by Tori Smith
“Of course she does,” Elia said, almost in awe as he looked at me. “It’s just been so long I forgot how it felt.”
“We all did,” Lucas agreed, his sigh heavy in his voice and I shook my head.
“What’s happening to me?” I asked backing away. I stopped when Wesley lifted his hands. He acted on behalf of the group again and what he said, I didn’t quite get and he actually had to repeat it.
“A bond?” I asked confused and asked of all, the men nodded.
“A gift from your mother, Queen Odette,” Elia said. “Given to us all the day she died.”
“But a bond?” I asked again. “What kind of bond and what gift? My mother—?”
Maybe they did know this was all too much because they only proceeded one at a time, Lucas when he placed his hand on my shoulder and the other directly on my mark. He didn’t brush or poke, but full-on covered it, the light from the indentation on my skin seeping between his thick fingers. Intense, I pressed up against his impenetrable form.
“That’s the bond,” he said looking at me, then proceeded to roll up his shirtsleeve, showing me his arm.
Flourishing, his same mark displayed that light and one by one the other men also shrugged up clothing, Wesley when he removed fingerless gloves he’d been wearing. These were too hot for the spring, but I discovered they’d been covering something on top of his left hand, something that now warmed bright.
Elia and Derek revealed something of the same when the two men removed their shirts unified, Elia unbuttoning his while Derek pulled his shirt off entirely.
Their bodies were… perfection, Elia’s not as large as Derek’s but slim and muscular in ways that displayed every ounce of his toned definition. His body was more like a swimmer’s, Michael Phelps coming to mind and Derek, his bodybuilder cousin, his pecs jumping once his shirt was removed and he dropped his shoulders. Distracted at first, I hadn’t realized they’d done what they had to show me something, bright illumination on each man. A light buzzed just below Elia’s collarbone, Derek’s on his pec and both locations I had caught them placing a hand over before, the energy pulsing through their skin.
Something fumed potent through the room with all these men, filled this entire space and Wesley moving in my direction only heightened it. He may have had his shirt—on, but that made him no less striking, Lucas coming up behind him with the swell of his biceps and tousled hair the same.
Wesley looked at me.
“Your mother gifted us with a means to protect each other,” he said, his eyes almost mistaken for a flare the way the blue hummed. “And something far stronger than any power we could ever harness.”
“How does it work?” I asked him, looking at them all. An inherent tug had me wanting to explore the option myself. Elia and Derek’s full chests rose and fell as I peered over them. Derek actually made a move like he understood that—how I felt—but I must have been mistaken, because he stayed his position in the end.
“It makes us stronger,” Wesley said, closing more distance between us. He stopped before he could touch. “It makes you stronger. Every man and woman of our kind is born with these marks, gather power with them, but between the crown and her guardians, it links us.”
“We also link to each other,” Elia said behind him. His gaze appraised me. “We’re aware of each other.”
“But it’s strongest with you.” Lucas spoke this time, looking at me. Shoulder-checking both Elia and Derek, he’d nearly made it to me, but Wesley cut him off.
“That’s enough,” he said, though I wasn’t sure what he’d referred to. Lucas had done nothing wrong, but when Wesley spoke, Lucas listened. Lucas rolled his sleeve down, covering his mark and with a simple glance to both Derek and Elia, he got them to do the same. Soon, they all had their marks covered, Derek and Elia’s shirts back on and I just stood there, as confused as my body was feeling something—things I had no control over.
I shook my head.
“But I’ve never felt any of this before,” I admitted, their marks covered but the feeling of them still there in my head. They circulated like a never-ending force and had I felt anything like this before I would have recognized it, known this power, but as silence fell upon the group again I thought I got more through the air than anything vocalized.
There was something they weren’t telling me and I had a feeling so many other things. There was a reason behind yet another silence.
There had to be.
Eleven
Wesley
I sensed her the moment she arrived at my door, the draws of the bond like a strike of awareness to my soul. Like Elia, I had almost forgotten the… disruption the bond caused. I’d be in the middle of a task, then drop it the moment she or one of my brothers jumped. Things like that, surprises like that I could go without.
Knowing that was soon, I stood, leaving my desk and going to the door. She hadn’t knocked yet but…
Tap, tap, tap.
Soft and meek like she seemed to be these days, I wondered if we had the fight in our queen I had come to know across two lifetimes now. But she’d held her own out there in our discussions and the shocks of the bond hadn’t scared her like I believed it might. This was all new to her, everything was new to her but really it was new to us all. Arden had never been awakened and because she hadn’t, the others and I only had to deal with the links we had to each other, which wasn’t nearly as potent.
Attempting to shake the glow out of my hand, I retrieved my fingerless gloves from inside my pocket.
“One moment,” I called to my queen. From what I understood, she’d never actually sought any of the others out individually before so this was unusual. Even dinner she chose to take separately, but as none of us guys usually chose to eat with each other anyway, no one had been bothered by that. I guess with the bond over the years we tended to have enough of each other on average.
Arden’s energy wave blurred behind the door, a clear jump in her I felt myself.
