Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Z
W e followed Ryland to the tent we had been first brought to when we arrived at the camp.
The spindly fingers of dawn clambered upwards in the sky, tearing at the veil of night. The result was a patchwork of lavender and obsidian, interspersed here and there with fading stars.
The camp was unnaturally silent—almost too silent. I strained my ears, listening for the sound of laughter or fighting or even the warriors waking up for the day.
But there was nothing.
Bash glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, and I wondered if his thoughts headed in the same direction as my own. A muscle thrummed in his jaw.
I placed my hand on the small of Ryland’s back and pushed up on my tiptoes to whisper, “Why is it so silent?”
Ryland barely glanced at me when he answered, “Because there’s hardly anyone here.”
My unease ratcheted up a dozen notches, and a strange type of tension seeped into my muscles. My shoulders felt as they had when I dangled from the ceiling, only for an entirely different reason.
The three of us slipped into the tent and immediately came face-to-face with my other mates.
Devlin reached me first, grabbing at my waist and burrowing his head in the crook of my neck. His heart beat erratically against my palm, which had found its way onto his chest.
“Z…” he breathed reverently, air stirring the golden curls near my ear.
“Can someone please tell me what’s going on? Before I go insane?” I gently pulled away from Devlin to face the rest of the room.
Mali was there, her face pale, but the bruises that once covered her had now healed, at least somewhat. Instead of dark purple, they were a yellowish shade of green, barely noticeable against her tan complexion. And beside her stood B, his lips thinned and his arms folded. Davia sat next to him.
I didn’t see Turner, which probably shouldn’t have pleased me as much as it did. I wouldn’t say I hated the pompous prick, but…
I strongly disliked him and often envisioned skinning him alive.
Ryland led me to a seat at the table—conveniently located at the head. He claimed the one to the right of me while Bash slid into the other.
”Explain. Now.” I balled my hands into fists and placed them on the table.
Wary glances were exchanged before Davia cleared her throat. “I don’t know where to start.”
“The beginning?” Bash drawled, reclining backwards.
But I knew his indolence was just a front. I could see the tension lining the muscles in his neck and shoulders and the keen way his eyes surveyed the assembled group.
“What the fuck happened to you two?” Lupe exploded.
He removed his glasses and rubbed at a crease between his eyebrows.
Quickly, I told them about the first trial, refusing to leave anything out. No one was happy when I explained the blistering pain that exploded within me whenever Bash used his magic. Killian, at one point, stood and leaned over the table so he could see me better—his gaze intent on my neck and wrists, which should’ve been littered with fresh bruises and lacerations.
“I have no idea if this means we passed or failed,” Bash cut in, his lips pursed. “We ended up back here, obviously, but?—”
“You passed.” The quiet confirmation came from Mali, who, up until then, had been silent, her head lowered. She glanced up at me then, absently brushing away a lank brown curl. “You definitely passed.”
“How do you know?” Bash tilted his head to the side curiously.
“Because a few days ago, hundreds and hundreds of mages arrived at our camp,” Davia answered, her voice unusually soft. “We thought we were under attack until an old, naked man stepped forward?—”
“Paco,” Bash groaned.
Bash’s grandfather—and the former king—had helped us before, when I was dying from a deadly poison. He was an eccentric old man. And by eccentric, I meant utterly insane.
“The mages said they were loyal to the new mage king and Liberator,” Devlin added, rubbing his palm across his jaw. “They claimed they received a vision from Lilith herself.”
Bash’s mouth dropped open, shock splaying across his handsome face.
“ What ?” He slammed both of his hands down on the table.
“We were understandably wary at first, but the mages have…” B struggled to find the right words. “They helped us. Placed enchantments around the camp to hide it from anyone who wishes to see us harmed. Created spells that the humans are capable of using in battle.”
“There’s still a lot of tension between the two groups,” Dair added. “But it almost feels as if something…changed.”
“And you think Lilith had a part to play in that change?” I asked, incredulous.
It was difficult to reconcile the woman I saw in Aaliyah’s vision with the one who seemed to be helping me. But was she helping me? Or was this some kind of ruse I didn’t yet understand?
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Ryland placed his hand over mine on the table and gave it a squeeze. “You disappeared with Bash, completed the first trial, and suddenly, we have a bunch of mages swearing their loyalty to the once despised prince and a human.”
“And you trust them?” I asked again, unable to wrap my head around this new development.
