Light Up The Night: a Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy Romance (Lick of Fire Book 2)

by Jacqueline Sweet

  Tamsin tried to shake her head. Not being able to move was incredibly irritating. “I thought you had a curse or something. I didn’t know what it was.”

  His skin was so hot under her feet. “It’s why I bring girls home. Their scents help me forget yours, at least for a little while. I can’t be around you, Tamsin. Even sitting here, touching you is torture, because my wolf makes it unbearable.”

  “Because it hates me?” Tamsin said.

  Cash couldn’t look at her. “Because it thinks you’re our mate. My mate.”

  Tamsin wanted to run or scream or sing or do anything to avoid having to think about this. It was too much. She’d heard about shifters and their mates from Suresh. One of his roommates was a tiger shifter who was using Tinder to find his true mate. One true mate, they said, fated and destined. Shifters have an overwhelming need to find them in order to be complete.

  Was that in store for her and Cash? Sure, he was gorgeous, but he was also messy and rude and uncommunicative. Was that what she wanted? How could she be his mate? And why was he so miserable about it? Was she that unappealing? Tamsin didn’t know if she should be scared or flattered or offended.

  “Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt this moment, but what was that about a secret midterm?” Gray’s voice was calm but his eyes were lively. Tamsin saw something in them that took her breath away. Gray wanted to kill someone.

  “The secret midterm held on Lughnasa morning? The sink or swim moment? Where First Years like me have to prove our magical abilities or get mind wiped and dumped in a psych ward somewhere?”

  Rye kept quietly painted the binding circle around her belly. His brush strokes were each no bigger than an eyelash. One wrong move and he’d ruin the whole thing. No wonder he decided to freeze Tamsin in place.

  “There’s no such test, love. And there is a small minority of Penrose students who have no magical ability at all, but were born to wizarding families or have magically active siblings. I myself have a distant cousin who did pre-law here and he couldn’t so much as lift a magic wand.” Gray tried to keep his voice calm, but he couldn’t. “Now do be a dear and tell me who told you about this test?”

  “There’s no test?” Tamsin said. “Are you sure? Maybe you just skipped it because of your obvious facility with magic?”

  “There’s no test,” Rye agreed. “Penrose frowns very much on testing in general. They prefer a more gestalt approach to performance review.”

  “Who? Give us a name, love. I’d really love to exercise my complete lack of remorse on this person.”

  Tamsin blinked. Who had told her? It seemed like everyone did. “Hannah, at first. But then Janet confirmed it. And so did Grace. How could they all tell me the same lie?”

  “Grace?” Cash asked. “The spooky girl with that moose of a boyfriend?”

  Tamsin tried to nod, but couldn’t. “Yes, her. And Hannah and Janet.”

  “Grace is in my program. She’s a spirit medium. She got in trouble last year for enslaving spirits and trying to communicate with the dead. She’d bad news. A lot of power and no moral compass.”

  “They were working together,” Tamsin realized. “They were playing me. I should have seen this coming. There were so many coincidences and odd setbacks. Did they do something to me to make me bad at magic? Did they hide me from Penrose all those years?” Tamsin clenched her teeth. The blue flame inside her wanted to come out. “Why? Why would they do this to me? What have I ever done to any of them?”

  Rye’s voice was quiet and still. It pulled her back to earth. “It’s because you’re an opener.”

  “Was an opener,” she interrupted.

  “You are. The demon stole some of your essence, but not all. You are still you.” He smiled sadly at her. It was a smile she knew from talking to her father’s doctors. It said I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do.

  “They needed you to bring the demon here,” Gray said. “But what deal had they struck with it? Where were they when this all went down?”

  “We need to talk to her,” Cash said. “I can go find her and bring her back.”

  He was taking any excuse to run away from her again.

  “That’s not a good idea,” Gray warned. “Hannah is the most gifted curse witch at our school. If she wanted to, she could take you apart. Shifter or not.”

  “I’d like to see her try.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t,” Rye said. “I am already putting one of my dearest friends back together and to do so for two in the same day would be extremely unfortunate.”