She wavered. “Oh, I didn’t know someone was in there. Sorry—”
“Then why the knock?” I asked, legitimately scaring her now when I opened the door and my eyes creased in the corners at her surprise. I lounged against the frame. “I mean, I’m not mistaken. You did knock, right?”
Her cheeks burned to a soft pink and nearly obstructed the brown freckles dotting her honeyed skin like tiny, chocolate candies. Peeling her hair from in front of her face, she tucked it behind her ear, the dark tone warm and hinted in shimmering gold strands.
Her lips pressed together, her smile small but there.
“I guess I’m knocking on every door out of courtesy,” she admitted. “I’m exploring the house. I hadn’t gotten to do that yet.”
Yes, something the other men broke down and admitted after she’d gone to her room with her dinner. She apparently locked herself away for the better part of four days, the exact amount of time it’d taken me to get to her. I had to go about the traditional means as I didn’t have her or the others for energy boosts. We normally could travel by manifested portal, but not unless we were four, or of course if we had the queen herself beside us. Her power exceeded all of us even in her dormant state.
The restrictions of being here and in this time came with some provisions. We had power, but its use wasn’t as strong without each other. We had to be four, four to do most things regarding our abilities, but I tried and managed not to get frustrated with the fact most days. In actuality, it’d been so long since I had full use of my power I found I’d been able to naturally get along without it.
I widened the door. My queen was here after all.
“My space is your space,” I told her, gazing at the top of her head as she eased her way into my bedroom. Her strides took her to the center, her arms covering herself.
“I’m surprised I didn’t know you were in here,” she said turning. “I feel the other guys.”
By feel, she meant sensed, but I could imagine she wouldn’t be getting use
d to that. The initial intensity of the bond dulled after awhile and some of us just hadn’t gotten used to guarding against the invasion of it quite yet.
“You don’t have to let us all in,” I said, approaching her. “It’s something you’ll learn to control in time and it won’t nearly be as strong soon. It’s just new right now, at full blast if you want to see it that way.”
“So I won’t know about the incredibly… weird pleasure Derek gets at relieving himself in the morning?”
I couldn’t contain my chuckle, taking a seat on the edge of my desk. We kept this safe house simple to the most needed necessities, a bed and computer/writing desk in some of them.
I folded my arms across my chest. “No, not forever. Like I said, you’ll learn to control it and we can help you.”
Her gaze peeled away as she gazed to my computer and having her here was something I still wasn’t used to. Over the last twenty-four years, I’d seen her in a limited capacity and for only part of the year, the men and I breaking things up in shifts. It’d been the shock of my mark igniting to get me here today.
I adjusted my glove, watching Arden study my computer screen, which was full of maps and diagrams. Currently, I had our safe houses up, all of their locations pinpointed on my MAC.
“What’s all this?” she asked, my queen curious which I didn’t mind. I heard she’d been rather quiet before so questions were very good.
I turned the screen in her direction, pointing out the pinpoints. “It’s where we’re going. Well, where we can go. We have places to stay at in all these locations.” I navigated to Indonesia. “I’d been here before rendezvousing with you all. When any of us aren’t with you, we tend to travel.”
Mostly for something to do and a way to scout more and more areas our enemies might reside. All locations considered “safe points” were generally free of the enemy and good locations to take our queen if needed.
Arden’s brow jumped a little, her arms falling from in front of her chest. “You traveled far.”
“Not so,” I said, knowing the journey never was when it was her I returned to.
But watching her, her gaze floating to the various art pieces I’d personally collected over the years from my travels, I knew I could never tell her that. It had all been too long between us and, well, definitely not appropriate now. It hadn’t been from the jump, but as with elements of my power, I was learning to get by without certain feelings, ones surrounding her.
Ones involving all of us.
I drew my hand down the scruff of my cheek, needing a shave, and I’d been the one to gain legitimate surprise when Arden touched my hand, her small fingers peeling away my glove.
“I’ve seen it,” she said, being careful not to touch when she revealed the weathered skin of my mark. The indentation never left me coming to this century like hers had, so it’s seen some time and a few uproars. My time here hadn’t gone without battles. As I said, we had to scout for those against us, resisters of the crown, who sometimes dwelled in sizable capacity. Witches and warlocks may not be out in the open yet, but there were definitely those aware of us—hated us, and sometimes when run into, a fight couldn’t be helped.
Sometimes people didn’t leave alive.
“You don’t have to hide it,” Arden said, smiling after she balled the glove up. She removed the other, then put them together. “Besides, they make you look like you’re in a chain gang.”
I wouldn’t have gone that far, but if they displeased Her Majesty I wouldn’t wear them in her presence and there was something freeing about being able to go without concealing my mark. The few times I didn’t wear gloves I just passed off the indentation as a scar, but tried not to do this frequently. Resisters were well aware of the mark and its use to magical people and though no one’s looked the same or was ever in the same place, the mark was an indicator of one with magical blood if the wrong person was paying attention.
Arden handed me the gloves and I took them, a smile on my lips before I pushed them into the drawer of my desk.
