Chapter 25
CALIX
Fucking hell. That was… everything.
My lungs dragged in uneven breaths while Via sagged against me bonelessly, her skin still warm in my arms. I tightened my hold, burying my face against her hair for half a second like I could freeze this moment in place and stay here forever.
For a split-second, Syris’s parting words flooded my mind.
There's something to be said about having a solid team, with each side being the best at what they do. Don't let pride and your possessive nature get in the way of something great. You’ll regret it later. I know I do.
Fuck. My arms locked tighter around her automatically. The old bastard might actually be right.
Just when I was sinking into post-sex bliss, Via suddenly went limp and every muscle in my body seized. My head snapped up so fast my neck cracked, panic punching straight through my chest. My gaze flew over her face, searching for something wrong. Had I pushed her too far? Was she hurt? Exhausted?
Across her shoulder, Rack’s eyes met mine. Calm. Focused. Annoyingly steady.
“She’s okay,” he said evenly, already studying her. “She passed out, but her pulse is strong, and we know she fed enough.”
The knot strangling my lungs loosened just enough for me to breathe again. I swallowed hard, forcing air back into my chest.
“Thanks.”
Carefully, I shifted away from her, my hands lingering a second too long before I forced myself to move.
My eyes caught the mess between us, and heat flashed through me again.
My jaw clenched so tightly it hurt. No dick.
Absolutely fucking not. You cannot try to fuck her again.
She’s unconscious. I yanked my pants up before my body could convince me to make worse decisions.
“Give her to me.” I held my arms out toward Rack, but he didn’t move right away.
His gaze stayed on her face, fingers brushing her cheek with a softness that scraped something raw inside me. Greed flickered openly across his expression before he bent and pressed a lingering kiss against her skin. My patience thinned dangerously.
Like he sensed it building, Rack exhaled through his nose and finally stepped forward, easing her into my arms. I asked, “Can you clean her up?”
He nodded once and lifted his hand. Air curled around us in smooth invisible currents, sweeping across her skin, my body, himself. Blood disappeared. Sweat vanished. The room lost the thick scent of sex and violence piece by piece while he put on his pants with a mechanical calm.
My attention drifted past him toward what remained of Manshu. The sight punched every violent instinct I had right back to the surface.
Visions flashed of Via choking. His nails buried through her throat so hard they were coming out the other side. The look in her eyes while she struggled, dangling in the air.
My grip tightened unconsciously around her. Poisonous rage simmered beneath my ribs.
He got too clean of a death. I wanted to do more, wanted to see him suffer for a lifetime for what he had put her through, but we didn’t have time for that. Had a bigger mission, a larger purpose.
The weight of Via in my arms reminded me of that. Without even realizing it, she’d dragged me back from the edge again.
“Calix.”
Rack’s voice cut through my thoughts. I looked over just in time to see him holding up the fae-crafted gun in one hand and a bullet in the other.
The weapon still shimmered with that sick iridescent magic, but the bullet… didn’t.
Rack popped the clip free and slid another round out beside it. One gleamed unnaturally beneath the lights, while the mangled bullet looked dead and ordinary.
My brows pulled together immediately as I tried to recall what had happened in that moment.
I’d been in a blind rage, but I remembered him pointing it at me, his finger squeezing the trigger, and I’d knocked Manshu’s arm aside, making him miss. The shot had hit—
I turned sharply and slowly crossed the space with Via in my arms, following the angle until I found the ruined electrical box hanging open from the wall. Sparks spat wildly from exposed wires.
My pulse kicked harder.
Glancing from the wires to the dull bullet, thoughts fired, one after another, ideas churning with the possibilities.
“I’ll need to test it,” I muttered, crouching closer. “But electricity moves in a continuous loop unless the circuit is physically broken. It just loops.”
Rack stepped closer behind me while I kept staring at the box, trying to make the theory stick.
“If the current kept cycling through the magic…” My mouth slowly curled. “It might burn it out.”
Ideas hit me all at once after that. Weapon designs. Containment systems. Countermeasures. Prototype failures. New rune structures.
I nearly laughed.
Instead, I lowered my face into Via’s hair, breathing her in hard enough to ground myself before I completely spiraled into invention mode. The sweet aroma of wild roses wrapped around me.