  A thought occurred to Tamsin. “She’ll be at the dance. The Midsummer’s Dance. Lughnasa. We could ask her there.”

  “That’s in three days,” Gray said.

  “Can you get me back on my feet, doc?” Tamsin said to Rye. But the look he gave her suggested the answer was no. “You stopped painting. Is it done?”

  Sweat beaded on Rye’s forehead. He licked the lip of his brush and nodded. “The ritual is nearly done. Yes.”

  Gray and Cash relaxed a bit. Some of the tension left the room.

  “I’ve never seen work like this,” Gray said. “It’s simply extraordinary.”

  “This is the magic of my people. Every child learns it. But very few master it. And fewer still create new tattoos. I am one of those. And if you think I am good, you should have seen my little sister’s work, she—” Rye closed his eyes and shook his head. “No. Another time.” He tapped the wooden end of the paint brush on Tamsin chest and traced the whorls of the ink. “I have named the shards of her soul and caught them in a web. They are scattered and torn. It will take some time to heal. “

  “What does that even mean?” Tamsin asked. “How long will that take?”

  “I do not know,” Rye replied. “I’ve never a soul hurt this badly. But once the ritual is complete, you shall begin the healing process. Until then moving would be a very bad idea—its why I have you restrained. Please forgive me.”

  “So finish the damn ritual already,” Cash said. “I fixed her body as best I could. Gray found her mind. Do you your part.”

  Rye frowned. “I will. It’s just—” He took a deep breath and struggled to find the right words. “I wanted to say it has been the greatest days of my life, living with you all. You are dear friends and I hope to see you again, in the world beyond our world.” Rye held up his hand. On his palm a magic circle similar to the one around Tamsin’s navel glowed with silver light.

  Tamsin gasped.

  She could see the actual magic in Rye’s palm. She feel the magic in the world in ways she couldn’t before. The blue flame in her heart swam in her veins and opened her senses.

  She had magic.

  It was alive within her.

  All of the reading and practice and study—it made sense now. This power, this flame, it had been what she’d been lacking.

  The runes on Rye’s palm. She could read them clearly now. It was a life transference spell. No, that couldn’t be right.

  Rye moved to place his palm on Tamsin’s belly, but Cash caught his hand before it made contact.

  Gray had his wand out in an instant and pointed at the big man’s head.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Cash growled.

  “Take your hand away right now, Rye, or I shall be forced to take action,” Gray warned.

  Rye didn’t move his hand. He looked Tamsin in the eyes. Tears welled up in his.

  “The demon still has you, koshka. He feeds on you, even now. For every piece of soul I saved with this web, he takes ten more. My arts, they aren’t enough. I can’t save you, not without more power in the spell. With enough life energy, I could pull the web together and save at least part of you from the demon, for a time.”

  “He’s gone though, isn’t he? The King in Shadow? You defeated him.”

  Rye shook his head. “We did not. We only postponed him. He is here, in this world, hiding. And the weaker you grow, the stronger he will become. He cannot live fully until you die. And when
you are sucked into Erebus, he will walk free to ruin this world.”

  “How do you know this?” Gray asked.

  “Impossible,” Cash snarled. “I can’t sense him anywhere.”

  “It happened to my sister. I will not let it happen to you.” Rye’s jaw was set with determination.

  “I won’t let you kill yourself,” Cash said.

  In an instant, Rye’s elbow flew out and shattered Cash’s nose. The shifter toppled backwards and let go of Rye’s left hand. Gray opened his mouth to cast a charm, but Rye touched one of the tattoos on his wrist and Gray’s wand leapt from his hand and embedded itself in the ceiling like a dart.

  “I’m sorry, Tamsin.” Rye’s eyes shone as he slammed his hand down, pressing his life transference rune to her skin.

  28

  Choose One

  It didn’t work.

  The life transference spell didn’t work.

  Rye pressed down harder, but something held him back.

  Blue flames, almost imperceptible, flowed across Tamsin’s skin. They formed a barrier that Rye couldn’t break.

