25. Aflora
Hot.
I felt too hot.
Like a volcano on the verge of an eruption.
Heat simmered beneath my skin, inching through my veins, causing me to sweat as I ran aimlessly through the midnight air.
Get out.
Fucking get out.
Kols’s fury pierced my heart, his anger a brand lashing at my heart with each step.
I could feel his ire, his anger, his blame.
But I hadn’t meant for this to happen, didn’t understand how it was even possible. He’s not an Elemental Fae, I thought for the thousandth time. I can’t bond with him. Yet I felt the unmistakable connection tying us together. We’d skipped levels one and two and blasted straight to the third, our link resolute.
Breaking it would be impossible outside of death.
As if the fae required another reason to kill me.
I need to get out of here, I thought, spinning in a circle somewhere outside of the Academy walls. I’d gone through the open gate, uncertain of my destination, and now I had no clue where I was. A stupid move born of emotional turmoil.
How could a beautiful moment go so wrong?
Kols’s essence still warmed my thighs, his seed dampening my core.
Mother Earth, that man could move. He’d taken me to a state of incomprehension. Only to be destroyed by fate showing her ugly head.
It left me mated to two Midnight Fae.
I screamed an incoherent word into the void of darkness around me. There wasn’t a curse alive that could express my frustration. Nor one that could help. Not even an enchantment. Unless something existed that could undo time, but I doubted it.
“What the fuck are you doing out here?” a deep voice demanded, sending me in a spin toward a shadow lurking near a tree.
I could hardly see, the moon hidden above the thick branches of the forest I’d entered. “Zeph,” I said, my heart in my throat.
Clove had followed me outside, only to take flight when I started to run, and I had no idea where she went. Probably somewhere with Kols’s crow, as both birds had followed me on my mad dash outside. At least they were safe from Zeph’s vile snake.
He moved forward, his steps silent over the earth. “Are you all right?”
I startled, his tone holding a note of concern, but I knew better. Besides, it was such an absurd thing to ask because obviously I wasn’t all right.
Just the notion of it had me laughing out loud, the urge to cry hitting me square in the gut.
Answering him would be futile, so I ignored him instead, spun around again, and picked up my path again through the trees.
Only, he caught my arm and yanked me back toward him.
I reacted instinctually, my leg sweeping low to knock him off-balance and my fist cutting upward to strike his jaw.
Both were hits that would have made me proud in defense class. His resulting grunt and growl, however, had me instantly regretting my immediate reaction.
I took off at a sprint, needing to escape him.
But his arms ensnared my waist merely two steps later.
“What the actual fuck, Aflora?” he demanded, his lips against my ear. “Is this about Raph?”
“Raph?” I repeated, lost. “Who’s Raph?”
“My tripod snake,” he replied softly, his grip tightening as he pressed his nose to my neck. “Why do you smell like Kols?” A soft question, one I couldn’t stand to answer.
I hadn’t meant for the bond to snap into place.
Hadn’t meant to lose myself in the moment.
Get out.
Fucking get out.
“Let me go,” I begged, the heat building beneath my skin once more. It’d temporarily subsided due to the shock of his arrival, but it had returned with a vengeance, flooding my veins with liquid fire.
“No.” His tone brooked no argument, yet I needed him to release me, this power inside me threatening my every breath.
“Zeph...” I tried to warn him, my breath coming in pants as sweat beaded across my skin. “It burns,” I whispered, my limbs beginning to shake beneath the onslaught of energy cascading through my spirit.
“What are you doing?” Zeph asked, spinning me in his arms and catching me as my knees buckled.
“She looks ready to explode, and not in an appealing way,” a new voice said as Shade materialized beside us. His palm caught my cheek, his dark gaze searching. “What has you so troubled, little rose? Why do I sense Kols in you?”
“How the hell did you know we were here?” Zeph cut in.
“Her fear called to me,” Shade murmured, his eyes still holding mine. “What did Kols do to you, Aflora? Why is his power pouring through our bond?”
I couldn’t say it even if I wanted to, my throat tight with emotion and fear as the flames threatened to surface. If Zeph didn’t release me, I’d burn him alive. And even if he deserved that after what he did to Clove, I couldn’t hurt him. Not like that.
Swallowing thickly, I pushed the heat down, only to have it skyrocket inside me and spark at my fingertips.
“Her eyes are glowing,” Zeph said. “Cerulean fire.”
“Where’s Kols?” Shade demanded.
“Fuck if I know.”
“Isn’t it his job to keep her powers under control?” He finally released me to focus on the male behind me. “He’s done something to her powers.”
Is that concern in Shade’s voice?I wondered, starting to feel delirious. Can’t be. No.
“I can sense it, too,” Zeph replied, that same note in his tone.
This is bad, I thought, trembling beneath a hum of electricity that ran across my skin. “Burning,” I managed to whisper, my knees wobbling violently. “Going to?—”
A scream ripped from my throat, cutting off my words, as pain unlike anything I’d ever felt slashed a hole right through my chest. Zeph released me with a hiss, allowing me to fall to the ground in a ripple of cerulean flames that scorched the forest floor.
“Fuck!”
“What the fuck is that?”
Their voices mingled, making it impossible to tell them apart. I couldn’t hear beyond the roar of power lapping at my essence and overtaking my soul.
Tears slid from my eyes.
Everything ached.
My heart sped up.
Too much.
It’s too much.
I didn’t know how to balance it all, to find my equilibrium. It reminded me of my first time accessing the source of my earth power, that necessary need to placate both sides between my soul and the core of my element.
Only, I couldn’t find that center.
It kept moving out of my reach and showering me in electricity, humming dangerously through the air, warning me of the wrongness of my presence.
“Help me,” I begged, not sure if I spoke the words out loud or muttered them in my mind. “Too hot. Dying.”
