by Heather Long
“So,” Fiona said once Fin pressed a mug of tea into her hands and she snuggled back against Rogue. “What did you want to discuss?”
Maddox opened his mouth, but it was Fin who spoke. “The prophecy.”
“Blegh,” she said, her whole face screwing up. “I hate prophecies. I hate anything magic related.”
“You don’t hate me,” Fin teased.
“For the moment,” she snapped back, but the playfulness in her voice pulled a smile from all of them, even Alfred.
Smoothing a hand over Fiona’s abdomen, he drew a light circle against the fabric of her robe. “Little sváss, we need you to listen for a few moments and to hear us on this. While I agree, prophecies can be muddled and, as often as not, vague and open to interpretation, this one very much impacts you.”
She twisted and met his gaze, searching his face for something. The little frown pulled her brows together. “How much does it affect the rest of you?”
“Anything that affects you will have to go through us,” he told her simply, directly, and she let out that little sigh of impatience before making a face.
“Fine. I will listen and do my best to not interrupt. But I refuse to not roll my eyes if I think it’s stupid.”
“Why don’t you like magic?” They’d never asked, and if they wanted her to believe in this prophecy even in as much as to help them with it, then they should know.
Slumping back against him, she made a pained sound, then laughed. “I don’t like magic because witches are the most interfering creatures you’ve ever met. They have a spell for literally everything. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have some very good witch friends. But magic and I? We haven’t always gotten along. You know how they say a hybrid can’t exist?”
She paused and glanced around at all of them, but it was Alfred who merely nodded and said, “They also say I don’t exist, Hellion.”
“Yeah, but they are kind of half-right about you,” she pointed out. “You don’t involve yourself in the world. You stay here, hidden away. You let them come to you so if they don’t, then by that logic, you aren’t a part of their world and thus you don’t exist.”
His mouth opened and then closed as he appeared to consider her words. A laugh worked its way through Rogue, and he wrapped a hand around her nape and turned her again. She met his kiss easily and lightly. Eyes lighting up, literally, Fiona leaned into him and then the tingle of her kiss spread through his whole body, and he wrapped her up tighter.
“And she’s glowing again,” Fin murmured in a low voice. Alfred leaned forward, and even Maddox studied her intently. As aware of them as he was though, Rogue let himself feel her. Something about her wildness had always called to him, from the moment he’d taken her from the prison and brought her to the keep.
The very primal part of her nature summoned his own to the surface—a part of him he’d long believed cut off. It was why he shifted again, something he hadn’t indulged in over countless centuries. She’d done more than just push him, she’d brought him back to life.
Energy hummed off of her, but it was beyond soothing and he found himself wanting to cradle her, shield her light from any breeze that would extinguish it.
“I never expected this,” Alfred said, running a hand over his mouth as he studied her.
That pulled her attention away from Rogue, and he exhaled a long breath. He could have cheerfully forgotten the rest and drowned in the brilliance of her.
“Spill it, boys. You’re starting to freak me out.”
They weren’t. Not yet. But she tried to tease it out of them. Still, when she slid her hand over Rogue’s, he threaded their fingers together.
“There’s a prophecy,” Fin said. “Borne from a vision I had of you…a long time ago. Now, while I agree with you—prophecies tend to be vague and open to interpretation—this didn’t come from just any seer. It came from me.”
That pulled her full interest, and Rogue could practically feel her leaning forward, even if she didn’t shift a muscle. “Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun!”
Her intonation of the musical notes shattered the tension, and Alfred chuckled. The soft laughter carried through the whole library, and Rogue grinned. Maddox and Fin stared at them both like they’d sprouted second heads before they began chuckling, too.
“This isn’t supposed to be funny, Beautiful.” Fin’s argument didn’t hold much weight.
She shrugged. “You’re an incorrigible flirt and you tease me constantly, and then you tell me in this super serious dark and sober voice that this ‘prophecy’ is something uber special because you saw it?”
With a sniff, he nodded. “Exactly.” Then he grinned and another bubble of laughter escaped Rogue. When was the last fucking time he’d been happy?
He didn’t have to see her face to almost feel the way she rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll give this all the seriousness it deserves. What’s the prophecy?”
Fin exhaled, then glanced at each of them before he focused on her. “When the female hybrid is born, the world will change.”
She waited a beat. “It will change?”
He nodded.
“That’s it? The world will change?”
“Hellion,” Alfred began, even as Maddox said, “Kitten—”
But a sound tugged Rogue’s attention. A sound and a ping on the wards.
It was the only warning he had before the first volley slammed into the building, but Rogue had already tumbled her out of the chair and over, shielding her as the explosion of light and sound rocked them.
CHAPTER 7
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
FIONA
T he whole building shook. Books fell from their shelves. Artwork dropped off the walls. Even burning embers from the fire scattered as a bombardment of blasts slammed into the keep. Dust rained down from the rafters.
“Take her and go,” Alfred ordered, even as Rogue tugged me up from where he’d folded completely over me. A sheen of dust clung to his blond hair and added a gray cast to his face. “Fin. Maddox.”
