Consort of Fire: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Novel (The Witch's Consorts Book 4)

by Eva Chase

  Rose gazed out the window of the pick-up truck, her brow knitting, but she didn’t say anything. She hadn’t said much since I’d told her there were a few things around town I wanted to show her. I knew she was waiting for me to finish this little tour so she’d have all the pieces, but I could also see the stress weighing on her movements. It was more than the after effects of the bites she’d gotten.

  My brother had told me one of the witches she’d taken in had gone back home yesterday. And Rose had already been beating herself up about the Frankfords piercing her home defenses.

  Seeing her deflated like this made me ache from head to toe. I didn’t think she was beaten, not for a second, but this constant conflict was wearing her down. I had to hope that the plan I was going to lay out for her would boost her spirits.

  I turned the wheel, bringing us back around to the side of town where we’d started. I pointed to a for-sale sign standing near the road at the start of a long gravel driveaway. The house at the end of that drive wasn’t much more than a shack. “And this one,” I said. “It’s going cheap. You want to take a look? The house is vacant at the moment.”

  “Okay,” Rose said, sounding confused.

  I parked partway up the drive, and we stepped out onto the gravel. It rattled under our footsteps as we walked a little closer to the house. The blue sky overhead was dotted with puffs of cloud, and a hot summer breeze wafted over us, not offering a whole lot of relief.

  Rose considered the house for a minute and then glanced at me. “If I’m supposed to have figured out where you’re going with all this, I’m lost,” she said. “You’ve got something you’re thinking of doing with all these properties? Isn’t the one house we can’t even use that much enough?”

  I’d shown her seven spots at various points around the town. Closer than the farmhouse I’d renovated a couple months ago before everything had gone to hell.

  I ran my hand over my hair. “Well, you can tell me if this sounds crazy.”

  “Crazy? You?” She raised an eyebrow with more of her usual good humor. “You’re the last person I’d expect that from.”

  I chuckled. “Me too. But I was sitting with my dad this morning, looking at the painting Jin did for their living room, just being impressed by how well he worked in the glyphs you used for your magic—you’d never know it was anything other than a work of art. And my dad started talking about the addition we were building, the one that collapsed. Saying how we must have gotten too ambitious. We’d have to tell the clients we needed to cut back on the plans.”

  “And?” Rose said when I paused. “I guess you couldn’t tell him there wasn’t any problem with the plans to begin with.”

  “No. So I guess we’ll just build a smaller addition there. But it got me thinking—maybe that’s looking at things the wrong way. That’s how I’d usually look at things: if something goes wrong, scale back until you get it right. The cautious approach. But maybe what we need right now, with as big a threat as that faction of witches is posing… Maybe we need to go big too. To do something that does sound crazy. I mean, magic is kind of crazy in general, to me anyway. So, who cares if it’d look bizarre to anyone who doesn’t understand, as long as it works?”

  Rose nodded, her expression thoughtful. “What’s your big crazy idea, then?”

  I held out the notepad of graph paper I’d been sketching on to show her the rough plans I’d been making. “We’d need to hire on someone professional to make sure the engineering side is all up to snuff, but the general idea is… build a little house on each of these properties using the shape of one of your protective glyphs in its structure and layout. Like seven huge protective symbols you can fill with magic, spaced all around town.”

  “Seven houses,” Rose said, blinking.

  I hurried on. “The witches like Lesley and Thalia who have nowhere else to go could stay there, and maybe they’d like to have that independence. More people like them could end up joining us too. And Damon might be able to convince his mom to move into one. Maybe he’d want to take one for himself. Jin too. I’m not sure how the magical side works, but if you could string a spell between them, maybe you could protect the whole town? At least more than you already can.”

  Rose’s lips had parted. “Oh, wow. That’s—that’s amazing, Seth. I never would have come up with that on my own. But you know… with a glyph construction that big… I might be able to get the effect to radiate pretty far.”

  A rush of relief and joy swept through me. “That’s great. I’d help as much as I can. Obviously I don’t have the funds to buy up all the properties myself—”

  Rose waved her hand dismissively. She was beaming now, her whole face lighting up as she considered the possibilities. “I’ve got the Hallowell accounts now. Our pockets run pretty deep. I can fund the properties and the building materials and whoever you need to hire on.” She paused. “We wouldn’t be able to get these up all that quickly, though, would we?”

  “No,” I said with a grimace. “The real estate side alone will take at least a few days, and then getting the permits, and construction… It isn’t going to fix things right now. But it’s something we can move toward. Something to offer any witches who need your help, so they know they’re not going to be dependent on your estate forever. If we end up in a standstill instead of immediate victory, we’ll be able to fight back harder next time once we have that infrastructure in place. If I could have come up with something that’d help us sooner…”

  “This is wonderful,” Rose said, touching my arm. She pulled me into a kiss, her light floral scent wisping around us. “Very ambitious, but not crazy at all.”

  Her gaze slipped past me for a second, and her body tensed. She eased away from me, turning as if to get something from the truck. I glanced behind me and saw a couple I recognized from town ambling along the country road. Just out taking a walk, it looked like. Of course they’d had to come along this lonely stretch while Rose and I were here.

