Chapter 18
Eighteen
Avalon
By the time the banquet was winding down, the majority of the attendees were drunk, or well on their way to being so. As I snuck out the back doors, no one noticed.
Alucius and Braxus were with me as I walked to the tree line, the prearranged meeting place with my brothers.
I was going to try and talk to them first; there were things they needed to know about our Line, about our abilities.
I still wasn’t sure if I should tell them about my ability to turn back time and my involvement in our mother’s death.
What if they hated me? I was the reason that she was dead, after all. It was one thing to dismiss the ravings of a grief-stricken drunk, but another for me to say it myself. Her death was my fault.
Still mulling it over, I missed the shadow in the trees coming toward me until Alucius growled low. I jumped away with a small scream, my fists raised to defend myself, but it was just Lierick with Hayle’s raven, Quarry, on his shoulder.
“Sorry, sorry!” He raised his hands placatingly.
“I was kind of under the impression you knew I was here. It’s not everyday I get summoned into the woods by a bird.
I was a little worried he was luring me out here so his owner could murder me.
” He was grinning, but as his eyes swept down my body, the smile fell from his face and his lips parted.
“Wow,” he breathed, before clearing his throat. “You look beautiful, Avalon.”
Inordinately glad he couldn’t see my pink cheeks in the dark, I smiled. “Thanks. I couldn’t turn up to one of these fancy banquets in my ratty training clothes.”
He shrugged. “You’re beautiful in those too.
” He stepped closer, lifting a hand toward my hair.
I didn’t move away. I didn’t even breathe.
“But your hair is too beautiful to keep it imprisoned like this.” He pulled out the pins, freeing my hair to fall down my back in a heavy wave.
The tension in my scalp lifted, and I let out a little moan of relief.
I’d had the beginnings of a headache, and the release was so satisfying.
Lierick was still close, and I realized he still had his fingers in my hair. “So soft and wild. Just like you.”
Looking up at his intense expression, I could hear my own pulse in my ears. “Are you calling me feral?” I gasped out, trying to give him an out. Or maybe to give me an out, even if my entire body was screaming to close the distance between us, to see if his lips were as soft as they looked.
“I’m calling you perfect, and way too tempting,” he whispered back. “I’d really like to kiss you right now.” He moved even closer, until I could feel the puff of his breath against my lips. Then he stopped.
My brain was screaming at me about Hayle and Vox, but Lierick was consuming me. All I could smell was his soft cologne; all I could feel was the heat of his body so close to mine, and the sounds of our heavy breaths drowned out the noise of the forest and the party yards away.
When I didn’t pull away, Lierick closed the distance until his lips brushed mine.
He tasted of honey wine, his mouth soft and firm and commanding, all at the same time.
He sipped at my lips softly, before the tip of his tongue teased them open.
Burying his hands in my hair, he tilted my face up so that he could get deeper.
His touch felt like… home. It felt right in a way that I’d analyse later, when he wasn’t fucking me with his tongue.
A sharp sting to the side of my face had me pulling back. Quarry’s soft caw was like a cold shower, and I stepped away. I watched Quarry peck at Lierick, using his sharp beak on the soft cartilage of his ear. Was it just me, or did it seem slightly disapproving?
Fuck… what am I doing?
I looked down at Alucius, who rolled her eyes at me like a human teenager and not a giant, mean hound. “Sorry,” I whispered. I could suddenly hear the voices of my brothers as they got closer.
“Are you apologizing to the hound right now?” Lierick asked, his voice rough.
“Uh, yeah.” Embarrassment, guilt, desire, and worry all swirled together in my stomach until I felt like I was going to throw up those weird little canapés they’d served at the banquet. “She’s Hayle’s hound. She’s loyal to him.” More loyal than I was, apparently. Guilt gripped my heart again.
Huffing, Alucius licked my fingers, and I wished I could understand her the way that Hayle did.
My brothers crashed through the tree line, Bach a little more merry than usual, a huge grin across his face and lipstick on his collar. “Avie! This has been the best party. The Eighth Line really know how to have a good time.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I pasted a smile on my face. “The Eighth Line, or maybe one Eighth Liner in particular? Perhaps Kyler Tarrin?”
Bach’s smile got even cheesier. “Both. I think I love her.”
Kian rolled his eyes. “You can’t love a person you’ve spent all of eight hours with, Bach. That’s not how it works.”
My eyes flicked to Lierick, and I forcefully put the way he made my heart pound from my mind. Staying quiet, I listened to my brothers bicker for a moment longer, before I reached out and gripped Bach’s arm. “I need to talk to you before everyone else gets here. It’s about our Line’s abilities.”
Shaking his head, Bach shrugged. “We don’t have any abilities. Not really. I did predict that Starlight would foal on the last day of last month, but it was hardly foresight,” he joked. He loved that horse.
Shaking my head, I grabbed his hand. “We do. We’ve just forgotten how to access it.
Like, for instance…” I closed my eyes and worked on the techniques that Lierick had taught me—pushing the power in my veins to the barren spot in my chest where my magic resided, then redirecting it outwards until I could see what was about to happen.
Opening my eyes, I pointed to the left. “In a moment, a fox is going to come running across the clearing.”
As if I’d summoned it, a fox came running, nothing more than an orange flash as it raced across the back lawn of the manor house.
“It’s running from a lion, who’ll appear in five, four, three, two…”
The Baron of the Third Line’s lion companion broke through the treeline, looking huge and terrifying. My heart thumped in my chest, and the urge to run away rode me hard.
I turned back to Kian. “We are so much more powerful than you can ever know. Let me show you tomorrow.”
Kian’s wide eyes ran over my face, seemingly searching for deceit, which hurt a little. Now I was glad that I hadn’t told him about my ability to reset time. It was too soon. He looked between Bach and I, his face grim, before nodding. “Tomorrow, then.”
