“Your brother sent my spirit here from the future to inhabit Lady Hulda’s body in this moment,” I said. “I didn’t understand why, but I think I know what I’m supposed to do.”
I swallowed and got to my knees in front of Lord Abiron’s body. I hated to look at him, to see what they had done to him. I carefully slipped the blade of the knife under the stitches and cut the threads.
As soon as it was done, I started to get very dizzy and the room spun around me.
Chapter Six
Helena
“Helena…wake up, angel…”
My eyes cracked open and I was on the floor of the ice cave. Byron was holding my hands. A jacket supported my head. I felt incredibly disoriented now as I sank back into my own skin.
“Angel, you did it. You did it. I can talk again! I can tell you everything. Are you all right?”
“I guess so. But—that was—intense. Do you remember it?”
“I don’t remember my old life,” he said. “Marisa brought me back but I never remembered much of that life. Enough to know what I need to do when we put the maps back together…but truthfully, I hope I never remember all of it.”
“I don’t blame you… I was hiding inside a wardrobe for the battle but it was a slaughter.” I shuddered. For a moment I just held him, even though I was freezing. “And cutting your mouth open is something I hope I never have to do again.”
“I could help you to forget it. What matters is that you did it. And…we did it.” He reached between my legs, down my panties, and stuck three fingers deep into me and swabbed them around. Despite the abruptness of the gesture I was still getting turned on immediately. The power of an incubus. Sheesh.
“Whoa! Hey!”
He had already drawn his hand out and was rushing to his old body. “I’m sorry,” he tossed over his shoulder. “I should have asked first.”
“I meeean…you don’t really have to, just maybe a better time…”
“I needed a little fresh DNA,” he said. “Much better than an animal sacrifice, right? It’s time to wake me up.”
Now I scrambled to my feet, my boots scuffing on a rough patch of ice before sliding on a slick patch. I managed to get my balance. “So that’s why…? But—how did Lord Abiron know, then?”
“You know how magic works,” he said.
“I guess so.” Somehow Lord Abiron and Byron knew what to do. Lord Abiron resigned himself to the death he knew would come, but not before hurrying up and giving his future self the tools he needed. I suppose, for Byron, it was a safe bet that his past self would make love to me. “So what do you need me to do?”
“Melt the ice around my face.”
“Okay.” I moved into action mode, and I was happy to produce some heat magic. It seemed like, while my trip to the past lasted a whole day, no time had passed here so I wasn’t frost-bitten in the freezer—yet. “Chaleur…” Heat rose in my hands and started melting the ice, but I couldn’t go too quickly. I didn’t want to burn Byron’s face.
Several long moments passed as the layers of ice melted but finally Byron’s face was uncovered.
“A little more around the mouth and jaw,” Byron said.
“Okay…”
He jammed his fingers into his own dead mouth, which was gross but also very on brand for necromancy, and really, not the worst way this could have gone. He chanted in Cyprium, which I no longer understood but the rhythm of it was familiar now.
And then his ghost was sucked into the mouth of his body and life immediately flooded the frozen form. Color transformed his skin from bluish and lifeless to…my Byron.
And then—to Lord Abiron Adras’ei.
The ice exploded into shards around him and I had to step back as Byron came to life in his full demigod form with horn and mismatched wings, ruining his vintage suit.
After all that searching, all the mystery, all the dreams, the clues…
He’s here.
I was briefly overwhelmed into silence.
“Can I…touch you?” I asked.
He grabbed me instead. “You can touch me…and I can touch you. Angel—you lived up to the nickname.” His arms wrapped around me. “I don’t believe it.”
“We really did it?”
“We did. All this time, I have been unable to tell you outright what you needed to do, and you did it anyway. And thank the gods you came along. I don’t think I could have ever walked Graham through all of that.”
“Definitely not.” I grinned. “Especially without me. I had to tell him everything about magic.” I paused. “Plus…what would you have done with Graham about the sex part? You couldn’t send him back to be in the body of Lady Hulda.”
“I could. But it definitely wouldn’t have gone quite as well.”
I sputtered a laugh.
“He wouldn’t have gotten this far to begin with,” Byron said.
“Nope.”
“Besides…I think it always had to be you, Helena. I truly needed a woman who would be my queen and stand by my side, always. As I will stand by yours, and anyone you choose to love.”
“Byron…” I lifted my chin. “Did you get taller?” He definitely got taller.
“I’m not just a common demon anymore,” he said. “They call us high demons for a reason…”
I trailed fingers down his chest, the buttons of his suit having already been obliterated. “I like it. And I can presume that it only gets more exciting when the pants come off…”
“My human form is still a little more reasonable,” he said. “I don’t want to make my potential bond mates feel inadequate.”
“Okay, well…once in a while.” I suddenly had to put my arms around him again. “I can’t believe that I can really just touch you and you won’t fade away. How did you come back to life so easily?”
