21. Quill #2
I turned to Aeron, still clutching his hand.
His half-shifted form was beginning to recede, his bulging limbs receding back to their normal size as his breathing gradually steadied.
His eyes were still that blazing gold, and when they met mine, I saw something in them that made my stomach clench. Fear. Genuine, raw fear. For me.
“Are you hurt?” he asked immediately, his clawed hand coming up to cup my face with surprising gentleness.
“No,” I said, though every muscle in my body was screaming in protest. “Are you?”
“I’m fine,” he lied. I could see the burn marks where that woman’s magic had seared his skin, the way he was favoring his left side. But I didn’t push it. Not now.
“I’m sorry to force a teleportation on everyone like that,” Dax said, glancing our way, though his attention was mostly fixed on Wild. “You know Elias would never forgive me if I let something happen to you, Wild.”
“I know,” he sighed, his eyes no longer filled with their usual mischievousness. He just looked… exhausted. “I just… I wanted to stop her. I need to stop her, Atlas.”
Atlas? Who the hell was Atlas?
“Who was that?” the werewolf asked, wrapping his arms around Wild. It was intimate, but I had a feeling he was literally holding Wild up too. “What did she want?”
“That,” Wild said, looking up. “Was my mother. She’s back.”
The werewolf’s eyes went wide. “That… That’s not possible. We sealed her in that cube of binding and sent her beyond the gate of death. There’s no coming back from that.”
“Apparently there is,” Wild said quietly, and I could hear the weight of centuries in those few words. “And she’s fucking pissed.”
The werewolf, Atlas, apparently, looked like he wanted to argue, but one glance at Wild’s face seemed to convince him otherwise. Instead, he just held the fae closer, his jaw clenching with a fury that made even me take a small step back.
I was still processing everything that had happened in the last ten minutes.
Wild was actually Elder Briar Hall. Dax was apparently someone important enough that Wild cared about disappointing him.
And Wild’s mother, who was supposedly dead, sealed away beyond some kind of death gate, was very much alive and currently trying to destroy Widdershins Academy with an army of undead.
My head was spinning.
“Where are we?” I asked, looking around the grand foyer with its soaring ceilings and expensive-looking everything. It felt like we’d stepped into another world entirely, one that was far removed from the chaos and carnage of the campus we’d just fled.
“Our sanctuary,” Atlas said, still watching Wild with an intensity that suggested he was afraid the fae might disappear if he looked away for too long. “Deep within the Veil.”
“How is that possible?” Aeron asked, his voice rough and confused. He was still holding onto me, and I was grateful for it. My legs felt like they might give out at any second. “There is nothing in the Veil. It’s just water and spirits.”
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know, Aeron Pyre,” Atlas replied. “Things that have been kept secret from you, and from everyone else.”
“Atlas!”
I looked up to see a man rushing into the room with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He looked vaguely familiar. Almost like that other guy Lysander had over once in a while…
The man nearly tackled Atlas, throwing his arms around his neck and kissing him full on the mouth. “I was so worried! When I heard about the attack I—”
“I’m okay, Caden,” Atlas purred, kissing him back. “Not even a scratch.”
Caden slid out of his arms, giving him a once over before he turned to Wild. To my surprise, he threw his arms around Wild next and pressed his lips to the fae’s as well.
“Ow, ow, ow,” Wild hissed through gritted teeth. “I did get beat up a bit.”
“Sorry,” Caden said, pulling back slightly. “I’ll heal you. I’ve got lots of salve prepped—”
“Wilderain Briar Hall!”
Another man appeared through one of the doors looking furious. He was shorter than the others, with dark hair, and intense dark eyes that told me instantly that I should be afraid of him. He fixed that glare on Wild and stormed across the foyer.
“Why didn’t you get the hell out of there when I told you to?!”
“Because my mother was there,” Wild said quietly, meeting the man’s gaze without flinching.
He stopped dead in his tracks. “That’s not possible.”
“That’s what everyone keeps saying,” Wild huffed. “But she was there. Atlas saw her too. And so did these two,” he added, gesturing to me and Aeron.
The man hesitated for a moment before stepping closer. He lifted a hand, pressing it tenderly to a bruise on Wild’s cheek. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Elias,” he nodded, placing a soft kiss on his lips. “Really. Atlas got me out in time.”
I stood there, watching all of this with my jaw practically sitting on the floor.
“Okay,” Aeron said at last, breaking whatever tender moment these four men were having. “I hate to break up this admittedly hot polyamorous thing you all have going on right now, but will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?”