Chapter 26
Rylee
Axl’s power thrums hot and wild through my veins. If I had any tangible way of measuring their specific powers, I would say his is the hardest to contain.
Ocean waves crash against my stomach where Axl and I stand waist--deep in the water in his Sapphire Cove, the icy liquid only bearable thanks to the special suits made to maintain optimum temperature.
My cheeks are freezing, and I tremble as a crisp breeze blows by.
The sun is setting on the horizon, casting the empty beach in an orange-and-purple glow.
I tried to coax Ash to come to the beach with us this evening, but the cat adamantly refused, content to stretch out in front of Axl’s crackling fireplace, as long as Axl wasn’t in the room. I swear, at the rate the cat is going, he’ll demand his own house one of these days.
“Rylee,” Axl says, drawing my attention to where he stands an arm’s length away from me. “We’re not calling it quits yet.”
“I didn’t ask to.”
He cocks a thick brow at me, nothing but pure mischief and challenge in his eyes. “You don’t need to. And I don’t need Pierce’s mind-reading abilities to know you were staring at that beach like it’s calling your name.”
It’s hard to bite back my smile, but I make an effort.
“I’m exhausted,” I admit. We’ve been out here for hours, and I’ve only managed to control the ocean in small bursts.
His power is unruly, unlike Pierce’s or even Kal’s.
They’re all so different, and each one is unique in how I have to shove it behind the locked door so it doesn’t overcome me, and how I must call it to me when I need it.
“I know you are.” He scoots closer to me. “But you need to control this. It’s the only way you’ll be able to use it, if you need to.”
He doesn’t say the rest—that I need to control their powers in case a Kings’ List task is dangerous or we’re attacked by Faders again.
“Want to try something new?” he asks after a few moments.
My heart rate kicks up as I note the look in his eye. Trouble—fun trouble—usually follows. “I’m listening.”
Axl spans the distance between us, towering over me.
The specialty suit he wears is a rich blue, covering his body in a confining way I know he’s desperate to be rid of.
His long hair is tied back, his neatly trimmed beard accentuating the sharp line of his jaw.
“It’s going to require a lot of trust,” he continues.
The bond between us goes taut as he skirts a hand down my shoulder.
“If you’re not there,” he says, “I’ll understand.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard you say today, and that says something, since earlier, you told me to talk to the ocean to get it to comply.”
He laughs roughly, then shrugs. “Just because the Fates mated us doesn’t mean you have to fully trust me.”
I swallow hard, my heart twinging. So many people have struggled to trust him in the past—family, friends—because of his power.
They’ve all dealt with it, but his power is an all-consuming, intimidating thing, not unlike his personality.
Kal and I needed to have similar conversations when we worked with his power. Pierce, too. Trust is everything.
I reach up and place my hand over the center of his chest. His power surges beneath my skin, reacting to the contact and fighting my efforts to shove it down. It’s like trying to shut a door against a tsunami.
“I trust you, Axl,” I assure him, never breaking our gaze. He lays his hand over mine. “I wouldn’t have gone blindly into the ether and met the goddesses if I didn’t.”
Emotion fills his eyes for a few seconds before pure challenge coats them. “You know I’m not like Kal or Pierce, right?”
“Really?” I laugh at that. “I hadn’t noticed you’re all completely different. When it comes down to it, you’re just hot men who deliver orgasms at my beck and call,” I tease, giving him a chiding look.
He puts his tongue in his cheek, nodding. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t said that.”
“What do you have in mind?” Apprehension dances through me.
He tilts his head, wrapping one strong arm around my back to draw us closer together. “Like I said . . .” He grins. “You’re going to have to trust me.”
“The more you say that, the more nervous I get.”
“Take a deep breath, kitten.” He grips me tighter, the bond between us surging, pulling, tugging.
My eyes go wide as I do what he says. Then panic bursts in my chest as he dunks us beneath the ocean surface, drawing power down our bond like he’s drinking it in.
I blink, adjusting to the salty sting against my eyes, doing my best to hold my breath as my heart races.
We soar now, cutting through the water as he takes control of his power.
It’s incredible and slightly awkward. I hold the well, but he’s drawing from it like it’s the easiest thing in the world.
And his power is ecstatic to be back with him.
I can practically feel the giddy bubbles bursting inside me.
