“Corbin?” I knelt at his side, my heart hammering. Did this stupid ritual hurt him? Is he okay?
“I’m fine…” He sat up, blinking hard. He rubbed his head. “I think…”
“You’re okay, buddy.” Arthur slid his thick arms under Corbin and lifted him to his feet. Corbin stood for a moment, then his legs buckled and he slumped against Arthur.
Arthur wasted no time sweeping Corbin’s legs out from under him and lifting him off the ground. “Hey!” Corbin yelled, but he was in no state to protest.
Arthur moved toward the end of the hall. “His bedroom?”
“Mine, if you can manage it. All of you can go there if you want. We’re done with magic for tonight.”
Behind Arthur, Aline’s eyebrows raised. Screw her. I was too tired and upset to care what she thought of me and the guys, especially not after her stupid ritual had made Corbin collapse.
That was two of my guys Aline hurt with her presence already. I thought back to what she’d said about how that ritual had made her less selfish. If this is her being less selfish, I’d hate to know what she was like before.
“Maeve, wait… I really feel I should explain—” Aline’s voice rose an octave.
“We’ll talk in the morning,” I snapped, my words harsher than I’d intended. Aline winced and stepped back. I followed Arthur up the stairs, the rest of the guys trailing after me.
In my bedroom, Arthur flopped Corbin down on the bed. “You all right, mate?”
Corbin rubbed his head. “Yeah, I don’t know what happened. I got this rush of memories and then there was this light—”
“I got the light too. That was brutal,” Flynn said.
I nodded. “I felt weird, all sick and gross. I don’t want to sleep alone tonight. And we should take turns watching Rowan, if he does have a concussion.”
“Come here, you fine thing. We’re happy to oblige.” Flynn flung his arm around me and pulled me in for a deep kiss.
I threw his arm off me. “As much as I love all of you, it is two in the morning. My mother has been alive for twenty-four hours, I found out my sister likes girls, and I’ve seen two of you unconscious. Right now, I just need to sleep.”
“As you wish, Princess.” Blake wrapped me in his arms and tugged me down on the bed. Beside me, Corbin looped an arm over Rowan’s back. Arthur lay across the bottom of the bed. No one even bothered to remove their clothes.
The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes and slipped into sleep was the waxing moon peering in from the high gothic windows as it illuminated the pile of bodies that cocooned me. At that moment, I truly understood what it meant to be surrounded by light.
17
MAEVE
My eyelids fluttered open, then immediately slammed shut again. Bright light tortured me, pricking the blessed dark with bright orbs.
“Rise and shine, Princess,” Blake whispered in my ear.
I moaned and slapped feebly at his chest. “What time is it?”
“After ten,” Arthur mumbled from the end of the bed. “That’s the best lie in I’ve had in months.”
I bolted upright. “After ten? We don’t have time to lie in bed. We need to talk to Daigh. I’ve got to try to get hold of Kelly—”
“Shhhhh.” A hand rested on my shoulder. Corbin’s voice tickled my lips. “If you’re going to meet Daigh, you need to be magically charged.”
When he put it like that, with his voice all gravelly and dark…
I leaned back, surrendering my body to their touch. Hands roamed over my naked skin, lighting trails of fire that had lain dormant for too many days. Skin slapped against skin as they tore off their clothes and mine and tossed them on the floor. The spirit magic flared inside me, hot and angry from her slumber, ready to pull in their energy and make it my own.
My eyes fluttered shut and I drew myself into my body, focusing on the sensations of wet lips closing over my nipples. Two tongues swirled around the sensitive buds, drawing up tendrils of fire from inside me. Another set of lips claimed mine, teasing out my tongue.
A head dived between my legs, coarse hair tickling my legs as a tongue thrust inside me. Arthur. He plunged his tongue deep before moving to pound it against my clit while he slid a finger inside me.
Earth, fire, water, air, spirit – the five pillars of their magic reached inside me, feeding my own flaring heat that swept through my body like a forest fire. Arthur’s rhythm on my clit was unrelenting, the machine-gun rapid fire of the heavy metal drumming he loved so much. My body responded, my back arching, the fire inside my burning my limbs into bright light.
