by Ivy Asher
She’s good, I muse as she amps her people up and gives it to them straight. My worries about what will happen now fade as I realize that everything Suryn and I discussed before is still going to happen. I watch her saluting her people once again, and I can see it all clearly. She’ll work within the barrier; I’ll work outside of it. Ory will go where needed, and slowly but surely the Sentinels will come out of hiding.
The noise of the crowd dies down as Suryn raises her hands.
“Good,” she proclaims. “Then let us celebrate tonight, because tomorrow we have work to do,” she commands, and the room erupts again.
This time, the large doors in the back open, and people start flooding out of the throne room in the direction of wherever the party is going to get started. We watch them go, seated on thrones, and the realization hits me of what I’m responsible for. I’m humbled by it and slightly sobered by it too. My actions are not just mine and my Chosen’s alone anymore. There’s a whole race of people counting on us to make the world safe for them. I know it’s not going to be easy, but I’m filled with so much hope that it’ll be possible.
Suryn turns to Ory, and he gives her an incredulous look.
“You’re a sneak,” he accuses her playfully. “You said you were calling your dad and Tawv, you little chit.”
Suryn laughs and moves toward him. He stands and wraps her up in a hug.
“You are the best male for the job, Ory. You get more than anyone what we’re up against and just how important it is to get this all right,” she tells him, and Ory nods and hugs her tighter.
A quiet, low, angry growl starts up, and I trace the sound back to Enoch who is glaring daggers at Ory. Ory looks over and sends his own threatening look at Enoch and his coven. An amused smile crawls over my face.
Glad I won’t be here to referee all that shit.
Tawv walks up to us, a proud grin on his face. “We just need to wait for Wekun to give the three of you your joining marks, and then you can head to the festivities,” he announces cheerily.
I raise my hand. “Um, what’s a Wekun and what are joining marks?” I ask.
“Wekun is our official Bond Weaver. The Sovereign and her Quorum are marked with ways to contact one another and protect one another, and that’s what he’ll be here to do. It shouldn’t take long,” Tawv reassures me.
The side door to the throne room opens.
“Ah, there he is,” Tawv declares, and for some reason, I expect a wizened old wizard to come shuffling out the door with the aid of a walking stick.
I could not have been any further off.
A tall drink of water with buzzed snow white hair, full lips, and a jaw that’s clearly been chiseled by a very skilled sculptor steps out into the throne room. I freeze and can’t seem to stop myself from open-mouth staring. It’s like his mere presence has activated some creeper mode switch I didn’t even know I had, while my brain hums a steady rhythm of homina. Like, my Chosen are standing just off to the side, and yet my mind gives no fucks.
“Tawv!” he greets with a deep voice that I just want to spread out like a blanket and roll myself in.
Burrito for two, please!
I watch Suryn shiver with pleasure and lick her lips as Tawv and the hot guy hug each other warmly and exchange pleasantries. Good to know I’m not the only one affected by this guy’s presence. I giggle as Ory puffs out his chest in a testosterone infused cave-man-sensing-competition kind of way, and for some reason, that helps me slightly shake away the fog of lust clouding my thoughts.
Down, girl.
“Wekun, this is Suryn, our new Sovereign,” Tawv introduces, and Wekun gives her a smile that makes Suryn’s eyes widen. She slowly leans toward him as if she’s a mere flower and he’s the sun. Wekun places his fist over his bicep and slightly bows to Suryn.
“It’s an honor to meet you,” he tells her smoothly.
Suryn just blinks slowly like her brain has stalled somehow. Tawv clears his throat, and the sound has her looking over at him and then snapping out of whatever the fuck just hit her pause and drool button.
“And you,” she stammers out after another awkward beat.
Tawv introduces Ory, and Suryn looks around like she’s perplexed about what just happened. I chuckle, and she looks over at me. I wag my eyebrows at her, and she mock fans herself. We both giggle again and then shut the fuck up when Tawv says my name and Wekun turns to me, almost busting our fangirling.
