The Ascended: The Eight Wings Collection

by Akeroyd, Serena

  I cocked a brow at her. “Why?”

  “Because we weren’t Conclave members.”

  The words tumbled like knives into the heavily shrouded atmosphere that settled among us.

  “You’re not bound to the Conclave?” I rasped, my brow puckering.

  She bit her bottom lip. “No.”

  “So, you’ve never been tested?” Daniel pressed.

  “N—”

  “Sol, of course you haven’t. If you had, then there’d be a record of you and it would have caused an alert on this end,” Daniel carried on without waiting for her to speak.

  “How did we only just figure that out?” I ground out, reaching up and rubbing my temple.

  This shit had suddenly grown both more complicated and a thousand times easier.

  “Who the fuck would send you a raven then?” Matt growled. “You’re an unknown. Who’d know to target you?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied, swallowing thickly, and the sudden surge of her scent in the air had me wincing.

  Fae senses were powerful. We had better vision than wolves, could hear better than bats on both a normal sound wave and echolocation, and our powers of scenting were better than a shark on the hunt.

  And yet, where she was concerned, all of my senses were further amplified.

  It was both disturbing and exhilarating to be so aware of her.

  I didn’t understand it, and wasn’t sure how to get the answers to questions we needed to ask. The only person I knew who had a witch mate was my father, but he’d rejected her…

  Had he presented any of these odd symptoms when he was around Gabriella’s grandmother?

  I released a sigh. “Do you think we should speak with my father?”

  “Why?” Daniel questioned. “Getting him involved is only going to cause more trouble.”

  “He knows what she is if he’s made the link between Gabriella and her grandmother,” Matthew pointed out. “And she hasn’t been brought in by the Assembly yet—”

  “No, only been attacked by a fucking raven,” Daniel snarled, and as I watched, the muscles in his biceps, shoulders, and throat tensed. His face turned red and the vein in his temple began to throb.

  “Calm down, Daniel,” Gabriella barked, and when he ignored her, intent on glaring at nothing, his fists bunching as he evidently tried to withhold the urge to smash them into something that could bleed, she scampered across the floor and plopped herself on his lap.

  It was so awkward it was amusing, and it took Daniel completely by surprise. One second he was glaring at an unseen enemy, a low growl escaping him, the next, he was jerking back in shock as Gabriella landed on his knee.

  When she cuddled into him, her arms slipping around his waist, I watched as he nuzzled back into her.

  A sound escaped her.

  A sound I’d never forget.

  “What the Sol is that?” Matthew whispered, his voice low with awe.

  “Is she purring?” I rasped, completely dumbfounded.

  He blinked. “I think she is. And look at him, it’s calming him down.”

  It was. It was totally calming him down.

  What in Sol’s name was that about?

  My throat felt tight as I watched the intimate scene. Something about what she was doing was enough to drive me mad with lust and crazed with jealousy.

  I wanted her to make that noise for me, and yet, Daniel was my troupe brother—he needed her too.

  The complex emotions inside me made a Commonwealth cocktail look simple to create. But I knew the only thing keeping me from losing my mind was the unfurling troupe bond that was growing among us. I couldn’t say if it was at the base of what was happening in this room, but it was certainly stopping me from tearing Daniel into pieces of funfetti.

  Even as the bond worked between us, traces of the murderous rage I’d felt took me aback, but I calmed when I saw Matthew was trying to process similar emotions.

  Whatever in Gaia’s good graces was going on with us, we needed to know, we needed an explanation before one of us entirely lost control.

  As her purring came to an end, I realized my nails were digging into the soft flesh of my palm, and the scent of my blood and Matthew’s littered the air.

  How was that noise soothing Daniel, but putting Matthew and me on edge?

  Or were we just envious? Envious that she was nestling into him and not into us?

  And why the fuck would that bother us at all?

  “We must speak with my father,” I rasped, my voice so thick it sounded totally unlike me. “He is the only one who knows what it means to be a Virgo.”

  Matthew nodded, his jaw just as tense as he tried to deal with the welter of emotions that were pouring through us.

  It was akin to taking a drug for the first time, except we were experiencing the rush, the high, and the drop all in one go.

  Daniel grunted his dissatisfaction but he didn’t argue. Gabriella turned to me and murmured, “Won’t that put me in danger?”

  There was a deference to the question that had my shoulders straightening. She was, without words, asking me if we’d keep her safe.

  This Virgo bond was turning us into completely different people. Where was the Gabriella who’d snark first and apologize later? I wanted to say I missed her, but the Hyde in my own personality needed that deference. Needed her to need us.

  “You will never be in danger with us to protect you. You have my word on that, Gabriella.”

  Before she could argue or agree, I got to my feet and switched on the TV. It was a smart unit, and within seconds, the Skype bubbles were dancing and ping-ponging around the room as I connected the call with my father.

  When he appeared, his brow furrowed at the sight of me. “Joseph? What is it? Is everything all right?”

  When I looked down, I saw why he’d be concerned. I had blood staining my hands and dripping onto the floor, and I was ragged and sweaty from training in my room.

