by Kendal Davis
All at once, the woods grew so still that not a sound met my ears. The air was heavy with power, but the sparks and lightning above us stopped. It was a moment of reckoning.
Into the perfect silence, the dark monster that had once been our king spoke. King Regis grated out the words as he were still the ruler of us all. Perhaps he was.
“Mortal woman. Your challenge has been issued. You will join me in battle. And you will die either way.” His lips twisted in evil enjoyment of the moment.
Arabella gasped. She’d had no way of knowing that the challenge was irreversible. What was it that Lustre’s foolish sister had said in class? Arabella was merely ignorant of the ways of the fae. She had come to school here, but remained woefully uninformed about the rules that bound her magic.
The prophecy had bound all of us.
Or was it nothing more than our traditions that tied us fast?
“Wait,” I offered. “Remember what I said before? The prophecy isn’t real. It’s just what the Golden Council planned. What Amaris plotted for you. For all of us. It doesn’t have to hold us back from finding a solution.”
King Regis laughed hollowly. “There is no way out. The girl is doomed, and you all knew it when you brought her here. I have watched as you prepared for this moment for centuries. The fae might survive, but this mortal never had a chance, and you all knew it.” He raised his hands at his sides, gathering power that shimmered like charcoal as it wreathed his form. He was no longer a real fae man, not anymore. He had morphed into something dark and awful.
But he was right.
His magic was like a tornado, reaching from his hands to the sky. With a powerful single note of a battle song, he directed a killing blast at Arabella.
Chapter 19: Arabella
It came at me. The force of all the years of madness and hate and destruction that had grasped the mind of a fae king. King Regis had dissolved. He was no fae, not any longer. He was something much worse.
And it hurt to admit that there was anything worse than these three faithless princes, who had teased me with their heat, only to trick me into a corner. Or Martinus, this dispassionate man who called himself my Guide, but apparently had no interest at all in protecting my life.
These damned fae, they were only gradations of awful. There was no real give in them, no care for me.
You know what?
It didn’t matter.
I was going to take care of this problem myself. I’d always done that. Growing up in a state home had taught me a few things about survival.
And going to a magical academy for the fae in an ancient and secret land had prepared me a little more.
I raised my arm as if I were calling a falcon to me. Instead, though, I sent a ribbon of my dark power around me and my three princes. I lifted my voice as if I were in a cathedral back in my own world. I sang with passion and with force. And I heard the Darkness in me.
The Sisters had known all along.
In a flash, we were in my bedroom at the Academy. I had teleported all of us from the forest, from the threat of King Regis, into the safest place I had here.
The three princes looked stunned.
“I brought you three here because we have to talk.” I was short of breath from using my Voice so recklessly. “Martinus is safe in the forest. Everything outside this room is frozen, waiting for our return. I have the power, you all know it.”
They nodded cautiously, all standing close enough to me that I could have touched them.
“You never wanted to talk all that much to me before, did you?” This was harder than I’d expected. “You wanted to thrill my body so I would let my magic come through. And that was good, I’m not saying it wasn’t. Maybe even great,” I smiled at Lustre. Despite the threat that we knew still waited in the forest for me, I felt the familiar thrum of the bonds that ran from my most private places to these men. I felt the slipperiness, the arousal that I always did when I was with them.
Lustre reached out to stroke my arm. When he touched me, I felt heat travel to my heart. “Arabella. We are all sorry, I know we all are. It was too much to ask. It was abominable.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”
Varic stepped forward and took me in his embrace. “We didn’t know,” he murmured. “All that the prophecy taught us was that we would hate you.”
Frost closed in on me from the other side, pressing against my back with his hard, muscular body. His breath was hot in my ear. “But we don’t. We want you more now than ever.”
I shook my head slowly. “You want me? Like you want us to be together? But you still think you can trick me? No, thank you.” I was dazed. There must be something I just didn’t get about how the fae felt things.
Frost was grim. “I’ve found the answer. It came to me right before we teleported.” He sounded as if he was having trouble breathing, but he pushed himself to speak. “It’s an entirely new strategy. We run. We will all leave the land of the fae together.”
Lustre whistled in surprise, then bent to kiss my neck. I could have sworn I felt an actual sizzle.
Varic opened his eyes wide. “If we all leave, the fae will perish.”
Frost was moving his body against mine. It was sweeter than music. “But Arabella will survive. We can’t do this to her. It’s wrong.”
Varic smiled faintly. “We can do what we need to do. What Arabella needs. She is all that matters to all of us. Isn’t that right?”
The three men moved to caress me all at once as a sign of their agreement. My nerve endings reveled in the touch.
And as our lust caught fire, I could not think of an answer. I did not consent to their plan to flee. Abandon all of the world of the fae to King Regis? It was madness. But I accepted the touch of the three men that I had desired since the moment I’d first seen each of them.
