by Lexi C. Foss
“He’s right,” I agreed. “We don’t owe you an explanation at all.”
“The two of you maybe, but Claire is a student. And all students were due to report back this morning.” Mortus straightened his spine. “Unless you believe she’s above the rules?”
I smiled. “We both know she is, Mortus. But if you must know, we were on official Spirit business. Nothing to concern yourself with, old man. We’re fine.”
His black eyes narrowed into slits, flames practically shooting from his ears. He turned with a dramatic flare of his long black coat and stomped off in the direction of Elana’s home.
“Fucking prick,” Cyrus muttered. “He’ll tell her where we’ve been.”
“And all she’ll find is evidence of a nightclub visit,” I replied. “I’m not worried. Claire’s part human. She can’t fault us for wanting to reacquaint our mate with her home world.”
“Yes, because going to clubs is how I spent my time,” she deadpanned.
“I met you in a bar,” I reminded her, snagging her waist with my arm and guiding us toward the Spirit Quad. “It’s a logical assumption.”
She snorted. “Uh-huh.” Her elbow dug playfully into my side. “I did more than drink and party.”
I kissed the top of her head as we walked, chuckling. “I know, princess. If that was all you did, you wouldn’t be quite so stubborn.”
“Ha ha.” She attempted to elbow me again, but I caught her and pulled her up into my arms, carrying her across the quad.
“Our poor drunk Claire keeps running into me,” I said conversationally to Cyrus.
“Shouldn’t have given her that cherry cocktail, E.” He reached over to tickle her side, causing her to squirm in my arms on a laugh that warmed my heart. “What will we do with her?”
“Oh, I have some ideas,” I drawled. “But I think the others might want to join in.”
“Mmm, a welcome-home party,” Cyrus mused. “Yes, that sounds entertaining indeed.”
“Ugh, I swear you all are going to break me,” Claire muttered, then laughed as Cyrus tickled her again.
“You love it,” he murmured, eliciting more giggles from her and making it rather hard to continue walking while carrying her. But hearing those sounds from her lips made it worth the effort it took to stay upright and moving.
“Okay! Okay! I give!” She practically chortled with the words, and Cyrus took her from my arms to hug her close.
“I love you, little queen,” he said, brushing his lips against her forehead as he allowed her to stand once more, this time with his arm around her. “Now let’s hurry back. I can practically feel Titus’s irritation at our late arrival, and I can’t wait to goad him a little.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “The two of you are going to end up killing each other one of these days.”
“Or fucking,” I put in, smirking at my brother. While he typically bedded women, I knew of a few males he’d entertained in previous years. Cyrus always was one to experiment and play.
He merely shrugged, neither confirming nor denying it. “One or the other.”
“Wait…” Claire turned to walk backward, her gaze on Cyrus. “Did you just admit you’d fuck Titus?”
Another shrug. “He could use a dominant hand.” His expression darkened a fraction, his icy gaze twinkling with deviousness. “Why? Is that something you’d enjoy?”
Her stumble answered the question without words. As did the beautiful blush painting her cheeks.
Oh, Claire.
Our innocent little princess.
The things we would teach her in the years to come.
Maybe we’d even teach her a few things tonight...
Claire
My entire body tingled, courtesy of Cyrus and Titus. Oh, they didn’t fuck each other last night, but they definitely had fun putting me between them.
Of course, I spent half of it imagining what they would do to each other.
Vox and Sol, too, for reasons I couldn’t explain.
But not Exos. No, I suspected Exos would never touch any of them. A point he drove home by merely watching last night rather than joining in. I could sense his arousal the entire time, yet he never once approached, preferring to almost supervise like the last time all of us engaged in an orgy in the living room.
God, who was I becoming?
A sex fiend, obviously.
“What are you thinking about over there, little queen?” Cyrus mused, his blue eyes knowing. “You’re looking awfully flushed.”
“Nothing,” I lied. I squirmed in my seat and tried to focus on the papers in my lap.
Kols had delivered the dark-magic texts to Exos this morning—as promised. Only, he’d provided us with more than the one book we discussed, saying we might be interested in defensive magic as well. So Cyrus had that text while I perused the dark arts for something resembling what Elana had done. Exos sat beside me on the couch, one arm stretched out across the back over my shoulders and his other palm on my thigh as he read with me.
“There,” he murmured, fortunately concentrating better than me. “It mentions liquid summoning.”
I skimmed the passage he pointed at and nodded. “It’s similar to what she did, yeah. But she seemed to have more control somehow.”
“Perhaps she altered it with spirit,” he replied.
“Sounds ominous,” Titus said as he approached with a tray of mugs. “I’m not Vox, but I tried my best.” He set the drinks on the table and picked one up to hand to me. “I may have added something special to this.”
I peered inside to see embers rotating on the top.
No, not embers.
Burnt marshmallows.
My lips curled. “You made hot chocolate.”
“Or a version of it, anyway,” he replied, sending a flame dancing over my cheek in a kiss. “I had to improvise a little from the recipe Vox left out because we’re low on ingredients. Used some sort of fruit milk instead of the creamy stuff you like.”
