Hidden Runes

by G. Bailey

  “Lance has slept with half the city, both men and women,” he tells me. Not exactly giving me an answer.

  “And?” I drawl out.

  “He isn’t taking you out anywhere, Evie,” Trex states like he has a say in what I do in my own time.

  “Why? Just because he is a player, doesn’t mean he could play his way into my knickers,” I say, glaring at him. “Why are you afraid of me sleeping with him anyway? You’ve made it perfectly clear you don’t want to be with me. You’ve made it clear you don’t even want to spend time with me.”

  “I don’t want to hurt Nix. I never said I don’t want to be with you, Evie. I never said I don’t want to kiss you, treasure you and be with you all the fucking time,” he admits, and anything I was going to say to him just escapes my mind in the shock of Trex admitting he wants to be with me. I expect Trex to walk away again, but he doesn’t, instead he covers my hand with his, and we are both silent as I try to process the emotion he is showing me right now. I know he doesn’t want to hurt Nix, I don’t want to hurt him either, but avoiding Trex is nothing but painful for both of us. Why can’t Trex see that we could figure something out?

  “Hey guys, can I borrow Evie for a moment?” Connor says, almost making me jump out of my skin and stopping whatever this moment between us was. Trex nods, pulling his eyes from me and standing up.

  “She is all yours. I’m going to find Keeper Grey to sort out some issues. I won’t be far,” Trex replies, standing up and walking away with his hands in fists.

  “You okay, Blue?” Connor asks me, placing his hand on my shoulder when I don’t say anything for a while. Connor steps in front of me as I push my chair back and stand up.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Just confused about, well, everything,” I tell him, and he nods in understanding.

  “I have a surprise for you that will make things better for a little bit. Come on,” Connor says, grinning at me and offering me a hand. I slide my hand into his, and he walks us away into the forest behind, only going a few trees in before he stops and opens a portal. Connor walks in the portal first, and I follow him through, still holding his hand. The portal takes us onto a roof, where stood on the other side of a pool is Azi, who turns to smile at me.

  “Surprise, Vi.”

  Sixty-Six

  Evie

  “Azi!” I say in relief, feeling like I can finally release the breath I was holding in as I see that he is okay. The sun is just setting behind him and the city, the glow of the roof lights showing me that Azi looks dirty, covered in dry blood, and his suit is a little ripped, but he is in one piece. He hasn’t shaved in a while as there is a light shadow of scruff on his lower face, and his black hair is messy but still short.

  “You have about an hour or two before I will have to come back to get you. I will work some distractions for the crowd and explain you needed to go home to rest,” Connor says gently and lets go of my hand.

  “Thank you,” I say to Connor who winks at me before walking through the portal, and it disappears. I look back just as Azi gets to me, and I jump up, wrapping my legs around his waist as I kiss him. Azi groans lightly as his hands grab my ass, pulling me closer as I slide my hands into his hair as he deepens the kiss. I move my lips away from his, kissing across his prickly feeling jaw and to his neck.

  “Did you miss me, Vi?” he asks, chuckling low which I feel vibrate against my lips on his neck. I lean back, biting my lip as I meet his red eyes that are swirling with longing and something else.

  “Yes. I was worried,” I admit honestly. “Don’t go again. I know you want to find Cex, but I can’t deal with not knowing you’re okay when everything is going to shit at the moment.”

  “Vi, you don’t have to worry about me,” Azi says, his fingers sliding through my hair. “I am an overlord demon who can handle himself.”

  “Except your brother is the same as you, maybe even more powerful. I just want to be at your side if you find him,” I say, lowering my voice.

  “I love you too, Vi. It’s okay to say it, you know,” he whispers, before lowering me to the floor.

  “If I say it and then lose you, it will just hurt more,” I reply, feeling more than vulnerable as I stare up at him. I’d prefer to be in a swamp of souls in Hell than have this conversation I have avoided for as long as possible.

  “That is the thing with love. It’s a big fucking gamble, and there is always the risk that someone will get hurt…but sometimes you just have to be brave and jump,” he tells me. Azi doesn’t wait for me to say anything back to him as he pulls his shirt off, and starts unclipping his belt.

