Sacrifice

by Sadie Moss

My heart beats a little faster, and I chew my lips as my thoughts race. The more I consider this new revelation, the more excited I get. I think this could work.

  “All right,” Echo says slowly, eyeing me. “I’m following. So move. You said you were a hunter for your people. Move like you would on a hunt.”

  His suggestion excites me even more. When I joined Jacob and Nolan and the others to hunt for our village, I always felt strong and powerful. That can only help me now.

  I keep my eyes open but let them go unfocused, my feet moving silently over the grass of the courtyard just like they would if I was hunting in the woods back home. I crouch and whirl, creep and pivot, and all the while I sense the lines blurring around me until I don’t know where they end and I begin.

  That’s when I latch on.

  My vision snaps back into focus, and I can tell immediately that I have a firm grasp of the weave. It’s not just a little string between my fingers—it’s fully and completely a part of me.

  “I have it.” The words come out breathless, even a little giddy.

  Echo points to the edge of the yard where a few of their training tools lie in the dirt. “Lift the ball.”

  I try not to think too hard about the actual act. I just wrap the weave around the small leather ball, then with little more than a thought, I lift it into the air.

  “Excellent! Well done, Sage!” Echo crows, swooping in to pluck me up in his arms and swing me around.

  I’m dizzy, buzzing with energy and high on magic as he puts me back on my feet. The ball is rolling away, having fallen the minute he picked me up, but he’s right—I did it.

  “This is the first time I’ve felt like myself since I got here,” I say as he sets me down, watching the ball come to rest in the grass.

  Echo frowns. “Why is that? Is something wrong?”

  I blink up at him, surprised by his question. How can he not know how miserable I’ve been? But then I remember his earlier words. The three messengers are so accustomed to their existence here, so set in their ways, that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to feel out of their depth. If they ever knew.

  So instead of letting anger or irritation rise up in me at his obtuseness, I just speak honestly. “Everything is upside down here. In life, I was a hunter. I could take down big game with my dagger and a smile. I could gather herbs to heal my family. I was smart and self-sufficient. If I had a problem, I solved it. No second-guessing, no room for failure. Here, I’m just… nothing.”

  Something almost like pain passes over Echo’s face, and he shakes his head, the movement sharp.

  “Sage, you are not nothing. You’re just rediscovering yourself, that’s all. Finding your power.” He makes a thoughtful noise in his throat, his dark eyes gleaming. “Hunting. Who would have thought? Well, keep hunting. Keep hunting until when you reach for the weave standing still, you only see it as if you were moving.”

  So I do. For at least an hour, I stalk and creep around the courtyard, my fingers plucking at the weave and Echo following my every move, giving me instructions as I work. With every little bit of practice, I’m getting better, and I can tell the roguish messenger is impressed.

  This is good for my soul, the best kind of medicine for the melancholy that’s been tugging at me.

  After the stress of the past two days, I’m finally having fun.

  After I successfully move the ball in a rising spiral pattern, Echo takes me in his arms and dances me around the courtyard, light on his feet. I laugh, letting him guide me as my fingertips brush against the weave, pulling strands, weaving them around us both until suddenly—

  We’re floating.

  I gasp and grab onto his thick biceps as we hover a few feet off the ground. His dark eyes twinkle with mirth, both his arms banding around me to press me tight against his body.

  “That’s quite an advancement. You’ve just graduated from inanimate objects to people,” he teases, glancing at the grass below us. Then he looks back at me, lifting a brow. “Now we’re stuck here until you put us down.”

  Horror fills me, but I’m too scared of the fall to let go of him. My arms reach up to wind around his neck, and I would be standing on my tiptoes if I were on solid ground.

  “Are you serious?” I ask, my heart slamming against my ribs. “Can’t you do it? You have access to the weave too.”

  “Of course. I could put us down.” His lips curve up and he leans forward, putting his mouth close to my ear. “I just don’t want to.”

