by Lexi C. Foss
I again tried to sever it, using my power to attack the bond and freezing when Aflora shrieked below me in pain.
Her eyes flew open, meeting my gaze at the same time. Her lips parted. Mine curled into a snarl. “What did you do?” I demanded.
Because I could see in her gaze that she knew something.
Panic and horror and fear all mingled in her expression at once.
Her lips moved without sound.
Her pupils flared.
“What the fuck did you do?” I repeated, going to my elbows on either side of her head. Our bodies were still joined below, my cock still pulsing inside her. But fury overrode the rapturous oblivion, my mind catching up with the sensation pulsating in my heart. “How?”
“I-I don’t know,” she sputtered. “I... It shouldn’t...”
I recoiled from her, going to my knees on the bed and realizing with disgust what we’d just done. “Fuck!” She’d bonded me. Not as a Midnight Fae, but as an Elemental Fae. I could feel the ivy of her earth magic tightening around me, suffocating my connection to the source and drowning me in an essence I didn’t want. “Get rid of it. Sever it. Remove it.”
“I-I can’t,” she stammered, her expression one of astute horror. “It’s the third level.”
“What?” I knew how Elemental Fae bonds worked. There were four levels, the first two breakable and the third... not. It marked us as betrothed. Until the final ceremony that forever joined two Elemental Fae souls. “That’s fucking impossible.” It required agreement by both parties, unlike Midnight Fae bonds that could be completely one-sided when driven by the male.
“I don’t—”
“How the fuck did this happen?” I shouted, springing off the bed and trying to get as far away from her as possible. “How did you trick me?”
“I didn’t!”
“The hell you didn’t,” I snapped, starting to pace. “I wouldn’t bond you willingly.” I had a duty to my kingdom, to my people, that always came first. And I knew better than to allow an Earth Fae to initiate a fucking mating bond.
I was the future king.
A royal.
A damn powerful Midnight Fae.
“You tricked me somehow,” I accused her.
I just didn’t know how or when. Perhaps it’d all been a ploy from the beginning. A ruse to seduce me into something wicked. That would explain the pull.
“Was this your plan all along?” I demanded as another thought quickly followed, one that threatened to pull me into a murderous state. “Did Shade put you up to this?”
“What? No!”
“Then why would you do this? Are you working with him? Trying to bring shame to my family? To me? To destroy my reign before it even begins?”
Her lower lip wobbled, her blue eyes spitting fire as she scrambled upward on the bed. “Fuck you, Kols!”
“Been there, done that, princess,” I retorted, livid with myself for my stupidity. I gripped the back of my neck, took in the sight on the bed again, and turned away before I did something idiotic like light it on fire. “Get out.” The words slipped from my lips before I could take them back. Then it struck me how right the demand was, how much I needed her to leave right this fucking second before I killed her.
Because that was the immediate solution—her death.
It’d break the bond.
It’d shatter Shade.
It’d be a fitting punishment for all parties involved, myself included because I suspected losing her would hurt me as well, thanks to this foreign shit she’d put inside my chest.
I growled and palmed my pec. “Fucking get out, Aflora,” I demanded, needing her as far away from me as possible before I did something I couldn’t take back.
“And go where?” she asked, her voice suddenly much quieter than before.
The temptation to look at her, to apologize, hit me so swiftly that I snarled. Because fuck that. She didn’t deserve my concern. She’d trapped me in her forbidden web and ensured I couldn’t leave without significant pain to us both!
I hated her.
Loathed her fucking existence.
Wished I’d never met her.
“Get out!” I shouted, uncaring of how deranged I sounded. Molten lava boiled in my veins, my power increasing by the second. If she didn’t fucking leave, I’d explode and she’d bear the brunt of that eruption.
Her sob pierced my ears.
I ignored her.
Too focused on the mounting anger threatening to shred us both.
I barely noticed her running past me in a pair of pants and a shirt, didn’t once consider how she’d dressed so quickly, and instead knelt on the floor to unleash the power that threatened my very existence. Flames erupted throughout every inch of her room, destroying the evidence of our fucking, and eating through all her belongings in a thorough sweep of power.
Objects could be replaced.
I’d figure it out later.
When I could properly think again.
“Fuck!” I bellowed, red flames encircling me and spiraling and screeching across the room. A blast of power slammed the door to keep it from spreading through the suite, leaving me trapped inside the raging inferno.
I welcomed the heat.
The punishment for my actions.
And crumpled into a broken pile of guilt and sorrow.
Not just because I’d let the Midnight Fae down, and my parents, but Aflora as well.
I deserved to burn.
I welcomed the pain.
“Destroy me,” I demanded, my forehead meeting the ground. “Just fucking destroy me.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aflora
Hot.
I felt too hot.
Like a volcano on the verge of an eruption.
Heat simmered beneath my skin, inching through my veins, causing me to sweat as I ran aimlessly through the midnight air.
Get out.
Fucking get out.
Kols’s fury pierced my heart, his anger a brand lashing at my heart with each step.
I could feel his ire, his anger, his blame.
