by James Tate
“Shit,” Lee muttered, pulling me from my mixed-up thoughts. “That doesn’t look good.”
I followed his line of sight and immediately saw what he was referring to. Heavy clouds, dark purple and flickering with iridescent blue, hung in the sky on the horizon—directly in our path.
“How far are we from our first stop?” I asked him in concern. We’d been riding for a while, but nowhere near long enough. “Or a town or something?”
Looking around us, I saw nothing but fields and paddocks, with some dense forest in the distance. We were far enough from Teich that it would be pointless to turn back, but there was no shelter anywhere to be seen.
“Too far,” Lee replied. “Come on, we need to warn the others.”
He kicked his horse into a quick trot, and I followed suit, catching up to where Ty and Zan rode at the front of our procession with several of our guards. They were chatting and didn’t seem to have noticed the impending storm.
Lee reached them first and drew their attention to the magic-filled clouds, and suddenly everyone was in chaos. Guards shouted for everyone to hurry—we needed to reach the upcoming forest if we wanted any chance of survival. They were dead right.
Everyone in Teich knew to be wary of storms like this one, as it was no normal storm. Instead, these clouds were some byproduct of all the fucked-up magic in our lands. As it had drained out of the people, it had gathered above us in the atmosphere. Every now and then, it gathered in such dense concentrations that storms were caused... storms like the one coming our way.
“Go, go, go!” the captain of our guard shouted as everyone spurred their horses faster. But it quickly became clear that it would be a pointless effort. Before we even reached the first trees, magic-soaked rain began falling on us.
Girls started screaming in panic, jumping from their horses and into the carriages with the maids, desperate to avoid the rain. What effects it could have on people seemed to vary, and there was no logic to it. Rumors had spoken of people’s skin changing color or them falling asleep where they stood. In some cases, it burned like acid or turned people into animals.
The effects were varied past the bounds of human imagination, but the one consistency was that they were short lived. Whatever the magic rain did, it wore off within a day or as soon as it could be rinsed from your skin.
The same could not be said for the lightning.
A crack tore through the air, and a sizzling blue bolt struck a tree and disintegrated it. One second it was there and the next... nothing but dust. It strangely reminded me of what had happened to my wrist restraints in Zan’s bed.
“Come on!” Ty shouted, reaching across and slapping my horse on the rump to spur her—and me—into a faster pace. My basic experience with horses hadn’t prepared me for such a bone-shaking gallop, though, and I soon found myself clinging to my saddle for dear life as my beautiful mare hurtled into the woods after the princes.
Our guards scattered around us, with the carriages falling farther behind as the horses pulling them failed to keep up. Soon, we would be separated, and then what?
“Ty!” I gasped, as he was the closest to me. “Look!” I pointed back at the carriages full of our maids and the other ladies. I was the only lady left on my horse, and my blouse was already wet with wild magic. The leather of my pants would keep it from soaking through for a little while, but I could feel it tingling on my arms and face already.
Ty swore, and I saw indecision cross his face.
“We can’t leave them,” I shouted at him, even as our horses increased the distance between us and the carriages. “What happens when the storm passes? They’ll be sitting ducks for scavengers and bandits!”
It wasn’t just paranoia pushing me to protect these ladies; it was experience. Bloodeye had several teams working the arterial roads in and out of Teich, so there was a damn good chance one of them would seize the opportunity if they found three carriages of noblewomen with no protection.
Ty growled a curse, then speared me with an intense look from behind his black mask. “Stay with Lee; do not separate! There’s a farm on the other side of these trees where you can shelter, okay? We will find you when the storm is over.”
I gave him a sharp nod of acknowledgement, and he barked out some orders to the guards. Most of them dropped back with him, circling back to the carriages and creating shelters with cloaks to prevent themselves from getting too wet.
Two guards remained with Lee and I, galloping deeper through the forest as we frantically tried to reach the farm Ty had spoken of. Zan seemed indecisive as he lagged slightly behind us, checking over his shoulder then back at me.
The next crack of blue lightning made the choice for him.
A huge tree snapped at its base and began falling directly across the road in front of us. Out of instinct, I kicked my horse harder, pushing her that little bit faster and just barely making it past before the trunk landed with a crash.
Zan’s horse pulled up short on the other side of the fallen trunk, rearing up on its back legs with a gut-wrenching scream.
Panicked and fearing he’d be thrown, I pulled my own horse to a stop and whirled around. But Zan had already controlled his mount, backing up as if to jump the fallen tree... right before three more trees fell in his path.
“Go!” he shouted to me, then wasted no more time before kicking his horse back into motion to rejoin Ty and the carriages farther down the road.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I chanted under my breath, but did as I was told. Lee had also stopped to see what was happening and began galloping alongside me as I reached him. Our two guards were already some distance away, not having stopped. To my horror and dismay, as the next strike of wild magic hit the one on the left with such force that it went straight through him and into the second man.
For a moment, they seemed unaffected and continued riding.
Then they fell.
Both simply toppled from their horses, which continued galloping as though they hadn’t even noticed their riders were gone.