The orgasm slammed into me, driving the air from my lungs and forcing my magic out through my body like a sonic boom. I floated in the moment, buoyed up by the pleasure rushing through my veins, before I could return to my body and my bed and the five adoring faces that watched me with a mixture of love (Rowan), bliss (Blake) and satisfaction (Arthur).
“Come to me, Einstein,” Flynn pulled me on top of him. “I’m not going to let Arthur rule unchallenged.”
My body still flared with warmth. I flung my arm out toward the bedside table, hunting for a condom, before remembering that we’d taken the tests in London. We’d all come back clean. We could do this without a piece of rubber between us, like Blake and I had done the other night.
My grin matched Flynn’s as I settled myself on top of his cock and sank down. Skin on skin inside me. It felt amazing.
Flynn gripped my hips and slammed me down on his cock as he drove up inside me. He bit his lip in this totally adorable way as he focused on sending me to the stars and back.
Arthur moved around in front of me, kneeling beside Flynn. I tried to reach his cock with my mouth, but I couldn’t quite bend that way. Arthur lifted his leg over Flynn, who pushed him off.
“Is it too much to ask that a bloke gets to stare at Maeve’s beautiful face instead of your hairy bollix?” he demanded.
Arthur grunted, but he shifted his leg back. He picked up my hand and placed it on his shaft. I tightened my grip and pumped him in time to Flynn’s relentless rhythm. Arthur leaned down and claimed my mouth with his.
The familiar coolness of lube dribbled between my cheeks. Blake’s fingers slid through the trail and over my back entrance, eliciting a groan from somewhere deep inside me. Flynn slowed his pace so Blake could position himself behind me, his cock rubbing against my ass. No finger this time – as Flynn drew out, Blake placed the head against my hole and pushed it home. I gasped as he filled me, working his full length until he was completely sheathed.
Blake’s teeth dug into my shoulder as he slid all the way in. Flynn grinned up at me. “You’re so beautiful when you take us all like this, Einstein.” He pushed himself inside me, his cock rubbing along Blake’s through the thin wall that separated them. I threw my head back, my breath coming out in hacking gasps as they started a slow, see-sawing rhythm that sent me to the stars.
So tight.
So full.
So perfect.
Something dark fell across Flynn’s chest, tickling my throat. I glanced down to see one of Rowan’s dreadlocks snaking across his skin. I rolled my head over. Rowan’s head rested on the pillow beside Flynn. Corbin lay on top of him. His hand clasped Rowan’s, their fingers knitted together, black-and-white. Their bodies moved in time with mine, their eyes darting between each other and then over to me.
“I don’t know if I’m okay with this,” Flynn frowned at Corbin.
“You’d better get okay with it, or we’re kicking your homophobic Irish arse to the curb,” Arthur growled.
“Don’t tell me you’re a prude when you’ve got another guy’s cock practically rubbing against you,” I breathed as Blake thrust inside me again.
“That’s different. It’s all about Maeve,” Flynn pinched my nipple and I gasped as a wave of pleasure rolled through me. “That over there is purely selfish.”
Flynn tightened his grip on my nipple just as he and Blake thrust inside
me, and I lost control. My fingers clawed at Flynn’s chest as my orgasm slammed into me. Rowan’s eyes met mine, swimming with joy – my own bliss reflected back at me.
“See? It makes Maeve happy,” Corbin grinned. “How can you be against that?”
Flynn shrugged. “I guess I’m not. Fiddle-de-dee.” He grinned his compliance before devouring my lips with his own.
The five of us thrust and groaned and moved together, finding the rhythm of our hearts. Arthur shuddered as he came in my hand, squirting his load across my breasts. A few drops landed on Flynn’s chest. I expected Flynn to squeal like a pig, but instead he gripped my hips tighter and thrust with renewed vigor, his expression tense and focused and totally adorable.
