Mina shut the door before her neighbor could question her more.
Eric laughed. “That was easy.”
“The walls are thick, and Mrs. B has terrible hearing,” Gav said. Mina noted how much stronger he sounded and relief uncoiled through her.
Chapter Ten
“SO, SHADE, HUH?” Gav, now wearing a pair of sweats wore a path in his living room carpet. They’d moved across the hall when the cleaners arrived. “You used to be a warden.”
“Yes.” Mina bit her fingernail, something she hadn’t done in a very long time.
“In service to Garrick until you switched sides?”
“Like I had a choice. Weren’t we all in service to Garrick when he ruled?”
“Who’s Garrick?” Eric asked.
“He was the new queen’s maniacal daddy until she took him out,” Shade said.
“What?” Eric leaned back on the couch. “I’m so confused.”
“You do have a type, Shade,” Keane said. “Big and dumb.”
“I’ll tell Trace you said so.”
“Trace?” Gav leaned forward in his chair. “Trace who?”
“Oh,” Mina said. “That.”
“This should prove interesting,” Keane said.
Mina crossed her arms and clenched her jaw. “Can I have a minute here?”
“I’ll go make some calls.” When the apartment door shut behind Keane, Mina sighed. She hadn’t wanted any men in her life, and now she had two of them. Both had professed their love for her...in front of each other. And now, they knew the truth about her. She wondered if either of them would stick around now. “You know I was married before, Gav. I told you that. He was a lupinus.”
“A what?” Eric asked.
“Werewolf,” Gav said.
“Huh.”
“Yes, what Gav said,” Mina continued. “We were both wardens in training at the time. Both teenagers. Really, it wasn’t much of a marriage. We managed to not kill each other for a year before we decided to end things.”
“You were married to a werewolf,” Eric said. Then he looked at Gav. “And he’s a werelion. And the guy that just left, he’s part dragon and part… aural? Like you?” Eric rubbed his hands through his hair.
“My father abandoned me. I spent most my life in foster care. I only know what I am because of Keane. Next to you both and Charlie, he’s the only family I’ve ever known.”
“And our kind are ruled by a monarchy? That seems archaic.”
“When you have this much power floating around, you need people in charge. You need a policing system. Otherwise, what would stop someone like Tsvaras, the god of doors, from taking over the world?”
“That’s a real person?” Eric asked.
Gav nodded. “Yep. He’s a chimera. Only one of them in existence.”
“Well, actually, there are three of us if you count my wife and our son.”
Mina, Gav, and Eric stared at the open bedroom door. Gav’s bedroom had disappeared and in its place was a large spacious room with white marble floors and cream colored walls. Marcus Tsvaras, his dark curls pulled back from his face, moved aside as a petite redhead with freckles walked into the living room with two men on either side.
“This is not happening,” Mina said.
Gav went to a knee. “Your highness.”
“Please don’t do that,” the queen said tersely.
“Queen Benoica,” Mina acknowledged. Her eyes softened when they landed on the square jaw of Trace Calder, the man she once loved enough to marry. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said back.
The other man, taller than Trace stepped forward. Ian Arendt “Where’s the flower? We didn’t want to take a chance bringing it back to Caledon, but I need to get a look at it.”
“Across the hall.” Mina jerked her thumb toward the front door. “Knock yourself out.”
Eric stood up and extended his hand to the young queen. “I’m Eric Bishop.”
She took it. “Benie Dilian.” She raised a brow. “You have a little juju going on there.” She turned her focus to Mina. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
“A girl can hope.”
Benie frowned. Her small, freckled nose wrinkled. “You can be unpleasant.”
“Ditto.”
Benie’s hand went inside her jacket.
Eric and Gav both moved to either side of Mina.
“Easy,” Trace said. He put his hand on Benie’s shoulder. “Let’s play nice.” He stared at the two men who instinctually had stepped up to defend Mina. “You have two mates now?”
“Mind your own business, Trace.”
