When Felix slammed shut a book with a bang that shook dust from its pages into my eyes in a stinging cloud, I jumped. Then I choked, coughing.
Radley hid his chuckle behind his hand.
“We’re legends,” Felix exclaimed.
“Oh, really?” I spluttered. “And here I was thinking that we were prisoners.”
“I’m always legendary in bed,” Radley smirked.
Felix smacked his hand down on the book. “The bond.” I stiffened, as the fiery bond snaked around me. “None of the books mention anything about succubi being fated mates.”
“Our burning hair moment and Emerald would disagree,” I pointed out.
When Felix ran his fingers through his hair, he looked so adorably nervous that I longed to drag him up into the embrace of my wings. Yet that would mean trying to take the special book, which he was now clutching, away from him. I knew Felix well enough to know that the adorable fae would be just as likely to whack me with the book as return the snuggle.
Never take a book out of Felix’s hands. If there was one rule that I lived by, it was that.
“Let me guess…none of the books mention it, apart from the one that looks like it’s been bound with dragon hide?” Radley grimaced.
Felix ran his hand over the cover of the book. “It’s more ancient than the others. It talks of legends, including one from the Succubi Court. Once there was a succubus princess who bonded with five incubi. Flames hovered over them but didn’t burn them. They were fated and became legendary. It says that maybe one day, it’ll happen again.”
He stopped, looking up at me. His eyes were wide and excited.
Breathless, I was hit by a sudden cold. The hair on the back of my nape rose; I was too aware of even my own heartbeat. I scrambled at the books behind me like they could hold me up.
Princess…? Legends…?
I was a leader of my own tribe. I was struggling to save them. How could I be fated to become part of some ancient prophecy?
I let out a shaky laugh. “This is very exciting. The forest has a funny sense of timing, throwing us into a fated bond with a princess, which is pretty much my biggest wank fantasy, just before we die. Apart from that, this is good news.”
Radley strode to me, slamming his lips to mine to quiet me. His strong wings caged me. I pressed back against him, desperate for the touch.
Why had Emerald hidden who she was from me? I shook at the thought that she’d been playing me all along.
My heart was hers. She could shatter me with a look. My secret princess.
When Radley pulled back from the kiss, he gripped my chin hard to force me to look at him. “I don’t know who Emerald is underneath that glamor. Maybe she’s a princess and maybe she’s simply the woman we love. What I do know? She’s hiding, frightened, and ours. It doesn’t matter if she’s royalty or a poor orphan. We’ll protect her.”
Wow, for Radley that was like a speech.
I nodded, touching my wing to Radley’s in agreement. “On my feathers, it’d be easier if we knew why a princess lives in fear. It was the Dean who hired her, and I’d bet that he’s the one who’s hiding her, unless he kidnapped her.”
Felix tapped his fingers on top of the book. “Why don’t we go and ask him? Ah yes, because of the threat of iron.”
He glanced significantly at my bare feet, and my toes curled at the phantom sensation of iron searing them.
So, no storming the Dean’s office.
“Why don’t we just ask Emerald?” Felix asked, softly.
I glanced down. “I tried, but she doesn’t want us to know. It’s my suspicion that she believes she’s protecting us.”
It was a strange, warm sensation: being loved by a woman. No one apart from my brotherhood had ever tried to protect me before.
Radley snorted. “Protecting is my job.”
“We need to follow Emerald.” I glanced between my mates. “She’s working on saving us, but we can work on saving her at the same time.”
Felix’s elegant fingers caressed the spine of the book, and I wished that he was caressing me. “How? We have Fighting Class after lunch with the dwarfs.”
“Dicks,” I mumbled.
Felix’s lips twitched. “Hey, sorry. I meant that we have to practice fighting with the dwarven dicks. I also passed on coded messages to the other Houses this morning about that…other thing.” He didn’t dare say escape. “The library is a great place to pass members of the other Houses and crazy as it seems, they’re not quite as intimidated by me as they are by Rads.” Radley shot Felix a patented sneer that even made him quail. He cleared his throat. “A-anyway, some thought it was a prank and others said they already had too much money riding on us dying. The mermaids are hoping for a drowning.” He wrinkled his nose. “I think I may have gone off screwing one now.”
