by Katie May
brown. It continued to writhe on the floor, twitching in all directions, before
it crumbled into a million pieces of dust.
No! No! No!
My bear roared inside of me in denial as I fell to my knees. Emotion
coiled through my chest like barbed wire—agony, fear, anger… I couldn’t
decide on one.
Fur sprouted on my arms as I surrendered myself to the wrath always
hovering just at the edges of my mind.
No! No! No!
I was aware of nothing else except the pain and agony. I screamed, the
noise deafening in the silence of the prison, as I fell to my knees, my keen
claws digging into the stone floors.
“Z!” I screamed until my voice was hoarse, until the candle toppled over
and the walls began to shake. I screamed until my throat hurt fiercely and the
tenuous control I had on my rage snapped as effortlessly as the mating bond
had.
Then Lupe was no more, and only the wrath remained.
TWENTY-FOUR
DAIR
There was an empty hole where my heart should be.
I felt…numb. So, so numb. Every breath felt like being cut by
thousands of minuscule daggers. They dragged at my skin, slashing
until I was choking on my own blood.
Z…
I was dimly aware of screaming, but I couldn’t focus on that. I couldn’t
focus on anything besides my mate’s cold hand in my own. Her face was
pale, too pale, and I yearned to see a flash of color in her cheeks.
The screaming grew louder, and this time, I could make out words.
“SAVE HER! FUCKING SAVE HER!”
The voice was familiar, but in my numb state of mind, I couldn’t focus on
who was shouting. Nothing mattered anymore.
My mate was dead, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I felt as if my soul had shriveled into dust the second the bond connecting
us severed. The sensation was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and I felt
almost disembodied, as if I were watching the entire scene play out from
above. Lurking, but not necessarily participating.
“SAVE HER! FUCKING DAMMIT!”
It was only then that I realized the screams were coming from me.
I ripped my gaze from Z to Paco, who was staring intently at the clock on
the fireplace mantle, his lips pursed.
“FIX HER!” I raged, spit forming on the corner of my lips. “FIX HER!”
Bash was screaming at his grandfather as well, while Killian cried softly.
For once, Jax’s gaze wasn’t fixed out the window but instead, was focused on
the love of our lives. The reason we all got out of bed in the morning. I didn’t
see Ryland, but I heard him just outside the shed, his screams of anguish and
rage permeating the still, night air.
“Paco needs patience!” the old mage retorted, still not moving his gaze
away from the clock.
He had mentioned something about a time limit, right? Like he had to
administer the cure within a certain time? Or was it the opposite? Did he have
to administer the cure after a certain time?
My brain was utterly fried, and I struggled to fit together the pieces of this
puzzle.
All I could think was…
This is the end.
I didn’t want to live in a world without Z. The mere thought sent bile
rushing up my throat. Maybe I’d drown myself in the sea in the most ironic
way of death a mermaid could have.
Or maybe I’d—
“It’s time,” Paco told us, placing one hand on Z’s jaw and forcing her
head back. With his other hand, he pulled her lips apart so Bash could pour
the second purple liquid into her mouth. Immediately, Paco placed his hand
over her mouth, forcing her corpse to swallow the liquid, and I swore, not
even the crickets outside were chirping. A deathly silence fell over the shed
as we waited, waited, waited.
A shadow appeared above my shoulder, but I didn’t peel my attention
away from Z to greet Ryland. How could I, when my entire world could be
ripped away from me in a matter of seconds?
“Why isn’t she waking?” Bash demanded, the words a sharp growl that
had the fine hairs on my arms standing on end.
Paco held up a hand. “Wait.”
We waited.
And waited.
And waited.
The hope I’d felt before dissolved into smoke when Z remained still and
lifeless. If anything, she appeared even paler than before, a stark contrast to
the vibrant woman who’d fallen into my pool of water during the Damning
weeks ago.
“Come on, baby. Get up. Get up. Get up,” Bash whispered repeatedly.
We waited with bated breath. I could feel my heart physically spasming,
clenching with fear and horror. All of our hopes depended on that one damn
potion. What if Paco made it wrong? What if it did nothing to save her? What
if she remained dead, a pasty corpse of the woman we all loved? What would
we do?
Before my thoughts could send me into a downwards spiral, Z’s fingers
began to twitch in my hand. I held my breath, scarcely believing what I was
seeing.
“Z…” I whispered.
And then the most beautiful thing occurred—her bright eyes snapped
open, and she gasped, panting for breath.
TWENTY-FIVE
Z
My world was shrouded in nothing but fire. I couldn’t even begin
to describe the pain I experienced as death washed over me like
an ice-cold tidal wave. I tried to fight it, tried to resist the
current, but it was impossible. One second, I was staring up into Bash’s dark
green eyes, hooded with emotion, and the next…
I was nowhere.
