The Thrice Marked

by Liddie Cain

  He nodded. “Good idea. Ellison is probably having the time of his life.”

  Me and Darby both laughed because it had been obvious how much he was enjoying himself before we left them there. We finally stepped out of each other’s arms reluctantly and joined the rest of the group at the horses.

  Felix pulled himself up on the back of my horse before lifting me up to sit in front of him. Iona took control of the horses and we set off at a steady pace back to the Gloaming Court. Barden pulled up beside us and filled Felix in on the creation of the court while he had been under Maeve’s influence. He kept his arms around me as we rode and made sure as much of our bodies touched as possible.

  Then I felt his body tense. Barden became alert at the same moment. They started looking behind us.

  “Something wrong?” I asked quietly.

  “I don’t know,” Barden answered. “It felt like there was someone there.”

  “Don’t feel it now,” Felix said.

  “Me either,” Barden replied.

  They were silent as we got closer to the entrance to the mound but both of them remained on guard. Felix did call my attention to Darby and Aurnia riding beside each other and laughing together quietly.

  I shook my head and mouthed, “Later.” He raised his eyebrows slightly but nodded before pressing a kiss against my temple. We were both having trouble with wanting to constantly touch the other one. It had been a couple of months since we had shared affection with the other one this way and I was feeling the need to make up for lost time.

  My thoughts turned to taking him back to my newly appointed rooms once we got back inside. His hands gripped me when he caught the thoughts and I let an amused sound slip out on my next breath.

  “Minx,” he growled against my ear. I shivered and snuggled back into him. As we entered the front yard of the Gloaming mound, a strange figure was standing there. He was as tall and dark as Felix except for a pair of lavender eyes that were even brighter than Kenna’s.

  We stood there in silence, because the magic of the Gloaming Court did something that surprised us. Aurnia’s sunset crown suddenly glittered on her head. But instead of Barden being graced with his matching one, the stranger in front of us wore the crown of the King of the Gloaming Court.

  The new king was startled by the crown. He jerked it off of his head and glared at it, then his lips parted when the realization of what it meant hit him. Aurnia was stiff on the back of her horse while the new king looked up at us with confusion. He was tall and lanky like most other Sidhe nobles. His clothing was the all black style of the Trow, but his jet black hair and robin’s egg blue eyes weren’t typical coloring for most of them.

  “Who did this to me?” He asked, holding the crown up and realizing that Aurnia wore a matching one. “You?”

  “Wonderful. Fairy crowns him King and he hasn’t enough sense to know it,” Aurnia muttered, but plenty loud enough that the stranger would hear it. She slid off of her horse and the rest of us dismounted as well. He pulled himself up straighter and let the crown hang loosely in his hand.

  “Of course I question it. I am not worthy of an honor.”

  “Well, this will be an excellent moment to turn your life around and make yourself worthy,” Aurnia told him lightly as she walked to him. “Maybe you can begin by telling your Queen what your name is.”

  “You are Aurnia, the Seelie Princess,” he whispered, looking at her with astounded eyes.

  “And now the Grey Queen, or Queen of the Gloaming Court if you like. But I am well aware of what my name is. I asked for yours.”

  “My lady, I apologize. This is just a shock. I am Drest, an orphaned Trow, raised by Udon of the Trow nobles”

  She gave him a considering look as the rest of us walked up behind him. He looked over all of us, but it was my face where his gaze settled.

  “Why were you here if you were unaware that you would be crowned king?” Aurnia asked.

  “I knew what the archdemon was doing and I wanted to help. I’ve been watching him since the fairy succubus got him, hoping he would be freed or that I could discover a way to free him.”

  Felix trailed his hand up and down my arm as he responded, “Thank you for the offer of help. How do you know what I am doing?”

  “I heard you tell Queen Aurnia who you were searching for before you were imprisoned. I knew you came to release them. They knew you would come some day.”

  Felix went very still.

  “They?” I asked.

  “The angels,” Drest answered.

  When he was met with stunned silence, he found my face with his appealing blue gaze again. “The Trows guard them. I’ve spoken to them my whole life. If Felix is Eziel’s son, then you must be Azrael and Hanna’s daughter.”

  Darby reached over and took my hand at the same moment that Felix laid his hand on her shoulder and pressed himself up against my back. Those touches calmed the spark of nerves that bounced back and forth between the three of us.

  “Take us to them,” I said urgently.

  “Of course,” he replied. “It would be best in the morning. My people stagger sleeping hours and the early morning has the fewest active patrols.”

  Aurnia proceeded in through the entrance of the mound where Fergus and Powell stood at the doors ready to protect the Queen from the stranger if it was needed. She looked back over her shoulder at us. “Then come see your new court, King Drest. We will all rest and prepare for this next rescue mission.”

  ***

  Aurnia had already asked Iona and Darby to accompany her for a stroll on the beach. Barden and Drest assisted Fergus and Powell with transporting Maeve down into the dungeon. I was suspicious that they all found other things that needed to be done to leave me and Felix alone for a few minutes. Then I decided that it was a great idea.

  I took his hand and quickly walked through the dry cavern banquet hall and through the door that led to the royal suites.