Suddenly, light footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Radley twisted in front of me, stretching out his wings. Felix slid the book behind him like he was protecting a baby. I only just managed not to snicker.
Just.
“You’re breaking Dictate 555: Be as silent in libraries as the books,” Beau’s cool drawl wound from the shadows.
When Radley prowled towards Beau, I stiffened.
Beau was pale. He clutched his arms around himself, and even though his chin was tilted up, I could read the insecurity in his eyes like he didn’t believe that he’d be accepted in my group.
He never had been before.
Would Radley throw him out to protect me, just like he had when Beau had first tried to approach us?
It’d break Beau if he did.
I pushed away from the wall to stop Radley, but Radley had already reached Beau. I bit my lip…don’t hurt him…but Radley only wrapped his wings around Beau and pulled him into a tight hug.
“You’re not allowed to frighten me like that.” Radley said.
Beau’s large eyes widened. He flinched at Radley’s fierce embrace, staring over his shoulder at me in confusion. “Why would you care what happens to a Court Fae?”
To my shock, Radley shook Beau. “You saved my shifter and sacrificed yourself. You’re mine now.”
Beau blushed in his pretty way that reminded me of how he’d blushed when I’d called him Your Lordship on our night together in the dungeon and how even his hair had tasted sweetly of peaches.
I only just held back the moan.
Just.
Beau had flayed himself before me that night, laying his past humiliations at my feet because he’d thought that we’d never see each other again. Would he still be brave enough to face me in the light of day?
Felix shoved himself to his feet and sauntered to Beau, stroking his wingtip down his cheek. “Where have you been all this time? We’ve been worried about you. You should’ve heard this one…” He rolled his eyes at me. “…having an angst fit. He’s prone to those.”
“You were worried?” Beau glanced between Felix and Radley like his dream had come true, yet he’d been tricked too many times to believe it.
I needed him to believe it.
“Fae Four, remember?” I insisted.
“You meant that? And you didn’t tell them?” Beau ducked his head.
I smiled. “I can keep a secret. See, even without them knowing, you’re our mate now. I meant everything that I promised.”
Radley glanced over his shoulder at me, warningly. “What secrets? You’re begging for a spanking.”
I cocked my head. “Would I ever beg for a spanking? I admit that you’ve made me beg for a lot of sexy things but…”
“Promises whispered in the dark and kisses on the last night before death. No one expects you to mean them,” Beau said.
I wished to stroke the tremors from Beau’s wings, and kiss once again the anguish out of him. After a lifetime spent unnoticed, why was I surprised that he didn’t believe me?
I spun down the corridor, thrilling as my magic spiraled on my dance. Even though my lungs burned, I ignored
the pain because right now, I had a lover to free from his past.
Radley let go of Beau, dragging Felix into his arms and leaning against a bookcase to watch.
When I dropped to my knees in front of Beau, he gasped. Yet his pupils dilated, and his tongue darted out to wet his lips.
Yeah, he liked the commanding position.
When I reached forward to work off his boots, Beau pulled back.
“What in the name of the Queen are you doing?” Beau hissed.
“Let me show you how to feel like a Forest Fae. Let me love you, Your Lordship.”
I sensed the way that both Radley and Felix tensed with shock and outrage at the title. To humble myself as their leader in front of another fae went against everything that we’d been taught at Court.
Yet I wasn’t humbling myself, I was serving my lover.
It was time for less rules and more love.
Beau’s eyelashes fluttered, as I slipped off one boot and then the other, before pulling off his socks. His feet were delicate and beautiful. I stroked along the sensitive arch of his foot, and he panted.
Then I pressed both of the soles of his feet to the cold marble, and he moaned.
I rose, gripping Beau’s hands. When his gaze met mine, it danced with joy.
I ached to kiss away every year that I’d ignored and forgotten him.
