“It can’t be just anyone,” I said. “It has to be a specific someone, and I think you know who you, are but I’d rather not call you out by name if you don’t want to be known.”
More hushed whispers filled the room. I waited, hoping that the woman we needed would show herself, but perhaps this was too public for her. “All right,” I said. “If you’re not going to come forward publicly, then come find me at the bar.”
Movement caught my eye from the side of the club, and I glanced over. The crowd parted and a figure in a hooded sweatshirt approached, wearing sunglasses inside. That wasn’t obvious at all.
I started to hop down off the stage, but she raised a hand. “No, stay where you are. I’m finished hiding.”
I stayed put as she made her way to the stage, putting a hand out to Keagan, who hoisted her up easily to stand by my side. She pushed her hood back and removed her oversized sunglasses, revealing a pretty, delicate face that was all too familiar to everyone in the room. A collective gasp rippled through the big space.
“Aella,” I said. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
The pop star whose stage we’d borrowed in Las Vegas gave me a strained smile, then glanced up at the ceiling. “Are they still up there?”
“I told them if they wanted my help, they had to stay put. Shall we step out of the spotlight to talk?”
“No,” she said, taking the microphone from my hand and speaking into it. Her words carried clearly through the speakers. “This needs to be as loud and clear as I can make it. I’m not choosing between them.”
The statement resonated through the club, leaving the crowd shaking their heads in confusion, but I had no doubt the three men still waiting on the roof had to have heard.
Aella sighed and smiled at the crowd. “You guys deserve an explanation, but it’s not exactly uncomplicated. The short version is that three . . . gods? I don’t even know what to call them, but it doesn’t matter what they are—they’re brothers, and I’m in love with them all, but they seem to have gotten it into their heads that I need to choose.”
She turned to look at me, then waved a hand at the men seated on stools behind me. “Would you choose between them, if they asked? I saw you performing with them. They’re yours; there’s no doubt about it.”
“They are,” I said. “And no, I would never choose just one. I need them all too much. They’re a part of me. Literally.” I pressed a hand to my midsection, then turned to the audience. “When each of you are led to your soul mates, you’ll understand what that means.”
Someone from the back called out, “We already know!” Two bloodline men with the turul woman from earlier lifted their twined hands to announce their bond.
From the bar came another voice, deep and booming. “Same here!” Pete yelled over the excited murmurs and I grinned back at Callie when she raised her drink to me as Pete lifted their hands into the air.
Others followed suit, and as hands lifted into the air, sometimes only in pairs, sometimes more, the hounds bounced around the room, excitedly wagging their tails. As I watched, my hounds nudged other individuals so gently I don’t think the people even realized they had help bumping into each other, but the second their eyes met, I could see their souls reach out.
“Can you tell who belongs together?” Aella asked, setting the microphone into the stand and turning it off.
“I can see all their souls, and yes, it’s obvious to me when two people are soul mates, once I get them in a room together.” I only half looked at her, too amazed by the event unfolding in front of me to give her my full attention.
“Then I want you to see me with them. If you think I only belong with one, I want you to promise to tell me the truth. I’ll choose the one you say is my soul mate. But if it’s none of them . . . ”
“Or all of them?” Bodhi asked. “Because I get the sense that’s a distinct possibility with the higher races.”
Aella nodded. “Or all of them. I want to know.”
“All right. Let’s just hope they’re willing to agree, but I need your help too.”
“Anything I can offer is yours,” Aella said.
“After I do this, I need them to stick around long enough to help me. I’ve lost someone close to me, and only all four of the Winds can find him.”
“If they’ll listen to me, I promise to try to make them stay.”
We stepped off the stage again and made our way outside. Zephyrus waited in the parking lot and caught us all up in a strong breeze, carrying us to the roof.
His three brothers waited, their skin sparking with energy the second Zephyrus set Aella down in front of them.
“Tell us you have made your decision,” Notus said, his voice a thundering rumble that shook the building beneath us.
“I will choose whoever Deva tells me is my soul mate,” Aella said. “Will you three abide by that choice?”
“What does this woman’s choice matter? She’s not the one in love with you,” Eurus said.
“I can see your souls,” I said. “And I know when two souls are meant to be together, almost as well as Fate itself.”
Boreas gave me a chilly stare. “You’re the creature who tricked Fate and broke our curse. That took great power. I will abide by your choice.”
The other two nodded in agreement.
I mentally summoned the hounds. I wanted to be extra certain in this case, though I already had my suspicions what the outcome would be.
The four of them materialized a moment later, but the three demigods didn’t even register their presence. Mentally I commanded my hounds to follow the threads of the three souls who stood before me and show me which led to Aella. At the same time, I shifted my sight to visualize those threads. The answer was apparent the very second I looked, and the hounds all stared at me as if I was an idiot, but they humored me anyway, trotting between each of the men and Aella, licking lightly at their hands and soaking up the residual energy that spilled off them.
I shook my head and couldn’t help but laugh.
“Well?” Aella asked. “Which one is it?”
“Congratulations. Your soul mate is all of them,” I said.
