by Sadie Moss
Then his hand comes up to grip my chin, holding me tightly as his gaze bounces between my eyes. I can feel his heart slamming against my back as he shakes his head.
“I’m not fucking planning on it.”
He claims my lips in a bruising kiss, and when he breaks away, he pulls out and drives back into me. His hands move down to grab my hips, holding me steady as he thrusts in deep, fucking me hard and fast. As if he’s trying to remind me he’s still here, to prove we’re both still alive.
Or maybe he’s just trying to make me forget everything else but this for a moment.
And I do.
My legs burn from keeping my balance as he pounds into me, and my focus narrows to just the feel of the worn leather beneath my palms, the feel of his fingers digging into my hips, the muffled noises from behind me, and the exquisite friction of Dmitri’s cock.
It goes on forever. My core clenches, and heat sweeps through my veins, but I don’t give in to the orgasm that’s trying to overtake my body. I’m not finished. I don’t want this to be over yet.
Dmitri obviously feels the same way. I can feel how close he is, but every time he reaches the edge, he changes his rhythm, delaying the inevitable for a few moments longer.
My palms are a little sweaty, and they keep slipping down the side of the pommel horse. Finally, Dmitri wraps his arms around my torso, pinning me to his chest and bringing me almost upright. It changes the angle of his penetration, and he bends his knees a little to keep thrusting into me, hitting a spot that makes sparks dance in front of my eyes.
“Oh. Shit.”
He gives a tortured groan, sliding one hand down to my clit. He barely touches me, but that’s all it takes. I clutch at his forearm, feeling the muscles dance under my touch as his fingers circle wildly, and when I throw my head back and arch into him, he follows me over the edge into pure, mad bliss.
He pumps in and out of me a few more times, eliciting tremors of aftershocks from both of us. Then he kisses my neck and slowly withdraws his cock.
“What do you say, Princess?” he growls softly. “Are you all warmed up?”
“I’ll say.” I chuckle under my breath, turning my head dazedly to kiss him. “And ready to kick your ass.”
He nips at my bottom lip, his dark eyes gleaming. “Right back at you.”
We get ourselves cleaned up and tug our clothes back into place, and then Dmitri makes good on his promise.
My legs feel like limp noodles.
But we train hard anyway.
Chapter 19
That evening, we get some bad news.
Well, there’s good news too, from Tamlin and Brodie. The students and teachers have spread out across the country, some using portals and some using non-magical transportation, and they’re reaching out to more and more Unpredictables. That’s good, and I have to remember that. I have to cling to that.
What isn’t good is that Agustin sent another mini-army to the housing facility.
It took them a while to break down the wards, or so Tamlin tells us, but once they did, they saw right away that it was empty.
Now Agustin knows the truth. He knows that it’s not just myself and my men who are out of the facility—that it’s all of us. He’s going to be doing whatever he can to track us down now.
Fuck.
“He must know that we’re working against him as an organized group,” Roman says as we’re finishing up dinner.
“Somewhat organized,” Dmitri grumbles, jabbing his fork into a piece of potato.
“We’ve got a plan and we’re utilizing it.” Asher waves a hand. “We’re not just scattered to the winds. If we were, then Hardwick wouldn’t be gaining so much steam. Agustin’s an asshole, but he’s not a total idiot, or he wouldn’t have gotten this far in the first place.”
“So, what do we do?” Cam glances around the table.
“Keep getting Elliot ready,” Roman says. “She’s our best chance.”
“Surely your death touch is our best chance,” I point out.
He shakes his head. “Not if I can’t get close to him. You saw in the basement, we’re evenly matched in our demonic control powers, and I’d bet we’re just as even on every other level. But you can mirror him. Even if we did decide to go after him with my death touch, we’d need you to weaken him enough or distract him enough that I could get through.”
That’s fair.
