“This is what you do to me, Brynn, you warm my spirit.”
That wasn’t just a line that Air had fed me … it was literal.
“For now, I’ll have to beat Felixa off with Hellim steel and hope she doesn’t notice that I’m carrying around a few extra ghosts,” I said sourly. The Amerin noble was going to be my biggest hurdle. She’d be looking for an excuse to cause me trouble, and more than anyone else, she’d be suspicious about Air’s absence. And, of course, she’d probably blame me for it.
“You hate her, don’t you?” he asked with a chuckle as I snuggled closer into him and buried my face against the side of his neck. Lying here like this was pure Heaven, Haversey’s ironic gift. Wait until the prince was dead and then gift him to me. Having him at all though was satisfying, knowing that I had his heart when Felixa didn’t … made me feel just plain smug.
“Can’t stand her,” I said with a shrug. Air was trailing his fingers down my arm and making me shiver, stroking up and down with careful, unhurried motions. “She wants to marry you.”
“I’ve already given my soul to you,” the prince breathed, and I smiled, waves of fatigue washing over me as the fire crackled and burned.
“I thought the oral was a good birthday present,” I whispered as I felt myself being pulled under, into Sommeil’s, the goddess of sleep’s, starry realm. “But that, that’s even better.”
At some point during the night, the fire went out and the cold of early spring crept into the room, making me shiver with violent trembles. At the same time, my mind was twisted up in a nightmare, repeating the prince’s death over and over again. I’d had this same awful dream on repeat for days after the All Haunts’ Eve celebration, but then, I’d had Vex’s warm hand to soothe away the fear.
This time, when I woke up, it was with a choking gasp and the chattering of teeth. Even though I was still cuddled up against Airmienan, he was cold as ice. I backed up, looking at his sleeping spirit and wondering why the Hell he wasn’t warm anymore.
“Wake up,” I whispered, and his eyes snapped open. But when he reached for me, his hands were freezing, and his body was the blue-white of a spirit. The prince curled his hands around my neck and started to squeeze, one last quivering breath escaping me before he cut my air off completely, lifting me from the bed and rising up through the still night air until I was dangling high above the ground the way Jas had when Helio Grandberg had gotten a hold of her.
Glancing down, I met Air’s eyes but they weren’t his anymore.
Instead, I was looking at the copper gaze of the shadow woman with the melting mask, her fingers an impenetrable stone collar around my throat.
Reaching for my knives, I realized I wasn’t wearing them, that they were sitting on the side table next to the bed. Instead, I pulled on the magic inside of me, the natural well of power I’d been gifted by Haversey, and reached out, putting my palm on the woman’s ruined mask. Exorcising her now, without Jasinda around, might send my soul to the Otherside. But if I didn’t stop her, she was going to kill me and there was no guarantee that I wouldn’t cross over anyway. Nobody knew how or why certain spirits became ghosts—not even the spirits themselves. None of them remembered that split-second between life and death; it was a big, black empty space in their memories.
Goddess-speed and happy endings, I thought, the words powerful enough inside my mind to work. This was why the Light Goddess was so picky about negativity—even in thought form. I needed to be able to use my spellwords regardless of their method of delivery.
“Stop!” a voice shouted, and I felt hot hands close around my wrist, yanking me back with a violent surge that toppled both me and the mystery man to the floor in a pile of arms and legs and wings. Lots of wings. Four of them, to be exact.
“Vex?” I grumbled, blinking myself awake and finding Elijah of Haversey instead. His fingers were scalding hot where they curled around my waist, his ice-blue eyes wide with fear as we both panted, taking quick, short desperate breaths. “Eli?”
“You almost exorcised him in your sleep,” he whispered as I flicked my gaze toward the bed and found Airmienan, so pale and translucent that I could barely make out his edges. “What the Hell is going on?”
Sitting there on the cold stone floor, it was almost impossible not to lean back into Elijah, feel his warmth surround me like flames. He was as hot, as vibrant, as alive as Vexer. Well, almost. He did a damn good job of playing at it anyway.
