ClosertoFire

by Alexis Reed

  Anthony and most of his Council had assumed that she’d either killed Kai or taken him captive. For fear of what Anthony might do to Savara for putting his mate in danger, Kai had insisted they go into hiding.

  Lily ate then listened quietly, feeling secure between Bane and Darek. She noticed Savara watching her with interest and wondered at its source. Was Savara hoping to find a kindred spirit in Lily, did she want to know about Lily’s mother, or did she have other motives?

  “So,” Kai said at last, turning his unnerving silver gaze on Lily. “Your mother was Mara?”

  “Mara Sinclair, yes.” Unsure what else to say, she squared her shoulders and tried not to feel small.

  He nodded thoughtfully. “Savara speaks highly of her. I imagine the two of you have a lot of catching up to do when there’s time for such a thing.” Lily nodded, catching Savara’s eager smile.

  “There’s something else you should know,” Bane said, pushing back his plate and steepling his fingers. “When we spoke on the phone yesterday, I asked you to help us make a case before the Council for Lily’s freedom.”

  Kai raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you did.”

  In his lap, Savara’s eyes narrowed as she focused on Lily’s neck. Lily’s shirt covered the mark. Savara clapped her hands and yelped, “I knew it! Kai, they’re mated!”

  Kai clamped a hand over her mouth and turned to Bane, looking shell-shocked. “Is this true?”

  Savara tugged at Kai’s hand, trying to speak, but he shook his head. A brief, silent struggle followed. Afterward, Kai shook his bitten hand while Savara kissed his cheek apologetically.

  “So,” Kai said, shooting Savara a murderous glance, “which of you is paired with Lily?”

  Darek guffawed. Lily thought her face might burst into flames.

  Kai frowned.

  Savara was way ahead of him. “Oh my. What fun!”

  Kai turned to her, his eyes narrowing. “Your idea of fun, my dear, may not coincide with theirs. Or mine, for that matter.”

  Savara leaned forward slightly to speak to Lily, her tone conspiratorial. “Did you know that there hasn’t been a triad since Arthur and Lancelot shared Guinevere?”

  Lily shook her head, trying to clear it. “Arthur and Lancelot were shifters?”

  “Oh my, yes, and so was Guinevere. Really, they were such a peaceful and lovely triad. It’s such a shame how Mallory butchered their story, and all for the sake of propriety,” Savara replied, her eyes melodramatically watery.

  “Getting back to the matter at hand,” Darek broke in, “Bane and I would like the sovrán’s sanction of Lily as our mate. Kai, your presence, alive and well, would exonerate Savara. We’d have a much better chance of persuading him that the idani are not all in league with our enemy.”

  “I’ll have to think about—” Kai began.

  “We’ll do it! Let’s go now!” Savara cried.

  “Sav—”

  Kai’s warning echoed dissipated into the air—along with the rest of Lily’s reality. She had a split second to experience a horrifying sense of formlessness that defied description. The next thing she knew, she was lying on a cold stone floor with a worried Bane and an angry Darek hovering in her expanding field of awareness. Above her was a high ceiling with heavy wooden rafters. Darek turned, yelling something at someone behind him. Bane cupped her face in his hands.

  “Can you hear me, Lily?” His voice sounded far away.

  “I can hear you,” she managed after a moment. “What happened? Did I faint or something?”

  His expression flooded with relief. “She’s okay,” he told Darek, who was halfway to his feet, his hands balled into fists. Lily heard a female voice—Savara’s?—behind Darek.

  “So sorry, I didn’t realize her first time would be so hard—”

  Then Bane was lifting her into his arms. Lily looked around, confused. The room had changed. The couches were supposed to be over there, she thought dizzily, and somebody had moved the fireplace to the middle of the room.

  “How long have I been asleep?” she asked Bane.

  His lips tightened in a flat line. “You’ve only been out a couple of minutes, Lily. Savara sifted all of us to Anthony’s aerie.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. Her head hurt like hell.

  “You should recover within a few minutes. You’ve traveled almost four thousand miles in about five seconds.”

  “Four thousand miles?” Her stomach flipped. “Put me down. Please.” Bane set her on a large couch in the corner of the room, away from the fire.

