We walked for another couple of blocks down a street lined with little markets and restaurants. They weren’t anything too fancy, but the neighborhood seemed to be hopping with workers coming home from day shifts, getting dinner or buying produce. Lots of young couples were strolling around holding hands, just like me and Forrest.
Forrest drew me toward the door of a little cave of a restaurant called “Ma’s Homemade Noodles”.
“No way. Noodles? Noodles are probably my favorite food. My mom never makes noodles. She says they’re too much work. In fact, the first time I had noodles—”
He gave me a look that said, Please don’t say the word ‘noodles’ this many times.
Okay. I got it. His family probably wasn’t that into noodles if they’d been making them for the whole neighborhood for a hundred years or something.
As soon as he opened the door, some lady serving plates of (starchy, silky, delicious) noodles looked up. “Forrest! Forrest is home!”
I heard someone drop what sounded like a stack of metal trays in the back, and in another moment we were surrounded by one skinny flour-dusted guy and like five women of various ages who all wanted to hug Forrest. “Why are you here?” “Finally tired of village life?” “C’mere, big guy.”
“Where’s Gran?” he asked, in an urgent tone.
“Oh, Gran’s resting. She’s a tough old girl, but…she’s getting too old to work in the restaurant. She’s…forgetting things a lot. She’ll want to see you, but—just be prepared. I’ll get her down here.”
“I can go to her. Is she in bed?”
“No, no, you wait there and let us dote on you. She can still walk just fine and it’s good for her to keep moving.”
Some woman offered me a vigorous handshake I hadn’t exactly prepared for. “Hello, sweetie! And who’s this? You going to introduce us?”
He put an arm around me. “This is my wife, Phoebe. I think she’s really looking forward to tasting some noodles…”
I almost melted in the floor. For a minute I had a flash of what my life could have been like. I knew Forrest had only come Istim because I was the priestess, but if only I had met him while I was a Strawberry Girl…if our paths had crossed in the capital…and we had just been a normal girl and a normal guy. Maybe he wouldn’t look so tormented. Maybe we would have stayed here. I wouldn’t mind working in a restaurant. I could have saved up and sent for Mom…
I had a big lump in my throat all of a sudden.
“You’ve come to the right place, Phoebe, haven’t ya? Sit down anywhere!”
The other woman came back, holding the hand of a stooped old woman as they came down the stairs. Her white hair was in a thin braid and she wore a faded floral print dress and slippers. Her face was lined in wrinkles, but her eyes shone when she saw Forrest.
“Roddy?” she asked. “You came home?”
“No, Gran, this is Forrest.”
Forrest swallowed, letting go of my hand. He met his great-grandmother at the stairwell. “Gran, I’ve come back from Istim. I wanted you to meet my wife. Phoebe.”
“Weren’t you with that lovely redhead? You were so devoted to her.”
“That was Roderick,” the other woman said gently. She looked at Forrest with apology. “She’s getting a little confused.”
“Where is Roddy?” Gran asked, insistent.
“He’s dead, Gran, remember? He…was killed in a battle.”
Gran looked distressed, pointing at Forrest. “He looks just like my Roddy.”
“This is Geoff’s son. Forrest. He always did remind you of Uncle Roderick. Remember how he used to run around with a wooden sword and battle the chairs? He became a soldier too, in the Black Army.”
Gran still looked like she didn’t understand, but she seemed resigned to her confusion now. She took Forrest’s hand and patted it. “You’re very handsome like my Roddy. Your wife is very pretty.”
“Thank you…Gran, I’m—I’m sorry I was away for so long.”
“It’s all right, dear.” She gave him a slightly blank yet pained smile, and then looked at the other woman. “I’m very tired,” she said softly.
“Of course. I’ll take you back upstairs. Forrest, have a seat anywhere, I know your Aunt Catherine is whipping up something really good.”
He nodded, taking a last glance at his great-grandmother as she took the stairs. “I was away too long… The letters are so slow between here and Istim, I shouldn’t have even come.”
