by Skye, Sariah
“Worried about what?” Trystan groused, running a hand over his face, trying to swipe away a guilty look on his face.
“Well first I was worried about Mordred. No one has seen him in about two hours,” Rhys began with a frown. He narrowed his eyes at us, tapping his finger on his chin thoughtfully. “But now I’m worried about you five. Like—I know you’re incubi and all but you can fucking smell the goddamn lust through the whole place. Thought I was going to go out of my mind! I didn’t realize all five of you were getting it on—damn I wish I’d been here for that!”
“—Rhys!” Mathias growled loudly, still trying to shield me from the wizard’s eyes who for once weren’t prying. He leaned over, and swiped up his pants discarded on the floor, and quickly pulled them on, as Bash and Xander did the same.
“Wait, what do you mean two hours? We’ve only been up here a few minutes?” Bash, looking guilty and sheepish avoided Xander’s gaze.
Rhys shook his head vehemently. “No way. I went upstairs to the room and just after I was settled in, Mordred said he was going down to discuss something with Percival for a few minutes. That was just as the sun was setting, and now it’s totally dark and has been for a while. What’s more, Percival hasn’t seen him either. What the hell?”
“Shite…” Trystan said under his breath.
Bash glared his steely eyes at him. “You aren’t shitting us? It feels like we just came up here.”
“I’m not! Now I see why, you’re under some sort of spell?”
“Spell?” I repeated uncertainly. “Are you sure?”
He cocked his head to the side and smirked smugly. “Ava, would your guys really do this otherwise? All five of you at the same time?”
I bit my lip and frowned but didn’t want to answer because I enjoyed it so damned much. “Well it wasn’t all of us at the same time…”
“He’s right, though,” Mathias said, with a sigh. He ran his hands through his hair, pulling it out of his eyes to regard each of us, cheeks flaming when he realized I was completely naked. He reached for a nearby scratchy blanket and set it over me, positioning it over my chest until my arms folded over myself to hold it.
“Come on, now, it’s no big deal,” I insisted defensively, noticing the guys all suddenly seemed very bashful. Even Xander and Bash who were used to things like this. “I mean—think. If we’re going to be together for a long time, there’s going to be long times where I can’t… you know… knock boots. Who else are you going to do it with?”
“Uh, my hand, lassie,” Trystan quipped dryly. I rolled my eyes at him.
“She’s not wrong. But… we were just talking about it and decided no, not yet,” Bash said, shaking his head. “If it was a spell…”
“A lust spell?” Rhys supplied. “It had to be, just encouraged the lust you already had for Ava in order to distract you.”
“From what though?” Mathias demanded crossly.
“I don’t know,” Rhys said, sighing. “Normally I’d be all ‘damn look at this’ but even I know this is weird as shit so I’m worried now.”
“Fuck. It had to be Nimue!” Bash suddenly stood, wringing out his hands and scowling. He leaned over the bed and found my shirt, tossing it to me. Mathias helped me put it reluctantly back on. “Fuck. She did it again! How…?”
“I’m not sure how. Who was the last person in this room besides you guys?” Trystan asked, glowering.
Bash frowned. He glanced at the wizard hesitantly, like he didn’t want to answer.
“Well?” Trystan prompted.
“Uh… it was Mordred. Mordred was the one to show us the room,” Bash replied, shaken. Rhys’ eyes grew big as saucers.
“No… it couldn’t be. That means—”
“He wouldn’t have done that,” I said helplessly. “Right?” I asked worried at Rhys’ destroyed reaction.
“Who else could it be? Percival?” Mathias asked, and Bash shook his head.
“No, Mordred was the last person here,” Bash said, with a frown. “And… if that’s the case…”
“—it means Mordred is a traitor.” Rhys’ lower lip trembled, and my heart nearly shattered for him. “He tricked me. He was bad after all…”
Chapter Forty
“We don’t know for sure yet, Rhys.” Mathias, in a surprising show of sympathy after we were all dressed and cleaned up, set a hand between Rhys’ shoulder blades. Rhys looked up at him through teary, brown eyes, just before he fell to his knees. We were so upset over the news of Mordred being a double-crosser we didn’t stop to think how embarrassed we were.
