The Rising

by Kristen Ashley

  And it happened a good deal.

  His body jumped when the specter formed by the fountain.

  Bloody hell.

  What was the spirit of Queen Ophelia doing in his fucking courtyard?

  “If you look, you can see,” she said.

  “See what?” he asked.

  She tipped her head well back and repeated, “If you look, you can see.”

  He looked up into the starry skies.

  “Toward Mar-el,” she directed.

  He adjusted his gaze.

  And fucking hell.

  He saw it.

  Gods, it blinked very bright.

  And he saw it.

  He counted.

  Three stars in the stem.

  Twelve in the cupule.

  Eight in the nut.

  An acorn.

  “You know him,” Ophelia said, and his eyes cut to her. “He would never leave you and yours, Faunus. Not ever. He shines down on you always, warrior. Always.”

  He said no words, not only because he didn’t have any, but because she faded from sight.

  He tipped his head back and looked at the constellation.

  Then he rounded the daybed, stretched out on it and pulled the blankets over him.

  And that night, Faunus slept under the stars.

  Nyx Chronis

  Manor of the Captain of the Trusted, Fire City

  FIRENZE

  When she heard naught but men’s murmurs in her entryway, and her husband did not call to share who was at the door he had answered some minutes ago, Nyx rose from the divan in their salon and moved to the hall.

  She smiled brightly when she saw Faunus standing with her husband.

  “Ciao, Faunus,” she greeted.

  His gaze came to her, and what she saw in it made her step falter.

  He had found love, since they lost Teddy. He had found contentment, even happiness.

  Thus, she did not understand why Faunus looked thrown back to before.

  That before being when their loss was fresh.

  “Nyx,” he murmured, dipped his chin to her, lifted it to Lorenz, and then murmured, “Until another time.”

  And with a sweep of his mantle, he was out the door.

  Lorenz closed it after him.

  “What was that about?” she asked.

  Lorenz turned to her.

  She stood still, staring at his hands.

  One held what appeared to be a broken off plank of old wood.

  In the other, he held a book.

  “Teddy left Faunus directions when Faunus was in search of him. Faunus liked the message, so he took it with him.” He lifted the plank of wood. “And then later, Teddy rose a god.” He lifted the book.

  “I don’t—” she began.

  He turned the plank of wood and she quickly read the scratchings.

  But as she read, her eyes only started prickling when she saw,

  …tell Lorenz and Nyx I died the man they made me, thus I did such with a clear head and a full heart.

  “Come, amore, apparently there has been another message left for us,” Lorenz murmured gently.

  She could barely tear her eyes from the wood, and only was able to do so when her husband caught her about the shoulders and drew her back to their salon.

  He set the wood carefully, even reverently, aside on a table, and then he moved closer to her, holding the book up between them.

  “Faunus says that we should read it all, but for the now, we must skip to the end,” Lorenz said.

  “Is that…the journal you gave Teddy?” she asked.

  “It is,” he answered.

  “Faunus should keep it.”

  Lorenz shook his head. “He says Teddy left him his love in a number of other ways, and so he wants us to have these things. He says he feels Teddy would want us to have these things as well,” Lorenz told her.

  She shook her head. “I don’t—”

  “If it would be too much for you to take—” he began on a rumble, her protective husband.

  “Read it to me,” she whispered.

  Her beloved held her eyes.

  He then nodded, turned his handsome head down to the book, and opened it, flipping through to reach the end.

  She watched Teddy’s handwriting glide by and closed her eyes.

  “Kindness,” Lorenz started, his voice thick, and she opened her eyes and looked to his face, seeing it now was harsh with emotion. “There is no greater gift,” he went on. “I know this, for when you showed it to me, it changed the course of my life. It changed the course of a continent. It changed the world.”

  Nyx swallowed.

  Lorenz cleared his throat.

  “I did not die loving you,” Lorenz carried on, his voice now gruff. “I lived loving you. Now you live, knowing how deeply you were loved.”

  The noise she made she could not control.

  Thus, she was in the tight embrace of her husband.

  “Is that all?” she asked his chest.

  “It is enough,” he answered.

  Her Lorenz was right.

  It was.

  King Cassius

  Red Room, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  Cassius stared at his friend.

  “Things are getting boring, are they not?” Silvanus asked.

  “I’m becoming enamored with boring,” Cassius told him.

  Silvanus threw back his head and boomed with laughter.

  “You do this often?” Cassius asked curiously when he stopped.

  Silvanus shrugged. “Every once in a while. It takes much magic. But, my man,” he leaned toward Cass, “every time, it is very worth it.”

  “I can imagine, but even so…” Cassius let that trail, not repeating his declination of the invitation Silvanus had extended he and Ellie and the girls.

  Silvanus sat back and grinned. “I see. The dark prince has become the king of the light. You wish to bask in that light. I would too, your sun queen is extraordinary. If I did not so much like the dark cleft that awaits me in my caravan, I would be most jealous of you.”