“Ahhh, I was wondering when I’d get to meet you,” Wekun tells me with a beaming smile that makes my synapses melt into a puddle of incoherent girly mush.
Fuck, he just hit my pause and drool button too!
He steps into my space and leans his forehead against mine. Several growls fill the room, but for some reason, I can’t tear my eyes away from Wekun’s champagne gaze and look to see what’s going on. He inhales deeply, and the whole situation short circuits me. I basically become a broken toaster of a female that drools from multiple places as he stands there, his head against mine, just breathing me in like that’s fucking normal.
“Welcome, sister,” he tells me as he pulls his head away from mine.
The word sister has my lust screeching to a halt. My vagina screams oh hell nooooo followed by a whyyyy aimed at the heavens as she reaches for a mop.
“What the fuck?” I ask, once again snapping myself out of whatever spell this dude’s hotness puts on people.
Wekun laughs, and my vagina starts to judge herself when she responds regardless of the whole brother question still hanging in the air.
“Sister, as in fellow user of Bond magic, not as in an actual relation,” he reassures me with a wink that my vagina’s convinced is just for her.
“You have Bond magic?” Ory demands, his eyes going wide.
Well, shit.
I glare at Wekun for letting the cat out of the bag, but he just smiles that fucking smile at me, and my vagina convinces me we should forgive him.
“That actually makes a lot of sense,” Suryn admits, studying me for a moment like she doesn’t know why she didn’t see the whole Bond magic thing sooner.
Wekun moves, and Suryn is once again lost like a moth to a flame.
“Are you like a fucking Siren or some kind of vagina whisperer?” I ask Wekun, his hotness melting any hope I have for manners.
He chuckles, and I involuntarily sigh dreamily at the sound of it.
What the fuck is going on with me?
I look over at my Chosen, and half of them look like they’re about to brawl, while the other half look seriously amused. I watch as a rune on Wekun’s beefy inner elbow lights up and then dims, and it’s like he poured ice water on my libido.
“It’s a failsafe my mother gave me,” Wekun tells us, gesturing to the rune. “When activated, it makes anyone in my presence enamored. They’re less likely to want to kill me if they want or admire me in some way,” he explains, and I feel both severely irritated and impressed.
“Sorry to use it on you, but better to be safe than sorry when meeting new people,” he throws out there, nonplussed.
I’m just grateful to have a non-simpering brain back, so I let it slide.
“Do you three have any questions before we start on your joining runes?” Wekun asks as the sound of dishes clinking around makes its way out of the kitchen.
I pull up my trusty mental list, but shock stirs through me when most of what I had has been crossed out and answered.
“What joining marks will you be giving us?” I ask, clearly the only one out of the loop here.
“The usual ones, mind speak, locators, emotional alarms. You’ll be familiar with all of those already, Vinna, as you have similar pathways set up with your Chosen,” he tells me.
“Suryn, you have mind speak with your Marked and of course the locators built into the finger runes. The emotional alarms will be new for you, and you and Vinna both will experience a gate rune for the first time,” Wekun explains, his eyes kind and his tone patient. “Or
y, this isn’t going to be a whole lotta fun for you today, but just remember it will end and the pain will be worth it,” he adds.
Ory visibly swallows and lets out a resigned exhale. I don’t bother questioning how Wekun seems to know so much about us. From what I’ve been told about Bond Weavers and how they can see things, I figure it must just be part of his abilities.
“Any other questions?” Wekun asks, and we all look back and forth and then shake our heads. “Excellent, if you three are okay to start, we should get a move on. Vinna’s mates are getting restless,” he announces and winks over his shoulder at my guys.
“Now, hold hands so I can make this quick,” Wekun commands with a clap of his hands.
He steps in front of me, and his champagne colored eyes feel like they look through me as he reaches up and touches under the spot behind my ear where my Chosen runes are.
“This rune will allow you three to speak in each other’s heads when called on,” Wekun explains.