Blake came next, his body shuddering against mine. “Fuck, Princess,” he gasped, his teeth raking my skin as he pulled out and collapsed against the bed. Beside me, Rowan and Corbin locked lips, Corbin holding Rowan tight as his body convulsed with his own orgasm. Seeing them like that, so happy with each other, and knowing the others accepted them and that what we’d created here was a family that loved and understood and gave pleasure selflessly, made my heart swell in my chest and my body contract as yet another orgasm plowed through me, shooting my spirit magic higher and hotter than I’d ever felt it before.
And to think some witches chanted over a cauldron.
As I stepped out from the spiral staircase leading down from my room, I noticed a dark shape standing in front of the mirror in my bathroom, leaning in so close it might’ve been kissing the glass. A voice murmured words too quiet for me to hear.
My heart thudded in my chest. Is it Kelly, come back to talk to me? “Who’s there?”
The shape turned and waved a hand through the air. Aline’s eyes watered as she met mine. She pulled the dark hood from her head and wiped her hand across her face. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I got bored waiting in the Great Hall by myself.”
I wondered if she’d come up to check on me, and the thought of it made me feel both loved, offended, and mortified, especially when I thought about what she might just have heard. “This bathroom is off limits. Use the guest one downstairs in future. What’s with the Dracula cloak?”
“Oh.” Aline smoothed the fabric down, as if she only just realized she was wearing it. “I found it in a box in the closet at the end of the hall. There are a few old things in there from my coven. I used to wear this at rituals sometimes. I thought Daigh might recognize it.”
“Good thinking.” I stepped closer. “About last night, I’m sorry I snapped at you about the ritual. I was tired and worried about Corbin and I—”
“Your magic,” Aline whispered, her eyes widening. “I can feel it. “
I smiled. “Yeah. Let’s just say I’m ready for anything Daigh throws at us.”
Aline’s eyebrows raised, and she gave me a knowing smile. “You do your ancestors proud, Maeve Moore. And your mother, for what it’s worth.”
Over a quick breakfast of toasted muesli topped with fresh cream and berries from the garden, Aline explained how we were going to contact Daigh.
I assumed we’d drink the same potion Blake had used to become a temporary shade and enter the underworld, but she shook her head. “This battle is all about power. I don’t want to go to where Daigh is powerful. I want him to come to us.”
“Hold on. We’re currently safe from the fae, and you want to bring them here?”
“Not the fae, just your father. And he won’t really be here. This kind of communication is part of my unique spirit magic. I know what I’m doing.” She explained the steps of the spell that would open a portal to allow Daigh to talk to us without traveling here to the human realm. I had to admit it sounded like a far safer option.
We packed up our things and left for the sidhe. As I locked the kitchen gate behind us, a raven flew from the parapet above. Its beady yellow eye fixed on mine as it soared into the trees. It stopped on a branch overhanging the path and croaked three times.
Arthur shielded his eyes from the sun as she watched its graceful arc across the sky. “An omen.”
“Good or bad?” Flynn asked.
Aline gave him a sad smile. “Guess.”
Flynn sighed. “Where’s Obelix when you need him?”
“Sunning himself on the first-floor parapets, last I saw him,” Corbin said.
“There are no such things as omens,” I scoffed. But the bird’s piercing eye stayed with me as I followed Aline through the orchard. I imagined it watching me from the highest branch.
We bypassed the sidhe and gathered behind it, in the shadow of the trees. Corbin had the idea that the villagers might be spying on the field, and we didn’t want to give them any more fuel for their persecutions against us. Here there was a large enough clearing to hold our circle and we’d hopefully stay hidden from any prying eyes.
In the center of the circle, Aline placed a round mirror and a knife. She stepped back between Flynn and Arthur, linking arms to join our chanting while I cast the circle. As soon as our magical protections were raised, she grabbed my hand and drew me into the center.
“Do you want to do the talking, or should I?”
“He’ll be expecting to see me first.” I remembered last time I’d spoken to Daigh, how afraid I’d been. I didn’t want to show him that same fear today. At least this time was different – I had the full weight of my spirit magic humming in my veins. “You stay behind me. Don’t let him see you at first. We’ll use you to catch him off-guard.”
