Chapter 15
Rylee
Baydel chuckles, the sound making my jaw lock up. It’s not a friendly laugh, nor an intimidating one. It’s just wrong.
A restless energy prowls beneath my skin, and I feel Pierce’s power return like a roaring waterfall.
I hurry to shove it behind his signature door.
Each of my mates’ powers pound against theirs to be set free.
It’s like an itch begging to be scratched.
A building yawn with no completion. It would be so much easier to let them out.
Let the powers take over my entire being.
Tempting. So damn tempting.
I quash the urge to lose myself in the abyss. I need to stay present now more than ever.
Calming my nerves with mental assurances that I’m here, I’m alive, and people are counting on me, I soothe the powers’ insistence, just a little. Damn, they want out. Bad.
Is it a response to how close Baydel is? How, despite his truce approach, I still view him as a threat?
Breathe.
Just breathe.
The instructions come in the form of Pierce’s voice, radiating down our bond despite the fact that I hold his power.
“It’s my turn,” Pierce says, suddenly at our side in the midst of the dancers.
Baydel pauses for a moment, studying me before he releases me. “I suppose I’ve held on to our new princess long enough,” he says in a sugary sweet tone. He grins, arching a brow at me as if to silently convey his warning one more time.
I swallow the lump in my throat and immediately fall into Pierce’s open arms. He draws me close, one strong arm around my lower back, holding me against his body, the other hand taking mine as he leads me around the dance floor.
Every tense thing in me uncoils in his embrace, the ever-sharp edge soothed into submission.
“Did you hear me begging for help?” I ask, half teasing.
Pierce shakes his head. “You don’t need to be the Mind to realize that dance was long enough.”
I smile up at him, breathing him in. He smells so good. Somehow, his signature scent of amber and violets is more potent right now, as if it loops around the bond and strokes me from the inside out.
My attention to the bond has it perking up, the recently returned power pulsing. I hold on to that feeling, the sensation of connection with Pierce so close, and wrap my mental fingers lovingly around the connection.
“Darling,” Pierce whispers, his breath a rush.
Can you feel me? Hear me? I silently push my thought down that bond, following the words all the way to the other end—
Suddenly, I’m not only looking into Pierce’s refined features, not only admiring his deep brown eyes, but also seeing . . .
Me.
From his point of view.
I stumble slightly, but he holds me close, practically lifting me off my feet as we continue to dance.
It’s jarring, seeing two versions of our present, but Pierce’s mind is beautiful.
He softly grins down at me, his eyes wide and curious.
I can hear you. His words slip into my mind just as they would when he spoke to me this way before, only I’m the one in control now. Sort of.
This is okay? I ask. You’ve let me in, right? I didn’t force this, did I? I have no clue what I’m doing, and I know if I give this too much attention, allow myself to really feel the extent of the power I hold, I’ll crumble under its weight.
You’re always welcome in here whenever you want, he says, holding me tighter against him. I’m yours.
Warmth radiates down the connection between us, filling me so much it aches.
I wet my lips, doing my best to sort my thoughts from his. I follow that connection between us, allowing the door holding his power to crack open, just another fraction, and grip it tighter. I hold the power, pushing myself a bit farther into Pierce’s mind.
Amber and violets. The richest greens.
I close my eyes to focus, knowing he won’t let me slip.
Love. Pride. Worry.
Pierce’s mind is multifaceted and seemingly unending. Waves of his emerald energy flicker and waft between the spaces of his mind like beautiful, winged wraiths slipping through the open spaces of a spider web.
Go deeper, he encourages me.
I feel his presence everywhere at once. With difficulty, I open the door another inch, his power curling around me at the slow release instead of drowning me. I test it, breathing as I wait for it to overcome me. It doesn’t, so I move deeper into Pierce’s mind like he asked.
A clearer image appears—hundreds, maybe thousands of sprawling green trees stretch before me, so much like his beloved Emerald Wood.
Yet, here, there are no homes or buildings or roads.
It’s a never-ending forest, and every giant, thriving tree is another piece of him. A thought, a fact, a worry, a need.
It’s incredible.
And I’m right in the middle of it, walking barefoot through his mind forest, gently touching trees with my fingertips. Each graze is a story, peeling back another layer of my mate.
Delight fills me so completely, I forget about everything else. I’m safe here. There are no worries, no pressing issues. I want to stay forever. I want to spend eons unraveling every aspect that shapes Pierce’s soul.
I touch the rough bark of another tree, then gasp, anguish stealing every happy feeling in an instant. A vision overtakes everything else. It’s me—lying unconscious on the marble floor of Evaluna’s temple. Then in Jax’s bed. Dalfon’s blue light spiraling around my body as he shakes his head.
Broken. Pierce feels broken here. But there’s a tiny ray of hope.
I open my eyes, the deliberate act shooting me back into my own mind and body so fast my head spins.
Pierce looks down at me apologetically.
“You never gave up on me,” I say.