God, I wished she was awake right now. I wanted to tell her and hear her theories. Watch her tear the idea apart and rebuild it until it was better. Don’t get ahead of yourself, I warned myself, but it was hard. For the first time in days, hope had flickered to life inside my chest.
Heat spread across the side of my neck, not warmth, but a blistering heat that flared hotter and hotter until pain lanced sharply beneath my skin. My brows furrowed as I lifted my head, about to ask Rack to take her so I could figure out what the hell—
I froze.
Right at the yoke of Rack’s back sat a dark rose-shaped mark, one that had never been there before. Perfectly clear. Perfectly unmistakable.
My heartbeat slammed against my ribs so violently it drowned out everything else. Air caught halfway into my lungs, turning into ragged, uneven breaths while I stared at the mark branded into his skin.
Why? Why am I always the one left out? Why am I not allowed to have happiness? What’s so wrong with me that fate’s determined I’m unworthy?
The questions crashed around my skull hard enough to make my vision blur. My chest tightened until every breath scraped on the way in. I clutched Via closer unconsciously, fingers digging into her as if holding her tighter could somehow change fate itself.
“Calix?” Rack’s voice hit me at the worst possible moment.
A raw sound tore out of my throat before I even realized I’d made it. “When?!”
His eyes widened. He took a startled half-step back, brows pulling together while I stormed toward him with Via still cradled in my shaking arms.
I didn’t want to let her go. I never wanted to let her go. So why the fuck isn’t it me?
Rack slowly lifted his hands like he was trying to calm down a cornered animal. His gaze darted over my face, clearly trying to figure out what the hell had just snapped inside me.
“Your back,” I rasped. The words scraped painfully against my throat. “Tell me when.”
The confusion vanished from his face so fast it was almost frightening. He froze. Completely still. Then his hands slowly lowered back to his sides while he inhaled carefully. “I didn’t—”
His words cut off abruptly, but instead of finishing his answer, he squinted at me and stepped closer. No, not at me. Beside me. His head tilted as he stared at something over my shoulder.
“Don’t you dare avoid the question—”
“Your tattoo,” he interrupted sharply. “Your mate-blocker tattoo, it’s visible.”
I almost snapped at him that I didn’t give a shit about that right now, but then my thoughts crashed into a wall. My sisters. Their marks appeared, too. The way the magic reacted when mates were involved.
Hope, fragile yet dangerous, violently flickered to life inside my chest.
I looked down at Via automatically. My eyes traced the curve of her mouth, the softness of her hair spilling through my fingers. Could I really?
Her head gently lolled to the side in my arms. I was adjusting her, cursing under my breath for nearly letting her neck bend awkwardly, when I saw it. A faint mark rested against the hollow of her throat.
My breath stopped. Right there against her skin sat the outline of a crown. Small. Delicate. New.
My pulse stumbled so hard it physically hurt. I pulled her closer while my hand shook on the way up.
Don’t do this to yourself.
The voice in my head tried to crush the hope before it could grow, telling me it was a coincidence. Telling me I’d imagined everything. I mean, I’d already convinced myself my mate didn’t exist.
But she hadn’t existed then. Not until I turned her.
Swallowing hard, I lightly brushed one finger across the mark. The reaction hit instantly.
Heat exploded through my veins. The tattoo at my neck flared painfully hot beneath my skin while something deep in my chest pulled taut. A golden thread snapped tight between us beside the darker tether of maker and turned.
My breath hitched violently.
“Here.”
Rack’s voice came from directly behind me now, softer this time. Warmer. I could hear the smile before I even turned.
His finger pressed lightly between my shoulder blades. “The rose mark.”
He circled around us again, and for maybe the first time in my life, Rack looked completely at peace. His usual calm had cracked wide open beneath pure happiness.
“You have it too, Calix.” His grin spread wider as his eyes dropped to where my hand still rested against Via’s throat. “You’re her mate.”
Then his expression softened even further. “She’s mine, and she’s yours.” The words hit me so hard my knees almost gave out.
Rack huffed a breathless laugh and rubbed a hand through his hair. “I had a feeling,” he admitted quietly. “I think I knew it was always supposed to be the three of us.”
A crooked smirk pulled at his mouth. “Otherwise I probably would’ve killed you for touching her.”
A rough laugh burst out of me before I could stop it. “I wanted to kill you too.”