by Amy Sumida
Kasteo and Helene stayed behind in one of my guest towers in Kyanite—Kas looking after the nymph like a mama cat—but Kosmos went with Cerberus and so did Slate, Gage, and Declan. They'd be quietly scoping the Bazaar; speaking to Cerberus' informants and friends. Banning went to Kansas to put together a team of blooders to investigate the Demos Family outside of the Bazaar. We needed to know what they were up to everywhere or we could get blindsided.
That left me with Torin and Darcraxis. They'd be staying in Kyanite with me while I had my training session with Rathlin Aryana, brother of Shavalina Aryana, the Phoenix who'd originally begun training me to control my goddess fire magic. Shavalina had been killed while we were investigating some phoenix disappearances, but she'd been reborn from her ashes. I was relieved that I'd been able to draw her ashes out of the man who had consumed them—another long story—but Shava had been reborn as a baby and could hardly continue our lessons. So, Rath had stepped up.
I hadn't told my men that Rathlin had flirted rather heavily with me. Phoenixes, generally, live their lives to the fullest and that means taking lovers as often as the urge strikes them. Rath had taken my rebuttal with as much casual calm and charm as he'd shown with his proposition. I wasn't worried about him becoming a problem, but if I told my lovers about his interest in me, it would have been a problem for them.
I just hoped they didn't figure it out for themselves.
Torin and Darc waited for us in a private courtyard behind the castle while I went to fetch Rathlin. This would be his first time traveling to Tír na nÓg so I would have to guide him through the Veil. Not that he couldn't have made it through on his own. Rath, like all of his kind, can travel through the Realms using a feather he shed during his first incarnation. His feather is even strong enough to bring him through the wards of Tír na nÓg. But without being here previously, Rath wouldn't know how to direct his travel and could end up anywhere on the planet. Once I showed him the way, he'd be able to return to Kyanite on his own.
I had only been to Rathlin's home once, by invitation of the Pyre—the Phoenix Community. There are Phoenix nests all over the world, they've been there for thousands of years, but I was the first outsider to ever be allowed inside one. Now, I was sneaking back in to meet Rathlin like a teenage girlfriend.
The last time I'd been to the Nest, Rath had taken me there, bringing me directly to his bedroom. This meant that I could use my traveling stone to return. The Pyre probably realized that I could come back on my own but were trusting me to not return without another invitation. I was betraying that trust simply because we couldn't think of a good place to meet outside of the Nest. After going over a couple of suggestions, Rath had finally told me to just meet him in his bedroom. He assured me that none of the other phoenixes would find out about it and it wasn't as if I were coming for a visit. I'd be grabbing his hand and taking him back through the Veil. Still, I was nervous.
When I reformed in the bright, airy, and very masculine bedroom, standing right before Rathlin's massive bed that was set on a pedestal like a piece of art, I started to wonder if my nerves were about more than infiltrating the Nest. Because there, sitting casually on the silk comforter before me, was one of the most beautiful men I've ever met.
Let me just interject here that Phoenixes exude a type of magical pheromone. You can't help but be attracted to them. On top of this magic charisma, they're all naturally attractive. So, even after their initial atomic allure wears off, you're left reeling under their real beauty. It's one of the reasons why visitors are not allowed in the Nest; one phoenix is hard enough to resist but the concentrated wallop of a whole nest of them could make a person catatonic. I, however, have Siren blood, and it seems to have made me more tolerant of the Phoenix magnetism. It only took me a few minutes to adjust to being around the Pyre. All that being said, I still found Rathlin Aryana to be mouthwateringly handsome.
Rath has an exotically sensual appeal that reminds me a lot of Declan. Declan looks as if he were constantly contemplating ways to pleasure me; he has this wicked glint in his eyes and a curve to his lips that broadcasts sex. Even the way Declan stands implies that he could make me scream in seconds. Rathlin doesn't ooze sex like my Alexandrite king, but he has a similar look about him. The fiery hair, sensual lips, elegant hands, and broad shoulders topping a lean but powerful body. I love a man with a lot of bulk to him, it makes me feel delicate, but there's something to be said for a sleek lover who knows how to use his body to his best advantage... and to yours. Rath has a physique that's ready to please and those molten gold eyes of his don't hurt either. He looks too hot to touch but completely worth the burn.
“Hello, Rathlin.” I smiled softly as I realized that despite his blatant sex appeal, I didn't want to have sex with him.
I don't know why I doubted myself or my love for my men. Our relationships were too strong for me to be tempted by a gorgeous phoenix.
“Hello, Elaria.” Rathlin slid off the bed and stepped forward to take my hand. “Shall we? I don't think it would be wise to linger here.”
“Of course. Oh, Darc and Torin are waiting for us, they want to talk to you.”
“They wish to warn me off their wife?” He lifted a teasing brow.
“No, it's something else. I'll tell you after we get to Kyanite.” I squeezed his hand as I directed our journey back through the Veil.
