Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Martin
Our quest to find more treasure didn’t last long.
It seemed that now that he’d heard the core buzzweed’s song, Gray simply couldn’t shake it.
Even with my help, the song still tugged at him.
Gray said it was a constant hum poking his brain.
His wisp form was very keen to constantly return to the core buzzweed.
Gray thought maybe it was because the treasure hadn’t truly been revealed and claimed.
He hadn’t sounded terribly certain and I could feel his doubt resonate within the spark of his magic I now held. Constantly battling the core buzzweed’s song exhausted Gray and I didn’t need his piece of magic to tell me his stamina was fading.
We’d retreated to my quarters and found a completely different way to distract our restless minds. A decidedly more pleasurable and sticky way.
“I knew you had a great ass,” Gray murmured, his cheek pressed against my chest as his fingers traced circles along my left thigh. “A really great ass,” Gray hummed, clearly pleased with the situation. “Nice and strong with hips made for ramming that thick piece of wood between—”
“Sweet Gaia, that’s enough.” My face felt feverish with embarrassment. I’d quickly discovered that Gray’s verbal filter was far looser than mine. Expressing his thoughts and feelings didn’t seem to be something Gray had trouble doing.
“Oh,” Gray practically purred. “I don’t think it’s hardly enough.
” Tilting his head so his chin now rested on my chest, Gray’s light blue eyes stared up at me, a mischievous twinkle making them sparkle.
Hand sliding from my hip to my cheek, Gray’s fingers lightly danced across my skin.
“I never considered what it would be like, having sex with my anchor. I could feel your pleasure. It was like a drug, feeding off itself and growing stronger with each passing second. I’ve never felt anything like that. ”
“Me either.” I ran my fingers through Gray’s soft hair.
It felt like cotton. “I’m afraid you might be stuck with me now.
” I swallowed the lump in my throat, hoping beyond hope that Gray felt the same and that I hadn’t just scared him off.
Will-o’-the-wisps were wanderers. Settling down wasn’t typically in their wheelhouse.
“I believe we are very stuck together.” Gray waggled his eyebrows. “We really should have cleaned up right away.” Gray sighed heavily. “I was enjoying lounging and relishing the afterglow and now we are well and truly glued together.”
My heart dropped. Did Gray think I was simply talking about our body fluids? Did he not understand that I—
“Shh.” Gray placed a finger on my lips even though I hadn’t spoken a word.
“I can feel you spiraling.” Going up on his elbows, Gray stared down at me, his lips quirked in a languid grin.
“I’m being a little shit and teasing you.
I should know better. I’m afraid you’re right.
We are well and truly stuck together in every conceivable way.
Before you freak out, I’m saying I’m afraid you’re right, not because of concern for me, but for you.
We both know what I am and how dryad’s typically feel about will-o’-the-wisps. ”
“I don’t feel that way anymore.” I hurried to reassure him. “I’m sorry that I ever—”
“Don’t be sorry. Your concerns and feelings aren’t baseless.
” Gray swallowed so hard I saw his Adam’s apple bob.
“I… What I’m saying is that I kind of feel like I might have roped you into all of this.
I feel like maybe I took advantage of your kindness and need to help your friends.
I needed an anchor and you volunteered. I could have told you no. I could have—”
“I don’t regret a thing. You know that.”
Gray’s smile was soft and held a tinge of sadness.
“I do know that. I can feel it. In here.” He tapped his chest, right over his heart.
“What I’m afraid of is that the piece of my magic lodged in you”—Gray tapped my chest—“is manipulating your feelings. If we hadn’t exchanged magic, would you still feel the same? ”
My immediate reaction was to claim that I would.
I forced that reaction down. Gray was being serious and he deserved an equal, well-considered response.
Would I still feel the same? I wasn’t 100 percent certain, but I couldn’t imagine not loving him.
The very fact that I’d so willingly agreed to be his anchor spoke volumes.
I wouldn’t have been so adamant that I be the one if I hadn’t already had feelings for Gray.
That was the truth I held to, the one that I came back to again and again.
“I can’t say it would have happened as quickly if we hadn’t shared our magic,” I finally answered.
“I probably wouldn’t have been as certain and there would have been a lot more misunderstandings, false starts, and bumps in the road.
But I believe the end destination would have been the same.