“Most of the spell work was already done,” Byron said. “It’s absolutely true that when I helped Fiore, Deveraux and Sam find the pieces of the box, at first they were excited by the scavenger hunt and the prospect of riches. As they realized the magnitude of what would happen, they panicked. And that was when they killed me. They thought I was trying to destroy the magical world. But having been killed in the middle of my mission, obviously I stuck around. I came to them that very night and begged them just to keep my body, the books and maps around. Nothing more than that. Just keep them safe from others, I said. I realized the idea was too radical and I shouldn’t have rushed it on them. Over the years, they kept investigating the history and they saw how corrupt the council was, but it wasn’t until they were older that they truly agreed with me. By then, they didn’t have the strength, or maybe just the courage. Instead, they each made a sacrifice to bring me back. But I needed you to unravel the magic that has bound me over the last thousand years, and to bring me a fragment of my own life.”
“Amazing,” I breathed.
My inner thoughts were a wee bit more panicked. What comes next? Does that mean it’s time to open the box? What will that do? Will the entire magical world jumble together in a big mess and start a war that will be my fault and my family will literally kill me and…
I stopped and breathed. “I have so many more questions for you,” I said. “But we should check on the others.”
“Yes. There is one piece still missing.” Byron was still smiling broadly. Nothing would break his mood right now. He clutched my hand and threw open the door.
Jasper, Billie and Gaston were hanging out around the undine pool, but they quickly shifted back to us instead.
“Did something happen? You look different,” Gaston asked.
“Yeah, no shit, he’s a unicorn and his wings don’t match,” Jasper said. “Just like the pictures.”
“I’m alive!” Byron said.
“Alive alive?” Jasper said.
“You were only in there fifteen minutes,” Billie said.
“Helena has been gone all day,” Byron said. “In the year 1050. She has restored me to health.”
“T
hat’s crazy!” Billie went to hug him and he grabbed her around the waist and spun her toward Jasper, whom he also grabbed, and then he spun them both. I think one of them liked that more than the other.
“Uh, that’s great, man,” Jasper said. “But…”
“Yes, but?” Gaston said. “By the way, good for you. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Billie nudged him. “You do act like you’re three hundred and not forty, by the way. If I ever get this bored of being a vampire, kill me, okay? ‘I hope yew know vot you are do-ing!’” she said snootily, pinching her fingers together like she had a cigarette.
“I don’t have an accent anymore,” Gaston said, “but that is also not a French accent at all. It’s maybe a bad Dracula with a little Inspector Clousseau.”
“Everyone has an accent. If you don’t have a French accent you have an American accent. Is that better? But—this is too exciting!” Billie said. “How do we get Jake and Graham back though?”
“Yes,” I said. “How do we get Jake and Graham back?”
“I told you, we just have to wait,” Byron said. “But now I can also tell you that Sam had the undine guard the last piece of the map. They just have to convince her to give it to them. Sam did inform her that Graham was the heir of the Sons of Pandora, so they shouldn’t have much trouble.”
“Nothing good ever begins with saying that we shouldn’t have much trouble,” Jasper said.
Chapter Seven
Jake
When the undine drew me in, I was caught up in an undertow and swirled around in dark waters, back and forth while I kicked and flailed my arms, trying to find something to hold onto. I thought I heard Graham yelling somewhere, but the water muffled and distorted our voices.
I definitely wasn’t in that pool anymore.
Yep. Closing the magical water portal in the pool is definitely the first job to tackle.
Something snagged my ankle and soon I was battling with tentacles that snagged at my arms and legs while I was running out of air. Damnit. Even if I turned wolf it wouldn’t do any good. I couldn’t open my jaws without filling my lungs full of water.
“Calm down! You can breathe.” Cool, soft hands touched my neck and some lights drifted closer in the darkness.
“Nn!” I didn’t trust breathing water.
“Pretty soon you’ll have to! But look. I gave you some gills.”
“I don’t want gills, damnit, I’m a wolf!” I exploded, unable to hold it in anymore anyway. And yeah, she was right, I was able to breathe but it felt very unnatural.
Beside me, Graham was choking a little on the water and she patted us both on the head. “You’re adorable. I haven’t had young men here in a long long time…so very long.” She nuzzled her face against mine, making a sound like a sad dolphin. “Sam is gone…”
I tried to move away from her. I realized the tentacles were just sea vines, although I don’t know that the difference mattered that much.
“Sam is gone,” I affirmed. “And we can’t stay long either.”
“You’ll stay until I’m tired of you.” She bit my ear.
“Ouch! Fuck!”
Maya giggled and swirled away. The undine was naked, with sleek skin that had a slightly blue-green undertone, and blonde hair that floated around her as she moved. She was petite for a human, but otherwise looked like one except for the fangs and her webbed hands and feet. The lights that followed her around came from fish with light-up antennae. The whole crew vanished for a moment, leaving us in the dark. I heard her singing in the shadowy waters.
“This isn’t even a fun kind of dangerous,” I said.
“What is she?” Graham hissed.
“An undine. They’re sort of like a succubus but more…well, they don’t just want to have sex. They want to marry a human, or…human-ish man because it gives them a soul and then they can evolve and become smarter and stronger. Sort of…like a Pokemon.”
“So she wants one of us to marry her?”
“She’s probably feeling extra seduce-y because she probably wanted Sam or one of Sam’s friends and then they all got old and stopped visiting her.”