Sucking in a relieved breath, I straightened as Hayle appeared with his father, an amicable look on his face until his gaze landed on Lierick. Eesh. Quarry had definitely told on me, like I was a wayward fledgling. As if he could feel my accusing glare, the raven took to the air.
When Hayle’s eyes met mine, they softened. I swallowed hard, my sight going watery. I didn’t regret kissing Lierick, but I would regret every second if it hurt Hayle. I didn’t deserve him.
Kian reached out and shook the Baron of the Third Line’s hand. “Sir. Good to see you again.”
“You too, young Halhed. Please, call me Viktor outside of the Conclave. I hate the grandstanding.”
“Me too, sir. You remember my brother, Bach? And this is my sister, Avalon.”
Viktor Taeme shook hands with my brother, but when he got to me, his eyes were assessing. “I don’t think I’ve ever had the honor of meeting Miss Avalon. It is good to make your acquaintance finally.”
He seemed… warm. Friendly. He knew that I was his son’s Soul Tie—Hayle had told me earlier that he’d informed his father I was his Goddess-ordained mate. If Viktor Taeme was disappointed in me, he didn’t show it.
“I look forward to getting to know you too,” I choked out.
Viktor looked like the older version of his son.
The same lightly wavy hair, though admittedly, with more gray streaking through it.
He had lines around his eyes and across his forehead, and he was larger than Hayle, more solid across his chest and shoulders.
He looked like an unmovable mountain of a man, but despite his power, he didn’t feel threatening.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat, which I quickly learned as Vox melted out of the darkness of the forest. “Good, we’re all here,” Vox called, and I watched all the casualness leach from the Baron of the First Line.
His lion, who was as tall as Viktor if you included the top of his mane, let out a low, warning chuff. The Baron in front of me now was one hundred percent dangerous.
Vox lifted a hand, but bowed his head. “Baron. Thank you for coming.”
Hayle came to stand beside Vox, as did I. Viktor looked between the three of us, his face scrunched in confusion. “Someone better explain what is happening here.”
“Dad, uh, you know that Avalon is my Soul Tie, but she is also Vox’s…” Hayle trailed off. We hadn’t really put a name on it.
“Girlfriend. No, she’s more than that—she is my person. If it were possible, I’d make her my wife,” Vox said with that cool monotone he always had, which I was kind of glad for at that moment, because if he’d put any feeling in it, I might have cried.
I wasn’t sure who looked more confused, Viktor or my brothers.
Hayle cleared his throat, patting Vox on the back reassuringly.
“It was my idea. Anyway, that’s not why we wanted you here.
Actually, the fact that Vox and I are in a polyamorous relationship with someone from the Lower Lines will probably be the least shocking thing you’ll hear tonight.
” He laughed nervously, reaching over to grab Lierick, tugging him toward us.
“Father, may I present Lierick Hanovan, Heir to the Second Line.”
Bach audibly gasped, while Kian frowned. The Baron’s lion stepped forward and snarled, but Braxus stood in front of us, his own growl hair-raising.
Both the Baron and Hayle called their companions back, and the silence in the clearing grew tense, until the Baron let out a long sigh. “You’ve decided to move then?” he asked Lierick, and now it was my turn to look shocked. At least I was in good company.
Taking a step forward, toward his father, Hayle looked as confused as I felt. “You knew?”
Viktor Taeme gave his son an indulgent look.
“Yes. We’ve always known that they’re up there on the other side of the Herelean Cliffs, from the day they left.
The Third Line Baron knew almost immediately, and every Baron since then, right up to myself, has been told.
When I hand over the reins to your brother, I’ll tell him too.
Although, it might be a little redundant by then.
” He looked regretful. “Sorry, son. It was a secret that had many lives attached to it. Every person who knew was a crack in the armor that kept them protected.”
He shot Lierick an intense look. “There are very few secrets that can be kept from the Third Line. We have always known the Second Line would rise again. If your intentions are noble, we won’t stand in your way.”
Lierick appraised the older man. “But will you stand with us?”
Looking between Lierick and his son, Viktor raised an eyebrow. “It seems we already have.” The lion at his feet chuffed again, and Viktor nodded. “This is not the place to speak of such things. Later.”
Lierick nodded back, and Hayle went over to his father. As Viktor took his son in his arms, hugging him tightly and speaking softly in his ear, I watched with envy burning in my chest. And when I looked over at my brothers, I saw the same longing on their faces.
Reaching out, Kian pulled me closer. “Are you sure about this, Avalon?” His brow was scrunched in a familiar look of worry.
I wasn’t sure which part he was referring to, but it didn’t matter. The answer was the same. “Yes.”
He squeezed me tightly in his arms. “Then we have your back. Always.”
I reached out and wrapped an arm around Bach too, until the three of us were hugging.
“I love you guys. There’s still so many things you don’t know, and I don’t know how or when I can tell you—” My voice broke, and I buried my face in my brother’s shirt, just like I used to do when I was a little girl.
My father might have been a disappointment, but Kian had never let me down.
He tilted my face up. “It doesn’t matter what it is, Avalon Halhed. You’re our sister, and we love you too. We’re always on your side.”
A noise in the distance had all the animal companions’ ears pricking up, and Braxus took off into the darkness while the lion and Alucius stood guard in front of our group. A yip in the darkness had Hayle taking off too, and I ran after him, despite my brother calling me back.
I stumbled to a stop, Vox right beside me. There, in the clearing, was a fallen Quarry. He was so still.
“Hayle, is he…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.
Hayle felt gently along the raven’s body, pulling his hand away to show blood on his fingers. “He’s alive.” He pointed to a crossbow bolt in the tree. “But someone tried to kill him.”