  “No,” Tamsin said. “You don’t get to sacrifice yourself for me. None of you do.”

  “I love you,” Rye said.

  “I know,” Tamsin replied. She would have been so happy to hear that, if only the boy wasn’t trying to kill himself as he said it.

  “How are you doing this?” Cash asked.

  “The demon stole my heart. He ate part of my soul. But he left me with this.”

  Gray was alarmed. “It’s raw magic.”

  “It’s chaos,” Cash added. His nose had already healed but he was still planning on breaking Rye’s later. It was only fair.

  “Whatever it is, it’s mine,” Tamsin said. “It can’t save me. But it can stop you from killing yourself, Rye.”

  Rye sat back hard. He pushed himself away from Tamsin and slumped against the wall.

  “What about me?” Cash said. “I’m a shifter. I have more life in me than most. Take me for her, Rye. Paint your doohickey on my hand and let’s get this over with. Odds are I’ll even walk away from it.”

  “Absolutely not,” Tamsin said.

  “Gray, can you hold back her flames long enough for me touch her?”

  Gray nodded. “I can.”

  “I said no.” Tamsin’s voice was steel.

  “Well I ain’t asking you, darlin’. You don’t get to decide this. No man gets to choose his fate. I didn’t choose to be a shifter. I didn’t choose to get touched by death herself. I didn’t choose to be a shaman—but this? This I can do. I’ve been living on borrowed time and wasting the time I do have. I know you’ll do better things with your life than me.”

  “Shut up, Cash. Just shut up.” Tamsin’s body trembled. She wanted to slap him, to shake him, to kiss him. But Rye’s runes were an unbreakable cage.

  “Do you know why it’s so painful to realize you’re my mate?” he asked as Rye began drawing the rune on Cash’s palm. “Because I’m forbidden from ever having a mate, that’s why. It doesn’t matter that I found you. I can’t have you. As soon as I’m done here at Penrose, I go back to my pack and I take a bunch of vows and become their shaman. A shaman can’t have anything he’d put before his pack, and darlin’, I never understood why before. Not really. But seeing you here, falling away into the void, I’d burn the world down to save you.”

  “Fuck you, just fuck you,” Tamsin said. “You can’t just show up into my life, tell me we’re destined to be in love forever and ever, and then kill yourself. What kind of selfish asshole are you?”

  “Actually, love, I’m the selfish asshole,” Gray said. He held up his hand. The life transference rune blazed with light on his palm. He’d copied Rye’s with some arcane trick. “Rye and Cash, they’re good men. They will go on to do great things. I, as we all know, am not a good man. I will not do great things. I am going to lie and cheat and steal and get caught. I am going to disappoint everyone around me until I am alone on a bar stool with no company to keep.”

  “You too?” Tamsin shouted. “Are you all so desperate to throw away your lives? Why are you doing this?” She pressed and clawed at Rye’s confining runes with her flames, but it did nothing.

  Gray beamed at her and winked. “Why? Because I love you, isn’t that obvious? And I would be a terrible mate or boyfriend or husband. I’ve proven that time and again. While either of these two lads would be outstanding in the role. Could you let me do this? To do one good and selfless thing, for once in my life? That would be such an honor. You could even write a letter to my parents explaining how I saved the young maiden’s life.”

  “I’m not a maiden.”

  “And single-handedly fought back a demon invasion.”

  “We did most the work,” Cash growled.

  “I have nothing left, but the three of you and my parents who barely give a damn anyway. Let me do this. Take my life for yours. So at least one decent thing would come of it.”

  “What is this?” Tamsin asked. “How could you ask this of me? Gray, you’re charming and dazzling and under all your pain, you have a good heart. You’ve just been surrounded by so many assholes your whole life you’ve never had a chance to be good.”

  “And Rye,” she continued, “saving me won’t bring back your sister. It’ll just rob the world of your talents and kindness. One day you’ll find a new happiness and you can’t if you die right now.”

  “Cash, your people need you. I can’t take you from them.” Tamsin felt a cool peace well up inside her. “Let me go, my boys, my men, my protectors. Oblivion is coming and I refuse to take any of you with me.”

