, I will do it. What other comfort can I offer?”
Vrishti relaxed, accepting that Assana really was much older and experienced, and had just as complicated a relationship with her own mother to boot.
“Can I see him before you take him away?”
“Yes! In fact, I was planning to bring him here …” Turning to Gavra and ignoring his disappointed glance between the two women, Assana said, “Speak to your brother. I will go to him and release his barrier, if he promises to let me drift him directly to your room. He mustn’t run. Hopefully if he knows his mate is waiting for him, he will come easily. It will be simpler if we are all in one place when we leave later.”
“He is willing,” Gavra said. “Where is Silas?”
“Concluding business with Sathmika. I will go get your brother now.”
Vrishti wasn’t sure, but she got the distinct impression Assana was looking for an excuse to escape. While Vrishti at times dreaded assuming the mantle of Summer, she was mostly excited to take on the important role. She would still have her mother beside her, guiding her as she stepped into the role of clan leader—something that would become easier once she had the power of Summer at her disposal. Her mother had never given her the impression that she was lying about anything, or that she had any hidden agenda. Her chief concern was that the cycles of the Sanctuary were not interrupted so that her home remained safe and thriving as it had for millennia. Becoming a part of that cycle made Vrishti proud.
Yet she was surprised to note Assana didn’t seem to feel the same amount of pride for her own home. In fact, the other woman seemed ashamed—perhaps it was only because of the insane demands Nyx was making.
“Do you promise the two of you can fix what’s going on in the Haven?” Vrishti asked, interrupting another silent conversation Gavra seemed to be having.
“The four of us,” Gavra said. “Assana and Silas will be coming with me. Somehow we will set things right. It all depends on how mad Nyx has become, but one way or the other, we will fix this. I promise to bring him back to you.”
Vrishti nodded and sighed. “Thank you.”
Chapter Ten
Gavra
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, brother.”
Gavra turned away from the women standing in his doorway out of reach. “Who says I can’t keep it? If anyone can gain control of Nyx, it’s us. Assana needs us both. We got lucky with this demand—now we can actually be there to fix this.”
He could sense his brother’s worry through their mental link, but it made no sense. The pair of them together were more than a match for one crazy Dionarch.
“You don’t understand how dangerous an imbalanced nymph can be,” Aodh said. “If she’s truly gone mad, she’ll be unpredictable. And with the power she wields, she could be even worse than the Lamia. Our priority should be getting the ursa out first, then breaking her hold on the Thiasoi maidens.”
Gavra glanced over his shoulder and his heart skipped a beat as Silas returned to the scene outside his room. The ursa draped an arm possessively around Assana’s waist and whispered in her ear something that caused her to inhale sharply and her aura to flare. Sweet Mother, he needed to get the pair of them alone and mark them both.
“We can speak more when you get here, brother,” he shot back. “We have a few hours yet before midnight.”
He was suddenly itching to get moving now that he knew what was in store for them, though he had to admit Aodh was right. They really had no way to predict what Nyx might do once they got there. He didn’t like the way Assana’s aura had taken on a sickened cast when she’d spoken to her mother, but if the ancient Dionarch wanted to breed a dragon, she’d soon learn what kind of power she was messing with.
A moment later Assana was gone, her form shimmering and dissolving like she’d washed away in an ethereal flow. He redirected his gaze to Silas, who was having a polite conversation with Vrishti. She looked uncomfortable in his presence—there was no good excuse for her to be here, and Silas was still technically Gavra’s guardian, but as they talked, Vrishti gradually relaxed.
Her aura was stronger than it had been the day they’d met, the fertile power of a female ursa gradually ripening within her, though she was still far from ready. But Gavra could see from what she possessed so far that she would become quite powerful on her own, even without the spirit of Summer’s full power filling her. She may be their only hope to achieve what Aodh had told him about. It was a crazy plan to get Nikhil into the Haven, but it had to work—especially if the ancient warlord believed it would.
Gavra had met the man on the battlefield many times before their insidious enemy existed—Nikhil himself was the reason the Ultiori had been so feared by all the higher races. He’d been Meri’s perfect pawn for so long, but he was on their side now and by all accounts more than ready to wreak vengeance on the woman who had turned him into her pet monster. That he was the long-lost love of Gavra’s Blue sister, Belah, only strengthened Nikhil’s bond to them and to their cause.
The last time he’d seen Nikhil, he’d witnessed the most sexually charged scene between the once human man and Belah’s two turul mates. He had no doubt that the four of them would find their way together somehow, and Nikhil would be even stronger for that bond once he found it. He would be their perfect champion once he reclaimed that power … the power that Belah’s love granted him.
But if the Haven was in pieces, the Dionarchs lost or insane, there wouldn’t be much for Nikhil to discover once he made it in. Gavra had to fix that. At the very least, the Haven needed to be secured, its power controlled by someone sane enough not to destroy the place in the name of protecting it.
“Well, that was fun.”
Gavra spun around at the sound of the deep, familiar voice that had so recently been speaking inside his head. His brother stood in the center of his room, his arms crossed and a grim smile on his face.