He shook his head. “And you love them.”
“Stop poking around in my head.”
Eric took Mina’s right hand and Gav took the left.
“The right and the left,” Benie said.
“I didn’t run out and get my own triune. No worries there.”
“There are other power triads, Semina,” Trace said. “You should know better than anyone that anything is possible.”
Mina felt a warm, steady pulse in her palms as she grasped her lovers’ hands tighter.
Ian rushed back into the apartment, Keane close on his heels. “Qetesh,” he said.
Mina gripped Gav and Eric tighter, her throat suddenly tight. “What did you say?”
“The three stone goddess. Qetesh. This is one of the symbols used to represent her,” Ian said as if that cleared it up.
“I know who she is,” Mina said. “It was Aural 101 in warden school. But I haven’t heard or thought about Qetesh in years. Suddenly a crazy old homeless woman rants about her. And now a lethal gift with her symbol is left at my door. It’s too bizarre to be a coincidence.”
“What did the crazy old woman tell you?” Keane asked.
“Something about someone controlling the snake, and that I’d been given the gift of Qetesh, and if I don’t embrace it, I’ll die. It’s nonsense.”
Keane’s lips pressed flat, and Mina registered a jump in his emotions. He was suddenly…uncomfortable. And worried.
“What is it?”
He turned to her, shaking his head. “I believe you’re in great danger.”
“That’s not new,” she told him.
“This danger is more…personal.”
He casts furtive glances at Eric and Gav, before settling his gaze on Mina. “Do you love them?” he asked.
If he hadn’t sounded so serious, Mina would have laughed. It was her turn to feel uncomfortable. Benie, Ian, and Trace all watched her with the attention usually reserved for an execution. Eric turned to face her, but Gav stood stock still, his grip tightening on her hand.
“I don’t think that’s—”
Keane held up a hand. “It’s important, Shade, or I wouldn’t ask.”
The cold, knot in Mina’s chest grew. She’d never imagined having this kind of intimate conversation, let alone having it with an audience in attendance. She knew where both the men in her stood. They loved her. They’d declared as much, and their actions, their desire to protect her—even though she could take care of herself—backed up their words. But how did she feel? She tried to imagine a life without Gav. Even after their break up, she constantly ached for him, and until Eric, she hadn’t given another man a second look. But her attraction to Eric didn’t stop her from wanting or needing Gav, or vice versa. Even against her better judgment, she couldn’t stop herself with Eric. But did she love them?
For someone who could read the emotions of other beings, she’d never been very good at deciphering her own. So, she decided to approach the question of love from a different vantage. She asked herself, could she live without them? Maybe. Could she stop thinking about them? No. The final question forced her to truly confront her feelings. Would she give her life for them?
“Yes,” she said aloud. “I love them.”
“Then you must join with them,” Keane said. “Only a true joining will give you the strength you’ll need.”
<
br /> “The strength for what?”
“To kill your Aunt Aalia, my sister, before she kills you.”
“This is an unexpected turn of events,” Benie said. “I thought Keane was droganos.”
“Half,” he said to his queen. He turned his focus to Mina. “I’ve tried my best to protect you. To keep my promise to your father.”
“My father.”
“Wow, this is getting more and more twisted,” Benie said. “I think that’s our cue to go. Keep us clued in on rebel activity, and if you need any help with this…situation…”
Trace walked to Mina, but he stopped shy of actually touching her. “Sometimes fate is its own reward.” He walked back to Benie and Ian, and the three of them passed through the portal door to Caledon. The door closed behind them. Mina was left with Eric, Gav, and Keane. The emotions in the room were high, scattered, and overwhelming. She shut down her empathy, or as much as she could.
She stared at Keane. “Tell me everything.”
“I am the half-brother to Malia and Aalia Amat. We shared the same father. He was an aural with an aural wife, but he took a droganos as a mistress.”
“Malia?”
“You’re mother.”