Shining One traveling stones have to pierce the Veil to work. In other words, they can't be used to travel around a single realm. I get around that by jumping back and forth between realms but in this instance, I didn't have to. I took Rath from Earth to Tír na nÓg, going through the Veil to get there. We appeared in a walled-in, garden courtyard. I used to train with Shavalina out in the knights' courtyard. It was a big, open space with targets we could use. But I'd developed enough control over my fire that I'd decided to use the garden instead.
Indigo stone cobbled a central, circular space with a ring of trimmed flower beds enclosing it. The environment was calming and just large enough to suit our needs. Also, it was private. Every time I'd trained with Shava, my Kyanite soldiers had come to watch. It's embarrassing enough to have a teacher see me fail but for my knights to see their queen lose control was ten times worse. So, I'd chosen this space, and I hoped Rath would be okay with it.
“Lovely,” Rathlin noted as he looked around the garden. “And I see you've brought in targets.”
Rathlin nodded at the metal and leather practice dummies I'd had made for my training. I didn't want to use the straw-filled ones the knights did; they wouldn't last more than one blast. These would, hopefully, survive a bit longer.
“Will this work?” I asked him.
“It should be more than adequate.” Then he spotted Torin and Darc, waiting near the arched garden entrance. “Your Majesties.” Rath respectfully bowed his head. “Queen Elaria mentioned that you wanted to speak with me.”
I lifted a brow at Rath's use of our titles, but my husbands seemed to appreciate it. It wasn't just about respect, it also put distance between us. I think it was Rathlin's way of letting my husbands know that he was there only in a professional capacity.
“We have a situation,” Torin started as he and Darc came over to us. “Elaria's friend, Cerberus, has asked for help in regards to...” Torin grimaced, struggling for a polite way to explain things.
“A Beneather crime syndicate is abducting Nymphs from Olympus, raping them, and selling them into slavery,” I summed it up.
Rathlin's eyes widened. “Nymphs? But Nymphs will...” he trailed off as he processed the horror of what I'd told him. “I see. How dastardly.”
“Indeed,” Darc agreed. “Although we sympathize with the Nymphs, we don't wish our wife to put herself into any situation that might result in a need for her to sing. Not without being certain that should her Fire arise, she can control it.”
“Ah,” Rath murmured. “You wish for me to train her and evaluate her.”
“We wish for you to train her un
til you believe she's ready to deal with her magic alone,” Torin amended. “We trust Elaria, we just don't trust her goddess magics.”
“That's right; you have two magics that have been returned to you,” Rathlin noted. “What about the Light? Do you have that under control?”
“Uh... yeah, I think so.”
Darc and Torin grimaced. No matter what Torin had said earlier, I knew that none of my men liked me being around Lucifer. Luci had promised to try to move past his feelings for me, but he wasn't there yet, and a man in love can be spontaneously dangerous. Whenever I brought up my need to train, my men had gone tense, likely thinking of all sorts of things they might do in Lucifer's place. Because of this tension, I hadn't trained—not with my Light or Fire—since I'd married Darcraxis. This would be my first lesson with Rathlin.
“You think so?” Rathlin huffed. “You have a special situation, Elaria. Light and Fire. I can help you with your fire, but judging from what Shava told me, I believe that you need to have control of your light before our training will be complete. You'd do better if Lucifer and I could train you together. The key is balancing your magic and learning how to access them all—Light, Fire, and Spellsong—at the same time.”
I looked at my husbands and watched as their jaws clenched. This was doubly rough for them because they had pushed for it and knew it was true. The ultimate goal was indeed to get all of my magic working together harmoniously.
“Lucifer will probably be too busy to come over right now,” I offered lamely.
“He could be in the middle of rebuilding his pearly gates, and he would still drop everything if you beckoned him.” Torin gave me a look that dared me to deny it.
I didn't.
“Oh, I see,” Rath drawled with a smirk my way. “The Queen of Kyanite has enthralled the God of the Angels.”
“That's putting it lightly,” Torin muttered.
“But we will all be here with her,” Rathlin pointed out reasonably, “and this is rather important. Can you not put aside your issues for your wife's sake?”
“Of course, we can,” Darc said immediately. “None of us have a problem with Lucifer; there is no issue. We just... he's just so...”
“Shiny.” Torin grimaced.
Rath chuckled and then abruptly stopped. “Oh, you're serious.”
“And he's always staring at her with his sparkly eyes,” Darc added. “It's unsettling.”
“Wow. Lucifer shines, sparkles, and stares. Yes, I can see how that would unsettle anyone,” Rath said sarcastically.
“It's the way he does those things in regards to Elaria.” Torin's expression hardened on the Phoenix. “I expect that you would feel different were Elaria yours.”
“I expect that I would,” Rath conceded with a hot look my way.
Torin and Darc both narrowed their eyes at Rath.
“So, should I contact Lucifer?” I asked before my husbands decided that Rathlin was as big a threat as Lucifer, and I lost both of my teachers.
My husbands exchanged a weighted look before nodding at me. I pulled out my contact charm from where it hung on a chain around my neck along with my traveling stone and slid the cone-shaped piece of polished barite into my ear.
