Rafe knew Mikkel felt the same as he—they were starving for information.
“She’s what?” Thalia whispered.
“Paralyzed.”
The remark fell into the silence with all the skill of a diver belly flopping into a pool.
“What do you mean paralyzed?”
“She’s in a stasis of sorts,” Theo replied, not wincing at Thalia’s arctic tone.
“So, she’ll wake up again?”
He heard the hope in her voice and wanted to cry for her. His hand squeezed hers, knowing that she wasn’t going to like what she was about to hear.
“Maybe.” Theo reached up and rubbed at his temple. His hair was like gold, a startling contrast to the whiteness of Thalia’s hair. They were true opposites. He was golden and swarthy—even more so than Rafe who was olive-skinned. Thalia was creamy and pale. They were light and dark, yin and yang on the golden color spectrum.
“Stop prevaricating, Theo,” Thalia spat, her tone the lash of a whip. “I know you are aware of more than you’re saying. Keeping me in the dark won’t help any of us. I’m a big girl. I can handle this.”
It was unfortunate that her voice broke on that last part, and the men surrounding her flinched as a result.
“Your She-Wolf is connected to the elements,” Theo explained, but his mouth was pinched. He knew he was about to be blamed for what had happened, and Rafe knew he wouldn’t allow Theo to take the fall. Thalia could rage all she wanted, but she would never fault Theo for saving her life without Rafe sticking up for the Fae male.
Rafe knew they’d all prefer for the She-Wolf never to return than to lose Thalia forever. He didn’t doubt she would disagree, but that was her prerogative. Theirs was to prefer her alive and well if not totally whole.
“In ways Lykens aren’t even aware of, you’re all elemental. When you shift, you can call on the animal, who calls on fire, air, water, wind. But there is a fifth element. An unknown. We call it Cosmos. It is magic and power, a void of nothingness and of eternity. It curls around all we see, hear, feel. Making everything and nothing possible.”
“Okay,” Thalia said slowly, rolling out the ‘oh’ sound. “So what does the Cosmos have to do with my She-Wolf?”
“I used air, fire, water, and wind to wrap your She-Wolf in the Cosmos. For the moment, she’s hidden from you but she’s safe. She’s healing.”
A single shudder ripped down Thalia’s spine. “Where is the Cosmos?”
Theo shook his head. “I don’t know. I just… I know of it because I am Fae, and the gifts you believe are magic are sourced in the Cosmos. No other race can touch it like we can, call upon it as we do.”
“So, to recap,” Thalia said heavily, and now, she did move her fists away from his and Mikkel’s hands. “My She-Wolf isn’t dead. She’s paralyzed from the mercury bullet. I can’t call on her because she’s somewhere none of us can truly access. You don’t know, not really, where she even is. Which means,” she croaked out, “that I can’t shift. That I can’t call on her.”
“Yes,” Theo said, his voice a somber whisper. “For the moment.”
She swallowed. “There is hope I will get her back?”
“It depends.” Before she could demand anymore, he cleared his throat. “I don’t know on what. The Fates? The Mother? I put your She-Wolf into their care because that was the only way to keep you both alive.” A shuddery breath escaped his lungs. “If I’m being honest, I wasn’t even sure if you’d awaken. I-I fully expected for you to pass on regardless of my attempt to save you.”
Mikkel and Rafe froze at that, not having been privy to that sliver of information. But, something broke through her own stillness, and Thalia stunned them all by rolling onto her knees and peering at the Fae. She crawled forward, not stopping until she placed one hand on his knee—he was still in the lotus position—and with the other, she reached up.
Rafe sucked in a breath as she gathered one of his tears on her finger. “For me?” she asked hoarsely.
Theo swallowed, the gesture thick and unwieldy, not a move as natural as breathing. “Aye,” he whispered.
Mikkel cut Rafe a confused look, one only he saw because his head was tilted to the side in confusion. He shook his head at the human though; now wasn’t the time to explain that tears were considered special to their kind. Whether it was true or folklore, it was said that tears embodied a person’s soul.
Thalia moved her fingertip to her mouth and placed the drop on her lip. Theo shuddered as she licked them, tasting his tear. His gaze was glued to the spot for endless seconds until he looked up and stared their mate deeply in the eye.
“I would have done anything to save you. In the end, I had to do something crazy to pull that off. You were inches away from death,” he said brokenly. “I didn’t reach you in time to do anything more than make this most drastic of decisions.”
“And you still feared I’d die?” she asked, her tone surprisingly calm.
He nodded, and that slight movement had her blowing out her breath. Once more, she surprised Rafe.
Showing a tenderness, an emotional generosity that should have been beyond her years in the face of the grief she had to be experiencing, she moved again, curling onto Theo’s lap and tucking herself into him. As she pressed her head under his chin, he shuddered and wrapped his arms around her.
The bleakness in his eyes tore at Rafe, and the hurt and agony called to the parts of him that had been born to heal.
Clearing his throat to dislodge the lump that had gathered there, he whispered, “How do we get her She-Wolf back?” He wouldn’t have asked, but just mentioning the creature had his Wolf ramming into the limits of his control once more.
