Invincible: The Curse of Avalon #4

by Skye, Sariah

  “Aye, how can you tell? Edge of the kingdom,” I responded, trying to keep my accent controlled, so not to stand out anymore than we already did.

  The barkeep just eyed us and scoffed with amusement. “What can I do for you?”

  “We need boarding. Do you have anything?” Bash inquired, as the barkeep took a good, long look at Xander hesitantly.

  He frowned imperceptibly; this was essentially medieval Britain. An Asian dude probably was going to stand out pretty well. Xander was used to it, though, and just brushed his hair out of his forehead and held his head high. Cocky bastard…

  The barkeep sighed. “We only have two rooms, and one is occupied. But you’re welcome to it until the storm is passed. First room top of the stairs.”

  “Aye,” I said, nodding my head politely at him, and with our packs we made our way up the narrow staircase, with the stairs that creaked and groaned with every damned step. “Bloody hell these damned stairs sound about how I feel.” Bash snorted in reply, slapping my arm.

  “Let’s just get in and get some fucking sleep. Though…” Xander said, scowling at the both of us. “Not looking forward to sleeping next to you assholes. Or on the floor.”

  “We’ve been spoiled. Much better cuddling up with a hot, naked blonde, eh?” I commented, with a wiggle of my brow.

  “You can say that again. But it’s only for a night, right? Maybe by tomorrow this will all be behind us,” Bash sighed, slumping his shoulders.

  “We can hope,” Xander added.

  “Aye. Let’s see what fresh hell awaits us, laddies, eh?” I put my hand on the handle and proceeded to push in the door…

  …and was met with the sight of two gentlemen in a very…ah… amorous position, pants down around the ankles, shirtless doing… well I didn’t want to go into what they were doing.

  My mouth fell open when I realized who it was. “Rhys?”

  “Oh shit!” Rhys turned around red-faced. I shielded my eyes with my hand, looking away as he and Mordred scrambled to pull up their pants.

  “Rhys is there—oh shit… and…” Xander said, smirking, peeking around my shoulder. And released a very high pitched, wild laugh that was pretty fuckin’ strange sounding considering how deep his voice normally was.

  “Uh… hello?” Mordred was red-faced, scrambling to hide and or dress—I really didn’t get a good enough look. Nor did I want to.

  “I don’t want to know.” I quickly slammed the door shut, cringing. Ideally it’d be the perfect revenge for all the times he peeped on us but right now? I just didn’t want to deal.

  Really I didn’t give a rat’s arse about who wanted to shag who, or what they had in their damned pants. I just didn’t want to see it. Really. Unless it involved Ava, maybe…

  “That was something I didn’t expect, totally,” Xander mused.

  “That was something I didn’t want to see,” I grumbled, pounding on the door again. “If you’re going to be foolin’ around, keep quiet, I want to sleep!”

  “Yes, Daddy!” Rhys quipped from the other side of the door.

  “Bloody hell…” I slapped my hand over my face, shaking my head reproachfully as I followed the other two into the empty room. I frowned upon looking at the “humble” digs. “Just like home… hundreds of years ago,” I said, scowling at the straw “bed," the single plate glass window, and the small fireplace along the wall. And that was it.

  “Hey, at least we’re faring better than Mathias and Ava,” Bash insisted. “They’re in a damned cave.”

  I gave him a dirty look. “Really? You know exactly what they’re doing in that cave.”

  “Oh yeah. Well now I feel dejected…”

  “Aye.” I slipped off my pack and tossed it on the ground, sliding against the wall to my arse. I couldn’t wait to get home. My damned cock was stuck in between hard—thinking of Ava—and completely limp, never hoping to get it up again—thinking of Rhys. This was going to be a long fucking night.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Mathias

  “Sebastian, I’m going to fucking kill you,” I groused, trudging through the deep snow that continued to pile up under my feet. It was so much, so deep, and so windy that I could barely make it through. I still carried probably a hundred pounds or more worth of gear, plus our beautiful, knocked out fiancé in my arms as I progressed through the woods in the direction of the caves.