  Lily turned on her side, taking deep breaths. The leather was cool against her cheek. “Tell me again where we are.”

  “Anthony’s aerie,” Darek bit out, glaring at Savara.

  Bane’s blue eyes were steady, in control. She clung to the sight. “It’s in Norway,” he clarified.

  “I’ve never been to Norway,” Lily said, hiccupping.

  Bane smiled wryly. “Congratulations,” he offered.

  The dizziness began to fade and Lily sat up cautiously. The room they were in looked like a living room, complete with ordinary things like a fireplace, couch, coffee table and chairs. Antique portraits lined the stone walls bridged by exposed wooden rafters. Glass doors led onto a mosaic veranda that jutted out into empty space. A floor-to-ceiling window to her right afforded a view of the bluest lake she’d ever seen, contained within sheer walls of jagged stone that thrust out of the water for hundreds of feet, reaching for the open sky.

  Bane’s voice sounded far away. “Darek, find Anthony.”

  “I’m here,” said a deep voice. Its owner, a tall, olive-skinned man in dark slacks and a white undershirt, stood in the doorway across the room. His feet were bare and he held a towel in one hand.

  The sound of running feet echoed into the room from one of the adjacent hallways and in short order, two men burst into the room. One of them was startlingly pale, with short, disarranged hair that was as white as his irises were black. The other appeared older, with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair, rugged features and cold, silver eyes. Seeing Savara, the older man reached in the pocket of his black duster and drew out a length of shining, silken rope that Lily recognized at once. Her nose wrinkled with disgust. The men waited, looking to their prince in silent question.

  Anthony held up his hand. “Mason, Quinn, give them a chance to explain.” He looked at Bane. “Why are there two idani in my aerie?” He spoke the question in a deliberate, calm tone, his voice carrying the weight of his position.

  Bane stood and Darek stepped up beside him, the two of them blocking Anthony’s view of Lily. Kai took a step closer to Savara.

  “I apologize for the intrusion, Sovrán,” Bane said. “We arrived earlier than expected.”

  “No shit,” Darek murmured.

  “Kai,” Anthony said, walking forward, “I’m happy to see that reports of your demise have been overstated. I can’t say I’m happy to see you, Savara.” He stopped in front of Kai and Lily saw Anthony’s eyes widen for a fraction of a second. He leaned in closer to Kai, inclining his head.

  Lily frowned. What was he doing?

  Bane answered her silently, his voice so clear in her mind that she twitched, startled.

  He can tell by Kai’s scent that they are paired. He is deciding what to do.

  “Sovrán,” Bane interjected, “I can vouch for Savara.”

  “Oh?” Anthony’s voice registered surprise.

  Bane nodded. “She came to me a year ago and asked that I find a way to give her permanent contraception. I performed the surgery myself.”

  In the doorway, the man with white hair coughed.

  Anthony rubbed his eyes, looking suddenly weary. “I see.” He paused, seeming to consider, then addressed Kai. “You do not owe me allegiance, Kai. All the same, given her history, I ask that your wyrmate remain bound until I can be sure of Chloe’s safety.”

  Fear spread through Lily, a cloying tension in her gut.

  He
means her no harm. His only concern is for his human mate,Bane reassured her.

  Lily looked up at Bane. What does he mean, Kai doesn’t owe him allegiance?

  Kai is not of this aerie, Bane answered. He is a water dracambri. We are fire. His back was to Lily but he turned his head just enough to wink at her. A tiny frisson of desire made her skin tingle.

  Oblivious to their silent exchange, Anthony and Kai faced off. Kai’s jaw worked visibly in the taut silence. Finally, he turned to Savara. “If she is to be bound, I will do it,” he replied.

  Savara rolled her eyes, sighed dramatically and held out her manicured hands. The man in the duster handed Kai the rope. Kai bound Savara’s hands in front of her, leaving a length of rope that he held like a leash. She stuck her tongue out at him.

  Lily glared at the hateful silvery stuff, not sure why it bothered her so much.

  Bane’s chuckle echoed in her mind. It was made especially for idani, he told her. It restrains their physical form and nullifies their abilities.