“This all means jack shit,” Liam says, rising to his feet with a loud scrape of his chair, “unless we get her ready in time. So let’s go.” He jerks his chin at Maddy and Justin. “You’re up, buttercups.”
“I would really prefer not to beat up my sister,” I say as we all stand too.
“I’ll be fine, Ellie.” Maddy laughs. “I’ve got two and a half years under my belt, and so does Justin. I think we’ll be okay.”
“All right,” I tell her, but as we head out to the barn, I promise myself I’ll go easy on her to start.
That turns out to be a fucking mistake.
Mads easily kicks my ass the first go-around, knocking me flat with a tidal wave and then dangling me upside-down by my ankle using a snake of water.
“Seriously, Ellie?” She puts her hands on her hips. “You’re not even trying.”
“You’re right,” I tell her. “I’m not.”
I mirror her and send a wave of water right back at her, soaking her and breaking her concentration, which sends me falling to the floor. I roll just in time to avoid landing hard—and painfully—on my elbow and get to my feet.
Mads grins at me, wearing an expression I’m not sure I’ve ever seen on her face before.
“All right.” She raises her hands again, waggling her fingers. “Bring it.”
After that, it gets a lot more fun and a lot tougher. Maddy’s not pulling any punches, and I’m seriously impressed. I never would’ve thought of my little sister as a fighter like this. I guess I’ve been underestimating her.
She holds her own against me, and then Liam brings Justin in so that I can battle two elementalists at once. It’s more difficult, but after another full day of practice, I start to get better at that as well. I work on switching off between Justin’s powers and Maddy’s powers, using one against the other, able to fully access their powers and manipulate the elements the way that they do.
We’ve been at Liam’s compound for almost a week, and the training has been grueling and nonstop. But it really is working. A new sort of confidence fills me, a comfortability with my magic that I never quite managed to achieve even in two and a half years at Griffin Academy. It’s like when I used my sonic boom in the fight at the Unpredictable holding facility. I feel powerful, in control, like I’m the eye of a storm.
I love it.
It’s nothing like when Agustin took me over. That terrified me and made my powers feel alien and wrong, like I wasn’t the center of the storm or controlling it—but like I was the storm, out of control and destructive.
This feels so much better.
I’ve reached a point where I can almost—not quite, but almost—mirror both powers at once. I can switch off now, very quickly, and I can handle Liam, Justin, and Maddy all at once, but I can’t mirror them all at the same time. Not yet.
Liam has confidence that I’ll be able to. “You’ve got it,” he promises me. “You’ll be fine.”
I’m banged up as hell by the end of our session, but I feel good as Mads, Justin, and I walk back toward the house. I’m worn out, but I don’t care—I finally feel like my mirroring power is something I can reliably use in battle, not something I have to scramble to use, something that’s just out of my grasp.
This whole thing has been good for the men too. We’ve gotten to spend a lot of time together, and when I’ve been busy training, they’ve gotten to be with each other. I think it’s good, especially for Dmitri and Roman, to keep having this reinforced: this idea of family.
We’re a family.
And we’ll always have each other’s back
s.
Liam has told us tons of embarrassing stories about Roman every night at dinner, which is amazing. Roman always blushes furiously and ducks his head while the rest of us die of laughter. The darkly handsome man is always so put together, so competent, and he’s kind of our leader, so to hear stories about him as a teenager who would make trouble or a kid who would pull pranks, sass back to Circuit officers, or try to break into a building to catch a bad guy and then get stuck halfway through the window…
It’s absolutely hilarious.
I think all of this has been good for Maddy too. Not just for her to be with me, although I do love that. These past couple of years I haven’t gotten nearly enough time with her, and I’m glad we’re getting that now, even in the midst of all this bullshit.
But it’s been good for her and Justin too.
I’ve seen them doing little things like looking at each other and blushing. Holding hands. Leaning into each other’s space, smiling at each other, sitting next to each other.
