by Elle Cross
“Did I keep reliving my fears, my nightmares, in your court?” I asked quietly.
She nodded. Gravely.
“I attracted what I didn’t want happening because I kept focusing on them, didn’t I?”
“I’m sorry, my love.”
Intention was a bitch. “Why did you come all this way just to tell me this?”
“I wanted you to remember who you are. You were a near powerless child in my court, yet you always managed to win. Your power has yet to wake. You are more powerful than you know, and the only way to gain more power is to understand how your true nature works. Knowledge is a weapon.”
My mother wielded her weapons well.
I felt even more an outcast. Why would I take these men away from a place that only I felt was not normal.
“I’m going to also tell you that this works in reverse. You do not know what it feels like. I can’t even say for sure, but the bonding. All you see is the loyalty. I already see it in them. You were so afraid that they would be unhappy, you made them unhappy by leaving. You create what you fear, because it is all you focus on.
“Your fear is not your strength, love. You are a Queen. When you deny what you are, you cut yourself off from power, from yourself, and from those you love. You earn nothing by becoming a martyr.”
I think that was the nicest ‘Get over yourself’ that my mother could have delivered.
We found ourselves staring down at the sleeping forms. Every now and again Enver’s hand trailed mine. Reaching for me even in sleep.
“Think about it.”
She faded as I slipped back over my form.
I sighed as I stretched awake, glorying in being physical.
Karina
There was good pain and bad pain. I wanted to run away from the bad pain, but at too high a cost. I may have had choices, but I had taken away his choice. By running away, I had made their choices for them.
Enver woke with me, and I told him. I confessed it all, how I planned my death and how I only wanted their happiness. And I thought they would be happier, better off without me.
And so I had left.
Enver was still, and a quiet Enver was always a frightening Enver. “You know differently now, don’t you?”
I blinked through tears, nodding.
He stroked my cheek. “You need to know. Right now. And always. I will always choose you. I will always look for you. Remember that.” He kissed me, sure and sweet, kneading the tight knots along my back and neck as he held me close. “Relax now, my love.”
He trailed his intrepid fingers over my body, spanning my hips, then dipping into the juncture between my thighs.
I sucked air between my teeth.
“What have we here?” he teased, caressing my sex with his gentle fingers. “I think we need a closer look.”
I gasped when his mouth replaced his fingers. I squirmed beneath his probing lips and tongue. Twisting my fingers into the bedsheets, I moaned for him.
West stirred beside me. “Well now. Isn’t this lovely?” He skimmed his hand over my stomach, my breasts, cupping them, feeling their weight. He kissed the gasping moans that Enver wrenched out of me, swallowing them down.
He whispered dark and thrilling things that he wanted to do to my body, urging me to give in to pleasure and come.
My back arched as the heat, the pleasure, took over my body in tormenting waves.
Enver pulled back from me as I was floating back into my body. “West, I want to do what you said before.”
“Really?” He was so giddy; he kissed me, making more breathless than ever. He moved into position between my legs. He plunged his length into my wet heat. His eyes rolled back up into his head. “I can’t get enough.” He thrust into me slowly and gently, even though every muscle in his body strained for him to go faster.
Enver kissed me now. “I want your sweet lips around my cock while West fucks you hard from behind. Is that okay with you?” he asked as if we were discussing dinner.
“Shit she got even hotter and tighter. Whatever the fuck you’re saying to her, keep talking.”
“Well, my love?”
“Yes! Please!”
“West, flip her. Then fuck her hard like you promised. ” West had me on my knees from one thrust to the next without a break in rhythm.
Enver was on his knees on the bed, his dick hard and straining against his the hard planes of his stomach. He held my hair back, wrapping it around his fist as he guided my mouth on to his cock, swallowing him down without needing to be asked.
The tip of his cock grazed the back of my throat and I clenched from the pleasure that thrilled over my skin. West responded by pressing his fingers against my wet clit. “You feel so good, my queen.” He rammed himself inside of me, letting himself loose.
Every time I moaned and gasped, Enver tightened his grip until he too couldn’t stop from thrusting into my mouth.
“West, fucking go. I can’t hold on for much longer.”
West’s grip had already tightened around my hip. I felt him getting harder, making me scream around Enver’s cock as I came.
With a smack on my ass, West emptied inside of me. He didn’t linger. He pushed me to my back raising my legs up so that Enver could dive into my wet, needy sex.
He pumped into me furiously, feverishly, gaining leverage over me so that he could drive deeper and deeper into me until I threw my head back and screamed for him. He answered back with a growl of his own bouncing against my body as he released into me.
They worshiped my body well into the night.
By the rising dawn, I was between them, while they traced lazy shapes along my flesh, wondering how I was so awake and energized.
“We’re supposed to leave in a few hours.” I chuckled shrinking away from Enver’s searching fingers on my ribs.
As he bent to kiss me, another kind of sensation, a trill of pleasure uncoiled within me. Power. That latent power that I had nurtured and kept wrapped up tight like a bud. It broke free, and it wanted to bloom. It started from my core, and filled me up from the inside and burst its way outward.
