by Lexi C. Foss
“How do you feel?” he asked in the softest voice imaginable, his warm game on point once more.
“Irritated. Angry. Murderous.”
His lips curled, but only slightly. “How about physically? Are you sore? Does anything hurt?”
“Only my brain,” I muttered. “What with all the cryptic responses and everything.”
His amusement disappeared behind a mask of mild annoyance. “I mean it, Aflora. You went up in literal flames. I thought you were going to burn to ash beneath that wave of power.” He almost sounded sad by the prospect, but I knew better than to believe his tone. “Tell me how you’re feeling. Please.”
I nearly asked if that word hurt him to utter, but instead gave him the truth because I was too exhausted to banter with him anymore. “I feel balanced and tired.”
He nodded, his grasp loosening as he trailed his touch downward between my breasts, reminding me of my nude state.
I should have accepted his clothes.
Except it really didn’t matter. He’d seen me naked countless times in our dreams.
“Are you in pain anywhere?” he asked softly, rephrasing his earlier question.
“No.” Just my mind.
Another nod, this one more solemn. He gripped my hip to guide me onto my side to face him as he lowered his head to rest on the same pillow as me. “Has Kols or Zeph told you anything about Quandary Bloods?”
“I know they can take apart magic and rebuild it,” I said. “And that they used to work with the Death Bloods until the Elite Bloods had them all killed.”
He nodded. “Yes. They fear that which they cannot control.”
“Like abominations.”
“Just like abominations,” he agreed. “Which makes you volatile and dangerous in their eyes.”
“Because I’m too powerful for them to control,” I whispered. “You said it yourself—I almost killed you and Zeph tonight.” I flinched with the words, my heart giving a pang over the thought of harming another soul, let alone two so close to my own.
“But you didn’t,” he murmured. “I shadowed him out just in time, and you mostly contained your own explosion as soon as it released. Well, apart from murdering all those trees.”
If he meant that as a joke, I didn’t find it very funny. “Any loss of life is unacceptable. If I can’t be controlled, I should be exterminated.”
“That’s a very narrow view, Aflora,” he murmured, his palm sliding up my side, along my rib cage, and back down again. “What if you could learn control?”
“I’ve been trying that since I arrived, and tonight should tell you how that’s been going for me.”
“But now you have a support system to rely on.”
“I have no one to rely on,” I countered. “You never tell me anything of importance. Zeph is the realm’s worst teacher. And Kols hates me. Some support system.”
“Yeah, he’s a shit teacher,” Shade agreed, smirking. “But Kols doesn’t hate you, and I tell you important things all the time. You just don’t hear me.”
“Right.” I didn’t bother arguing with him. No sense in trying when it wouldn’t change anything. He wouldn’t even tell me why he’d bitten me, let alone who put him up to it.
A tense stillness fell between us, his icy gaze holding mine as he continued to draw his palm up and down my side. Slowly. Purposefully. Tenderly. Goose bumps pebbled across my arms, the intimacy of his nearness eliciting memories of our dreams and the touches that followed this caress. But he didn’t try to kiss me. Didn’t try to do anything other than softly memorize the curve of my hip and back up again.
“Kols’s grandfather ordered the slaughter of the Quandary Bloods shortly after they helped the Nacht family gain access to the dark-magic source over my family. I believe it’s because they didn’t want to risk that realignment of power ever being undone. It’s the ultimate point of contention between the Elite Bloods and Death Bloods. Which is why your existence must be protected.”
It was the most information he’d ever given me at once, and still not nearly enough.
“Did you know?” I wondered out loud. “Did you know I could access Quandary Magic?”
He considered me for a long moment before saying, “I was told of your potential, yes. I didn’t believe it until I felt you override the choker your first week here, and I’ve been doing everything I can to help you hide since.”
I frowned. “Help me hide?”
“You didn’t think Kols was the only one assisting you, did you?” His lips quirked upward. “He’s been in your head just as much as I have, Aflora. Surely you’ve figured that out by now.”
“He helps me during class.”
“And at night,” he added, a sinister grin entering his icy eyes. Somehow that look only made him more handsome, in a sinful sort of way that made my heart pound.
Then his words registered. “He knows about the dreams.” Not a question, but a statement, my lips parting. “But I thought that was because of our bond!”
“No, darling. Dream manipulation is old magic. You make it easy because you don’t know how to defend against it, and none of us have bothered to teach you how. My reasoning should be obvious, but you’d have to ask Kols for his purpose in your mind. If I were to guess, I’d say it was his way of fighting an obvious attraction. For me, I just want to play with my feisty little mate.”
I scowled at him, which only made him smile harder.
“You’re a rare diamond among a sea of jewels, Aflora. I can’t blame Zeph or Kols for wanting you. I’m even willing to share, but you are mine first and foremost. Because my claim is deeper. And soon, we’ll finalize our mating. Then the truth can be revealed. At least in parts.”
“More riddles,” I muttered, shifting to my back, only to have his hand yank me back to my side.
“Providing all the answers would weaken you, Aflora. Riddles, as you call them, are what make a Quandary Blood thrive. And there are some facts in life that must be discovered on our own in order for us to flourish. But that doesn’t make me any less here for you. I’ve been helping you from the beginning, more than you’ll ever know.”
