by Sadie Moss
“Great. Then let’s get the fuck out of here,” I muttered, turning away from the booth where a slack-jawed Rat still sat like a statue.
The chill night air hit me as I stepped outside, and I turned my face into the breeze, letting it cool my skin.
“You think his info was good?” Fenris asked Jae behind me as we walked to my car.
“I don’t think he was lying. It’s as good a place to start as any. We already suspected the Representatives were behind this, and narrowing down the possible location inside the People’s Palace helps immensely.”
I pulled hard on the finicky handle, wrenching the driver’s side door open and looking over the car at the men.
“So all we have to do is break into the People’s Palace, sneak into a restricted room, and destroy the receiver? Right. No biggie.” I raised my brows at Corin. “You still sure you don’t want me to run away?”
He grinned fiercely at me. “Never.”
Chapter 21
Sharing a room with four men isn’t easy.
It’s especially difficult if that room is in a cramped, run-down apartment barely big enough for one person, let alone five.
But we managed somehow.
I offered up the couch, ignoring Ivy’s horrified look, but none of my four wanted to be that far away from me. Despite my frequent assurances that I wouldn’t try to skip out on them again, I think they were all still a little anxious after my vanishing act earlier. And if I was being honest with myself, I wanted them close by too. I was still uncertain exactly how I felt about the bond between us, or how to handle having such strong and conflicting feelings for four different people—but I couldn’t deny the bond was there, pulling me toward them at all times.
So I scrounged up extra blankets and stole a few pillows from the couch, and the men all stretched out on the floor near the bed. And despite everything looming over us, I slept better with them in the room than I had in a long time.
When light peeked through the slats in the worn wooden blinds, I blinked my eyes open slowly.
Still early.
I let my lids fall shut again, making a little sound of contentment as I yawned. In the sleepy early morning glow, my defenses were lower, and I let myself revel for a moment in the sound of four people breathing softly around me, the unique scent of each man mingling with the others in the air, and the feel of the large, warm palm resting on my hip.
Wait.
What?
My lids popped open, and I flipped over to my other side, meeting Fenris’s chocolate brown eyes.
“Fen!” I whispered indignantly.
He grinned sheepishly at me. “I got cold.”
His hand had stayed on me when I turned over, and now it caressed my opposite hip, his touch sparking a fire deep in my belly.
I cocked one eyebrow up. “You got cold? So you decided to sneak under the covers with me? Why didn’t you cuddle up with Jae? He has the biggest blanket.”
“Well, no offense to Jae,” Fenris said, his voice a low rumble, “but I don’t think he’s as cuddly as you are.”
My heart skipped in my chest, panic and pleasure warring in my mind. It would be so easy to give in to the pull of the bond, to follow the tug that felt completely natural and stop struggling against it at every turn. But I’d spent years of my life under a corrupt man’s sway, and when Edgar died, I vowed I’d never let anyone else have power over me. This wasn’t the same; I knew that—I felt that—but it didn’t stop my primal instinct to fight against something that felt so out of my control.
I pressed a hand to his chest. Maybe because I wanted to keep some distance between us, or maybe just because I wanted to feel the hard planes of his muscles and the heat of his skin through his T-shirt.
“You don’t feel cold to me,” I accused.
He smiled, revealing a line of even white teeth. “Well, I’m not anymore.” The hand on my hip slipped around to my lower back, tugging me a little closer. I fisted his shirt, my breath coming faster. His stubble was thicker today, and I wondered if it would feel scratchy or smooth against my skin.
Fenris skimmed his hand up the side of my body, over the curve of my shoulder, and rested it on my cheek, running the rough pads of his fingers along my jawbone.
Was he going to kiss me?
Did I want him to?
“Coffee!” I blurted, louder than I intended.
“Hmm?” Jae murmured from somewhere near the foot of the bed. Fenris cocked an eyebrow at me, looking at me with mild amusement.
