by K. F. Breene
“As well it should. You are smart for realizing it. Tomorrow won’t be so packed. If you show well again, perhaps we will have you for dinner. Juri is incredibly taken with… What is her name? Your Soul Stealer?”
“Alexis.”
“Yes, Alexis. Juri is quite taken with her. She’s fascinated. Miss Alexis is so strange in her customs, and between us, I think Juri would like to take her under her wing.” Zander’s look turned severe. “That is, if you pass the formal investigation into that mark she wears. Your past with her is convoluted. We must protect her if that mark was placed without her consent.”
Kieran schooled his expression, keeping it neutral. He knew full well Zander didn’t give two shits about protecting a rare level five. He mostly followed the rules and laws, it was true, but not out of any softness of heart. The law was important because it helped keep order—if one Demigod was allowed to mark someone rare and special against that person’s will, it would open the floodgates for the rest of them to get greedy.
Thank heavens Kieran’s Soul Stealer loved him.
“I’d also hate…” Zander paused for a moment, looking out at the trees, as if wondering if he should go on. He straightened up, his shoulders tense. “I’d hate that Soul Stealer to fall into…the wrong hands. The last one’s owner was not as sly as he could’ve been. A Soul Stealer in…different hands would be…quite a situation.”
Kieran feigned indifference. He pretended not to know Zander was talking about Magnus. From the closed-door meeting, Kieran had picked up some conflict between the two. Conflict they didn’t advertise in the more public meetings or places. They were both masters of their craft, Kieran could tell, with a firm handle on their territories and their political goals, but they were coming at it from opposite points of view. Magnus was interested more in what he could financially gain, and Zander seemed to favor the overall wellbeing of his territory, money as well as general citizen prosperity.
Kieran wasn’t going to lie—he would’ve preferred if Alexis’s personal connection had been to Zander. Magnus was certainly the trickier of the two. However, if he could get an alliance with Zander, and Alexis could secure the cooperation of Magnus, maybe Kieran would find himself in a good (though incredibly dangerous) spot between the two.
Thinking like a true Demigod.
Kieran gritted his teeth and pushed his father’s voice away.
“Well. See you tomorrow, then.” Zander turned away and lifted his chin somewhat, arrogance on full blast. Kieran bowed, knowing his place, then bowed again to Juri, who exited the building and sauntered after Zander, having clearly stalled to give them time to chat.
Once there was some space between them, Kieran headed back to his collection of golf carts, Amber closing the distance between them. “Sir, you are the talk of the town.”
“They probably can’t believe I was pulled into that last meeting. It was obviously an afterthought, but I don’t care. I’m fucking awe-struck. I never expected to gain this much status so quickly. What do you think the odds are that they’re trying to take me out in some way? Could they arrange that here, or just plan for it and do it when I got back to San Francisco?”
“Um…” She frowned at him. “No, they likely don’t plan to take you out. They wouldn’t have pulled you into a very prestigious meeting if that was their plan. Your crew has just now headed home after a long day of battling. Technically they lost to Magnus’s team. Alexis forfeited.”
Kieran stalled at his golf cart and checked his watch. Nearly six in the evening. “I didn’t think they allowed forfeits unless a team was badly hurt and leaving the grounds.”
“They usually don’t, but in this case they made an exception. Alexis judged that Thane would not last another fight on the sidelines. He’d lasted all day, despite being magically flooded with rage and challenged by another Berserker. His incredible level of control is being whispered about throughout the Summit. The man will be a legend among Berserkers. Even still, he was spent. Magnus’s people were at Lydia’s. They saw, firsthand, what Thane is capable of. They weren’t willing to risk it.”
“Still, they lasted this long and Zander congratulated me on my win. That has to count as a pretty good showing.”
Amber stared at him for a moment, her expression flat. She shifted her weight, just a little, and it seemed she was annoyed about something.
He rubbed his face. Thane wasn’t the only one who was spent.
