by Lexi C. Foss
Aflora
Mmm, I like this, I thought, stretching against Zeph’s soft sheets.
Only, they were the wrong color.
Black, not green. I frowned at them, my fingers drifting through the silk as I glanced up into a pair of silver-blue eyes. “Oh,” I breathed, surprised. “I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep.” The last thing I remembered was Zeph kissing me thoroughly after taking me for the third time in his bed.
He really did know how to knock a girl out.
My blood heated at the memory of his tongue between my thighs, his scruff tickling my skin in the most sensual way.
“You’re blushing,” my figment mused, his lips curling at the edges. “Is it your newly bonded mate inspiring those thoughts? Or one of your others?”
“Zeph,” I admitted, my cheeks burning hotter. “They all make me blush, though.”
“I bet,” he drawled, lounging on the pillow beside me in a pair of black pants and no shirt. I tried really hard not to admire his physique.
Tried and failed.
Because he truly was sculpted to perfection, something I blamed my mind for doing.
“Why do you keep visiting me?” I wondered out loud.
“Why do you think I’m here?” he countered, arching a brow. “You created me, right?” There was a hint of teasing in his tone that I probably deserved, because yeah, I did.
“Yeah. For sex,” I admitted.
He chuckled, the sound a deep reverberation in his chest that hypnotized my senses.
Why did he have to be so beautiful?
Oh, right. Because my mind made him that way.
“I love how honest you are,” he mused, his silver-blue eyes glistening with approval. “So am I here now for sex? Because you seem rather sated at the moment, little star.”
His observation heated my cheeks once more. It probably shouldn’t bother me that my mind recognized my satisfied state, but hearing it out loud—or in my head, I guess—flustered me a bit. “I’m… I don’t know why you’re here. Maybe to talk about what happened today?” I’d avoided thinking about the village, so it made sense that my subconscious would push me to consider it.
“What happened today?” he asked as he went up onto his elbow to stare down at me. “Anything I should be concerned about?”
“I think someone tried to trap me,” I told him, frowning. “We went to the tavern to see if I recognized the magic used during the attack the other day, and somehow he knew I’d be there. He was waiting for me… and then he attacked me.”
His white-blond eyebrows shot upward. “Attacked you?”
I nodded. “Yes. Or that’s how it felt, anyway.”
“Maybe he was just testing your powers, to see how much you know,” he suggested.
“Maybe,” I agreed. “But it felt… aggressive.”
“That could have been the village reacting to your magic,” he pointed out softly. “Perhaps he was actually protecting you from a bigger trap set to catch him, not you.”
I considered that angle. “The alarms were going off,” I admitted, recalling the cawing and sounds of stones shifting. “But I didn’t feel like they were trying to attack me.”
“It’s possible he deflected it away from you and onto himself.”
“Yes, that could be true.” My brow furrowed. “But I still think he meant to trap me.”
“Or see you, yes,” he murmured, reaching out to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Does he feel ominous to you? Threatening? Do you even know who he is?”
“I feel like I know him,” I whispered, glad to be talking to my mind and not to someone else. “His magic reminds me of my past, but I don’t know why.”
“You’re missing memories,” he replied. “They were stolen from you to protect you.”
“What?” I gaped at him. “How could you know that?”
“I’m in your mind, Aflora. I know many things.”
“Or you’re leading me into a false train of thought,” I tossed back, suddenly tired. “The truth is, I have no idea who he is, just that I feel as though I know him. And he doesn’t seem to want to hurt me, but he definitely wants to find me.”
He nodded. “All true.”
“I just don’t know why.”
“I think you do,” he said softly. “And if you look hard enough, you’ll see what’s right in front of you. When you’re truly ready, the truth will reveal itself. Because every detail you need is here.” He covered my heart with his palm, his touch hot against my bare skin.
“You’re not very helpful,” I accused, sighing.
His lips twitched. “On the contrary, sweet star, I’ve been extremely helpful. You’re just ignoring the obvious.”
“You mean your penchant for riddles?” I asked, mock innocence in my voice. “Yes, those are very helpful.”
He released another of those chuckles, the reverberation warming my skin as he leaned in to press his lips to my ear. “Do you like riddles, darling star?”
I swallowed, his closeness doing things to my body that I didn’t want to acknowledge. Mostly because it was wrong. “Not particularly,” I breathed, my voice raspier than I intended. Why did I have to create a male who impacted me so acutely?
“Then maybe you should ask why your mind is so fond of speaking in them,” he whispered.
I already knew why. “Quandary magic is all about solving puzzles. You take things apart just to put them back together another way. A riddle at its core.”
“Mmm, true,” he agreed, running his nose down my neck to kiss the spot where Zeph had bitten me earlier. “But why would your mind choose to operate in riddles when you claim them to be unhelpful? What if I’m not your mind’s creation at all, but something else entirely?”
“Then I would have to consider the possibility that I’m going insane.” Something I didn’t want to do.
“Or consider that I exist.” The words were a kiss against my ear, his teeth skimming my lobe. “I’ll be back again soon, sweet Aflora.” He pressed a kiss to my temple, his sinful gaze glimmering with intent as he forced my eyes to close once more.