  Rhys was supposed to come with us, but he and Mordred got separated. Bash must have downplayed the effectiveness of his dragon-friend’s magic. He’d apparently been able to duplicate quite a bit of it, and with Xander’s help, and Trystan’s strategic placing of various crystals and whatever the fuck that devious man did all over Camelot, the storm we’d summoned as a “disguise” to hide us when we came over was way more effective than it should have been.

  I hated leaving Ava out of the plan; we’d discussed it while she and Trystan were upstairs “packing,” but between her and Mordred, we weren’t quite sure who had a connection with Nimue. How the hell had she been able to breach the wards? I doubted Ava had anything to do with it, but until we better understood the secrets of that damned golden, shape-shifting sword with an apparent attitude, we thought it better to keep some of our plans secret. If Nimue had a connection to any of us, or had anything left behind, us opening the portal and entering Camelot was basically like knocking on the door.

  The storm wasn’t supposed to be more than an hour’s worth of light to steady snow, providing us with just enough cover to get in unseen, and bury our tracks in case of patrols who could follow us. Bash’s idea. The man was beyond genius when it came to things like strategy and potions. We were all supposed to meet by the caves, but evidently? That wasn’t happening.

  Perhaps this is what we got for trying to be secretive. It was for Ava’s good just as much as ours. The less she knew, the less vulnerable she was. Hopefully they’d make it to the nearby village instead of being out in the frozen woods.

  I ducked my head, raising my hand to my forehead in attempt to block out the little needles of ice that fell in a straight line like a shot from the sky. Squinting, I could barely see the rock formation of a cave entrance in the distance.

  Clutching Ava tighter to me, I pulled the jacket I wore tighter around us. I was an oven, but I could feel Ava shivering even being pinned against me. It was strange how, even as a cambion, she didn’t seen to get many of our characteristics. We weren’t exactly impervious to cold, but we could last a lot longer without hypothermia. And hypothermia wouldn’t kill us, but it’d be very uncomfortable until we thawed.

  She wasn’t supposed to get hurt, and I have no idea how it happened except that’s just how strong the storm was. I was definitely going to kill that alchemist asshole when I encountered him next. Whatever he did was way too strong. Clearly he didn’t realize his own strength now that he was a siphon sorcerer now.

  I hastened my speed as much as I could and arrived at the cave just before the snow seemed to pick up even more. I’d dealt with my share of blizzards. I’d lived all over Europe, New York City in the 1700 and 1800s, and Minnesota since the 1940s. I remembered well one of the biggest blizzard in the state’s history, Halloween 1991. That was fucking terrible. Snow so high we couldn’t even open the door.

  Shaking my head reproachfully, I ducked through the precarious entrance, frowning for two reasons. One, I realized that my damned girlfriend wasn’t even born to witness that storm. Her life had only been a small blip in history, but it just proved her impact. In this short time, she’d become the most important person in my—all—of our lives.

  Two, I despised the notion of being in another cave after years of trying to avoid them. I shuddered myself, an image of a cold, empty cave blared into my vision. During my many years of immortal life, I frequently went catatonic. Since I couldn’t die, if I didn’t eat or drink, I’d essentially slow down but still be aware of everything around me on a subconscious level. It was… bizarre as hell. I didn’t relish being in o
ne again. The hard ground, the dampness, and the disconcerting echo I positively dreaded. A part of me wanted to be sick at the idea.

  I didn’t have time for that, though. I had to take care of Ava.

  There was a slight, narrow corridor that lead to a wide opening. In the distance I could hear a fresh water spring, but for now this area was good enough. Far enough away from the cold of the storm, close enough to the water.

  I started to carefully set Ava on the cold ground, but the moment I started to pull away, she swiped out, and moaned.

  “Don’t go…” she said in a shaky, sleepy voice. I didn’t think she was coherent, but my heart fluttered, realizing that even in her dreams she called out for me.

  So, I sat on the ground, still holding her, until I could shift her comfortably in my lap, and waited out the cold. Despite how much I hated caves, didn’t really care for snow, it wasn’t so bad as long as I had her.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “Ava?”