“He’s the Duke of Wells’ son who was locked away in the hidden dungeon, isn’t he?” Radley’s expression was shuttered.
Beau raised an accusing eyebrow.
I shrugged. “Okay, I can keep a secret but not well.”
Beau peeked at Radley. “I imagine that you hate me now.”
Felix grinned. “Oh no, we just have far more banter opportunities, Your Lordship. Do you expect us to kneel as well?”
Beau clutched me tighter but then the tension in his shoulders eased. His lips curled into a mischievous smile. “A bow will suffice. I save kneeling for when you blow me.”
Felix gaped at him, before he burst into laughter. “We’re keeping him.”
Radley scowled. “As long as he knows that I don’t bottom.”
“I do,” Felix added, breezily.
“Did Emerald…?” Beau hesitated. “I mean to say, of course she wanted all of you in a bond. Who wouldn’t? Congratulations are in order.” His smile was suffused with such heartbreak that I couldn’t help trying to kiss it away. When I drew back, however, his jaw clenched with determination. “I want to help you.”
“How?” Radley demanded.
Beau glanced between us. “Any way that I can.”
“Right, so your dad sends you to a dungeon simply for failing a game.” When I gripped Beau’s chin, I was shocked again by how beautiful he was. “Don’t you think he’d more than send you to the corner for betraying him?”
“If you stand with us, you’ll die with us,” Radley added.
“Brothers in wings,” Beau declared with a soft hope.
He held up his trembling wing.
How could I leave Beau hanging?
He’d just offered his life for ours, to betray his own dad and Court, and to help save my tribe. As romantic gestures went, it was epic.
Yet he’d carefully blanked his expression like he expected us to reject his offer.
“Brothers in wings.” My sensitive wingtip brushed against Beau’s, and he quivered.
Felix and Radley joined us in the circle, each raising their wing to touch like a vow.
“Brothers in wings,” Felix and Radley pledged at the same time.
I could hear how fast each of us was breathing and feel the tremors running through Beau’s feathers. I flushed with warmth that we were united. Like something that’d always been lost, had finally been found.
At last, Beau squirmed away. “What do you need?”
Radley clutched Felix by the neck, pulling him back to slouch against the bookcase. “To celebrate the Beltane Night.”
Beau gaped at him. I knew how he felt. “Father hates Belenus. He’ll never allow it.”
“Welcome our optimist.” I grinned.
Beau’s brow furrowed in thought, then his eyes became filled with a steeliness, which made me realize for the first time that he truly was a Marquess, just like me. “Smaller steps. What do you need first?”
“A way to move around the school unseen,” Felix answered like Beau’s forcefulness was just what he needed.
“You mean invisibly?” Beau persisted.
“Is that possible? We need to talk openly and follow Emerald.”
I expected Beau to question that but instead, as if he’d been commanding battles for centuries, he only asked, “When?”
“After lunch.” Felix’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
What was Beau planning? We had Fighting Class then.
Beau nodded. “It’s my greatest wish to prove that a Court Fae is capable of helping, rather than hurting, a Forest Fae.”
I pulled Beau to me. “You don’t need to make up for the other Court Fae. They’re not you.”
“But when we were children…I couldn’t save you.”
I shuddered at the same time as Beau, knowing that we were both remembering the same humiliations and abuses. What had it been like for him to witness them, rather than suffer them? Had it been like Emerald with her brothers?
“And there I was expecting another kid to take on his own dad, Queen, and entire Court for me…” I licked up a tear, as it trickled down Beau’s cheek.
“I dreamed so many times that I could. Then they sentenced you here, and I thought…”
“Don’t think. Just feel for once.” I spun Beau around the dusty corridor. His surprised laughter was beautiful and better than any reward. “Do you feel the cold beneath your feet?” Then I glanced at my mates. “I’ve already marked him.”
I loved that Beau flushed a deeper red and snuggled closer, rather than struggled to move away.
He’d spent his life invisible or publicly renounced.
Well, not anymore.