“As you wish, daughter of mine.” Aline gripped the knife in her hands. She winced as she turned the blade to herself and drew a shape on her skin, a rune. I glanced up at Blake, searching his face for recognition. He nodded, his eyes widening. “That’s Daigh’s rune,” he whispered.
Aline handed me the knife. I stared at her blood coating the blade. “You have to do it, too.” She moaned.
My hand trembled around the handle as I touched the knife to my skin. As lightly as I could, I drew the blade to copy the lines Aline had done. The cuts stung as the cold air whispered over them, and faint lines of blood spilled over.
“King of the Fairies, Daigh the Chaotic, I call you to me,” Aline intoned. She leaned over the mirror, smearing her blood across the glass.
“King of the Fairies, Daigh the Merciful, I call you to me,” I copied, dragging my own arm across the glass. I expected the mirror to feel cool against my hurt skin. Instead, the surface burned. I yelped and whipped my hand away.
From behind my back, Aline touched my shoulder, and a shiver of spirit power flowed through her fingers and jolted down my arm. I added a tiny piece of my own – I didn’t want to waste the deep well the guys raised up inside me – and directed the stream of power into the mirror, focusing my will on the face of the fae king. I gasped as a dark mist rose from the surface of the mirror. The mist thickened, becoming long black tendrils, like the fog that seeped from the cracks at the church.
The mists shifted. Daigh’s face appeared in the mirror, his emerald eyes wide and searching. The flowers in his crown had wilted, hanging off the twisted vines like the dry skeleton of fall. Instead, jagged bones jutted from the crown – talismans of his dominance in the world of the dead.
My spirit magic tugged at me, drawing me closer to him, holding me in his sway. The power he exuded even through the mirror terrified me. It took all my will not to sink back behind Aline and let her face him alone.
“My daughter, we meet again.” His tongue flicked out and licked along his lips, and I wanted to throw up.
“Hi. I actually don’t want to talk to you, since you’re trying to kill my coven and bring the dead back to life to terrorize the world and all. But I figured since you’re doing this all the name of some new utopia you foolishly believe is going to happen, I’d better set you straight on a few matters.”
“I know you’ve seen the vision,” Daigh said. “You know that we are victorious. This castle crumbles to dust, and all the witches who stand a
round you burn at the stake.”
Behind me, I heard a gasp. I guess the guys know about the vision now.
“You got the vision right, but you extrapolated your victory from it, and you got it wrong. That future is not your world. It will be Liah’s.”
Daigh snorted. “Liah is one of my most loyal fae.”
“Is she? Or is she the fae plotting to steal your crown?” I pressed. “Liah knows that this battle you’re fighting isn’t about returning the fae to their rightful realm or freeing the ghosts of long-felled trees. She knows you’ve dragged the fae to ruin for your selfish desires.”
“And what desire is this?”
“You want your family back,” I said. “You want to be a part of a family again. That’s why you want me to join you – it’s got nothing to do with my power. It’s because I’m Aline’s daughter, and you loved her.”
“You’ve been reading far too many fairy tales, daughter.” Daigh laughed. “The fae do not love, least of all the Unseelie. Blake will tell you. I was nothing but cruel to him.”
“What about his fae day?” I asked.
Daigh opened his mouth, and shut it again.
“If love is a weakness, then you’re the weakest fae of all. You’re losing them, Father,” I grinned. “If Liah gets the other fae on her side, she’ll never allow you to have what you truly desire. And she’s already turning them. After all, her vision is purer than yours.”
“If you called me here to gloat over some victory, then your call is premature.”
“I called you because I think we can help each other. I think there’s a way we can both get what we want, and no one has to die. Mostly, I called you because I met someone who wants to say hi.” I stepped aside, giving Daigh his first look at Aline since the night she banished him back to the fae realm.
His reaction was… interesting. His expression remained the same – stony, ethereal. But he blinked. That blink said more than a gasp or a frown ever could.
“Hello, Daigh,” Aline flipped her wavy hair over her shoulder and smiled that kind smile of hers and gave him a little wave.
The Castle of Wind and Whispers (Briarwood Reverse Harem Book 4) Page 12