Chapter 56
Chapter
Fifty-Six
TEAL
We came around the curve in the road. I spotted Haven immediately—how could I not?
She was all I’d thought about for days. My obsession.
My salvation. My reward. The sight of the man holding her—kissing her—sent a primal fury roaring through me.
He dared. He shouldn’t have touched her. Not mine. Not ever.
I surged beside the man, my every move driven by the fierce need to remove her from his arms. I pressed my blade against his skin, the cold steel biting into his neck.
I grinned at the first bead of blood. The fucker would be dead if not for my fear that Haven might fall from his grasp. “Put her down.”
Haven’s eyes widened in apparent surprise before narrowing to angry slits. “What are you doing?”
“We’re here to rescue you.” Surely that was obvious?
A sharp gust of cold wind tugged a lock of hair from her braid, and she tucked the golden strands behind her ear. “No, thank you. I don’t need saving.”
“Hear that, Teal? We crossed the border for nothing.” Grayson’s gaze landed on me; it held a told-you-so quality that made me want to kill someone—either him or the asshole holding Haven. I wasn’t picky.
“Put. Her. Down.” My blade cut deeper into the man’s neck, and his warm blood steamed in the frigid air. Very satisfying.
“Don’t you dare hurt him.” Haven’s eyes were silver fire, and I wasn’t sure if she was speaking to the dead man holding her or me. Odd, because I was the one holding the knife.
Meanwhile, the dead man chuckled as if he found the whole situation amusing. “He could try to hurt me.”
Was he mad? One flick of my wrist and he’d bleed out.
“You want him alive, Princess?” Flynn wore a dangerous smile, and I idly wondered what he was up to.
“Yes.” She growled, almost as if she cared about the asshole’s welfare. What had happened after the basajaun took her? Had this guy saved her? Had she bonded with her rescuer?
Flynn smirked. “If you want Teal to put down the knife, it’ll cost you.”
Haven rolled her eyes. “Of course it will. What do you want?”
“One night. Just give us one night to show you what you mean to us.”
Flynn’s offer twisted my gut. This wasn’t how I wanted her. But the hunger clawing at my insides didn’t care about honor. I needed her—right or wrong. Nothing else mattered.
I watched her face, searching for any sign she still wanted us. Desperation had been devouring me for days. Any means. Any price. Just get her back.
After a night in our arms, she’d forgive us this tiny bit of blackmail. I was sure of it.
Her eyes flickered with indecision. Then she looked at him. Stars. There were fucking stars in her gorgeous eyes. Like he was everything. My vision went red. I wanted to carve him into pieces. Watch him bleed.
She shifted her gaze, and our eyes met. Hers narrowed as if she could sense my eagerness to spill his blood. Then she blinked, and I had the unsettling feeling I’d disappointed her.
“Haven, don’t even think about it.” The fucking asshole still held her. Why? I’d told him to put her down.
“You’re not part of this discussion.” I drew more of his blood.
“Stop, Teal, please.” Her gaze was again fixed on my blade, and her lips thinned. “Alive and unharmed.”
“Haven, no!” The man’s arms tightened around her, and his face contorted. Interesting. He hadn’t reacted when my dagger cut his neck, but now he looked ready to raze the world for her.
Meanwhile, Flynn rubbed his chin, pretending to consider her terms. “You drive a hard bargain, but we have an agreement. We let him go. Alive and unharmed.”
“You can’t do this, Haven. I’m not worth it.”
She touched his cheek. Gently. Almost reverently. “You are.”
My vision clouded. “Agree now, or my dagger may slip.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “We’re agreed. But if you hurt him, you’ll live to regret it. He’s mine.”
Jealousy slithered through my veins. Haven was mine. Ours. The stranger holding her had no claim. He’d tricked her. That was the only explanation.
So why was he looking at her as if she’d taught the sun to rise?
“Teal.” Her voice broke into my reverie.
“What?”
“You’re harming him.”
Reluctantly, I inched the blade away from his bloodied neck.
Flynn’s eyes twinkled, and he grinned like a triumphant loon. “Come on, Princess. We’ll ride to the border.”