“No…”
Swallowing hard, I was still stuck in the throes of lust but watching Rhys, who was normally perky and light all the time turn despaired was enough to break that spell. The guys stepped aside, while avoiding the others’ gazes, and I joined Rhys on the floor. My orgasmic high was replaced with despair, and I barely even flinched when I realized I was a bit sore.
“Hey… really. We don’t know. It could be just a coincidence. Something could have been there all along,” I said quietly, reaching out and placing my hand on his arm. Rhys’ lip trembled as curled his arms over his knees, hugging them into his chest, his long hair falling over his shoulders.
“Who else could it be?” he asked, in a small voice.
“Ava’s right, it could be a coincidence,” Bash said, and I tossed him an appreciative smile over my shoulder. The four of them had moved to a different corner of the room each, and were ignoring each other as well as the unspoken elephant in the room.
Rhys sniffed and I felt my heart sink; he looked so much like a broken-hearted child and not like the powerful, snarky wizard I’d grown to like so much. He wiped his nose and eyes with the back of his hand, grimacing at it when he pulled it away and rubbed it on his shirt. “Ew, gross,” he complained, with a light smirk at me. “I guess you’re right. I just…”
“I know, you’re vulnerable because you care. I know exactly how you feel,” I said, placing my hand on his shoulder, giving him a look of knowing and sympathy.
He nodded slowly, before clearing his throat, and swiping his hands over his hair, smoothing it down over his shoulders. He stood, turned up his nose and grinned impishly. “Well, sorry to interrupt. I am sorry I missed this, damn…”
I shot him a dirty look in reply.
“So what now?” Trystan inquired.
“And how do you know it was a spell for sure? Maybe we were just… really horny?” Xander suggested, but his skeptic expression meant he didn’t really believe that.
“There’s horny and then there was—whatever the fuck that was,” Trystan pointed out with a cynical chuckle.
“Hey, if it was Nimue, really she did us a favor,” Xander said, as Mathias gave him a strange look. “After all, I mean… were about to go to war. And we now have full strength from Ava. All of us, at once. Who cares if we saw… things? It was bound to happen eventually.”
We all tittered noises of reluctant agreement.
“I’m guessing if you scour the room, you’ll find some sort of spelled crystals,” Rhys suggested, with a shrug. “Just my guess.”
“Probably a good guess too.” Bash agreed.
Mathias nodded. “Okay. Ava, Rhys, Bash and Xander—you stay here. I’ll get Lachlan for his invisibility in case we need it. Trystan and I will head out and try to find Mordred.” The group agreed and he and Trystan gave me quick pecks on the cheek before they left.
“We should talk to Percival,” Bash said, and Xander nodded. He flicked his head at Rhys.
“We’ll get that. You and Ava look for the spells.”
“Sounds good.” Tasks were delegated, and Xander departed with a wink, Rhys had teleported out a split second after him. Bash and I were left alone once again in the room, looking sheepishly at each other.
“So, uh…” Bash stammered, red-faced, reaching around to rub the back of his neck awkwardly. “How do you feel?”
I cocked a brow and a smile. “A bit
sore. But… really good,” I admitted, my grin widening.
“We didn’t push you—” He began, and I leaned in, cutting off his insecure words with a light kiss.
“No. Spell or not, I’ll be dreaming about this for years to come.” I placed a hand on his rough cheek, gazing up at him with sincerity. “Sebastian… why? Does it really matter? If we’re going to be together—all of us—don’t you think things like that might happen after a while? I mean, if we’re alive as long as Mathias, the four of you screwing the same woman for millennia has got to get boring. Because,” I said, shaking a finger at him, “you’re not allowed to screw anyone else.”
Bash’s mouth pulled into a half frown, half smirk. “I… don’t even want to think about it.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned into him, snaking my arms around his waist for a hug.
“Maybe I’ll just get something like a Buzz for myself,” he said, with an evil grin. I slapped him playfully in the arm. “Besides, if we were able to do each other, what would we need you for?” My gaze flicked upward and met Bash’s impish, steely-eyed stare. He smirked gently, laughing as he bent over to brush his lips over my cheek.