“What am I missing?” he asked, sitting in one of the carts. He’d been sitting all day, but still he was too tired to stand.
“There are only a few teams that lasted the whole day, all of them belonging to high-status Demigods, but those other groups took breaks. From what I’m hearing—not from your crew, who hasn’t contacted me all day—your people didn’t take breaks. I don’t think they knew they could.”
She paused, and guilt ate away at him. He hadn’t told Lexi, assuming Amber would. But they’d sent her back to him.
“No one could hide from them, either,” Amber went on, and Kieran wondered if her pause had been a deliberate attempt to make him feel guilty. “If they passed a room with someone in it, they barged in and took the team out. Ran into someone? Took them down. Not one of them had to go back to the lodge. They worked together better than any other team—that has been acknowledged by all. No grandstanding amongst them. No arrogance. Lexi could so easily be a diva with her magic, as could Dylan. You know, of course, that they are not. Bria took on two highly experienced level-five Necromancers, without Lexi’s help, and won. Daisy fought beside the rest of them.” Amber laughed, the first indication she had a sense of humor. “A teen Chester without a blood link took down experienced, level-five magical workers. The cats, Jerry—your crew is exactly as effective as we’ve been working toward. Exactly. The risks to get them were not in vain. Your crew’s success is the reason you got pulled into that last meeting. They’ve impressed people, Demigod Kieran. Greatly. The hearing about Lexi’s mark has been fast-tracked. They know they need to button up her involvement in the magical world, because there is not one person at this Summit that wouldn’t slit a throat to get her on their team. Dylan is amazing, but she is absolutely priceless, even without her healing abilities and those strange cats who follow her command. Guard her with your life, sir, because she gives you an incredible amount of status. She was the find of a lifetime, and her mother should be revered for preserving her and not letting the magical world corrupt her.”
Kieran found his way to the house in a fog. He’d had no idea the battles counted for so much. He’d thought they were mostly ridiculous, truth be told. He understood the practice in theory—their people’s abilities reflected on their leadership—but fighting in a hallway? Taking breaks? What was the point?
Well, now he knew. He hadn’t even applied any pressure. The opposite, in fact. He’d told Lexi to play it safe and let him work the political side. Instead, she’d bumped him up a crapload of levels just by being herself. By being amazing…and human. Honest and empathetic. By swallowing down her fear and letting her kid take people down. By refusing to let people die.
Priceless. That was what Amber had said. He’d always thought so, but now everyone else could see exactly what he did.
He found his way into the lodge, as everyone was calling it. The warehouse-house. The cats lounged in the living room, curled up together. Havoc lifted her head as he entered and slowly blinked those luminous eyes. She dropped her head back to its position on Chaos’s neck as Kieran passed.
“All I’m saying is, we did damn well for beginners, you know?” Donovan leaned against the kitchen cabinets, his arms crossed, and a half-drunk bottle of beer beside him. “We lasted in those halls longer than most. That has to count for something.”
Thane sat at the island, his elbows propped on the granite and his chin planted on a fist, looking downward. “Yeah, until Lexi had to forfeit because I couldn’t hold it together.”
Boman rooted through the fridge, a
nd Jerry sat in the corner on a stool, leaning against the wall with his head back and eyes closed. The rest of them were out of sight.
“She could’ve just sent you away, but she didn’t,” Donovan said. “She was tired. We were all tired. At least we had a good excuse and didn’t have to go home bloody.” He looked Kieran’s way. “Hey, sir.” He shrugged. “We gave it the ol’ college try. There’s always tomorrow.”
Kieran felt Lexi in their room, starting to head his way. He summoned the rest of his people through the blood link and texted Bria, Red, and the kids. One by one they trickled in, weary, with their spines bowed and their lids drooping. Alexis’s eyes lit up when she saw him.
“Hey, babe. How’d it go?” She slipped her hand in his.