We draw to a stop in the deep, just above the seafloor, with what seems like twenty feet of ocean above us. Pressure pushes against my skull because of the depth, the sensation igniting my survival instincts.
Axl holds me tight, looking calm and at home as ever floating in the dark water, only small beams of light hitting the seafloor from the setting sun.
I lock eyes with him, raising my eyebrows in a what now question.
If he wanted to prove to me that he can draw his power from me at will now, then he’s most certainly done that, and it gets easier each time we practice.
My stopping it from snapping back unexpectedly is the hard part—almost impossible.
A punch hits me in the chest, his power careening back to me as if the mere thought makes it happen. I release a bit of my precious oxygen in a yelp from the shock of it, propelling my legs to head back to the surface. There’s no way I’m leaving Axl down here too long without his power.
His grip on me holds, and he tugs me back down, not allowing either of us to surface.
I tilt my head, eyes flaring as I yank on him.
He shakes his head.
My throat tightens, and my lungs burn. His have to be, too. I shove against him, trying to get us to surface.
Again, he stops me.
Goddess, this man is immovable. I want to claw at him.
Axl’s power thrashes inside me, searing with a sharp sting beneath my skin. The bond between us quakes as Axl twitches.
He didn’t take enough air.
He’s going to drown down here because he’s a stubborn ass who won’t let us go up for air. The idea of losing him, failing him in this way, sends me into a chaotic spiral. I’m going to make him regret this, the stubborn ass.
But first, I have to save him.
He twitches again, and I swear on the goddesses I’m going to lose my mind.
I dig my mental hands into his power. He does not die down here. And where Kal’s power is like holding a thread, Axl’s is a partnership, a submissive release into the waves. The sea won’t be controlled so much as convinced.
Once I submit to it, it’s all too easy to see I can’t get us to the surface fast enough, so in the span of one thought, I whirl my hand in a giant circle around us, creating a spherical pocket as I spear my own power toward the surface, yanking air back down and into the sphere to fill it.
We drop to the seafloor in a heap, the two of us gasping for breath as I struggle to meld the two powers together. It’s like braiding my hair, only with our bond and our powers, and my brain feels like it might melt from the effort.
Axl laughs as he climbs to his feet.
He laughs.
I catch my breath as I rush to him and slam my hands against his hard, massive chest, barely budging the giant an inch. “You stubborn asshole!”
“Maybe,” he says, not doing a thing to block me as I shove him again. “But look at how well you’re doing.” He eyes the bubble of safety I’ve created. “I can’t do this.”
I spare one second to look, to marvel at the constant motion of the sphere, the feel of whirling wind against my skin, the soft sandy floor beneath my bare feet. Maybe I could appreciate it more if I wasn’t so pissed off.
“You were dying from asphyxiation, Axl!” I hurl at him again.
“And you stopped that,” he fires back. “You’re still stopping it.”
I glare up at him. “You want me to master these powers that badly? At the cost of your life?”
“If it protects you? Helps you? Fuck yes.”
I shove him again, but this time, he stops me. His large, powerful hands capture my wrists, drawing me against him. I fight, but only for a second.
“I’m furious with you,” I say as he tugs me closer, the bond between us flaring.
“You can be mad at me all you want.” He dips his head.
“But you’re still maintaining these powers, and with enough steam left to roar at me.
” He drags his lips over mine in a teasing graze that melts me.
“When are you going to realize you weren’t just made for us?
You were made for this.” With his chin, he gestures to the space around us, emphasizing the amount of power I’m wielding.
Damn this man.
I want to throttle him.
I want to kiss him.
It varies from second to second.
“I’ve known it from the start,” he says, laying searing kisses along my jawline. “You’re most in control when your emotions are high. You require higher stakes. Who better to take those odds with than the Player?” He smirks down at me.
“I could claw at you right now,” I say, but the sting has left my voice.
He shrugs. “Then claw at me.” He releases my wrists, fully aware I’m not moving a muscle away from him.
“I’m not Kal,” he says. “I’m not going to hold your hand and give you time we don’t have.
I’m not Pierce,” he continues, dragging his fingers down my neck.
“I won’t mentally walk you through things.
I’m rough and to the point. I’m hard on you because I know you can handle it, even when you think you can’t. ”