Aella exhaled a long breath that I wasn’t sure was relief so much as anticipation. She leveled a long look at each man in turn. “You heard her. Does that satisfy the three of you? I told you I wouldn’t choose because I love you each too much to deny any one in favor of another. Can you be satisfied sharing?”
The wind picked up, tangling in Aella’s long, flaxen hair, and she gasped, shooting a sharp look at Boreas. The big man scowled, then dropped his gaze with a low curse, and the wind died down again. He glanced at the other men, then nodded.
“I do not wish to subject my will upon you the way our father does to the women he pursues. If my brothers are willing to . . . compromise . . . then so am I.”
“We’re not the ones who refused to share,” Eurus retorted.
“Having you is worth enduring close quarters with this jackass,” Notos added, stabbing his thumb at Boreas. “As long as you can handle us.” He grinned at her, and for a moment he reminded me a little of Sandor, who I realized was a descendent of this wild creature embodying the South Wind.
Aella turned and gave me a long-suffering smile. “This is going to be interesting. How do you do it?”
I glanced at my three mates, who stood nearby with Zephyrus, watching the proceedings with amusement. “My guys keep each other in line. They’re a bit more agreeable than brothers, fortunately for me.” I didn’t think it worth mentioning that the last two I intended to mate were the difficult ones, so I just pulled her into a hug and added, “If you love them, you’ll find a way. I promise.”
With that, she took a deep breath and stepped toward the three big men. Notos met her halfway, sweeping her into his arms and planting a kiss on her that made her squeal and laugh. Then she was surrounded by all three, their avid gazes fixed on her with such adoration I didn’t need to see their soul bonds to kn
ow they belonged together.
They parted, and all four looked at me. “What can we do to repay you, Chimera?” Notos asked. “Both Zephyrus and Aella mentioned you need our help.”
My heart was in my throat when I approached, looking between each big man and the slightly smaller Zephyrus, who had compromised on his choice of physical shape for the sake of love. He was the embodiment of the West Wind, though, and Ozzie’s ancestor, so in multiple senses he was family.
“Ozzie West is the real reason your curse was broken,” I said. “When Fate broke my soul bond to him, it inadvertently granted him the ability to choose a new mate, but it also banished him somewhere we can’t reach. I need to find him for several reasons . . . to keep a promise . . . ”
I trailed off, realizing the promise I made to Fate could directly affect all four of these men.
“Fate has always punished us for our father’s actions,” Boreas said, his blond brows turned down. “If Ozzie suffers due to that insult . . . ” He shot a distasteful glance at his brothers who all shared grim expressions.
“We’d make amends, if we could,” Notos said. “Fate is our mother, after all. Now that the curse is lifted and we have hope for a love of our own, we’d like nothing more than to rekindle that bond with her. Perhaps when we do, we can ask where she sent him.”
Eurus snorted. “I don’t think that’s what she’s asking. Is it?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Fate doesn’t know where Ozzie is. All Fate knows is that it sent him to a place of bitter memories.”
“All we can do is listen,” Eurus said. “Between the four of us, we hear the songs of every turul ever born. If he lives and still sings, we can find him, but it will take time.”
“She doesn’t have much time,” Keagan said, stepping to my side, his posture tense. “Losing him is driving her mad. We have to find him. We owe Chaos a fucking mate, and we have to put your goddamn father in his fucking place to get Fate off all our backs. We can’t do all that without Ozzie.”
“Those are some hefty trials you’re undertaking,” Boreas said. “But I’d like to see you succeed, especially with the second thing you mentioned. There’s one thing you can do for us that will help speed things up.”
“Fucking hell, dude, as if we haven’t done enough already? You have the woman you love. What more could you want?”
Boreas leveled an icy stare at Keagan, but my ursa didn’t back down.
“What else can I do?” I asked, squeezing Keagan’s arm to encourage him to relax.
“The Quorum has excluded us from their ranks. Zephyrus has no influence over their willingness to admit new members, and we feel it’s our right to be a part of the governance of the higher races now that the Ultiori threat is gone, our curse is lifted, and we can be physically present.
“We know your origins. You have strong ties to several of the most influential members, Neph and Nikhil in particular. If we have access to the Haven’s power, it will give us the advantage of time, and we can find your lover more quickly.”
I couldn’t begin to understand how that would work, but if the Winds themselves could make use of the River with only a word from me to two of my fathers, it would be worth it. But that would mean returning to the Haven, which was the last place I intended to visit. When I’d fled, I had no intention of returning until after I’d secured the safety of the bloodline, and I was only beginning to make that happen.
But I didn’t really have much choice, and the truth was I was a little homesick.
“All right. I’ll do it.” I’d just hope my homecoming didn’t result in my overprotective Dionarch father locking me in a cage to keep me from leaving again.
At least I had one father on my side. Nikhil understood my need to prove myself, so hopefully he’d be available to keep Neph from overreacting.
“Then we have an agreement,” Notus said, grinning at me as he lifted Aella into his arms. “We’ll be in touch.”
A gust of wind blew through with the sunrise and the four were gone, shooting up into the sky like feathers on an updraft.