  “I’m pleased Ellie isn’t here for this conversation,” Cass muttered.

  Silvanus grinned unrepentantly.

  “I take the highwaymen with me,” he shared. “They find thieving in the lands of kings they respect is not so much to their liking anymore. I have told them of that world, and they sense the challenge. So they will travel to new even greater adventures.”

  “They will be missed, they’re good men. Their antics, not as much,” Cassius replied.

  Silvanus grew intense and stated, “And I take Macrinus.”

  Cassius stared.

  “I have told him of the women there. Their boldness. Their audacity. You know. You have met Circe. Seoafin. Cora. Maddie,” Silvanus said quietly. “You also know he enjoys boldness and audacity.”

  “Mac?” he asked.

  “He wishes to go. He wishes to leave…” he hesitated before he finished, “his grief behind.”

  “You can’t leave grief behind by chasing adventure…and skirt.”

  “There are many there who do not often wear skirts,” Silvanus muttered.

  “Silvanus, you can’t take my captain.”

  “I’ll bring him back.”

  “You can’t take him.”

  “Cass, hear me. He wants to go.”

  Cassius shut his mouth.

  He opened it to say, “What will Hera do without him? They’ve barely…” He trailed off only to clip, “You can’t take her too. Ellie would lose her mind.”

  “Well, before they left, your Hera had a situation with one of the Mystics. Her next journey will be by sea, not on a path between worlds.”

  “Shite,” Cassius muttered.

  “Love is freedom,” Silvanus said softly.

  It was annoying that he was right.

  “They will return,” Silvanus assured.

  “What if they don’t?” Cass demanded.

  “Then y
ou will have peace, for you know they have stayed because they have found happiness.”

  And he was even more annoying because he continued to be right.

  Silvanus grinned like a madman, for he knew this as well.

  “If you change your mind in future, we shall take you,” he said to finish.

  “I would not hold my breath.”

  That set the man again to laughing.

  Soon after, they finished their drinks, Silvanus returned to his Patras, and Cass went in search of his wife.

  He found her sitting atop their bed, cross-legged, wearing his shirt.

  She had her cards spread out on the covers before her.

  He stopped at the end of the bed and did not lead into it.

  “Mac is going with Silvanus. Apparently, they journey back and forth between the parallel worlds with some frequency, for they enjoy being annoying on two different, but the same, planets.”

  She gazed up at him, her hair about her shoulders and down her chest, her long shapely legs practically begging him to uncross them with a purpose.

  “And I hate to tell you this, but Hera—” he started to continue.

  But Elena interrupted him.

  “Journeys to The Mystics with the excuse to help Serena but instead she had some argument or something that wasn’t an argument, it was her feeling guilt she was attracted to another woman so soon after we lost Rose, even though it wasn’t that soon, but I think you understand her feelings about that more than I, so mostly, it’s to see to that,” she stated.

  “You know?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “About both?” he asked.

  She hesitated.

  And then nodded again.

  He put his fists to his hips. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Well, I thought it was Mac’s to tell, which he intends to do, I only know because Hera told me when she told me her plans. I didn’t expect Silvanus to share Mac’s secrets.”

  He glowered at her.

  “If they seek happiness, I champion it,” she said gently.

  “I do too, I just will miss them,” he muttered.

  Her face softened and her lips tipped up.

  “Why are you doing a reading?” he asked.

  And then he took in the cards.

  All in a row, The Unicorn, The Moon, Eros, The Blood, The Star, and another Unicorn.

  “And when did you add to your cards?” he asked after an additional Unicorn, for he knew there was only one in her deck.

  “I didn’t,” she whispered.

  His gaze cut to her.

  “It’s magic,” she said.

  He had no reply.

  “Star is pregnant,” she announced.

  His body locked.

  And he stared.

  “And, um, well, apparently, unicorn magic beats pennyrium because, well…” She bit her lip, released it and asked, “How serious were you about not having any more children?”

  The cards went flying not long before her panties landed on the carpet by their bed and he had his hand between their legs, his cock in his fist, seeking.

  “Are you telling me you carry my child?” he demanded gruffly.

  Then his groan drowned out her moan as he slid inside.

  “Yes?” she asked as if he had the answer.

  “Ellie,” he growled his warning, thrusting inside.

  She wrapped her arms and legs about him.

  “Do you want a boy or girl?”

  Gods.

  She was carrying his child.

  He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to hers.

  She truly was a powerful witch.

  For he thought he was as happy as he could be.

  But then she’d do something to make him even happier.

  “Cass,” she whispered, lifting her hips to take him deeper. “Do you want a boy or girl? The ritual has to be done early in the pregnancy.”

  He opened his eyes.

  “No magic.”

  “Sorry?”

  “We get what we make.”

  Her violet eyes melted.

  “All right,” she said before she tugged on his beard to demand his mouth.

  He didn’t make her tug hard.

  He gave it to her.

  He also took more ink eight months later.

  When they had a girl.