An agonized cry reached my ears, the sound excruciating, one I belatedly realized was my own. Everything glimmered in shades of blue around me, a rippling effect of my overheated aura.
Focus, I told myself. Rein it in.
Only, I didn’t know how because I was too full of energized substance to accept any more.
I ripped at the choker around my neck, needing my earth, hoping to hide in the source to find my stability once more.
There,I thought, my element immediately responding despite the device encircling my neck. Whether I’d somehow deactivated it or overrode it, I wasn’t sure, but my beautiful gifts responded and grounded me with the familiarity of soil and earth.
I rooted myself to the ground, reveling in my birthright and locking onto my royal line to find sanctuary in my home element.
Every inhale filled me with floral aromas, and every exhale calmed the fire, until finally I surfaced enough to survey my surroundings in a burnt courtyard shrouded in sunlight.
Blue embers danced in the air, drawing my focus to the damage around me.
I opened my mouth, but no sound escaped me, only another whimper of pain as the flames began to build once more inside me.
Oh, no...
My stomach heaved, a cramp building in my lower abdomen and churning with unrepressed power.
“We need to ground her!” someone shouted. It sounded like Kols, but that couldn’t be right.
“And how the fuck do we do that?” Hmm, Shade, my mind supplied, his presence providing a temporary balm to my rioting soul. Mate.
“I have an idea.” That still reminded me of Kols, some part of me recognizing his aura nearby. Or perhaps in me. After all, he was my earth mate now. Sort of. Maybe.
What have I done?
Everything went quiet once more beneath another pulsing wave of excruciating pain that crushed me to my very soul. I curled into a ball on the ground, seeking the utopia only created by true balance.
It eluded me, my talents too fierce and untamed to heed any sort of order.
I whimpered, then jolted as a hand clamped onto my throat, giving it a squeeze. “We’re going to help you,” a deep voice informed me.
Zeph.
He guided me to my back, his palm squeezing when I tried to curl into myself once more. “We need you like this,” he explained, his thigh settling between mine.
Skin to skin.
I frowned.
Why am I naked?
“This had better work,” Shade said, his lips suddenly by my ear as he stretched out alongside me.
“If it doesn’t, there’s only one other alternative,” Kols replied, his mouth near my opposite ear, his warmth seeping into my side.
“Kols,” I managed to say, my throat dry as I tried to look at him, to apologize, to ask where he’d come from or how he’d arrived.
“Don’t,” he replied, his tone harsh.
Pain splintered in my chest, only to be overwhelmed by the lava pouring through my being. I could try again later. Assuming I survived this next blast of heat.
Zeph released my throat, his hand traveling down my torso to my hip as he settled between my splayed thighs.
“What are...?” Another pulsating shock of heat silenced my question, thwarting my ability to focus on anything other than the quakes rocketing my limbs.
“Now!” Kols demanded. “Before she detonates again!”
Again?I thought, wincing as something sharp pinched my neck. Shade, I recognized immediately, our bond snapping more firmly into place with his bite.
“No!” I screamed, but it was lost to the ripple of ecstasy his mouth forced through my system. I shuddered, conflicted between the inferno threatening my being and the euphoria trickling into my veins.
I gasped as Kols bit the other side of my neck, his incisors sliding deep into my vein to suck harshly at my blood.
A cry lodged in my throat, the pain mingling with pleasure as a third mouth met my breast, the kiss almost gentle. The slice of teeth followed against my tender skin, causing my back to bow off the ground. Zeph. I felt his claim, his bond lashing at my spirit and sinking literal teeth into my soul. Along with Kols.
All three of them pulled in unison, taking my blood and leaving me weak and defenseless beneath them.
And utterly powerless.
I nearly wept, my impending death the most blissful and rapturous experience of my life.
Until I realized I wasn’t dying at all, but living.
Thriving.
Balancing.
They were taking on my excess energy, drinking their fill and leaving me depleted in their wake. Creating a new equilibrium, one that allowed me to breathe again, to think, to realize the gravity of their sacrifice.
They’d all three just taken me as a mate at once.
Drinking my essence in an effort to help me create order within my powerful chaos.
And I had absolutely no idea why.
I opened my mouth to ask, but my lips were suddenly too numb to move.
They were taking too much.
I tried to tell them, to warn them, to beg them to stop, but each pull sucked me deeper into a web of euphoria I couldn’t escape from. Two mouths at my neck, one at my breast, and a pulsing need blossoming between my thighs.
As if Zeph knew, he released my breast to slide his mouth down to my nipple, his green eyes meeting mine as he gently teased the tip with his tongue.
I weakly arched off the ground, my body responding while my mind fought to catch up. Only, he sucked my nipple deep into his mouth, causing my brain to flicker out of existence.
Kols chuckled against my neck, his tongue dancing over the wound he’d created. “That’s fun,” he mused, tracing a wet path up to my ear. “If I didn’t want to kill you, I’d indulge in that reaction more.”
I shivered, uncertain of how to react to that threat.
“You won’t kill her,” Shade said, his mouth whispering over my jaw as he moved to hover against my lips. “It’ll hurt too much.” He kissed me tenderly, his tongue slipping between my lips to give me a taste of my own blood.
Zeph nibbled my breast sharply, causing me to gasp, and Kols mimicked the motion against my earlobe. “What the fuck are we going to do now?” he asked.
“Mmm, you’re the future king,” Shade murmured, speaking each word against my mouth. “I imagine you’ll figure it out. In the interim, I’ll tuck our sleeping beauty into my room for the night since you destroyed hers.”
“Don’t you fucking?—”
I never heard the end of Kols’s statement, his words disappearing beneath a cloud of smoke. One that seconds later unfurled to reveal a bed adorned in rich purple silk.
Shade’s bed.