Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Forrest
It’s like the air rushes back to my lungs and the weight on my back is lifted. My body still feels like hell, but for the time, I realize that some of what we were experiencing was due to the Keeper of Death’s magic, not just the beatings we endured.
I take in a deep breath and raise my head to stare at Cassia. The Keeper– her mother– lies still on the floor. Like the dead that surround her, she doesn’t move, doesn’t breathe, doesn’t radiate life. She’s learned a lesson she should have already known. As powerful as the fae are, there’s a reason humans were able to control us for so long. A blade is just as deadly to our bodies as it is to a human’s body. In that, we’re the same.
Cassia looks confused. She turns those brilliant blue eyes onto us, and our gazes lock. I try to rise, but the chains jerk me back down to the ground. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her. How long, I don’t know, but long enough that my heart hurts. I want to go to her. To hold her .
If she really loves us. If her words were really true.
“The pouch at her waist has the keys, Cassia,” Cobar calls out.
His words seem to shake her from her stupor. She kneels beside the body of the Keeper of Death, just outside the pool of blood forming beneath her, and rummages through the leather pouch. I’m glad she doesn’t show the body any respect. She doesn’t deserve it.
After a minute, the jingle of keys sounds through the chamber. She lifts them and smiles, just a little, but the smile warms my heart. We’re free, we really are, and Cassia is here with us. It’s unbelievable.
And she might love us. Really love us. Even though it makes no sense. Not after how badly I fucked things up with her.
I draw in a shaky breath. I’d given up hope. I truly thought we’d be here forever while the Keeper of Death waged war on our lands and destroyed the kingdom. Witnessing Cassia take down her own mother to save us feels like I just watched a dream. We’re free of the Keeper, and Cassia has been returned to us.
Hell, she came here, faced a dangerous fae, and somehow developed powers all to… rescue us?
Then she’s in front of me, keys in hand, and I catch her wrist, waiting until she looks at me. “I’m sorry for how badly I handled everything between us,” I murmur, my voice thick with regret. “I handled it like an entitled ass.”
The soft laugh that comes from her tugs at my heart. “We already fixed that in our dream, remember?”
“What?”
She laughs, running a hand lightly against my cheek. “We fixed things.”
“W- we did?” I stammer.
In our dream? What’s she saying? I remember dreaming of her, of holding her, of making things better between us, but that was all in my head. That wasn’t real.
Maybe it’s my pain, my exhaustion, or my hunger or thirst, but I have no idea what she’s saying.
“Wait. Have we been dream sharing ?” Zane asks, his voice a tinge higher than normal.
Cassia nods. Every muscle in my body stiffens as my mind starts to filter through all the strange dreams I’ve been having involving Cassia since she became my mate. Did we really share all of that?
Sulien, still bleeding and broken, asks, “What about us in bed…all of us?”
Cassia blushes and clears her throat before responding with a clear, “Yes.”
That was a good dream.
“When I took you home to my castle?” Zane asks.
“Yes, I had that same dream, too. And the hunting dream,” she says, turning to me. “I learned a lot about each of you, in a lot of different ways.” And she sounds… almost embarrassed.
I rub at my wrists and neck as Cassia frees me, then moves on to everyone else. She said she was coming for us. She said she’d free us, and I didn't believe her. I couldn’t imagine anyone, including my beautiful mate, freeing us from the Keeper of Death. I watch her in awe, knowing how much I don’t deserve her.
Cobar hugs her first, wrapping his arms around her and breathing her in. I want to push him out of the way and do the same, but she’s all of ours. She loves us, and we have to learn to share our affections with her. Even if it kills me a little.
“How is it that you have magic?” Cobar asks, sounding as confused about the matter as I am.
She gazes toward Cobar, a smile tugging at her lips. “Lady Nova noticed the burns on me from the iron chains and assumed I was fae. She encouraged me to try using my powers, so I did some small stuff. All of this, though?” She waves her hand around the room. “I didn’t expect it at all. Well, that’s not exactly true. I could feel my power growing as soon as I entered this place. I didn’t understand why, and I had no idea I could do any of what I just did until I was doing it.”
She moves on to Zane. He’s quieter than usual, but he stares at her with awe as she unlocks the shackles from him. Then he takes her hands in his and kisses them.
“All you ever wanted was for your family to be safe. She offered you all of that and more, but you walked away from it. You walked away from your dream.”
The smile on her face is thoughtful. “Dreams change.”
She pulls him into an embrace that lingers. Then he holds her too, and my heart feels… full. Not empty. Not jealous. Full.
“You guys are rank,” she says and laughs, waving her hand in front of her face.
“You didn’t smell like roses when we rescued you either,” I tell her. Laughter from all of us floats through the chamber. It’s a sound I never thought I’d hear.
Then she slides over to me and gives me a hug. I suspect she wanted to be quick, but I pull her close, not wanting to let her go. She smells like sunshine, warm cookies, and the outside world. But she feels even better. She feels like a woman that would fit perfectly against me… a theory I can’t wait to test out further.
Then she moves to Sulien. He won’t lift his head, so she does for him. “You’re okay.”
He shakes his head slowly.
“Maybe not right now, but you will be,” she says gently, then unchains him. “Let’s get you all out of here.”
Tucking herself under Sulien’s arm, she helps him rise, then glances at us. We manage to get to our feet with a few unmanly moans of pain. I bite my lip, fighting against the urge to lay right back down. Outside is freedom. A life with Cassia. All that’s down here is doom and gloom.
“I have something to tell you,” Sulien says, and Cassia pauses, looking at him in confusion. “Something important.”
Cassia’s face goes ghostly pale. “Prince Sulien…”
“I just need to tell the truth. Trust me.” His eyes plead with her. The rest of us stand there, watching them. Realizing this must be the secret that Sulien’s been so reluctant to share.