  “What are you doing?” I ask, my mouth feeling dry as I stare at all the muscular chest on view and everything more as Azi pushes his trousers off, revealing that he is not wearing any underwear—and he is happy to see me.

  “I want to swim. I’ve been searching for one of my brothers through a garbage dump for the last day, only to find him dead anyway,” he says, a little pain coming through his words before he dives into the pool. I don’t pause as I pull the dress off and take off my crown, placing it on the edge, before jumping in myself. I swim back up to the surface and look for Azi. The water is lovely and warm, even with the cold air brushing against my skin and hair.

  “Did I tell you how damn sexy you looked in that dress you just tore off?” Azi asks, his voice just behind me. I turn around to see him, his wet hair dripping water down his face and little drops on his chest reflecting the moonlight.

  “You didn’t,” I say, swimming closer, and Azi grabs my arm, pulling me against his hard chest, and something else hard pokes into my stomach.

  “This is tempting me to break the rules,” he whispers, more to himself as he smooths his hands down my shoulders. Every movement of his hands and fingers against my skin seems to feel like it is etched into my memory.

  “What rules?” I breathlessly ask as his hands slide down my sides, his hand gripping my waist as I look into his eyes once more.

  “I promised Connor and Nix that I wouldn’t sleep with you until you sort things out with Trex. They think it will scare him off if we all shared you while he is being a dick about how he feels,” he explains to me, and I frown.

  “What?” I whisper angrily. “How dare you all think it’s up to you? If you get a chance to sleep with me, you should be damn well happy, not following some kind of bro code on rules.” I try to push Azi away, and he only chuckles, pulling me against him once again.

  “You’re right. I never agreed to the promise for them, or for Trex. I did for you. I know you love them, even if you haven’t admitted it. Like I know you love me. I don’t want you to lose him because you are both too stubborn to admit your feelings,” Azi explains.

  “I’m not stubborn,” I pout.

  “Liar,” he chuckles, and then he kisses me. Oh god, he kisses me like a dying man clinging to life, and I know he is going to break all the rules just like I want him to. I moan as Azi pulls my ass closer, pressing his hard length further into me. I gasp as Azi jumps us out of the water in one smooth motion, and in the next, he’s lying me down on the tiles near the edge of the pool.

  “Azi,” I moan as he pins my hands above my head, and I relax, letting him take control like he needs as his other hand slides over my breast. Then his thumb rubs my clit in circles as his tongue explores my mouth in a similar motion. I wriggle from the slight pressure, and Azi bites my bottom lip gently, warning me not to fight him. Azi’s sin is control…especially sexual control. If I fight him, try to take control, his demon takes over, usually trying to kill whoever is in Azi’s way. Luckily, his demon likes me, but I’m not crazy enough to push it right in this moment. I only want Azi. Azi’s mouth leaves mine as his finger begins to explore my core, and I widen my legs and throw my head back.

  “Look at me,” Azi commands as he suddenly lets my hands go to grab my hips, lining himself up so only the tip is just hovering outside of me. I meet Azi’s eyes as he slowly enters me, inch by inch until he is
all the way in, and his lips are just above mine. “You’re mine now. Mine.”

  “Yes, because I love you.” My words snap Azi into motion, his lips slamming onto mine as he roughly thrusts in and out of me. I moan around his mouth, gasping as an orgasm slams into me, and I cry out. Azi doesn’t stop, instead he pulls out, turning me over and pulling my hips up. Azi slides back into me from behind, this time his finger going back to my clit and rubbing it in time with his relentless thrusts. The pleasure gets stronger until I can do nothing but cry out Azi’s name as I come again, and a few slams later Azi finishes with a roar, holding my hips tightly enough to bruise. Azi rests his head on my back as we both calm down before he pulls out of me, and I roll over onto my back. Azi lies next to me, and pulls me onto him, resting my head on his chest.

  “I didn’t think I’d ever hear you say that,” Azi quietly says after a long silence where he strokes my hair gently, soothingly.

  “That I love you?” I question.

  “Yes, and agreeing that you are mine,” he says.