A familiar burning starts at the tip of his finger. I grit my teeth against the pain as I feel two runes marking me there. It’s there and gone in a couple of minutes. As soon as the pain fades for me, Suryn lets out a hiss of discomfort as she gets her marks. A few more minutes later, Ory grunts indicating that it’s now his turn.
“Ready for the next?” Wekun asks when Ory unclenches his jaw.
I nod.
My heart rate picks up when I realize where Wekun has to touch to put the next rune. I look down at his inner elbow to make sure he’s not working his failsafe mojo on me anymore, but nope, this is all the TGV’s fault. Wekun presses his finger tip to my eight pointed star rune on my chest and then moves his finger down my sternum until he hits blank skin underneath the Chosen runes on my chest.
“This rune will work differently than the runes you have now, Vinna. If you are distressed, hurting in any way or scared, it will automatically call to the others. You won’t have to call on it for it to work. It’s a failsafe between the three of you,” he explains, and the burning sensation starts again where his finger rests.
The rune moves through each of us one by one. Wekun looks over me as it does, like he’s searching my body for something.
“Are you okay with inner bicep?” he asks me after a minute, and I furrow my brow in confusion. “For the gate rune,” he explains.
I look down at the inside of my arm. “Yeah, that’s fine,” I confirm.
Wekun doesn’t ask Ory if he’s ready this time. He just presses his palms to the inside of both of my biceps.
“This rune will be the hardest for all three of you to receive but possibly the most vital. It will allow you to jump to each other when called on.”
“Like we can teleport to each other?” I ask, awe and astonishment in my tone.
“More or less. The marking will create a gate between the three of you. When you call on the marking, the gate pulls you through.”
I don’t get a chance to voice my amazement, because it feels like Wekun just shoved a white hot poker into the inside of both of my upper arms. My grip tightens on Suryn’s hand, and I throw my head back and close my eyes in an effort to ride the searing pain out. The deep breaths I’m attempting turn into pants, and a quiet keening sneaks through my lips for a minute or so before the pain starts to fade.
I breathe heavy as the awful sensation starts to dissipate, and Suryn’s hand becomes vice-like in mine. I squeeze her hand back and offer my own reassurances when her cries start to spill from her lips. More than five minutes go by, and her grip finally loosens. Ory yelps out a pained noise, and we watch and wait while trying to comfort him and tell him that it’ll all be over soon. It feels like forever, but eventually Ory relaxes.
We let go of each other’s hands, but none of us rushes to move. The three of us stand there just taking it all in. We now have each other’s symbols marked on our bodies, and I feel bonded to them and protective of them in a way I didn’t before. Wekun claps his hands together loudly, and I jump with a squeak, not expecting the booming noise as we quietly inspect our new markings and what they mean for us.
Weeks ago we were all trying to kill each other. Now here we are, bonded forever as the new leaders of our people. It all feels so fucking surreal.
“I’m glad to have finally met you, Vinna,” Wekun tells me, pulling me from my thoughts. “I think things will be busy for you for a while, but when they start to calm down, I’d like you to come here so I can teach you more about your Bond magic and how it works,” Wekun offers.
I’m surprised for a moment and hesitate to say yes. My first reaction is to say that I may not be back in Tierit for a while. But I realize the new gate runes I now have on the inside of my arms will make it easier to pop in for a bit of training here and there. A wave of excitement rolls through me as I think about what I might learn. I’m sure Getta would be down for a good fight too when I’m in the neighborhood.
“I would appreciate that,” I tell him, “so long as you promise not to use that rune on me again,” I add.
Wekun grins, and then he tilts his head slightly, his prosecco toned eyes going distant like he’s listening to something that only he can hear. After a beat of staring off at nothing, he gasps suddenly and grabs his throat. Worry strikes through me at the alarm I see flash in his distant stare.
“I have to go,” he croaks out, and the next thing I know, he just disappears.
I blink and look around like somehow his sudden absence is a trick of the light, but he’s nowhere to be seen. My searching gaze lands on my guys, and I shrug.