“Never.” He moves our joined hands, wrapping mine around his neck as he fully envelops me. Proprieties be damned, we’re no longer dancing to the melody. He dips down, leaning his forehead against mine. “I will never give up on you.”
The declaration chokes me. “I won’t, either,” I say.
“I wasn’t going to stop until I returned to all of you.
” I blow out a breath, sparing a glance at the nobles dancing around us.
We’re garnering a few looks, and I know I should care about my image, but I just don’t.
How can I, when I need Pierce to hold me together? “What are we going to do?” I whisper.
I just want to give you your powers back. I push the words down the bond, the act so much easier when he’s holding me like this. When he’s opening his mind and letting me come and go as I please. And figure out the Fader situation. My sister. But adding this from the kings?
All in good time. His words ripple in my mind. You have returned. There is nothing we cannot face now. He sounds so certain. You are exquisite. You will learn and master these powers. And we will handle any threat—be it royal or Fader or other—together. As we should.
I close my eyes again, embracing him as we swirl and spin. “I love you,” I say aloud.
Pierce shifts against me, and I open my eyes as he slides a warm hand to cup my cheek. “As I love you,” he says, and the words rebuild some fractured thing inside me. Some flimsy piece on the verge of crumbling.
The music fades, and he dips me as the song ends, his powerful hands moving my body like it belongs to him. I arch my head back with the move, delight radiating along every inch of my bones as his lips graze the column of my neck.
That quickly, I need him. “Take me home?” I ask.
He nods, fire churning in his eyes. “Of course.” He holds my hand as he weaves in and out of the dancers, nodding politely as he guides us to the others.
“Our mate is tired,” he says to Jax and Axl.
I search the space for Kal. Something loosens in my chest when I find him near the dais, speaking to Jullian.
“Thank fuck,” Axl says. “We’ve been here an hour too long.”
I laugh softly at his relief, then glance at Jax.
His indigo eyes are distant—cold, even—as he looks past me to where Baydel is speaking with one of the others on the Royal Authority Council. Baydel introduced him as Duke Loredana.
I’ve seen that look before, a mixture of worry and fear. I reach for him with my free hand. “Jax,” I whisper, and his eyes meet mine.
He holds me in his gaze a moment, that iciness softening a fraction.
He dips his head, a silent assurance he’s okay.
We can’t speak mind to mind like I can with Pierce, not unless I learn how to master Pierce’s power.
But I don’t need it or Jax’s words to know what he’s saying.
I can feel him down our bond, and beneath all the anxiousness holding him hostage, there’s love. Need.
“Kal!” Axl barks his name, not bothering to stand on royal decorum.
I laugh again, especially at the way Kal rolls his eyes as he bids his father goodbye and heads over to our group.
“Draw enough attention?” Kal chides him.
“You were taking too long. Rylee wants to leave.”
“You don’t have to leave,” I assure Kal. “If you’re not ready. Not just because I want to.”
“You leave, I leave,” Kal says, and the other three nod their agreement.
That’s enough to make a girl melt. How do they always manage to turn me into a puddle? I know there’s so much to worry about, so much to fear, but when they’re all looking at me like that, when nothing but love and desire surges down our bonds, it’s really hard to give a fuck.
And I’m grateful for that. If I didn’t have them, have their support, I would lose myself in the current of unknown threatening to drown me.
You cross those four, and they’ll tear you to pieces.
Baydel’s warning cuts through my mind, turning my insides cold.
He doesn’t know them like he says he does. He can’t. They would never hurt me. And fuck him for putting that in my mind.
“Where would you like to retire for the evening, love?” Kal asks.
“Are we obligated to stay in the palace?” I ask. “Is that part of the rules?”
“They didn’t say as much,” Kal answers. “And until they do, we’re free to go wherever we like.”
Part of me wants to stay at the palace if only because it’s closer, but a bigger part of me doesn’t feel safe here.
“Jax.” I say his name again. “Your home is closest.”
“Our home, butterfly,” he says, pushing off the wall he’s been leaning against. “Ours.”
I press my lips together to hold back my smile.
Jax exits first, then Kal, then Axl, and finally Pierce, who guides me ahead of him, ensuring he stays behind me. I can’t help but feel like the Legends are forming a protective barrier on purpose, which is slightly humorous, since I’m the one holding all their power.
Not like I can use it effectively, but still.
Luckily, no one says a word to stop us, too busy enjoying the ball to bother looking our way, and we’re heading down the palace steps in no time.
I slide easily onto the back of Pierce’s velomage, wrapping my arms around his abdomen and leaning my head against his back.
I close my eyes as we take off, already dreaming of Jax’s comfortable bed.
Today has been exhausting to say the least, and since I regained consciousness, sleep hasn’t been consistent.
I need proper sleep to sort all this out—
Jax slams to a halt a few blocks outside the palace, causing the others to stop so quickly, Pierce and I almost crash into Axl ahead of us.
“Faders,” Axl growls.