Chapter 4
MAIZE
The hum of low masculine voices hit me first, accompanied by the soft crackle of firewood. The windows were like black mirrors, with only the frost crawling across the glass breaking up the night beyond.
As I made my way down the stairs, I instantly found Charm, who sat on the closest couch in the living room.
He was leaning forward, elbows braced on his knees, golden hair falling slightly into his face.
Naturally, he looked unfairly handsome—and that was before he even looked up at me, his eyes flickering with relief and love.
“He panicked when he woke up and you were gone,” Maddox said, staying close behind me as we descended, his hand brushing my back in reassurance.
The others looked up at the sound of the creaking stair, and the sight of their faces, the emotions surging through our bond, stole the breath from my chest.
They looked wrecked.
Cannon stood near the kitchen island, his shoulders tense and jaw locked tight.
While his wolf was settled beneath the surface, I could tell he was still restless and worried.
Philip leaned against the counter near him, trying to prepare something to eat but having placed down his knife to look up at me.
My four mates who’d been upstairs may have managed a few minutes of sleep, but I could still feel the exhaustion through our bond.
As for the other three, I knew they definitely hadn’t gotten any sleep.
Near the fire, Zed sat sprawled out in one of the oversized chairs, dark hair damp and pushed away from his face, the violet gleam of his eyes catching the firelight.
His pale, stark skin stood in contrast to the black, heavy ink that wrapped down his throat and across the rest of his body.
Even from here, I could smell the metallic tang of blood and seductive magic that clung to him.
His power buzzed against my skin—a faint electric sensation trying to get my attention.
It was like it wanted to be under my own magic, to be pressed down and almost submissive to it.
Zed was one of the most dangerous men I knew, but his magic would never hurt me.
My heart stuttered when he flashed across the room, his hands cupping my jaw as agony bled through his expression.
“Angel,” he rasped, voice frayed as his eyes darkened into black orbs. Tension wrecked his frame as he pulled me tight against him, one hand sliding to the back of my head and the other pressed between my shoulder blades. I sank into him, an exhale leaving me as our mate bond pulsated happily.
“I’m okay,” I promised as I looked up at him, but he shook his head in disbelief. “I know it was—”
“Fucking terrifying. Never again.”
I believed Zed would do everything in his power to stop this from happening again. When we’d been taken by Zagan, he’d offered his own life to save mine. The man was absolutely insane, but in a way that was filled with so much love.
“Then we have to get rid of him.”
He huffed a sound that might have been a laugh—or a curse in agreement—and pressed his forehead to mine before finally letting me go. When he stepped back, I saw the sheen of blood across his cheek, a faint smear that hadn’t been cleaned away in the shower.
When I lifted my fingers to wipe it away, he offered a half-shrug. “David’s men didn’t leave quietly.”
That sounded about right.
Behind him Valerio rose, silent as a shadow. The firelight caught the amethyst shimmer of his hair and the rich bronze of his skin. His eyes—those fathomless, storm-dark depths—searched my face like he could memorize me all over again.
The scent of midnight rain surrounded me as he came closer, his magic humming in the air between us, cool and electric like the still moment before lightning strikes. Zed stepped away from me, saying something to the others about food, but I couldn’t look away from Valerio.
Before he could say a word, I tried to tease him, knowing how worked up he could get about these things. “This does not warrant a necklace that will keep me locked up in the house—I wasn’t taken, just captured in my own brain.”
Valerio’s eyes narrowed as he caught my chin and examined my expression before surging forward and slamming his lips against mine. I let out a small whimper before leaning into him. Damn this man. His tongue traced my lips as his cool, minty breath mixed with mine.
“I never want to feel our bond cut off again,” he murmured, slowly pulling back. “That was unacceptable.”
“I didn’t exactly have a choice,” I offered softly before adding, “Plus, in retrospect, it protected you from the pain he was—”
“No. Unacceptable. And I’ll destroy him for that, baby.”
Maker. This man.
“All of you are so violent,” I tried to tease again. He let out a deep rumble but didn’t offer anything else on the topic, stepping back as he nodded toward the couch. “Come sit. I want to hear what happened.”
Doing as he asked, I sank down beside Chait.
His tattooed arm rested along the back of the cushions, the muscles in his forearm flexing.
The cozy light of the room slid over the ink covering his skin—dark, intricate lines that disappeared beneath the sleeveless black shirt clinging to his broad shoulders.
His magic hummed, warming the air between us until it felt like I was standing too close to an open flame. His dark hair was a tousled mess with vivid fuchsia streaks catching the light, and his golden eyes, warm and watchful, stood out against his sun-kissed skin.
“You smell alive again,” he whispered roughly.
“Couldn’t be killed that easily,” I replied, my tone thin but honest.
His grin flickered—brief but real—as his fingers intertwined with mine and I curled against his side.
“I knew you weren’t gone,” he murmured as he brushed his lips against my knuckles.
“You didn’t pass through the Spirit realm.
I would’ve felt it. But still…” He exhaled sharply, gaze cutting away for a heartbeat before locking back on mine.
“I hated it. The stillness. The silence. It was too damn close, Maize.”
My chest tightened at the tremor in those last words.
“I would never leave you. Any of you,” I whispered.
“I know,” he said, his voice dropping lower. “And I don’t think any of us could take losing you, mon amour.”
I swallowed hard before answering, “I’ll try not to make a habit of it.”
Because with everything that had happened, it felt like all I could promise.
“Alright. Now that Maize is up, we should talk,” Valerio said, breaking up our private conversation as he addressed everyone gathered around the living room.
