Chapter 14
Reva
It feels strangely comforting to return to research mode with a pile of books stacked in front of us.
Torin heads off to find us enough food and drinks to keep us supplied for a week, let alone a few hours.
But once we’re fueled up with a huge pot of tea and a pile of these buttery little cake things that Cookie has made, we fall into the rhythm of scanning the pages and bookmarking anything that sounds remotely useful.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jack’s the one to break the silence.
“So, Kit, tell us more about these coven orgies,” Jack says, and Kit snorts a laugh, which has me instantly smiling as relief rolls through me. Right now, he seems much more himself than he did a few hours ago.
“I don’t know much,” Kit admits. “Just rumours. Aster probably knows more.”
But Aster’s also shaking his head, his cheeks flushing before he meets my eyes. “I must have missed that day at witch school.”
His eyes flit to Torin before landing on the floor, and my own cheeks start to heat.
That night we shared before we visited the labs—with Torin’s face between my legs while I straddled Aster—is etched into my brain, even though it feels like it happened a lifetime ago.
My core clenches, and I shift in position before settling back against the wall.
For someone who had three mates at one point, I’ve been living a remarkably sexless existence recently. And now it seems like we’ll be using sex for power.
I’ll be using them.
“What’s that face for?” Torin asks.
I hesitate for a moment before blurting out just a few of the dozens of thoughts bouncing around in my brain.
“I really hope we find something,” I groan, stretching my aching hip and simultaneously trying to massage my aching head. “I don’t know how long I can carry on like this. Plus, I’m worried about what happens if we have to run at any point and if I’m just going to be a liability to you all.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Torin says. “If I have you toss you over my invisible shoulders and swim for safety, I will. I’ll do whatever I have to in order to keep you safe.” He locks his eyes with mine, and I can practically feel the intensity rolling off him.
He then waves his arms in front of him. “And it’s not just for you, sweetness. Don’t forget that. If anyone’s a liability, it’s the guy so full of magic he’s literally disappearing.”
My gut twists at his words. “It’s getting worse?”
“It’s not getting better,” he replies. Then he rolls up his sleeves to show me it reaches just beyond his wrists.
“Do you think this could give Kit a boost too?” I ask, causing both him and Aster to glance up from their pages.
“To help strengthen the curses, you mean?” Kit asks.
I nod, pushing my hair away from where it’s dangling in front of my face. “Exactly. It seems like what you’ve tried so far hasn’t been working.”
“What’s this about strengthening curses?” Jack asks. “Anything in particular you’re trying to curse?”
I glance at Kit, my eyes widening with horror as it dawns on me that his and Finch’s plan isn’t common knowledge among the rest of the crew. He gives a minute shake of his head.
“Just around the island,” Kit says smoothly. “Trying to make sure the wards are strong enough to hold anyone off.”
There’s a moment where Jack’s eyes dart from me to Kit and back again, like he’s trying to work out if there’s something he’s missing. I flatten my expression, not about to reveal any more than I already have.
“What happens after it works?” Torin asks. “If we have the chance to get out of here and move on. What next? Do you want to go back to your shop?”
Kit leans back against the wall, letting out a soft hum as he ponders the question.
“I don’t think so. I managed to skirt by before without anyone knowing too much about me.
It’s a small town where everyone knows each other’s business, and they’d never get over the scandal of one of their own being wanted by the king’s men. ”
“What about you, Aster?”
My gentle witch shakes his head with a little smile. “I have no clue about the future, not when I’m barely finding my feet as it is.”
“You’re learning a whole new language and have become the crew’s medic all in a few weeks,” Kit replies. “I’d say you’re smashing it.”
Aster’s smile widens. “I’ve got visions of heading home, seeing my family again, at least to let them know I’m still alive if nothing else.” He clears his throat, his gaze flicking away from me as he adds, “I’d like for you to come too. For you to meet them.”
I reach out and squeeze his hand as warmth bubbles over just beneath my ribs. “Of course.”
He gives me a look that’s almost overwhelming in its intense warmth, and I find myself grinning back at him, hoping that we get to make a trip soon. And that we find his family are all right when we get there.”
“What about you, Torin? You want to be a pirate forever?”
He snorts, flipping the page and readjusting his reading glasses. “I don’t think any of us would choose to do it forever. We’re just not welcome doing anything else.”
