Spearwood Book Two

by A. S. Oren

  The furniture guy comes back through our wall with more guys behind them. They all hold onto a long, cherry wood table. Nearly identical to the last one, however, carvings of vines and roses climb the legs of this one.

  I press my lips together. The carvings are pretty. Why did he have to get something I would like?

  The window man disappears through a Void.

  The furniture guy looks to me. "Do you want the table here ma'am?"

  I nod. "That's fine. Um, can you tell me how much this is?"

  He holds up his hand. "It's already been paid for in full."

  Clench my hands into fists. "But how much does a table like this cost?"

  He pats the table. "I made and carved it myself. Six thousand is what I charged for it."

  Jakki chokes as he takes a drink of his orange juice. Amr slaps him on the back.

  I place a hand on my chest. "I'm sorry?"

  "Six grand, ma'am. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to help my men get the chairs." He leaves.

  I move to lean against one of the counters. "Fucking hell. Do any of you know where he's staying?"

  They all shake their heads. Paden clears his throat as he moves the bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels. "You should probably go talk to him at the very least."

  I sigh. "I know. That's why I wanted to know if you guys know where he is."

  Rian walks in through the door just as the window guy comes back with five men following him with a long window. He stops and stares at them. "I guess L was able to find a last minute window guy."

  I step away from the counter. "Wait, you knew about this?"

  Rian looks to me. "Well, considering we are best friends, yeah."

  I blink. "You two are best friends? You and Mirren?"

  He nods. "Yes. Have been since our sophomore year."

  I take another step forward. "Do you know where he is? I want to talk to him."

  He frowns and watches as the window people do their jobs. "I don't want to send you to him and have you yell at him."

  I sigh. "I'm not going to yell at him, I promise. I just need to talk to him. Can you get a hold of him then and tell him I'll meet him where we train, in order to talk?"

  He nods. "I'll do that. Don't be surprised if he doesn't show up. I don't blame him if he doesn't."

  My cheeks redden at his comment. Well, I can tell what Rian thinks of me now.

  "I'll talk to you guys later." I head for the kitchen door just as the furniture guys bring in the chairs. What the hell am I going to say to him? I know I need to apologise, but he needs to apologise, too, to Bullock.

  With a sigh I practice the pose he's been working on with me, might as well get some training in while I wait for someone who may or may not show. I'll wait all day if I have to. It's already been twenty minutes. Will Rian actually contact him for me?

  Back straight as it will go. Feet exactly shoulder width apart, and arms bent at just the right angle.

  "Well, what do you know, you get the posture right when I'm not training you."

  Lusk comes to stand next to me. I nearly jump out my skin but manage to hold my pose. "So, what do I do now?"

  "Picture something small you want to summon in your head and bend fire with a movement that feels right."

  I let out a breath, something small. Maybe a butterfly? I picture the insect in my mind and follow the motions my instinct prompts me to do.

  "Don't lose your posture, back straight, feet apart, only allow your hands and arms above your elbows to move."

  I bite my tongue and continue to focus; he never said anything about maintaining the whole pose while doing it. Butterflies, picture butterflies.

  Fire ignites from my fingertips and lifts into the air to form three small balls. Wings take shape, and they flutter around. I direct them to fly in front Lusk, and he watches them fly past his face before they lose power and fade.

  My head pounds again. Maybe I should've waited until I could recharge my batteries before attempting to do summoning magic like that. Even if it was just a few butterflies.

  I take a seat on the grass before my body can do it for me and rub at my head. Sun god, I forgot how painful this was. How did I deal with it day in and day out as a kid before Edgar let me make out with the guys and do more? I can't even remember the pain from back then.

  I glance at Mirren who stares into the woods ahead of us. His hands shoved into the pockets of his black jeans. His style is a lot like Paden but more relaxed. Jeans instead of slacks. Button down shirts, though he leaves them untucked. "Thank you for meeting with me. I wasn't sure if Rian would actually message you or not."

  Mirren rubs at his eye. "Yeah, he did. So, what did you want?"

  "Thank you for replacing the furniture and windows. I don't know how it would've been done otherwise. You didn't have to get something so expensive."

  He grumbles. "The guy wasn't supposed to tell you how much it was."

  I turn my attention to the woods as well. At least then I don't feel as uncomfortable talking to him. "Why did you get something with roses on it?"

  He takes a seat near me. "It seemed like something a princess would like."

  My hands curl into fists. "I really hate that you call me that. I'm not a princess."

  He runs his tongue along the inside of his cheek. "Whatever."

  "Anyway, I called you out here to say I'm sorry about my behaviour yesterday and to thank you. However, you'll have to apologise to Bullock if you want back in the house. You can hate him all you want but save your remarks about him being an Outcast for yourself and private conversations."

