“No. I’m with the Assembly still.” He grunted. “I appreciate you asking me to gather them together then failing to show up—”
Seph rolled his eyes. “Something came up.”
“Something more important than the Assembly?” Noa probed, his tone dangerously low.
“Yes. Way more important,” Riel retorted waspishly.
Seph talked over Noa’s bluster by saying, “Father! Did the same happen to you? Our place just… disappeared.”
Noa cleared his throat. “Yes. It’s pandemonium here. The Assembly moves, you know that. It’s a Fae construct. It disappeared about ten minutes ago. We… we can’t seem to reconstruct it.”
Seph shot Riel a look. “And the gold bands are burned into your wrists too?”
“Yes,” Noa hissed. “What in Sol’s name is going on?”
“We’ll get the first flight back. Is the Assembly still at the same coordinates you sent earlier?”
“Yes.” He huffed. “We’ll be heading to the local town hall though. The humans have agreed to let us work from there for the moment.”
“You arranged that in ten minutes?” I demanded.
“Every city in which we work knows that we may overtake their main administerial building in an emergency. I think this can be considered an emergency, don’t you?” he retorted dryly, but there was no panic in his voice… I guess that made sense. Only Sol knew what Noa had seen in his years as a warrior and head of his family.
Still, I’d have thought this beat all that.
“We have news for the Assembly,” Riel butted in, her voice cool and calm… It was also loaded with an authority that was bound to get Noa’s back up. “It would be wise if you give us an audience. We’ll travel to you now and should be with you in the morning.” She eyed Seph who, ignoring his father’s spluttering, disconnected the line.
“Was that wise to rile him up?” Matt queried.
Her lips curved. “I don’t have to listen to the likes of him anymore. Nor does any witch.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Look around you, boys. There’s no magic in the air.”
“What are you talking about?” Seph insisted.
“I’m talking about the gold that’s everywhere… it’s nowhere in sight, is it? I’d seen it before. How couldn’t I? But back at the volcano, it was in the air like a stream of glitter. Then it wasn’t. Now I know why.” She reached down and grabbed my hand. Angling it so she could see my wrist, she murmured, “Does it still hurt?”
I blinked. “Yes.”
She winced, then began to trace her fingers over the band. When I felt heat from the tips sink into my skin, I yelped, and she jerked back in surprise.
“I hurt you?” Her eyes were huge in her face. “I’m sorry! I meant to ease the pain.”
I reached for her shoulder with my good hand. “I know. Don’t worry.” I shook my fingers to dispel some of the ache. Not that it worked.
What she’d done had made it burn as badly as it had before.
Her face was pale when she looked at me, and I sensed she knew what she’d done without me having to say a word.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, reaching up to cup her chin. “You meant well.”
“I hurt you.” Her bottom lip quivered. Fucking quivered. I stared at it, and her, aghast. Was she about to cry?
Unsure of what to do, because I’d seen Riel do a lot of shit, most of it pretty kickass of late, so I just gaped at her, then, because I was at a loss, I pressed my mouth to hers to stem that tremor.
The second our lips connected, I breathed into the kiss and felt like I was coming home. I grunted, tilting my head to the side, and slipped my tongue into her mouth. As she accepted my caress, I began to flutter mine along hers, tempting her away from tears and urging her toward a different kind of emotion.
Her hands came up to hold my waist, and for a second, I tensed, waiting for pain, but when none came, I relaxed into her kiss once more.
A groan escaped her, and in my periphery, I saw Linford and Gabriella step away, their feet brushing at the leaves and soil on the ground as they left us alone. Around me, Seph and Matt circled us, and Riel sighed into my kiss before relaxing into them.
When their hands moved between us, one to shape the swell of her breast, the other going for gold right off by aiming between her legs, she squirmed in place. The air felt turbocharged for an instant, and the next thing I knew, we were naked.