My first thought—a product, I was sure, of years of being lied to and betrayed—was that this was a trap. That the oblivious humans had fallen right into the snare and were just waiting for the cage to drop and the hunter to appear.
“You don’t understand, Z.” B’s haggard face appeared even more wrinkled than before, limned in the flickering candlelight before him. Dark shadows marred the skin beneath both of his eyes. “They’ve helped us.”
“You said that?—”
“They freed most of the humans in their territory,” Lupe interjected, effectively cutting off my protest.
The mages freed the humans?
“Of course, there are still mages who are resisting,” Dair added. “But they’ve been either rounded up or they chose to flee.”
A strange pounding had taken up residency in my head. I placed my hand to my forehead as if that could somehow stop it.
“I just don’t understand how an entire species’ opinion could change in a span of days,” I murmured, hope and disbelief clamoring inside of me, a corrosive mixture.
And hope, I had come to realize, was a jagged, rusted knife. It might not be sharp enough to slice efficiently, but it was capable of festering.
“I agree with Z,” Bash said.
Suspicion clung to his features, deepening the furrow between his brows.
“And that doesn’t explain where everyone currently is.” I dropped my hand from my face and leveled my gaze on Dair. “And why you are back in a wheelchair.”
Dair offered me a sheepish smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes, as a maelstrom of emotion whipped around in my chest.
What the fuck happened when we were away? If someone hurt Dair, I would find a way to make them pay. I would tear their eyeballs straight from their sockets, shove them up their ass, and?—
“I can answer your first question.” Davia straightened in the chair, a feat I didn’t think was possible considering her posture had already been immaculate. She pointed at the map in front of her. “We have a second camp set up here.” She gestured towards where the Mage Kingdom bled into the Vampire Kingdom. “And here.” She pointed towards another spot on the map, this one directly next to the capitol building. “We hope to send the majority of our troops into the Vampire Kingdom next in order to free the humans there. With the mages on our side, it should be a walk in the park.”
An uneasy feeling spiraled through me. I couldn’t help but remember my time at the Vampire Kingdom, when I was kidnapped and sold at the Blood Carnival. There, I had met a little boy, who had passed away in the resulting battle. His sister, Mary-Lynette, was being looked after by a close friend of mine—Axel, the ex-assassin for the seven kings.
I wondered how they were doing, if they were surviving the capital’s politics. I hadn’t heard from them in far too long, and I made a mental note to get in contact as soon as possible.
“We need a larger force if we have any hope of freeing the humans from the Shifter work camps,” B added.
Lupe’s expression darkened at the mention of his father’s activities. The bastard might have been locked away in the dungeons, but his influence remained regardless.
“But if Z completes the Wrath trials, then wouldn’t the shifters have no choice but to follow us?” Bash interjected, a taut frown on his face.
“I told you before,” Davia began, “that not all mages are accepting of this change. Some have decided to back the rightful rulers, while others are stuck following the old ways. Mages, more than any other nightmare, are closer to humans in a lot of aspects. We’ve always suspected that there were mages who sympathized with our cause. It was surprisingly easy to get the majority on our side.”
“And who knows when the next trial will occur,” added Jax, absently fiddling with a piece of paper. He began to tear it into tiny ribbons, his gaze fixed on the table.
“All of this is interesting and all,” I cut in, my tone scathing, “but it still doesn’t explain to me why the fuck Dair is in a wheelchair!”
Silence descended in the tent—an acrimonious type that had unease skittering down my spine and my body turning into one giant goose bump.
Dair had endured unspeakable torture at the hands of his father and brothers. Daily, he would have his legs cut off and then receive a potion that would grow them back. The cycle continued for years until I put a stop to it. However, Paco gave Dair a potion that was supposed to extend his time with two working legs. And if Paco was here, then that meant he could get a refill.
“Z—” Dair began in a placating voice.
“Don’t Z me. Why are you in a chair? Where is Paco? Why hasn’t he?—”
“Z, I chose to be in the chair,” Dair interrupted.
The sharpest edge of my anger dulled.
Surely, I hadn’t heard him correctly. He couldn’t mean?—
“What?” I gaped at him, struggling to find the words.
My other mates exchanged looks over my head, and then Devlin stood. “We’ll give you two a moment.”
He seemed a lot more willing to grant me one-on-one time with Dair than he had with Ryland.
