16. Aflora
I wasdrunk on my mates.
Kols kept kissing me, his touch soft and knowing.
Shade licked me, nibbled me, explored me with his hands.
One of them was between my legs, feasting on my needy flesh. The other was in my mouth, his cock hard but not demanding.
We kept switching positions.
Our limbs everywhere. Our mouths dueling. Our bodies gliding, roaming, owning each other.
I lost myself to the sensations, drowned in their combined passion, and gasped when I found them kissing each other. They were just as lost to the connections as I was, their tongues mastering one another before sinking their teeth into each other’s necks.
I groaned, the image so erotic and beautiful and intoxicating.
Then Shade took my mouth again, Kols’s blood lingering in our kiss. My Elite Blood mate kissed a path down the center of my body to lick me to completion again. I moaned their names, lost to the oblivion they created.
I watched as Kols went down on Shade, his mouth wicked and perfect and bringing the other man to climax after a few knowing pulls.
It all felt like a dream, a fantasy come to life, but the bite marks and bonds confirmed the reality of our intimacy. I felt Zeph and Zakkai in my head, their contentment palpable.
All my mates had bonded in some way, respecting our dynamic and completing our circle in a manner I hadn’t realized we’d needed.
Kols slid inside me, his cock thick and pulsing with need. He hadn’t come yet. But Shade had orgasmed twice. The first time had been in my mouth. The second time between Kols’s lips. And now the Elite Blood—who tasted like my Shade—wanted to come.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, encouraging him to drive into me.
But he kept his pace slow. Loving. Tender.
I groaned, lifting my hips into him, demanding more.
However, his pace never wavered. He kissed me lazily while Shade nibbled at his shoulder. Then Kols guided Shade to my mouth, forcing our tongues to dance while he continued to slide in and out of me. Slow. Purposeful. Strokes.
It was the antidote I needed after a long few weeks of training.
The tenderness I hadn’t realized I craved.
One of their thumbs—I thought it might be Shade’s—found my center, drawing out more pleasure from me. I clamped down around Kols, my ecstasy too great to hold back, and forced him to join me.
He never increased his pace, maintaining those thorough thrusts.
And after he finished, Shade licked me clean.
The two men had never indulged in each other this way, and I could feel their increasing interest through every intimate move. Shade kissed Kols once more, sharing the taste from our lovemaking, and groaned when Kols sucked his tongue clean.
Then they both looked down at me and kissed me at the same time.
It was erotic.
Hot.
Beautiful.
A fantasy I never anticipated.
And I lost myself to them all over again, allowing them to worship me and each other for hours. They kissed away my bruises, renewed me with fresh blood, and ensured I was physically perfect before finally lulling me into a dreamland.
I relaxed, more replete than I’d felt in a very long time.
Only to feel a prickle of heat in my mind, the dark source calling for my attention. Something isn’t right, I realized, following the strand of discomfort.
No, it wasn’t the source… but Midnight Fae.
I could sense them, the disruption, the agony rippling through the kingdom. What is it? I wondered, searching for the cause.
So much anger. So much hatred. So much pain.
The village.
I could picture it, the tavern up in flames, Anrika’s body floating in the sky with a spell inscribed beside her. Risaleea.
I searched my memories and those of my mates for the translation, then recognized the spell from Shade’s psyche. It was a Death Blood charm cast by a dying Midnight Fae when someone wished to leave behind a message for a loved one.
Is this real? I returned to the village, noting the fires and billowing smoke from the buildings nearby. Everyone was silent, their focus on the stage.
Constantine stood at the center with a scroll in his hand, speaking.
I couldn’t hear him, my vision not quite realized.
But all the onlookers appeared distraught.
What’s happening?I longed to ask them. I whirled around, sensing the heat and embers of the attack.
Anrika’s body looked so alive, her long white hair floating around her like an angelic cape. Her green irises flared with life, but her marbleized skin suggested death.
She didn’t blink.
She didn’t speak.
Her lips were parted, perhaps from voicing the spell.
And her clothes were singed with ash.
Two more Midnight Fae were on the ground, their skin holding a similar texture. But their eyes were closed, their hands clasped together in peaceful death.
I could sense through the source that they were dead. All of them. That this was real. That what I witnessed now was happening in real time.
Somehow, I was seeing this through the eyes of the crowd, like my link to the dark source had granted me access to all their minds.
I refocused on the stage, my lips parting as Emelyn appeared beside a stoic, dark-haired man. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she tried to plead with him, the word father seeming to fall from her lips. But I couldn’t hear her, only see.
And then I gasped as Constantine struck her with a spell, yanking her soul from her body and turning her to marble like the others.
No, I thought. No! This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real!
Before I even realized what I was doing, I’d engaged Shade’s shadowing ability and I was flying through space to land in the crowd of silence. No one noticed my arrival, the onlookers too busy applauding Emelyn’s death.
The sound reverberated through my ears, my arrival allowing me to hear.
But the cheers weren’t what I wanted to experience. They were applauding Emelyn’s death.
Her dark eyes looked out upon them, frozen in time, agony etched into her features.
He killed her.
Constantine killed Emelyn.
My heart stopped, my world crashing to a halt. I couldn’t stop staring into her eyes, the lifeless orbs echoing a pain I felt to my very soul.
I was too late.
I couldn’t save her.
She was already gone, taken from me, from this realm, by the Elder standing stoically on the platform.
My fingers curled into fists at my sides, my ire mounting by the second.
Only for my blood to freeze in the next minute as a familiar voice screamed, “Tray!”
My neck refused to work, my eyes locked on the stage. A fae approached to remove Emelyn… by smashing her body with a large hammer, shattering her marbled form into a thousand pieces.