  I groaned loudly, cringing at the surprising absence of noise, and the pulsing hammer banging inside my head. I tried to pry my eyes open, but the gritty, sandy feeling in them prevented me from doing so.

  “Ava, my love, are you okay?” Mathias’ deep voice inquired with concern. I breathed in deeply, noticing his familiar scent of ancient earth and tried to shift slightly, realizing that I was sort of wrapped up in a ball.

  “Mathias? What did you say?” I asked, bewildered, finally able to pry an eye open, and I peered blearily at his handsome face, complete with bright red cheeks and a deep furrow of his forehead.

  His lips slid into a gentle smirk as he leaned over to kiss my forehead. “No, I said ‘my love, are you okay?’” I noticed that he was cradling me against him; I was curled up in somewhat of a fetal position against his expansive chest, and though his body heat felt like the Mojave desert in the middle of the day, I still shuddered and trembled from cold.

  Mathias regarded me with a gentle smile in the dim light as he looked me over. “How are you feeling?”

  “How—how should I be feeling?” I asked, confused, shifting position slightly and flinching violently at the pain in my neck and my head. “Oh fuck that hurts. What happened? Where’s everyone else?” I asked in a sudden panic, trying to look around but the sharp stabbing sensation in my neck stopped me, and I whimpered quietly.

  “Storm worsened. The wind whipped and howled so loudly we stumbled and got separated. If I wasn’t holding on to you, you probably would have too,” Mathias explained, with a deep frown.

  “Oh shit.” I tried to sit up once again but whined at the pain. “You have no idea where they are?”

  Mathias moved, parting his legs and re-positioning me carefully so I sat on his left thigh and my legs kicked over the other, and he kept his arms tight around me and that’s when I realized everything was incredibly dark. Eerily dark except for an LED flashlight that sat nearby. It was damp, and our voices echoed quietly off the walls. “Where are we?”

  “That cave Mordred mentioned,” Mathias said. “I assumed the others would find their ways here eventually, but it’s been several hours and no sign of them. They probably made their way to that village Mordred mentioned. Hopefully he and Rhys were able to teleport them there.”

  “Several hours?” I repeated in horror. “What happened? How did I miss all that time?”

  “You were hit in the back of the head by a hard ball of ice. Maybe it was a full-on rock, I can’t be sure, but it was enough to knock you out.” He traced a fingertip along the length of my cheek, brushing it over my bottom lip that I noticed felt very dry and I realized I was very thirsty. He anticipated my needs, and produced an open canteen. I took it and sipped carefully, not sure how much water we had or how much we’d need. We were immortal, obviously, so a little dehydration wouldn’t kill us, but it would weaken incredibly. We didn’t need that right now.

  “Take what you need. There is a spring in the cave not far,” Mathias urged, setting his hand on the bottom of the canteen, urging me to take more. The cool liquid felt euphoric on my dry lips and rough throat and when I’d had my fill, I pulled away and sighed.

  “Thank you.” He took a long drink himself and set it aside.

  “So we have no idea where anyone else is?” I asked, worried. “Oh my god—my dad!” Awkwardly I tried to stand, distraught at the notion of my father, unhealed out there in this storm.

  He set his large hands on my arms, urging me to stay put. “I have every reason to believe that Trystan or Rhys made it to him, Avie. Remember, Rhys and Mordred can teleport, we just didn’t want them to be left alone or vulnerable. We agreed that we were safer together, but apparently someone else had other ideas,” he said sourly.

  “Someone else?”

  “Um… well…” Mathias stammered, laughing quietly as a hand slid through his hair, tugging it back.

  “Nimue,” I growled under my breath, through a clenched jaw. “It was a trap after all.”

  “Maybe,” Mathias replied, with a sigh, tossing his head back to flick the wind tousled hair out of his eyes again that seemed to be really annoying him. It was pushed forward like it’d been wetted down and matted flat, and he raked his fingers through repeatedly to push it back. “Dammit, this is ridiculous. I should just cut all of this off,” he groused. I tittered a giggle at his annoyance at his hair. I lifted my hand and ran my fingers through it, leaving it on top of his head to keep it out of his face.

  “Better?”