  I pull away, as far as I can while still holding on to his neck for dear life, and his intense gaze is waiting for me. I fall into his eyes, suddenly aware of how close our bodies are. One of his hands moves up my back; lazily, possessively, like he’s laying claim to me. His hand moves higher into my hair, then his fingertips are on my neck, tugging me closer.

  My breath hitches as a swarm of butterflies flood my stomach.

  He’s going to kiss me.

  And Zelus help me, I want him to.

  My arms tighten around his neck as I tilt my face up a little higher, already imagining his taste on my tongue. The way his full lips will feel pressed against mine. The way he’ll—

  “Echo!” Callum calls from the open back door, breaking the quiet that’s fallen over the courtyard. “What in Kaius’s name are you two doing? Get down from there.”

  The man holding me in his arms seems just as stunned as I am to have been jolted out of the little bubble we shared. He blinks, and I feel a rush of emotions burst from him like the flare of the sun as it sets.

  He clears his throat, keeping a firm grip on me but maintaining his hold as we begin to descend slowly. A moment later, my feet touch the ground. When Echo’s hands fall away from my body, I feel his absence like a gnawing, physical ache.

  “We have an errand to run for Kaius.” Callum hovers in the doorway like a watchful chaperone, and I want to put my fist through his face for robbing me of Echo’s kiss.

  “We’ll practice again later. For now, duty calls. You did very well,” Echo adds. “You problem-solved, just like you used to in life.”

  I’m touched he remembered what I said earlier. He actually listened to me. A beaming grin breaks out over my face, and my heart still beats hard and fast in my chest. “I did, didn’t I?”

  He nods, rubbing a small lock of my hair between his fingers. “Yes.”

  He seems to want to linger. I imagine I can feel the part of him that’s torn between me and his duty to Kaius. Or maybe it’s not my imagination, and he really does feel that way.

  “Echo! Kaius will be displeased if we make him wait,” Callum calls, his tone hard.

  Farse that man.

  “You’d better go before I deliver the swift kick to Callum’s ass I was promised,” I say with a sigh.

  Echo chuckles at that, and I like that he thinks I’m fierce. I like that we have a private joke between us. And I love that it’s at Callum’s expense.

  “We’ll be back shortly. Do you need another book?” Without waiting for me to answer, he waves a hand, coming up with a new leather-bound volume.

  I take it gratefully. There wasn’t much to read in my village back home, and I know I’ll be finished with the first book Paris gave me before too long.

  “Thank you.”

  Echo smiles. “Anything for you, little soul.”

  I clutch the book to my chest and watch him disappear into the house. Callum glowers at me, but I reach into the weave and make the ball I levitated earlier zoom past his head. His emerald eyes widen in surprise, which is all the reward I need.

  His gaze turns thoughtful as he stares at me for another few heartbeats. Then, without a word, he turns and follows after Echo.

  The men are gone when I finally step inside the house, but there are snacks on the dining room table when I enter—a spread of fresh fruit, a pitcher of something that smells sweet, cheese cubes, and small chunks of cold meat. I set my book on the table and reach for a plate.

  What a charmed
life these men live.

  What a charmed afterlife I’m living, I realize, staring down at a thick slice of pink fruit. I spent my morning playing with magic. I have new books to read whenever I want them and fresh, elegant clothes in my armoire. There’s more food here than four people could possibly eat.

  I put the slice of fruit back on my plate, suddenly unable to take even a single bite.

  For all that time I trained in the courtyard with Echo, I didn’t think once of my family. This life with Echo, Callum, and Paris might be my new normal, and along with it all the little pleasures they take for granted.

  But I don’t want to lose my humanity or forget my family. I definitely don’t want to forget why I made my sacrifice and ended up here in the first place.

  Shoving my chair away, I leave the table with only a glass of water.

  I will not forget who I was before I came here.

  15

  Callum, Echo, and Paris are gone for most of the day, and I enjoy the solitude of being alone in the house. I pass the time exploring rooms and reading—I finish the first book and start the second, which is an even more thrilling adventure. When they haven’t returned by dinnertime, I put together a quick meal for myself, leaving plates of food for all three of them in the kitchen.

