by Linsey Hall
His big hand gripped her hip and she shifted, parting her legs so that his cock fit tightly to her pussy. She moaned, arching beneath him.
“I want you,” she begged. She wanted to forget about what was coming and their terrible odds of success.
She felt his fist against the insides of her thighs as he gripped his shaft, and her muscles tightened in anticipation. She gasped as he pressed inside her, spreading her thighs to take more of him. He sank into her, hot and hard and oh so right. The feel of him blasted her defenses.
He shuddered on top of her, then met her gaze with his as he began to thrust. Chills broke out along her skin, from the pleasure and the realization that this was real and so were they. Together. Whatever happened tomorrow, they had tonight.
She cried out when his thrusts picked up momentum, dragging her along with him toward a finish line she was desperate to reach. The flutters of an orgasm started low in her belly. Desperate craving followed.
Cam fucked her like he might never have a chance to again. As his hips lost their grace, pleasure crashed over her, sucking all conscious thought from her mind.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Cam woke for the first time in centuries with a woman in his arms. His woman. He tugged her close and looked down at her. A chasm of fear opened within his chest.
She was mortal. There was no way to turn her immortal.
He shook his head to make the thought disappear. There was too much riding on today to be pulled under by such thoughts. Instead, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and rose to shower.
When he got out, he tugged on jeans and walked into the kitchen. Ana leaned against the counter, looking like the best thing he’d ever seen, swamped in his shirt and smiling. She handed him a cup of coffee.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Tell me you’ve got a way out of this mess,” she said.
“I do. But first, how did you get me out of those chains?” He’d been thinking about it in the shower. There was no way she could have broken through Gofannon’s shackles.
“It was the strangest thing.” Her brow furrowed. “I was running toward the tor, and suddenly a black falcon flew down and joined me. It had black eyes, a black beak. It didn’t look like a real bird. When it pecked at your chains, they broke.”
Cam frowned. “That sounds familiar. But I don’t know why. There are no black falcons in Otherworld.”
“I know. It’s crazy. It flew off after it broke your chains, like its job was done.”
“Damn. We could use help like that with what’s coming. As it is, I think we should go to the University Council. And I’d like to call Esha back from her vacation.”
“Good,” she said. “I don’t like the idea of the gods finding me, nor do I want you ending up on the run again. Or worse, chained to that tor.”
“That part of my life is over. No more running.” The idea felt as foreign to him now as emotion once had.
“I’ll call Esha now. She can aetherwalk and be here within minutes.”
“Could she pick up someone else?” They’d need all the help they could get, and Harp was good in a battle.
“Sure, I suppose. As long as you’re willing to give her some of your power to refuel. A long trip really takes it out of her, and she’ll need all the power she can get if this is going to be a fight.”
“It’s going to be a fight. She can refuel off me.” He wouldn’t like it, but it was the least he could do if the soulceress was helping him. He’d go get his phone and call Harp— “Shit. We need a phone. My charger was in my bag at Logan’s. Does Esha have a landline?”
“Yes.” Her brow furrowed. “By the way, do you know which god Logan was?”
“Is. Logan is the god Loki.”
Ana’s jaw dropped. “You’re joking. He’s one of the most famous in the world. He’s been hiding and no one recognizes him?”
“He’s a shapeshifter. I haven’t heard from him in nearly a thousand years, not since he was Loki, but I’d guess he’s been holding that form as Logan all this time, avoiding discovery for whatever reason. Whatever he’s working toward, it’s probably big. He was never subtle.”
“But you could see through it back at his rental place.”
“Yeah. Because of our blood vow, his illusions don’t work on me. I can see him. But I also can’t harm him, by word or by deed. And neither can you.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I know, else I wouldn’t have been able to tell you his identity. It’s a clever vow.”
Ana showed him to an old phone on the wall near the refrigerator. He called Harp first and determined that his friend could come—along with the fact that he had located the origin of the Rosa McManus sample.
“Esha will meet us in the historian Lea’s office in twenty minutes. With her sister Aurora,” Ana said when she hung up the phone.
“Excellent.” Two soulceresses would be better than one.
They knocked on the door to Lea’s office twenty minutes later.
“Come in!” The voice echoed through the door and Cam and Ana stepped into a very Dumbledorian office. Cavernous and filled with bookshelves and statuary and furniture, it looked well lived in.
“Andrasta. Camulos.” A translucent female gestured them inside.
Before entering the office, Ana had told him that Lea insisted that she absolutely was not a ghost. But he had no idea what she was.
She didn’t come close enough to shake their hands. He wasn’t even sure if she could touch others.
“Thanks for meeting here.” Lea smiled warmly. She led them through her huge office to the group sitting around a table in the corner. Bookshelves towered around them, giving the illusion of a separate meeting room.
“Thank you for coming,” Cam said as he and Ana sat at the head of the large rectangular table. He stiffened when he caught sight of the blond woman watching him from the other end.
Aerten. Celtic goddess of fate, and the one who’d been at Blackmoor when he’d been chained to the tor. She’d watched curiously then, a strange expression on her face, as she did now. Her head bobbed in acknowledgment, and his shoulders relaxed infinitesimally.