My body arched back with that sensation. I gasped for air, both Enver and West anchoring my body witnessing the coil of power and more wind itself over me. I moaned, seeking release, rubbing my fingers between my legs.
Enver slipped his finger inside me. “You are so wet, you’re dripping,” he said in awe. He dragged his finger out and circled my clit, taking over my actions. I was so close to coming again.
“How—” whatever question I was going to ask was swallowed up by my throaty cries as an orgasm wracked my body. My hips continued to buck against Enver’s hand.
This time, while another orgasm built up, heat sizzled up my body. It could have been painful, but since their hands and mouths were on me, Enver and West made what could have been painful into this side of pleasure.
“By the gods,” Enver exclaimed.
I had my eyes closed tight from the overwhelming sensation so I was not aware of what Enver was seeing.
“It’s beautiful,” West said.
I opened my eyes, breathing and heart beat slowing to sort of normal. Along my arm scrolled silver lilac glyphs. I could not read them, but I recognized what they were.
They were the beginnings of my blooming power.
My power.
I sat up, and lifted my hair to see how far they traveled. So far, it was just along my left shoulder, with a trace along my clavicle, but no matter. I was excited. I was finally marked with power, and I was overwhelmed.
Enver and West showered me with kisses.
A susurrus arose in the dark, and Una appeared from the shadows. It was odd because she seemed different, older, but I knew that could not be. Do ghosts age?
I shifted on the blankets to make sure most of me was fairly covered. “Una?”
West and Enver followed my gaze. They wouldn’t be able to see her.
She pushed images into my head. I translated this set
as yes, and that she approved of our decisions to leave. And she also approved of my getting stronger.
As for the marks, she touched the one that led to the failsafe tattoo on my wrist, and it was like she had turned on the tattooing process all over again.
Instead of images, the voices rose until the white noise became like a single voice speaking.
Oracles.
Enver and West leapt out of the bed, looking for the source of the noise. But I’d been apprentice to the Oracles for a while now. I recognized what this was.
“Don’t worry, guys. It’s just my ghost guest. And the Oracles.”
At the word, Oracles, they both whipped their heads to me, and then crept back toward the bed. They may charge would-be enemies without a moment’s hesitation, but they had a healthy respect for the divine.
Una held out her hand, and through her, the voice of the Oracle was magnified. “Arise into your power, Karina, the Brightling, Queen of Shadows.”
Her duty complete, Una once again melted into the shadows, and it was this time that I could see that she became one with the wards and blessings that I had poured into this house for protection.
Taran and Havoc barged into the room expecting a battle. When Enver explained what happened, they took turns hugging and kissing me, happy to be witness to their queen’s mark of power.
If only I knew what to do with it now that I had it.
“Love me
like the moon intended,
all the way through the
darkness.”
—AJ Lawless
Karina
WE WERE SUPPOSED TO leave soon.
I leafed through the escrow paper work again of the house that I evidently owned, scouring through every line as if there would be some hidden message or clue about why it suddenly belonged to me.
At least I had an address. We were able to map it and get the general vicinity. It was in the Midwest, and not surprisingly, it was close to where the other girl lived.
I prayed that we wouldn’t be too late in finding her. Her fate was still changing in the paperwork, so that gave me hope. I rubbed my shoulder where my glyphs were hidden by my top. I wished I could find out how my powers would manifest, but only time and experience could tell.
The Shadow Paths could only take us so far, especially since we didn’t know the exact route to keep it straight in our heads. Without one, we could potentially be wandering the straits forever. I for one didn’t feel like walking toward insanity or other cliffs of despair.
I found myself looking around the space as I lingered in my living room. This townhouse was my first place that I had used all for myself. A place where I had a safe place to fall.
“Are you ready, my queen?”
It shouldn’t have surprised me that Enver was nearby, helping me sort out my maudlin thoughts and nostalgia. After last night, my bond with him strengthened. Instead of gossamer thread, it felt more like taut wire. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
The hub to the Crossroads was just a step away through the Shadow Paths. The Powers That Be that oversaw the Crossroads were fickle. They could spit you out wherever they felt like it, depending on their mood. For some reason, though, they tended to like me. Maybe it was because I had been an apprentice to the Oracles or they felt bad for the Brightling in exile. At any rate, I didn’t have the same apprehensions in that regard as the others.
West and Taran were to go ahead to the portal that would lead to the Crossroads to scout if there was a welcome party; Enver, Havoc, and I would go next once we received their go-ahead. From there the Crossroads would take us wherever we needed to go. I kept the destination in my mind.
I gave West and Taran a kiss on the cheek, and sent them on their way. After a minute, they sent back an all-clear.
With a final look back at the home that served me as a bubble of safety and quiet for a time, I turned to the waiting men and walked with them to the Crossroads toward our new home.
Karina
Taran looked up at the great stained glass windows that graced this hub. “This is bigger than the others I’ve been to.”
