by Zara Stark
"Mab calm down, we'll plan later, now we need to figure out the most important part of this mission." All of the guys looked at me. Even Lelras peaked back over.
"What's that human?" Ciardha asked.
"Team name," I told them.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes, we need a cool name, I of course hale from the powerful, tournament winning Team Bumblebee," I took a little bow. "But we can't be that so we need to pick another name."
"Team Shadow Sword," Ciardha suggested.
"Team Stallion," Lelras chimed in.
"Team Ashen Feather," Tefra suggested.
"Team Faerie Wing," Mad chimed in.
"No guys, we need something that represents all of us, not something lame like those," I shook my head. "Something significant and meaningful that historians will proudly write in their records as the badass heroes we're going to be."
"Something significant and meaningful. How is a stupid bumblebee meaningful?" Ciardha asked.
"In so many ways that I can't even recount right now but just know the Raiden would ream you a new one for saying that," I wagged my finger at him.
"Look, it was my idea to ally, escape and take down the Concilium so I nominate myself as the team leader and strategist," I curtsied.
"Well at least you'll be doing something useful since you're useless in a fight without your cards," Ciardha laughed.
"I've got plenty of strategizing experience under Raiden during the Games," I told them.
"Yeah, I bet you got a lot of experience while underneath Raiden," Ciardha wagged his eyebrows at me and everyone laughed.
I tried to hide my own chuckling, pretending to be offended. "I'm starting to understand why Mab wants to kick your ass."
"Yeah, yeah, get in line," Ciardha sneered at me.
"So team name?" Tefra asked.
"My bad, got distracted," I waved off Ciardha and turned my gaze to Tefra.
"Team Wildcard," I enunciated in my best movie announcer voice.
I looked all around the group but none of them spoke.
"Do you like it? We're a group of misfits. Random powers, constantly underestimated and no one knows what we're truly capable of. Perfectly describes us," I explained myself.
"As much as I want the team named after me, that does sound good," Mab pointed out.
"Team Wildcard, I like it," Ciardha grinned.
"Great! So all in favor of Team Wildcard?" I asked.
"Aye!" Mab and Ciardha yelled. Lelras and Tefra merely nodded in agreement, good enough for me.
"Alright now that the hardest part is out of the way, the monumental task of naming our ill-begotten team now we can plan for real," I told them.
"If that was the hardest part, I'll eat my shoe," Tefra huffed.
"If that was the hardest part, I'll eat your shoe," Mab laughed.
"Obviously we don't have any sort of complex map of the prison tattoed on our skin or a poster of Racquel Welch to hide the hole in the wall that we dig," I sighed as if this was a terrible failure on all of our parts. Ciardha and Mab seemed to get the Shawshank reference but Prison Break was lost on them. If I made it back to my time with Mab in tow, I would need to marathon Prison Break and show Mab the wonderful Wentworth Miller, especially if she had a thing for cueballs.
"Then we need to scout the prison, we can't just break outdoors. There's no outdoors, we're zooming outside of time and space, we need to find a portal or something within the prison," Tefra told us.
"Scouting sounds perfect for me," Ciardha smirked, showing off how he could go invisible.
"Hey! How's that fair! I got my stuff ganked when I got here and you jerks keep your powers?" I snapped.
"Dude, you blew up a phoenix, you killed a hydra and a berserker, he only takes away what he deems threatening," Mab explained. "It smarts but all he took away from us was Tefra's fire."
"Can't help it that my power and reputation precedes me," Tefra shrugged.
"Don't flatter yourself, you glorified fire pidgeon, he took away your fire because he didn't want you to go and pick a fight with a Titan or monster and lose your presence here in the prison, he only gets to absorb our powers if we're living here. If we die, we go right to Hades," Ciardha growled at Tefra.
"Poor shadow dragon, so threatened by my power," Tefra sighed. "You only wish you could be as powerful as this fire pidgeon, chameleons do what you do but better."
Tefra gave Ciardha as disdainful once over with his dark eyes. "Hmm, same bug eyes and twitchy presence though."
Ciardha launched himself at Tefra, knocking the phoenix onto his back with ease and began to punch Tefra over and over again.
His fists flew and Tefra's blood splattered everywhere, instead of fighting back Tefre laid there and laughed, taking hit after hit.
Mab jumped up and pulled the shadow dragon off of Tefra.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. We had a ton of work cut out for us.
"Okay, was this an elaborate scheme just to get me topless?" Mab asked. Mab had taken off the top portion of her dress and handed the dark fabric to Tefra to clean his bleeding face.
"Contrary to what your massive ego tells you, we don't care if you’re topless or not," Ciardha growled, his arms crossed over his chest as he tried his hardest not to look at Mab's free breasts.
"Lies," Mab said, stretching her arms overhead, exposing her chest all the more. Yeah, this was my new best friend, I'm keeping her. We were going to Las Vegas and New Orleans as soon as we got home, we were going to tear it up.
