by C. M. Owens
He holds my hand tighter, and a little more of that sense of belonging fills me. I don’t need a large group to accept me. Apparently all it takes is one man.
I don’t argue again, and he keeps me close as we walk inside.
A few gazes swing to me, but no one seems surprised that I’m here.
“What have we learned?”
“You mean other than the fact you can apparently travel much farther and much faster than any other immortal?” Dice drawls. “Care to explain that one, fire breather?”
“I figured you’d be too busy panicking or celebrating to be in here offering your useless retorts,” Chaz says dismissively.
“Panicking or celebrating over walking in on my mother having a threesome with Sadie and Reese last night and accidentally feeding off that energy before I knew what it was? No. More like scarred for fucking life.” The incubus shudders dramatically.
What is he talking about? Apparently Chaz is confused too, so I don’t feel so left out of the loop.
“I was talking about the... Oh shit,” Chaz says, his eyes widening.
His brow furrows, and Karma glares at Chaz. Ah shit. Dice doesn’t know.
There’s a warm feeling in my chest. My twin is pregnant... I’m going to be an aunt. If she ever lets me close enough after the distance I’ve shoved between us. I believed Slade when he said emotional attachments make you too weak to focus.
Now I wonder...
“Why?” Dice asks, looking between Karma and Chaz as Chaz grimaces and Karma continues to slice him to pieces with just one furious glower.
Karma grips her head. “I’m pregnant.”
At first, Dice says nothing. In fact, he laughs. But then all the color drains from his face. “You’re pregnant?!” he shrieks, my eardrums stinging from the sound.
He leaps up and runs... right into a wall. The wall cracks, and Dice trips, falling to the floor on his ass. It takes him a second to leap back up to his feet. It’s like a bad comedy act I used to have to watch in the rings when people got bored and tried to pass the time by putting on a show.
“I’m going to be a father?”
Karma smiles ruefully. “Hopefully.”
“I’m going to be a fucking father!” Dice whoops, fist-pumping the air. “We’ll name him Kal-El and buy him a cape!”
What does that even mean?
“And if it’s a girl?” Karma asks, her eyes watering as a smile spreads over her lips.
My chest aches for reasons unbeknownst to me.
“We’ll call her Kal-El and buy her a cape!” Dice announces, still dancing around the room. “My kid will be a superhero!”
“They won’t be able to fly,” Ella tells him, amused.
Dice doesn’t seem perturbed from his celebration as he kisses Karma hard. Then draws back. “But how?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. Somehow the spell failed.”
“Because my semen is fucking epic, that’s why!”
Totally could have done without that. Judging by all the groans in the room, so could everyone else.
“Anyone else worried about him reproducing?” Drackus grumbles.
“Hashtag—strong motherfucking swimmers. Hashtag—spell breaking love juice. Hashtag—my semen is better than your semen. Hashtag—”
“So this is what everyone here is doing while the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Nice.” Slade’s voice seems to chill the air in the room as he suddenly appears.
Everyone goes tense, including me.
Slade is casually propped up on a far wall in the back of the room, looking on with unmasked disdain in his eyes. Ella is stiff as a board, but he doesn’t even glance her way.
“What do you want?” Chaz asks, stepping in front of me like Slade is going to whisk me away.
Slade’s lips twitch. “I’ve come bearing gifts, so don’t go blasting me with anything when I pull them out. I’d hate to have to kill someone today.”
They all narrow their eyes, and I bite my tongue as he pulls out several talismans and tosses them onto a table.
“What are those for?” Chaz asks, continuing to keep me behind him, barely allowing me to see.
I’m trying to move, but the bastard is too strong, easily holding me in place. Slade isn’t going to hurt me.
“While you were busy doing... whatever nonsense it is you do in a time of crisis, I was actually doing something productive,” Slade tells them, his voice oozing condescension. “It’s to ward against the spell that turned us human. They won’t expect it, and we might just get the upper hand.”
“We?” Ella asks, her own voice layered with disdain now. “You gonna generously allow us to be a part of this war after you made it clear you were done with us pathetic wastes?”
My lips twitch as I watch Slade’s jaw tic. He still won’t look at her. I’ll be damned.
“Watch yourself, Princess,” he says with a dark edge, his eyes trained on the talismans as he lifts one up.
“Don’t threaten her,” Chaz warns, a deadly calm to his tone.
Too many egos in one place at one time. It’s giving me a headache.
Slade merely smirks. “Want to test yourself against me, mutt?”
A growl rumbles from Chaz’s chest, and I start to get worried. Slade doesn’t understand that provoking him is stupid right now. He taunts and goads for fun. Usually no one is stupid enough to lash out.
I put a hand on Chaz’s arm, feeling the rage coursing through him as though it’s tangible.
“Slade, don’t,” I caution, but realize how pointless that is to even request.
Slade’s dark smirk emerges as his eyes light up silver.
“Chaz, please don’t,” I tell him as he gets that same smirk, challenging Slade without any words.
“I think your little beast is off his leash, Kya. If he wants to play, let him.”