“Ah, the signing his name in cum method,” Felix said. Beau tried to hide his face on my shoulder. “By my wing, Quince is serious about you. We’ll all have to repeat the ceremony with you tonight to add our names.”
“We can’t have a Court Fae running around unlabeled.” Radley’s smile was dangerous. “You may get lost or stolen, and no one takes what’s ours.”
Okay, possessive alert.
On the other hand, Beau shook like my hold, as I danced him around, was the only thing holding him up. His smile shone radiantly enough to tell me that this was his fantasy come true.
Could he be our final bond? Fair Shining One, please…
All of a sudden, an eerie banshee wail rang down the corridor like an air raid siren.
I broke apart from Beau to cover my ears, gritting my teeth at the stabbing pain. I covered Beau’s ears with my own wings, as he bent over.
Feathery hell, I hated it when the librarian did that.
Apollo woke up in a flap of terrified hissing. He circled the bookcase, crashing books off the shelves.
Ms. Farah stormed down the corridor towards us. Her dark hair flowed to her smooth shoulders, but her harsh expression was enough to make my balls wave the white flag. She was a petite whirlwind.
Thank the forest, she broke off her banshee scream in favor of a glare that was equally terrifying.
Clack — clack — clack.
My bare toes curled on the marble at the sound of Wells’ boots marching towards us.
I lowered my hands from my ears, and reluctantly my wings from Beau’s. Yet I was surprised that he didn’t try to move away from me.
Apollo landed, huddling on my feet. “I didn’t order a bastard alarm to wake me up.”
“I’m astonished.” Wells’ gaze swept across us all, lingering on Beau in a way that made my wings tingle to sweep around him protectively. Wells appeared to have caught sarcasm from me. “It’s clear how ineffective it was to send you to the sadist
Dean, as I suspected. Do you understand how lucky you are that I, rather than Countess Pond, witnessed…this? I leave you alone for an hour, and already you’re breaking any number of Dictates: studying Ancient Magic, dancing, going barefoot…”
“We’re truly hardened criminals.” My eyes narrowed. “Don’t you see that the Dictates stop fae from being ourselves?”
“I don’t care about the bloody Dictates!” Wells roared. “I’m trying to reform you, wicked boy.”
“Good thing, since you just broke Dictate 555,” Radley muttered.
I stumbled back a step at Wells’ rage, and Apollo flew to shelter in Radley’s arms.
Wells had never lost it like that before. Had I broken him?
Brilliant.
Yet next to me, Beau was shivering. Perhaps, he’d always seen this side to his father. Defiantly, I wrapped my wing around Beau’s shoulder and pulled him closer to me.
Wells’ gaze darted between us and then he yelped, as Ms. Farah smacked him on the ass.
“No shouting in the library,” Ms. Farah admonished.
Felix chuckled.
Bad move.
“You’ve just made the discipline simple for me,” Wells drawled. “No reading for the remainder of the week.”
Felix became ashen like Wells had threatened to send us to the Rebel Academy to join Prince Lysander.
“Enough of that,” Apollo comforted. “You have us; you don’t need to escape into stories.”
“S-s-sorry.” Why did Wells always know the way to hurt Felix until he stuttered? “D-don’t take b-books away f-from me.”
“Thank you for reminding me.” That didn’t sound good. Wells’ eyes glinted. “Your shameful Shakespeare book shall be burned before bed.”
“N-no,” Felix wailed.
“I’ll burn your wings first,” Radley growled.
Ms. Farah smacked Wells even more sharply across the ass, and he jumped. “Sacrilege! How dare you talk about damaging books in front of me? Nobody shall touch a single precious printed leaf.”
“I apologize for my dishonorable behavior.” Beau shrugged off my wing, straightening his shoulders. He stepped in front of Wells. What was he doing drawing his attention? Did he want to be burned instead of the book? “I’m disappointed in myself. I know that I deserve punishment but I don’t think that I can handle the heat today under the sun without shaming you further. I’d willingly take discipline, but chores with Tom is too humiliating.”
Rebel: House of Fae: A Dark Fae Paranormal Romance Page 18