I think back to that scene we witnessed in the nearby town last week. How the beast-borne were treated, ostracised by their own family even in a place they’d lived their entire lives.
“What would you want to do?” Kit asks me.
I shake my head, pausing to get my thoughts in order before I reply, “Part of me yearns for the picture Aster painted of his childhood. His family farm, growing their own vegetables and going to the market every week.” I wrinkle my nose in a grimace.
“Not that part where you had no money and you had to leave, of course. Maybe I’m romanticising it, but it sounds nice to be so settled like that.
It sounds like a proper family.” I shrug. “I think I’d like that.”
Everyone falls silent for a moment as we contemplate the safe life I’m envisaging for myself.
Then Jack snorts, breaking the moment. “Really? You want to be a farmer?” His tone is incredulous. “Don’t you speak a million languages?”
“A half dozen or so, yes. But I’ve also spent my whole life running,” I tell him honestly.
“It’s a lonely life. You go from place to place, never belonging anywhere, always the outsider.
There’s something incredibly hollow about knowing you can leave a place and know that no one will notice.
You can never leave a mark anywhere or make any true friends. ”
“Until you do,” Kit says, reaching out to grab my hand and press a kiss to my palm. “I don’t know how you managed it before or how clueless people in those other towns were, but you’ve never been someone I could forget. Not for a moment.”
“Same here,” Torin rumbles while Aster gives me a shy smile.
The air feels stretched tight between us as I meet each of their gazes for a heated moment.
Maybe it’s the content of the books we’re reading, or maybe it’s that we’re all together like this for the first time, but it suddenly feels like someone has stoked the fireplace in here and the temperature has risen a few degrees.
Then Finch appears in the doorway, his eyebrows raised and his tentacles fanning his face. “Not interrupting too much, am I?”
“You are, actually,” Torin grumbles.
“Ah, well, I need Kit’s help with something. Don’t worry, I’ll drop him back when we’re done.”
“I’ll come too,” Torin says, giving me a significant look. I nod at him, glad that he’ll be looking out for Kit while they’re gone.
Not that I don’t trust Finch to look out for his brother, but he does have a tendency to get a bit... distracted.
We spend another couple of hours scouring the pages of the books, working our way through until we have a better idea of what’s involved in a ritual to use sexual energy to boost our collective power.
By this point, it’s dark outside and my eyes are starting to feel heavy while the headache at my temple has only grown more intense.
“It seems fairly straightforward, really,” I say with a jaw-cracking yawn. “Sex. Moonlight. Magic. The more sex and the better it is, the stronger the result.”
My cheeks are overheating again, and I gulp down some water to wet my parched throat.
“Well, it seems like my work here is done,” Jack says, jumping to his feet before groaning as he clutches his injured gut. “I don’t think I’ve ever read so many words in one go before, and I don’t know about you two, but I need a nap.”
“You go,” I tell him, piling the books back into the bag he brought them in. “You’ve helped loads already. I just don’t want the rest of the crew catching sight of these, or we’ll never hear the end of it.”
He gives a little wave before hobbling off.
“And then there were two,” I say to Aster with a grin. “I think we’re done here. Any more reading and my head’s going to explode.”
“I’m sorry,” Aster says. “I feel like this is my fault. If I’d been better. Smarter. I could have kept control over my magic and we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
I shake my head. “Noush would still be gone.”
“If I’d broken the gag on myself sooner, maybe we could have—”
“No.” I crawl closer to him before stopping on my knees beside him. “Don’t do that. No more self-flagellation.”
“I’ve had shit luck for a lot of years now,” he says. “But it felt like that streak had broken when I met you.”
“Aster—”
“And I know, I know we can’t go back to how things were before. But part of me is glad I broke the gag. That way I’m not such a burden on you, relying on you to speak for me.” He tries to clear his throat, swallowing hard. “Even if it meant losing you.”
My chest aches for him and for me. “You haven’t lost me,” I tell him. “And part of me is glad too, in an odd sort of way. This way we choose each other. We’re not forced together. That’s why this whole sex magic thing seems odd. Wrong. Like we’re forcing it.”
Aster cups my cheek, pressing a kiss to my jaw. He hesitates for a moment, pulling back to look me in the eye. My heart rate picks up as I suck in short breaths of air that’s full of Aster’s scent.
When I don’t pull away screaming, he slowly dampens his lips and kisses me.