Chaz’s hands light up with fire, but before he can do anything, a streak of energy bolts through the room, crashing into Slade’s chest. The impact throws him, and he crashes through the walls of the house. I watch in amazement as he lands outside, slow to get up.
He glares over at his attacker as he finally climbs to his feet and wipes blood away from his mouth.
Ella lowers her hand as her silver eyes narrow. “I can take care of myself just fine,” she says ominously as she walks through the wreckage of the house, stepping outside to where Slade is.
“I came to save your life, and this is how I’m repaid?” he muses, trying to sound as though he’s not pissed. I can tell he’s pissed. Very pissed.
Slade is the most dangerous when you think he’s calm.
“You’re the one provoking us. And don’t act like I should know my place, telling me to ‘watch’ myself. I’ll say whatever I want.”
A ghost of a smile teases his lips, and I half wonder if maybe he really isn’t pissed. If anyone else had just knocked him through a wall—if that’s even possible—he would have already put them on the ground and had them begging for their lives.
“We could go a few rounds, Princess. But I think we both know what would happen. What is it that you do every time the darkness finally wins and you become lost to its power?”
Ella glares at him, and everyone exchanges curious glances.
“Have you told them why I have to knock you out?”
She says nothing as her eyes burn brighter and her hands ball to fists.
“Oh... Keeping secrets, then?” Slade goads, smirking at her, winning without taking a physical shot.
“What’s he talking about, Ella?” Kimber asks as she steps out from behind Gage’s iron grip that has loosened, as he’s distracted.
“Nothing,” Ella says bitterly. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Only because I ensure that,” Slade says, taunting her as he winks.
Her entire body goes rigid as a few people suck in surprised breaths, me included. No one can ever stick around as long as the two of them when the powers are colliding too brutally.
We’re forced to retreat, while they remain. Because they’re the strongest... the deadliest... And apparently also the most fucked up.
And since when does Slade wink?
“Kya,” Slade says, still staring down the princess—er, I mean, Ella.
“She’s staying here,” Chaz tells him.
Slade looks to me, and I know what it’s like to feel torn. I want to be with Chaz, but Slade has been with me since I was a child. I owe my life to him, even if Chaz has somehow infected the heart inside me I didn’t know existed.
“I’ll see you back at bunker four,” Slade tells me, arrogantly casting one last taunting glance at Chaz before disappearing.
I feel like I’m stuck between a dagger and a sword right now. No matter which direction I move, I’m going to be cut. It’s just a matter of how deeply.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Chaz says as he turns to face me, his gold eyes daring me to say otherwise.
It seems like he’s tapping into his Lokie power to restrain my magic, because I can’t dematerialize right now. Not that I’m trying to leave, but I’m testing my theory.
“I have to tell him some things that you told me last night.”
He narrows his eyes.
“About Ella,” I add.
While trying to soothe me and take my mind off the misery going on in my stomach, he explained all the new information they had, which wasn’t much more than we already had. Except for that one part.
He tilts my head back, studying my eyes. “Good thing you have a phone and can text him.”
I’ve always been alone, with the exception of Slade at my back. It feels like a betrayal to leave him on his own right now. It also feels like a betrayal to leave Chaz.
“Just let me talk to him. We’re stronger together—all of us. We shouldn’t be going after the same enemy on separate sides.”
“He’s a fucking psycho, Kya! He’s the one who keeps ripping the alliance apart. Not us.”
I frown, trying to think of ways to excuse Slade’s behavior. Saying he’s not so bad once you get to know him is kind of lame, not to mention very inaccurate—he’s just as bad. But he’s less... Who am I kidding? He’s terrible. However, he’s also the best ally to have. And there’s more to him than just hatred.
“The enemy of my enemy is no longer a friend,” Gage says, glaring over at me. “He’s too unpredictable.”
“Hashtag—savage,” Dice agrees... in his own weird way.
What’s a hashtag anyway?
“Why isn’t Alyssa here?” I ask Chaz. She should be the one making these decisions. They keep acting as though they have the right to decide things like this in her absence.
I’d never make a decision like this without Slade’s permission. Which is a reminder this isn’t my place.
No one answers me, furthermore solidifying that fact.
This is their group. I have my own. Chaz and I are on opposing sides until we find a way to work together—at least until this is over.
After this is over... If we survive...
“Where is Alyssa?” I ask again, noticing the way everyone tenses and averts my gaze.
They don’t trust me. I get it. But Chaz should. He has no reason not to.
My gaze trains solely on him, putting my faith in his hands that this time he’ll answer and prove all my other assumptions wrong. For whatever reason, they don’t want me to know, but he’ll tell me if this thing between us is real.
I trust him with my life and the life of my people. It’s only fair to expect the same in return. Unless I’m no more to him than a fun pastime, as all the men in the rings were to me.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he says again, still avoiding my question.
Unfortunately, his non-answer is the devastating answer I was expecting.
I look at Chaz longingly as he studies my eyes with a fierce intensity. Whatever the reason Alyssa isn’t here is apparently none of my business, yet he can’t understand that layers the air with a blanket of distrust. It labels this as frivolous and meaningless.