When Lee and I reached the fallen guards, it was easy to see there would be no saving them. A huge hole was ripped through the middle of the first guard who’d been hit. An entire dinnerplate-sized section of his torso was totally missing. I didn’t pause to see the other guard, but Lee’s headshake told me enough.
We needed shelter, and fast.
Thankfully, as we rounded the next bend, the farmhouse came into sight. Across a paddock at the top of a hill to our left, the house itself looked boarded-up tight. Perhaps they’d experienced these storms before.
“Come on, Calla,” Lee yelled, and I desperately spurred my horse faster to keep up with him. His mask, cloak, and gloves would keep the worst of the rain from reaching his skin, but the same couldn’t be said for my outfit.
The sleeves and chest of my blouse, where the faux-corset didn’t cover the thin fabric, were soaked through and sticking to me like a second skin. My hair and face were slick with magical rain, and my entire body buzzed like I was crawling with bees.
I couldn’t dwell on what it might be doing to me. The fear wouldn’t help me, so it was better off pushed aside until we were safe. I could only pray that it was slower acting on horses, least I find myself riding a slug.
“Faster,” I urged my gifted horse, whose name I didn’t yet know. “Come on, girl. Faster!”
6
We galloped up the long path to the farm and bypassed the house itself. There was no time to waste banging on doors and asking permission. Instead we went straight to the barn and rode through the open door, which was banging in the wind.
“Quickly, take everything off!” Lee ordered me as we pulled to a panting stop and swung off our horses. He raced back to the door and hauled it closed, then jammed a length of wood in the broken latch to keep it secure.
I didn’t bother with flirty banter about getting naked. The situation was already too dire, given how long my skin had been exposed to the wild magic.
“Hurry,” Lee encouraged me, even as he stripped his own soaking clothes off. His cloak had saved his shirt from getting too wet, but he took it off anyway. Wild magic storms weren’t something to fuck around with, and I for one did not enjoy the idea of spending the next day as a goat.
“We need to rinse it off our skin,” I told him, my teeth chattering in the cold as I shimmied out of my pants and stood there in nothing but my lace underwear.
He nodded, helping me search the barn for any water source that would help us. The tingling on my skin was getting worse with every passing moment, until I could actually see my skin vibrating. One thing was for sure, I did not want to know what would happen if it got much worse.
“Here!” Lee shouted from the back of the barn. I hurried down to him, past several empty horse stalls, and found him pointing to a sprinkler attached to a pipe above our heads. It was hooked up to some sort of pump system and, judging by the grates in the floor, was probably used for washing horses or cattle. Not that this family seemed to have either of those anymore.
I sighed in relief. Without meaning to, I’d started digging my fingernails into my skin in an attempt to stop the tingling and had scratched bloody lines down my forearms.
Lee frantically cranked the pump, and we both waited impatiently as the old pipes clanked and groaned. After what felt like a lifetime, the sprinkler burst to life, and ice cold water rained down on us.
“Thank Barmzig,” I groaned, for once deviating my thanks to the goddess of mercy, rather than my usual goddess of choice, Aana.
The two of us huddled under the sprinkler, rubbing the freezing water all over ourselves to rinse off, or at least dilute, the magic on our skin.
“Here, you need to get it out of your hair,” Lee murmured, tugging the ribbon from the end of my braid and running his fingers through the lengths to free it all up. “As pretty as the purple hair was last week, we don’t know what this magic will do to you if it’s left any longer.”
I tried to laugh, but my teeth were chattering too hard. Cold drafts from the storm outside were kissing my wet skin, adding to the freezing temperature of the water, but Lee was right. I needed to get it all off.
Not trusting myself to get words out, I stood there in silence and let him comb his fingers through my hair over and over until he was satisfied that it was fully rinsed. Only then did he lean over and turn the pump crank to the “off” position.
“Lee,” I breathed, clenching my jaw to try and stifle some of the chattering. My arms wrapped tight around my body, and my fingers dug deep into my sides.
He stepped in close to me, his own pebbled flesh brushing mine as he peered down at me. “Yes, Calla?”
“It’s really fucking cold,” I informed him with a small laugh, as though he didn’t already know. “We should rinse out our clothes, though. The horses too.”
“Oh,” he stepped back, like that wasn’t what he’d thought I was going to say. A faint blush touched his cheeks, but I could have imagined that. It was pretty dark inside the barn, which meant the storm clouds were probably directly above us. “Yes, I found blankets. Hang on.”
He disappeared out of the shower stall, then quickly returned with an armful of blankets. Tossing the extra ones over the half door, he shook one out and wrapped it tightly around me, then closed his arms around me in a tight hug.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked in a tense, concerned voice. “Did it have time to soak in?”
I took a moment to consider his question. Had the buzzing sensation stopped? It was hard to tell thanks to my shivering. “I don’t know. Maybe yes? I guess time will tell. It only lasts a day, right?”
He huffed a noise, his breath scalding on my freezing neck. “Supposedly. If you trust the news put out by my father’s heralds.” His skepticism was well-founded, but it didn’t do great things for my nerves.
A deep shiver shook Lee, and I realized he was standing there hugging my blanket, covered in nothing but a soaked pair of underpants.