  “I’m not good at admitting my feelings, but what you said about being brave…well, it hit home. I can’t run from feeling anything all the time. I just can’t anymore,” I whisper. “I love you. It’s that simple.”

  “It’s okay to love them too. I never thought I could share you in a million years, but it doesn’t feel like sharing with them. It feels like they are family,” he tells me.

  “It does feel like that, huh?” I muse, knowing that, for some reason, it just works with us all together. I never thought I’d have feelings for more than one guy, let alone think about a future with more than one, but here I am. Though I never once imagined being a princess, so it’s a strange year right now. I lean up, resting my chin on my hands as I look down at Azi’s contented face. “I don’t want to bring up anything bad right now, but we should talk about it. Did you find out anything useful?”

  “Why don’t we get dressed and get those Protectors of yours together. It’s a long story that I think everyone needs to hear,” he tells me.

  “A good story?” I ask, being hopeful.

  “Not exactly, Vi.”

  Sixty-Seven

  Nix

  “Good to see you back safely, Azi,” I say, clapping Azi on the shoulder as I walk into the lounge. He is sat on the sofa in pretty dirty clothes, with Star lying across him, purring as he rubs her ears. Star practically jumped into his arms when he came back and hasn’t left his side since. “There are clothes in the wardrobe you can borrow if you want.” I sit down on the other sofa next to a grumpy Trex, and Connor leans against the fireplace with a drink in his hand. We all look over as Evie walks into the room in little black shorts that show off her long legs and a white jumper on. Evie’s blue hair is up in a ponytail which hangs down her one shoulder, and she looks like she is glowing. I don’t know what happened with her and Azi, but they both came back looking pretty happy. Trex hasn’t seemed to notice as he only just got here, but I shared a look with Connor earlier. All rules are meant to be broken, it seems. If Azi isn’t playing by the rules, there is no point to any of us holding back. We just have to hope Evie and Trex can work out their issues in spite of anything else.

  “It’s good to be back. Not here exactly. Though it’s a nice place, and thanks, I will borrow some until I can order new clothes,” Azi replies.

  “It’s a posh place you mean,” Evie chuckles, sitting down in the middle of the room on the white rug and crossing her legs. Even though it is difficult, I do manage to pull my eyes off her to focus on the reason Azi and Evie wanted us all together: to find out what is happening outside.

  “Did you find Cex? Or anything useful?” Trex asks, getting straight to the difficult questions even though his eyes stray to Evie many times.

  “I didn’t find Cex. Wherever he is hiding, it is good and hidden. I found something a lot fucking worse though after I left the demon underground,” he says, and he is silent for a long time.

  “Azi?” Evie gently prods him to tell us what he found, and I lean forward, resting my hands on my knees.

  “I found five of my brothers. All dead,” he states, shocking us all into an uncomfortable silence, and he looks devasted. To kill that many overlords…it’s unthinkable. They are all extremely powerful, and it took an army to take out one of them. Though no one ever thought they would kill each other off. If Cex is working his way through his brothers, it is not safe for Azi to be alone. If anything happened to the demon, Evie would be devastated.

  “I’m sorry, man,” Connor says, his voice genuine and slightly upset for Azi. Evie still looks in shock as she crawls across the floor to sit near Azi’s legs and hold his hand as he reaches for her. She gently kisses his knuckles, the loving movement so unlike Evie that we all seem focused on watching her. Evie has opened up and learnt how to care for people so much since we met her. Even the little things she does show how much she cares.

  “That means only me, Cex and Seth are alive now. It means he has all my brothers’ blood, and he is certainly going after the power here. He intends to control black magic and destroy everything by opening the barrier between worlds. The souls would leak out into Earth and even beyond…and there would be nothing left,” he says, the impact of his words hitting home with all of us. There would be nowhere safe if there weren’t a barrier between worlds that stops the souls. They would kill the humans first, and then the supernaturals.

  “What else can black magic do? What is it exactly?” I ask.