He didn’t say anything else, but the two were already in motion. Maddox paused only long enough to kiss me, then Fin did the same. I barely had time to process, and they were gone. Alfred wrapped a hand around my throat as he tugged me into another biting kiss.
“Behave for me, Hellion.”
Oh, someone wanted a kick in the balls.
“Please.”
Maybe not.
But before I could respond, he, like the other two, was gone.
Another series of blasts shook the whole building, and I glanced at Rogue.
“Trust us?” It was a request and not a command, and he held out his hand.
“I can fight,” I reminded him.
“We know, little sváss, yet you should never have to. They will focus far better with you safe.”
I wanted to complain. I just got them all back together, the last thing I wanted to do was abandon anyone. Still, I clasped Rogue’s hand and let him thread our fingers as he scooped me up. The blur of motion as he raced through the keep threatened to upset my stomach. At least away from the windows, the light show no longer dazzled my eyes.
Though I half-expected Rogue to take us to somewhere more “secure,” I didn’t expect us to descend to the depths past the bathing rooms on a path that would take us to Alfred’s crypt. FYI, the fact they even had a crypt remained creepy as fuck. And I still had to wonder whether it made me a grave robber or not.
Another blast slammed into the keep and Rogue slid to a halt, his shoulder just impacting the wall next to the great doors lightly, as though he didn’t slow his momentum quite enough. The doors opened as he whispered a stream of syllables on a long breath. I didn’t understand a single word, but the magic in the air shivered over my skin, not quite touching me as we passed through.
Rogue shot me a questioning look before he set me on his feet and pushed t
he doors closed. Then his lips were right next to my ear. “The wards also dampen sound and our voices are unlikely to carry, but for now, let us act as if they can hear everything we say.”
Got it.
He tugged the tie on my robe, and I raised an eyebrow. Granted, it was all I was wearing and I had zero issue with being naked around him, except it was fucking cold down here and he just said we had to assume they could hear us.
My nipples tightened almost painfully in the icy air, and his fingers barely brushed my skin as he pushed the robe off of me. In the silence, it seemed to almost thud to the ground, even if it was a more hushed sound. One finger under my chin, he tilted my head back and then his mouth closed over mine, and the frigid conditions seemed to vanish as he half-devoured, half-worshiped my mouth. Rising on my tiptoes, I threaded my arms around his neck.
The fabric of his shirt scraped roughly against me, but when he slid his hands beneath my thighs and hitched my legs higher, I had to swallow a groan. The denim rasped against my skin as he walked deeper into the crypt. He never once let me up for air as the light around us vanished, plunging us into an inky darkness that might have bothered me, save for the burning eyes I met whenever mine fluttered open.
He didn’t let up on the kiss for a single instant. Every nerve I possessed came alive, and I practically writhed against him. Light radiated beyond my closed eyelids, and I opened them to find us in a long tunnel. Rogue still had his arms around me, but he’d slowed his movements and he paused entirely when I broke the kiss and looked around us.
The light…
I lifted my hand and then glanced up to find him studying me with an unreadable expression. The explosions. The sound of stone crashing. All of that had faded. Pressing close, I murmured against his ear, “Where are we?”
“About a mile from the keep,” he told me in a soft voice, though he wasn’t whispering. “Deep under the mountain. We’re almost to where we’re going.”
“Besides the kiss,” I teased, nipping his ear. “Why are we going so slow?”
“Because I don’t want anything to damage this beautiful skin,” he promised, sliding a hand down to palm my ass. “And because I’m enjoying myself.”
It seemed almost wrong to be enjoying ourselves when the others were… Before the thought could fully take root, Rogue closed his mouth on mine, one arm still banded around me, while his hand fisted my hair to keep my head still. It wasn’t until the soft thump of a door closing and the silence, punctuated only by my faint groans and the laps of his tongue against mine, changed that I managed to lift my head and suck in an unnecessary breath.
Beyond the circle of light given off by my skin, I couldn’t make out much. Rogue slid me down his body to stand on my own feet, and I swayed a little. He waited until I was steady before vanishing into the darkness.
The cold suddenly invaded, and it hit me—the whole way here, he’d kept the chill off me. Arms folded against my hard as diamonds nipples, I tried to ignore the goosebumps prickling my skin. The air was cold enough to burn my lungs with every breath. In Rogue’s absence, I glanced down at my hands.
Questions filtered through my kiss-fogged brain, and when he returned, holding out clothing to me, I raised my brows.
“Why am I glowing?”
“I don’t know,” he answered without hesitation or even a hint of deception. He caught my hand with his and extended my arm as I gripped the clothes in my free hand. With careful fingers, he smoothed a path up my arm to my shoulder and down again. The touch had my nipples tightening, but the cold fled away again.
A frost elf was really handy for that.
“I don’t recall ever seeing its like.” He tilted his head, and I could practically feel the sweep of his gaze as he looked down at my body. As bare as I was, there was no missing that every inch of my skin had kindled the same glow.
“I have.” The admission cost me nothing.
Eyebrow cocked, he glanced behind us as though listening, and I dragged on the clothes he’d found me. They were a little old fashioned and definitely too large. The pants had to be Fin’s, they were narrow waisted like he was. I pulled the drawstring tighter to keep them cinched, then dragged the sweatshirt on. It carried a mustiness to it, but also Maddox.