“Of course you should,” I said. “I bet, deep down, a part of her knows. And I get to meet your family. It’s really nice here. And it smells amazing.” I squeezed his hand. “Noodles.”
He cracked a faint smile and pulled out a chair for me. “Last time I saw her,” he said, sitting down across from me, “she was fine. Sharp as a tack.”
“Well, how old is she?”
“…ninety-eight. But I know last year she was still making her little meatballs.” He added, “I should’ve just let her think I was Roderick.”
“If you hadn’t come to Istim for my sake, would you have stayed in the capital?”
“Assuming I was still leaving the army, because of what I’d learned there, it would’ve been Bastel, probably. With my parents and siblings and their restaurant.” He shrugged. “I would have hated it, though. I’ve got wanderlust, or…worse. Bloodlust, maybe.” He gestured to a portrait on the wall of the dimly lit room, a painting of a man in armor who looked just like Forrest…at least, Forrest as rendered by a hobbyist painter with a head too big for his body. “Uncle Roderick had it, and I have it, and the rest of them are content with this.”
“I can see why,” I said, looking around at all the families slurping up noodles. “But I’m glad you’re you.”
Pretty soon, the noodles started rolling out. They were freshly cut and tossed in a light sauce with mushrooms and parsley—heavenly.
“It’s a cheap date,” Forrest said. “Even if I had to pay for it, although I don’t…”
“But it’s the best! The only thing that would make me happier than a big bowl of noodles would be a big piece of chocolate cake.”
“We just might have some of that too,” said the nearest server, who I think was Cousin Emma. Or Cousin—you know, never mind, I had no idea of anyone’s name, but they were very nice. Different people kept sitting down to chat with us a moment before they had to spring back up again and get to work. I signed Cousin Arlen’s Strawberry Girls poster for him even though it was for the wrong tour. Literally all the women asked if I was pregnant yet.
“Do we have to leave? If I hold onto the leg of the table, will you drag me out? You wouldn’t want to make a scene, would you?” I asked, just before I licked my plate clean of sauce.
“They would adopt you in a second,” he said. “They would dote on our babies…”
“Roddy!”
Forrest turned as Gran came back down the stairs, trying to break away from the girl who was helping her down.
“Angie, what are you doing, Gran needs to rest!” Aunt Catherine told the girl.
“It wasn’t me!” Angie protested. “She pounded on my door! She made me pry up floorboards. She said she just remembered that she hid something for Uncle Roderick or whatever.”
“Roddy, I forgot,” Gran said. “You told me to keep this until you came back.” She handed Forrest a little rectangular wooden box.
Forrest cracked it open, seeing a necklace. “This must’ve been for his girlfriend. I can’t take this. Gran, I’m—”
“You might as well take it and give it to Phoebe,” Aunt Catherine told him. “No one else has a lovely new bride.”
“You could use the money,” Forrest said, refusing to take it.
“We aren’t going to pawn off something that belonged to Uncle Roderick!”
“It’s for Margaret,” Gran said. “Very important.”
“Okay, Gran, he’ll make sure Margaret gets it. C’mon. Let’s get you back upstairs.” She pushed the box into Fo
rrest’s hands.
When we finally left after a ton of prolonged goodbyes, and we were almost back at Niko’s place, Forrest opened the box. “It’s gold,” he said. “Roderick must’ve spent some pay on it. Might as well see what it looks like on. It’ll go with your dress.”
“I’d love to wear it,” I said. “Kind of like an heirloom wedding ring.”
“Yes.” He looked pleased, lifting the necklace out of the box. It had a gold pendant inset with tiny stones and smaller stones surrounding it. When he took it out of the box and lifted it to my neck, he paused.
“This is a strange necklace,” he said. “It wants to fall wide around your neck, like…it’s not supposed to go there.”
“Let me see…”
He was still squinting at it. “Phoebe—look at the pendant. Does that look like my sigil to you?”
I held up the pendant. There was a design etched into the gold, surrounded by the tiny stones. “It does. And you know…the priestess is wearing jewelry in the book. Was your great-uncle a guardian?”