  Having deemed it too dangerous for her to be working magic outside, we’d taken to using my quarters as our training room. It also hid the fact that the second one of us accidentally hurt her, we were on each other faster than mating rabbits.

  Without the happy ending.

  “I have a question.”

  “Ask away, son,” Noa vil der Luir replied easily.

  “Is Gabriella related to the Gabriella you once knew?”

  My father dipped his chin. “Yes.”

  I blew out a breath. “You know what it means to be a Virgo. I think, no, I know we are Gabriella’s Virgo, and we’re—”

  He surged forward in his seat. He was, as always, behind his desk in his study in the east wing of Landgow. The room hadn’t changed once since I was born. The walls were covered with books that appertained to Fae history and literature. Where there were no books, there were paintings from artists who the family had sponsored over the years. The furniture was antique, uncomfortable, and always made me want to sneeze, even though the place was cleaned twice a day.

  The office was as fusty as him, but at that moment, he reminded me of the powerhouse he’d been and not the old man he was.

  “Have you experienced the Rage?”

  My eyes flashed as relief filled me—there was a name for what we were going through. Thank Sol for that.

  “I’ve experienced something like it.” If that, in any way, shape, or form described the torment of knowing one of the others had hurt her and the subsequent fury that made me want to tear them to shreds… then, yeah, I’d experienced the Rage.

  “Have the others?”

  I twisted around to look at my troupe. They were hanging back awkwardly, just out of sight of the camera. I beckoned them over, wincing as more droplets of blue blood splashed onto the floor.

  “I feel constantly angry,” Daniel admitted the second he was in front of the screen. He lowered his head, as though ashamed of the admission.

  “It comes in fits and starts. I could kill the others, but need them
to keep her safe,” Matthew grated out.

  “What of the Lust?”

  “I am here, you know?” Gabriella muttered. “This is beyond embarrassing.”

  “I speak not of the carnal variety, Gabriella,” my father said, his tone softening. Sol, it more than softened, it was positively gentle as he beheld her. I could see his eyes tracing over her, eating up each line of her face like he was searching for signs of his own Virgo. “You are much like your grandmother, child. You do her proud.”

  “I may look like her, but I doubt I do her proud. Not with how messed up everything is,” she muttered miserably, then her eyes sparked with that pink glow that didn’t bode well for my father—well, it wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been tucked away safely in Landgow. “I’m not sure we should be taking advice from a Virgo who rejected my abuela anyway, Joseph.” When her nose popped into the air, my lips quirked, but I saw the storm brewing in my father’s eyes and knew what that meant.

  Noa vil der Luir was not accustomed to being spoken back to.

  Unluckily for him, Gabriella didn’t give a Sol about his tender feelings or his position in our society.

  She didn’t give a shit, period. And there was more of that odd relief floating through me. The more I got to know her, the more I liked her snark. I was relieved it hadn’t been swallowed whole into the Virgo bond’s might.

  “There were reasons—”

  “I’ve heard these reasons,” she snapped. “You wanted to protect the mausoleum you live in. Well, I hope you’re happy in your Downton Abbey, and I hope you’ve been perfectly happy with a woman who you married solely for power when my abuela probably spent every day of her life suffering without you.”

  Noa gritted his teeth. “What do you know of the bond? By the sounds of it, very little.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “I know as much as the next man.”

  “Which means next to nothing. Unless you go through the bond, you can never truly understand what it means. The link between Virgo is excruciating at times. I gave up your grandmother for my family and for our seat, but I also gave it up because it required too great a sacrifice.”

  “What are you talking about, father?” I rasped, my interest piqued.

  “I can already see the changes in you. And, after studying the files on the brothers you have selected for your troupe, I know they are the same. To be Virgo is to be reduced to one’s most base self. It is unlike anything you can begin to imagine, unless you endure it too. Everything about you becomes animalistic and raw. Nothing matters save your woman, her safety, her needs, her desires. Your entire life revolves around her—” He swallowed. “For a while, I thought, we thought, we could manage it. But it was too much. Gabriella gave us time. Somehow, she knew what happened during the bond, and she gave us a choice. Freely given. We might have hurt her by rejecting her, but we did so knowing that we had her blessing to leave.”

  “I don’t understand,” Daniel murmured, scowling at my father. “Why does the bond make us baser?”

  Noa shrugged. “Who knows? It’s the uniqueness of the connection. We are reduced to the animals we evolved from. Many times, my troupe brothers and I fought over Gabriella. She did say that would ease if we allowed us to claim her, but after serving with them for twenty years and having barely an argument between us, we were wrestling like pups twice a day.” He shook his head. “I’ve never…” My father reached up and rubbed his eyes. “It was the most exhilarating time of my life, but it was like a dream. A bubble I was just waiting to pop.

  “That level of feeling couldn’t be maintained. It just couldn’t. And, though Gabriella might have missed us, I’m certain she understood too.”

  “Why? Why are you certain?” Daniel questioned.

  “Because it changed her too. We were assigned to Cuba just after Castro got into power. Her family’s power was renowned in the area. The women rarely married, just used men until they got with child. They passed on the power through their daughters, and very few sons were ever born to them. If any.