That sensation of ‘turbocharged’ was weird though. Weird because I knew she’d just cast magic, and yet my body had responded to it as though it were alien. I might not have had much of the witch’s magic tithed to me, but I knew it well enough for it not to come as a surprise…
Pondering that thought then shoving it aside when she pushed into me, her hands moving down over my hips to cup my ass so she could haul me into her, I ground my dick into her belly before separating our lips.
“You sure you’re ready for this?” I rasped.
“I’ve been burning alive all day,” she growled, arching her hips when Matt’s fingers rubbed her in just the right spot.
I beamed at her. “You behaved very well. I thought the Rut would be a lot more…”
“Bestial?” She cocked a brow. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Fifteen
Seph
She threw down the words like they were a challenge, and maybe they were. She shifted then, lifting one leg and hooking it onto Dan’s hip before hauling herself upward until she was leaning back against us and had mounted Dan—not that he looked too perturbed by the situation.
With their sexes aligned, it figured that Dan was going to thrust into her, but when he did, I swore to fuck that I could feel the instant their connection bloomed to life inside my very being.
I shuddered, my semi going to full mast in an instant. Arousal no longer just twitched inside me, but became as much an agony as what had happened to my wrists.
For a second, I focused on that pain, thought about how alien it had felt, then Riel moaned, her head tipping back as she began to ride Dan.
There was no doubt in my mind that she was in charge at that moment, no doubt that she needed this more than she needed anything else.
I realized that Linford and Gabriella were just as aware of that, because I didn’t think it was likely they’d let us get away with a quickie if it weren’t imperative.
We still had shit to do. That much was evident from my father’s call.
A deep, low moan escaped Riel, forcing my concentration back to where it should be. I groaned as I reached down and grabbed my cock, squeezing it to stop myself from getting overexcited, when a scent suddenly blossomed through the air.
She smelled like fire and rain, wind and earth. It was insane, I knew that. How could she scent of the elements? And yet, that fragrance felt like it was keyed into me. Keyed in like it was a code to unlocking the very heart of me.
And maybe that was fitting, considering she was my heart.
I sucked down a breath, trying to get a handle on things, but the more of her scent I breathed in, the more I felt like I was going to lose it.
When Matt growled and began pushing them forward, Dan staggering from the move until he was pushed up against a tree, I wasn’t surprised when he leaned against Riel and ground out, “Now would be the time to will some lube into being.”
His request had me frowning. I went to will some of my own into being, and when I couldn’t, when the magic wasn’t there, I realized Riel was right.
What the fuck?
Where was the magic? Where had it gone?
I stared up at the meteors for a second, watching the strange phenomenon that came with the lack of light. Was that our magic being seeded back into the soil? Soaring overhead only to hit the ground to change the way the world worked?
The lack of balance between the Fae and the witches was beginning to be redressed, but that brought with it a shit ton of problems that I couldn’t even start thinking about now. Not without
getting a headache, and I already had enough aches to worry about.
With a grunt, Riel did as bid, and a bottle appeared in Matt’s hand. When he greased up his shaft, I watched as he moved to part her ass cheeks and slipped his finger down the crack of her butt. When she tensed, I knew he’d hit gold, and I smiled a little as she moaned deeper, working herself on Dan’s cock until Matt controlled her movements by sticking his cock against that tight pucker.
Despite myself, I had no choice but to watch, to revel in what I was seeing. Weeks ago, this would have been repugnant to me, but now, this was everything.
My whole fucking world.
Everything narrowed down to this, and I watched in delight as Matt slipped into her ass and began to fuck her. Slowly at first, making her take every last inch. When she was speared on his shaft, I felt the moment her body aligned. It was a weird way of phrasing it, but it fit.
Made sense.
I knew the exact second when she began to orgasm around Dan’s cock, and I waited for his hoarse hollers as he, too, exploded into her. Impaled on Matt’s cock, she was going nowhere, but I headed over to the fray, and said, “Help me, Matt.”