“I don’t know. We have to be patient, but while we wait, we need to stay here.”
She wasn’t arguing, but Thalia asked, “Why?” She turned her face some, moving her head so that her expression was lost in Theo’s throat.
“Because you are weak without your beast,” Theo explained gently.
“I know. She was more than half of me. I know that now. I relied on her too much.”
“No,” Theo denied. “She saved you. And she made you strong. That hasn’t changed. You are still strong without her, but you have to learn how to defend yourself without calling upon her.
“Most Lykens are two parts of a singular whole. You are not like that, Thalia. She controlled you. She thought for you, defended and protected you, because you needed her. She was all you had to keep you sane when your parents exiled you. Because of that, you have the amazing abilities that made you a perfect Triskele.
“Without her, you cannot serve that role. Not in your current state.”
“What do I do?” Her voice was bleak.
“You train in this state, you become strong in this form without having to call on her.” He tightened his hold on her. “To return to the other realm would invite trouble. There are many things going on in the Lyken world, things that require your attention as Triskele. You cannot return there defenseless. And here, time moves differently.”
Thalia pulled back to frown at him. Rafe once again marveled at how alike they were. One so bronze and one so golden. Both like shining, precious metals, their beauty hard for him to behold without feeling flushed at the works of art they both were.
“How differently?”
He hesitated, but not because he didn’t want to impart the information. More because, Rafe thought taking the other man’s wince into consideration, he wasn’t sure how to. “The Cosmos. We can control when we return to the other realm.”
“What does that mean?” For the first time, it was Mikkel who spoke. He looked as bewildered as Rafe felt.
Controlling when they returned home should have been a simple process. It just meant they decided on how long they’d be staying here.
At least, that was the regular meaning, and nothing Theo was saying was meant in the regular way.
“It means that months can pass here and we can return t
o your plane with two days having gone by. Or, a day can pass here, and there, two years might have gone. It depends on when we will it.”
“We?” she asked, her eyes wide.
He grimaced. “More like me.”
“Do you mean to tell me that each and every single Fae can control at what point in history they return to the other realm?” Mikkel asked, his voice hoarse.
“Aye,” Theo said, shifting a little, seeming uneasy at their bedazzled regard.
“This is a good thing, isn’t it?” Rafe asked, unsure why Thalia and Mikkel were looking so bemused when it was good news. The best news, actually. “This means you can train up, get strong in this form. Get your human side to be as fierce as your She-Wolf. We have time to wait for her to return to you as well, and then, we can go home without anyone having known we’ve even gone anywhere.”
The gratitude on Theo’s face made Rafe flush. He shot him a wary smile, one that was returned with a warm look before the Fae turned to Thalia. “Rafe is right. It might be confusing, and it might even seem insane to you, but we can use this to our advantage. It’s why I brought you here. You need time, a lot of it, and here, you can have that.”
Thalia stared at him, and something, Rafe wasn’t sure what, passed between her and Theo. When the Fae began to hum that strange song once more and Thalia’s eyes began to droop, Rafe and Mikkel watched on in surprise as Theo rearranged them. He lifted his ass and moved further down the bed. Lying flat, he helped Thalia curl herself into him. The song changed, the hum deepened, and this time, it hit Rafe. More than that, it hit Mikkel too.
The three of them were under Theo’s control, and though Rafe’s Wolf was surprised by that, he wasn’t scared. The creature knew fear, had known it for too long not to be aware of the cloying, acrid emotion. But he didn’t feel it now. They were safe.
Safe enough to sleep.
Safe enough, and for the first time in six days, to truly rest with the knowledge that Thalia was as okay as she could be.
2
Theo
Theo yawned. Letting the fatigue roll through and off him, he narrowed his eyes into slits and took in the room at a glance.
It had been a long time since he’d been here. Both too long and not long enough. A part of him had felt sure he’d never return to this realm, to this place, to these quarters, yet here he was.
For Thalia.
The bundle in his arms soothed something inside him, something that was raw and hurting. That had been raw and hurting for most of Theo’s life. He hadn’t felt it until Thalia, but now? He was aware of the ache, aware of it in a way that made it impossible to concentrate sometimes for his focus shifted and was lost when he thought of it.
Was this how all Fae felt? They just didn’t know it? Not until they met their fated?
He wasn’t sure, but the exquisite agony made the delight in having her here with him all the sweeter.
He’d always known the universe worked with balance. No good could be felt without first having experienced the stain of evil; it was how the creation story had been formed after all. But still. This felt like so much more.
The quarters had been his since birth. As he was the firstborn child of the Queen of the Fae, they were larger than that of his brethren. He had six rooms in his suite where the rest of his siblings had only three at most. It was a status thing, but it also came down to favoritism.
His mother loved him in a way she’d never loved her other children. It wasn’t something he tried to understand, in fact, he’d gone out of his way to stop understanding it. That love had caused him a lot of misery over the years, had ostracized him from his brothers and sisters, and had made him a target for more centuries than he could count… until he’d reached his true power, that is. Then, he’d been a target to avoid.
The Fae were hedonists by nature, and in his absence, the rooms had been redecorated. His mother knew him well, he had to give her that.