  Sleep comes easier tonight. Partially, I’m assuming, because of the energy I expended playing with the weave all morning, but also partly because I’m alone.

  When the men are around, even if they’re in a completely opposite wing of the large house, I feel like a string pulled too tight. I’m constantly aware of their presence, even when they’re busy in another room, and the pull toward them seems to grow stronger with every passing day instead of growing weaker as I hoped it would.

  But for tonight, I’m just… me again.

  So I sleep soundly, lost in colorful dreams instead of nightmares.

  I awake in the darkness sometime much later, lying on my side beneath the covers. A warm breeze plays at the curtains on my open window, and just beyond the gauzy material, I catch a glimpse of the moon high in the sky. It’s late, and I don’t know what woke me.

  I lie still for a long minute, just watching the curtains undulate and enjoying the warm caress of the wind. The house is quiet, but the men are back. My soul knows it, even though I didn’t hear them come home.

  After a few moments, I become aware of a new sensation. Something that isn’t the scent of flowers on the breeze or tendrils of wind on my skin. This is different—more primal, like a sixth sense.

  Someone is watching me.

  My primal instincts make me stiffen, and I’m suddenly reminded that my back is to the door. I don’t know if I locked it when I went to bed. Even worse, I don’t know who or what else besides my messengers dwells in this realm. Could something or someone have broken into the house? Panic seizes me as my imagination tries to convince me there’s a monster in my room.

  I roll over, my body already tensed to fight.

  I wasn’t wrong. Someone is here. In the darkness, I see eyes glittering near my bedroom door.

  But as I take in more of the shadowy shape, relief overrides my panic.

  It’s just Callum, watching me from the shadows like he did the night I had nightmares and ended up throwing the entire contents of my room around with magic.

  Just as quickly as that thought comes, irritation replaces relief.

  The stoic, surly messenger is probably watching me in my sleep because he expects me to farse things up again. He saw me in the courtyard earlier—he knows I’ve gotten better control over my power already. But Echo must’ve told him what happened last night, and as far as Callum is concerned, I’m at risk of doing it again.

  But then I realize he isn’t looking at me with annoyance or suspicion. He isn’t eyeing me like a delinquent who might destroy his house.

  He’s staring at me like he wants something from me.

  Something he isn’t sure he can have.

  “Callum?” I whisper. “What are you doing here?”

  I want to shout at him to leave, but for some reason, my mouth won’t form the words. A quiet, humming energy fills the room, and it feels like too loud of a noise will break it.

  And the hulking warrior doesn’t answer anyway. At the sound of my low voice, he pushes away from the wall and stalks toward the bed. My heart beats harder with each one of his heavy footfalls, and when he reaches the foot of the large bed and throws the blankets off my body, I gasp as cool air brushes my skin.

  My nightgown is thin and gossamer, and it can’t hide the fact that my nipples have tightened into hard points and goose bumps have spread across my skin.

  Then one large hand closes around my ankle, and Callum tugs me down toward the center of the mattress. As he does, my nightgown rides up, exposing more of my legs, my hips, and my thin cotton panties. I make another strangled sound in my throat, trying to shove the fabric down, but before I can, Callum is climbing onto the bed with me.

  His big, calloused hands slide up my calves just like they did that day in the washroom when water droplets clung to my skin. His fingers grip my thighs just above the knees, spreading my legs wider as he dips his head.

  When his tongue traces a long line up the inside of my right leg, my toes curl and my back bows off the bed. I don’t know what’s happening, how we got here, or what he intends to do next, but every nerve ending in my body feels like it’s on fire.

  I can’t catch my breath.

  I can’t think straight.

  I don’t know whether to push him away or pull him closer, even as his hot mouth traces a path even higher up my leg, heading toward the sweet ache at the apex of my thighs.