After our all-day training session, I come out of my shower and find the two of them curled up on the couch. Soft voices upstairs tell me that the men are doing something up there, and Liam stayed out in the training barn to take care of some things, so there’s nobody else down here. It’s just Maddy and Justin in the large living room.
Maddy’s curled into him, her head on his shoulder, her knees tucked up on the cushion. Justin’s arm is around her, and he’s got his cheek resting on the top of her head, against her hair, and they’re whispering together. Occasionally Maddy will turn her head to kiss his neck, or Justin will kiss her hair, and it’s just… fucking adorable.
They seem so happy and content. It’s what I’ve always wanted for her, although I admit I didn’t think too much about her romantic prospects. But in general, I want her to be happy like this. And if Justin makes her this happy, if he makes her this content, then I’m glad he’s around.
I don’t say hello—I don’t want to ruin their moment.
So I just slip quietly upstairs to change and kiss each of my men.
I’ve decided I definitely approve of Justin, and I make sure to tell Maddy so the next day as we walk the perimeter of the clearing where Liam’s set up his home.
I’m feeling a little stir crazy, honestly, as much as I love the training. At Roman’s place, there were all these great paths through the woods that we could take, and we could drive into town if we wanted. Here, we’re just stuck on the compound. We can’t stay in this place forever, and we’ll need to make a move on Agustin soon—but in the meantime, we’re stuck here.
So Mads and I go for a short walk, careful to avoid the traps, which Liam’s taught us how to recognize so we won’t get caught in one of them.
Asher trails a short distance behind us. Unless I’m in the training barn, he’s always close by, although now, instead of him shielding my mind, I’m mirroring his power to put up the shields myself.
“I’m happy for you,” I tell my sister.
She jumps slightly, like I’ve startled her. “Are you—you’re sure?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I glance over at her. “Is it crazy that I want you to be happy?”
“No, no, of course I know that. But… I kind of got the impression that you’d never think anybody I ever dated was good enough for me.”
“Well, I’m not saying he’s good enough for you,” I joke. “I’m saying that he makes you happy, and I’m glad of that. That’s all we can ask for, right? If we went around wondering if so-and-so really deserved so-and-so, we’d go crazy. If the person makes you happy, and you make them happy, then that’s what counts.”
Her eyes twinkle. “Careful, Ellie, that was almost romantic.”
“I know, right?” Rolling my eyes, I shake my head. “I’m getting soft in my old age.”
Maddy laughs. Then her expression grows serious as she turns to me. “He does make me happy though. Everything that’s happened has clarified things for me. As soon as Agustin attacked and the video went live, I knew there was only one person besides you that I wanted by my side, that I wanted to have with me, so I went to find him and… it turned out he was busy looking for me. He’d realized the same thing.”
She gives me a shy, giddy smile, like she just can’t help herself. “After we, um, you know, said how we felt, I didn’t know how to get to you, but I was determined to find a way, and he just up and volunteered his car and said he’d come with me. I didn’t plan on asking him to come, since we still had school and all that, and I didn’t want to make him disrupt his life. It wasn’t his sister, you know? But he wanted to, wouldn’t take no for an answer. He said he wanted to fight for what was right and he especially wanted to do that by my side.”
Well, if that isn’t the cutest most romantic fucking thing.
Of course, I would expect nothing less for Maddy. She’s always loved romantic movies, and she loves the big gestures, the sweeping romance. I’m glad that she got to have this, that this is happening for her.
“And it’s been everything you’ve wanted it to be?” I ask.
She nods, blushing furiously. “He’s so sweet. And we can talk for hours. We do talk for hours, actually. And there were times driving out to you at the holding facility where we’d just sit in silence, and it wasn’t uncomfortable. It felt nice. Like we could just exist together, just be together.”
“That’s good.” I grin.
“I was worried you wouldn’t like him. I’m glad you do.”
“He seems to really care about you.” I nudge her shoulder. “As he should.”
“Thanks, Ellie.”