  “Roz,” he objected mischievously. “I was really wanting to check out the view of the beach. That throne room was stunning.”

  I shot him a glare as I reached my bedroom door and opened it. The room was light and had a large window that looked out over the beach. A king sized four poster bed with a gauzy canopy at the top was the centerpiece of the room. The bedding was a dove grey color with a small and white floral designed stitched into it. The sheets were the same grey hue. A vanity table, desk and side tables on either side of the bed matched the style of the bed frame. I had seen it all in my mind earlier but this was the first time I had stood in the room. The window was a bay window with a cushioned seat and three large, white throw pillows. I fell in love with it immediately and walked over to see it closer. Felix followed me, still determined to tease.

  “I bet you would really enjoy taking that walk on the beach with the other girls,” he said with that devilish grin on his face.

  “Felix?”

  “Yes?”

  “Shut up and devour me already.”

  His head fell back with his laugh, that warm full laugh that I had missed so much. The door shut across the room without either of us touching it before his hand gripped the hair on the back of my head and he growled out, “Yes ma’am.”

  I melted against him, so unbelievably happy to be in his arms again. He wanted a moment to just be happy about it too because his grip on my hair loosened and he trailed his face down my neck and inhaled the scent of my skin. I caressed my fingers over the bulging muscles of his shoulders, up his neck and back into his dark hair. I liked it longer.

  The sweetness was slowly swept away with the hunger for touch. He kissed me, walking me backwards until I sank down onto the window seat. His lips traced a path down my neck and made me shiver at the feel of his whispers against me. He unbuttoned my shirt, kissing his way down with each button. My shirt finally hit the floor and I tugged his over his head.

  I lost the knowledge of how to exist for a moment. No breathing. No heartbeat. No chance at cognitiv
e thought. All I could see was him and his brown skin, the swell of his pecs and strong shoulders, that firm abdomen with the slight definition at the top of his abs. I had to taste him and touch him.

  He sighed, a happy sound, as I teased my lips and tongue across one shoulder then down onto his chest. I pulled one of his nipples into my mouth and sucked down onto it. He jerked with surprise and breathed out a small masculine chuckle, but let me keep on trailing my mouth across his skin as he started peeling my pants down over my hips.

  I finally had to lift my head and help peel off the rest of our clothes. We stood there gazing each other when we both finally nude, sharing a heated smile.

  His arms wrapped around me, pulling me up against him to straddle his lap as he sat down on the cushioned window seat. Skin against skin, we squeezed our bodies together with a sense of relief to have that touch again. I felt the long hard length of him pressed up against my front and I squirmed my body against it.

  I began to lift my hips so that he would be able to enter me, but Felix suddenly stood and carried me over to the bed. He laid me down on my back and moved on top of me. I wrapped my legs up around his hips as he placed the head of himself against my opening. Strong arms behind my back and one hand cupping the back of my head, he made himself pause to kiss me. I kissed him back with hunger and made little encouraging noises, my legs gripping his body and hips lifting to bring him inside of me.

  I felt his smile against my mouth. I knew he was trying to take his time but I was eager to feel him inside me again. He gripped the hair at the back of my head, yanked it back so that my neck was arched and it brought a moan across my lips into his mouth.

  With one strong movement of his hips, he shoved himself all the way inside me. I cried out, my body coming off of the bed up against his. He held himself there without moving, waiting for me to adjust and begin to kiss him again. I found his mouth and kissed him with lips and tongue and more urgent little moans. Then he moved.

  Slowly at first, pulling himself out then back in with achingly slow movements. Back out and slowly back in. He gradually increased his rhythm and the force he entered me with. That fist in my hair gripped me tighter, pulling me head far enough back that my lips broke from his and my moans filled the room. He raked his mouth down the side of my neck and buried his face as he started to pound himself into me.

  “Felix,” I breathed out, letting him know how good he felt. He released my hair and lifted himself up onto his knees without pulling himself out of me. His hand slid in between us so that he could press his thumb into that sensitive nub between my legs. My moan turned into a cry as he circled it.

  He thrust himself in and out of me as he did it. I gripped his arm, digging my nails in as he got me closer. “Give it to me, baby,” he growled out at me. It took me over the edge. I soared over that climax and my body was dancing in front of him. It crashed through me in relentless waves, his every thrust making me cry out even louder than the one before. It was too much for him, he gripped my waist and changed his angle so that he could drive himself into me as fast and as hard as he wanted to.

  It brought me back over that peak again. I was lost in that pleasure, the mark open wide and letting his own pleasure wash back over me so that it was amplified for both of us. When he reached his own climax, it was like we rode it together. I lost some concept of time and space in that moment with him. He spilled himself inside of me with a loud cry of his own.

  Finished, he fell to the mattress beside me and pulled me up against him. We both were panting, but found each other’s mouths for one more tender kiss.

  “I love you, more than I could ever explain,” he whispered to me.

  “You don’t have to explain it because I already understand it. I love you that much too.”

  I laid there with him, my heart still thudding in the afterglow, and felt more whole than I had in weeks. Neither of us wanted to let the other one go again.