  He looks to me now, his grey eyes almost black today. "Why do you care so much for the well-being of an Outcast like him?"

  I pick at the grass. "I care about everyone in my Fold. He's starting to let me in, and I don't take that lightly."

  "I guess I'm nothing then. Good to know." He moves to stand, but I grab his hand. The jolt moves through my arm reminding me, yet again, that I can't escape what the Fates want.

  "Stop. We're both at fault here. We're both stubborn, and our first meeting wasn't the best. I've been in denial that you were part of my Fold. I didn't want it to be true. I've been childish about all of this, I know, but your cold attitude doesn't make it any easier. You say something cutting, and my instinct is to do it right back. I don't care if you insult me. I'm not in love you, so it doesn't hurt. However, when you go after someone else who is close to me, that's when things will always go from bad to worse."

  He sits back down. I move to let go of hand but he grips onto mine. "A lot of things could've been different if our first meeting hadn't been that day." He touches the scars along the left side of his face. "I'll admit, I wanted to hate you. I wanted to hate you so much it hurt, but I've never been able to, and it pisses me off."

  I stare at our joined hands. His arms still have the deep cuts from yesterday. Why didn't he go to a healer? I lift his arm up and run my other hand over it, healing some of the cuts. He stops me before I can do his whole arm.

  He pushes my other hand back toward me. "You're weak. Don't waste more of your power on superficial cuts."

  He's right, I shouldn't do anymore if I want to be able to walk instead of crawl back to the house. "So what are we going to do from here?"

  Mirren shrugs. "Try to be nicer to each other?"

  "Does that mean you will apologise to Bullock?"

  He bites his cheek for a second. "I'll apologise to him, but that's all you're going to get from me. I don't want to be his friend."

  "I'm not asking you to be his friend. I promise." My head throbs to the point I can barely see straight. "We're trying to make things better, so I'll do something small for you as a sign of my forgiveness and for trying to be better to one another." I lift three fingers to trace the smallest scar on his face. "Si revoke sia chikohk." I speak in dragon, removing my curse from the tissue. With just a bit of my power, I heal the four-inch scar, banishing it from his face. I’ll regre
t using my power in a moment, but I’d rather it be done now in this intimate moment than later.

  He touches his cheek and feels for where the scar used to be. He stares at me. "Thank you."

  I nod. "I'll heal the others as things start to change." I try to stand, but the aches in my hips and lower back say no. Falling back onto the ground, I sigh.

  "What wrong?" He stands, still holding my hand.

  I shake my head. "It's nothing." I force myself to stand and for my legs to hold my weight. I did it as a kid. I can get through the pain now. The Fold allows me to become weak in some regards. Mirren's touch has helped return a bit of my strength at least. My hips protest with each step, but I keep going. The house isn't that far away.

  He slows his gait to stay with me. "I don't believe you. You're moving like a ninety-year-old woman."

  I let go of his hand. "You can go. Make sure the window guys did a good job, I'll catch up in a bit."

  Minos chooses this second to appear in the back of my mind. The edges of my vision turn black as the ground suddenly appears closer than it was before. My body protests with pain as I collapse and lose consciousness.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Day Nine

  "Avalon, can you hear me?" Minos’s voice invades the darkness where my mind rests.

  My eyelids weigh like a thousand pounds, but somehow I manage to open them. "Minos?"

  I lie in a large bed in a tiny white room. What in the name of the Sun god is going on? I look down at my body; I'm in a simple white dress, like the one Maverick broke the straps on.

  Minos, older and thinner than when I last saw him, appears at the end of the bed, wearing a pure white shirt and sleeper pants. "It worked. I didn't mean to make you pass out, but I had to find a way for us to communicate. It's taken forever to figure this out. We have to both be sleeping in order for us to be in the same realm.

  I look around. "So the in-between place is a bed in a white room and nothing else?" I lift an eyebrow.

  He shrugs. "I don't make up the rules. But we're in different time zones, so we're never asleep at the same time."

  "Where are you? We'll come get you and Jericho, save you from Rosemen and his madman experiments. I've seen what he's been doing to you but could never find a way to figure out where you are."

  He shakes his head. "I don't know where we are. He doesn't let us go outside. He's brought in others from all over the world. I need to tell you something important. We'll be returning home soon. The others and I have a plan to get out of here. There's finally enough of us."

  I frown and hold my hand out to him. "Come here. Let me really look at you. We've see through each other's eyes for so long, I feel like I know you but we've never been able to talk. "

  He crawls onto the bed and lies next to me. I reach out for him. His hand chills my own. This isn’t fully like a real dream. I can feel sensations. "Why are you so cold?"

  His lilac eyes stare into mine as he takes one of my hands. "It's one of the side effects of the drugs he's been forcing into us. I haven't felt much warmth until now."