“Helping to torment me and taking me against my will,” I mused. “Such an amazing mate you are, Shade.” I couldn’t help the thick sarcasm in my tone, my mind at wits’ end. “You destroyed my life, and now I’ll die because of it. And you won’t even tell me why.” This time he let me fall to my back.
I closed my eyes, tired of talking to him.
He wasn’t going to give me anything useful.
He never did.
“You weren’t the only one not given a choice,” he said quietly some time later. “We’re all pawns on a board serving a higher purpose. A fate that may or may not come to fruition. Only time will tell.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked, opening my eyes to find him propped up on his elbow and gazing down at me with sadness in his eyes. “Someone told you to bite me. Did they not tell you why?”
“I already knew why, Aflora. But that doesn’t mean I wanted to take you against your will, that I wanted to force a bond on you without even knowing you.” He cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing my bottom lip. “If it’s an apology you want, I can’t give it to you. Because I don’t regret it. Not anymore. Not after learning so much about you. I see now why our fates were destined to intertwine.”
“Because of my Quandary Magic.”
“No, because of you.” He leaned in to kiss me, his mouth questing against mine. “I know none of this makes sense, that you blame me for everything that’s happened, and you’re fully within your right to feel that way. But one day soon, you will understand, and you will thank me for forcing this upon you.”
“Not likely,” I grumbled, the words brushing his lips.
He grinned. “I very much look forward to proving you wrong.”
I knew he wouldn’t be able to, that it wasn’t possible for me to ever thank him for dragging me into this world and destroying my life. Bu
t I couldn’t stop the rush of heat that overwhelmed me as he kissed me once more.
I hated him.
Wanted to hurt him as he’d hurt me.
Yet the fire he lit inside me stoked higher with each touch, lick, and nip between us. It proved that lust and hatred truly were neighbors in the circle of emotions that dictated us all. Because the passion between us burned hotter and hotter every day.
“I hate you,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“I wish I’d never met you,” I added, a hoarse growl in my tone.
“I know,” he repeated, his frosty gaze flicking open to meet mine. “But if you hadn’t met me, you wouldn’t know about your Quandary Blood.”
Another kiss, this one deeper, his eyes holding mine the entire time.
“You never would have explored your other powers,” he added, his voice darkening in a way that made my belly flip.
His tongue slipped through my lips, tasting, tempting, and tantalizingly thorough.
I bit back a moan, trying not to show how he made me feel. Attempting to shove away the lust he too easily evoked.
However, the thigh parting my legs knew immediately, his pants brushing my exposed sex, my dampness seeping through the fabric of his trousers in an instant.
“Yet your little display tonight would have been an eventuality with or without my influence,” he continued in a gruff tone. “However, unlike tonight, you wouldn’t have had anyone to ground you.” He flexed his thigh in a way that sparked pleasure inside me, my sensitive flesh pulsating with a need he expertly awoke.
“Shade...”
“You wouldn’t have possessed any knowledge of what was happening to you, Aflora,” he whispered. “Or how to stop it.”
I swallowed, his comments all true, his touch evoking a volcano-like reaction to boil in my lower belly, threatening to consume me completely.
“Without my interference in your life, you would have ended up hurting people you loved.” He nibbled my lower lip at the same time his thigh pressed into my weeping heat.
This entire conversation should not be turning me on.
He shouldn’t be making me this hot.
I threaded my fingers through his thick, dark hair, clinging to him despite my mind telling me to order him to stop.
Resisting him proved to be impossible.
“You make me feel so...” I trailed off, unable to explain it. My body was on fire in a manner similar to before, but oh-so different.
Kols had ignited me with power and sensation.
Shade somehow caressed my soul with icy flames, an impossible element that seemed to only exist between us.
“Come for me, gorgeous,” he whispered against my ear. “I can take it.”
I wanted to scream for him to release me, to beg him to take me over the cliff, and to kill him all at the same time. The intensity between us boiled over, my world cascading into a glimmer of oblivion so overwhelming that I nearly forgot how to breathe.
And then I was screaming his name as both a curse and a blessing as energy erupted all around us.
He absorbed it all, allowing me to float in a state of rapture that shook every inch of my being, letting me leave my body and return.
“Shade!” The room glowed, my heart beating a chaotic rhythm that refused to slow, until his mouth brought me back to the reality of our moment.
His tongue stroked mine, his hands gliding up and down my sides once more and his warmth heating up my cool, damp skin.
I shuddered, lost to him utterly and completely, while despising him all over again, yet kissing him as if I required his existence to survive.
“You’re beautiful,” he praised, nuzzling me in a gesture almost too sweet for our volatile bond. “Sleep, Aflora. We’ll discuss more in the morning.”
I opened my mouth to argue but found it falling slack from whatever spell he’d woven over me. My eyes narrowed in annoyance, wishing he would stop messing with my dreams and my sleep states.
But he disappeared in a cloud of his intoxicating smoke before I could convey the message.