He grabbed her legs, kept them spread wide apart, as he pulled her off Dan’s spent shaft. My brother stood there looking dazed but happy, his smile an amusing mixture of cocky and dopey. I laughed at him, then shoved at him to move him out the way. He staggered over to another tree, his cock still dripping from Riel’s slick and juicy sex.
My mouth watered, and maybe it was gross, but I couldn’t stop myself from dropping to my knees and giving her what I needed—a taste.
As I licked her clit, she screamed into the quietness of the garden, and it felt so right for her to be shrieking her pleasure as the Gods watched over us, anointing us with whatever those meteors were spreading around.
When I sucked down on the tiny nub, and slipped a finger into her pussy, I rubbed the tip in a downward motion, putting pressure on her and, simultaneously, feeling Matt up. That wasn’t my intention, but when she blew up, when her cunt clamped down on my finger and she cascaded into another orgasm, I grinned and leaped upright, then stuck my dick straight into her core. The muscles protested my invasion, but fuck, it felt so good to force my way inside her, especially as she clung to me, needing everything I had to give her.
When she was stuck between us, her body one pulsing mass of sensation, Matt and I fucked her between us. We were sticking together, our bodies one big pile of sweaty muscle, and I loved it. Loved every fucking moment of it.
I came to the pressure of her climaxing once more, and to the sound of Matt grunting out his own pleasure as well.
As we came down from the high, I sank into the tree, and Matt and Riel did too. After a while, she began to giggle, and I felt the vibrations around my shaft.
Lips twitching, I asked, “My pride is offended, Riel. A woman shouldn’t giggle after she’s been so thoroughly fucked.”
“I’m laughing because the world is changing around us, and all I can think about is the next time you’re inside me.” She sighed, but as she pressed a kiss to my chest, I felt her smile.
“That will have to suffice for the moment,” Matthew rasped, his tone dark and husky, redolent with pleasure.
“You’re mean,” she lamented, and I could hear her pout.
“I’m practical,” he retorted, but I heard his amusement now. “We need to get back to the Assembly.”
She sighed. “They’re going to be pedantic. And that’s why I told them we’d be there in the morning. So we could play tonight.”
At her pout, and deciding to ignore her other comment because I wanted nothing more than that but knew the timing wasn’t right, I just said, “Pedantic is what politicians do best. Trust me, I know. Anyway, you need to return the battalion back to them at some point. What better moment than now?”
“What of the new status quo?” Dan inquired, shuffling over to us and helping us lower Riel to the ground when she wiggled between Matt and me.
“What about it?” she grumbled. “If they can’t figure it out themselves—”
“I think you’re supposed to at least tell them what’s going on, Riel,” Matt chided.
“How can I? I don’t know myself.”
I chucked her under the chin. “What happened back there, Riel? You collapsed. Again.”
“You heard what Trude said. The Goddess talks to me, only, when she does, it makes me feel like my ears are about to bleed.” Any softness about her that had come after her climaxes disappeared at my mention of that, and she tensed up. “Look, I’ll return the battalion and the damn meteor to them, but there’s only so much I can do.
“You and I both know that they won’t believe me anyway! I’m just some hybrid they don’t trust.”
“She has a point,” Dan conceded grumpily. “Might be best if you tell that particular tale.”
And, a few hours later, that was exactly what I did.
In front of my father and the other Assemblymen, I shared the exact details of everything that had happened to us in the past twenty-four hours.
Not unsurprisingly, they weren’t pleased at our involvement, and I couldn’t exactly blame them. Not while we were learning of the ramifications of our actions.
“You mean to tell me that you facilitated this?” my father ground out, his hands taut fists at his sides as he clambered to his feet to stare down at me.
They’d taken over the local town hall in Birmingham, but it was definitely more human than Fae, even though they were seated on some pretty ornate chairs on a dais that put them at a different height to us.
“They had no choice,” Riel interjected coolly, her lack of respect and the fact she had zero fear for the Assembly’s might resonating through each and every word.