"I didn't even believe it as soon as the lie left my lips," Ciardha told her and even in the dim light, you could see her practically preen with happiness. I met eyes with Tefra, his eyes were swollen and turning purple already but we both rolled our eyes. I had no doubt the phoenix would be back to a hundred percent tomorrow.
"It is wrong to show off your naked form to anyone but your mate, male or female," Lelras complained.
"Mates, you mean? Plural. I'm a dragon, my little pony, I'm as greedy as they get," Mab winked at him.
"I saw you hoofing it around the marketplace back in Rome, centaur, you might try to be noble and avoid pleasures of the flesh but your eyes were drinking in the courtesans all around you," Ciardha told him.
Lelras shook his head, he wouldn't even cop to being a voyeur.
"Do you spy on everyone?" I asked.
"Of course, especially those who seem to have a kink for public sex. You and the metal Aurelius outside of the Colosseum right up against the stone. You and the nerdy ice dragon in the water. I can see through your invisibility cards by the way, " He listed off and I felt my cheeks heat.
"Nice!" Mab clapped me on the back.
"Why were you running from a bunch of angry warlocks I wonder? Ciardha tapped his chin.
"Typical Monday?" I grinned.
"If we're going to be a team, you should try to at least be partially honest with us, we’re not asking you to compare Aurelius dick sizes here," Tefra said, he opened his mouth to continue but Mab interrupted.
"Beg to disagree but I am asking you specifically that," She grinned, grabbing my arm. I slapped her hand away.
"It's not like we can tattle on you and get you in trouble with the Concilium since they already have it out for you."
"Alright, Nevada and were breaking into the Atrium Libertatis to find out the origin of my err-powers. We were doing really good until we pissed off the like paper dragon thingy and the warlocks found us," I explained.
"And did you find anything out about your power?" Tefra sounded very interested for once. Leaning closer and studying my eyes for any sign of lies. I had a weird feeling that he already might know the origin of my powers.
"No, Nevada found something and promised to tell me after our last battle but we didn't get a chance," I ran my hands down my face as the memories of earlier today flashed through my mind. My heart sank as the vision of my four guys flying away from me played over and over in my mind. Just the backs of the
ir beating wings and their spiked tails in the distance, heading toward the horizon. It felt like an open wound, still bleeding and open to infection. The banter with my new-- temporary, only temporary team was a welcome distraction but it didn't take away the raw, terrible ache in my heart. Seeing Mab banter with these creatures reminded me of all my silly times with my own.
Was it still today? I wasn't even sure how time worked in this prison. What if it moved differently and a hundred years had already passed. Did they miss me somewhere in the backs of their animal minds?
"Octavia?" Mab whispered and I looked up. Sympathy shown in the fairy woman's golden eyes.
"Sorry, I blanked out there for a second," I told her.
"How about we all go to sleep and continue our plots in the morning," Lelras suggested and I could've hugged the horseman. There was nothing more than my body wanted than a dreamless sleep.
"Excellent idea, I think tomorrow-- well it's hard to tell days here, so after sleepy time, Ciardha should take one of us scouting the prison," I suggested.
"Yes," Ciardha agreed.
Mab pulled me up onto my feet. "Let's go have our slumber party, roomie."
She turned and began to pull me along toward the end of the cell without saying goodnight to the other three. She left with her top still pressed to Tefra's bleeding nose. Uncaring that her chest was still out. If it didn't bother her, I guess it didn't bother me, I shrugged internally. I waved goodnight and gave them an awkward, tight-lipped smile.
We almost hit the stone wall when Mab took a sharp turn down a narrow hallway that I didn't know was there before, leading me into a small room filled with hay-filled cots on the floor.
"This room was my own before you got here, now I get a roomie. Don't tell the prince of horsies that there's hay back here, he might just eat our bedding," Mab laughed.
"You are so mean to that poor centaur," I tsk-ed at her, shaking my head. Mab plopped down on a cot, crossing her arms behind her head. She didn't respond, just staring up at the ceiling with her golden eyes glowing like coins in the darkness.
I laid down on one of the cots and pulled a thin blanket over me. It was more like a sheet, it felt like it had originally been burlap but had been softened and thinned over many years of use. It would do. My body melted into the cot like I hadn't slept in months.
I felt myself start to drift off. Please, oh please, let it be a dreamless sleep. I pleaded in my own head. I hadn't slept alone ever since that first night when Nevada and Azar had crawled into bed with me. I had been sleeping in a pile of muscly men for months now and I felt so cold and strange to be laying bed alone. I pictured myself in their arms, clenching the sheet-blanket tight and pretending it was the shirt of one of my guys. I was freezing cold so I pictured Nevada's icy embrace, the easiest to fantasize about. In my mind, he was holding me. I was laying against his hard, muscled chest instead of just the cold, stone floor. I wasn't in a cell, I wasn't even back in the castelli, I was back home in my house. It was winter and snow flurried outside, wind hitting the shutters. Nevada held me close. We were all home. In my mind, my queen size bed transformed into a California king, around Nevada and I, Azar, Raiden, and Cobalt slept.
