Triumph

by Serena Akeroyd

  Rafe gulped as the conversation he’d had with his supposed ‘sister’ replayed in his mind.

  It was on constant repeat, and it was starting to drive him crazy.

  He’d watched Thalia head out to the forest two hours ago, and Mikkel had followed her maybe forty-five or so minutes later. Was he waiting for them to return? He didn’t know. He just knew that he’d wanted to go to her, and yet, couldn’t.

  He felt glued here.

  With one arm on the door jamb, he leaned into it for support as he took in the sky. The sun was close to setting now. Mere minutes until darkness fully hit.

  He craved the darkness as he craved Thalia’s blood.

  And now he knew why.

  He was a legend.

  A myth.

  A tall tale to frighten children, human and Lyken alike.

  A vampire by another name.

  Closing his eyes as Bellatrix’s words ricocheted in his skull once more, he heard the sinful decadence in her tone as though he was standing in front of her, Father will be so proud of your powers. You’re so young, and yet, look at what you can do.

  How do you know what I can do? You barely know me.

  I see you, brother. There is no avoiding another of your kind. We see all and hear all. We’re the only ones who can. Not even father truly knows what we’re capable of.

  You speak of him as though he were worthy of the title.

  Her eyes flashed, the deep Stygian depths had glinted. He is a God. We are the children of a God, Raphael.

  He clenched his eyes tightly shut and, though it was futile, shook his head.

  “What did she say to make you slice her that way?”

  Theo’s voice broke his focus on the yard beyond. “How do you know she said anything at all?” he asked, his voice wooden.

  Theo snorted, and to the left of his peripheral vision, he watched as the Fae male took a mirror-opposite stance. Arms folded across his chest, head leaning against the door jamb. “Because you knew her name, of course. She never mentioned it. Nor did Thalia’s fathers. But you called her by her given name so, I’m assuming, just as we were treated to a special conversation with her, you were too.”

  Rafe blinked—dammit to hell. “You didn’t know she was called Bellatrix before I mentioned it?”

  “Not until the end when you spoke it.”

  How hadn’t he realized that? His mouth turned dry. “She was trying to entice me to her cause.”

  “Which was?”

  “To join the Dark Fae’s plight.”

  “Which is?” he asked, his tone sardonic.

  “Don’t you know? I thought you knew everything,” he retorted, his voice half-growl.

  Theo narrowed his eyes at the hit, then turned to look out to the forest line too. “I know plenty, but not everything. Magda wouldn’t have been able to fool me, would she, if that were the case?”

  Because there was pain in his voice, pain Rafe couldn’t understand, he sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  “What for? Speaking the truth?”

  “No, for raising a sore topic. That was unnecessarily cruel of me.”

  “And that, Raphael, is why you’d never be good on the Dark Fae’s side.” Theo’s chuckle was soft, but it was amused nonetheless and made Rafe’s cheeks burn in embarrassment.

  “I’m not weak,” he argued. He’d been told that for so long that he wished he could eradicate it from the dictionary.

  “Never said you were. Compassionate does not equal weak. And in a world where it does, well, is it any wonder that things devolve the way they have.”

  Gnawing at the inside of his cheek, Rafe whispered, “Morningstar is tired of not being allowed in Heden.”

  “You and Thalia speak of this as though I’m unaware of it. In fact, I’m certain he is tired of his life. The man is a spoiled brat. Accustomed to getting what he wanted, when he wanted it, then he made a foolish mistake of thinking the dictates laid down by his parents were rules he could ignore.

  “He made his bed thousands of years ago, and now he has to lie in it.”

  “Something’s coming,” Rafe murmured. “Change.”

  “Change is always coming. For us, for the Lyken people, for the humans.” He shrugged. “If it didn’t, life would be incredibly boring, wouldn’t it?”

  “No. I mean… she spoke of things.”

  “What things?”