  I must have dozed off during the peaceful moments of afterglow because when there was a knock at the door it made me jump. Felix turned enough to look at the door and call out, “Just a moment.”

  “Who is it?” I asked, knowing Felix would be able to tell with his much more comprehensive psychic abilities than me.

  “Drest,” he replied with a perplexed expression. I had assumed it was Darby so I took a moment to also look surprised. We slid off of the bed and got dressed. I straightened the covers quickly then sat on the edge of the bed before Felix opened the door to let the new Grey King in.

  He nodded to Felix as he stepped through the door. “I apologize for disturbing you but I was afraid the two of you wouldn’t leave the room again tonight and I wanted to talk to you about your parents.”

  It was jarring to hear him refer to them so easily and it must have shown on my face because he held his hand towards me in a peaceful gesture with his palm towards the floor. Felix shut the door behind him as Drest said, “They have never been harmed that I have seen. Nor could they be. Trows do not have enough power to stand against an angel of Heaven.”

  I felt the weight of the royal diadem on my head again and reached up to touch it again. Both of the men stopped and stared. “You wear the insignia of the King’s Consort,” Felix said with a flat voice.

  “No, they said it didn’t have a rank,” I said as I shook my head.

  “I know. But now it does.”

  I widened my eyes at him then looked at Drest. It took me a moment to find words before saying, “We don’t even know each other!”

  He swallowed nervously. “I know. I think it is because your aura resembles your mother’s and I was mostly in love with her in my younger days.”

  “So you made me your consort?” I wasn’t exactly angry but I was leaning toward getting loud about it.

  “Not on purpose, of course not. I don’t even know your name yet. So far I only think of you as Alidia, because that is what Azrael and Hanna called you. But I know it isn’t your name now…” he trailed off because he seemed to realize that he was blabbering.

  “So you accidentally made me your consort?” I replied. He blushed, looking back and forth between the two of us as Felix went to sit beside me on the bed.

  “Yes, honestly. I am not used to magic responding to me this way. But consort doesn’t necessarily mean physical intimacy. In Fairy, it can also be a close friend. The diadem also has the mark for what translates to Court Chancellor on it, which outranks any royal consort position.”

  “But you aren’t thinking friend,” Felix replied, watching Drest’s face closely. The other man’s expression showed his discomfort briefly before he guarded it.

  “I cannot deny that with honesty.”

  Felix looked at me, his expression softer, lifting his eyebrows as if to tell me that this would be my call. I looked back at Drest. He was a stranger and I was indifferent to him other than being able to acknowledge he was physically handsome. But my life worked with my three men. Felix, Mac and Jason cared about each other and got along without issues. Conall had made it clear more than once that if there was a fourth he would insist on being the person chosen.

  Barden had also been a rock for me for saving Felix. He didn’t seem interested in pressing for a relationship, but I could easily get onboard with him being a friend with benefits if he was interested. Would that be the kind of relationship Drest would end up as? Or would he end up being on the outside looking in as Conall currently was?

  He had also spent many years with my angelic parents. They would know him better than they even knew me now. I was still their daughter, but my mortal life had made me a different person than what they would remember.

  “My name is Rozalyn, but most everyone calls me, Roz.”

  “Roz, a pleasure to meet you finally. And Felix. I have spent most of my life hearing stories about both of you.”

  “Do you mind if we talk about my parents for now?”

  He quickly nodded and replied, “Of course. It is the actual reason I
knocked on your door.” He motioned toward the small chair in front of the vanity table and asked, “May I sit?”

  “Sure,” I responded.

  After he flipped the chair around to face us and took a seat, he continued, “The angels are held by seal, like the seven seals. Only one that bound them can open it. Felix can be their only savior.”

  Felix lifted his hand and placed it on my back, rubbing it back and forth slowly while I could feel his mind churning. Out loud he said, “I used part of my essence to bind their prison. Devina had told me it was necessary.”

  A breath hissed out from between my teeth and he looked at me in question. “You spend a lot of your time on the wrong side of a woman’s wiles.”

  He had the courtesy to look sheepish in response. “Nobody’s perfect?”

  I smiled but rolled my eyes. “Some more than others.”

  He covered his heart like he had been wounded but amusement glowed in those dark eyes as he watched my face.

  “Okay, Drest,” I said, getting back to the matter at hand. “How hard will it be to get to the seal?”

  He was smiling at our antics but answered me seriously, “It is going to take some planning. The Trows have a king, Judoc, and their prison is inside the Trow sithen. The sithen is a cave network in the Lost Light Hill. Getting into where the actual seal is won't be hard but the moment it is broken they will know.”

  “Well. Shit,” Felix muttered. His hand rubbed across my back more quickly. “I’m not sure we have enough people here for that. There’s a lot of Trows and when they are in their giant form they can hurt most of us that would go.”

  “We are going to need some help,” I said.

  “Yes. What shape are Azrael and Eziel in?” He asked Drest.

  “The same as you remember them. Maybe even better. They have kept a daily training schedule to pass their days and they have enough room to move around in the room that holds them.”

  Felix leaned forward and kissed my temple, pulling my gaze to him. “If we can release him quickly enough, your father alone can fend off the entire Trow army.”