I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what, exactly, I experienced in that
one minute I was dead, but I could’ve sworn I saw a familiar man and woman
standing side by side, his arm wrapped around her waist.
My parents.
They beckoned me forward, identical grins on their faces, and I wanted
nothing more than to run towards them and allow them to pull me into their
arms. I missed them fiercely, and I knew the only cure for that would be
holding them as tight as I could and never letting them go.
But then their images rippled and dispersed until I was once more floating
in that abyss of darkness.
So much darkness.
But now…
I gasped, jerking upright and glancing from side to side desperately.
“What in the…?”
Five of my mates huddled around me, their eyes bright with tears and
disbelief. I spotted Paco just above their shoulders, silently moving his naked
ass away to give us some privacy.
“Z.” Dair was the one who spoke first, and before I could even catch my
breath, his lips were on mine. I froze, muscles tensing, before immediately
wrapping my fingers in his golden-blond hair and deepening the kiss. His
familiar sea scent barraged me, and I wanted nothing more than to lose
myself in it. In him. Everything was always so easy with Dair. He was like a
tranquil spring current that I didn’t hesitate to swim in, secure in the
knowledge that no harm would ever come to me.
I was pulled away from Dair before
the kiss could get too heated and met
Killian’s greedy, searching lips. I teased him with my tongue, and he opened
for me immediately, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me to
him.
“I thought I lost you,” he whispered between pants of breath.
“I thought you did too,” I admitted, unable to shake off the unease of
being in that strange darkness. It’d been so tempting to stay there, to
surrender to the inevitable. There would’ve been no wars or armies, no
malicious kings or sadistic bitches. And…
And I would’ve been reunited with my parents. S. Even A, my adoptive
father.
Thoughts of my mates kept me from succumbing completely. I knew if
the situations were reversed, if one of them had died, I would’ve lost my
damn mind.
So I fought, kicking and screaming, until my soul snapped back into my
body like a rubber band that had been pulled too tautly. At least, that was
what it had felt like. One second, there was complete and utter darkness, a
bottle of spilt ink I was wading through, and the next, there was light.
Ryland and Jax both took their turns kissing me passionately, the latter
shaking in my arms as he murmured my name repeatedly, peppering kisses
across my face.
“I love you, Jaxon,” I whispered in his ear, too soft for anyone but him to
hear. He shuddered in my arms, a delicate ripple I felt in my own body, as his
arms constricted tighter around me.
“I love you too. More than anything.”
It was only then that I realized we were missing one person.
My eyes narrowed as I searched the small hut for Bash, unable to see his
ash-blond hair anywhere.
I turned towards Ryland, who was on the other side of me, and cocked an
eyebrow. “Where is he?”
Ryland’s lips pursed as he smoothed his hands through my sweaty hair.
“Outside,” he confessed, and pain rushed through me, though my rage
quickly tempered it. Why would he leave me after everything that just
happened? After I just fucking died? After what he told me? Did he regret
those three words? “But you should get some rest—”
“I want to see if he’s okay,” I interjected, stumbling to my feet. Ryland
immediately caught my elbow to keep me from toppling over, his face
scrunched together in rage.
“My god, woman, you nearly died!” he bellowed, his tongue caustic and
acidic. Despite his cruel tone, there was near panic in his icy blue eyes. This
entire situation had shaken him, shaken all of them, and I didn’t know if
they’d ever recover from it completely. I knew I wouldn’t if I’d been forced
to watch one of them die.
The mere thought had bile rushing up my throat.
“Ry…” I gently took his hand in my own. My whole body felt sluggish
and heavy, as if the entire force of Earth’s gravity was pushing down on me.
Despite that, there was a skip to my heart that hadn’t been there prior. I may
have been tired, but I no longer ached fiercely like I’d been run over by a
truck. “I’m okay.” I turned towards Paco and repeated, “I’m okay, right?”
“Paco does not sense any more poison in little girl,” Paco exclaimed with
a toothy grin. I bit down on my lip to stop myself from arguing about the
“little girl” comment. The man had saved my life, and he deserved my
complete and utter respect.
Or at the very least, a day free of retorts.
“She’s cured?” Killian breathed, almost as if he scarcely dared to believe
it.
“Cured, yes.” Paco nodded his head, and the relief that spread through the
room was almost palpable.
His words set off another round of kisses and declarations of love as each
of my men sought to hold me, touch me, love me. I allowed them to, relishing
in their embrace, before remembering my sulking mage. I needed to know
what his problem was, even though an insidious sort of fear slithered through
my mind and grasped my heart. I didn’t know if I could handle it if he
rejected me.
But what other reason would he have to leave?