Mali, B, and Davia trailed after my mates, leaving me alone with my mermaid.
For the first time since I arrived back at the camp, I allowed myself to look at him— really look at him, without six other mates around, all demanding my attention.
Dark bruises marked the space beneath his eyes, and his golden skin was paler than usual, but other than that, he appeared…fine. His burnished gold hair shone in the candlelight, the strands appearing darker where they hid in the shadows, and his blue eyes were bright and sparkling.
“Don’t look at me like that.” A wry grin tugged up the corners of Dair’s mouth.
“How am I looking at you?” I asked softly.
“Like I lost my mind.” He pushed himself away from the table and wheeled towards me.
Unlike the tent we were staying in, this one had a smooth ground—almost as if they’d erected the tent over wooden floorboards.
“I just don’t understand,” I confessed, reaching for him.
His strong arms picked me up as if I weighed nothing and settled me on his lap. I’d always loved how strong he was, how safe and secure I felt in his embrace.
“I love you, Dair, and that doesn’t change if you’re in a wheelchair. But why would you choose?—”
“Do you remember what we talked about weeks ago? When we were at the resistance camp in the mountain?” Dair asked, and the abrupt change in topic took me off guard.
“Um…?”
We’d talked about a lot of things. The biggest takeaway was what had already been confirmed—that I was a reincarnated angel or demon or angel-demon hybrid and that my men were the original Seven Deadly Sins.
You know, completely normal things to discover about yourself.
Oh! Did I mention that I had an evil sister hellbent on corrupting me and killing my mates?
“B mentioned that there was a way to counter a king’s spell,” Dair said, and I frowned, not sure where he was going with this.
“You have to ground up the bones of the past kings,” I recited. “But?—”
“Every kingdom has a cemetery dedicated to the royal family.” A strange eagerness lit a fire behind Dair’s eyes, turning the sea-blue luminescent. Then he began to ramble, and I struggled to hold on to every word he said. “At first, I thought I could use the bones of kings still alive. It would be fucked up and a little messy, but they deserve it after what they did to us. Except for Ryland’s father, of course. But then Paco said that the bones must be from a dead king, and I thought?—”
“Dair, slow down. Breathe.” I placed my hands on his shoulders, feeling the muscles tremble beneath my touch. “I don’t understand.”
“Now that we have control over the Mage Kingdom, we were able to extract the body of a king and use one of his bones for the spell.” Dair sucked in a harrowed breath, and a tiny, beatific grin teased the edges of his lips. “Z, with time, I could get all of the bones I need to complete the spell.”
That still didn’t answer the question.
“And you’re in the wheelchair because…?” I supported him one hundred percent and loved him regardless, but I knew he struggled with the physical limitations of being in a chair.
“Because Paco said the magic wouldn’t work if I had other spells in my system—including the one that allowed me to walk for a short period of time.” He cupped my face between his palms and beamed. It was a wide, unencumbered smile that made my heart gallop in my chest. “I can handle being in a wheelchair for a few weeks if it means I’ll be able to walk, Z. Actually walk. No more spells. No more potions.”
His hope was infectious, and I felt an answering smile pull at my own lips before it straightened out.
“But Dair, we have no idea how long this will take. Couldn’t you take the potion for now and?—”
He was already shaking his head. “Paco said my bloodstream must be one hundred percent clear of any spell or potion. I’m not risking it.”
His logic made sense, in a way, but it also made me terrified. Was he saying that until he could retrieve all of the bones, he’d be vulnerable to attack? Couldn’t he simply use the potion Paco had until we were positive we had the?—
Wait a minute.
I narrowed my eyes at Dair.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” I accused.
Dair noticeably winced. “I don’t?—”
“Don’t lie to me, or so help me…” I allowed the threat to trail off because I honestly didn’t know what I would do to him. I leaned in even closer until his blue eyes were all I could see, consuming my vision. “There’s more to the story, isn’t there?”
He forked his fingers through his golden hair. “I just didn’t want you to worry.”
“Consider me worried.” I folded my arms over my chest and glared at him. It was a little awkward to do, considering I still sat on his lap. “Tell me the real reason why you aren’t taking the potion.”
“It doesn’t work anymore,” Dair said in a rush.
His words took me by surprise. I expected him to say that Paco refused to make him a batch or there would be unseemly side effects like a flaccid cock. But I certainly didn’t expect Dair to confess that the potion—the one thing currently enabling him to stand—wasn’t working.