“Aodh,” he said, unable to mask the utter relief he felt at seeing his white-haired brother whole and in the flesh. He pulled the other man into a fierce embrace that his brother returned in kind, releasing Aodh when he stiffened.
Gavra looked back in the direction of his brother’s gaze and saw Vrishti standing with an excited look, about to breach the barrier into his room.
“No!” Aodh said. “Please stay where you are, love.”
“She wants to see you,” Gavra said. “Surely you won’t deny her a proper greeting.”
Aodh shook his head. “A proper greeting? She’s not ready, brother. Perhaps it’s fine for you and Silas to tangle before you’ve marked him, but we can’t risk her reputation while she’s still learning about her kind.”
Turning to Vrishti, he said, “After we’ve settled these issues with the Haven. I promise you no prison can keep me from you then.”
Vrishti dropped the hand she had been about to push past the barrier with and nodded. Her eyes glassed over and she took a shaky breath. “I’ll be ready for you, I promise. I can’t stand to see you trapped like this … I’m sorry. Be safe. Keep him safe …” She directed the last comment to Gavra and Assana, who both nodded.
Gavra gave A
ssana a perplexed look. “Why didn’t you drift into the room with him?”
Assana carefully avoided his gaze as she hugged Vrishti farewell and watched the other female go, then she glanced at Silas, a look of pure gratitude on her face. The big ursa male moved closer to her, wrapped an arm around her, and held her. Gavra’s chest felt leaden at the way the pair looked at each other—like they belonged in each other’s arms. They were kindred elements, both Gaia’s children, and made sense together more than Gavra himself made sense with either of them. The way he and Silas crashed together with such fiery, explosive force felt right to him, but it was not easy or pretty—it was passionate, volatile, and destructive.
“He calms my primal spirit,” Assana said softly. “I’m afraid to come closer to you because you only make the madness claw at my mind more. I allowed Aodh to take control of his own drift once he promised to go where I asked. I couldn’t be in the same room with you for fear of losing control. I’m sorry, Gavra … I can’t let myself surrender, not when my entire home and my family’s wellbeing are at stake. Please understand.”
He wanted to roar in protest, to breathe flames at the barrier and pull her inside, show her how right it would be to let go and be her true self—to be the wild nymph he sensed glimmers of beneath the surface whenever their eyes met. The insatiable creature who haunted his dreams, responding to his heat so perfectly.
Aodh’s hand rested on his shoulder and gave him a comforting squeeze.
The gesture did nothing to calm the blaze of need inside him. Gavra’s voice was low and heated when he said, “I want you wild, Assana. The first time I’m inside you, you can be damn sure control will be the last thing on anyone’s minds.”
Silas tightened his hold on Assana protectively, though his aura flared bright red in response to Gavra’s promise. She closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath as though fortifying herself before opening her eyes.
Her hypnotic, whirlpool gaze met his through the barrier. “I want that too. To share my primal essence with you both, to taste yours when we’re thrice melded and feel your heat deep inside my mind. To feel you etch your mark on my skin. Gaia save me, I would take that now, but I can’t risk losing myself to that need. There is too much at stake. Please understand … I need Silas to keep my own nymphaea madness in check, but I promise you the first time you’re inside me will be the first time I’m ever filled by a male’s seed.”
Gavra groaned, forcing himself to pull his gaze away from her or else risk burning down the entire Sanctuary to get to her.
“It looks like Silas is going to have his hands full sating us both separately then,” he said, staring heatedly at the big ursa male. “Can you handle that?”
Silas gave him a lazy smile. “I welcome it.”
Chapter Eleven
Aurum
Black Mountain, North Carolina
Aurum stared out the frosted windowpane with an uneasy feeling twisting in her belly. She’d lost contact with her siblings after diving into Gaia’s falls, but hadn’t cared at the time. Being with Calder and Nicholas had been her only thought, and one for which she would never apologize. But now that the three of them were together and her mates were safely out of the Haven and away from Nyx’s madness, she missed the easy contact she’d had with all her brothers and sisters.
The last few days since they’d arrived in the wintery forests of Appalachia had given her time to breathe, to simply enjoy being with her lovers. They’d barely spent a moment out of bed, but the heavy snow the night before had enticed Nicholas too strongly and now the young ursa was outside, fully shifted and diving into snowdrifts like a huge, rambunctious dog.
The sight made her smile, as did the irritated look on Calder’s face when a naked Nicholas burst from the snow and nailed the satyr in the face with a snowball. Calder was not a fan of cold weather, it seemed, as evidenced by the layer upon layer of borrowed gear he’d donned before agreeing to accompany Nicholas out into the snow.
Aurum had spent much of the morning out with them, letting Nicholas’s exuberance infect her. There was so much he had yet to experience in life after being held captive by the Ultiori since his infancy—she wasn’t about to force him to come inside before he was ready. But she was hungry and knew that the two men would be starving and chilled once they came in, so she’d perused the pantry in the Stonetree family’s cabin and found it stocked with enough food to last all winter long. She’d found a big electric chest freezer filled with meat, and the shelves of the canning room lined with jars upon jars of preserved fruits and vegetables. Now the entire huge kitchen was filled with the scent of roasting venison and baking pies.