We sank down onto the bed, in a mass of bodies, all united in our new mission of consummating the bond that raged between us. With a flick of my dark magic, I incinerated all our clothes. I had grown in skill so much that I was confident and sure. No more fae school uniform for any of us. We were naked now to each other, and to the world.
There were no barriers anywhere now.
I lay back against my pillows, my hands moving aside the soft sheets where I’d spent so many nights dreaming of these fae princes. I’d woken morning after morning in tangles of blankets, wishing they were the men I craved.
Now I had them. I pulled Frost on top of me, his strong arms holding him up above me. I rubbed my fingertips across his sculpted chest as he remained effortlessly over me, treating me with a gentleness that was at odds with his size.
He murmured as he kissed my neck. “Let us show you what it is to have three fae men bonded to you. The world has never seen anything like what we will become. What we can make you feel.”
I looked from one to the other. They were gorgeous. I’d always known that. Now, though, I understood that they were fine and true in their love for me. They held our bond above anything else in the universe, including their own people.
Our bond needed to be finalized now. I would be a fool not to accept the devotion they were offering me.
I wanted them.
Needed them.
“Frost, I need you inside me. Don’t hold anything back, just take me now, I can’t wait any longer.” I was hoarse and urgent.
I knew what awaited me. I’d seen them all naked so many times, and I’d held the memory of those moments in bed with me at night. But this was no memory. This was real.
My breath caught sharply when Frost pressed the tip of his hard cock against my softness. I was wet with desire for him, so wet. He slid against my flesh, making my hips rise to meet him.
My seeking hands found my two other princes. I clutched at the hands of Varic and Lustre as Frost entered my body, piercing me with a smoothness that was inexorable, unstoppable. He sheathed his cock inside me, filling me, pressing his body against mine as he found my core.
F
rost’s blue eyes were honest and true as he lingered inside me. “Arabella, you don’t know how I’ve wanted this.” His lips met mine with a forcefulness that took my breath away. I matched him kiss for kiss as he thrust himself inside me. His biceps strained with the power within him, his body taking mine as his own. Each time he fit within me, he found the spot that made me moan. I thrashed beneath him, gripping the hands of my other two princes. When I found my climax, I threw my head back and cried out.
But I did not sing. I would not risk calling the Darkness to me. I would not bring an end to this moment of safety until I had to.
Frost moaned, his hips meeting mine again and again. He slid his cock inside me one last time, then came, throbbing within me, filling me with his hot seed. When he looked into my eyes, I finally felt that we had no secrets from each other.
He was here to take care of me. They all were.
When I slid sideways, turning away from Frost, he collapsed on the bed beside me.
Varic took his place, pulling me against him and then shifting onto his back. “Arabella, my love,” he rasped. “Let me take more time to show you what I can do to your sweet body. The three of us are here to pleasure you.” His face was flushed with passion, but he still had a smile for me. “The world has stopped for us.”
I couldn’t wait any longer. That was the honest truth.
“Varic, my prince, I need you.” I did not say aloud that our magical bond was calling to us, urging us to join our bodies. He knew that already. The force of my desire was drumming within me like a song.
His hands were on my hips. I raised myself, then settled over him. When his thick cock plunged into me, I shrieked. There was a new magic swirling within me. I was sure that I was gaining the strength to battle King Regis.
No, not now.
For this moment, in this captured shard of time, I was with my three fae princes. Our connection was all that mattered to me.
Varic gazed at me intently as I rode him. My hips moved against his until I found myself quivering with pleasure. He found his orgasm at the same time that I found mine. Varic called my name as he came, holding me against him so that I would contain his essence as it spurted into me. As we collapsed into a sweaty heap together, he brushed his hand through my hair, lifting it from my face.
He watched me, as patient as if there was nobody else in the world but me. Nobody but us. “Arabella, the three of us would do anything for you.”
I rolled onto my back, my chest lifting with exertion. If there was a tomorrow for us, I was going to be moving slowly. “I don’t know if I can keep up with all three of you,” I laughed.
Lustre raised himself on his elbow to look at me. “You can,” he said simply. “You will, because we will never leave you.” His hand strayed to my breasts as they rose and fell with my labored breathing. He rubbed his thumb against my nipples, making me bite my lip with pleasure.
A wide smile spread across my face as I rolled onto my side to look at Lustre. “You might be the last right now, but you were the first to make me come.”
“I know,” he said. “We unlocked your powers. What will we do to them now?”
I ran my hands over his hard pectorals, then slid them behind his neck. I pulled his face to me for a kiss, and the rest of his hard body followed. Lustre was over me, his arms supporting him, and his rigid flesh pressing between my legs.
I whispered. “You know I want you now. I can’t wait.”
He nodded, his eyes filled with understanding. “I love you, Arabella.”
And he filled me with his manhood in a swift movement that neither of us could have held back any longer. His cock slid slickly into me. Our closeness was absolute, yet at the same time, it was more than the two of us. It would be the four of us, always. We found our rhythm. I had the love of my three fae princes, and that would be enough for always. Lustre kissed me hotly as he finished within me. I shouted out in total pleasure, not afraid of anybody hearing me.
