by Jaymin Eve
I was praying and screaming and crying, trying to figure out how to wake from this nightmare. All the while the heat grew stronger around us.
“Let … stone … go,” he choked out.
Stone. Until that moment I had not noticed the weight in my hands, I had not felt the burden I carried, but the second he mentioned it, I remembered the words and opened my hands.
And let the stone go free.
23
Avalon
Lexen reached them first, followed closely by Daniel and Xander. Callie and Rao were not moving, flames roaring up around them. Daniel waded right into the flames, the only one of us able to touch them.
“You can’t go in?” Emma asked Lexen when she reached his side.
“No.” He shook his head. “These are Flames of Ether, right from the justices themselves. Daniel is the only one who can touch them.”
With a growl, Lexen pulled away from us and stormed toward Laous. Xander followed close behind him. Emma looked like she was about to follow as well, but I grabbed her arm.
“He’s fine, Em,” I said. “Look…”
Laous, who was covered in flames as well, was not fighting them. He was crashed out on the ground, like he’d used all his energy and now he was slowly fading away.
Lexen reached down and hoisted Laous up. The smaller man found a second wind and started to fight him, his flames shooting out. Lexen and Xander didn’t appear to be fazed by the fire, but Emma lurched forward, and I wondered what she had seen.
Then I saw it too. Laous’s flame was zooming across the ground, like an accelerant lit its path. Right toward the huge aircraft.
“Xander!” I screamed already moving. Emma was screaming for Lexen as well.
Our guys turned their heads toward us a microsecond before the world lit up and we were thrown backwards with the force of the explosion. Everything went white and then dark for a moment, my ears ringing. I groaned and tried to pull myself up from where I’d been thrown, shaking my head as I crawled forward.
My eyes zeroed in on where the guys had been standing last, but there was nothing except a giant crater in the ground. I screamed until my throat burned, tears pouring down my cheeks as I continued dragging my injured body forward. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d hurt, but my legs weren’t really cooperating with me. My arms still worked though, and slowly I got closer to where I’d seen Xander last.
He couldn’t be gone. He was strong enough to survive an explosion like that. He had to be.
I collapsed as gut-wrenching sobs ripped through me. We might have saved the stone, we might have stopped the worlds ending, but what had we lost in the process?
I twisted at a noise beside me, only to find Emma half crawling, lurching toward me. She stopped by my side, hand scraping along the ground to clutch mine. “Can you see them?” she choked out.
“No,” I sobbed, my throat closing so no more words could escape.
A breeze brushed over me then, lifting the loose strands of my braid so that my hair was flying around me. Emma and I managed to roll over, sprawling on our backs.
A helicopter was closing in on us … more than one, actually.
There were dozens on the horizon, coming closer and closer. At first I thought this was more of Laous’s people, and I was already saying my goodbyes, because we had nothing left to fight them with. Then I noticed two of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life.
One was the American flag etched on the side of the closest metal beast in the sky. The other was Lexen, soaring in between two choppers, Xander holding on to one of his arms. They flew in like angels, maneuvering so that they could land right by us. The helicopters started landing as well, but my focus was on Xander, on every perfect strand of golden hair on his head. On the beautiful eyes that were locked on me. The gentle hands that stroked my cheeks, taking the tears with them.
“I thought you were gone,” I said, my head pounding as I fought to hold on to consciousness.
Xander fitted one of his hands under my head; the other he gently slid under my butt, and he lifted me up to cradle me in his arms.
“Laous was determined to take us out with him,” he said huskily. “But I managed to counter with water; it formed a barrier between us for long enough so that Lexen could fly us out of the main blast zone. Laous wasn’t so lucky.” His lips pressed to my cheek, chasing the tears as they fell. “I will never leave you, Avalon. You’re stuck with me for life.”
In that moment, I let myself believe his words.
A loud wailing drew our attention. Xander spun with me in his arm, heading straight for the spot Callie’s huge fire had been. It was gone now, but three bodies remained sprawled there, the starslight stone on the ground beside them.
Callie was wailing, screaming, holding on to the body underneath her. “It’s not fair,” she sobbed hysterically. “He never had a chance. He never had a life.”
At first I thought it was Daniel, then I remembered that their souls were tied together. If Daniel had been dead, Callie would be too.
It was Rao.
His body was burned beyond recognition. Ash covered Callie from head to toe so that she was almost unrecognizable.
“I killed him.”
More screams ripped from her and I wanted to run away and hide, because her pain was hurting my heart so badly that I couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t be a weak-ass bitch like that, though. She needed me.
“We have to go closer,” I said to Xander.
His eyes were hard, jaw rigid as he nodded. We were all mourning, all of us sharing Callie’s pain. Especially Daniel, who had just lost his second brother in a matter of a month.
“Put me down with her,” I said, needing to be even closer.
Xander didn’t argue, and Lexen followed suit, placing Emma down as well. Daniel shifted to the side from where he had been holding her, allowing us to crawl through the blood and soot and wrap our arms around her. I don’t know when Maya joined us, but there was a new thrum of energy from our bond when she arrived.