  “The wind will always blow. Water will ever be wet. Earth will always nourish. But fire can be quenched.” His voice sang the words, just as she had. She’d said them as though it were a children’s song, a nursery rhyme. It made his skin crawl just thinking of how she’d sang it.

  Theo tilted his head to the side. “What does that mean?”

  Rafe’s mouth tightened. “I-I don’t know. But I can hazard a guess.”

  Theo straightened and shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. “Vulcun is tired of being vulnerable?”

  “I believe so,” Rafe whispered. “I fear so.”

  The storm hit him then without his even realizing he’d been in the eye of it.

  A part of him wanted to tear off his clothes and run in the woods, because that’s what he’d conned himself into believing for so long. That he was a Wolf. That running in his wolf skin would save him from losing the plot.

  But that wasn’t him.

  He wasn’t Lyken. He was changeling.

  He fisted his hands so hard his knuckles ached, and then he smelled it.

  Blood.

  His nails had torn into his palms.

  “Rafe? What the fuck?”

  “What’s happening to me, Theo?” he spat out, the words coated with a rage he didn’t understand and a confusion and fear he hated. “Why is this happening to me?”

  “Because you’re learning what you can do and who you really are?”

  Theo’s tone was soothing, probably more so than he deserved. “Do you hate me?” he asked, turning his head to stare at the Fae male.

  “No. Of course not.” There was a genuine note to his voice that told Rafe he spoke the truth. Theo rubbed his chin. “I wish I could help you more.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re Thalia’s, which makes you mine.”

  Rafe gnawed at the inside of his cheek. “I wish it were simple.”

  “Nothing is ever simple. It wasn’t supposed to be, Rafe. We weren’t born into that life.”

  He closed his eyes. “I’m lost, Theo. Lost. I don’t know what the fuck is happening.”

  “It’s a learning curve, brother,” Theo said softly, lifting his hand and pressing it to Rafe’s back. Even though he’d anticipated the touch, he’d expected to react like a cat on a hot tin roof. That he didn’t, probably said a lot for how much he trusted Theo.

  Which was crazy since he knew the bastard kept shit from him, Mikkel, and Thalia all the fucking time.

  “Did you know any of what Bellatrix said today?”

  Theo hesitated, then he nodded.

  “How?”

  “I spoke with my mother when I retrieved Thalia’s sword.” He sighed. “I also saw Magda before we left for Texas.”

  “Shit. Why didn’t you tell us any of that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Rafe could only forgive him because that genuine note had made a reappearance in his voice. “Tell me now.”

  “I have no real answers, Rafe. You must understand that. I just have more awareness than you of what’s occurring. Like, today, in the limo. In the jet. You do something to Thalia. You emit some kind of pheromone, and I think that ties in with how powerful Bellatrix is. I think you’re gifted with the ability to seduce anyone you want. And in your case, the only person you want to seduce is Thalia because she’s your mate. She’s your tie.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The book you read that told you about what you are? It’s only half right. But, I do believe Thalia makes you different. You are her mate for a reason. The Fates arranged that, brother. N
ot Vulcun. Not your father, whoever he may be. She grounds you, ties you to this earth, and keeps you pure.”

  “So pure I killed one of my own kind?” he said on a sneer, but that was despair in his voice. Where had that even come from? He could understand why Thalia had run from him, was hiding from him even now.

  Who could blame her?

  She’d believed him to be the healer. The man who sought to protect life, not take it, and yet… Bellatrix. He’d had no choice though. He’d sensed the stain she was on this world and had to protect it from her pervasive reach.

  Would Thalia ever come to understand that?

  He could only pray she would.

  “Yes. Thalia didn’t hear her because Bellatrix was obviously projecting onto us. But she was potent. I don’t know if Mikkel was right and changelings were what we once called sirens. Maybe yes, maybe no. But still, she was damn powerful, and she was in that chamber only for as long as she could work her wiles on some unsuspecting sap.”

  Relieved that Theo sensed that, he still felt like he was being buffeted by strong winds. “I killed her to protect us in the long run.”