My heart vaulted into my throat.
“What do you mean?”
Dair leaned in closer, skimming his mouth down the side of my neck.
I scowled and said, “Don’t distract me.”
Yet, even as I said that, I craned my head to grant him better access. His teeth grazed my pulse point before he reluctantly pulled away.
“I’m not stupid, Z. I know I’m a liability in this damn chair.”
“That’s not true?—”
“It is.” Dair shook his head and then offered me a tight smile—one that resembled shattered glass, effectively cutting me up inside. “I actually lost my ability to walk shortly after you and Bash disappeared. I didn’t have any vials on hand until Paco appeared. He gave me one, and it worked…but only for a few hours. I thought that there was a problem with the potion. Maybe he brewed it differently? But Paco told me—in his weird, creepy way—that I had worked up an immunity over the years. The next vial I took lasted less than an hour. The third one?” He huffed out a dry, humorless laugh. “Nothing happened.”
My stomach pitched. “Oh…Dair.”
“This is my last option, Z. If this spell doesn’t work, then I’ll be stuck…” He swallowed and lowered his head.
Pain barreled through me, but it wasn’t my agony I was feeling. It was his. Not literally, of course, but I swore I could feel his anguish as if it were my own.
“Even if you’re in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, that won’t change anything for me. I’ll still love you. And I’ll still think you’re way too good for someone like me.” I ran my fingers through his golden hair as I spoke.
“How can I protect you when I’m in a chair?” Dair asked, his voice a whisper. “How can I be what you need?”
The more he spoke, the tighter my chest coiled.
“I don’t want you to think like that,” I said softly, grazing my fingertips over his jawline. “I shouldn’t have implied that you needed to be able to walk. I’m sorry. You’re perfect the way you are.”
“Now you’re just trying to make me feel better.” Dair, almost absently, fiddled with the straps of my shirt, pushing them down my shoulders until the tops of my breasts were visible.
Two lines knit between his eyebrows as he stared intently at the cleavage revealed.
“Remember our promise to each other?” I asked, watching as my shirt slid down even farther until both of my breasts were entirely bared.
Dair immediately cupped them in his hands and began to run the pads of his thumbs over my nipples. Heat reddened my skin and prickled my fingertips. My hands flexed where they rested on Dair’s shoulders.
“We’ve made a lot of promises to each other,” Dair said lightly, ducking his head to take my breast into his mouth.
His tongue tantalizingly circled the tip, flicking my nipple back and forth, before he sucked it into his mouth.
I almost lost my train of thought, consumed by sensation. It took considerable effort to focus on the conversation.
“We’ve promised to say one thing we love about each other every day.” I fisted my fingers into those golden waves as his fingers pinched and plucked at my neglected breast.
I could feel him growing hard underneath me.
“Then I have a lot of days to catch up on.” Dair’s breathy chuckle reverberated through me. “Well, I love your tits.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“And your nipples. I could play with them for hours.” He sucked on one for emphasis before releasing it and planting a chaste kiss to the tip. He moved his lips up my breasts to my shoulder, and then to my neck. “I love your laugh. Your smile. The way your nose wrinkles when you’re annoyed or confused. That furrow between your brows whenever you’re contemplating someone’s murder?—”
“I don’t have a murder furrow,” I protested.
“You totally do.” I could feel Dair’s grin against my skin. “You probably have it right now.” His hand left my breast, crept up my side, and then settled directly between my eyebrows. He pulled away at the same moment to stare up at me and grinned. “Yup. There it is.”
“Shut up.” But my voice was breathy with desire.
I’d just had sex with Ryland and Bash, but I wouldn’t be sated until I had all of my mates. I needed Dair just as much as the others. I had to tell him that he was perfect the way he was, that he didn’t need to be standing for me to love him. That he?—
“My eyes!” The dramatic voice was followed by a masculine cry of pain.
I turned, scrambling to shove my breasts back into my shirt, to see B standing in the entrance of the tent, his hands covering his face. Devlin stood behind him, glowering, and Bash stood to his right, a wide, shit-eating grin on his face. Ryland snickered from somewhere farther back.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Bash said, though he sounded more smug than apologetic.
Dair glared and helped me fix my shirt. “Assholes.”
Devlin’s frown deepened. “One of our spies returned to the camp. She claims she saw Aaliyah.”