“I’ll just… make some coffee,” I muttered, sliding backward out of bed, almost falling off the mattress in my haste to escape. I grabbed my pants off the headboard—I’d removed them last night under the covers—and yanked them on, darting out the door.
Ivy glanced up at me as I banged around the kitchen making more noise than I should have this early in the morning. But nerves jangled through my body. I didn’t have the mental capacity to handle all the thoughts vying for attention in my brain right now, and I was pinning my hopes on the belief that coffee would help.
Either Fenris had almost kissed me, or I’d almost kissed him. Either way, what the hell did that mean? When Asprix had informed us we were all connected by my magic, I hadn’t known how blurry the line was going to get between the magical bond and a physical, emotional, and mental one.
I wasn’t used to any of this. After I left Wyoming, I’d been such a mess emotionally that I hadn’t even thought about a relationship for years. I had made a half-hearted and disastrous attempt at a one-night stand a couple years ago, but the truth was, I’d been determinedly and happily a loner.
Until Corin came back into my life.
Until Fenris, Jae, and Akio cracked open my heart and made room for themselves in there too.
Perching on a wobbly chair, I watched the coffee pot until it stopped brewing, then leapt up to pour a cup, gulping down the scalding liquid too fast.
“H-hot!”
I was breathing through my mouth with my tongue hanging out like a dog when Corin wandered into the room, followed closely by Jae and Fenris. The wolf shifter was tugging on his pants, and I felt a flush heat my cheeks.
Snapping my jaw shut, I looked down at my steaming coffee. “Where’s Akio?”
“Primping.” Fenris smirked, nudging me out of the way to reach for the coffee. My small kitchen was feeling tinier by the second.
Corin slipped his phone into his pocket, leaning on the half wall between the kitchen and living room. “I updated Christine. She’s on board with us breaking into the palace to destroy the tracking spell’s receiver. Another couple of houses got hit last night—closer to the Resistance’s location.”
Fenris swore softly, rifling through my cabinets in search of a mug. “Damn. Then we don’t have much time.”
It was my turn to move him out of the way, pushing him aside so I could pull a mug out of the cabinet by the fridge. It was my backup mug, glazed blue with a huge yellow moon on it. It seemed appropriate for Fen.
“We don’t,” Corin agreed. “Anybody got any brilliant ideas how to get inside the palace?”
“Can we use a transport spell?” I asked, handing the mug to Fen.
He took it with a grin. “Nah. There are protections on the palace that keep people from being able to transport in. You might be able to use one to get out, but definitely not in.”
“Well, shit. That was my one brilliant idea.”
“The Grand Ball is being held at the People’s Palace in two days,” Jae offered.
I chugged the rest of my still-hot coffee, then rinsed the mug and set it on the counter. It and the blue one were the only mugs I had, and I felt bad hogging it. “So how does the Grand Ball help us?”
“Because I have an invitation.” Jae spoke simply, but a slight blush crept into his cheeks when I rounded on him, eyes wide.
“You what?”
“My whole family does. My father is the Minister of Justice, so he’s invited to a lot
of events in the Capital.”
I blinked.
Jae was so unlike any other Gifted person I’d met that I sometimes forgot he was one of them. But the truth was, the world of wealth, privilege, and power he came from was the complete opposite of the world I’d lived in all my life.
I blinked again.
The mage’s elegant features flushed a deeper red, and he looked away, staring down at the table and tapping absently at the faded wood veneer. Was his hand shaking?
“That’s perfect!” Fenris exclaimed. “We’ll need to get Lana in too, and maybe Corin can sneak in with the Blighted staff.”
“I’m allowed a plus-one,” Jae said stiffly. “Lana can be my date.”
I had a million questions for him, but he looked so abjectly miserable that I shoved them all down. He didn’t need me poking and prodding him, bringing more attention to the privileged upbringing he’d had, and whatever it was about that upbringing that caused him so much pain.
