Chapter 44 Dove
forty-four
Dove
We are getting ready to leave the island, baby dragon and all, which leaves us with a transportation problem. Saff must carry Oro on her back, the baby dragon still getting used to his wings. Meaning we are now in the hands of one God, Fury.
He may have his power back, but in his mortal form, my God is still limited. Fury can teleport small distances, as he so aptly displayed when he transported me from the ashy clearing to the tower. Now, we will test his strength by going to the mainland.
After bringing the three males together, I was able to gather us for a conversation in the tower to hash out some plans.
They stood on one side of the room, and I stood on the other.
It was the only way any of us could think straight.
I had final say in all matters, the three of them constantly referring back to me for all the minor details.
The buzz of having all of their attention is starting to grow on me.
It feels powerful. Not in a rule-the-world way, but in an I-can-do-anything-be-anyone sense.
It is their unwavering trust in me. It makes the walls calcified around the cracks of my weary heart start to find their way back together effortlessly.
Argus, my dragon created from legends of old, now slumbers peacefully in my chest, knowing I have not one but three males to lean on and protect me.
This love is everything to me.
Unwavering trust.
Blinding commitment.
Complete obsession.
Goddess, I’m done for.
We stand on the grey beach of Fury’s island.
It’s our time to leave and start anew. Looking over the horizon towards Haven, the waves crash in the distance.
The wind whips my hair. This same rhythm tomorrow, everything will be different.
My life is already completely unknown to me.
I am no longer the temple servant. I am no longer lost to myself.
These past turns have shown me I am more capable than I ever thought imaginable, and that I might just be worthy of love.
Hands come around me from behind, securing me to a warm, hard chest. “I will see you on the other side, love,” Rivern says his last goodbye to me before Fury whisks me away.
The final plan is that Fury will drop us off one at a time inside the walls of Haven.
I came to the conclusion that the safest place for Fury to leave us would be the cave under the temple of the one Goddess—the same cave where I spent countless hours perfecting her song.
A song, it turns out, I never really needed. Not for Fury anyway.
The fae song was created for Oona’s children. It made sense—it awoke the wisps that worked alongside the fae.
It didn’t work for Fury, though. According to him, the song should’ve freed him because that’s the prophecy Oona gave him.
Only now do we realise Oona could have been playing tricks, sending us all on a wild goose chase.
Aren’t prophecies fiction anyway? How much weight should we hold in them?
Especially those Gods who abandoned this world, showing little concern or thought for their creations in the end.
Like the Seraph? What does that truly mean anyway, that they will bring the world together?
Oona’s deception has me questioning everything. Seeing the Gods for more of who they truly are—villains. These lands wouldn’t be what they are today without them. They may have created the fae, silvers and mers, but they also created war.
Even the king doesn’t compare to the destruction they have plagued this land with.
Rivern senses my tension, trailing soft kisses up my neck to relax my body. “For now, we deal with one problem at a time.”
He’s right, of course. This new line of thinking is pulling me into dangerous territory. Knowing what those Gods purposefully did to my bonded and my homeland has the rage in my body bursting to be set free—or maybe that’s Fury’s power.
“May I?” That silky voice rumbles beside us, Rivern reluctantly lets me go, allowing Fury to take his place.
“I don’t like that I won’t be able to see you,” Rivern mumbles the words aloud so Fury can hear them, too.
Fury surprises us both by reaching a claw-tipped grey hand out and tapping against Rivern’s chest, his other arm still firmly banded around my waist. “Feel that?” He taps on Rivern’s heart, referring to the bond that lies there—our bond. “Do you truly believe I would ever let harm come to her?”
I look up into stormy, violet eyes. Rivern grits his teeth, knowing the truth. “No.”
With that small acquisition, Fury brings his arm back around me, wrapping me up within his soft, sable wings.
“Ready?” he asks. I nod, knowing this is going to cause some stomach churning.
Resting my head on Fury’s chest, his cold skin is a searing touch, making me shiver.
The fire inside me grows to counteract the chill.
I have no warning. Fury teleports us, and my head spins. Just as quickly, he is releasing me, steadying my body before he lets me go into Gideon’s waiting arms in the cave below the temple.
I rock back into the spicy warmth of my beast. I whisper, unable to open my eyes, the world still settling around me, the waves crashing on the rocks just beyond the mouth of the open cave, lulling me into relaxing within his embrace. “This is where we met.”
A gruff huff blows over my head. “More like this is where you stole my heart.”
My heart redirects, thumping loudly at his words. I open my eyes to find the rough rock walls, a dusk falling over the sky outside.
I turn within his hold. “You told me to fight. Was it you whom you wanted me to fight against?”
His amber eyes, golden and shimmering in the fading light, look down at my face, his hand pushing back a wayward strand of hair that has escaped my simple braid.
“Maybe? The temptation of your pull was beyond what my wolf could handle. He was calling me to you, and I was refusing it. I should’ve known better.
I believe if I’d spent longer resisting, I might’ve turned feral.
It is unnatural for me to go against my wolf nature.
I am innately wolf, after all. This human thing is courtesy of Orion so I could interact with the humans. ”
My eyebrows tilt up. “Are you telling me you are more beast than human?”
He steps impossibly close, closing the small gap between our bodies.
My fingers reach up to graze the hair on his lower face.
“I’m telling you that you are my mate beyond anything else.
You are the first and last thing I think about every turn, including every thought in between. I live to serve you.”
Oh my Goddess.
They keep laying themselves at my feet one by one, and I’m defenceless in stopping them. In the beginning, I pushed against them—Rivern especially. Now, I can’t imagine them not being by my side every moment of the day. Surely, this obsession is not natural. Maybe I need distance from them.
“Never.” The lilting murmur comes through my mind as two golden hands reach around my back, enveloping me. “You’re never leaving our sights again, love.” Rivern’s body washes me in heated forest breezes. Instinctively, I lean back into him.
It’s not only these two males I can feel encroaching on my body, though. It’s also Fury… or is it Orion? I don’t know if I should start calling him by his God name.
“Don’t.” He reads a trickle of my thoughts, answering me.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” I gripe back aloud.
“Treasure every inch of you?” I can feel his lips curving at either end without having to see him, a fang probably showing.
“No, listen to my thoughts.”
“It doesn’t always happen. Just when you are particularly loud or tormented over something. That you are tormented over me is endearing.”
Flames lick the edges of my periphery. I’ll show him endearing with a swift kick to his dick.
“Now, now, Pet, you know how I feel about you and my cock. A match made in heav—”
I don’t let him finish. Pushing Gideon back, I step out of Rivern’s hold to whirl on Fury.
That name fits him perfectly, and I’ve decided I’m not changing it.
“You’re giving me whiplash.” I push at his stony chest with my pointer finger.
“I don’t know what to do with you.” The last words are a rush as all my air leaves me, including some of my flames.
Those silver irises lick with knowing back down at me.
I don’t know what to do with him because I don’t know what I am. He’s my shadow. I should run, but how can you run away from yourself?
Rivern and Gideon watch us like they know this deep, dark secret I want to keep hidden.
Fury is all the parts of myself I don’t want to acknowledge, but here everyone else stands, acknowledging them and accepting them.
And I’m just so torn but still desperate to mould myself to his body, to become one with everything that makes me me.
Even if the others don’t like it, I’ll be living in my truth.
Fury steps into my body, cupping my face. “Take as long as you need, my Goddess.”