  “What about your father,” Gray asked.

  “Don’t you dare bring him up,” Tamsin begged.

  “What about Jiro?” Gray said.

  “Stop it.”

  “Think of your mother, and the pain she’ll feel.” He’d seen her worst memory. He knew what strings to pull.

  “Gray. It’s not fair. I can’t take you.”

  “Choose,” Rye said. His voice was dark and broken. “Choose one of us to be your sacrifice.”

  “I can’t choose,” Tamsin said.

  “You gotta, darlin’.” Cash moved to sit beside her. He took her hand in his and squeezed it.

  “I choose myself,” Tamsin said. “I always have. I summoned the demon. I did this. I should bear the responsibility.”

  Sometimes words could free you. But other times, like now, words were an anchor that tied you down to the world.

  “If I could ask one last request?” Tamsin said.

  “Anything,” Gray replied.

  “There’ll be no last anything,” Cash muttered.

  “No,” Rye said.

  “Kiss me,” Tamsin said.

  Gray and Cash and Rye looked at each other.

  “Which?” Gray asked.

  “Who?” Rye asked.

  Cash shook his head. “No.”

  “All of you. Each of you. Kiss me.”

  29

  Choose All

  Gray moved first. He bent over her, still cradling her head in his lap, and kissed her upside down. His lips were gentle and soft, but his sneaky tongue darted out and licked her lower lip. An electric thrill squirmed in Tamsin’s spine.

  Cash was next. His stubble scratched her chin as kissed her. He kissed her like she was an oasis and he was dying of thirst. His lips were rough and forceful. His hands held her throat. There was a barely contained primal fire in Cash that threatened to slip into her. It was incredibly hot.

  Making love to him, what would it feel like? It’d be savage and hard and hot. Whereas with Gray, she sensed it would be playful and unexpected and full of surprises.

  Rye didn’t move.

  “Kiss me, Rye. Please,” Tamsin begged. She was sinking deeper into the coolness of oblivion. Her soul was drifting away.

  But the big man was lost in thought.

  “It’s my last wish,” she said.

  He sh
ook his head. “The dead get no wishes, koshka. Only the living wish. Do you want to kiss me? Then keep living.”

  “How? Do you have a plan?” Gray asked. Something hard poked at the back of Tamsin’s head from between Gray’s legs.

  “I have part of a plan. Most of a plan.” Rye nodded then added. “Okay, I have a plan.”

  Tamsin tried to remain calm. Hope felt too dangerous.

  “Each of us alone is not enough for this ritual I have made. Our life forces are just not enough. It would kill any of us to save her.”

  “We know that,” Cash growled.

  “But all three of us, together, in unity. We could each sacrifice some so that none gave all.”

  “Would that work?” Tamsin asked. Hope flared, so small and bright. She tried to push it away, but she couldn’t.

  Rye shrugged. “It has never been done before. This ritual, it’s meant to breathe life into the ill, not to restore a soul from the edge of death.”

  “What the worst that could possibly happen?” Gray asked.

  “The worst? Everyone dies,” Rye said.

  “All of us?” Cash asked.

  “No. No. You misunderstand. Everyone. Worst case is we unravel the very bonds of life on the planet and everyone dies. But that is very unlikely.”

  “Very unlikely?” Tamsin asked.

  “Well, mostly unlikely,” Rye admitted.

  “Sounds good to me, lads. Let’s get started.” Gray laughed gruesomely.

  “What else could go wrong?” Cash growled.

  “Many things.” Rye held up his hand and ticked off his fingers as he numbered all of the various ways the ritual could fail. “We could swap minds. We could accidentally consume Tamsin into ourselves. We could all be devoured by the demon instead. Or it could just not work. What I do know is this—if we survive, a bond will be created between the four of us. We will have shared the very essence of life. It will have unpredictable side effects. We will be closer than brothers, my friends.”

  “I’ve always wanted a brother,” Cash quipped.

  “How does this work?” Gray asked.