He stopped dead and looked back the way we came. “I need to go back there. I need to try and ask her about this. If my uncle was a guardian, I have to see if she remembers anything else.”
“Tomorrow morning,” I said. “It’s getting late now.”
“I should have opened the box immediately.” He moved the necklace to my waist. The pendant seemed to fall right over the sigil. “I think that’s what it is,” he said. “This is supposed to go around your hips.” He put it back in the box. “I’ll put it on later.”
“Hey, I think…Niko…expects to spend tonight with me. Since we just found him. Please don’t be weird about it.” I couldn’t quite admit to Forrest that I was intrigued to spend the night with him too. I feared losing Forrest’s respect.
“I won’t be ‘weird’,” he said stiffly. “I understand now that we all must draw from your power. Although I don’t know what he’ll do with it. He’s clearly a money man. What weapon can he use? Dice?”
“You’re being a little weird right now.”
“And you’re all right with him?”
“Do I have a choice?” I said, before realizing that was the wrong answer.
Forrest’s brows drew down.
“I mean—it’s fine,” I said hastily. “I mean—there’s something attractive about Niko.” Nope, I still wasn’t making things better. “It’s just hard getting used to each new person, right, because you’re all so different.”
“If he hurts you, I would protect you from him too,” he said. “Maybe guardians can’t hurt you physically, but they could hurt you in other ways.”
“Yeah…I’ll be okay,” I said. Really, Forrest was as likely to hurt me in other ways as anyone. “I’m still waiting on that knife, by the way.”
Chapter Fifteen
When we got back, Forrest went to bed, getting out of the way. I’d told him I was all right, after all. So…yeeeah. Was I all right?
There was Niko, with his jacket stripped off and his cravat hanging loose around his neck, having another drink.
“Nice night?” he asked.
“Yeah. Pretty out. Warm, but not too warm.” My conversational skills, man. Top notch.
“Nightcap?” He held up the bottle.
“I hope you haven’t been drinking this whole time.”
“Do I seem drunk? Don’t worry. I never get drunk. I’m not sure I can. Ask Gilbert. Where is Gilbert, anyway?” He stood up, stretching his arms behind his back. “He doesn’t want to talk about old times. I guess he went to bed. The man needs his beauty rest. And how about you, darling? Are you tired?”
Gods.
I felt frozen.
On one hand, I was scared of this guy. I didn’t know what he was. I was glad he’d taken the gloves off because I’d half expected his hands to have claws or something. I also had this feeling that he wasn’t going to be quite as devoted as Forrest and Gilbert. Niko was looking out for Niko. I knew this kind of guy.
But he was also smoking hot. I wasn’t a stranger to hooking up with someone just because they were smoking hot. And was it such a crime? I was bonded to this guy no matter what, so did I really need to listen to the voice in my head that said he was trouble and my mom probably wouldn’t like him? I should just enjoy it, right? Priestesses couldn’t even get pregnant.
He swung open the door to his room, with that big ol’ curtained bed waiting for us. I was a little weak in the knees looking at it.
“This is a beautiful dress, by the way, I don’t think I told you earlier,” Niko said.
“Thanks. It’s okay. I like a little more color myself.”
“If it’s color you want, it’s in your cheeks.” He slid his thumbs across my skin. His bronze-gold eyes caught me like I was under a spell.
With the other guys, though, they could touch their sigil to my own, and that stirred my desire like nothing else.
He tipped up my chin and leaned down to kiss me.
I stiffened as his lips met mine.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Your sigil—”
“It stays covered,” he said. “We don’t know what would happen.”
“No, I’m just used to that feeling… The other guys always touch my sigil first, and—”
His arm was around my shoulders. “Do you want me to turn into that thing again?”
“N—no.”
“Don’t be scared of me. I am perfectly in control.”
Yeah. That might be what I’m afraid of.