But I hadn’t meant for this to happen, didn’t understand how it was even possible. He’s not an Elemental Fae, I thought for the thousandth time. I can’t bond with him. Yet I felt the unmistakable connection tying us together. We’d skipped levels one and two and blasted straight to the third, our link resolute.
Breaking it would be impossible outside of death.
As if the fae required another reason to kill me.
I need to get out of here, I thought, spinning in a circle somewhere outside of the Academy walls. I’d gone through the open gate, uncertain of my destination, and now I had no clue where I was. A stupid move born of emotional turmoil.
How could a beautiful moment go so wrong?
Kols’s essence still warmed my thighs, his seed dampening my core.
Mother Earth, that man could move. He’d taken me to a state of incomprehension. Only to be destroyed by fate showing her ugly head.
It left me mated to two Midnight Fae.
I screamed an incoherent word into the void of darkness around me. There wasn’t a curse alive that could express my frustration. Nor one that could help. Not even an enchantment. Unless something existed that could undo time, but I doubted it.
“What the fuck are you doing out here?” a deep voice demanded, sending me in a spin toward a shadow lurking near a tree.
I could hardly see, the moon hidden above the thick branches of the forest I’d entered. “Zeph,” I said, my heart in my throat.
Clove had followed me outside, only to take flight when I started to run, and I had no idea where she went. Probably somewhere with Kols’s crow, as both birds had followed me on my mad dash outside. At least they were safe from Zeph’s vile snake.
He moved forward, his steps silent over the earth. “Are you all right?”
I startled, his tone holding a note of concern, but I knew better. Besides, it was such an absurd thing to ask because ob
viously I wasn’t all right.
Just the notion of it had me laughing out loud, the urge to cry hitting me square in the gut.
Answering him would be futile, so I ignored him instead, spun around again, and picked up my path again through the trees.
Only, he caught my arm and yanked me back toward him.
I reacted instinctually, my leg sweeping low to knock him off-balance and my fist cutting upward to strike his jaw.
Both were hits that would have made me proud in defense class. His resulting grunt and growl, however, had me instantly regretting my immediate reaction.
I took off at a sprint, needing to escape him.
But his arms ensnared my waist merely two steps later.
“What the actual fuck, Aflora?” he demanded, his lips against my ear. “Is this about Raph?”
“Raph?” I repeated, lost. “Who’s Raph?”
“My tripod snake,” he replied softly, his grip tightening as he pressed his nose to my neck. “Why do you smell like Kols?” A soft question, one I couldn’t stand to answer.
I hadn’t meant for the bond to snap into place.
Hadn’t meant to lose myself in the moment.
Get out.
Fucking get out.
“Let me go,” I begged, the heat building beneath my skin once more. It’d temporarily subsided due to the shock of his arrival, but it had returned with a vengeance, flooding my veins with liquid fire.
“No.” His tone brooked no argument, yet I needed him to release me, this power inside me threatening my every breath.
“Zeph...” I tried to warn him, my breath coming in pants as sweat beaded across my skin. “It burns,” I whispered, my limbs beginning to shake beneath the onslaught of energy cascading through my spirit.
“What are you doing?” Zeph asked, spinning me in his arms and catching me as my knees buckled.
“She looks ready to explode, and not in an appealing way,” a new voice said as Shade materialized beside us. His palm caught my cheek, his dark gaze searching. “What has you so troubled, little rose? Why do I sense Kols in you?”
“How the hell did you know we were here?” Zeph cut in.
“Her fear called to me,” Shade murmured, his eyes still holding mine. “What did Kols do to you, Aflora? Why is his power pouring through our bond?”
I couldn’t say it even if I wanted to, my throat tight with emotion and fear as the flames threatened to surface. If Zeph didn’t release me, I’d burn him alive. And even if he deserved that after what he did to Clove, I couldn’t hurt him. Not like that.
Swallowing thickly, I pushed the heat down, only to have it skyrocket inside me and spark at my fingertips.
“Her eyes are glowing,” Zeph said. “Cerulean fire.”
“Where’s Kols?” Shade demanded.
“Fuck if I know.”
“Isn’t it his job to keep her powers under control?” He finally released me to focus on the male behind me. “He’s done something to her powers.”
Is that concern in Shade’s voice? I wondered, starting to feel delirious. Can’t be. No.
“I can sense it, too,” Zeph replied, that same note in his tone.
This is bad, I thought, trembling beneath a hum of electricity that ran across my skin. “Burning,” I managed to whisper, my knees wobbling violently. “Going to—”
A scream ripped from my throat, cutting off my words, as pain unlike anything I’d ever felt slashed a hole right through my chest. Zeph released me with a hiss, allowing me to fall to the ground in a ripple of cerulean flames that scorched the forest floor.
“Fuck!”
“What the fuck is that?”
Their voices mingled, making it impossible to tell them apart. I couldn’t hear beyond the roar of power lapping at my essence and overtaking my soul.
Tears slid from my eyes.
Everything ached.
My heart sped up.
Too much.
It’s too much.
I didn’t know how to balance it all, to find my equilibrium. It reminded me of my first time accessing the source of my earth power, that necessary need to placate both sides between my soul and the core of my element.
Only, I couldn’t find that center.