I sipped it, noting the spicy undertone, and sighed. “It’s perfect.” It tasted nothing like the hot chocolate I grew up with, but I didn’t mind. This was better. Sweeter, stronger, and it warmed my insides. Mmm. Yes. “Perfect,” I repeated, taking another sip.
“I’m glad you—”
A sharp pain to my abdomen had me dropping the mug, which tumbled to the floor after splashing hot liquid all over me and the couch. But I felt none of it, the pang inside me too great to feel or hear anything else.
Sol! I cried out, our link quaking uncontrollably as his agony flooded my soul.
I leapt up, threw the blanket and book—which, thankfully, caught the majority of the spill—and took off for the Earth Quad with Cyrus, Titus, and Exos sprinting along behind me.
They were saying things.
Telling me to slow down.
But I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.
My mate was in trouble and needed my help, his anguish unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Classes had restarted today, and I’d spent my time in fire class with Titus. Sol had gone to his usual courses, but the Earth Quad was huge. He could be anywhere, except for maybe the dorms.
Where? I demanded, calling upon my spirit to follow the thread to his soul. There.
He knelt in the middle of an orchard with an unconscious woman in his arms, his tears streaking down his face.
Aflora, I realized as I took in the dark hair and petite form. “What’s wrong? What happened?” I landed on my knees beside him, my hands running over his bulging biceps. “Talk to me.”
“She’s…” He broke off on a growl laced with such agony that my heart fractured in two.
I saw it then, the blue lines traversing her skin, flooding her veins with a plague her small body couldn’t fight. It blanketed her skin in a sheet of white laced with sweat.
“Claire,” Titus whispered, the strain in his voice drawing my attention to him and then to the field around us.
“Oh God…” Aflora
wasn’t the only one.
There were at least twenty, all lying in the grass as if on their deathbeds.
And the trees moaned with their loss, the branches drooping in sorrow before my eyes.
My hands ran over Sol, searching him for signs of the infection, but he remained as sturdy as ever, his soul flourishing beneath my touch. “How?” I demanded. “How are you unaffected?”
But he didn’t answer, his heart breaking before my eyes. “Don’t do this to me, Aflora. Don’t you dare die on me.” He sounded so anguished, so terrified. And I understood then that she was the only family he had left—his final root to the Earth Fae. It wasn’t a romantic connection but a familial one that mattered more to him than I realized before.
His mother had raised her as her own, a detail I picked up from our bond, something he’d never before mentioned. No wonder they had such a close relationship. She wasn’t just his sister’s best friend, but his sister as well.
Sol had already lost his parents and the sister Aflora once called her best friend.
“Don’t do this to me,” he repeated softly. “Please don’t do this to me.”
Tears pricked my eyes, the once beautiful female wilting in his arms like a dried-up leaf.
This can’t happen.
I glanced around the field, noting all the others in similar positions.
Exos and Cyrus were with a few of them, offering words of encouragement that did nothing to stir life into them.
This plague—or whatever the cause—had reached the Academy, and it was taking them all.
“No,” I breathed. “No.” I wouldn’t accept this.
My mother was involved with this once, or so the rumors said. And I had a way to contact her. She would give me answers.
She had to give me answers.
To stop this.
To fix this!
Sol had already lost too much. He would not lose Aflora. Not today.
Where are you? I demanded, standing, searching, peering into the spirit network for my mother’s soul. I know you’re here. I want answers. You will answer me.
The Academy fell away as I floated to the place Exos had taken me, near the electric source. But I didn’t care about the core this time. No, I wanted my mother.
Come to me. Now. I threaded the words with power, urging her to comply. Now! I shouted.
There would be none of this hiding bullshit.
She had information I needed, and we didn’t have time to spare.
Claire? My name was a whisper on the wind, one I followed with my air element, searching for the owner of that voice.
Too far away.
Too cloudy.
Come here now! I screamed, tired of this game, these tricks, the damn hide-and-seek. This ended today.
Energy swirled around me, the elements answering my call and thrusting me into the heavens on a surge of power so great it knocked the breath from my lungs and blinded me with its light. I shielded my eyes, pushing through the thick ropes of spirit threatening to drown me, and shoved to the other side.
To darkness.
I coughed, sputtering from the acrid stench littering the air, and blinked a dozen times to clear the flash from my retinas.
Only to find myself in a cell lined with iron bars that burned.
Literally.
With fire.
What the fuck? I spun around, my feet splashing in unspeakable fluid. I gagged, the air reeking of foulness and death. Where—
I jumped as a hand landed on my arm, the touch as cold as ice. “Claire?”
My mother’s voice.
I whipped my attention to her, startled.
And gaped at the terrifying sight before me.
She resembled a walking corpse, her bones protruding from all angles, her hair a ghastly white, and her eyes… They were as colorless as the night. “M-Mom?”
“Well, isn’t that sweet,” a third voice said, sounding decidedly cruel and all too familiar. “A family reunion at last.”
I slowly looked to my right, through the fiery bars, and met the eyes of my mentor. “Hello, Elana.”
Sol
“Claire!” Exos’s shout pierced my ears, drawing me from my sorrows and introducing me to a new horror.