“I … I don’t know,” I whispered, feeling this sick, yawning pit open up inside of me. “I had a nightmare that … morphed into another nightmare.” Lifting my fingers up, I probed at my neck to test for injuries and found nothing. But holy Haversey’s tits, it’d felt real. Way too flubbing real. Fear took hold of my heart the way the masked woman—apparently the possessed queen of Vaenn—had taken hold of my throat.
I’d almost exorcised Airmienan.
In my sleep.
“How did …” I started, but my throat was tight and I was having trouble breathing.
“I felt the surge of Haversey’s magic and woke up,” Eli said with a sigh of relief, standing up and lifting me from the floor. He was shirtless and wearing … oh, he was wearing nothing. I guess even ghosts liked to sleep in the nude?
“That’s never happened to me before,” I whispered, reaching out for Air and cupping the side of his face. I waited for him to warm to my touch, but it didn’t happen the way it was supposed to. “But then, I’ve never slept next to a spirit before this week either … And why the fuck isn’t this working?!”
“You’re too upset,” Air said, sitting up and scooting back on the bed to make room for me and Elijah. “I don’t think the warming thing works if you’re scared, Brynn.”
I sat between the two boys, the enormity of what’d just happened making me sick. I didn’t know if the nightmare was just a nightmare, or if there was more to it than that. Something to do with the masked woman, the darkness in Vaenn, and the horde of shadows. But honestly … I was downright terrified.
“I can’t sleep with you anymore,” I said, feeling sad and sick and desperate all at once. Those feelings I’d managed to push back came roaring to life as I closed my eyes and let both Eli and Air hold me, one of them cold and the other scalding hot. “I can’t stay in the same room as you anymore.”
“This is the first and only time that’s happened,” Air whispered, but it didn’t matter.
A mistake like that … only needed to happen once to ruin my life.
Closing my eyes, I exhaled and wrapped my arms around myself, wishing Vexer were here. I couldn’t exorcise a living person in my sleep, now could I? That, and if I had any thrashing nightmares, he was as big as … well, a griffin. He could handle anything.
I’d slept alone my whole life, but in that moment, it sounded like the worst thing in the entire world.
“What if I stayed in here, too?” Eli asked, stroking my hair back with his long fingers. “Ghosts don’t need to sleep. Air and I could take turns, sleeping on and off every night. That way, we’ll stay sane and you”—he shrugged loosely as I opened my eyes and tried not to look down at his crotch—“don’t have to worry about hurting anyone.”
“It’s too risky still,” I said, exhaling, pulling myself together. I was stronger than this. Smiling at them, I did my best to put on a bright facade. “Maybe stay in here until I fall asleep and then slip out? That would work.”
“Brynn,” Air started, but it was Elijah who frowned and looked at me like I was being ridiculous.
“We’re not leaving,” he said, glancing over at his cousin. “Are we, Air?”
“Not a chance in all of Hellim’s hell,” he murmured as I raised my eyebrows. Inside, I was still shaking. But on the outside, I put on a brave face, like exorcising Airmienan wouldn’t have been the worst thing that’d ever happened to me. But oh, it would have. It would’ve shattered me irreparably.
And all because of a dream?
Seriously, when I saw that
Dyre guy again, I needed to ask him about his mother. This whole thing was just too damn creepy.
Elijah smoothed one of his warm palms across my belly and made me shiver, drawing my attention over to his face. He was looking at me the way he had the last time he’d been inside my bedroom. And once again, I was reminded as to why the bedchamber was a sacred and private place. Just having him in here made me want to … continue what we started.
“We’ll take turns sleeping,” Eli repeated, his dark hair falling across his forehead, drawing attention to the strong elegant features in his face. “It was pretty obvious when you started pulling power; we couldn’t miss it if we tried.”
“That is not going to happen,” I said, but the prince was already lying back in the pillows and pulling me down with him. His hand, as he brushed it across my forehead, was still cold. But I imagined that had more to do with me than it did him. He wasn’t strong enough to warm his own body, and I wasn’t in the right state of mind to do it for him. “You guys are being stupid and stubborn,” I growled out, but with Eli locked on my left side, and Air on my right, there was nowhere to go.