21
Deva
I stared down at my hounds, who all looked back with hesitant tail wags. “You guys knew what was going on with her two weeks ago, didn’t you? A typhoon in the South Pacific?”
They just stared, tongues lolling. Blaze made a soft, chuffing warble and trotted to me, nudging my hand with his purple nose.
“Guess we shouldn’t doubt their abilities,” Keagan said. “So where to next?”
“Let’s wrap up our show before we decide,” I said, glancing at Zephyrus. He held out his arms, and we gathered together as the warm breeze flowed beneath our feet like an inflating cushion.
A few moments later we touched down gently on the pavement below. Zephyrus said farewell and I entered the club once more with my three mates close behind, the hounds leading the way.
The four pups scattered once inside, three of them flowing into the crowd at an enthusiastic trot, but Blaze kept walking in the same direction I was headed—to the office where we’d left Llyr.
He still lay unconscious, as peaceful as he’d looked when I’d witnessed him sleeping the night before, and I knew I didn’t want to put him off any longer. Taking him as my soul mate may not mend the chasm left in the wake of Ozzie’s disappearance, but he didn’t deserve to be punished over my fear. He’d proven himself to me time and again, and it was impossible not to see the man he was, despite the confusion of impressions I got of Ozzie whenever I looked at him. I knew the difference now, and it was undeniable.
Nadia stood up from Neal’s lap, who she’d been snuggling when we walked in, her cheeks pink and her aura bright with arousal.
“You guys look like you’ve broken the ice pretty well,” Keagan commented. “So I take it you’re over losing your link to your One?”
Neal cleared his throat. “I owe you an apology. Had I known it would make it this easy to choose a woman as fantastic as Nadia, I’d have never lifted a hand to him. Not even Sophia North herself is as effective as you at playing matchmaker.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Just make sure other turul who might have reservations about the change know they can come to me for help. I’m sure Sophia’s still willing to help too.” If she wasn’t taking a long-needed vacation after regaining control of her life from Fate.
“We’ll give you the room,” Nadia said, taking in my worried look at Llyr. “The storm’s finally over, so I’m going to go make the announcement that it’s safe for people to head home if they want.”
She squeezed my hand on her way past, and when the door closed behind her and Neal, I went to Llyr’s side, settling on the edge of the sofa.
With the slightest exhalation, I sent dragon smoke into his lungs and closed my eyes, visualizing the magic reaching into his mind where it showed me his status. He was merely asleep now, and I pulled back just shy of delving into his dreams. When I did, his hand twitched and squeezed around my thigh, his eyes fluttering open.
“I like the way you feel inside my head,” he said, his voice raspy. “Like butterfly wings, barely stirring up a current, yet as beautiful as dawn rising over the ocean. I dreamed of you.”
“Oh?” I said, reaching up to cup his cheek. “What did you dream?”
He took a deep breath, twining his fingers through mine. Behind me, I heard the door open and close again, and I knew without looking that my three mates had departed, giving me privacy to do what I’d put off for far too long already.
“We were swimming in the waters of the Source, making love for a ritual.”
“So a memory?”
He shook his head. “I wish like hell I’d made love to you that day. Had I known what would happen, I’d have never waited. No, this wasn’t a memory. I think it was a vision. The way for us to find what we seek. A true mate for Chaos.”
I lifted my eyebrows at him. “Making love to you at the Source will allow us to find him a mate? Are you sure that i
sn’t just wishful thinking?”
“My kind carries a touch of chaos inside us. We’re wild at heart. The music that speaks to that nature within you is dangerous, but I think my soul would serve that purpose while fulfilling a need for you at the same time.”
He frowned at my surprised look. “We can find another way . . . ” he said, moving to sit up. He winced and lifted a hand to his head. “Dion’s balls, Boreas packs a punch.”
“You should have stayed away from his fist,” I said, reaching out and pushing a measure of healing magic into his head. He exhaled in relief, then opened his clear aqua eyes to regard me again.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to push you. It was only a dream.”
“No, it wasn’t. And it makes sense. We’ve had terrible luck with anything else so far. The hounds can only do so much, especially when I’m handicapped by my lack of turul magic. And it seems we need to head to the Haven anyway.”
It was my turn to wince. I didn’t intend to rationalize my way through to making love to him. It wasn’t about our mission for me now, nor was it about finding Ozzie, and I didn’t want it to sound that way when I told him my plan.
It was about Llyr and what he meant to me. It had taken the crazy bastard flying into a hurricane for my sake for me to realize it, but I knew now without a doubt. Sure, I still felt a glimmer of what I’d always felt for Ozzie when I looked at him, but that tenderness was a reflection of the feelings that had first emerged when Ozzie took me to the realm of the gods: new and fresh and innocent, filled with trust and unwavering faith in his love for me.
There was no mistaking the difference between that and how I felt for Llyr. The emotions were just as strong, but my feelings for Llyr reflected that wildness we shared. The little bit of chaos that was part of us both. And while it had been Ozzie’s disappearance that triggered my nymphaea fever, I believed Llyr’s satyr soul might be the only other thing capable of slaking my thirst. Even if it was only a little, it would keep me sane until we found Ozzie.
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