“Who’s ready to party?” I ask, hoping they can just let go of the fact that I went all drooly toaster about thirty minutes ago.
“I blame the failsafe,” I declare as they prowl closer.
“Shots on me?” I try again when not all of them look as amused as I was hoping.
Shit, I might have to pull out the big guns.
“Fine, orgasms on me,” I offer, and this time they all crack a smile even if some of them try to fight it.
35
“Vinna, wake up, kiddo,” someone tells me in an effort to get me to open my eyes.
I groan out an objection because I feel like I need to sleep for at least another week.
I was up during most of the flight, working out a plan in my head with Suryn and Ory for phase one of opening the barriers.
“Kiddo, you need to wake up, we have a bit of a situation,” the voice I now recognize as my dad’s tells me.
I sit up quickly and open my eyes. Vaughn snaps back, just narrowly avoiding an accidental head-butt. I try to blink through the exhaustion from hiking out of Tierit, the jet lag from the flight back to the US, and the interrupted nap I was trying to take during the long ass drive back to Solace. I look from my dad’s concerned face to our surroundings in an effort to get my bearings. Tall trees and the two-lane road we’re currently stopped on gives me a hint, but the collection of black Range Rovers blocking our path confirms it.
“What do you think they want?” Valen asks me from the driver’s seat, his gaze fixed on the road block. I look over at Sorik and Bastien who are also in the car and shake my head.
“Let’s go find out,” I grumble as I open the door and hop out of the SUV.
Sabin, Siah, Ryker, Knox and Torrez all pile out of the other SUV in front of us, and they look from me to the paladin now stepping out of the vehicles in our way. I don’t recognize anyone, but I really only knew Lachlan’s coven and Pebble’s, so that doesn’t really surprise me.
A light brown haired male locks eyes with me and steps forward. “Vinna Aylin, we are here to escort you to a meeting with the Elders Council,” he informs me.
I make an irritated noise. Fucking hell, were they watching the airports for our return? Elder Cleary’s face pops up in my mind, and I give an incredulous mental snort. I probably shouldn’t be surprised.
“Fine,” I relent.
Probably better to get this over with now anyway. Then maybe
we can get home and have some uninterrupted sleep for a while before we get to work.
I turn to go back to the car, but the paladin’s next sentence stops me.
“Lamia are not allowed within the barriers of Solace, so your companions will need to stay out here until the elders authorize their entry,” he announces, eyeing Siah, Vaughn, and Sorik with clear distaste.
“My mate, father, and friend will go wherever the fuck I do,” I state simply.
A few of the paladin bristle, but the leader just smiles. “If you want them to turn to ash when they cross into our territory uninvited, I’m fine with that.”
I roll my eyes and give him a thumbs up. I’m too fucking tired to deal with this prick. I already know the barrier lets Sentinels through, but I’m not going to explain that to them. They can wrack their judgmental little brains until they figure out that their barrier has some exploitable loopholes to its protections.
The paladin leader snickers and then shrugs as he turns to get back into his car.
“Do you think the elders are going to give us trouble?” Knox asks no one in particular.
“I think they’re probably just nosy,” I tell him as we walk slowly back to our vehicles.
“Enoch was keeping his dad in the loop before we left for Tierit. We’re back now, and I’m sure the elders want first dibs on any information we have that they can exploit.”
“Well, this should be interesting,” Bastien observes, and a couple of us chuckle.
“I’m sure it will be, especially when Elder Cleary notices that his son isn’t with us,” Sabin adds, and I snort.
“Should we fill him in on what Enoch and his coven are doing? Or should we really annoy him by pretending it’s top secret and shit?” Valen asks, and I laugh.
“Let’s see how annoying he is and go from there,” I tell them.
We separate into two cars again and move to follow the paladin into Solace.
“Did you get phase one worked out with Suryn and Ory?” my dad asks as we drive and I lean against the window and try not to fall back asleep.