It kept moving out of my reach and showering me in electricity, humming dangerously through the air, warning me of the wrongness of my presence.
“Help me,” I begged, not sure if I spoke the words out loud or muttered them in my mind. “Too hot. Dying.”
An agonized cry reached my ears, the sound excruciating, one I belatedly realized was my own. Everything glimmered in shades of blue around me, a rippling effect of my overheated aura.
Focus, I told myself. Rein it in.
Only, I didn’t know how because I was too full of energized substance to accept any more.
I ripped at the choker around my neck, needing my earth, hoping to hide in the source to find my stability once more.
There, I thought, my element immediately responding despite the device encircling my neck. Whether I’d somehow deactivated it or overrode it, I wasn’t sure, but my beautiful gifts responded and grounded me with the familiarity of soil and earth.
I rooted myself to the ground, reveling in my birthright and locking onto my royal line to find sanctuary in my home element.
Every inhale filled me with floral aromas, and every exhale calmed the fire, until finally I surfaced enough to survey my surroundings in a burnt courtyard shrouded in sunlight.
Blue embers danced in the air, drawing my focus to the damage around me.
I opened my mouth, but no sound escaped me, only another whimper of pain as the flames began to build once more inside me.
Oh, no...
My stomach heaved, a cramp building in my lower abdomen and churning with unrepressed power.
“We need to ground her!” someone shouted. It sounded like Kols, but that couldn’t be right.
“And how the fuck do we do that?” Hmm, Shade, my mind supplied, his presence providing a temporary balm to my rioting soul. Mate.
“I have an idea.” That still reminded me of Kols, some part of me recognizing his aura nearby. Or perhaps in me. After all, he was my earth mate now. Sort of. Maybe.
What have I done?
Everything went quiet once more beneath another pulsing wave of excruciating pain that crushed me to my very soul. I curled into a ball on the ground, seeking the utopia only created by true balance.
It eluded me, my talents too fierce and untamed to heed any sort of order.
I whimpered, then jolted as a hand clamped onto my throat, giving it a squeeze. “We’re going to help you,” a deep voice informed me.
Zeph.
He guided me to my back, his palm squeezing when I tried to curl into myself once more. “We need you like this,” he explained, his thigh settling between mine.
Skin to skin.
I frowned.
Why am I naked?
“This had better work,” Shade said, his lips suddenly by my ear as he stretched out alongside me.
“If it doesn’t, there’s only one other alternative,” Kols replied, his mouth near my opposite ear, his warmth seeping into my side.
“Kols,” I managed to say, my throat dry as I tried to look at him, to apologize, to ask where he’d come from or how he’d arrived.
“Don’t,” he replied, his tone harsh.
Pain splintered in my chest, only to be overwhelmed by the lava pouring through my being. I could try again later. Assuming I survived this next blast of heat.
Zeph released my throat, his hand traveling down my torso to my hip as he settled between my splayed thighs.
“What are...?” Another pulsating shock of heat silenced my question, thwarting my ability to focus on anything other than the quakes rocketing my limbs.
“Now!” Kols demanded. “Before she detonates again!”
Again? I thought, wincing as something sharp pinched my neck. Shade, I recognized i
mmediately, our bond snapping more firmly into place with his bite.
“No!” I screamed, but it was lost to the ripple of ecstasy his mouth forced through my system. I shuddered, conflicted between the inferno threatening my being and the euphoria trickling into my veins.
I gasped as Kols bit the other side of my neck, his incisors sliding deep into my vein to suck harshly at my blood.
A cry lodged in my throat, the pain mingling with pleasure as a third mouth met my breast, the kiss almost gentle. The slice of teeth followed against my tender skin, causing my back to bow off the ground. Zeph. I felt his claim, his bond lashing at my spirit and sinking literal teeth into my soul. Along with Kols.
All three of them pulled in unison, taking my blood and leaving me weak and defenseless beneath them.
And utterly powerless.
I nearly wept, my impending death the most blissful and rapturous experience of my life.
Until I realized I wasn’t dying at all, but living.
Thriving.
Balancing.
They were taking on my excess energy, drinking their fill and leaving me depleted in their wake. Creating a new equilibrium, one that allowed me to breathe again, to think, to realize the gravity of their sacrifice.
They’d all three just taken me as a mate at once.
Drinking my essence in an effort to help me create order within my powerful chaos.
And I had absolutely no idea why.
I opened my mouth to ask, but my lips were suddenly too numb to move.
They were taking too much.
I tried to tell them, to warn them, to beg them to stop, but each pull sucked me deeper into a web of euphoria I couldn’t escape from. Two mouths at my neck, one at my breast, and a pulsing need blossoming between my thighs.
As if Zeph knew, he released my breast to slide his mouth down to my nipple, his green eyes meeting mine as he gently teased the tip with his tongue.
I weakly arched off the ground, my body responding while my mind fought to catch up. Only, he sucked my nipple deep into his mouth, causing my brain to flicker out of existence.
Kols chuckled against my neck, his tongue dancing over the wound he’d created. “That’s fun,” he mused, tracing a wet path up to my ear. “If I didn’t want to kill you, I’d indulge in that reaction more.”