“Grab a blanket, idiot,” I scolded him. “You’re no use to me if you die of hypothermia.”
“Likewise,” he teased, but did as he was told. “You should take your underwear off,” he suggested, with only a hint of a smile. “It’ll be easier to get warm if you’re not wearing any wet fabric.” He wriggled around under his own blanket as he said this, then an arm popped out holding his wet shorts to hang on one of the wall hooks to dry. “I promise not to look.”
“As if I have a problem with you seeing me naked,” I teased, pinning my blanket with one hand and awkwardly struggling out of my bra and knickers without letting any cold air into my cocoon. “It’s just too damn cold to strut around nude.”
I followed his example and hung my underthings on a hook to dry.
Lee used the pump and a small tap attached to rinse out our clothes, then hung them up to dry as well before taking a full bucket and dousing each of our horses. The wild magic didn’t seem to affect animals anywhere near as badly as humans, but it was better to be safe than wind up riding on alligators come morning.
Once they were rinsed off, the two of us shuffled our blanket-wrapped bodies up the small ladder into the hayloft.
“Heat rises,” he informed me. “So this will be the warmest place in the barn.”
“I’m well aware,” I replied with an eye roll, and his brow creased with a thoughtful frown as he stared at me.
“Of course,” he murmured. “I forget, sometimes, that you’re not actually Lady Callaluna. None of those other girls would have a clue how to survive outside the comforts that they were raised in or without servants catering to their every whim, but you’re different.”
I pursed my lips, still not ready to reveal my lowly status. “Oh? How so?”
“You’re a survivor, Calla.” He pushed some hay around, creating a divot in one big mound, which he sat down in. “Come here.” His hand snaked out of his blankets, reaching for me, and I took it without any hesitation.
Lee pulled me closer, and I went to him like a magnet, settling into the hay beside him with our fingers entwined. “I’m not pushing you to spill your secrets, Calla. Whoever you were, however you ended up here, it doesn’t matter. I’m just thankful to Sal that I got the chance to meet you, even if...” His mouth tightened, and his sentence trailed off.
I had a feeling I knew what he was trying to say, but I needed it said out loud. “Even if I end up with one of your brothers instead of you? Like I did last night?”
He gave a short nod, his eyes on our clasped hands, and my belly clenched painfully.
I hated this. All of it. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Lee, or any of them.
“I thought you and Ty had discussed things,” I started, hesitating over the words. Was this where Lee told me I had to pick?
He nodded again and heaved a sigh. “We had. Have. But that was before Zan. Before you knew who we really are. When I woke up and saw you beside my bed, then realized you’d chosen him to spend the night with, I guess I just didn’t expect to feel so...”
“Hurt?” I guessed, and he shook his head.
“Jealous.” His thumb rubbed over the back of my hand, and I vaguely noticed my skin was still humming slightly. “I need to say something. Now. While we’re alone and us.” I knew he meant while we could speak freely without masks or falsities. But I was dreading what he had to say.
If he told me to choose, what would I do?
I couldn’t. Not now. Not yet.
“I hate the thought of you with my brothers.” He paused, and I held my breath. “And I refuse to step aside.” The air gusted out of my burning lungs as relief washed over me. “I’m sick of being the nice guy and putting them first. I want you, Calla, and I’m not giving up until eithe
r you tell me you’ve chosen or we’re all dead.”
His words filled me with warmth, and butterflies erupted in my belly as a slightly delirious laugh bubbled out of me. “Well, that’s reassuring.”
He was right, though. There was a damn good chance none of us would live to see the end of the month, so why not make the most of what time we had left?
“Calla,” he whispered, tugging me closer with our entwined hands. “Can we please stop talking about my dickhead brothers now?”
I bit my lip, nerves and emotion nearly choking me as I nodded.
“Good,” he sighed. His other hand came out of his blankets and cupped my cheek. “Because I have been thinking about nothing but getting you alone all damn day, and now that we’re here, I don’t want to waste it.”
Leaning forward, he let his blanket loosen as he brought his face to mine. For a moment, he paused just an inch away from kissing me while his clear blue eyes seemed to see straight into my soul. “Calla—”
For some reason, I didn’t want to hear what he was about to say. The whole moment was already so tense, so serious. I was scared that whatever he said next might cause the burning guilt in my belly to spill over and force me to step away.
So I silenced him with my mouth.
My lips crushed against his, and my hands somehow found their way around his neck and into his hair. Lee had amazing hair, so soft even while damp and just long enough for my fingers to grip onto while I pushed our kiss deeper.
“Calla,” he groaned, but didn’t pull away from me. In fact, he pushed against me until my back was in the hay and his strong body was heavy on top of me. His blanket had been abandoned and mine was trapped beneath me, so there was nothing between us as I shifted my leg to pull him closer to me.
His lips left mine, and I sucked in a sharp breath as his mouth moved to my neck and his hand found my breast.
Lee’s fingers caressed and tweaked my nipple, sending rolling waves of pleasure right through me as I arched my back to press into him harder. His lips were warm enough to burn as he kissed down the line of my throat and nipped me lightly with his teeth.