I looked away from my husbands' penetrating stares as I called out, “Lucifer the Morning Star.”
I swallowed past my dry throat as I waited for Lucifer to answer. My heart began to pound and an epiphany blossomed in my mind. The reason I'd been so nervous about seeing Rath had nothing to do with the Phoenix; it was about Lucifer. I didn't want to like Luci, but the more time I spent around him, the more I found myself enjoying his odd humor and unwavering determination to move past the evil of his past and become a good leader for his people. And the more I liked him, the more attractive I found him.
I hadn't enjoyed Lucifer's masculine beauty at first. He was too androgynous for my tastes. Declan was about as pretty as I liked to go with men. But with his pale, glittering hair, flowing down his broad shoulders like spun starlight, and his deep indigo eyes with their sparkling striations, Lucifer literally outshone the Alexandrite King. Add to that his fluidly powerful body and a pair of shimmering wings sprinkled with stars and it became difficult to look at the god without feeling blasted by his beauty. But the more I got to know Lucifer, the less feminine he seemed and the more glaringly masculine. It was to the point that I couldn't believe I'd ever thought of him as androgynous.
I had been nervous about Rathlin because Lucifer had made me doubt myself and my love for my men. These weeks I'd been avoiding Lucifer had only made the memory of him stronger and what I'd once considered to be a light attraction and friendly affection had grown into something dangerous. It had thrived in complete darkness, without Lucifer's light to encourage it. Our separation had done what his ardent pursuit couldn't; it had made me think about Luci as more than a friend.
And those thoughts had led to subconscious self-contemplation. Deep within my mind, doubts had crested. What if I was a capricious woman whose affections wandered with the slightest breeze? Or what if RS had somehow changed me, altered me to constantly be on the lookout for new lovers to feed the spell? Rs had said that she was satisfied with the men we had, but I had also said that I had no interest in Lucifer and that had changed. What was there to stop RS from changing too? But Rathlin had proven all of my doubts false before I'd even realized that I'd had them. The RS hadn't changed; I wasn't tempted by every handsome man who sauntered past me. I was only tempted by the Devil himself.
No, that's a lie. The Devil was gone. I was tempted by the god he'd left behind. And that man was far harder to resist.
“Elaria,” Lucifer's low, soft tone sounded even more intimate coming from within my ear.
“How did you know it was me?” I asked.
“Who else would be contacting me through this charm?” He chuckled. “I doubt very much that any of your lovers would.”
“Fair enough.” I glanced at my husbands and took in their stern stares before I forged on. “I'm about to start training with Shava's brother, Rathlin, and he suggested that I work on both of my magics together. I know this is short notice but could you—”
“I'll be right there,” Lucifer cut me off.
“Are you sure?” I stammered. “You don't have Host business or anything? I don't want to—”
“I haven't seen you in months, my vicious,” Lucifer's voice held a note of reprimand. “I'll be right there.”
The charm went silent, and I pulled it out of my ear absently.
“He's on his way,” I told the others.
Before I finished speaking, a beam of light touched down in front of me and a body took shape within it. A winged body. The light faded as Lucifer's wings rustled down around him.
“Elaria,” Lucifer's voice, sweet as ambrosia, filled the courtyard along with his presence.
Sunlight warmed Lucifer's honey and cream skin and lit his hair. For a second, he seemed to glow from within, framed by feathered wings a shade darker than his hair, but then he stepped through the shaft of sunlight and his glory toned down a few notches. I inhaled deeply, suddenly remembering to breathe.
“I'm so glad you called,” the God of the Angels said as he took my hands. He leaned forward, his wings coming with him to surround us, and kissed my cheek. Then he whispered in my ear, “My memories don't do you justice. Seeing you makes my heart shiver.”
“You're supposed to be dialing back the affection,” I chided him as I pulled away. “We had an understanding.”
“I will not assume anything or impose myself on you if you do not distance yourself from me,” he repeated our oath solemnly. “But you have not held up your end of the agreement. You have distanced yourself from me and that means I am free to impose myself on you all that I want.”
“Lucifer,” I groaned as I pushed him away.
“You have called, and I am here, my vicious,” Lucifer held his arms out as his wings disappeared. “Can you not at least offer me a smidgen of
affection?”
“How did you know where to find us?” Torin interrupted our banter as he and Darc closed in. “How did you know precisely where within the castle we were?”
“I just focused on Elaria.” Lucifer shrugged.
Darc and Torin digested this tidbit with horrified expressions.
“You can find our wife simply by focusing on her?” Torin growled.
“I'm a god,” Lucifer said as if that explained everything.
From the look on Darc's face, it did.
“Um, Lucifer, this is Rathlin Aryana,” I said into the tense silence. “Rath, this is Lucifer.”
“Yes, we met at Elaria's wedding to Darcraxis,” Lucifer said convivially as he extended his hand.
“Of course,” Rath smiled and shook it. “Good to see you again.”