Consider that I exist, I thought, repeating his words with a frown. But that’s impossible.
Or was it?
“There you are,” a masculine voice rumbled against my ear, followed by a kiss to my forehead. “I was beginning to worry.”
“Kols?” I whispered, slowly opening my eyes to find him lounging beside me on a bed of red silk framed by gold and black fringe.
I blinked, glancing around the opulent room. Floor-to-ceiling windows spanned one wall, a set of doors situated in the middle that led to a balcony overlooking a black sky sprinkled with bright stars.
“Where are we?” I asked him, taking in the expensive fixtures and flickering candlelight.
He followed my perusal, his lips twitching. “My suite at Nacht Manor. It was easier to bring your mind here than to join you since I don’t know exactly where Zeph took you. He’s not answering my calls.”
“He’s not?” That seemed odd. “You should wake me up so I can check on him.”
“Not needed. I can sense him near you now,” he murmured, his fingers clasping my chin to draw my focus back to him. “Are you at his flat in New York City?”
“Yes. He took me to Central Park.”
“Did he?” Kols seemed amused. “Well, that’s why I’m struggling to connect with him. Our phones don’t always work across realms, but apparently dream manipulation does. At least when connecting to a mate.” He leaned in to brush his lips against mine. “I missed you today, sweetheart.”
“I missed you, too,” I replied, feeling warm all over.
“Did you learn anything at the tavern?” he asked, his fingers sliding into my hair to comb through my tangled strands.
Oh, he didn’t know what had happened because he hadn’t spoken to Zeph yet.
“Um, he was there waiting for us. The one with the magic I recognize, I mean. I… I think he was trying to get to me, but I stopped h
im. Sort of.” I frowned. “It was weird. I could feel his magic, and mine responded to it, then Zeph bit me and I passed out.”
“Zeph bit you?”
I swallowed, the intensity in his gold gaze leaving me uneasy. “Yeah. To pull me out of the enchantment.”
His gaze went to my neck, a flicker of jealousy flaring in the depths of his soulful eyes. “I’m glad he did,” he said, his hand leaving my hair to run his knuckles over my neck. “Protecting you is priority number one. And you’re right; whoever the Quandary Blood is that’s responsible for these attacks is trying to take you.”
The certainty in his tone had me studying his expression. “How do you know that?” I wondered out loud. “And how do you know it’s a Quandary Blood?” We’d discussed the familiarity of his power but hadn’t decided his fae type. At least, not with the resolve he’d just spoken those words.
“There’s a lot I need to tell you, Aflora,” he said, sighing and withdrawing his hand. “It’s actually why I brought you here. While this conversation would be better in person, I can’t leave without looking suspicious, and I didn’t want to wait to tell you what I’ve learned. My father is requiring I stay here through my free days to review some texts that are related to our current situation.”
“Oh. I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“No, you’re not,” he agreed, sounding sad. “I learned today that certain members of the Council and our Elder circle have been hiding several crucial secrets, all revolving around the Quandary Bloods.”
My heart dropped into my stomach as he continued telling me all about his meeting today and how they questioned Headmaster Irwin. He told me how he learned that Quandary Bloods were in fact not eradicated, how the Elders had continued hunting them with help from the Council, and how Shade knew about this for months without letting on.
“He bit you because they told him to,” Kols added. “Or that’s what I thought until I spoke to him later. He’s hiding something, and I suspect it’s Fortune Fae related because he mentioned seeing a future path.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“You knew?”
“Not about your Council’s secrets or that they told him to bite me, but I know he’s working with a Fortune Fae.” I didn’t know whether or not I should elaborate. It wasn’t my story to tell, and while I trusted Kols, I didn’t want to put Shade at risk.
“That explains his penchant for being cryptic,” Kols muttered, his arm flexing as he shuffled on the bed beside me. It drew my attention down to his chiseled chest. Similar to my figment, he wore only a pair of pajama pants, while I remained nude.
Something about that wasn’t quite fair.
And thinking of my white-haired figment reminded me of his final words. Consider that I exist.
Do you? I wondered. Do you exist?
Then how was he in my dreams? Well, Kols had infiltrated my head without mating. So it was definitely possible. I needed to learn more about how he did it. That would help me determine if I had anything to worry about or if my head was just playing tricks on me.
“There’s more,” Kols said, drawing me back to our conversation. “It’s about your parents.”
Ice drizzled through my veins, his tone telling me nothing good would come from whatever he had to say next. “What about them?” I asked.
“There’s no easy way to say this, Aflora, so I’m just going to tell you what I learned.”
“Okay.”
He took a deep breath, his gold irises swirling with remorse. “The Midnight Fae Elders killed them for being known Quandary Blood sympathizers.”
I froze, his words not fully registering beneath the thudding in my ears.
No.
No, that couldn’t be right.
“They…” I cleared my throat, my voice a rasp of sound. “They were Royal Fae…” I trailed off, my voice still not quite right. It sounded loud now, like a squawk. Or maybe that was just me.
And wow, I was dizzy.