But as he unfastened the clasps at the back of my neck and started kissing my nape, his warm hands on my shoulders, I cared a little less. His tongue traced a line along my neck and it made me shiver down to my toes. He peeled my dress off my shoulders. It fell off me partially, and he reached past the loose fabric that now bunched around my waist and found the edge of my panties, stroking me between the legs.
“Oh…” Gods, this was moving fast.
Suddenly the bed curtains flew open and even Niko jumped a little.
Gilbert had been here the whole time.
“Niko,” he said, his tone faintly warning.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Niko demanded. His hand was still between my legs. “I never gave you permission to come into my bedchamber.”
“Oh, dear. Sorry about that,” Gilbert said, raising his eyebrows. “I know how you are. You have a way of forcing people into things they aren’t ready for. You’re used to getting what you want. But that ends now. You will treat Phoebe like you’re just a moon that revolves around her sun, because you are.”
Niko chuckled drily. “Is that what she really wants? In my experience, women quite like it when I tell them what to do. I’m sure I know how to bring a woman more pleasure than you do.”
“You’ve always been sure of yourself, but that means you don’t listen to what other people want. Phoebe wants to be respected and listened to and treated with care. She likes to get to know a man first. She’s not some floozy you can just bend over.”
“Is that true, Phoebe?” Niko asked.
I don’t know if I liked wherever this was going. “Of course it is. I do like being the center of attention.”
“You are still certainly the center of all my attention,” he practically purred in my ear. “But I think we will get to know each other later. Right now, all you want is to know what dirty things I’m going to do to you and how loud I can make you scream.”
However much I tried not to like this, his words got me so wet that I must have soaked his hand. He grinned, finally pulling his hand out of my underwear. “I thought so.”
Gilbert took my shoulders and clutched me against him. “I am not going to let you do this to her.”
“Why does it bother you, Gil?” He tossed his cravat onto a nearby chair. “All right, Phoebe. He’s right. I am bound to protect you, body, mind, and spirit, aren’t I? I will let you decide whose approach you prefer. Do you want to know what I’m go
ing to do to you? Or would you rather discuss it with our gentle Gilbert?”
“I don’t—have to be gentle,” Gilbert said. I think he knew which way the wind was blowing.
“Um…look, guys, I don’t know exactly what your history is together, but you’re making this a little uncomfortable.”
Gilbert paused. “I did say that a little uncomfortable is the best way to be…”
“Come on, kids,” Niko said, squeezing both our shoulders. “I’ve never shared my ladies before but if I don’t have a choice, I might as well enjoy it. Why don’t you both let me be your master of ceremonies?”
Gilbert turned red. “No—no—I can go, if Phoebe wants to—”
I didn’t really want him to go, though. I gave him my pleading eyes. “But you can awaken my sigil.”
Niko urged us closer to each other. Gilbert touched his hand to my chest, stirring the heat inside me. I immediately felt a little more relaxed. “Mm…your touch is just so nice. Please stay…”
Gilbert brushed back a lock of fair hair that was falling in his eyes, and he bowed his head against mine. He was breathing hard. I craned my neck up and found his lips, and kissed him. I felt Niko loosen the last clasp of my dress and tug it off my body.
Gilbert, still kissing me, started massaging my breasts and I brought my feet in a little closer to him. I heard Niko’s shirt rustle. A moment later, he was standing behind me, shirt unbuttoned, the skin of his bare chest against my back. Slowly, he stroked me between the legs again. Small sighs escaped me as Niko’s hand teased my folds and Gilbert played with my breasts. They both slowly increased their urgency, until they were gently tugging on me everywhere, and slowly driving me to madness.
“I’m going to come already,” I panted.
“Go ahead,” Niko said.
“But it’ll be over so fast.”
“Oh, this is just the beginning, darling.”
“We’ve tried to be careful not to overstimulate her powers,” Gilbert said. “We drain magic from her when we do this.”
“She has all day to rest up while we figure out what’s going on with the Temple of Stones,” Niko said, thrusting two fingers inside me and stroking me vigorously.
Priestess Awakened Page 14