  “Gabriella was a renowned water witch. The things she could do when we were on the beach.” He whistled under his breath, and in his eyes, I saw a contentment that bewildered me. In all my life, I’d never seen his face slacken with that kind of joy. “She’d made a reputation for herself during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. She was instrumental in keeping the US forces back.”

  “H-How did she do that?” Gabriella stammered. “I’ve heard nothing about this.”

  “She was modest,” Noa replied. “She rarely talked about all the things she achieved. But her power was immense, and she was not a…” He winced. “Submissive woman. She wasn’t made to be mastered.”

  “Neither is her granddaughter,” Matthew remarked drily, making me jump, because he’d been so quiet I’d almost forgotten he was here.

  “I can believe that,” Noa said gruffly, his face softening again as he looked at Gabriella. “But the bond changed her too. She began to show softer, more submissive traits. Her power made her invincible, and in truth, she was our Alpha, that was how powerful she was, but the bond? It twisted things around. Made us her Alpha and she was almost like our Omega.” He shook his head. “It was bizarre, but after years of research…” He waved his hand around the room, and as gold dust trailed and sparkled, the camera panned out and revealed more of his study’s confines. “I’ve learned that is the way of the bond. She will never submit to you in the way you believe thanks to those silly books and movies. It’s not that kind of power.”

  “What kind of power is it then?” I asked uneasily.

  “It’s a woman instinctively knowing that her men will keep her safe, protect her, and defend her with their lives. It’s something in her nature that cannot be denied. It goes beyond sexual, it’s deeper than that. It’s in her very marrow. The need to be claimed by those few males who she deems stronger than her. No one can master a witch that powerful, no one could ever make a Virgo witch bend the knee, and yet, her Virgo mates can.”

  “And you took that from my abuela?” Gabriella rasped, and I wasn’t surprised to hear the tears in her voice.

  “No. You misunderstand. Without us there, she reverted to how she always was. It was our influence, the Virgo bond, that changed her.” He swallowed. “Your mother was born of our bond.”

  I almost swallowed my tongue at that. “You can’t be serious? How can we be—”

  He raised a hand. “The Virgo connection isn’t a miracle maker. She is not born of the four of us.”

  “My uncle was in your troupe—” I argued, the panic in me real and it made my heart feel like it was going to explode.

  “Cease your interrupting and I will explain,” he ground out, eyes flashing with irritation. He’d take it from Gabriella, it seemed, but not me—no change there, then. “Your grandfather was one of my troupe, Gabriella. He was badly injured in a bout, and had to retire from service. One of your uncles, Joseph, replaced him. There are no consanguinity issues… just other problems.” He tipped his chin to the side. “To be a Virgo to a witch is… this troubles me. You were meant for more than just being a warrior tied to his witch’s apron strings.”

  The bond between the rest of my troupe and myself had grown in the past few days. Constant contact and companionship was the way with a troupe. But it meant that I knew, without him even so much as tensing, that Daniel longed to rip my father a new one.

  “You know she is a witch and that she is Fae as well, and you can’t see that she needs our protection?” I rasped.

  He reached up and rubbed his eyes. “Of course I do. But you can attain that as a troupe. You need not mate.” My father stared at me. “You will see how all-encompassing it becomes. Nothing…” He swallowed. “Nothing else matters. We are more than just rutting beasts, Joseph. We are the apex predators, but the Virgo bond reduces us to mere animals. We can protect—”

  “How can you?” I snapped. “What will you do? Keep her in your cirque du freak with all the other unusu
al witches?”

  Noa sneered, “You think I keep them here for my own entertainment?”

  “Why else? If not to mine their power too.”

  “Because they need my protection, you fool. Some are witches without their Virgo, some lost theirs in death. Most are casualties that require a safe haven that the Conclave will not provide. They are bloodthirsty. Much more than the witches realize.”

  “The Conclave isn’t an issue. Gabriella hasn’t been tested.”

  “She does not serve a council?” Noa mumbled in bewilderment, his eyes training once more on Gabriella. “Why not?”

  “When my grandmother came over to the US, she was young—”

  Noa shook his head. “That isn’t true.”

  She blinked. “She told me this herself.”

  “Gabriella could wind words as well as she could water.” He tsked. “She was fully grown when she helped the Cubans defeat the Americans during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. This was years before we met her and before she became pregnant with your mother.”

  Gabriella bit her bottom lip before saying, “All I know is what she told me. That she came over when she was young, and that my mother was always scared she’d be sent back to Cuba. So we stayed under the radar, didn’t join the Conclave, and lived among humans.”

  His brow puckered. “But why? Why would she do that? The Conclave would have protected her claim to be in the US. Sol, any Conclave would have been grateful to have her. Your line is revered among witch kind, Gabriella. You aren’t royalty, exactly, but famous? Indeed.

  “For the Cuban Conclave to lose her…” He shook his head. “This doesn’t make any sense, but then, it never did where she was concerned.” He gritted his teeth. “After we last spoke, Joseph, and I realized my Gabriella and—” He hesitated. “Your Gabriella were related, I looked into the line and found very little.”

  “You said you knew when she died. How?” I questioned.