Even the Darkness.
It would be the four of us for the rest of my life.
When my world stopped swirling, and I was able to form any words at all again, I opened my mouth to speak.
I had to tell them.
But as I turned to look into their eyes in turn, I saw that they already knew.
There was no way that I could accept their offer to walk away from this mess. I could not consign the entire land of the fae to a dark death because I was afraid.
I was not afraid.
I had been for most of my life, but not now.
I was going to march back into the forest and face the consequences of the challenge I’d issued.
I licked my lower lip as I ran my hand along the flat abs I’d admired so many times in the quaintly nude physical education class that was my favorite of the educational periods at Fae Academy. As I tickled Frost’s perfect muscles, his cock stirred again. He moved to touch me. It would take only a moment before our passion took hold again.
I had to say it. “My three princes. You have been everything to me here. Your bonds with me are what have kept me going here at this school. In this world. I would not ask you to give up your people, to doom them because I shirked my duty.”
“You did not choose this task,” Frost said.
“But it is mine nonetheless. Most of our lives are not of our choice.”
Lustre was loyal. “We believe you can vanquish the Darkness. Your sacrifice would not be in vain.”
Varic was quiet, but he leaned over and kissed me hard on the lips. My mouth sought his again and again.
I pulled back. I could barely speak as my desire overwhelmed me and I pulled my three fae men to me, each different and amazing.
“You three have always talked to me of duty. You thought it was your responsibility to help me when I could not use my magic. And you did help me. Now it is my duty to go back into the forest and meet the Darkness. I will shoulder my responsibility if it means that I can save the fae.”
My heart was full.
“My princes, you’ve always told me that you have what I need. Now things are different. I have what you need. For once in my life, I have something that I alone can do. And I will share myself freely.” My hand moved lower on Frost, making him groan. “But first, let’s stay here within this magical pocket of time just a little longer. Remind me. Convince me. Show me why this is something I should be doing. Make it worth it.”
And they did.
Over and over, the three men’s hulking fae forms over me and under me and everywhere on my flesh.
Sweet gods of prophecy, they made it worth it.
Chapter 20: Frost
I’d loved her since the moment I first saw her. Back at her mortal workplace, when Arabella had stood there in the strangely lit hallway and sent her untrained, wildling magic at me, she had captured my heart forever. It had taken all this time for me to realize that
We had grown up believing that she was an unnatural creature, a construct whose purpose was to cleanse the fae world of our problems. She was the mage of prophecy, the human woman who had received fae powers so she could save our land.
But we had never asked ourselves who was going to save her.
It was a shameful thing.
Arabella, however, was ready to walk into battle. Simply because the fae needed her. She stood, naked and ravished. The small smile she sent me told me that she knew I was staring at her body. I would never be able to get enough of touching her, not now.
“It is time,” she said without faltering.
“How long can you keep this shard of time separate from the world?” Varic wondered. His lips were red from how hard he’d used them on our beloved mortal woman. “Can we strengthen the shield and stay here longer? The world outside is frozen. Nothing will come to pass as long as you can hold it.”
“No.” She was firm. “We can’t justify hiding here. Not if it puts an entire land at risk. I will go to meet King Regis now.” She was quietly decisive.
She was still for a moment, remembering something. When she looked up at us, she had the ghost of a joke in her eyes. “You fae have always told me that when one practices for battle, the spiritual component of that requires nudity. Right?” Her blue eyes sparkled.
Varic nodded, smiling back at her as we all were. “That’s right. And this is more than mere practice.” His eyes clouded despite his effort to be light with her.
She spoke briskly. “That’s right. This is real battle, and I’m going into it with my three men at my side. Don’t you all see? Being with you just now has given me powers I’ve never had before. My magic is blazing inside me.”
I kept my voice firm. “You have no idea how strong you are right now. You can do it. You will defeat the Darkness and cleanse it from our land.”
She touched my cheek softly. “Of course I will. Because of what you three have meant to me.”
Without another word, she lifted both hands to wrap us in a ribbon of magic that would transport us back to the forest. When I saw her summon the elements for her spell, I gasped aloud.
Did she know?
Where she had manifested her magic in her right hand, all blackness and twistiness, she now carried it in both. Her left palm was lit through with light magic, with the power that we fae princes had shared with her. Her left arm blazed with white sparks. It was stunning. And she was so powerful that she was incandescent with magic.
The four of us were in the forest again. As we clicked into place in that reality, everything fell into motion again. The tower of Darkness that surrounded King Regis spiraled up to the roiling sky. It was everything evil in the land of the fae, everything dark and selfish. He had gathered from the underbelly of fae existence, collecting the worst of our universe into himself.
As we transported back to the woods, Regis unleashed his bolt of dark power directly at Arabella. There was no way she could escape it. Why had she teleported into the same spot she’d been before? It made no tactical sense at all. She could have surprised him.