He looked down at her beautiful face as everyone waited for him to speak. “I had a damn good day. My status, right now, is at a level that doesn’t even make sense, it’s so high. Zander walked me outside and congratulated me on my win. Your win. You all turned heads and broke the mold. Even you, Daisy.” He turned to give her his full attention. “Especially you, a non-magical teenager with no blood link protection. You showed courage beyond your years.” He looked at the others, taking in their surprise. “You didn’t just do well for beginners, you did well for experienced magical workers who have been together for lifetimes stacked on top of each other.
“Thane, keep your head high. You’ve turned heads with your superior control. Forfeiting usually isn’t allowed, but they let you do it because they didn’t want you bashing their heads in.”
Boman grinned and clapped Thane on the back.
“No violence yet, please,” Thane said calmly, rage not far from the surface. Kieran could feel it boiling. Even now he was working on his control.
“Excellent work, all of you. You did me proud. Sleep in tomorrow—you earned it.” Kieran swooped Lexi up into his arms. She squealed and wrapped her hands around his neck. “I need to speak with you. Alone. For a while.”
“Ew,” Daisy said, and turned away.
He rushed Lexi to their room, needing to explore this feeling of victory.
Door closed behind them, he ripped into her clothes. Her shirt dropped to the floor as he tore at the button on her pants. Her shaking hands were just as hurried as she reached into his undone belt and captured his hard length.
“Hmm, Lexi,” he said, his breathing fractured. He bent to capture a taut nipple between his teeth, pinching softly and then sucking. She pushed his jacket off his shoulders.
He straightened up, lifted her again, and unceremoniously dumped her on the bed. She giggled in delight, but her eyes didn’t lose the glimmer of hunger. He stripped out of his clothes, standing naked before her, staring down at the woman who held his heart in an iron fist. A woman he would claim, over and over, for the rest of their lives.
“Amber called you priceless,” he said, crawling onto the bed slowly, like a predator. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, and she scooted back, squeezing her thighs together to tamp down on the desire he felt pumping through the soul link. “She said they wanted to button up your situation because everyone in this whole place would love to add you to their team.”
“Amber has a tendency to be dramatic.” Her voice was a purr and her words were a deflection of a topic that clearly made her uncomfortable.
He allowed himself a loose smile, running his palm up her ankle, and then pushed her knees wide. She gripped the sheets in tight fists, her chest rising and falling quickly. Her back bumped against the headboard. She watched him advance, and he felt her anticipation building.
“I will have the belle of the ball as my wife. Only the ball will be a battlefield, and you will lead an army instead of a dance.” He grabbed her by the knees and dragged her closer. Her hair fanned out above her and her face flushed. “Nearly running you over with my car was the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me.”
He bent and ran his tongue up her wetness, her arousal tightening her body while her kaleidoscope of emotions—lust, love, desire, passion, a thread of anticipatory fear—soaked through him. She was responding to the ruthless side of him, the Demigod that controlled and protected his territory with everything he had. The side that would break the world to come to her aid if she were ever in harm’s way.
He sucked in her nub before swirling it in his mouth.
“Oh God, Kieran. Hmm.” She arched back, falling into his ministrations.
He kept up the suction and worked her with his fingers, plunging and retreating. She gyrated her hips and grabbed his hair, moaning. Calling his name. His cock pounded with need; he was desperate to feel her warm depths.
He worked her faster, reaching up and teasing her nipples. His Selkie magic coated her skin and wound through her body, spreading sensual desire to heighten her pleasure.
“Oh! Oh gaw—” She pulsed beneath him, her orgasm making her body shudder.
He was on her in a flash, pushing her into the plush mattress. He lined up and thrust in one fast movement, plunging to the hilt. She cried out, probably still sensitive from her orgasm with no time to come down.
He pulled out and thrust into her again, desperate to be closer, falling into the push and pull of her body. The bed beat against the wall. His cock pounded into her.
“Yes. Oh yes. Yes, Kieran,” she exalted, wild now, clutching at his flesh with her nails, squeezing his middle with her thighs.