  King Mars

  Second Floor, West Corridor, Catrame Palace, Fire City

  FIRENZE

  “Tril,” Mars called impatiently when his wife’s friend saw him and tried to duck behind the door of her room.

  She, and his queen, had been avoiding him all day.

  He did not like this.

  Not at all.

  And he knew the reason behind it, one his wife was hiding.

  She’d had a visit from her mother that morning.

  The woman lived in a grand manse a good forty-five-minute ride away.

  He would prefer it to be forty-five days, but he did not often get what he wished in regards to her mother.

  His Silence was kind-hearted and forgiving.

  Though he did not fail to note when a message came from her mother’s manse sharing the woman wanted a visit, often Silence was most busy.

  This usually doing something with his mother. Or Tril. Or Nyx. Or looking after Nyx and Lorenz’s son so they could have time together, like she was a fucking nanny. Or she was with Zosime. Or looking after Guard and Zosime’s child.

  Or she was in the garden, reading.

  Or off on a ride with Kyril.

  Etcetera.

  Further affecting his mood was that he had a missive to send to Aramus, but the servant came back sharing all the ravens trained to fly to Mar-el had been, that day, engaged by his queen.

  There were bloody twenty of them.

  When he’d asked after the message, the man had simply said she had called to Ha-Lah to get a communication to Jorie to make haste in visiting her in Fire City.

  She had sent this same message twenty times.

  He did not like her mother.

  But it was him she would turn to if her mother distressed her.

  Not her big brother.

  “Oh, allo there, King Mars,” Tril said false casually, dipping her chin and not meeting his eyes.

  Allo there, King Mars?

  He swallowed back a growl.

  “Is my wife in our chambers?” he demanded.

  “Um…yes, she awaits you.”

  “Tril?” he called.

  “Yes,” she said to the floor.

  “Tril,” he bit. “Look at me.”

  Her eyes came slowly to his, and when he looked into their bright, happy depths, his stomach flipped, and he strode away from her without a goodnight, covering the remaining lengths to their bedchamber door in fewer strides than it normally took.

  He pushed through, went right, and saw her juggling Piccolina on her way to their bed.

  Her gaze came to him and she smiled brightly. “Allo, my love.”

  “You carry my child,” he declared.

  She blinked and then frowned.

  Then she asked him, “How did you know?”

  “For that purpose,” he began, “you haven’t been taking pennyrium for weeks and I just saw Tril outside our door and she’s about to burst with happiness.”

  She glared at their door and muttered, “Bloody Tril. She’s the best friend of a queen and she can’t keep a bloody secret.”

  “You wished to keep it a secret?” he asked dangerously.

  “No,” she snapped. “Of course not. But when my blood did not come and I asked mother here to ask after her symptoms when she was carrying me, and they mimic things I’m feeling, and I felt sure I was expecting, I decided to tell you.”

  She then lifted her arms out at her sides, and in doing so, Piccolina took that opportunity to race down one and leap toward Mars.

  With practice, he caught the wee love, put her on his shoulder and continued listening to his wife,
who was still complaining.

  “I mean, I wore a new nightgown to celebrate after I told you and everything.”

  She did not wear that nightgown long, for it was in tatters on the floor while she was naked and taking his cock in their bed.

  “I’m reading…from this…you’re pleased…with the news,” she pushed out between thrusts, scraping his scalp with her nails.

  “Bloody…yes,” he replied.

  She grinned up at him.

  He kissed the grin on her face and set about the serious business of celebrating.

  It would be when Silence was recuperating after giving him their son that Mars would take the piercing in his cock that demonstrated his body was hers and hers alone.

  It was an unnecessary gesture; she already knew that.

  But it was important regardless.

  So, it was done.

  King True

  Temple to Wohden, Notting Thicket

  WODELL

  “You don’t seem very nervous,” Bram noted.

  “Why would I be nervous?” Alfie asked.

  “She’s a handful, that one. Bossy,” Florian stated.

  “Thank the gods,” Alfie muttered.

  True grinned.

  The door opened and the priest took one step in.

  “She arrives. All is ready. If our future husband can take his place?”

  He didn’t wait for responses.

  He moved out.

  “Do or die,” Luther said.

  “True down, Alfie down, you’re up next,” Wallace said to Luther.

  “Not a chance. Bram’s up next,” Luther retorted.

  “I do not think so, it’ll be Florian,” Bram declared.

  “I’ll be last, for so many wenches, it would be a shame to tie myself to one and not let others have their piece of me,” Florian decreed.

  All of this nonsense came as they moved out of the door.

  True walked beside Alfie as he wheeled.

  They did this slowly, letting the others fall ahead in front of them.

  “I know she carries your child and you two are not speaking of it, for you don’t wish to take the light away from Bronagh,” Alfie said quietly.

  True studied his man intently as he asked, “You are loyal and wise and smart enough to fall in love with Bronagh, and you are also a healer who can sense a pregnancy?”

  Alfie chuckled, shook his head, and replied, “Bronagh is a nurse.”