"Octavia?" Mab asked, her voice shaking with unease. And just like that my fantasy was shattered. I almost cried as the fantasy faded in my mind replaced again and again by the retreating forms of all four dragons, the backs of flapping wings, my despair in them abandoning me for a second time. Was I not meant to have them?
"Yes?" I asked, my voice was raw with emotion, it sounded like a frog's croak.
"What does love feel like? True love? What is it like to be loved?" Mab asked, sounding vulnerable for the first time since I had met her. I didn't know much about Mab. Born and raised in a lab, she was a notorious flirt. It didn't take much to connect the dots. She was desperate for some love of her own and who could blame her. Who didn't want to be loved? Especially if they grew up never knowing any love, to grow up in a cold science lab and then be forced into the Dragon Gladiator Games. I shuddered at the thought of all she had suffered.
I sighed, running my hands through my hair. "I guess it's hard to describe. It's this feeling of utter safety, the security of knowing that someone or someones who loves you, would do anything for you exist. It's this feeling of utter satisfaction. It's this feeling of being a genuine team. Knowing that you can do anything as long as you're together. It's hard to explain but it's empowering. Knowing that someone or someones return your feelings just as strongly as you do. That they would move mountains just to make you smile. When you have true love, you feel like you could do anything as long as you're together. It's this fullness in your chest, full of love, full of safety. Your situation doesn't matter, your wealth doesn't matter, nothing matters as long as you're together because you know that even in the worst times, your love can get you through anything. Yes, you worry for their safety but it's not fear, it's fearlessness, knowing that your love can conquer all. I spent my whole childhood like that, I didn't even understand what I had at the time until they were gone. I know what loneliness feels like and I will always cherish the fact that I learned the hard way how to be independent and take care of myself. Some people say that relying on someone else is a weakness but it's not. There's a certain strength in having the faith and trust in someone to let go with them. To let them be a part of your life, to be brave enough to lower your defenses. True love is brave and fearless. You must be prepared to bare your soul to someone and if they don't bare that soul right back to you it isn't true love. I don't think I'm explaining this right but it's how I feel."
I could hear Mab's breathing, it sounded so sad like she was gasping in air trying not to cry.
"And what is it like to lose it?" She asked, her voice was a bit more even. It was an honest question, it wasn't meant as a barb to hurt me but still, I kind of wanted to punch her.
"I told my guys that I didn't think I could survive losing them again. Losing them the first time was like losing a limb. Looking back, I was just a little girl even though I felt so grown up at the time. We were just kids, just friends, none of our relationships had progressed at that point. Still, I felt empty. It felt worse than losing a limb, like something that should be attached to me was missing and gone and I couldn't get it back. I searched high and low for that wonderful feeling of love again. I slept with a few guys, hoping they would give me that feeling of love back but it never happened. Eventually, I felt my heart turn to stone and sought pleasure instead of love, thinking that could fill the hole left in my heart. But those moments of fun are nothing compared to what I feel for my guys now. This time, maybe I'm in shock but I'm surprised I'm still here. I remember looking into Cobalt's eyes as he transformed, as everything I loved about him was stripped away, his heart and soul and all that was left was a monster. I'm surprised I didn't give up and let the Concilium kill me then. I guess that's the strength of having true love. I know you guys don't believe me, that I can bring them back but you see I have too. There's no way I would still be here, still alive after all of this if my loves were going to be mindless animals for the rest of their lives. I have to believe that my surviving this loss means that it's only temporary. I have to."
I trailed off, wiping at the trailing tears streaming down my cheeks. Damned things just wouldn't stop.
"You know, I believe you," Mab told me.
"I'm sorry, you're locked up here Mab," I told her.
I heard her shuffle against her cot and imagined her shrugging. "Maybe your right. Maybe the Fates are at work here and everything happens for a reason. Maybe I'm meant to be here at this moment, teaming up with your four."
I wondered if she was picturing Tar or Ciardha or both (she was a dragon after all). Could she form her own little family as I had? I wondered how that worked. My guys had come as a packaged set, all four together and ready to share. How would Mab one day go about forming her own little dragon harem and get all the guys on board if they hated each other if
some weren't even dragons? It had been boggling to my human mind at first that all four of my alpha male dragon men were willing to share one woman for the rest of their lives. To a god like Tar, it probably seemed alien. I hoped Mab knew what she was doing.
"Mab?" I asked but from the even sound of her breathing, my new friend had already fallen asleep.
Chapter 3
The morning had been hellish, chamber pots were not fun to use!
I would be complaining to management about the lack of plumbing and running water, I thought to myself as I wiped a cold, wet rag over my skin. From having to use a chamber pot, to having to bathe with icy water, I was starting to truly believe I was in the Underworld.
One star rating on Yelp asshole, I thought about Tar.