I keep forgetting he’s not truly mine. I’m not sure what the protocol is for relationships outside the walls of the rings. Since being freed, he’s the only man I’ve touched. My learning curve with relationships was skewed from the beginning.
He’s more practiced and experienced. According to Slade, he was once involved with Amy and never shed a tear or missed a beat after learning of her death.
And I’m falling harder for him than he is for me.
Much harder.
It’s easy to forget my place until I’m reminded of it.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him.
His brow furrows, but I slam my knee into his side too fast for him to react. He grunts and stumbles away, and I dematerialize while I have the small advantage. My knee throbs and my chest aches. It feels like I just made a decision that I wasn’t ready to make so soon.
I half hope for him to show up before I reach the bunker, since he can transport much faster than I can shift through the planes. But I’m not surprised he hasn’t followed.
It’s the first time I’ve truly denied him of any request.
He won’t chase me.
The fun is only fun until it’s not.
It was never just fun to me. It was dangerous, exciting, terrifying, then... consuming. I’m not sure what to do from here, but... Fuck. Freedom is just as liberating as it is frustrating. With freedom comes choices and no one to blame but yourself when your world is spinning out of control.
There’s no evil to blame when you’ve caused your own problems. There’s only your reflection to confront. And it’s not a conversation I have time for right now.
Slade doesn’t even act surprised to see me when I step inside. He knew I’d follow. Just as Chaz knew I would.
I’m not a woman. I’m a soldier.
I’m not one of theirs. I’m one of the surviving slaves.
And I’m not one to be told to stand still when I know I have to keep moving.
“What’s going on with you?” I ask in a strained tone, choking back the unexpected surge of emotions. Clearing my throat, I ask a little stronger, “Why did you provoke him?”
Slade tosses me a necklace, and I put it on without hesitation.
“I didn’t intend to provoke him. He provoked me. And the princess has to feel like she’s in control on occasion when she spends too much time out of control.”
“You deliberately talked down to her and laced your condescension with a veiled threat.”
“There was nothing veiled about it. She and I will fight eventually, but not today.”
“You really believe that?” I ask, studying him. “What does she do when she’s out of control? Because it didn’t sound like she wanted to fight.”
He looks me in the eyes, his gaze burning through mine. “We fight. We fuck. We survive. Those are the only three things that are truly in existence, Kya. I’m not fucking the princess. You think they’re going to rub elbows with us once this is all over? They’re going to come for a fight.”
This is not why I’m here. Arguing with Slade is always counterproductive after the first five minutes.
“Ella is their target. They need her to stabilize the portal in order to open up the right dimension. She’d be like the ground wire to their electrical current, from what I understand. We need to help ensure her safety—around the clock security or whatever. You have to stop provoking them and start working with them, because we now have a common goal—stopping this portal.”
His jaw tenses. Slade always look twice as menacing when he’s ready for a fight—which he definitely is. Not that I expected less. It’s become glaringly obvious he feels something for Ella. Though I have no idea exactly what it is—love, hate, fury, protective, rage, lust? There’s no telling.
“What makes you assume it’s the princess? I doubt the books called her out by name. And what book said this?”
He knows I can’t read, so he’s expect
ing me to tell him what person told me this.
“I’m not sure what she read it from, but the one we’ve been wary of—Sadie—stated it was the strongest current being that was used as a stabilization unit.”
He slams a fist against the table that snaps and collapses against the impact. I’m not even startled by it. Books, charts, and other papers all fall to the floor, no longer supported by the crushed pieces of wood.
“That could be me. Or him. Not just Ella. We’re equal in strength until she embraces both sides and stops lingering in the darkness.”
I swallow against the knot in my throat. He can’t even say Alton’s name. Just like he won’t say Ella’s. He usually won’t even mention Alton. He’s something Slade plans to deal with on his own time after he saves the world from whatever impending evil rests around the corner.
“Obviously it won’t be you they grab,” I retort dryly.
“Obviously,” he echoes, his lips twitching. “Though I do wish they’d fucking try.”
“Alton is just as strong?”
He nods. “But his mind is too weak. He won’t fight them. He’ll cower. Just like your sister, he’s not strong enough to withstand them.”
I bristle. Karma is stronger than I accredited her for being. I’ve seen her determined eyes and harsh aggression when she actually trains. Though it’s been a mere few glimpses. I’ve mostly only watched Chaz, because I was a foolish girl caught up in the notion this was a romance and not just an erotic release.
“Get it off your chest, Kya. I can tell your head isn’t here right now, and I need you in this game.”
I nod, steeling my resolution. This is my place. This is my war.
Chaz made it clear what stand he was taking. He wouldn’t tell me whatever secret they were hiding.
He chose his side.
Now it’s my turn to choose as well.
Chapter 22
KARMA
(Yes, you read that right. No, it’s not a #typo.)
“We should put those on,” I tell Dice, pointing to the necklaces Slade gave us that no one has touched. The spell also never came back as Slade said it would. Two days we’ve been waiting for something to happen or break or explode... Nothing has.
“No way! My baby might be hurt by that fuck-nugget’s jewelry. Who knows what it actually does.”