“No,” she replied.
Grayson’s brows lifted, even as his face grew taut with annoyance. “No?” He flexed his fingers before tightening them into fists. Then he repeated the exercise.
She exchanged a quick look with the man who was definitely not hers and said, “I’m going to Talin with Remy.”
“We’re returning to Legacia.” Grayson spoke slowly as if Haven had difficulty understanding simple concepts.
She offered him a cheeky wave. “Safe travels.”
The sound of his grinding teeth was ridiculously loud.
“Haven, you can’t stay here,” Flynn explained gently. “Rymarians are savages.”
“Really? Because I’ve experienced nothing but kindness from the Rymarian people.” She let the savagery she’d encountered at the guards’ headquarters remain unspoken, but I saw its shadow lingering in her eyes.
“We’re leaving. Immediately. And you’re coming with us.” Grayson was an idiot. Either he hadn’t realized that Haven didn’t respond well being ordered around, or he didn’t care. An edict like that was sure to make her dig in her heels.
“Do as you please,” she replied, her voice sugary. “I’m going to Talin.”
He audibly ground his teeth again. At this rate, he’d be down to stumps in no time.
“You just agreed to a bargain.” Did I really need to remind her? She couldn’t fulfill her side of said bargain in Talin.
“Without a set date,” she replied.
The man who was not hers chuckled. “Clever girl.”
The howl of the wind through the pine branches mocked me. Snow swirled around us, and the cold seeped into my bones. It didn’t stand a chance against the anger raging through me.
Flynn looked crestfallen. “We risked everything to save you.”
She scoffed, and the expression on her lovely face spoke volumes. If we hadn’t stolen her from her home, we wouldn’t be in this fix.
“Why do you want to go to Talin?” My breath fogged as I spoke, the words visible in the icy air. “To be with him?”
“The better question is why I’d ever want to go back to Legacia?”
“Your grandmother is there,” Grayson replied.
“Is that a threat?” Sparks flew from her narrowed eyes.
I held up my hands. “Grayson was just making an observation.”
“Well, my mother is in Talin.”
Grayson frowned. “I thought your mother was a shield, killed at the front.”
“Yes, she was a shield. No, she didn’t die.”
Who knew Haven was so gullible? “If this man told you your mother is alive, he’s lying. Rymarians kill shields.”
“Do you honestly believe that?” The should-be-dead stranger, who still held Haven, shook his head. “We liberate shields. Offer them a chance at a normal life. It’s the Legacians who burn through their powers and leave them for dead.”
“What have we here?” A man even bigger than Grayson swaggered into the clearing. His gaze touched each of us before landing on Haven. Only then did his overconfident expression falter. He looked almost worried.
Haven gave him a tiny nod, and he visibly relaxed.
“Welcome to the party, Z.” The man who held Haven grinned. “Haven’s friends are trying to convince her to return to Legacia.”
“I was just explaining that I’m going to Talin,” she told him.
His lips quirked as if he found us mildly amusing. “And they’re having difficulty grasping that?”
Haven smiled at him. It was a secret smile. One shared between two people with a history. “They are.”
A fresh wave of jealousy sank its sharp claws into my gut. I, too, had a history with Haven, and she didn’t smile at me like that.
The giant rubbed the back of his neck, and his hand came away bloody.
“Are you all right?” Her obvious concern grated on me.
“I’m fine. Just a scratch. Also, I heal fast.”
“Right.” She drew out the word. Obviously, she knew something I didn’t. “We’ll talk later.”
He gave a brief nod, then addressed us all. “You’re the other four? I expected better.”
“What do you mean, the other four?” Pierce’s expression was cold enough to freeze an ocean in the summer.
The giant grinned before shifting his gaze back to Haven. “They don’t know?”
She shook her head. “No, and I didn’t plan on telling them.”
He shook his head. “Fate doesn’t work that way.”
She huffed. “Fate and I have issues.”
His grin returned. “After looking at these four, I can’t say I blame you.”
“What are you talking about?” Frost formed at the edges of Pierce’s words.
“Should I tell them?” The giant looked entirely too pleased with himself.