“Date? For what?” Akio drawled, walking out of the bedroom.
His dark jeans were slung low on his hips, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Considering he’d had more time than any of us to get dressed, that could only be intentional. I wanted to roll my eyes at his vanity—but they were too busy trying to take in the intricate tattoos that covered both of his arms like sleeves, winding over and around his shoulders to meet on his chest. When he walked over to the counter to grab my now-empty mug, I almost gasped. The tattoos continued on his back, his muscles rippling under a black ink design so detailed I could spend hours studying it.
Holy gods. Fucking beautiful.
Someone else had answered his question, and when I shook off the fog of lust clouding my brain and rejoined the conversation, they were discussing the best way for me to find the green carpeted hallway in the palace.
“It shouldn’t be too difficult for her to slip away for a few minutes,” Jae said. “The ball will be well attended, so one guest missing for a few minutes will be easily overlooked. But actually getting into any restricted areas will be harder. The palace is always heavily guarded, and security will be ramped up for the event.”
“Well, we already know she’s good at illusion spells.” Akio leaned against my kitchen counter, regarding me coolly.
“True. But all the palace guards wear charms that allow them to see through illusions. What she needs more than that is the power of suggestion.”
My gaze flicked between the two of them. “The what?”
“Charm,” Akio clarified.
“Oh.” I blanched. “Like… what you do?”
“Of course.” He arched a brow. “Like what you do too, kitten. If Asprix is right, you should be able to charm someone as well as any succubus.”
Kitten?
I ground my teeth. There was a knife in the kitchen drawer right next to him. One more little stab wound wouldn’t kill him, right?
“You know, I prefer Fen’s nickname for me,” I told him pointedly, but all I got in return was a devilish smile.
“I’m sure you do, kitten. I just don’t love the memories it brings up, so I thought I’d put my own spin on it.”
Turning my back on him, I raised a brow at Jae. “This is the guy who’s going to teach me how to be charming?”
Half a breath later, I felt a warm body behind me, and a pair of lips brushed the shell of my ear. I froze, surprised by the sudden movement.
“I assure you, Lana, I can be very charming when I choose to be,” Akio’s velvety voice whispered softly—so softly it was as if the words slipped into my brain without actually being spoken. My name on his lips sent a sharp zing of pleasure straight down to my core, and my knees actually buckled.
I stumbled forward, catching myself before I went down like a puppet with its strings cut. Cheeks flaming, I turned around and shoved the demon’s perfect tattooed chest, hard.
“Don’t ever do that! Do not use your godsdamned incubus charm on me. You think that’s fucking funny?”
Akio stepped back, holding up his hands. His face was as carefully neutral as always, but for a moment something like hurt flashed in his eyes. I clenched my jaw. Yeah, right. Maybe he was just disappointed he hadn’t been able to make me do any party tricks, like hop on one foot or bark like a dog.
The kitchen fell into an awkward silence, broken only by the sound of cartoons floating in from the living room.
After a few moments, Fenris cleared his throat.
“So… can you teach her?” he asked, his voice artificially light.
Akio’s dark gaze caught mine. “Yes.”
“Great! And… you’ll learn, right?” Fen’s brows scrunched together as he turned to me, and I chuckled at his concern, pressing my finger between his eyes to smooth the wrinkle.
“Yeah. I mean, I’ll try.”
“Perfect!” Fenris beamed, grabbing my hand and kissing the back of it. “Then turn on the charm, killer.”
Chapter 22
As it turned out, charm wasn’t a quality or a skill that came naturally to me.
Despite my promise to Fen, the lesson with Akio did not go well. I’d never needed to be charming in my life, so my learning curve was incredibly steep. And having a cranky-as-fuck incubus drill instructor hovering over my shoulder nitpicking every move I made didn’t help much either.