When she’d done what she had, with the power she possessed at her fingertips, she had every right to speak as though she owned the room but it certainly wasn’t easing our conversation.
“Everyone has a choice,” my father spat.
Her lips curved. “Of course, and most of us make the wrong decisions.” Her eyes flashed. “As my grandmother would attest to.”
He staggered back and slumped in his chair before running a hand over his face, unable to deny her words. Especially considering the miserable existence he’d endured without his Virgo.
I’d taken point on this, while Matt, Dan, and Riel stood behind me, so I was at the tip of our triangle, but I shuffled back, allowing Riel to reign over the proceedings now that she’d found her voice.
I wasn’t at all surprised that she hadn’t said a word since we’d arrived, but now? I knew we’d have a hard time shutting her up.
“How dare you speak to an Assemblyman like that!” Jarvic burst out, one of the youngest on the Assembly. My father often griped about his attitude. It was far too traditional for Noa’s taste, so what that said about Jarvic, I had no idea.
“I speak like that,” she retorted with a bite, “because I can. You, my dear Assemblymen, have no power here. You forget yourselves and your current position.”
“Y-You, you terrorist!” Humphreys shrieked at her, a politician who my father called an idiot on the best of days.
She twisted around to grace us with her smile. “I may be a terrorist to you, but to the witches, I’m not, am I?” She raised her hand, let it hover palm down, then swept it from left to right. The instant she made that motion, the guards around the room jerked to attention, and the Assembly simmered down in fright.
When the bodies of the battalion she’d taken down made an appearance, shocked gasps rang around the hall.
“What has the witch done to them?”
“What’s going on here?”
“What in Sol’s name has she—”
“How did she do that?”
The variations were many, but the theme stayed the same. Riel twisted around and sliced her hand in front of her again. This time, the guards that were protecting the exits froze in place, genui
ne icicles dripping from their noses as she encased them in ice.
There were no gasps now, only quiet. A simmering, seething quiet that existed because these, the most powerful Fae in North America, knew they were powerless, knew they were at her mercy. I eyed the Assembly, saw just how deeply they were stunned into silence, and watched as Riel took control of the room once more.
“Your days in power are over,” she declared, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “Whether you like it or not, the state of play has changed.
“Your fancy architecture, your powerhouses. The entire construct of your lives was fabricated out of magic. Something you stole from the witches, taking and taking without ever giving them anything in return.
“This situation is down to you. I acted on Sol’s and Gaia’s will. They wished to redress the balance, not me. I only did as they wanted. Apparently, they wished to see you on your knees.” She smirked, then walked to the end of the line where the first of the bodies that were mummified in the silvery metal lay. Dipping down into a crouch, she murmured, “The witches have always worked against you, but with no success. The AFata were a thorn in your crown, but they were acting in witchkind’s best interest—”
Humphreys’ spluttered, “Trust you to side with an extreme organization—”
She shrugged. “I side with no one. I side with the truth. With equality. You’re not without magic of your own, and yet you waste ours. Use it as a currency.” Another shrug. “Well, no more. You’re going to have to learn how to adapt… only the strongest survive, after all.”
Riel leaned forward and touched the toe of the warrior. In an instant, the wave of metal retracted, leaving behind the flesh and blood male of before.
Perhaps it was fated that my brother’s face would be the first to make an appearance. My father staggered to his feet. “Is he ill?”
“He’ll recover. None of them were harmed… I hurt no one, but they’d have hurt me. In a flash.” She clicked her fingers, and a wind shifted into the room. It swept the chairs the Assembly were seated on into a tight corner, pushing them together in a way that was most undignified. Then, she smiled and where they’d been seated, the meteor that had started it all suddenly popped into being. “I’ll give you your warriors back, leave you with your meteor, and give you some time to think about what must be done. Noa knows how to get in touch with me… I’ll be waiting.”
Finally Faeling: An Eight Wings Academy Novel: Book Three Page 24