Maddy stops walking suddenly and hugs me, and I hold on to her, remembering a time when she was so much smaller than I was. Now she’s my height.
“I’m always going to be a little protective over you when it comes to shit like this,” I tell her. “But it’s your life and your choice, and I’m glad you’re happy. That’s definitely how it should be.”
We pull away, and Maddy’s smiling—
And then she screams.
The sound makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up as my muscles all tense for a fight. She yanks me down, and I feel a whoosh over my head as something strikes the air where I was just standing. I look up and see some kind of demonic creature above us, with wings made of smoke and claws, a head like a gargoyle, and a tail like a scorpion. It swoops through the air, and I realize it just dived down to try to snatch me up and missed.
“Elliot! Maddy!” Asher races toward us.
“What the fuck?” Maddy blurts, her mouth hanging open as she stares up at the sky.
“Agustin.” My voice is a growl. “Fuck. He must’ve summoned it and sent it. He figured out where we are somehow. Maybe he saw it in my mind, I don’t know.”
How he could’ve managed that through the protections on my psyche, I have no idea, but maybe he just did some simple logical deduction to find us. Or maybe these demons can track a specific person.
Whatever it is, we’re at the edge of Liam’s compound, the edge of his protective wards, where they’re weakest. Have the demons been circling all this time, waiting for one of us to draw close enough to snatch?
The demon banks around just as Asher reaches us, preparing to swoop down again.
“Can you get its wings wet?” I ask Maddy.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Okay. You do that.” I ready my sonic boom, glancing over at Ash quickly. “Help me with the shields on my mind. Just in case.”
The last fucking thing I want is for Agustin to swoop in just as I’m about to unleash a powerful attack and make me turn it on my sister or my boyfriend.
Asher nods, and Maddy throws her hands out as the creature heads for us, emitting a ragged screech that sets my teeth on edge. My sister draws the moisture from the ground and the air around us, forming it into a wave that bears down on the creature from both sides, left and right, splashing over it.
The demon shrieks as it start
s to fall out of the sky, trying uselessly to flap its wings. I wait until it gets low enough, and then I release my boom.
The powerful blast smacks into the demon, and it goes flying backward, colliding with a tree. It bounces off the thick tree trunk and lands on the ground with a thud, and Maddy immediately dumps more and more water on it.
I mirror her to do the same, drawing from a small stream that runs nearby and pouring water down on the monster as it splutters and claws and tries to escape. But its wings are too wet to function, and it clearly can’t handle so much water. I’m not sure if it’s drowning or melting, but either way, it’s definitely dying.
It’s not pleasant to watch, I’ll be honest. I don’t like killing something, even a demonic creature like this, and watching anything die panicked and in pain isn’t fun.
But then it’s all over, and the demon collapses into a putrid pile of sulfur and smoke.
Maddy looks at me and Asher, pale but grinning. “Wow. We did it!”
She holds her hand up for a high-five. I laugh and roll my eyes but high-five her back.
“That was badass. The three of us just stopped a demon!” she blurts, breathless and excited.
“The two of you,” Ash corrects, although I think he deserves plenty of credit for keeping my mental shield up while I summoned a sonic boom. He can’t use his mind powers on demons, since they’re literally from another realm, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t contribute.
Mads is still bouncing on the balls of her feet, practically vibrating with adrenaline. I’m about to tell her that this isn’t the kind of sister bonding I was expecting when we decided to go for a walk, but hey, I’ll take it, even if I’d rather not have any demons attacking us at all—
When her eyes go wide again.
I have just enough time to think oh fuck, and then I whirl around to blast the incoming demon, except this one is much closer than the last.
The claws are aimed right at my face, the beast already so close that I can smell the acrid scent of sulfur and smoke, but before it reaches me, Maddy shoves me down. The fierce claws miss me, only this time, the demon doesn’t swoop up into the air to reset for another dive. It keeps moving forward, and Maddy raises her arms to protect me or to blast it, I don’t even know which.