Haven shrugged as if she knew she couldn’t stop him.
The giant studied each of us, his expression growing more amused with each face. “You really don’t know, do you?” He looked at Haven. “They have no idea what they are to you.”
“And I’d prefer to keep it that way,” she muttered as she fussed with her horse’s mane.
“That’s not how this works, and you know it.” His gaze swept over us again. “We’re bound to her. All six of us.”
The words hung in the chilly air—dangerous, seductive, impossible.
Six men. One woman. It should have torn me apart with jealousy. Instead, something fierce and hungry roared to life in my chest. More of us to worship her. More of us to keep her safe. Perfect.
In the distance, a crow cawed, but I heard it despite the buzzing in my ears.
Pierce went deadly still, his mind clearly working.
I could practically see him cataloging facts, considering potential outcomes, and measuring threats (namely, the two strangers).
When he finally spoke, his voice was winter itself.
“How long have you known?” He directed the question at Haven, but his gaze lingered on Remy and the giant as if he was memorizing every detail for later use.
“Not long.”
Pierce’s gaze returned to Haven, and he stared at her with an intensity I’d never seen from him before.
Flynn’s grin spread slowly, like sunrise breaking over his face. “All of us?” The question was gleeful.
By contrast, Grayson’s face went white, and he staggered backward as if he’d been struck. “No.” The word came out flat and final. “I don’t care what fate says. I’m not bound to anyone.” He looked at Haven, and his expression hardened. “We’re guards, not members of some woman’s harem.”
Haven flinched as if he’d slapped her, and for a moment she looked smaller, more fragile than I’d ever seen her. Then her chin lifted, and ice crystallized in her voice. “I never asked for this either, Grayson.”
How dare he hurt her? She was mine. Ours. And not for the one night Flynn had negotiated but forever. The raw hunger that had been eating me alive finally made sense. Mine. She’d always been mine. Every moment I’d spent thinking about her—wanting her—had been driving me toward this moment.
Haven’s gaze traveled over our faces, then she closed her eyes and her brow furrowed. “This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.”
“What do you mean?” The words tore from my throat.
When she opened her eyes, they held a weariness that aged her beyond her years. “Blame fate. I’ll never know if your feelings are real.”
No one spoke. The only sounds were the wind through the pines and the distant call of crows.
She’d fight this. Fight us. But I’d show her.
Make her understand what she meant to me.
Every touch. Every breath. Every heartbeat would be for her.
She’d hate jewels. Hate being caged in silk.
I knew that. But pleasure? I’d teach her to crave my touch.
I’d make her drunk on ecstasy over and over, until she was so addicted she forgot everything else.
She laced her fingers together and bowed her golden head. “I can’t accept this.”
There it was—the fight. “Of course you can,” I replied. There was no other acceptable outcome. “You will.”
She lifted her head, and her brows winged to her hairline. “Why would I do that?”
“We’re yours. You’re ours.”
“You’re the men fate foisted upon me. Remember the things you’ve done?”
Remy’s face darkened. “What have they done?”
She patted his arm. “Now’s not the time.”
“We didn’t know.” She needed to be reasonable. If we’d realized she was ours, we never would have let Drake near her. We would have protected her from Carron. We would have kept her out of the pit.
Her eyes narrowed as if my face had revealed my thoughts. “I’m going to Talin. You can do what you want.”
“You owe us a night,” Flynn insisted.
“Then you’d better come to Talin.”
“This is madness.” Grayson’s face was pale, almost drawn, and he looked longingly over his shoulder, squinting in the wintry sunshine. “If we leave now, we may save our hides.”
“Gray.” Pierce’s voice was soft. “We can’t go back to Legacia. You know that. Not with what we know. We face hanging.”
“And here? We’re Legacian guards. We’ll be killed on sight.”
Haven looked up at Remy, her eyes pleading. “Please?”
“I thought you didn’t want them.”
“I don’t. That doesn’t mean I want them dead.”
He, too, sighed. “Fine. For you. They’re under my protection.”
His protection. “Who the hell are you?” I demanded.
It was Haven who answered. “The crown prince.”