Sharing our magic just made it a smoother journey. ”
Head cocked to the side, Gray’s smile turned a little more hopeful. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, lifting my head to meet him for a kiss. Gray’s lips were softer than I’d thought they’d be. They were plush and inviting, easily molding against my own, yielding and eager.
Pulling away with a satisfied groan, Gray settled his head back on my chest. My arms wrapped around him, tucking him close. “I don’t ever want to leave this bed,” Gray lamented. “I know we’ll have to. I’m just saying, for the record, that I’ll be against the move.”
I chuckled, shaking Gray. “For the record, your thoughts have been duly noted and seconded.”
“Good.” Gray’s body relaxed into mine. For a moment, I thought he might have fallen asleep. Evidently his silence had been due to thought, not slumber. “What do you think Huxley was thinking when he trapped that pixie’s magic?”
My good mood vanished, tension filling my previously loosened limbs. “I don’t want to know.”
“No, I know that, but I think we need to. It’s protective magic. That means he wanted to protect something.”
“Given recent events, I’d say the only thing Tenzen Huxley would have found valuable enough to protect was his own damn self.”
“I can’t argue that.” Gray’s fingers were back to tracing absent designs on my thigh.
“But how? That much magic… No one knows how pixies manage it, but if you tried to place that kind of magic into a being that already possessed magic…I can’t imagine the outcome would be positive.
And it would have to be something living.
That type of raw magic wouldn’t work otherwise.
” Gray swallowed hard. “Do you think he meant it for Frost? I know he’s not a full pixie, but… maybe it would have worked.”
I barely suppressed the shiver running down my spine. “I don’t know. If so, the joke would have been on him. Frost’s shifter side mated with a vampire. Maybe it still would have worked, if it ever would have to begin with, but I doubt it. Let’s hope we never need find out.”
Gray shivered, and I pulled the covers up over his shoulders. “Cold?” I asked.
“Yes, but I don’t think it’s temperature-related.”
I knew exactly what he meant. I’d felt the same way when I realized exactly where the core buzzweed was located.
Was it simply coincidence that it was below my birth soil?
At least three stories deep, to my knowledge, my roots had never come close to it.
Then again, would I have known if they had?
Before becoming Gray’s anchor, I hadn’t been aware of any of the buzzweeds.
Now, when he was in wisp form and I could hear its song, I knew, without a doubt, where it was located.
I hadn’t realized when we found it. Now I knew, and I had no idea what to do with that knowledge.
For some reason, I hadn’t told Gray. Maybe I didn’t want to worry him, or maybe voicing my thoughts out loud would make my own concern real.
Maybe Gray had already figured it out, but I didn’t think so.
Gray said my birth soil’s song overruled all others when he was near it.
Considering what a maze the compound was, I doubted Gray understood the core’s proximity.
Pushing thoughts of the buzzweeds aside, I rubbed my hands up and down Gray’s arms, shoulders, and over his back, attempting to warm him up from the outside in.
“Hmm…that feels good. Don’t stop, I—”
“Keir needs you.”
I jerked, instinctively rolling Gray beneath me, shielding his body from our ghostly intruder. “Elvira! A little privacy would be nice.”
“I’ve no time to care about your living, carnal desires, Martin. Keir sent me to get you. You are needed in the reception area.”
Gray wiggled out from underneath me. “The reception area? Is that where I was first taken?”
“It is,” Elvira answered. “We have an unwanted guest. Keir is unable to attend as Lazarus requested he stay and protect the eggs. Keir wants you there in his stead.”
I scooted to the edge of the bed, already reaching for my pants. “Why isn’t Lazarus staying with the eggs?” I asked as I shoved one foot into the fabric.
“He has gone to meet the visitor.”
My head snapped up, a lance of fear piercing my heart. “I thought Thalia wasn’t due to arrive until tomorrow.” Besides, I doubted Keir would call Thalia an unwanted guest.
“It is not Thalia that has arrived, but another.”
Before I could ask, Gray said, “Wyvern?”
“Indeed. It would seem the knowledge regarding the eggs is no longer secret.”
“Shit,” Gray and I said in unison before we stood, dressing completely and hustling out the door.
The tense pressure filling the room nearly sent me to my knees. Gray’s reaction was similar and he immediately reached out, grasping my forearm. My branches elongated, wrapping around him and pulling him close.
Lazarus stood there, legs braced apart as if he were ready and prepared to rush the female he was currently arguing with. Smoke filled the room, along with more than a few eroded, hissing wounds in the floor.