It took a long time, but eventually Callie’s sobs died off. Her body still shook, but I held her tightly, kept her together as best I could. There were voices all around us, but I never heard any of it. Later they’d tell us that the stone was back in the hands of the humans and the council. The bond between us and the stone was gone, but somehow we didn’t lose the bond between the four of us. Colita said it was soul deep, that nothing could break it.
We took a helicopter to a private field, a plane to somewhere else, and then another helicopter to take us right to Daelight Crescent. I barely remembered any of it. The guys let the four of us stay close while a healer fixed up our physical injuries.
It wasn’t until we landed back in Astoria that I was able to focus enough to listen to the conversations around me. “Gonzo is gone,” one of the military men at my right was telling Lexen. “We managed to take out a large percentage of their numbers. The rest fled. We’re ferreting them out as we speak.”
“They placed too much of their trust and manpower in Laous,” Chase said quietly. “It was their greatest mistake.”
It was a silver lining from a really shitty day. Daniel still hadn’t spoken a word, he was simply holding Callie’s hand like it was a lifeline. She lay across his lap.
When the chopper finally touched down in Daelight Crescent, Callie, wearing a haunted look on her face, stepped out first. She seemed to need the space, running as soon as her feet hit the ground. She headed toward one of the mansions on the street and Daniel followed right after her.
“That’s their home,” Xander told me. He swept me close and I let myself rest against his strength, needing this one moment before reality returned. Some of my hair spilled across us; it was almost black. “I really need a shower,” I whispered, a morose chuckle escaping me. I was covered in death, literally.
One side of his lips quirked up; he brushed my hair back. “I’m going to take you to my home here. I’ll have to come back and debrief with the
overlords and council for a short time though. Are you okay to be alone?”
I nodded, even though I really just wanted to hide away with Xander for a few hours. He had responsibilities, and I had to respect them. “I won’t be gone long,” he promised. “I need to be with you, and only you, right now.”
“I need to be with you as well,” I told him.
He swept me into his arms, and I protested. “I can walk now. I’m fine.”
“I know. This is for me. I need to hold you while I can.”
“While I can” was not a phrase I wanted to hear from him, but I was not worrying about the future in this moment. The present was already too raw and painful.
When Xander stopped at a massive metal and wood gate, I just stared up at the impressive and intimidating structure. “Trying to keep the riffraff out?” I joked.
He laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. “My mother likes to make sure everyone is suitably intimidated whenever she does something.”
“I’m starting to see that,” I returned, as we waited for the gates to open.
When he stepped inside, I gasped. The house was set quite far back on the massive property, all white and glass, stunningly pretty. But the part that was my favorite, by a million, was the pool. It basically filled the rest of the land, water as far as I could see, even drifting in and out of the lower levels of the house.
“Bedrooms are on the next level up,” Xander said, pointing toward a row of windows beside pearlescent pillars. “The pool is filled with legreto from home.”
I struggled down and he let me go. Before I could dive into the pool, he captured my face in his hands. Holding me tightly, he pulled me closer. “I love you, Avalon,” he said, his tone soft but sure. “You’re my mate. I will have no other.”
Then his lips were on mine and I couldn’t think anymore. I just felt.
When he pulled back, I fought the urge to drag him into the water with me. “Come back to me,” I said, stepping away, even though it was painful.
He nodded, unsaid emotions filling his face. Then he turned and walked away.
I stood there for a long time, then sucked in a deep breath and fell backwards into the water. My shoes were still in another country. I hadn’t slept or eaten for days. And I might have just said goodbye to the love of my life while he went off to be betrothed to another woman. I was still scared that Lettie would win the battle. So, kicking my legs as hard as I could, I swam and swam until I couldn’t breathe, until I felt like I would pass out and had no choice but to rise to the surface. Closing my eyes, I floated around, letting the water soothe me just as it had done my entire life.
Only it wasn’t working. I felt restless; my energy was spent but I couldn’t stay still. My skin felt two sizes too small, and my insides were trying to stretch their way out. I was so caught up in my own head, I never even heard Xander enter the water. It wasn’t until his arms wrapped around me and I let out a shriek that I realized I wasn’t alone.
“You look like you have heavy thoughts, baby,” Xander said, cradling me closer.
I spun myself around, wrapping my legs around him and hugging him close. My hair, silvery and tangle-free again, spun out around us like a translucent cloud. “You came back,” I said, burying my face in his neck.
Xander’s hands, which had been running up and down my back, slowed. “You didn’t think I would? You let me go knowing that I might not return to you?”
I pulled my head back so I could see him. “I know you meant what you said, but Lettie is a determined woman. I was preparing myself.”
He chuckled, jerking me closer so the center of my body was pressed intimately to the hardness of his. “Why do you think it took me so long? I told her I would walk away. That if she made me choose, I would choose you every single time without hesitation. I think for the first time in my life, she knew that this was not something she could order me to do. So she agreed.”