  I reach up and brush the ebony hair from his eyes. He looks so much like Dante, but his skin carries a blue hue instead of a caramel one. "I can't explain it, but I've missed you. Do you still have my curse?"

  He nods. "I still shift in the daytime."

  Warm tears prick the corners of my eyes. "I'm sorry, I've never wanted someone else to have to go through my curse. Especially someone..." Do I love him? I barely know him; all I know is what I've seen through his eyes. And I yet I feel like I know every fibre of his soul inside and out.

  "Someone?" He reaches out and brushes the tears from my face.

  I gulp. He may not feel the same way, but this may be my only chance to tell him, so be it. "Someone I love."

  He smiles. "I love you, too."

  Leaning forward I kiss him chastely, testing the waters. He returns the kiss and pulls me closer to him. Electricity ignites throughout my body at his touch, and I hold onto his shirt. He moves his tongue along the edge of my lower lip. I let him in without a second thought, the kisses growing hungrier with every second. My body wants him. My body needs him more than it needs air.

  My hands drift down his chest to the hard cock pressing against the soft material of his pants. I slip my fingers under the band of the pants and take hold of his cock. He groans and breaks the kiss. "I want you so bad it hurts."

  I stroke his cock. "I want you, too."

  Minos’s hand pushes between my thighs and under my dress to cup my pussy. His fingers rub at my folds, slick with my juices. I moan. "I don't know how much time we have left. I want to feel you inside of me." I push his pants off his hips enough to free his cock. Lying on my back, I spread my thighs apart.

  He moves to hold himself over my body before pressing the head of his cock into my entrance. He slides in with ease. The pleasure grows inch by inch. Leaning down, he kisses and then bites at my neck before thrusting into me hard.

  I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his on both sides of my body. I buck my hips in time with his, making every thrust from him that much more powerful.

  He moves his arms, causing me to let go of him; he takes the chance to take hold of my hand and interlink our fingers. His thrusts slow. "Avalon, I promise we'll be together in the waking world soon. And when that day comes, I'm going to ravish every inch of your body until you see stars from ecstasy." He leans down to kiss my lips softly.

  His words turn me on even more. I can only imagine what he'll do to me when we have more time. My body tingles, but it isn't from the beginnings of an orgasm. Magic pulls at my mind from the waking world. "No, someone is trying to wake me up."

  He groans. "It's nearly night for you, you must be waking up to transform."

  I shake my head. I don't want this to end. I want it to go on forever. "But it was morning when I passed out."

  He lets go of one of my hands and rubs just above my clit, pulling at the tiny bud. "Come for me before you go."

  I groan. I don't know when the next time we'll be able to do this. "Sun god you feel so good!" My inner walls quiver around him as an orgasm spreads through me.

  He moans, his warm seed filling me.

  The pull from my waking mind gets stronger. "Minos, I need you to tell Jericho he's cursed. He's one of my Fold. I love you."

  The white encompasses my vision as my spirit returns to my body. "I love you, too." His voice whispers in my mind.

  I awaken with a shock as someone lies me down on the grass, and my transformation begins.

  Amr sighs. "Oh thank the Sun god! She's awake."

  The pain barely registers in my mind as the grotesque transformation begins. My flesh falls off in bloody heaps as my body quadruples in size. Gold scales tipped with black cover every inch of me. The sex may have just been in a dream, but the pull of the Fold still remains, the pain isn't here.

  Once it finishes I look around. Everyone plus Edgar, Zaria, Michael, and James stand around me outside.

  Paden steps forward. "Are you okay?"

  I'm fucking amazing. I broadcast to all of them. Minos finally figured out a way to communicate with me, but it required me to also be asleep at the same time as him. We're in different time zones.

  Bullock adjusted his glasses. "How did you guys communicate?"

  Through a sort of in-between place, while in a dream. I don't know how to explain it. He let me know him and the others that Rosemen has gathered over the years are going to overthrow him and escape. I don't know when, and I don't know how. It felt like we were in that room for mere minutes, not hours.

  Paden steps forward more. "But you feel okay?"

  Yes. I feel amazing. I need more rest like that.

  Michael clears his throat. “I need to take this information to the Governors. If those kids don't succeed, Rosemen may come back, and we'll need to be ready. Who knows what we'll be dealing with." He takes James’s hand in his. "Come on, Honey. We both have work to d
o, and she's conscious now."

  James nods. "Okay. You all let me know if anything changes. Don't do those dream communications too often, you two could get stuck in limbo, and we'd never wake you up." He steps forward and frowns when one of his heels doesn't follow him. He pulls it out of the grass, muddy dirt sticks to the spike. "Not my Vuittons! These aren't even made anymore. This is why I don't do nature, Mich." He stands and stomps off with his other heel on his foot.