  Resolve tightened around my stomach. It felt wrong to stand here pretending there was nothing between me and the woman I’d just been kissing.

  “Rose,” I said, quietly so my voice wouldn’t carry, “who are we protecting with that rule about not letting anyone know about our relationship?”

  Rose looked at me with a frown. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, we don’t have to hide it because of the oath. That just stops you from talking about it. Are you at all worried about what people would think about you if they found out?”

  She hesitated. I could almost see her weighing the truth against what she thought I’d do it if she told me to. But this was Rose. She’d never been anything but honest with me.

  “No,” she said. “They already think I’m weird. It doesn’t matter to me if they think I’m weirder. I just—you guys still have to deal with your parents, your friends—you live there in town…”

  I stepped closer to her, setting my hand on her waist. Her eyes darted toward the approaching couple and back to me.

  “It’s okay,” I said, bowing my head toward her. “They can say whatever they want. The other guys can decide how they prefer to handle it, but I’m proud of what I have with you, and I don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks. I’m in this with you until the end, in every way I can be.”

  “Seth…” A shimmer that looked like tears had come into Rose’s eyes, but she was smiling. I cupped her face and pressed my lips to hers.

  She kissed me back cautiously at first and then with growing heat. The movement of her mouth against mine sent an eager shiver through me. I nudged her back against the side of the truck, leaning into her. More heat flooded me where her breasts brushed my chest.

  “I want you,” I murmured against her mouth. “I love you. So goddamned much. I don’t care who knows it.”

  She let out a shaky breath and then she was kissing me again, her arm slung around my neck as she bobbed up on her toes. I teased one hand into her hair as the other gripped her
waist. If my neighbors were watching, they were getting quite an eyeful, but I didn’t feel the slightest regret at that. This was what I’d signed up for—to have this spectacular woman at my side. Why the hell would I hide that?

  All that heat shot straight to my groin. My cock hardened against the fly of my jeans. It took all my self-control not to grind up against Rose right there and then. But we were still in view of that passing couple, and I didn’t want to embarrass Rose with too huge a PDA.

  The thought of hiding that, of pleasuring Rose without them realizing how far I was taking it, sent an unexpected thrill through me. I tipped my head back from hers. At the same moment I let my hand slide up from her waist. My body would block it from the view of anyone on the road.

  “I want you, right here, right now.”

  “Seth!” She clamped her lips to muffle a gasp as my fingers traced over the tip of her breast. Her nipple hardened beneath the fabric of her thin dress and bra. I flicked my thumb over it, and she couldn’t quite swallow a whimper. Her eyes had hazed with desire.

  I lowered my head to claim her lips again as I fondled that breast. The little noises Rose made against my mouth turned me on even more. Her hips moved against mine in a stuttered rocking motion as she tried to hold them still. Damn, this woman set me on fire without even trying.

  My hand trailed back down to the hem of her dress. It nudged the silky fabric up inch by inch to bare her thigh while mine shielded her. My fingers came to rest on the dampness at the base of her panties, and she nicked my lip with her teeth as she bit back a moan. Her eyelids fluttered. I dipped my head even farther to kiss her neck, and she peeked over my shoulder.

  “They’re gone,” she gasped out, arching into my touch more fully. “I can’t see them any—”

  I didn’t need to hear the rest of that sentence. With a heft of my arms, I’d scooped her up and swept her around to the back of the truck. The tailgate dropped with a clang. I sat her on the edge, her dress shoved up to her hips. Her legs splayed around my thighs.

  “Is this okay?” I managed to ask. “Please.” I was burning to be inside her. Burning with the exhilaration of letting all this affection free.

  Rose licked her lips, and my cock strained even harder as I followed that movement. “If someone else comes by…”

  “They probably won’t. It’s a quiet road. And if they do we’ll hear them coming before they can see much.”

  I stroked my hand between her legs again, and she let out her whimper. Then she was dragging my mouth to hers in the clearest answer she could have given me.

  I wrenched her panties down as she unsnapped my jeans. Her fingers closed around my cock, and I groaned. With each pump of her hand, another wave of bliss rushed through me. I crushed my lips against hers and guided myself to the deepest slickness at her core.

  Rose gasped as I thrust inside her. She hooked her legs behind me to pull me even deeper. Her fingers clung to the back of my neck, tangled in my rumpled shirt, as I plunged again and again into the beautiful bliss that was my lover.

  My consort. My wife, in every way that mattered.

  “I love you too,” she murmured, and moaned as I thrust faster. Her breath turned shaky. I kissed her, a crash of lips. My hand slid down so I could circle her nub with my thumb, drawing every bit of ecstasy into her that I could.

  Rose arched into me over and over with those ragged breaths, and then she clenched around me. The bliss of her release sang through the quiver of her muscles, the cry that broke from her throat. My balls squeezed, and I spilled myself into her, riding my own wave of pleasure.