Stars danced around me. Real ones. Huh. That reminded me of Dream Guy again and his nickname for me. I never did ask why called me star, of all things, nor did I know his name. I should probably give him one.
You know, after I figured out the whole dizzy thing.
Because yeah, um, the world was starting to go black.
“Aflora.” The urgent tone felt like a slap to my senses, yanking me back into… Zeph’s room.
I stared at the windows overlooking the building across the street, tilting my head slightly at the strange exterior. “Is that brick?” I asked. Such an inane question but it seemed easier than facing the tumultuous thoughts in my mind.
Zeph’s palms burned into my cheeks, forcing me to look at him. At some point, he’d pulled me beneath him, his elbows braced on either side of my head. “What the hell just happened?” he demanded.
I looked up at him, noted the fury in his green eyes. “What do you mean?” And wow, my voice sounded dreadful. I really needed a glass of water because my throat was killing me.
“You just spent the last five minutes screaming,” he ground out. “I couldn’t wake you the fuck up and had to put my palm over your mouth to silence you before you alarmed all the damn humans in the building.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. What the hell, Aflora?”
I opened my mouth to tell him, but I couldn’t. The words were trapped in my throat.
And then his phone began to ring.
“Answer that,” I managed to say.
“Fuck the phone.”
“It’s Kols,” I said, knowing I’d probably scared him by leaving so abruptly. But there was no way his words were true. “My parents were Royal Fae.” The statement was meant more for me than for Zeph. “It doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t be able to do that. The Elemental Fae Council…” I trailed off, trying to figure out how the Midnight Fae had gotten away with murdering my parents.
And what did Kols mean about them being Quandary Blood sympathizers? I didn’t even know what that was until recently.
Except…
I am one.
My eyes went wide. “Of course,” I whispered. “They… they were protecting me.”
But that could only mean they knew about my abomination status. Was one of them really a Quandary Blood?
“Not possible,” I continued out loud, oblivious to everything around me. “A Midnight Fae can’t connect to the earth source. Unless…” My lips parted, my throat going dry. “Unless a Quandary Blood rewired it…”
I reached for Zeph, his heat having left mine when he went to grab his phone. His hand caught my wrist, drawing my palm to his and linking our fingers. “What is it?” he asked softly.
“What if my parents weren’t Earth Fae at all, but Quandary Bloods who rewired the earth source to accept their magic?” I asked him, my heart beating erratically in my chest. “What if they weren’t sympathizers at all, but actual Quandary Bloods hiding from the eradication? They were old, Zeph. So, so old.”
My mind kept working through the puzzle, the pieces falling into place.
“I was their only heir. An heir they left with a single mother and her very powerful son. Sol. Maybe they chose his family because they knew his bloodline was the rightful connection to the source, and that’s why…” I met Zeph’s gaze. “That’s why he’s connected to it now.”
It was incredibly rare for an elemental source to allow a new entity to tap into the power when it already had a powerful conduit.
“I’d thought the earth source welcomed Sol because of his mating to Claire.” She had access to all five elements. It made perfect sense. “But what if it had nothing to do with her, and it was the source realigning itself with the appropriate monarch?”
My entire life had been a lie.
My parents were never Earth Fae.
“I’m a Quandary Blood.” Yet that statement didn’t feel quite right, and my link to my elemental power screamed at the wrongness of that claim, confusing me even more.
“I don’t know who I am anymore.” My eyes didn’t well with tears. My heart didn’t break. My mind just kept whirring with theories and possibilities.
But at the end of it all, I knew one thing for sure—I despised the Midnight Fae Council and their Elders.
“They killed my parents,” I whispered. “They killed my parents.” And they’d gotten away with it.
They’ll pay, I vowed, uncertain of whom I spoke to.
They will, a dark voice whispered back.
Just for a moment, I swore it belonged to my figment.
But that wasn’t possible.
He only existed in my head.
Chapter Thirty-One
Kols
“She’s asleep again,” Zeph said over the line, his voice tired. “Shit, Kols. What the fuck just happened?”
I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “A lot. A fucking lot. Hold on.”
I cast a myriad of spells around my room to ensure there were no listening devices. After learning what I had today, I no longer trusted anyone, including my own damn family. Because clearly they were holding out on me. At least my father and grandfather were, anyway.
When I finished my spells, I picked up the phone again. “Are we sure this line is secure?”
“Please,” Zeph muttered. “The cuffs work, right?”
“Yeah. Fortunately.” Because if anyone sensed my ties to Aflora, I’d be royally fucked, and not in a good way. Since the same guy who’d made the band around my wrist also enchanted our phones, I could safely assume our conversation would be private.
I collapsed on my bed and told Zeph about the meeting, ending with the bit about her parents. “That’d been where I was when she woke herself up.”
Zeph had fallen silent, probably from shock. Which, yeah, I’d felt the same when I heard it all in the Council Chambers.
“I think it’s safe to say she didn’t take the news well,” Zeph muttered.
“Thanks for stating the obvious,” I drawled, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration. “She’s going to hate me, Zeph.”
“She’s not,” he replied. “She knows it wasn’t you.”