“Okay, fair enough,” I responded, “but do you get energy from each other?”
“Well, no, but…”
“Ah-ha. So you’ll need me anyway.” I winked at him, slapped him playfully in the chest and spun out of his arms. “Now what exactly are we looking for?”
Bash chuckled, scrubbing his hand over his face as he grinned. “Well the crystal Nimue used before was a dark, smoky crystal. Like a quartz.”
“So, we look for one of those?”
“Or a few of them.”
“Hmm,” I said, setting my hands on my hips and tapping my foot thoughtfully. “I don’t’ suppose you can just do your Superman x-ray shit and pick them out that way?”
“Not so much. I need to know what I’m looking for before I look for it,” he replied, and I grumbled but nodded.
The room obviously wasn’t very big and there weren’t many places to look: under the bed, in the corners, along the windowsill, on the lone table, the fireplace and even on our own persons. We turned up nothing. The others still hadn’t returned even though it hadn’t taken long to search the room so it wasn’t surprising.
Dejected, I sighed and flung myself on the bed, wincing when something sharp jabbed me in the back. Again. “Oh hell, really?”
“What?”
“Excalibur. Give it,” I demanded, and Bash handed me the sword that rested on the ground. With the hilt in my hand I willed blade into a shiv and sliced into the linen that covered the bed. Bash reached a hand in, and pulled out a long, dark-colored crystal with a sharp point. Dark pink swirled inside of it, and Bash narrowed his eyes to look at it closer as I set the blade on the bed.
“Fuck. Yeah, this is a lust spell all right,” Bash said, with a growl.
“How can you tell?” I asked, his eyes still slits, like he was watching intently.
“Oh. Well, I recognize the shadow magic from seeing Mordred use it. The lust part sort of resembles what you give off, and the Avalon magic,” he said, winking at me. “There are other parts I don’t recognize, but all together it’s not a hard spell to do for an experienced alchemist. It could be what she used your blood for, actually. To tune it into you, and since we’re tuned into you sexually…”
“Shit.” I frowned deeply. “You know… I know we keep assuming it’s Nimue. Does anyone know anything about her spell making skills?”
“The only one that would, would be Lachlan, I assume,” Bash said, shrugging.
“Yeah, but we do know one who does have skills besides you?”
“Mordred. Fuck… Maybe we were swindled by him.”
“Or maybe Nimue is fooling us into believing that.” I groaned, throwing up my hands up in frustration. “I really don’t get this shit, it’s making me mad!”
He nodded in agreement. “For now, though, until we know for sure, do not let on that we suspect anything once we find him.”
“Yeah, okay.” I shook my head, grimacing. “Man, poor Rhys. He was really getting into him too.”
“Eh, he’ll be all right,” Bash said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. He rolled into the bed next to me, still palming the crystal. He linked his arm with mine and rested his head on my shoulder. “Man, I’m suddenly exhausted.”
I echoed with a yawn myself. Now that we realized we’d been under a spell, while the arousal wasn’t gone, it took a back seat to the fatigue. “Let’s take a nap, huh?”
“Sounds good to me,” Bash agreed, as he started to slump down in the bed, pulling me along with him. Before we could get comfortable, the door opened, slamming against the wall with a loud crash. I let out a sharp scream and Bash pulled me into him, tensing dramatically.
“Change of plans, luvs,” Trystan said gruffly, storming in the room, the shadows from the candles and oil lamps on the wall emphasizing his glower. “Weapon up, we’re going out.”
“What? Why?” I demanded, as Trystan opened up my pack and began pulling out clothing for me, tossing them on the bed.
“There’s been an attack.”
“Fuck. Where?” Bash asked, quick to jump into action. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Cadbury Village.”
“Cadbury—that’s where we just were.” Bash’s mouth dropped open in horror. I shuddered, feeling his tension at the news.
“Aye. They were punished.”
“Punished?”
“By Nimue. For harboring rebels and assisting us by giving shelter,” Trystan replied dourly. “It’s hard to tell, but many were hurt.”
“Hurt?”
“Innocent people, Ava. Mums and their babes, just ripped out of their homes and tossed out onto the road.” Trystan’s general jovial expression was straight and grim. I pressed my hand to my mouth to cover my whimper.