  Theo’s hand tightened on Rafe’s shoulder. “I know, brother. I know.”

  “What else about my situation has come to your attention?” he tried not to sound edgy, and knew he’d failed.

  “When you climax, these glyphs appear on your body. They, apparently, speak of your gifts. Just as the Fae have a language that is born from the Mother and her mates, changelings are the same.”

  “This is too much.”

  “I know, Rafe. I know.”

  “How can you fucking know?” he raged and thrust himself out of the doorway and outside. The idea of being locked away inside, even though he was halfway in and halfway out, didn’t sit well with him.

  It reminded him too much of Bellatrix.

  Of being locked away, chained up like a beast.

  Wasn’t that what he was? A beast? More so than he’d ever been even when he’d supposedly shared his soul with a fucking Wolf.

  He wanted to scream, wanted to tear into Thalia’s suite. Wanted to feel this chronic destructive ache in his belly ease. Wanted it gone. Away from him.

  As he stood there in the yard just beyond Thalia’s quarters, the rage throbbed through him. Seeming to slalom through his veins like nothing he’d ever experienced before. It was…

  He swallowed as the power hit him. Sending him to his knees even as his arms shot out wide. Palms up, of their own volition. He couldn’t even tear his head to the side, couldn’t do more than stare up at the sky as, suddenly, fire burned.

  “What the fuck?” Theo bit off, and Rafe heard him scrambling down the few steps that led to this part of the yard.

  But as the fire burned, the anger, the ache in his soul eased.

  It was almost like…

  Spinal tap.

  He shuddered. The pressure abating as the fire burned. Hotter and hotter until his skin began to dot with sweat. Until he was surprised his flesh didn’t melt off with the raging flames that roared viciously, the root of the fire on the cup of his palm.

  How long it continued, he couldn’t say.

  He just knew that with each passing moment, the sense of loss, confusion, and overwhelming fear for the unknown his entire being represented, was eased.

  And then, as swiftly as it had come to life, it burned out.

  With the flames extinguished, he could see again. He’d been blind for those moments. Unseeing. Unhearing. Unfeeling. But now? He felt hypersensitive.

  When Theo grabbed his shoulder, he flinched in response, wincing at his hard touch.

  “What was that?” the Fae male whispered.

  “I don’t know,” he replied, speaking honestly. “I just know I feel better.”

  Theo cleared his throat. “That’s something I guess.”

  For once, Rafe felt as though Theo was as much at a loss as the rest of them.

  “Didn’t expect that, did you?”

  His vision was a thousand times sharper than it had been seconds before. And he saw the tiny creases that lined Theo’s eyes as though they were huge cracks in a desert floor. “No. I didn’t.” Theo cleared his throat again. “Rafe, the flames were… I’ve never seen anything like them.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “They were silver, Rafe. Silver.” Theo’s mouth worked. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “I don’t know.” He studied his palm. They looked like they had a few moments before, but deep inside, where the rumbling in his soul had chafed at him, had made him feel like he was right on a fault line that would make his very bones quake, there was peace. “But I feel better.”

  “You said that already,” Theo mumbled.

  “It’s the only thing I know is a truth.” He pressed his hands to his knees, then jolted in surprise when they seared straight through his pants. “Shit,” he said on a hiss, but Theo just clicked his fingers the minute Rafe lifted his hands and repaired the thick fabric.

  “It’s a wonder you’re not glowing.”

  Rafe swallowed. “Theo?”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t tell Thalia.”

  The other male’s eyes widened. “Really? She’ll be furious for keeping her in the dark. She usually is with me anyway,” he tacked on ruefully.

  But Rafe shook his head. “I know, but… Bellatrix is enough for anyone to handle in one day. She didn’t expect that of me, and I understand that. She’ll come to accept that—”

  Come to accept what?

  That he wasn’t the choir boy she’d believed him to be?

  “It came as a shock,” Theo murmured gently. “The entire day has. She’s at a loss, Rafe. Just give her time.”