  He laughed gently. “Yeah. Of all things to be worried about right now, huh?” He rolled his eyes at his own stupidity.

  I pulled the elastic out of my hair that held my disheveled ponytail up, gathered what I could of his together and wrapped it around. He snickered, some of it was too short to fit but it kept the majority out of his eyes. “There. Now you can see.”

  “Stars above…” he mumbled, scoffing at himself. I sighed, letting my hand fall, trailing my fingertips over the side of his cheek and along the length of his chiseled jaw. He trembled slightly, and it wasn’t from the cold. Though, I still shivered.

  “How long before we can leave, you think?” I continued to brush my fingers over his cheek and over the length of his neck and over his thick Adam’s apple, for some reason touching him like that helped to ground and center me, because I knew if I thought about it much, I was going to lose my shit or freeze to death. Either one.

  “Last I looked it’s still coming down pretty hard. It’ll be a hard trek to the castle once it’s over. I can carry you easily, that’s no problem, but through ice and snow it’ll slow me some,” he said wryly. “In the meantime I just hope that everyone else is together and okay. With luck, hopefully Rhys made it to Lachlan, and if they didn’t kill each other, he got a chance to heal your dad.”

  I laughed shortly. “Yeah, that’ll happen.”

  He arched a brow. “I think it would, actually. As much as he dislikes Lachlan, he cares about you, and I think he’d do it for that reason alone.”

  I nodded slowly, releasing a breath, leaning back and settling into him. I grabbed his arms and wrapped them tighter around me, nestling my head into his chest, hearing his strong heart thud against my ear. “Fuck, it’s cold,” I said, my teeth chattering somewhat.

  “Cold?” Mathias set a hand on my forehead, eyeing me curiously as he moved his palm to my cheek. “You feel like you’re on fire?”

  “Probably because I’ve been touching you, handsome, and you are all like about a thousand degrees all the time. It’s got to be an incubus thing I think,” I contemplated aloud.

  “Must be. After all, who wants to lie with a frozen demon?” Mathias replied, with a snicker, and I replied with a giggle of my own.

  “I wouldn’t mind as long as it was you,” I said with a smirk.

  “Is that so?”

  I tittered a light laugh. “Okay so I’d have about fifty blankets around me, but it’d be worth it.” Lazily, I traced my fingers over the ridges of his stomach o
ver the cotton of his tight t-shirt, enjoying the way he tensed as he held his breath like he was enamored by my touch alone. He watched intently as my hand slowly trailed upward to his chest that vibrated with a low groan, and it was hard to tell in this dark, but I was pretty sure his eyes were rimmed with crimson.

  “Ava…” he said slowly, grasping my hand in his when we our brief exchange of lust was cut short, startled by a noisy roaring that echoed through the cave chambers.

  “The fuck?” I squeaked, nervous at the sound. Mathias was on guard and held me tight against him. His eyebrow raised and his chiseled jaw clenched as he sat up straighter, listening intently.

  “I think it’s just the storm. But just in case…” He stood slowly and set me down on my feet carefully. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded slowly, and he began to step back. Without his stability, I felt the room spin—quite a feat since I could barely see the cave—and he was quick to grab onto me once again.

  “Whoa, easy there,” he mumbled with concern, pulling me against him again. With a groan, I set my cheek and ear on his chest, hoping to drown out the sound of the incessant roaring with the sound of his beating heart instead.

  “Guess I’m not as okay as I thought,” I replied with a grumble. With a sigh, I felt him nod.

  “No, I guess not.” Mathias carefully lowered me to a sitting position. “Hang tight for a moment.” Woozily I opened my eyes and watched him as he rummaged through the heavy packs he carried, unrolling what I assumed was a bedroll and blankets. He kicked aside rocks and debris on the ground and spread the roll and blankets in the spot. “Here, this should be more comfortable.” Without waiting for me to stand, he gripped me gently over the arms, and lifted me completely effortlessly and set me gingerly on the spread of blankets. At one time I would have been offended by the overbearing implication that I couldn’t do for myself. But those days were long, long gone. It was nice to allow someone to care for me; especially someone that loved me like Mathias did.