“Go to him.” The order, unsurprisingly, came from Dair. My sweet
mermaid always seemed to know when my other men needed me. The blond
prince pulled my attention away from Jax and gave my hand a reassuring
squeeze. Warmth migrated from where our hands touched, settling in my
chest. “He needs you right now.”
“We all need her,” Ryland murmured, but he didn’t protest as I moved on
wobbly legs to the backdoor of the hut, pushing it open and stretching my
taut muscles. I still felt sore, uncomfortable, but nowhere near the level I’d
been at when I was dying from the poison.
Because I was…cured.
Cured.
A giddy laugh wanted to escape me at that one word. I always thought I’d
die before my time. As an assassin, you came to learn that death was
inevitable. But honestly? It didn’t scare me. At least not at first. It was only
after I met my mates that I came to the realization that I wanted to live. Now,
instead of fighting to die, I fought to survive. When I discovered Zack had
poisoned me, I kept it quiet, believing it was my burden to bear alone, my
torture to endure. I’d assumed I would die from it, but here I was, alive and
well and loved by seven incredible men.
Heat radiated through my body accompanied by a kaleidoscope of
emotions. They created a beautiful tapestry of color in my mind’s eye, and I
leaned into it like a flower twisting towards the sun.
Movement to the left startled me, and I shoved the plethora of emotions
aside to focus on my mage mate.
Bash was pacing, tugging repeatedly at his blond hair, and seemed
unaware of my presence. In the moonlight streaking through the boughs of
trees, his eyes appeared lighter, almost like emeralds, and glimmered.
“Thank you,” I whispered, and his head snapped in my direction.
“Z.” My name was a prayer on his lips, though his tone held a healthy
amount of trepidation. His entire body shook as his arms raised, reaching for
me…before immediately dropping back to his sides. “I’m so fucking relieved
to see you’re okay.”
“Because of you.” I ventured a tentative step closer, watching his face
carefully. Everything about Bash was chiseled, masculine perfection, from
the sweep of his eyebrows to the curve of his jaw. While he was usually
clean-shaven, the last few days had seen blond stubble on his chin, giving
him a rugged look.
I found it sexy as hell.
When Bash turned his gaze away from me, focusing on a branch
sprouting off the nearest tree, I took the final steps forward until I was
directly in front of him. “I know you helped Paco with the cure.”
“You died, Z.” His voice shook. “I held you while you fucking died.”
“I know. I was there.” I tried for a joke, but it fell flat. There was nothing
but despair and heartbreak in his green gaze. Agony reverberated from him in
waves that almost felt tangible, as if I could reach out and grasp his pain in
my fist.
“I can’t…I can’t lose you.” He fina
lly turned to face me completely, his
features shadowed, and I carefully clasped his hands in my own.
“You won’t. I promise you, Sebastian. I will fight to remain with you and
the others until I’m incapable of fighting anymore.” His eyebrows furrowed
at my use of his full name, but he didn’t comment. Instead, he simply stared
at me, a myriad of emotion glimmering to life behind eyes I always thought
were impassive and incapable of love, but now I realized they were teeming
with life and passion. “You can’t get rid of me. I suppose you can say that
you’re stuck with me.”
“Like mold,” he deadpanned, a tiny twinkle appearing in his eyes. My
own lips twitched into the beginnings of a smile. I much preferred this verbal
sparring version of Bash over the somber one.
“You’re an ass,” I quipped.
“And you’re the pain in it,” he responded without pause.
We stared at each other for a long moment, the only light in the forest the
golden glow from the moon high above. The tension between us crackled and
hissed like a live wire, adding to the foray of fireworks and lighting already
coursing through my body.
“I…” Swallowing, I began again. “I heard what you said.”
His expression didn’t change, not even a twitch, as he blinked at me.
“Oh.”
“You said that…you loved me.” I kept my voice low and soft, staring up
at his handsome face with hearts in my eyes. For what felt like the first time
in my life, I didn’t hide my emotions. I wore them for everyone to see, for
him to see, and he could either tenderly cup my heart or crush it. Either way,
the choice was his. Vulnerability shot through me as I shuffled from foot to
foot, finally forcing my gaze away and lowering it to the ground. The
intensity in his mossy green eyes was too much for me to handle. “Do you…
I mean…did you mean that?”
“Did I mean it when I said that I loved you?” Bash asked for clarification.
There was no teasing in his tone. His voice was uncharacteristically serene.
Solemn, even. One glance beneath my lashes showed a grave expression on
his face as he regarded me.
My heart stuttered.
“You don’t have to…um…”
“I hate that you even have to ask me that,” he gritted out, shoving a hand
through his hair almost distractedly. “I know I don’t do a good job of