I could sense familiar magical signatures drifting from the other room—my brothers, without a doubt—but figured asking my mates to wait any longer to talk would be painful.
Plus, the boys’ energy felt calm and steady, as if they were already sleeping.
I needed to get on the same page with my mates first anyway before I told the four of them anything.
“There’s a lot we need to go over,” I said after a long heartbeat, breaking the momentary silence. “Oberon’s awake and active, obviously. He’s not fully free yet, but if we don’t stop him before he breaks whatever’s holding him, I can’t even imagine what’ll happen.”
Zed’s jaw tightened. “How long do we have?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He’s also trying to work out deals. He wants to feed off my magic. He offered that if I come to him, if I give him the magic he needs to break out, he’ll leave us alone.”
“Bullshit,” Charm spit out.
“Agreed,” I sighed. “More so, he keeps referencing the person who locked him away. I think his exact words were ‘Because he trapped me… This time I’ll take his bloodline, and it will restore me. All because of you, Obsidian Butterfly.’ So clearly he believes I’m the key to getting him ‘out.’” I could tell how much my words—more specifically my recounting of Oberon’s words—bothered my mates.
“It sounds like he thinks you’re related to whoever locked him up,” Cannon murmured.
My brows raised as I realized that was completely possible—Oberon had stated ‘bound by blood,’ and the easiest way to be bound by blood was being related, right? “A question for Cethlenn.”
In fact, I had a lot of questions for the woman.
If the four boys in the other room were my brothers and she was their mother, then that would mean the Druid goddess was my mother—right?
But Balor was not my father, presumably.
So why had she had an affair with Mario?
And if she hadn’t had an affair with Mario, how had I ended up with him?
What of the birthmother he’d killed after I came into this world?
If I truly wasn’t a Dark Fae and was instead the child of a god…
Maker. I couldn’t entertain any of this right now.
“Is David still alive?” I asked.
“Cirdan’s handling the interrogation. They plan to kill him so Zagan can’t use him again—but not before we get as much information out of him as we can,” Valerio said easily.
“We have no idea where Zagan is, though.” Maddox’s jaw flexed, his eyes flashing neon green in fury. The man hated loose ends.
I shook my head in annoyance. “Wherever he is, he’s acting as Oberon’s agent. The two of them are working together, to the point that Zagan can move freely through the cracks of the Horde without being noticed.”
Philip’s voice cut through the air. “Then he could be literally anywhere.”
“Exactly,” I said. “He’s using every remaining contact and point of corruption in SE and the Dark Fae to stretch his reach. I have no idea where he’ll pop up next, but we have to be on alert.”
Chait shook his head before sitting back. “So we have a god trying to break out of his cage, a dark fae bastard working as his puppet, and a group of wizards laying wards around our house that may or may not work.”
“Wards?” I arched a brow, looking out the darkened windows. Our home normally had defenses up—most did in the Horde—but now that he mentioned it, there was a different magic surrounding our property.
“Cirdan’s teammates—the ones not with David—are warding our property to make it essentially unreachable and invisible to anyone but us.”
“Really?” I looked toward the window. “Is Brielle with them or David—”
“Brielle and her sisters are with your brothers in the other room,” Chait explained. “They’ve been keeping them company.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize—” Immediately I stood, making my way toward the boys’ bedroom.
I could hear my mates talking behind me, but the moment I neared the room, Brielle stuck her head out, relief softening her gaze.
“Maize!” Brielle leaned forward and pulled me into a hug—completely unexpected from the normally sullen woman, but absolutely welcome. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
I offered her a small smile as she pulled back, her large green eyes filled with a haunted edge that had softened only slightly in the days I’d known her.
She had been through so much, and despite her delicate appearance, it was becoming clear she was anything but. Her caution and defiance had allowed her not only to survive and protect her sisters but to stand beside a team of wizards from the Earth realm who were known to be utterly ruthless.
“Better than ever,” I assured her as she pushed her red hair off her shoulder and stepped aside, revealing the office that had been turned into a bedroom for the boys, each of them claiming their own corner.
All four were asleep, and Brielle’s two sisters sat quietly in the center of the room, playing a card game on the floor.
“How are they? I can’t imagine that magical surge or the fight with David did anything good for their magic,” I murmured.
“Actually, it seemed to feed their magic,” she said softly. “I know little about the boys’ abilities, but they seemed to grow stronger with the violence outside. They fell asleep easily after eating. I don’t know if they’ll have questions when they wake up, but they seemed fine overall.”
Fascinating. Though if Cethlenn was correct about the nature of their power and them being the Four Horsemen…well, I supposed that violence feeding their magic made sense.
“One of them isn’t sleeping as well as the others,” Eirlys, the middle sister, said before offering me a serious, speculative look. “He keeps talking in his sleep.”
“Harland,” I murmured, noting where her attention had strayed.
Adeena, the youngest, let out a yawn before rubbing her eyes and placing her hand of cards down. I offered Brielle a small smile. “Take them home. We’ve got it from here.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “We can stay—”
“You’ve done more than enough,” I assured her. “Go get some rest.”
As the three of them left, I walked into the room and made my way to Harland. He’d started to toss and turn, and I let out a long sigh as I sat on the floor, my back against the bed. The firelight down the hall cast shadows that danced along the walls, causing my eyes to grow heavy.
For the first time since Oberon’s voice had clawed through my head, the house felt safe. But safety was an illusion. It always was. And when the boys woke, I’d have to find the right way to explain why we had people hunting us.