“I don’t want to be seduced.”
“I don’t either, obviously.” I tried to kick my limbs out of the sea vines.
Maya came swimming back to us holding the third map. “I bet you’re looking for this…”
“We are,” Graham said. “But I hardly want to ask what you want in return.”
“You don’t have to ask. I’ll just give it to you.” She swam over to Graham and unfastened his belt, and the girl definitely knew her way around buckles and zippers. She had his cock in her hand within a second.
“I just miss a man’s body,” she said. “So how about this? You let me play with you for today and then you can take the map and go home. Just let me play…and we can sway…in shadowed seas…you’re all for me…” She was singing in a beautiful, melodic voice. More than beautiful, really. Enchanting.
I mean…there are worse prices to pay. But—I’d never had anyone to come home to before. And I realized that I was thinking of Hel that way. Like someone who was always there, a part of my life that I couldn’t imagine disappearing. A fling didn’t have any appeal when I thought about how she might feel. Even if I had to share her, that was something earned, something we all had to figure out together.
“Helena,” Graham gasped as the undine was caressing him with both hands. He looked at me. “Jake, help me out here! I don’t want to betray Helena. She’s preying on my incubus side.”
“You don’t need an incubus side to get preyed on by a nymph,” I said. “So don’t blame yourself.”
Graham and I had been rivals, and now we weren’t quite that. But we were also a long way off from the sort of bond that we needed to have to share a family with Helena.
Priorities.
Graham and I hadn’t been best friends before this, but trust sneaks up on you sometimes. We’d fought together, and in a time like this, he was looking to me for some help dealing with a magical world he didn’t fully understand. He would also have my back, I thought. It was a quick calculation I realized I already knew the answer to.
“She’ll lure you in if you let her,” I said. “We’re going to have to fight her off together.”
“I’m with you,” Graham said, shoving Maya off of him. He zipped up his pants. The vines were fighting with his wrists and I grabbed the undine from behind so he wasn’t fighting her too.
“Whyyy?” she moaned. “I just want to touch.”
“We’re not interested. I know your deal. You want to marry a human type and get a soul, but our souls are already taken. So it’s a waste of your time.”
“Your girl won’t devote herself to you every single moment, I’m sure. And no human girl is as silky and wet as I am.”
“I don’t know,” Graham said. “Helena definitely delivers. But the last thing I would want is for her to devote every single moment to me. The reason I fell for her is because she’s not especially devoted to me at all. She’s devoted to her craft.”
“Sorry, little faery. Graham’s right on the money. I’ve been on dates who were, honestly, more skilled in the bedroom,” I said. “But a mate is more than that. The sexiest thing a woman can do is work as hard as our girl does, and care as much as she does. So maybe you can force yourself on us. But you’re not going to win either of us.”
“And you really think you can work together? Through it all? A mating is hard enough with two people! You are doomed to fail.”
“Only one way to find out,” I said. “We have a house to fix up together, and that’ll show us how well we work. I’m sure we’re going to have some fights.”
“We’ve already had some,” Graham said. “But not with each other. We have common goals. More than anything, I want to figure out my magic. Protect Helena. I don’t want her putting everything on her shoulders.”
“I’m with you on that,” I said, as Maya seemed to be gettin
g weaker the more we united against her. “While we’re having this heart to heart, Graham, I respect that you’ve plunged yourself into the magical world. It was kind of a duty you didn’t ask for, but you don’t seem like a guy who complains when there’s work to be done.”
“I’m just frustrated that no one told me sooner. Looking back, I can see that my mother knew, and she was trying her damnedest to raise me as anything but an incubus.”
“Hey!” Maya waved her arms. “I kidnapped you! This is about me!”
I laughed. “Sorry, sprite. We’re just too busy, and we’ve faced worse stuff than you already. We’re not having sex with you.”
“I could if I wanted to,” she said. “You’re trapped here.”
“You can try, but I don’t think it’ll be your best day.”
Graham was starting to laugh as Maya got more infuriated by my indifference and she swam up to him and gave his face a little slap. “You’re a lousy incubus! You could get power from me! I’m better than your witch, I’m sure. And you dare to laugh at me? Your cock certainly says otherwise.”
“I want Helena to know she can trust me,” Graham said. “Even if it means I want things I can’t have. They’re sacrifices I’m happy to make.”
He really loves that girl, I thought. And so do I.
“This is the choice we’re making,” I said. I was still talking to Graham, really. The undine could flail around all she wanted. “I don’t know if we’ve earned a happily ever after yet, but I hope we do. All of us, together. If we all live long enough to get there after we open Pandora’s Box.”
“We will,” Graham said. “That, I definitely believe. We’re not going to let that little shit warlock have the final word.”
“Ugh! Blech! You’re not paying any attention to me!” Maya slashed the water around us. “I can see that you mean what you say. Your devotion is true. Before Sam started getting old and sick, he told me…” She sighed heavily. “I must give my treasure to people who can be trusted with it, and I guess you must be who he meant.” She waved a hand and we were released from the vines. “I’ll go get the map.”
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