She gives him a slight nod, but the confidence is gone from her stance. “J-just don’t hate me,” she whispers, her gaze moving between us.
Like that’s even possible. No matter what she says, we’re not capable of hating our mate. She’s our everything. Our one and only. Surely, she has to know that by now?
Sulien takes a deep breath that rattles. “Cassia and I struck a deal the day of the ceremony. She would come, I would use a spell, and she would appear to be my mate.” That’s impossible. But he doesn’t give us time to react, just presses on. “I thought I had everything planned. It was a way for me to ensure I didn’t have a real mate, and it was a way to ensure her family was cared for. ”
His words fall like an anchor around us. Cobar, Frost, and I look at each other, bewildered. If what he’s saying is true, Cassia isn’t really his mate, so isn’t our mate, either. Which is impossible. I’ve known lust. I’ve known infatuation. This is neither of those. This is love. It’s the bond between mates.
Yet, the way he speaks… he believes each word to be true.
“Impossible,” I say, shaking my head.
“It can’t be true.” Cobar sounds broken.
“It’s not,” Zane says confidently, almost angrily.
Cassia suddenly looks like she’s going to cry. “I’m so sorry. That’s why I tried to stay away from all of you. I knew the spell went wrong. I was never supposed to match with you. I’m not your true mate.” Now, tears are tracking down her cheeks. “I lied to you.”
“No,” I say, my heart screaming that it’s not true.
“That’s not the end of the story though,” Sulien whispers.
Cassia is still holding him, brushing tears off her face. “Yes. We’d wanted to fix it. I thought if I just refused to marry you, we could fix things. We weren’t planning to deceive you unless there was no other choice.”
Sulien slips off her shoulders, wincing. She tries to help again, but he shakes his head, then stands before us, barely strong enough to be on his own two feet. His face is blackened and bruised. His body is covered in whip marks and marks created from the jagged bones of the undead. “I’ve done all of you wrong by not sharing this. Especially you, Cassia,” he says, meeting her gaze. She, in turn, simply looks confused. “I never used the spell. We’re true mates. All four of us.”
Cassia’s mouth falls open, and she sucks in a deep breath, as if she’d forgotten to breathe for a moment. “That’s not possible.”
“I’d planned on using the spell, and then the sparks began, and it was too late. I didn’t know what to do, and then you matched with the others. In so many ways, I was in my own personal hell, having a mate that didn’t want me. Becoming my father–” His voice breaks.
A hushed silence falls over the room as his words sink in. Cassia is my mate. She rejected me because she thought she wasn’t. And now? She is my mate. She wants me. And I’m tied to the three men I now see as brothers.
And Sulien is just standing here looking like he’s ready for another beating? Fuck, no.
I stride toward Sulien and hug him gently, but also with enough gusto that he understands what I’m not saying out loud. Because of him, we all came together. Without him, our mate would’ve never come to the ball that night, and we never would have matched… I wouldn’t know her, and I wouldn’t have formed this brotherhood with Sulien, Cobar, and Frost. Sulien gave us all of this, even if it wasn’t done in the best way possible.
Pulling back, I squeeze his shoulder lightly and nod before looking at the others.
Cobar smiles tiredly. “Your deal brought her to all of us. That’s all that matters.”
“None of this would have happened without that deal,” Zane says, inclining his head.
Putting my hands on his shoulders, his gaze meets mine. “We’re not mad, Sulien, but for the love of the gods, work on your communication skills. One good conversation could have saved us a hell of a lot of this mess.”
“Communication, huh?” he says, a smile teasing the corner of his mouth, but disbelief still lingers in his eyes .
“We Fall Fae are experts at it, if you’d like some lessons,” I offer, grinning.
He snorts. “The day I take communications lessons from a Fall Fae–”
Cobar laughs. “Though I think we all could use a little help in that regard… and a little help to make sure we don’t let our pasts ruin our futures.”
Shaking my head, I glance back at Cassia. She’s smiling, but her gaze is far away. Sulien’s disbelief is mirrored in her face. “This is impossible, right?”
“That you’re our mate?” Zane asks, lifting a brow. “Hardly. We could have told you two all along that we were mates. We knew it deep in our souls.”
“It was just that easy?” Cassia asks.
“That easy,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders.
Still, she seems uncertain. “You’re sure, Sulien? You’re really sure you never used it?”
His gaze falls on her. “I’m sure. I thought I chose you to be my bride because you’d keep things simple, but I think some part of me always felt our connection. Always… just knew. Did you?”
Even in this dull light, I can see the blush that heats her cheeks. “I knew that you four were the most irritating people on the planet… and yet, I still wanted to be around you.”
“That’s a win,” Cobar mutters.
We all laugh.
After a pause, Cassia gives us a funny look. “Do you guys think we can finish figuring this all out in a place that smells less like… death?”
With no hesitation, Zane says, “Certainly,” speaking all our thoughts aloud.
I place my hands under Sulien’s arms and allow him to lean on me as he walks. We find the exit and slowly follow the path to daylight. The whole way, Cassia is full of laughter and smiles, making small fires with her power to light our way. We’re a quiet group, but a happy one. It’s like a weight has been lifted from all of us, and we’ll have nothing but happiness ahead of us.
As long as our magic can be restored before the boundary falls. The thought makes me stiffen. I glance at the others. Surely enough food and rest will be enough?
But as I reach for the boundary, I feel it, hanging on by a thread, and… I’m just not sure.
Cassia opens a door and light comes flooding in. As we blink into the light, forms take shape. There, waiting just outside our exit, is Lady Grave with a group of fae.
Shit. What now?