  “Yes, time. Exactly,” he uttered the words with a thick tone. “This is too much to add on to that. We can keep it between us for the time being, can’t we?”

  Theo hissed.

  “Please, Theo. Please.”

  The Fae male’s nostrils flared but he nodded. “How can I judge you when I do the same to protect her? To protect you all?”

  He hated that he was encouraging Theo to keep secrets, but there was no way he wanted Thalia to know about this.

  She was already freaking out, and what terrified him the most was the prospect of that natural concern morphing into terror.

  Of him.

  Rafe knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that were that to happen, she might as well gut him like he’d done to Bellatrix today.

  ****

  Rafe

  “Where are you going?”

  Rafe cut Thalia a look as Luca made the demand of her. “Home,” she told him easily.

  “Where is that?” Adam countered. “This has always been your home.”

  Elena, Thalia’s mother, looked tired. Her weariness seeming to sink bone deep. Her black hair was tied into a taut bun, her ageless features so Hispanic, she was a shadow to the light of her mates who, with their surfer coloring, blond hair and blue eyes, were a study in contrast that he knew would delight the males. Rafe himself was dark and Thalia so fair, and he loved seeing his hand against her belly. Loved seeing her white gold hair against his chest.

  Why shouldn’t her parents?

  “This has never been my home. Bellatrix saw to that. But, it will be one day.”

  “I can’t believe you got her name out of her,” Luca grumbled.

  “Rafe did,” she retorted smartly. “He’s quite talented.”

  Rafe felt Damien’s eyes on him before he even said, “I’ve heard his healing abilities were stronger than most.”

  “Been investigating me?” he asked, cocking a brow at his father-in-law.

  “Just learning who you are.”

  “You’d have learned nothing good,” he countered, folding his arms across his chest. “I was a changeling child dumped into that particular nest. I was not Gamma. I was changeling. Whatever you learned is a lie perpetuated by the person who dumped me with the Santiago family.�
��

  At his side, Thalia suddenly moved closer to him. Though she was mad at him—or perhaps mad was not the correct word—she still moved to comfort him. How he loved that about her. How he loved that she could still be concerned about him when he’d disturbed her, and he couldn’t blame her for that. He was disturbing himself.

  His need for her blood was a constant ache he’d been battling since the moment hers had crossed his lips.

  But to what end?

  For him to end up like Bellatrix?

  “Did you really have to kill her?” Damien asked, changing the subject, seeming to sense where Rafe’s mind had wandered.

  “Yes. She was too dangerous. She’d have enticed a guard to release her and then all hell would have broken loose.”

  Luca winced. “Did you learn anything from her?”

  “Yes.”

  They let silence fall among them, waiting for him to reply, but Elena broke it. “You’ll never forgive us, will you?” she asked, and her voice was weak, fragile. Around her, her mates flinched as though the words were weapons she’d just wielded with precision worthy of a warrior.

  “It’s not a matter of forgiveness,” Thalia murmured, but her tone was soft, not caustic as it could have been.

  Rafe remembered her mother’s parting words. The bitter sting to them. Thalia had looked on the brink of tears when Elena had made to leave the private jet that had been due to set off for Austin those many moons ago.

  “No, it’s just a matter of time and acceptance,” Theo inserted before anyone could say any differently. “Now, we truly need to be going.”

  “You only just arrived,” Luca inserted gruffly.

  “And we need to leave now. There are things we must do.”

  “Like what?”

  Thalia’s mouth tightened. “If we could say, we would, but it’s Fae business not Lyken.”

  “When will you return? Your fathers said you’re with child?” Elena nibbled her bottom lip, looking vulnerable rather than ice cold, as was her reputation.

  She wasn’t known for her soft, mild countenance. But here? Now? She just looked wounded, and Rafe would be glad to get away from that. It was making him uneasy.

  The truth was, they’d all been conned. Theo was right, there was no one to blame other than Bellatrix, but overcoming that long con his bitch ‘sister’ had played on this family was going to be an arduous task.