Control fled. Love throbbed. He pushed harder, needing more of her. Needing to go higher. The Line throbbed to life in the room, her magic searing across him and driving sensation to unbelievable heights. He reciprocated, burning her with his mark, something only a Demigod could do. His Selkie magic pounded in time with his body. Pleasure beat within their frantic movements.
An orgasm crashed into him, dragging him under. She cried out and shook beneath him.
“I love you,” he said against her lips, tension easing from deep within him. They’d proven today that their team was more than qualified to protect her. There wasn’t a living person who could come between them.
14
Alexis
“You ready?” Bria asked as she ducked into the room.
I stood at the island in an empty kitchen with the golden summons on the table next to my nearly empty mug of coffee. It had come yesterday evening after dinner. It had ensured talk of strategy ceased—all of us worrying about what was on the line—and that I didn’t sleep a wink.
“I guess. How do I look?”
Bria squinted at my face before glancing over my formfitting pale pink dress. Daisy had said the color would soften me and make me look more feminine. People were slower to think girly-girls were incredibly dangerous, I guess. It was worth a shot, though I doubted people would forget what I could do. The guy who’d freaked out in the open courtyard battle hadn’t recovered—his mind had been too messed up by the combined power of my magic and Dylan’s. I’d suspected that would happen, but it still sucked. The end result had widened a few eyes. At least I’d prevented Zander’s guy from chasing the white light—which, of course, wasn’t actually white, but more of an ultraviolet bruise color.
“Good, though that outfit enhances the mark. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, given you are on trial for the thing.”
“Daisy said it’s a good thing because it shows I’m not trying to hide it. The opposite, in fact.”
The corners of Bria’s lips turned downward, and after a moment, she nodded. “Kid’s got a point. Come on, it’s time to go. Kieran is waiting out near the limos. He called them in for this.”
This being the trial that would decide my future in the magical world. Despite everything, I was still worried someone would find a way to take me away from Kieran.
“It’s going to be fine.” Bria patted my shoulder. “It really is. I’m more concerned with what happens after you’re declared legit. People aren’t used to your type of shenanigans.”
I gave her a flat look, grabbed a cute little hand
bag that had certainly cost way too much, and headed out to meet Kieran and his people at the limos. They’d all be coming for this, standing guard outside the Summit’s equivalent of a courtroom, ready to step in if things went sideways. According to Amber, only two types of teams would be prowling the halls today—those who wished to regain lost status and graduates from the garden. Everyone else would be resting.
Kieran had enjoyed some great benefits of status yesterday, but today, he was ready to fight the very people who’d given him a hand up, if need be. When it came to me, he didn’t care about bureaucracy.
Warmth filled my chest.
“Ready?” he asked when I met him at the lead limo, his hair styled, his suit perfect, and his bearing and confidence mouth-watering.
Not trusting my voice, I nodded and slipped into the limo. He climbed in after me, and the driver shut the door, closing just the two of us inside. The kids weren’t needed for this, and I didn’t want to worry about them getting caught up in the melee if things went south. They were staying home.
“What kind of questions should I be expecting?” I asked as we got underway. I kind of wished we’d taken the golf carts—they moved slower.
He stroked my hand comfortingly with his thumb. “I’m not sure. It might depend on my answers. I’ll get called in first and questioned independently of you. I will answer truthfully and honestly. I have nothing to hide. You’ll be called in next, on your own. Just stick with the truth and everything will be fine.”
Easier said than done. I wasn’t used to being interrogated. I’d probably go on the defensive without meaning to, and it would make me seem guilty.
But I kept my reservations to myself and held my head high as we entered the Summit building and made our way to the correct room.
Rows of bench seating, almost like church pews, lined the pathway to large, ornate double doors. Carvings of gods peered down at us from the wood. Guards stood to either side of the doorway, their suits pressed and devoid of wrinkles or lint, their hands clasped in front of them.