  Lily grimaced. It feels awful. Is he going to bind me too?

  A hot flare of possessive jealousy erupted in her mind. He will not touch you. Beside Bane, Darek rumbled his agreement.

  With Savara secured, Anthony turned his attention to Darek, Bane and Lily. “I will not have idani running amok in my aerie,” he said, his voice rising with irritation.

  A female voice echoed down the hall. “Hey, golden boy, where’d you go?”

  Anthony’s eyes widened with alarm. “Chloe, cara, stay where you—”

  A small, slender woman appeared in the doorway. She was dressed in a black bodysuit and her fiery red hair was bound back in a ponytail. Her gaze rested first on Anthony and she smiled broadly. The cold authority in his expression dissolved when he looked at her.

  When she noticed Kai and Savara, she gasped. She crossed the room on silent feet to stand before Kai, who looked down at her fondly. She had to crane her neck to meet his gaze. “Well, I’ll be damned,” she murmured. “I thought you were dead. It’s good to see you.”

  He bowed his head. “Likewise, my lady.”

  Behind him, Savara snorted.

  “Savara,” Chloe said icily. “Glad to see he caught up with you.” Pivoting on one toe, she put her back to the couple and went to her mate. She stood on tiptoe, wrapping her arms around his neck. He leaned down to kiss her. Bands of golden light snaked around his arms, disappearing under the sleeves of his t-shirt.

  Chloe broke the kiss and twisted out of his embrace, approaching Bane, Darek and Lily. Anthony followed her, his tall form dwarfing hers. She moved with confident grace and though her mate stood behind her, there was no mistaking the warning in his hazel eyes.

  “So,” she began, looking them over. “This doesn’t look like the beginning of an Inquiry.” She tilted her head as if listening to a distant voice. Her features registered shock, then annoyance in rapid succession. She laid her head back on her mate’s chest, meeting his gaze upside down. “If you want to know,” she chided, “why don’t you ask them?”

  Anthony cleared his throat. “Your scent tells me you’re mated,” he said, addressing Bane and Darek. “Are you about to ask me to approve a mating to an idana?”

  “We have,” Bane said. “Though you should know that Lily’s father was human. She is a half blood. And she is our wyrmate.”

  Bane and Darek stood shoulder to shoulder, obscuring her view of all but Anthony’s left hand. Chloe, whose view was unobstructed, studied her with interest. Lily watched the men’s backs, wishing feverishly that she could see Anthony’s face.

  Anthony cleared his throat. “Our wyrmate?”

  “Yes, Sovrán,” Darek said.

  “I see.”

  Chloe smiled at Lily, knitting her brow sympathetically. “Anthony, she’s very afraid you’ll hurt Bane and Darek.”

  “She bears your mark?” Anthony asked.

  “She does,” Bane hedged.

  “May I meet her?”

  “Respectfully, Sovrán, we must have your assurance that she is in no danger due to her heritage,” Bane answered.

  “So long as she does no harm, no harm will come to her.”

  Bane and Darek stepped apart, affording Lily a view of their sovrán. Tall, handsome, self-possessed and impeccably dressed, he looked as if he’d stepped straight out of an ad for an expensive liqueur. If it hadn’t been for his strange eyes, which were no longer hazel but the color of burnished gold, she’d have thought him a perfectly ordinary man.

  Lily stood, feeling awkward. Not knowing what else to do, she extended her hand. “Sir,” she said, striving for grace, “Lily Sinclair.”

  His lips curved in a smile as understated as his voice. He took her hand and shook it.

  “Miss Sinclair,” he said, “you’ve been presented to me as a wyrmate by not one but two of my warriors. The last woman to be in such a position was Guinevere of Camelot, who was brought before my father by her mates. I imagine you’ve heard of them.”

  “I have,” Lily said. Her knees felt weak.

  “And your mother was, by birth, an idana—creatures who have brought anguish upon my people,” he said quietly with a hard look at Savara. “You know this?”

  “I do, sir.”

  His tone grew gentle. “Your soul is very old and kind. But you are not dracambri, so I must ask—do you understand what it means to be mated?”

  Lily unbuttoned her collar, revealing the mark at the base of her throat. “Yes, I do.”