When they wanted to be, spirits were strong, stronger than any living person. They didn’t get tired, didn’t have to breathe, didn’t need to worry about stamina.
“If you’re having trouble sleeping,” Eli continued, sliding his fingers down the side of my cheek. I almost hated to admit how good they felt. Strong. Hot. Alive. Just thinking that made me realize how addicted I was to life in general. I wanted more than anything to give it back to these two men, but I couldn’t do that if I exorcised them in the middle of a damn dream, now could I? “I can come up with an activity to keep you entertained.”
“Eli,” Air warned, but then he placed his cold hand on my tummy and bumped Eli’s fingers, shivering slightly. “Gods, you really are warm, aren’t you?”
“Practice makes perfect,” Eli said, looking down at me with those ice-blue angel eyes of his. “And I’d be happy to show you that perfection right now, if you want me.” He leaned in close to me and I could feel the heat of his bare erection against my leg. My nipples pebbled of their own accord, and I knew by the way they stiffened up that both guys had noticed.
“Brynn,” Air said, drawing my attention over to him. I rolled onto my side to face him and accidentally hiked my nightgown up around my bottom, my bare cheeks pressing against Eli’s erection. The effect was sudden and instantaneous.
I wanted him.
Flub, I wanted them both.
“Air,” I said as I reached out and cupped the side of his face, bringing his lips to mine. Now that Eli was touching me, I was starting to calm down. I knew in my heart that I’d never be able to sleep in the same room with them again, but … we weren’t exactly talking about sleeping just now, were we?
My tongue slide into Air’s mouth, his skin heating up instantly beneath my lips and tongue, my fingertips. Arching my back, I simultaneously pressed my breasts into him, and pushed my ass into Elijah.
“Fuck,” I heard him curse from behind me, one of my wings sliding beneath him as he scooted closer, the other lying across the top of him, brushing against his own. Black feathers to white feathers, a symphony of color and sensation that I couldn’t see, too wrapped up in my kiss with Air. “Do you want me to go?” he asked in a strained voice, and I wiggled my butt against him in response. “Are you sure?” This time, Eli’s voice was a cracked and broken thing.
Pulling back from Airmienan, I looked into his eyes as they settled into their sea green color and he came to life beneath my touch.
Without speaking a word, I reached down, popped his button, and slid my fingers into his breeches. My fingers curled around the pulsing warmth of his cock as I leaned in and kissed him again, starting a rhythm with my fist that made him groan and buck his hips.
Shifting back, I pushed myself into Elijah and felt the warm press of his mouth on my shoulder.
“Thank Haversey,” he moaned as he reached between us and guided his shaft to the desperate pulsing heat inside of me. “I’ve been wanting to do this since you walked into Grandberg Manor.” With a sharp and violent thrust, he filled me up from behind and made me gasp at the temporary feeling of discomfort. This angle, with my legs still pressed together, it was a tight fit, almost painful at first. But as Elijah began to move, snaking his hands around my front and palming my breasts through the silk, it started to feel just right.
Air scooted even closer to me, shoving his pants down his hips and freeing his cock so that I could pump faster, grip harder. Even as a spirit, he made his own pre-cum, and I used that as lube to tease his shaft, sliding my thumb in a circle around the head of his cock and drawing these sounds from his throat that were animalistic, almost base in nature.
And I loved that.
It was grounding in a way, to see that our baser natures were still there, hiding beneath the surface. Even in death, Eli and Air were still men, and they wanted a warm-blooded woman in their bed. It bolstered my resolve, even as I felt my mind being obliterated with bursts of hot pleasure.
Eli was kissing my neck, driving into me with greedy force. Clearly, it’d been a long time since he’d had sex, since he’d felt anyone touch him at all. He was desperate for it. Air, on the other hand, was content to wait and take it slow, his hand on my hip, partially covering Eli’s, holding me in place as I pleasured him with my own hand and felt him thrust gently against my fist, pushing against my belly.