She’d hear him out, at least. Because she presided over the Mythean Guard, she left Otherworld more often than the other gods. The exposure might make her more inclined to believe him.
“We couldn’t gather very many council members on such short notice,” Lea said as she took a seat.
In its entirety, the university council was made up of nearly twenty university department heads. Together, they made the decisions that not only ran the university, but kept the peace between the major afterworlds created by European beliefs. A task that might have once been handled by war was now handled by knowledge and diplomacy. Other regions, such as Asia, had their own governing bodies.
He recognized some of the individuals at the table, though Esha and her sister had not yet appeared. A pink-haired witch named Cora introduced herself. Next to Aerten sat Warren, her right-hand man and the one in charge of day-to-day operations for the Mythean Guard because Aerten was forced to stay in Otherworld most of the time.
A dark-haired woman smiled and said, “Hi, I’m Vivienne. I’m a Sila Jinn. I’m new to the university, but I work with Diana. When she mentioned this, I thought I’d come along.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Cam said, and looked at the woman she’d gestured to.
“I’m Diana,” the red-haired woman said. “I’m the reincarnate of Boudica.”
Cam’s brows shot up. Fuck, he really needed to keep in touch with the university a bit better. The Celts’ most famous warrior had been reincarnated and he hadn’t realized?
She noticed his shock and said, “It’s a recent development. But Ana was Boudica’s patron goddess, and I appreciate everything that she did for me in that life and in this one. I want to help however I can.”
Cam nodded his thanks, then glanced at Ana to see her smiling at Diana.
“It was not
hing,” Ana said. “When you were Boudica, you were my first big case. And you were, and are, a total badass. I’m glad you won your immortality.”
Diana looked up at the man seated next to her and smiled. “Me too.”
The man next to her was a Mythean Guardian that Cam recognized as Cadan Trinovante. He was a Celt born to a town that had worshiped Cam before his departure from Otherworld. They’d met once, long ago. Cadan nodded at him.
Fiona, the Acquirer, sat next to Cadan. She smiled at him and nodded her head.
“Thanks for coming,” he said to her.
“Not a problem. I’m certainly not a representative of my department.” She laughed. “They’d never let me be that. But I feel invested in your success. And I’m not bad in a fight.”
He nodded gratefully.
“Okay,” Lea said after a moment. “I think that Esha and—”
Two women appeared at the entrance of the room, along with Harp, who’d hitched a ride with Esha via aetherwalking. Harp nodded at him and Cam nodded back.
“And here they are,” Lea said. “Good timing. That’s everyone.”
The women approached the table with equal swaggers. Harp followed.
“So the party started without us,” Esha said. Her familiar glared at them with citrine eyes.
“Somebody invited the rabble.” Aurora knocked her chin toward the pink-haired witch. Her sleek midnight cat hissed.
“Oh, shut up,” Cora said.
“Make me,” Aurora shot back.
“I did, once.” Cora smirked.
“Please, you needed a whole coven to help you out. You’re nothing without your—”
Esha elbowed her sister in the gut and her mouth snapped shut.
“Sorry we’re late,” Esha said, and they took a seat, Aurora still glowering at the pink-haired witch.
Great—his team was already fighting. Still, he was lucky to have them.
“Right. Thank you all for coming,” he said. He introduced himself, Ana, and Harp. “We need your help, if you’re willing to give it.”
There were murmurs of assent from around the table.
“Hear me out first.” He looked specifically at Aerten, the only other Celtic god in the room. “Ana and I think we’ve discovered why the gods of the Celtic afterworld feel no emotion.”
Aerten’s face showed no surprise, and he had to wonder at that. As goddess of fate, perhaps she knew more than he’d thought?
“Here’s the situation,” he said, and told them about the spell that Druantia had cast over all of them, including the part about Ana, as she was the entire reason that he’d ever remembered his past in the first place.
“I know nothing of this spell,” Aerten said, frowning.
“You were bewitched with the rest of us. How could you?” he asked.
“But I am the goddess of fate. If there was a spell that needed to be broken in the future, especially one of such importance to our people, I’d have known about it.”
“Perhaps. But Druantia’s magic took my memories as well.” Cam watched her closely, still on edge that she might flee the table for Otherworld and bring the rest of the gods down upon his head.
Instead, she spoke. “You think you have a way to break this spell?”
He nodded. “Druantia was mortal. Was. She’s obviously not anymore. She’s getting the power that fuels her immortality from somewhere, and I think it’s from the forest that grew up from the blood and bones of the Dryads.”
He felt Ana’s hand clasp his under the table. He squeezed, grateful for the connection. “I believe that the power of our emotions, part of our very souls, is trapped in those trees. Along with the souls of the sacrifices. It’s a macabre place, a dark forest that’s protected by dark beings. But if we can cut down all the trees, I think that we can break the spell.”
There were murmurs throughout the room.
“So, like, lumberjacks?” Aurora asked. She was even more irreverent than her sister, but he chuffed a laugh, grateful for the bit of levity.