“She agreed?” I gasped. “She’s not going to fight you? Or … like kick you out of Royale?”
Xander laughed, brushing his thumb across my cheek. “She tried, but father stepped in. He gave his blessing. He forced my mother to think about her actions, and … she’s still not happy, but she is going to break the mate alliance.”
I kissed him like a starving person, openmouthed, tongue tangling against him, body straining to move even closer. Our clothes were gone in seconds. I wasn’t even sure how that happened, but I didn’t care. Xander was inside me so fast that my head spun, and I cried out as all the pleasure he could bring thrummed through my body.
Having him like this, in the legreto from our home world, was a dream.
My body, which had already been primed, started to unravel. I knew I was not going to be able to hold out any longer, even though I desperately wanted to feel this sort of pleasure forever. I must have said something to that tune, because Xander growled, his speed increasing. “You’ll feel it forever. I can promise you that. This is just the beginning.”
For the first time since meeting him, I let myself truly believe that I might have this forever.
Home.
24
All I saw was white. For a moment I wondered what had happened, then a warm arm slid across me and dragged me closer, and I remembered everything.
I was with Xander. In his bed—our bed, as he told me last night. We were still in the house in Daelight Crescent, on the second floor in the master suite. It was massive, taking up ten times the space of my last shared apartment.
“Good morning,” I said, burying my face into his chest. We were both naked. We had not gotten much sleep through the night. The morning got here way too quickly in my opinion. When we weren’t making love, we were discussing everything that had happened yesterday. The council still wasn’t sure how Laous had managed to invoke the Fires of Ether through Callie, but they had assured us that he was definitely dead now. Daniel confirmed this, because his soul was in Imperial, awaiting judgment.
“What if Laous chooses to be born again?” I asked, needing to know he’d be punished for what he did. For Rao and Marsil.
“Reborn souls are pure,” Xander told me, running his hand along my side. “If Laous chooses to be reborn, his soul will have another chance at a good life.”
Still didn’t seem fair, but I guess a new soul shouldn’t be punished for its previous life’s actions.
“How are you feeling?” Xander asked, changing the subject. His tone was serious enough that I lifted my head to see him clearly. Ocean blue eyes framed by thick dark lashes met my gaze.
“I feel….” I hesitated, trying to determine what I really felt. “I’m not really sure, to be honest. Overwhelmed. Shocked. Happy.”
All of that was true. While a small part of me was waiting for the bad thing to crash into us again, I was happy.
“I’ve never been this happy,” Xander said, still serious. Then he smiled, and my breath caught, just for a moment. “I can’t actually believe you’re here with me.”
I swallowed roughly, reaching out to caress his face. He wore light stubble across his chin and cheeks now, and I was digging it. “I can’t really believe it either,” I confessed, my hands pausing to cup his cheeks.
I kissed him then, because I could. Because in this moment, he was mine.
“I can feel you in my chest,” he said against my lips. “Our bond, it’s growing stronger.”
He’d told me that might happen, that after we were bonded sex and emotions would tie us closer to together. “I feel it too,” I said, snuggling against him.
His hands were just starting to move across my skin, around to cup my ass, when his phone buzzed on the bedside table.
Xander let out a low curse, followed by a deep breath before he rolled over and grabbed it. I noticed that he wasn’t one to let his phone go without checking it, just in case it was an emergency back home. Being on Earth made network contact harder, so their phones were always on.
The white sheets pooled around h
im, making his skin look an even darker bronze than usual. This was enough of a distraction that it took me a few moments to realize that he was still reading his phone quite seriously.
“Is everything okay back in Overworld?” I asked, drawing his attention to me.
He nodded as he lifted his head. “Everything is fine. Daniel is having his initiation ceremony today. He’s already overlord, or acting as overlord, but the official ceremony will give him complete control of his house and the justices. He’s asked if we can be there.”
“Is that not normal?”
Xander shook his head. “No, we’ve always kept that sort of thing quite separate. But … we’re changing the way our world is run now. We’re going to make sure that no one can divide us again.”
“Laous brought about something good after all,” I decided.
We were both silent, thinking about everything that had happened.
“He didn’t beat us,” I said out loud, needing to hear it. “We learned that the four houses are stronger together.”
Xander dropped his phone and then his hands were around my waist as he lifted me onto him. As I settled down against his body, my insides hummed.
“Do we have time?” I asked.
His eyes darkened. “Always.”
House of Imperial was underground, literally. We took a transporter to the top level of the justices, along with a lot of other Daelighters. All four houses would be here today, spread out across the incubation level.
Xander and I stood at the head of Royale. A select few of his people were there, and I was so happy to see Dawn among them. She had given me a hug and expressed her joy at my mateship with her brother.
Lettie wasn’t quite so happy, but since she mostly ignored me, I took that as a win. I knew I would have to keep an eye on Xander’s mother in the future—she was going to do everything she could to drive a wedge between Xander and me. Whatever her long term plan was though, I would not let her steal this life from me. She was in for a fight.