Mina rocked on her toes. “I need to sit down.” Under the shock, a simmering anger brew. Keane knew about her past, and apparently he was her uncle. She couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d have told her that Darth Vader was her father.
Eric and Gav put themselves on either side of her as she lowered herself to the couch.
“I hoped you’d never have to find out.”
“Obviously,” she retorted. “What happened to my mother?” It was a question she’d pondered over the years, but she’d never dug too deeply. She had worried if she picked the scab off that wound it would never stop bleeding. But now she needed to know.
“Aalia killed her.”
“Her own sister.”
“Her own identical twin,” Keane said. “They’d been close growing up. Aalia loved Malia, which made the betrayal more horrific.”
“The betrayer,” Mina said, remembering Helma the seer’s prophetic words. “Go on.”
“Aalia found an ancient text, supposedly a path, set by Qestesh herself, to a kind of immortality. An ascension. She became obsessed with studying the tome. The path required a sacrifice…” He shook his head. His fingers clenching into a fist. “She was certain Malia’s death at her hand would open the way for her. I was already Chief Warden at that time, and I had spies in my father’s home. When I found out what Aalia planned, I helped Malia escape. She was safe for nearly a decade.”
“Then what happened? How did Aalia find her?”
“Malia fell in love with a human. Your father. You were born, and the years passed. She let her guard down. Forgot about the danger she faced. She missed Aalia. She’d struggled to believe her sister would actually kill her. She knew Aalia loved her.
“But she didn’t realize that true sacrifice requires love,” he said.
“And Aalia killed her,” Mina said. “And my father?”
“He brought you to me after Malia’s death. Aalia didn’t ascend with the sacrifice, but she’d found out that Malia had a child, and she believes that the reason the sacrifice didn’t work is because a living piece of Malia still existed. It’s why your father gave you up.” He put his hand on Mina’s shoulder. “He didn’t abandon you, Shade. He protected you.”
“You know where he is?” Her chest tightened.
Keane shook his head. “He died of cancer three years ago.”
She put her hand to her mouth. “I can’t,” she said. “I can’t deal with this. I need…” She needed to lie down, to crawl under the blankets, and bury herself until she could distance herself from the overwhelming feeling of heart-wrenching grief. She stood up, walked down Gav’s hall to his bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.
One week, she thought. One week. That’s all it took to completely turn her life into something unrecognizable. One. Fucking. Week.
Chapter Eleven
INVISIBLE HANDS SLID over her flesh, starting at her ankles, slipping up her shins, calves, lingering for a moment over her hips as she raised them to meet the touch.
“That’s nice,” she mumbled. The hands were heated, hot tub temperature, as they continued up her abdomen, her breasts… “So nice.”
“Mina?” She could hear the alarm in the voice, but ignored it.
Finally, she was feeling no pain. No pain. No pain.
“Her heart rate is increasing,” another man said.
The invisible hands caressed her shoulders, massaging the tiny aches gently.
“Yes,” she murmured again. She should have been alarmed. It would have been smart to be alarmed.
“Her respirations are dropping. There is something seriously wrong. This isn’t normal sleep.”
She didn’t know who they were talking about, and frankly, she didn’t care. She just wished they’d be quiet and let her enjoy—
“Mina? Can you hear me? Semina Vail.” Someone rubbed their knuckles hard over the middle of her chest. “We have to get help. We’re losing her.”
Join me. The voice was female. She couldn’t respond verbally any more, but inside she was nodding in agreement. She felt really good, peaceful, and calm.
“Her pulse is thready. Shit! She’s stopped breathing.”
Poor woman, whoever she was.
Join me, Mina. The woman’s voice soothed her. Forever.
Hard plastic formed around her nose and mouth. She barely felt the whoosh of air being pumped into her lungs as a hungry mouth took hers in a kiss. She wished the extra hands pushing on her chest would just stop.
No, the voice said. We must join.
Air forced into her lungs, expanding her lungs. She ignored everything but the bursts of light and color that enveloped her as she floated upward toward a dark shadow waiting, its arms held out.