“Essentially,” he said. “But the forest will be protected by creatures and magics that will want to keep us from chopping it down. With all of us, and all our powers, I think that we could manage.”
“And you say this will restore emotion to the gods of Otherworld.” Aerten’s voice sounded strange. Almost hopeful.
“That’s what I think.”
“We can’t tell the other gods,” Aerten said. “They wouldn’t believe you. Coming to earth to oversee the Mythean Guard has made me question our ways. But for them, who see no reason to come here, they’re mired in their superstition.”
“I believe that’s part of the spell,” Cam said. “Druantia took our emotion as vengeance, but ensuring that we stayed in Otherworld gave her incredible power as the only intermediary between the gods and mortals. They’re committed to the status quo because they’ve been enchanted to be. So, I agree with you. We don’t tell them.”
“Excellent,” Esha said. “I say we get down to planning who does what. We’ll see who else we can get from other departments. When will we do this?”
“I think we should leave for the forest tomorrow, at first light,” Ana said. “Druantia already knows that something is up because she has most likely found my body in her pantry. She’ll know what I did to my mortal body to send my soul to Otherworld and Cam. We want to get there before she can interfere.”
“How do you have a physical, earthly body if you killed yours in Druantia’s pantry?” Aerten asked.
“I don’t know. There’s something strange about that.”
Lea frowned. “I can’t explain it, either. But we need to move on with this. While you all plan, I’ll look through my books, see if there’s anything about the forest that can help.”
The group set about sketching out a basic plan for the next day, though the details of what they would actually face were still a mystery. They finished by determining a meeting place for the next morning.
“Thank you for your help, everyone,” Ana said. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, but before you go, does anyone know of a black falcon that can break magical chains with its beak? It helped us in Otherworld, but I don’t think that kind of bird exists there. Or on earth, for that matter.”
Everyone shook their heads.
Damn. “Right, then. Thanks for the help. Really.”
Everyone nodded, said their goodbyes, and filtered out of the room. They met Harp in the hall.
“Thanks for coming.” Cam clapped his friend on the shoulder. He introduced Ana, and the three of them walked down the hall as a group, passing beneath the watchful eyes of the portraits that lined the walls.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Harp said. “What do you think our odds are tomorrow?”
Cam met Ana’s gaze. It held the darkness he felt in his own heart. He finally had something to really live for, but would they survive? “I’ve no idea.”
“That’s what I figured. But I’ve narrowed down the location of the Rosa McManus to a thirty-square-mile area. So you’ve got a real reason to succeed tomorrow.”
Cam felt a grin stretch across his face. He hadn’t thought he’d smile until this was all over. “Excellent. Good work.”
“Not a problem.”
They pushed through the huge oak doors and stepped into the waning sunlight.
“I’m over at guest quarters,” Harp said. “I’m going to head there now. There’s a nymph who looked lonely earlier.”
“Have a good time. And Harp?”
His friend turned back to him and met his eyes.
“Thanks again.”
Harp nodded and spun, strolling off across the lawn with a lightness to his step that Cam could hardly remember having himself. He turned to Ana, pulled her toward him, and pressed a kiss to her lips.
When he pulled away, she looked up at him and asked, “Do you think we’ll get out of this?”
“I don’t know. But I know I’ve got a damn good reason to try. We’ve go
t a hell of a lot of things standing in our way, but if we make it out of this, I want a life with you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Ana looked out over the valley and gripped her borrowed bow so tightly that her knuckles burned. It felt wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong compared to the bow that she’d made herself and used for two thousand years. She’d imbued it with magic to withstand the test of time so that she’d never have to be without it. But it was trapped at Druantia’s house, and she was going into the biggest battle of her life with a borrowed bow.
She stood on the summit of a windswept mountain in the Highlands and gazed upon the dark forest below. Today would be either all victory or all defeat. There was no middle ground. She was likely mortal enough that she could die and end up in Otherworld. If they failed to break the spell, Cam would be found and chained to the tor again. Either way, they would be separated.
“The rest will be here soon,” Cam said.
His hand enveloped hers, hard and strong, a bulwark against her fears. She looked up at him, so tall and fierce, with his bow strapped to his back and his brow furrowed as he looked at the forest. He looked so natural with a bow in his hand again. From the way he’d looked at the bow when he’d picked it up, he’d clearly missed it tremendously over the past millennia. A hard lump formed in her throat and she squeezed his hand.
She was amazed by what he’d come to mean to her in these short days. Their history was long and fraught, but they’d come so far since she’d cornered him in that jungle bar. And now they had only minutes before the rest of their party arrived and their lives were changed forever.
He jerked on her hand and pulled her until she was pressed against him. His eyes met hers and set her heart to galloping. This was more than just attraction. More than just affection.
“I’ll make this right, Ana,” he said. “I’ll fix what Druantia has broken. Because I want to, because it’s my responsibility for pissing her the hell off with my pride, but mostly because I want to be with you. And that can’t happen until we break the spell so the other gods change their minds about the rules of Otherworld.”