The walls were painted with a frieze of the forest. He was more at home in the wilds of the woods, and she’d remembered that. The trees swayed with an unknown breeze, and chimes that danced in that wind brought with them the scent of water—a small brook, no doubt. If he touched the walls, he’d feel the bark, as well as the dappled sun- or moonlight that peeked through the canopy overhead. Birds danced in the air as they flew from branch to branch, popping out from amid the trees on their journey around the quarters.
The floor was grass. Beneath their feet, it was like velvet, and against his toes, the sensation was exquisite—he knew Thalia and Rafe would appreciate that feature, even if Mikkel wouldn’t.
His lips twitched at that. Mikkel was human and very difficult because of it. He had no affinity to an element and no real desires save for the earthy ones his people were known for. Truth was, Theo had been surprised to see the male respond the way he had to Thalia’s comatose state. He’d sunk into himself in a way that was truly Lyken, not human at all.
Of course, humans grieved, but this went further than that.
True, it made sense that their link was unusual. After all, no ordinary human would be mated to a being like Thalia.
He shifted on the bed and stared at the sky that was also his ceiling. It was based on that of the human world; his mother knew of his preference for that realm. It was a bright blue and the clouds were like cotton balls. Since their stay, he’d seen cumulus, cirrus, asperitas… the full gamut. The other night, there’d even been a thunderstorm, which had particularly freaked Mikkel out.
The room was ever changing thanks to power his mother siphoned off for his quarters. He’d never asked for such special treatment, but she gave it to him nonetheless.
Thalia snuggled into him and something in his chest seemed to tighten and then release.
Gods, it felt good to have her be like this with him. She’d rejected him pretty much from the start, but the day of her shooting, they’d broken bread and it seemed like she’d forgotten her animosity towards him.
This cuddling was definitely new. It seemed surreal that Theo could want to snuggle, but he did. Having her so close, her wanting to be this near to him felt like a miracle.
Pressing his lips to her temple he kissed her, and regretted it instantly when, over her head, Rafe’s eyes opened and he caught him in the act. For a second, they looked at one another. The silence felt unavoidable, the connection arcing between them in a way he’d never experienced before.
Then, Rafe surprised him by breaking the link and asking, “Is she okay?”
His voice was gravelly from sleep. “She’s fine. Just resting.”
They’d all been resting. Only Theo hadn’t slept deeply. He’d kept a watchful eye over his mates, made sure they recovered the energy that had been lost in the worrisome past week. They needed to be on the ball.
While they were in less danger here than back in their realm, Heden had never been renowned for being ‘safe’ for other species. The Fae had a tendency to treat others like lesser beings, their ingrained egos were inflated with the knowledge they were the Gods’ firstborn, and every other creature was not.
“How long did we sleep?”
Mikkel.
He tilted his head to the side and saw Mikkel’s sleepy eyes glancing over Thalia’s restful features. Her mouth was curved in a soft pout, her brow relaxed and free from strain.
“Do you really want to know?” he asked cautiously, aware that neither male, or even Thalia, truly, would appreciate what he’d done.
Mikkel sighed. “What did you do?”
“Placed you in a healing sleep,” he replied. He’d never lie to them. Even if the truth wasn’t particularly savory, he’d answer their direct questions as honestly as he could.
“For how long?” Rafe queried, but he sounded more curious than irritated.
“A day.”
“A full day?” Mikkel laughed a little. “No way I slept a whole day.”
Theo’s mouth curved in a smile. Mikkel was, quite naturally, unaware of
how long a day was on this realm.
“Do you feel better for it?” he asked, deciding a change of subject was prudent.
“Yeah. I do. I needed it. I was starting to feel like death warmed over.” Mikkel released a shaky breath as he reached over to rub his thumb along Thalia’s jaw. “Never thought a woman could make me so fucked up in the head.”
“And they say romance is dead,” Rafe inserted drily.
Mikkel’s gaze flickered over to him. “It is. Women don’t want romance. They want equality.”
“When do the two have to be mutually exclusive?”
“How can a dude be romantic when he gets accused of being a chauvinist?”
“Example?” Rafe demanded, his eyes narrowing.
“I buy a woman a meal at a nice restaurant. She thinks I expect sex. She pays half, I know we’re not going anywhere. Where’s the romance there?”
“Did you buy her flowers beforehand?” The voice was Thalia’s, and it was breathy and soft and had Theo’s insides twisting in response.
Mikkel’s cheeks grew a little flushed, but he shrugged. “Depends.”
“On what?” she insisted.
“If I want sex,” he admitted on a sheepish grin.
“So, you weren’t exactly giving her romance, were you? You were selling her a line.”
“I’ll sell you a line,” he teased, then leaped for her. Thalia’s eyes flared wide in surprise as Mikkel grabbed her and dragged her from Theo’s hold. Before she could do more than squeak, Mikkel was above her, his hands had grabbed her wrists and he’d tugged them over her head. “Now tell me I’m not romantic.”
Theo wasn’t sure what response Mikkel expected but Thalia exploding into giggle-snorts didn’t seem to take him aback.
Triad (The TriAlpha Chronicles Book 3) Page 2