  I held her to me as we both came down from our peaks, my cheek resting against hers. “No matter what happens,” I said, “I’m here with you. And I couldn’t be more honored to be here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Rose

  I swiveled on the smooth hardwood of the private magicking room that was now mine, channeling heat and energy from my spark through my body and out into the world. Every shred of my attention was focused on the images I’d been able to dig up of a little cottage near the Canadian border that belonged to one of the Frankfords’ regular associates.

  We’d checked to make sure no one was there right now. And I wasn’t going to burn the whole thing down anyway. Just set up one of the outbuildings, a shed or a garage, in flames. Make them think I was on the attack in some erratic fashion.

  I couldn’t deny it was kind of satisfying even destroying a few minor pieces of their lives.

  A flare from my spark seared through me. I hurled it across all those miles with the strength of my will and my concentration. As it left me, my legs sagged. I let myself sink to the floor.

  I’d only managed a few of these castings since I’d gotten the idea a couple days ago, and not just because the black widow venom was still wearing off. Throwing even a small spell that far took a lot of effort.

  After a few minutes catching my breath, I pushed myself to my feet and headed out to shower and change. As I scooped up my handbag, a phone chimed from inside it. My legs locked.

  That wasn’t the chime I had set on the new burner Ky had picked up for me after Frankford’s taunting. It was the old one, the one our greatest enemy had reached us at, which I was still carrying in case he texted me again. As much as his threats had pricked at me, I couldn’t lose the chance to get any information he might let slip.

  Had he heard about the fire already? It seemed unlikely anyone would have noticed and contacted anyone that quickly.

  I fished out the phone and braced myself before looking at the screen. But the message there made me frown in confusion rather than bristle. It was an unfamiliar number, but not an unlisted one like Frankford had used.

  Follow the page that called me to you.

  Follow the— My pulse stuttered. My gaze rose to the door to the larger magicking room down the hall where I’d practiced those dual forms with Gabriel—where I’d asked him if he still had that page from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe that I’d given him all that time ago.

  It’s tucked away in my wallet right now, he’d said. It brought me back to you. I’d like to know it always could again.

  My throat squeezed tight. Who else could it be? What else could he be talking about?

  My hand shook as I fumbled for my new phone. I typed a quick text to the group conversation with the rest of my consorts.

  I just got a message. I think it’s from Gabriel.

  I couldn’t stand there waiting to see how they’d answer. I ducked back into the magicking room and set down my purse. With a slow breath, I summoned the energy of my spark again. I didn’t need to light any fires this time. Just to touch the essence of a piece of paper that had meant so much to me in so many ways both before I’d given it to Gabriel and afterward.

  My arms drifted through the air. My tongue moved, forming the syllables of words I’d read so often I knew them by heart. I pictured that day those months ago when all my longing for my former friend had welled up inside me and I’d gone into the forest to the old witching ruins to try to summon him here through that page.

  A faintly sweet flavor trembled across my tongue. A tickle of energy shot down my throat. It formed into a tiny bead of sensation in my chest—a bead that gave me a faint tug to the west, as if I were being drawn by a tiny glowing thread.

  That way. That was where the page was. And maybe my missing consort too.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Damon said, peering out the window from where he was sitting next to me in the back of the car. The Portland suburbs slipped by us. “What if it’s a trap Frankford got him to set up?”

  I closed my eyes, focusing for a moment on the tug of magic that had brought us this far. The magic that was tracing the path between me and the page I’d given Gabriel. “If the Frankfords wanted me to show up somewhere, having him say where he needed to meet me would make more sense. I’m the only person who could have understood that message—well, except the four of
you. Why would he do that unless he was sending something he didn’t want them to understand if they saw it? Something he was hiding from them?”

  “Why would he send us on this scavenger hunt at all?” Damon said.

  At my other side, Jin slipped his hand around mine. “That’s what we’re here to find out, isn’t it?”

  “The Frankfords can’t come right out and hurt us directly,” Kyler said from the front passenger seat. “The oath stops them. They’ve had tons of chances to attack us a lot more effectively otherwise.”

  “That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a trap to hurt us indirectly,” Seth put in. He checked the street signs as he hit the brake at a stop sign. “Still straight here?”

  “Keep going,” I said. “And we’ll be cautious. I’m not going running in anywhere assuming it’s all good. But we have to see. Do any of you really think we should have ignored that message?”

  The silence that followed that question gave me my answer. I shut my eyes to tune back into that thread of connection.

  Gabriel wasn’t with the page anymore. We were close enough to the spot that I’d have sensed his presence through our consort bond now if he had been. When I’d stretched my awareness out to search for him as we approached, I’d gotten a vague impression from the opposite edge of the city, where the Frankfords’ house here was. He was still with them, I had to assume.

  So, what was it he could have wanted me to see?

  The lawns and more distantly spaced houses gave way to packed city streets. The thread of magic tugged me. “Take the next right turn,” I said. We cruised by a few blocks, and the tug shifted again. “Now left. Wait. Stop here.”

  Seth found a spot to park by the curb. It was mid-afternoon now, but a cooler breeze broke the summer air as I climbed out of the car. I paused for a second on the sidewalk, getting my bearings. Focusing on that tug inside me.