The Shades dubbed it Grand Central Station, which I thought was fitting as it housed the Crossroads here whether they realized it or not.
I had barely paid any attention when I’d first arrived here. It had been the first and only time I’d been there. I figured it was too much of a risk to draw attention to myself if I hung around one of the biggest hubs for the Crossroads in the Shadow Realm.
“The passage is down a few levels, away from most of the Shades traveling about.”
I didn’t like the skin prickling at my neck, a sure feeling that we were being tracked. I made sure to have my shields up. Havoc double checked them, too.
The last thing we needed was to have someone pick up on my stupid inner chatter.
At least we were traveling light. I only had my trusty backpack, with the coins I’d received from the Oracles a lifetime ago divvied up among my pockets and bag. I never spent them because I was way too stingy, and who was I planning to visit? Everyone I loved had thought I’d died, and the Shades I sort of liked would forget about me once I left their presence.
A few more flights of stairs and a handful of coins, and we would be through the Crossroads.
The transit that Shades put up with boggled my mind. It was really quite a hassle to lug things around and make sure that tickets, times, and places intersected where they needed to go and be.
The heat and humid air lingered here in the lower levels. Made me wish for the wide open spaces of the top side.
Enver pressed his hand to my back. I felt a cool calm rushing from him. If he was spending his power trying to make sure I was okay, then I needed to get it together.
Just one more level. This was turning out to be fine. There really was no need for all the drama of prepping me for transport. All it did was make me paranoid. I would make sure to tell the others to lighten up a little in the future.
I turned around and checked their positions. West was ahead, scouting. Enver and Havoc were on either side of me. And Taran was behind us, a happy mountain of a man who looked dashing in the silly hat he wore.
He had a thing for hats. “Nice hat,” I told him.
He beamed down at me and tipped it toward me cheekily. “I’ll make sure to wear it more often.”
I blushed.
And then I saw a shimmer line disturb the air behind him, a few hundred steps off.
He caught my widening eyes, and as one unit, we picked up the pace. I didn’t want to attract too much attention by running, but I also had no intention of dillydallying.
Off in the distance in my periphery, the shimmer didn’t bother being discreet. The air around it shook and quaked, creating a vacuum of space. Cold light pierced the void of shadows.
Dammit. There’d be Hounds.
A final flash signaled the arrival of the newcomers. For one eerie moment, I caught the eye of the Wraith that arrived. They were wispy and translucent with big eyes that were black all over with no white. They looked like thin gentlemen with skeletal fingers, and Goblin-like hooked noses. They were smallish, ranging from five feet to five-five. If you were to walk past one you may think it was just a small business man walking along. That is if you were able to ignore their soul-sucking aura, and if they happened not to be smiling, which they almost always were. They could not help it because they didn’t quite have lips and their mouths were full of razor sharp teeth that liked to gnaw on flesh, human or otherwise.
If anyone were able to ignore or overlook those features, then yes they really weren’t bad. But the main reason they were hella scary were the Hounds they commanded. Their mouths were also full of razor sharp teeth, some as long as my forearm, with varying rows like sharks.
And, their howls were like harbingers of death, except unlike Banshees, theirs made their prey fall apart in unimaginable terror. The same hounds that had been pacing the subway train yesterday when I had wan
ted to go home.
West and Enver pulled me along, and it was like a spell was broken. Where we were all still, movement rushed in.
The Wraith pointed dead at me and opened its mouth in a blood-curling scream of command to its Hounds.
Taran stepped up and called power that rippled up the tiles of the subway station, hurtling the front line of the Hounds back. The ones behind flowed over the obstructions like water. I didn’t see where Havoc went.
Enver pushed me into West. “Take her to the portal.”
A Shrike loomed behind Enver. I screamed for him to move before its killing blow descended. It seemed to have frozen, just for a moment, before it became a blur of motion again. It was enough for Enver to roll out of the way.
I didn’t see what happened next. Darkness swallowed me, and I was teleported away with West.
We stumbled to a landing in a silent fogbank. We were at the entrance to the hub. “West. We have to go back. We have to find them.” I was frantically clawing at him making him understand that we needed to get back right the hell now.
“My queen, there is no way that I as the last of your guard at your side will take you back into direct danger.” His tone of voice brooked no argument.
He gripped my upper arm and demanded attention from The Powers That Be that kept the portals running.
A slithery voice like a vent that was misaligned leaked out from an unknown source in front of us, “Payment.”
I slipped a couple of coins into the waiting void, and it opened. How were the others to find passage through? They didn’t have the coins like I did.
A tremor quaked behind us, and West pushed me behind him.
Enver dropped to the ground in a ball of darklight. He was a sight to behold in his rage. “Move!” he ordered, and rushed the now-open portal.
Enver had not come alone. The Hounds scrambled behind him.
I threw an extra coin into the payment slot as Enver rushed behind us and tackled us into the waiting passage.
Wherever the Hounds were going when they crashed into the portal, they did not appear with us.