“The others seem to really look up to you,” she observed, pressing her bottom to the edge of my desk in leggings that smoothed subtly over her round curves. Her hourglass shape went without saying, her features soft and elegant and so similar to our late queen. She even had the slope of her nose and her high cheekbones. Queen Odette’s red hair she lacked, but I wouldn’t trade it for the deep brown of her father, her smooth complexion an alluring bronze I found myself looking at a lot in our former lives. It was easy to do, admire my queen and her near extreme beauty.
“Respect you,” Arden went on, tilting her head at me. “You say jump and they ask how high.”
“Not exactly,” I said, humbled by my queen’s words. My chest tightened and I used my energy reserves to dance around some pens on my desk.
Her eyes lit up at that, watching me and my nerves. I stopped when I folded my arms over my chest.
“We all have our roles,” I told her. “Our jobs in this family. Lucas is the strongest. Derek the best fighter.”
“And Elia?” she asked her focus directed on the pens. Her fingers danced on her arm like she might try to mimic what I’d just done, but in the end, she chose not to. She relaxed her hands to the desk and I took a seat on my rolling chair.
“The most intelligent of us all,” I said and I had a feeling she already knew that, her smile the manifest of dreams.
She pushed her hair back again. “That one I get and the others. So that’d make you?”
“The rounder of the herd,” I said, making us both laugh. Shaking my head out of it, I picked up a stress ball on my desk the normal way, squeezing it once. “I’ve been blessed with the ability to keep them in line I guess. I’m sure you saw more than chaos when I wasn’t around.”
“Ah, they weren’t so bad,” she lied—clearly. Her laughter danced wind chimes in the air. “There were a few moments here and there between Elia and Derek, but Lucas was fine.”
“I’m sure he was with you,” I said causing surprise when her highbrows lifted. I shrugged. “He just always is.”
There really wasn’t anything underlying to what I said. The words were just fact and nothing more. Elia and Derek showed their care for the queen in other ways, but Lucas found a way into the simplest areas. He was just there for her, always nearby and her constant confidant. The two had a friendship all their own in our other lives and each of us in the same way with her, just a different way.
“He likes to be by you, protect you in his own way like we all do,” I told her. “That’s just his nature.”
He was the strongest, but he did show that strength in other ways, the endurance of a man’s heart much bigger and more admirable than any fist could fly or spell cast.
Arden’s lips twisted into a smile at that.
“I guess that explains what he was doing on the couch,” she said referring to him calming her with his raw energy. “And holding my hand in the car.”
I wasn’t aware of this last moment, but it didn’t surprise me. That’s just how it was when it came to Lucas and Arden. That was their “thing” and what made them, them.
Sighing, Arden folded her arms.
“You know so much about them,” she said. “Me. Obviously. I mean, you watched me my whole life.”
Her mark hummed, her vulnerability in the air with her rogue emotions. I could sense them and I closed the distance when I moved my chair, tiling my head at her.
“My queen?” I was aware she wanted us to call her by her name but I couldn’t help it this time, my sovereign sad.
“It’s just not really fair, is it?” she asked moving her head in my direction. Her forced smile didn’t even reach her eyes. “You all know me but I know nothing about you.”
“There’s time for that,” I assured her. Now that she’d awoken, her powers returned and us no longer in the dark to her, she’d be able to get to know all of us. She’d have to and we had to eventually let her in on all the dangers that pot
entially awaited her.
I had a feeling those dangers would be on all our heels for a long time. They had to be. Lucas, Elia, and Derek’s powers would have been restored in Arden’s presence, but as I hadn’t been around our queen, my abilities should have remained dormant. Our powers only triggered for two reasons when it came to Arden. The first surrounded with being in the presence of our sovereign of course, and the other, well, the other not so good. Something was brewing, something big, which we’d all be exploring each moment we could in our spare time. We maybe had a handful of weeks at this safe house before moving, the travel necessary to stay ahead of potential threats.
I touched Arden, her arm, but making sure not to touch her mark. The others couldn’t always sense interactions we made directly with the queen, but we were all vulnerable to each other the moment we touched her there. We gathered it was something of her weakest spot, like kryptonite to Clark Kent. Touched there, all bets were off and it didn’t matter how much any of us didn’t want to let the other in. We opened up, a door of vulnerability and something we’d all fallen into in the past unbeknownst to our fair queen in this time.
We kept so much from her, things we had to and had been her wishes once upon a time. She didn’t want to know about some of the things that happened prior to her coming to the past, hence why her memories had been taken from her. She didn’t need them for this new time and to fulfill certain obligations.
But that didn’t make it any easier for her guardians—me who couldn’t seem to stop touching her gloriously smooth skin. The men were right, now here I was susceptible to her.
It just couldn’t be helped with our pasts.
Though I didn’t touch Arden’s mark directly, a similar effect took hold of me enough to make me continue, Arden’s energy surging, her body warm and hot. Eventually, the stimulation caused her to look directly at me, a soft light circulating in her beautifully green irises I wanted to reach out and touch. Besides the call of her mark, I hadn’t seen any evidence of her power but it shone wide before me, the room actually filling up with endorphins and pheromones directly from none other than our queen. I could feel them, the wave of them as she exposed herself to me.