Our mouths never left each other, sharing breath and heat and feeling. But I didn’t forget Elijah of Haversey, his hot panting and sweaty skin so close to real life that it was unbelievable. He really flubbing was a master of being dead.
With a sharp cry of triumph, Eli came inside of me, squeezing so hard on my hip that I yelped against Air’s mouth and bit his lower lip. The feeling of Elijah’s climax forced my own hand into a faster, harder rhythm, desperate to steal the same feeling from the prince. And as Eli finished with a few desperate final pumps, Air slipped his hand down and cupped the front of my cunt through the silk, squeezing tightly before he flicked his thumb over my clit.
My climax shattered through me, making me groan against Air’s mouth, fingers slowing and then slipping off his shaft. He took hold of my hand and put it back, using his own to keep the pace up until he, too, was spilling hot seed across the front of my nightgown.
Since he was a ghost, unless it found an egg to fertilize, it would disappear in a few minutes.
Just like I was planning to …
As Elijah pulled out and then rested his forehead against my upper back, stroking his fingers through the feathers on my wings, I placed my palm on Air’s chest and closed my eyes. As soon as the guys drifted off, I was going to leave.
And then probably go wake Jasinda up and squeal about what’d just happened between me and Eli. Or maybe cry about what I’d almost done to Air? Gods, I had no idea. My emotions were so mixed it up, it was hard to know exactly what it was that I should be feeling.
Cracking my eyes open, I watched a bit of silver moonlight slide across Air’s sleeping face, keeping track of the time. After an appropriate amount passed, I carefully, quietly, sat up and started to scoot away. I would sleep in Elijah’s bedroom and leave the men in here.
“I don’t think so,” Eli said, banding an arm around my middle and yanking me back into the pillows. I cracked my eyes to find Air watching me with narrowed eyes. “You two sleep and I’ll keep watch; tomorrow, Air and I switch. It’s not a hard thing to do, Brynn.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said, planning on staying up all night and then warding my bedroom against them both tomorrow. See if they could get in through spirit whisperer enchanted walls. But just as I was starting to formulate a plan in my mind, exhaustion took over me and I feel asleep with the bodies of two warm … ghosts? … on either side of me.
In the morning, I’d remember to be scared, but for right now—everything was okay.
Better than okay
… it was hopeful.
And that’s just about all that I could ask for at that point.
The first day of school always made me feel alive in a way that surprised me. All those fresh faces, the array of uniforms in different colors, the smell of fresh paper and ink. When I was alive, I’d liked it, too, just … not as much as I did now. Now, it was the only thing that truly kept me from begging the spirit whisperers on staff for an exorcism.
I thought at this point, the only reason they kept me around was so the queen could occasionally come and try to wring prophecies from my undead neck … and because I haunted the classroom used for most of the ghost and spirit courses. What better way to learn than with a real life example floating around? Plus, nobody else on staff wanted to teach Historical Studies in Relations to Politics to the mixed-year Hour One group.
Oh well.
At least it gave me the opportunity to surprise the students with the orientation assignment every year. It was always something different, something dangerous, and something that got them up and out of the classroom. We’d spend the rest of the year in these stuffy stone walls—okay, I spent all of the year in these stuff stone walls—so why not start the quarter off with a bang?
Something, that, quite literally I was going to do.
The images that’d been crowding my mind lately, they were making me sick, making my ink curl and whisper against my chest, desperate for release. Something bad was going to happen today, I knew that. Something with blood and ice. But that was just about all I knew, the stink of copper blood steaming in the snow.
The difference was, this time, I intended to be there to see it.
Slicking my fingers through my hair, I leaned back against the desk where the container of spook dust awaited. It was a Hell of a lot easier to sprinkle some of that on before a day of classes than to provide rare and pricey spirit charms to every student, or have a spirit whisperer enchant each one of them personally. As rare as spook dust was, this was an efficient and practical use for it.
Spirited: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Academy of Spirits and Shadows Book 1) Page 24