Come to me.
Mina turned back once.
A woman lay on a bed.
Two men frantically worked at giving her CPR. The scene was wrong. Really wrong.
Why won’t you join? the voice asked.
Looking back to the dark shadow, she wanted to listen to her, to comply. But the figures on the bed drew her back. There was something so familiar. The men shouted, but Mina couldn’t hear them anymore. Their faces. Eric. Gav. Their fear ate away at her dream.
She tried to cry out, to tell them she was okay, but she couldn’t make a sound. Eric and Gav, Gav and Eric. She wanted them, needed them. Nothing made sense. She needed them to help her make sense.
You need me.
I need them.
Mina turned from the shadow, swimming through the mist, floating above the body.
No! the voice cried out.
Confusion surrounded her.
The shadow reached for her, but Mina escaped its grasp.
“Stay with us, Mina.”
I’m trying.
Pain exploded through her. Air poured into Mina’s lungs and she sat up, coughing, sputtering, and rubbing her sore chest. “Fuck, Christ. Fuck.”
“Jesus, Mina,” Gav said, his hand stroking her hair. “You had me so worried. So goddamned worried.”
Mina felt faint again, like earlier when she’d first touched the flower in her apartment, but she willed herself to stay upright. “What happened?”
“We came in to talk to you, but we couldn’t wake you up.” Eric held her hand. “It just got worse from there.”
Gav's eyes were red with stress and worry. “You’re turned white as a ghost.”
Eric leaned her back in his arms. “Your lips went blue.”
The dizziness started to go away. “I almost left,” she said. “You both brought me back. You saved me.” She swallowed at the lump in her throat. “It was Aalia. I can still feel her calling to me.”
“She can’t fucking have you,” Gav growled.
“No fucking way,” Eric agreed.
She reached out, putting her hands over both their hearts. “You touching me, both of you. This helps. Keeps me grounded.”
“Did you mean it?” Gav asked.
“What?”
“Earlier, when you said you loved us both.”
“Yes,” Mina confessed, the word almost breathless. “I’m sorry.”
Mina caressed his Gav’s face, heartsick at his worry. “I’m fine now, honest.”
Eric and Gav both stretched out on the bed next to her. Gav’s body felt so warm against her, his full lips red and flushed. She ached to kiss him. She ached to kiss them both. Leaning in, she brushed her mouth against Gav’s. He responded with an unexpected need. She felt Eric’s lips on her neck. Soft kisses, meant to be reassuring, but her body reacted with more than comfort.
She felt Eric’s hardness against her back, and her own desire swelled. Were they doing this? Really? She couldn’t see Gav as a man who shared, but when he pushed his own thick erection against her hip, she decided she needed to reevaluate her assumptions. Slick heat swelled in her core.
Eric moved against her from behind, still kissing her neck as his hand slid up her side to her breast. She moaned into Gav’s mouth. She felt his hand now moving down and slipping along the band of her panties.
“I want you, Mina.” Gav’s forefinger grazed against her clit. “I need you.”
“Oh, God,” she groaned. “I need you. Need you so much.” The connection between them was the most real thing she’d ever felt.
“You are my mate,” he said.
“I am,” she whispered.
“And mine,” Eric said. “You are mine.”
“Yes,” Mina said. She expected to feel jealousy from both men, but all she felt was love, acceptance, and even something akin to joy.
How was this possible?
Closing her eyes, Mina leaned her head back against Eric, fighting the urge to protest when he moved down her body.
Eric moved between her legs, sliding her yoga pants down with his hands as he used his teeth to tug at her wet panties. His green eyes were hungry with lust, but also… worry. She’d been scared, but at that moment, she realized they were afraid as well. They needed to touch her, to make certain she was real and whole. He placed one of her legs over his shoulder. The glide of his tongue along the slick, swollen fold of her sex rushed instant warmth to her lower stomach.
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