And my world went black.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Shade
I sensed Kols’s presence in my suite about a minute before Aflora detonated. He’d somehow convinced Sir Black to grant him entry, something no one else had ever been able to do. I suspected our shared mate-bond had helped.
Although, that didn’t explain how the Elite Blood had managed to enter the Death Blood residential quarters.
“Did you issue an edict to allow your entry?” I mused, materializing behind him in my living area. He’d paused in the center of the room, likely because he’d overheard Aflora’s cries of pleasure. I’d stop to listen, too, if I were him. She truly was a beautiful creature. Exquisitely unique, and absolutely mine.
A flicker of gold flame brightened his gaze as he outwardly relaxed. “She screams louder for me.”
“Does she?” I considered what I knew of their tenuous relationship and smiled. “I’ll see if I agree come morning.”
“She won’t be in your bed much longer.”
“Yeah? And where do you plan to take her? Back to your bed? What with her own quarters being demolished to ash and all,” I drawled, leaning against the wall that led to a slender hallway.
Unlike Kols, I only had one bedroom. Guests weren’t really my thing. Unless they were dark-haired and gorgeous, like the female fast asleep in my sheets. I’d tuck her in properly when I returned.
He frowned. “Did she tell you that?”
I lifted a shoulder, giving nothing away. Because no, she hadn’t told me that. I’d felt it. Kols’s display of power triggered Aflora’s reaction, overloading her connection to the source of the dark arts. Her cries for help had stirred me from my sleep, dragging me into the dawn hours in search of my agonized mate.
Never in my wildest dreams could I have anticipated finding her in the LethaForest. It was a miracle she’d survived her trek out there.
A miracle, I assumed, that could be attributed to Zeph’s interference. He’d clearly followed her out there and likely dealt with a few threats before approaching her.
Or perhaps it’d all been a date with fate.
Aflora seemed to adore those.
“Don’t worry, Midnight Prince, our queen is safely tucked into my bed. No need to disturb her or move her.”
“You’re not even supposed to be near her, let alone sharing a room with her,” he replied, folding his arms and doing his best to appear regal.
“Oh, are we playing a game of who can break the most rules? Because I think you’re way ahead of me tonight, Kols. How many oaths did you break by mating her? Or shall we discuss the nightly visits to her dreams?” I pretended to consider our situation and scratched my jaw. “No, those were technically within the parameters of the rules. So how about that collar you never put on her after her little magical display in Warrior Magic class?” Because yeah, I knew all about that.
“Have you been lurking in my rooms?” he demanded.
Another shrug because I’d never give away my secrets. Not to him. Not to anyone. “What do you really want, Kols? There’s a naked, gorgeous woman in my bed that I’d like to get back to, and soon, if you don’t mind.”
“And if I do mind?”
“It won’t stop me,” I admitted with a smile. “Just as my initial claim on her didn’t stop you.”
“Well, you’ll have to take that up with her since she mated me.”
“Is that how Elemental Fae bonds work?” I asked, feigning curiosity. “Because I swore those were mutual arrangements.” Yeah, I knew about that, too. Had sensed it the moment it snapped into place. It’d felt like a fire gnat latching onto our bond and refusing to let go. I hadn’t understood it until I’d found Aflora.
The moment her power went up in flames, the puzzle pieces had fallen into place. I supposed that as a mixed fae, she would have multiple partners. Kols wasn’t exactly my first choice for thi
s venture, but I should have known destiny would require it.
He had probably foreseen it. Just like everything else.
A muscle ticked in Kols’s jaw. “What game are you really playing here, Shade? You had to know about her Quandary Blood origins. That’s why you chose her. What I can’t figure out is your end goal. Was this part of it? Forming a four-way bond?”
“Who says I have an end goal?” I countered. “Maybe someone else is pulling my strings.”
He snorted. “That’s impossible. You despise authority.”
“True,” I agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t seek to fulfill a higher purpose. Perhaps I want to end this age-old feud between our families.”
Incredulity darkened his features. “We both know that’s bullshit.”
“Do we?” I countered, giving him yet another shrug. “I guess we’ll find out.”
He took a step forward, his calm façade cracking. “Cut the shit, Shade. Why Aflora? What’s your play here?”
“Maybe I like her,” I suggested. Not exactly a lie. I did quite fancy—
I ducked as his fist came for my nose, and shadowed out of his reach and across the room just as Sir Black bellowed a warning through the room. The cheeky little gargoyle despised violence. It was the only trait I disliked about him. I mean, who didn’t enjoy a bout of savagery? Especially between a Death Blood and an Elite Blood.
Kols ignored Sir Black and pulled out his wand, his expression radiating the intent to do damage. A spell graced his lips just as a loud ring came from the device he held aloft in his hand.
The murderous intent fled from his features, replaced by a grimace as he answered the magical call with a flick of his wrist. “Hello, Father,” he greeted in an admirably calm voice. He flashed me a look that told me not to say anything. I idly considered disobeying him on principle but decided it was in Aflora’s best interest not to announce my presence. The less we did to draw attention to ourselves, the better.
Because this whole quad-bond thing? Yeah, it wouldn’t end well when the Midnight Fae found out.