She would go stir-crazy if she stayed too long, but she was willing to wait until she at least got word from her siblings in the Sanctuary about their own plans. Even if it took until spring for news to arrive.
The lack of contact was disconcerting, though. With the Sanctuary’s barrier blocking Numa, Aodh, and Gavra from her mind, she reached out for Belah and Ked instead, but they were also out of reach within the turul Enclave. She hoped Nikhil had made it to her sister’s side. Never in her life had she witnessed a more enduring love than theirs. Even after the atrocities the man had committed, her sister still held onto hope, and she hadn’t been disappointed. Nikhil had been a victim of their true enemy—forced by a mad, vindictive, and brutally calculating nymph to do the unspeakable things he’d done during all those centuries while the other races hid.
Now that Nikhil was free of the Lamia’s mind control, he’d still taken some convincing that he was wanted and should go be with the woman he loved, even though she was now ensconced in the turul Enclave with a pair of mates who would do anything to make her happy.
But that was the key to it all, wasn’t it? Aurum’s chest warmed as she caught Calder’s glance back toward the window where she stood. His smile was filled with love that didn’t falter even when a capering Nicholas nailed the side of his face with another snowball. Calder let out roar that broke with his laughter. He lunged at the other man, barreling into him and throwing him back into the deep snow.
Aurum laughed as she watched them tumble. Despite Calder’s displeasure at being out in the cold, his aura flared a joyful gold that told her he wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world right now.
Her own laughter almost drowned out the sound of knocking at the front door. When she heard it, a chill prickled down her spine. Nikhil had mentioned interacting with a few of the locals, who were wary but polite, and who had rarely bothered him during the weeks he’d been here waiting for her brother to return.
She gave her cavorting mates another glance and turned to walk across the living room to find out who was calling at a perfect stranger’s house in the middle of a bright winter day.
Glancing through the window, she saw a huge, bearded man who stood buck naked and completely unaffected by the cold. That level of imperviousness to the elements only meant one thing.
Aurum hurriedly opened the door, her heart pounding. The man had his attention focused on the laughter coming from the side of the house, but turned abruptly, fixing a pair of dark eyes on her.
“Mistress,” he said, bowing his head deferentially. He didn’t smile, which caused a cold dread to settle in Aurum’s stomach.
She pushed partway through the door and called to Calder and Nicholas. The shrill tone of her voice brought them running immediately. Nicholas bounded onto the long porch in a single stride, his dark-bearded face coated in chunks of snow and his body hair beaded with it as though he’d grown pearls. He let out a roar and sped up, aiming right at their visitor who backed up a step and held up his hands.
“I’m not here to harm you!” the man said. “My name’s Arcadius Windchaser. You can call me Cade. I was sent by the Queen … your sister, I mean.” He glanced around warily, his eyes meeting Calder’s through the layers of knit scarves and hats the satyr was bund
led in.
Calder yanked his scarf off, revealing his smooth cheeks and giving the man a clearer view of his swirling eyes. “There are no humans here, friend. You may speak freely. Come inside.”
Aurum handed blankets to the two naked ursa and installed the ice-encrusted Nicholas on a towel in front of the fireplace while Calder added fresh logs to the fire. He didn’t shed his layers until the fire was huge and roaring, casting a bright orange glow on Nicholas’s bare, dripping legs.
“You said you have news? I’m guessing it isn’t good news, is it?” Aurum asked, sitting on a comfortable, overstuffed armchair and leaning toward Cade expectantly.
He frowned and shook his head. “Regrettably, no. I’ve been sent to tell you that the dragons inside have been imprisoned at the demands of the Dionarch Nyx.” He glanced at Calder, who had shed all but jeans and his cotton thermal shirt stretched across his well-defined muscles.
“My mother’s demands?” Calder asked. “What the fuck would she want with Aurum’s siblings? They’ve done nothing to her.”
“No, but I did,” Aurum said. She sighed and stood. “Your mother wasn’t exactly in a great frame of mind when your uncle took us out of there. What of Neph? Has there been news of him?” she asked Cade.
“Nothing specific. The only thing we know is that Nyx has lost both males and that she’s gone mad. We fear for the safety of our brothers who joined the breeding pact and are trapped inside the Haven now. No doubt they aren’t complaining … I can think of worse places to be myself, at least as long as Nyx is mad at the dragons and not at them.”
Calder dropped his arms to his sides and stepped away from the fire. “You’re telling me my uncle hasn’t returned to the Haven? This isn’t good.”
“Where else would he go?” Nicholas asked.
“Nowhere. He knows how delicate a balance there is there now with no satyrs in residence. He’s the only thing that’s kept my mother from going off the deep end all this time. He dove back in the river after delivering us outside the Haven. He should have returned by now—this absolutely shouldn’t be happening. He’d never let Mother go this far. Have you seen my sister, Assana? She was the nymph sent as ambassador to arrange the breeding pact with the ursa.”