I covered my lips, my gasp drowned out by the booming approval around me. They’re celebrating her destruction. Tears smothered my vision, my soul screaming at the unfairness and wrongness of it all.
Then Dakota appeared, her dark hair styled in an elegant bun that somehow matched her too-perfect face. I nearly growled at the sight of her, the traitorous bitch having hurt more than one of my mates.
Except the wiggling blonde fae beside her captivated all my attention in the next breath.
Ella.
I stopped breathing, my heart no longer functioning, and I barely heard Constantine speaking above the roar in my ears.
“This Halfling traitor knowingly helped an abomination to escape our kingdom, her antics nearly taking the life of her mate, Trayton Nacht. Based on the testimonies of her male mate, the Midnight Fae Council finds her guilty on all counts and has hereby sentenced her to immediate exsanguination.”
“He’s lying!” she screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Tray, tell them he’s lying!”
But Tray did nothing.
He merely stood with the Council off to the side with an expression of indifference. A foreign energy wafted around him, rippling in hypnotic waves as though lulling him into a bizarre state of comfort. This is just a nightmare. This isn’t real.
However, it felt real.
The dark source pulsed inside me, protesting these antics. It wanted me to act, to do something to stop this madness.
“Please!” Ella cried out.
Dakota laughed, the sound cruel and cold and grating my ears.
Constantine handed her his scroll and pulled a wand from his cloak. Then he began to murmur a spell, the chords of the enchantment underlined with death.
“Tawaqweef!” I shouted, blasting his incantation to literal pieces. Shard of rocks splayed across the stage, hitting Ella in the face, but keeping her very much alive.
Constantine didn’t hesitate, his lack of surprise telling as he pointed to me in the crowd. “Seize her!”
I’d unknowingly shadowed in with a cloak around my shoulders and hiding my head, which was why no one had noticed me.
But they did now.
A horde of Warrior Bloods appeared from the shadows, the trap evident in the way they moved directly into sight, their focus on me.
Yes, this was definitely real.
Which meant Anrika and Emelyn were dead. Because of this monster. This thing that the Midnight Fae chose to follow. Several fae from the crowd pulled their wands and directed them at me, their propensity for violence a dark mark against my psyche.
Midnight Fae kill, I thought, looking around at these lethal beings and their love for drawing blood. What is wrong with you?
They all craved death.
They all wanted my death.
They all were okay with standing by to watch innocents die.
Unworthy, I thought. You’re all so unworthy.
Midnight Fae in general weren’t kind. They were bad. Evil. Vile. They didn’t value life or joy or brightness. They craved the darkness inside their hearts.
I blocked all their incoming spells, the shield Zeph had taught me how to make nearly impenetrable.
And behind it, I growled.
I hated all of them. I hated Midnight Fae. I hated their desire for gruesome displays of torture.
They’d all been enraptured by Constantine’s demonstration. Some of them had even applauded. Despicable. Wrong. Cruel beings.
I don’t want to be like any of you. I don’t want to be your queen or represent your kind. You’re evil, all of you! I knelt to the ground, a spell lining my lips. I would destroy them all just the way they liked. Teach them all?—
Aflora!Shade yelled into my mind, stopping me mid-spell and breaking through some sort of block I’d created in my mind. In the next breath, all my mates entered my thoughts, but Zakkai was the loudest among them.
It’s a trial,Zakkai said, his urgency in my mind granting me a brief moment of clarity.
It’s not real? I asked, hopeful.
It’s real,he replied sadly. But it’s still a trial.
Anrika… Emelyn…
I know,he replied.
He killed them.
I know, he repeated. He must have felt you embracing the dark source during training, and he chose to act accordingly. He did all this to trap you.
I’d already guessed that with the Warrior Bloods.
But I hadn’t considered the trial.
Kols had told me the acting monarch could arrange the trials for the successor. This must have been Constantine’s idea of an ideal test. Sick bastard, I thought, glaring at his smug face through my shield.
Spells continued to bounce off of it, the edges beginning to fray.
Shadow back, Zakkai urged.
I met Ella’s frightened blue eyes on the stage and noted Tray’s lack of a reaction again. I can’t.
She’d become one of my closest friends. She’d accepted me before everyone else had. I couldn’t leave her. I’d already failed Emelyn. I wouldn’t do the same to Ella.
Because there are good Midnight Fae,I realized. I was staring into the eyes of one of them and had four more yelling in my head.
Constantine had enchanted these fae. Or at least some of them, like Tray. Now that I’d removed my fog of fury, I could see that Tray wasn’t relaxed at all but was fighting the essence surrounding him, trying like hell to save his mate.
However, whatever incantation Constantine had woven over him was too powerful for him to counteract.
I longed to help him, to dismantle the spell for him, but I didn’t have time. The others were almost through my protective barrier. Taking him back to the Hell Fae realm wasn’t an option. That spell around him would trigger all sorts of alarms within Lucifer’s borders. They’d either kill Tray or deny him entry.
Either way, he’d suffer.
We’ll return for you, I promised him, then winced as the final vestiges of my shield began to crumble.
There was only one option left for me now.
I tapped into the dark source, allowing it to consume me like I had several times already, and this time, I granted it access to stay. I didn’t expel it. I didn’t push it out of me. I accepted it as part of my being.
Something clicked inside, a proverbial crown circling my mind, as I stood up tall and stared Constantine right in the eye. “You will bow,” I promised him.
Then I shadowed to Ella’s side and yanked her away from Dakota before the dark-haired female had a chance to react.
And disappeared back to the paradigm within the Hell Fae realm.