He had a pair of soft boots in his hands, and as soon as I’d dressed, he knelt to help me in them. “When did you see it?”
“When Alfred helped me after Anton’s attack.” The flash of light. “It was very bright, but my eyes were closed and it still burned them.”
Staring up at me, Rogue’s eyes seemed to glow again. This time, I wasn’t sure whether the intense blue came from him or his eyes reflecting the glow on my own skin.
“When Dorran had me at the prison, I pushed that light into him, too.” I mean, I had said I would tell them later. It wasn’t my fault we were under attack. I glanced toward the huge doors he’d closed when we arrived in this chamber. Closing my eyes, I reached for the sense of Maddox or Fin or even Alfred…
Rogue gripped my thigh, and it pulled my eyes open. “What happened when you pushed the light into him, little sváss?”
“You’re distracting me.”
“Yes,” he answered me openly as he rose, and for the first time, that unreadable expression softened. “You said you felt Maddox’s pain before. I don’t want you to feel it now.”
Did that mean…?
“They’re fighting. There’s always some sense of pain involved. I promise you, little sváss, no one will take them. This is the other Seven testing our defenses. They are hoping to catch us weak and distracted.”
I frowned. “Have they met Alfred?”
A soft chuckle came before he cupped my face and kissed me. “Are you warm enough?”
“Yes,” I promised.
“Then tell me what happened to the shadow demon when you pushed the light into him.”
I gave a little shrug. “He seemed…less somehow. Almost more human. There was silver threading the darkness. Even his eyes changed.”
Rogue exhaled a long breath. “The world is not ready for you.”
“Then they better buckle up,” I reminded him. “Because here I come.”
His eyes softened. Or maybe it was my light dimming, because the room did seem to be growing darker. The kiss he gave me this time was far sweeter and filled with just the faintest hint of regret. A deeper emotion filled the contact though, one he seemed intent on pouring into me, and I lapped it up like a kitten with a bowl of cream.
Maybe I was Maddox’s kitten after all.
The luminescence of my skin grew brighter as Rogue pulled away. Yes, dressing had hidden some of it, but I could see the outline of my arm beneath the heavy fabric of the sweatshirt sleeve. That was how light it was.
“Emotion.”
“Hmm?”
“Strong emotions provoke it.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb. “I need you to calm yourself as much as you are able and lock it down. Can you do that for me little sváss?”
“We’re escaping again, aren’t we?”
A prickle raced over my scalp. I didn’t want to leave them behind.
“Yes.” No lies. Not even an attempt to hide it from me. “They will find us. Fin can track us both. Alfred will always know where we are…”
“He will? ’Cause you know, that might be kind of creepy.”
A hint of what might be a flush touched his cheeks. It was kind of adorable that he could be embarrassed. Rogue traced a finger in a figure eight around the twin marks on my throat.
“So he knew where I was when I left? When you helped me?”
Rogue sighed, then captured my hands and pressed a kiss to each palm. “Yes. The same way he knew where I was all those years I tried to hunt him. He let me be, and I thought he would you as well. I didn’t count on the need to see you. The need I shared.”
“That doesn’t make it less creepy,” I admitted, hardly mollified by the fact he just expressed how much he needed to see me. “Though…I kind
of like that you missed me.”
“I love you, little sváss.” He said it with such ease, and at the same time, there was no mistaking the glimpse of surprise on his face. “It’s not something I thought myself capable of…yet I do. So yes, I needed to see you, as did he. I don’t doubt Fin and Maddox both did. We have been alone for a long time.”
“But you have each other…”
“Family.” He nodded once. “Brothers. Sometimes friends. Oftentimes antagonists. And with Fin…well, he was the baby for a long time.”
“If you call me the baby of the family, I’ll make sure your balls are blue before they ever touch me again.” That was bullshit, but he gave me such a solemn look, I couldn’t help but smile. Even when I really shouldn’t. This wasn’t a good situation. We were alone down here, while the others…
“You are ours,” however, was all he said, and it swept all of my objections aside. Ugh. When did I become such a sap? “That is all that matters to us.”
“That and the so-called prophecy.” Something they hadn’t really explained beyond the serious vagueness above.
“Prophecies change,” Rogue said, his tone growing fiercer. “Sometimes in a race to avoid one, you make it happen. But the circumstances they are forcing may lead to the doom they think you will cause.”
The light vanished, leaving us in darkness. I was supposed to cause their doom?
“I’m sorry, little sváss,” he murmured before he swept me up against him again. “I need you to keep the light out as much as you can.”
Apparently, thinking about shitty things did that.
“Fine, I’ll focus on what an asshole Alfred is.” Only a glimmer reappeared. Rogue chuckled, and I couldn’t help it, so did I.
“I’m afraid that your feelings on that shine for us.”
Ugh. I groaned, and the light went out again. “Remember when I said succubi didn’t do relationships?”
“Hmm,” was his response, but we were moving. Thankfully, he could navigate in the dark, so I just tucked my face against his throat and held on.