  Sticky arousal is seeping from me, dampening my panties and making the air feel even cooler against my flushed skin. I’ve never felt like this before, and the intensity of the feelings terrifies me and excites me.

  Then the stoic warrior bites down on the inside of my thigh, and I feel as if I’ve been struck by lightning.

  “Callum!”

  The word is torn from me as I half sit up on the bed, reaching for his head, his hair, his shoulders—anything to ground myself.

  “Shh, little soul. Don’t be afraid.” Paris’s voice comes from just beside my left ear, and I startle in surprise when I feel his hands glide down my body, soothing me with his touch.

  “We won’t hurt you, Sage. We could never hurt you.” Echo speaks from my right, but I don’t jump the same way I did when Paris spoke.

  Somehow, I knew he would be here too. It wouldn’t be right if he wasn’t.

  The three messengers move together, their hands skating over my form, gathering the hem of my nightgown before lifting me gently from the bed. With six hands on me, I lose track of which one belongs to which man, overwhelmed by sensations as they tug the nightgown over my head and set me back down on the soft mattress.

  Callum’s fingers hook the edges of my panties, but instead of sliding them down my legs as I expect, he rips the fabric as if it’s made of little more than air. The pieces are pulled away from my body, and I suddenly realize what that means.

  I’m naked.

  Laid completely bare before these men with nothing left to hide behind. No more defenses to keep myself safe and protected. No way to disguise my body’s reaction to them.

  My skin is flushed, my chest rising and falling faster as my breath picks up, and I can feel the wetness dripping from my core. I feel possessed by need, as if it’s a separate entity that’s overtaken my body, leaving me powerless against its hold.

  Fear rises up alongside the arousal again, and I swallow hard. I’m a virgin. Back on earth, I had little time for romantic pursuits and little interest in them either. The only man I might’ve done anything with was Jacob Godwin, and despite his interest in me, I realized long ago that I didn’t feel that way about him.

  But that means this is all entirely new territory for me, and it feels a little like getting swept away by a raging current, batter
ed about in churning, frothing waters.

  Then Echo’s dark eyes fill my vision as he leans over me, looking down at my face… and the fear begins to dissipate. He smiles, then leans down and kisses me.

  “Let us have you, little soul,” he murmurs against my lips. “Let us worship you.”

  His voice draws me in, his kiss hypnotizes me, and the three sets of hands on me make me feel like I’m floating, lost in a sea of sensation. My chin dips in a nod, and I can feel Echo’s grin widen before he kisses me again.

  Then his mouth leaves mine to trail over the line of my jaw and down the column of my neck at the same moment Paris’s tongue finds my nipple. I clutch at them both, moaning at the incredible, overwhelming sensations, and just when I think I might die from it, Callum licks a long line up the seam of my core.

  His tongue finds the hard nub at the top, flicking over the sensitive bundle of nerves, and the need that’s been building like a steadily growing fire inside me since the moment I met these men finally snaps. Pleasure courses through me as an orgasm tears through my body. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, and I jerk and writhe on the bed, my hips pressing up shamelessly against Callum’s mouth, begging for more. Demanding it.

  He gives it to me, lapping at me over and over until I come again, the first orgasm crashing into the second and pulling a harsh cry from my lips.

  I’m breathing heavily, the world seeming to spin around me, as all three men retreat slightly. I clutch at Echo and Paris, trying to pull them closer, but then Callum crawls up my body, overtaking my awareness. His large frame seems even more massive as it hovers over mine, and I can feel the brush of his hard cock against my stomach. It seems to sear my skin like a brand, and my heart beats wildly against my chest as I gaze up at him.

  His emerald eyes are shadowed in the darkness, glittering like hidden jewels. One hand traces a line down the curve of my cheek before his voice rumbles in his chest.

  “Echo promised we would never hurt you. And we won’t.” He shifts slightly, and the broad head of his cock finds my entrance, pressing between my folds, teasing me with the slight pressure, the promise of what could be. “Unless you ask us to.”