“Oh god…”
“What can we do?” Bash asked. Trystan nodded to me.
“They need Avalon. They need you, Ava. They need to see that where Arthur failed them, Avalon will not.” Trystan frowned, shaking his head, like he was pushing away the vision of a horrible sight in his mind. His green eyes shimmered with emotion that bubbled under the surface, the Scot skirted a hand out, and brushed his fingers over my cheek with affection.
I placed my palm over his and squeezed, with a nod.
“Any sight of Mordred?” Bash inquired, and Trystan turned with eyes narrow as he growled.
“No. No sign of him,” Trystan spoke, with a defeated sigh.
“I can’t believe he’d turn on us, there’s no way,” I protested, shaking my head severely.
“All the evidence points to it… but…” Bash said, unconvinced. “I don’t know who else could have planted the crystals. There’s been no sign of Nimue here, and besides us, and Mordred, no one has seen the crystals.”
“But—” I protested, as Trystan set a hand on my shoulder.
“Maybe we’re mistaken. For now, let’s go see what can be done at the village,” he said, and I nodded in agreement.
“If we can help in any way, it’ll help our mission in the long run. If they see we aren’t evil like Arthur says, it could help support,” Bash explained.
I nodded with determination at him. I flung out my hand, opened my palm, and willed Excalibur to it. With a quick whoosh I felt the heated metal in my hand, its presence now a resolute comfort. I lifted it before me and with a twisted grin, I triumphantly watched it shift into its full blade form and light up the room with its golden magic. Trystan and Bash nodded, both of them giving me proud smiles of approval as we began to change clothes and prepare.
“Let’s do what Avalon does best,” I said, with a gentle snicker at them. “Start spreading the love. And if that doesn’t work, time to kick some ass.”
Chapter Forty-One
Mathias held his hand down to me as I hesitantly gazed at the large brown and white horse he sat upon. “C
ome on, Ava. He won’t hurt you.”
Stubbornly, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Nope. Not happening.”
“Och, come on, Avie,” Trystan quipped, flashing me a naughty grin. “If your arse hurts after, I’ll rub it for you.”
Mathias slowly turned to glare at the eagle shifter who was petting the long nose of Mathias’ horse. Trystan responded only with a naughty grin and a wink in my direction.
“Laugh now, eagle-man. You’re the one that gets to avoid this and fly, you fucker,” I scolded, throwing him a dirty look. “I think I’ll just have Rhys teleport me, thanks.”
“Nope, Rhys is saving his magic since he hasn’t slept yet so he is riding with all of you to conserve magic.” Rhys’ white horse trotted around us slowly, and Rhys rode effortlessly. His eyes were still bloodshot and cheeks flushed, but he had set aside his sadness for now and wore a determined look on his face.
“I’ll walk,” I said, grimacing.
“Aw come on, luv,” Trystan said, patting the large animal on the nose, as it knickered and bobbed his head. “Save this guy from Mathias’ sweaty balls.”
I stifled a laugh as Mathias shot him a murderous look. “I do not have sweaty balls.”
“That’s not what he says,” Trystan replied in a mocking tone.
“Why you fucking—” Mathias began, appearing that he was going to swiftly jump off the horse and wring Trystan’s neck, but Trystan shifted into his eagle and flew up into the air. “Goddammit…” the former gladiator was left to grouse. Sighing, he reached out his hand to me again, puffing out his lower lip and giving me wide, sad puppy-dog eyes. I let out a quiet whine, and another as Mathias ran a hand through his hair, shooting me a sultry stare as the strands fell back into his forehead again. My heart fluttered and I whimpered.
“You dick. Using my weakness against me,” I protested, reluctantly setting my hand in his. With a swift yank he pulled me up and with two hands situated me on the extremely large animal in front of him.
“I do what I have to,” Mathias said, with a soft chuckle. “Slide back some,” he instructed, as I awkwardly scooted back on the hard leather saddle, flinching at the dull ache between my legs as I was still sore, and unnaturally spread apart to ride the horse. But as I slid back far enough until my ass came flush with Mathias’ crotch, I smiled wryly in surprise, cocking my head to the side. This might not be so bad after all.