An unconscious Claire.
A shock wave of spirit magic spilled from Exos and Cyrus, slamming into my chest and sending a vibration down my spine.
They were kneeling beside us in an instant, Exos cradling Claire’s head while Cyrus leaned to listen for breath. Titus paced, flames burning along every inch of his skin as he cursed.
The ground began to quake around me, my ire mounting by the minute.
Aflora still lay in my arms, her earth magic swarmed by a sea of darkness as she absorbed the brunt of the plague-like energy swirling in the air. Her royal line provided her with the direct source to our element, denoting her as the perpetual gatekeeper of our magic. And she was playing her part, acting as a shield to the rest of our kind.
A shield I couldn’t help her reinforce because the plague refused to touch me.
And my bloodline wouldn’t allow me to step into her shoes, not without claiming her as my mate.
Which I couldn’t do.
But Claire…
“It’s hurting her, too,” I realized out loud. The darkness swathed her essence, a spiritual element I shouldn’t be able to see. However, through my bond with Claire, it was right there. Tangible. Stealing the life from my mate right before my eyes.
I stirred a bed of grass with my element and placed Aflora in it, wrapping her in my power before turning to help Cyrus and Exos.
Except, I didn’t know what to do.
“She’s not breathing again,” Cyrus said, his tone underlined with fury. “It’s the fucking spirit source!”
“Then fucking fix it,” Titus ordered, his flames inching higher.
“No, it’s different this time.” Exos placed his forehead against hers, closing his eyes and focusing. “Her spirit is here, at the Academy, just not inhabiting her body.”
I snapped my gaze up to him. “What the fuck does that even mean?” I demanded, finally finding my voice.
Because this was ridiculous.
All of it.
Why is this happening?
“I don’t know what it means. It’s never happened before,” Exos said slowly, lifting his head. “But she’s alive. I’m certain of it.”
“Claire!” Vox shouted, his voice carrying a desperate plea on the wind as he ran to us. His element swirled around him, lifting him off the ground so that his feet barely touched it as he sprinted. His wild eyes burned with a silver ring as he fell to his knees beside Cyrus. “Bring her back,” he said urgently. “Bring her the fuck back!”
Exos grasped Vox’s shoulder. “She’s not dead,” he promised him.
“She’s just not breathing,” Cyrus said through clenched teeth. “But Exos can feel her spirit.”
“Where?” I demanded. We were running out of time. I could feel the earth magic seeping away from the realm, threatening to take the last of my family line with it.
Aflora might not be my blood sister, but she was every bit my sibling. We grew up together. Learned earth together. Grieved the loss of my mother and sister together.
And now something was trying to take her and Claire from me.
It was unacceptable.
Wrong.
Cruel.
This is not happening on my watch.
Exos frowned, his gaze flicking from our Claire to some invisible point in the distance. “She’s not far. But I think she’s underground.”
Which meant she would be weak.
Elemental Fae couldn’t access the source from beneath the earth. If left there for too long, fae died.
“We need to split up,” Exos continued, standing and taking charge like the king he was. Normally, I’d tell him to fuck off. Today? Yeah, today I craved his leadership. Because my head was not in a good place. It was clouded with memories
of death.
“Sol and Vox, you two come with me,” Exos said.
“What about the Earth Fae?” I asked, glancing at Aflora and then the others. “I can’t just leave them.” I was the only one still awake. What if one of them needed my strength?
Not that I knew how to lend it.
But I’d damn well figure it out.
Like I was trying to do when Claire arrived.
“Claire’s underground, Sol. You might be the only one who can find her when we get close enough.” Exos glanced at Vox, squeezing his shoulder again. “And you’re fully bonded with our mate. You can help me pinpoint her location.”
My shoulders fell.
Because he was right.
Titus finally stopped pacing, his gaze finding mine. “I’ll help with the Earth Fae,” he promised. “And Cyrus will look after Claire.”
For once, the two of them didn’t bicker.
Cyrus merely nodded, his fingers running through Claire’s hair. “I’ll keep searching on the spirit plane,” he said softly. “She’ll find us. She has to.”
Titus knelt beside Aflora, eyeing the nest I’d created. “I won’t let anything happen to her, Sol.”
I nodded, my throat clogging with emotion.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted such a decision—my mate or my family.
But my mate was my family, too.
An impossible choice. One someone would pay for, for making me endure it. I shoved to my feet, the soil shuddering beneath the weight of my frustration.
“Is that soot?” Titus asked, gesturing to the tendril creeping up Aflora’s arm.
I eyed it with a grimace. Because yeah, it certainly looked like the remnants of a fire.
“We don’t have time,” Exos pressed, dragging my focus to him. “We have to find Claire. I can sense her agitation, the wrongness embracing her spirit. She needs us. Now.”
“I’ll look after Claire and the Earth Fae,” Cyrus vowed. His blue eyes swirled with his element, giving them a striking azure glow. He reached out and sent gentle streams of water to feed the weeping trees and give them the nourishment my people needed to fight off this illness. He glanced at me, his expression determined. “I won’t let you down, Sol. You’re not going to lose them. Not today.”