It took most of the morning before I even got close to performing an actual demon charm, and all my failures leading up to that point were epic. There was a lot of fake eyelash batting, hip swaying, and over-the-top lip licking. Even Fenris, who normally gazed at me like he wanted to devour me no matter what I did, winced awkwardly as I tilted my head coyly in front of him, pursing my lips into what was supposed to be an alluring pout.
I mean, fuck. If I couldn’t even get Fen to bite, then how the hell was I supposed to charm a complete stranger? And a palace guard, no less?
Finally, Akio pulled me aside and gave me a stern lecture about how true charm didn’t come from external tricks and gimmicks, but from inner power and confidence. I wanted to ask him why he spent so much time fixing his hair every morning if that was true, but bit down on my tongue so hard I tasted blood instead.
The incubus’s pointers actually helped though, and by midafternoon, I was able to get both Fenris and Corin into a suggestible state. I couldn’t practice on Jae because he’d headed back to the Capital; he needed to put in an appearance in his old life and make arrangements for us to attend the Grand Ball. And I refused to poke my finger into the morass of antagonism and attraction that pulsed between me and Akio, which left the human and shifter as my only guinea pigs.
The next day, while Fen and Corin worked out more details of our plan, Akio took me outside to practice on a new test subject. I wasn’t keen on the idea, but he insisted I needed to charm at least one total stranger before he’d consider me ready for our mission.
“What about that guy?”
I jerked my chin toward a man walking down the street toward us. He was short and stocky, with a wide nose and shaggy brown hair that brushed his shoulders. He gave off a nervous energy, and as soon as he got close enough to feel our magic, he veered away, darting across the street.
Akio folded his arms, leaning against the side of a weathered brick building. “He’ll work. If you can catch him.”
Shit. I sprang into action, following the man. He shot a look over his shoulder, peering at me through the curtain of his hair, then picked up his pace.
“Sir! Wait! I don’t mean you any harm. I just want to ask you a question.”
I caught up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. His body tensed, but before he could make a run for it, I leaned toward him, pouring every bit of charm I could muster up into his ear like honey.
“Relax. Just stay here with me. Don’t think about anything but my voice. Forget the rest of the world; just let me in.”
He softened slightly, and I ran my fingertips along the muscles of his shoulder, charming him through physical touch as well
. I continued to speak low in his ear, whispering literal sweet nothings. According to Akio, it was less important what I said than how I said it. When I got good enough, I should be able to charm someone by repeating “broccoli” over and over—or not speaking at all.
After a moment, I stepped in front of the man to peer at his face. He had that loopy, blissed out look that churned my stomach. Gods, this creeped me out. But at least I’d proven I could do it. I looked to Akio for confirmation, and he pushed languidly off the wall to join us, crossing the street to circle around me and the hapless Blighted man.
“You should have been able to do this from the other side of the street,” Akio pointed out. “The intimacy of proximity helps, but you shouldn’t rely on it. The more distractions there are, the more difficult it is to charm someone. That’s why it’s not a frequently used fight tactic.”
I tilted my head. “But you charmed that witch back at your house.”
“I was desperate. I needed to stop her from getting her hands on you. And I was only able to put her in a mildly suggestible state at first. But it was enough to give me a chance to get close and fully charm her.” He smiled wickedly at me. “And I’m very good.”
Choosing to ignore that, I turned back to the charmed man in front of me. “Can I let him go now?”
“First, test your work.”
I grimaced, but leaned toward the man, and murmured, “Rub your belly.”
He lifted one hand and made slow circles over his belly, like someone who was very drunk and very hungry. Akio nodded approvingly, and I whispered again, “Okay, stop. Go back to whatever you were doing. And forget all about this.”
The man blinked, his thick eyebrows furrowing. His eyes still a bit glazed, he turned away from us and walked haltingly down the street.
“You’re ready,” Akio said, and despite my misgivings, my chest swelled a bit with pride—until he spoke again. “As you’ll ever be.”
Ah, there’s that famous incubus charm.