  “How do you feel about being wyrmate to Bane and Darek? What do you think the future will bring?”

  The straightforward question disarmed Lily. How did she feel? “I don’t know what the future will bring. I hope that it will bring an end to your war and your people’s pain. If I can, I would like to aid that cause.” Anthony’s features registered surprise. Beside him, Chloe smiled.

  Lily continued, feeling raw inside. “As for my future, I cannot see one without them. I love each for who he is, and I love both for what they are together. Hopelessly, helplessly and with everything that I am, I love them both.” She couldn’t stop the tears that came forward, but Lily squared her shoulders and did not blanch from Anthony’s penetrating gaze.

  At last, he nodded. “Then I sanction this union, Lily Sinclair, and I bring you under the protection of my people as wyrmate to Bane O’Brien and Darek Stanton.”

  Bane and Darek visibly relaxed and Lily felt the tension and fear leave her body. Tearful, she thanked Anthony. Darek drew her close and Bane stepped up behind her, ensconcing her in a dual embrace.

  “Thank you, Sovrán,” Bane said.

  “Of course. It gives me hope that you have found your wyrmate.” Anthony turned to face Kai and Savara. “Let us leave these three to their celebration and discuss your situation. I’d like to understand better what happened on that night so long ago.”

  Chloe’s eyes narrowed. “So would I.”

  Anthony drew her under his arm. The two men at the door joined them and they escorted Kai and Savara out of the room.

  Darek sighed, visibly relieved. “You realize what this means,” he said.

  “We’re safe?” Lily guessed.

  “Well, yes. But it also means Bane and I will be marked too.” She frowned, not sure what he meant.

  “Females—women—manifest the wyrmate’s mark as soon as the relationship is consummated,” Bane explained. “A male must wait until the relationship has been sanctioned by his sovrán.”

  “Well, that’s not fair,” Lily said indignantly.

  Bane grinned unapologetically. “Nope. It’s not,” he said. “But it is adaptive. The mark keeps other males away.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “And what about getting my mark on you? Shouldn’t I get to lay claim too?”

  “Better late than never?” Darek offered.

  “Which reminds me.” Lily stood on tiptoe and toyed with Darek’s hair. “You haven’t taken me flying yet.”

  “Very well t
hen,” he murmured, kissing her. He gestured grandly toward the glass door.

  “After you.”

  * * * * *

  Bane sat behind her, his body keeping her warm as Darek carried them over the expansive fjord beside the aerie. They had been asked not to go far, as Anthony still had many questions, but the view beyond the tips of Darek’s membranous scarlet wings was stunning. She’d never seen water so blue—the same fathomless color as Bane’s eyes.

  On impulse, she shouted over the wind, “Can we live here?”

  She sensed rather than saw Bane’s surprise. Beneath them, the dark-red dragon chuffed, a sound almost like laughter.

  “I’d ask you if you mean it but I know you do,” Bane said close to her ear. He paused as if considering her request. “It’s quite isolated, Lily. Are you sure?”

  It wasn’t the picturesque countryside that drew her, though that was certainly appealing. She wanted to be here, in their homeland, where she could have some influence over the course of this war that she’d learned so much about…and that weighed so heavily on the hearts of the men she’d grown to love. Though she knew Bane could hear her thoughts, she spoke the words aloud.

  “It seems like the key to winning this war could be getting the idani on your side,” she said. “I’d like to play a role in that. Like an ambassador.”

  “It would be dangerous. I don’t know that we’d be willing to risk harm coming to you,” Bane said, his tone reserved. Her heart fell. “But I think you could be right,” he finished. Lily felt a twinkle of hope. She wanted to make a difference. When he spoke again, she heard the smile in his words.

  “In which case,” he said gently, “I suppose we should take this opportunity to scout out the perfect spot to make our home.”

  The wind bore away Lily’s shout of joy.

  About Alexis Reed

  Alexis Reed has been writing since she was ten years old. Her first book was written on a 26-pound “compact” computer with a 5-inch screen and reached 52 pages, single-spaced. Many years later, she read her first romance novel and was instantly in love. In 2006, she started working on her first novel.