  “It’s the pure power of the old gods, but the dark power. Light power made the angels, the Protectors and so on. Dark power was locked up, protected by a blood line. My blood line. A little of all our blood would unlock the power. There is only one more protection in place, and that is the royal line of the Protectors. Only a queen or king can give access to the place where the magic is stored,” he tells us all.

  “Holy bacon on a stick,” Evie mutters most of our expressions.

  “My parents only spoke of black magic once, telling us that only our blood line is strong enough to hold all of its power and that we should never try. The magic is pure destruction. It wants nothing more than to destroy everything light and bring about a world of darkness,” Azi explains to us, each sentence sounding worse than the last.

  “Yeah, that doesn’t sound good. We need to make sure Cex doesn’t get this black magic then,” Connor states the obvious, and we all give him a look that says “we know that.”

  “You said he would need a queen to make him a knight. So if I win, he will never get the power,” Evie states like there is no problem.

  “I know that, and I’m sure we can stop him…but there is something else I found out that is concerning me,” Azi admits, rubbing his jaw with his hand, and Star huffs, making her annoyance that her ear rub is over clear, but she still purrs after. Spoilt kitty.

  “What?” I ask.

  “I went to check on the angels. To make sure they are not causing issues and the humans haven’t seen them flying about. Evie’s father told me that a demon and a girl he believes is Evie’s sister came to the house. They took three angels by force in a big fight. Luckily the angels found my weapon room and managed to defend themselves a little,” Azi explains. “He said that Evie will need to be very careful in the tests now they have extra power. Though he wouldn’t tell me anything more.”

  “Took them? What extra power?” Evie asks, looking confused like we all are. What would Cex and Erica want with three angels? How could they get power from angels?

  “Yes. I think, when we have some time, that you should speak to your father and see if he will tell you anything else. He was reluctant to speak to me,” Azi suggests, and Evie nods in agreement. The man is an idiot for not wanting his only daughter in his life and treating Evie the way he does. I can see it hurts her. Evie has looked for her family her entire life only to find her mother and two sisters dead, an evil sister who wants to murder her, and a father who isn’t interested in having
a relationship with her because he is a fool.

  “Evie has secret weapons for the test. Like her wings and Star. We have three days until the first test to prepare,” Connor says, rubbing his jaw. “Though I will go and speak to Keeper Grey about all this. Maybe he knows something about angels?”

  “Good idea. I will come with you,” Trex says, standing up and walking out the door with Connor after they wave.

  “I think I’m going to nap here. I haven’t slept in days,” Azi says, leaning his head back, and Evie smiles as she straightens up.

  “Nix, why don’t we go and explore the building together and let Azi rest?” Evie asks me. I hold out a hand for her after I stand up, and she gladly comes to me.

  “Keep her safe,” Azi warns as we go past.

  “Always,” I reply to him, nodding my head once before looking away.

  “What does this building have then?” Evie asks once we get outside the room. I try to think back to what I have seen and know there really isn’t much here.

  “There is a theatre room with a bar. We could go there and watch a movie,” I suggest. It would be a cute little date if she wants to do that. We could also go and train, but I would prefer to hold Evie close without getting accidently stabbed.

  “And then maybe we could get drunk? I need a drink, or ten,” she says.

  “I knew there was a reason I love you,” I joke, but she stops in the corridor, looking at me with wide eyes and parted lips. She is so stunning that I don’t even notice what I said until she repeats it for me.

  “You love me, Nix?” she asks, like she didn’t know. I fell in love with Evie when I woke up to her sucking the poison out of my arm. The fact she wasn’t squeamish and how sexy she was, even in my poisoned state, did it for me. Every moment with her after has been a bonus.

  “Yeah, isn’t it obvious, love? I love every little thing about you. Like how when you sneeze, it sounds like you’re a Pikachu. How you never eat the corners of your sandwiches. From how you talk to yourself in your sleep, to the way you tuck your hair behind your ear when you’re nervous. I notice everything you do, and I love it. I want to spend every moment I have left in this world by your side, figuring out and protecting you. Loving you,” I tell her honestly how I feel, full well knowing I might not get the answer I want back. I don’t think it even matters to me if she doesn’t feel the same way, I only care that she is happy now. My Evie is my love. She always will be.