Chapter 22
Aster
Every part of my body aches as I force myself to crawl over the blankets to Reva and coax her into swallowing down yet another potion.
This one should hopefully be the last one of the night, and then we can all get some much-needed sleep.
Ignoring the pain in my knees, I then pass the mug to Torin before continuing around the room, nudging Kit out of his doze to swallow a mouthful.
I feel like I’ve aged thirty years when I get to my feet, fighting a wave of discomfort as I wrap a spare blanket around my bottom half as I make my way over to Finch, gesturing for him to take a sip too.
He might not have been involved tonight, but he was still here, and that matters. I don’t want any minor oversight to ruin the entire thing.
Once he hands me back the mug with a raised eyebrow, but no complaint, I take my own healthy swig and clear my raw throat.
“It’s time.” I sound like I’ve swallowed a bunch of razor blades and feel like it too.
Everyone stirs slowly. We’re all exhausted, hollowed out husks of the people we were a few hours ago.
When I last staggered out of here to fetch the final potion, there was bright moonlight pouring through the nearest window, and all sounds from last night’s party had gone quiet.
It must be deep into the night by now. Which means we were building up to this next part for hours.
No wonder I feel wrung out.
It’s been both one of the strangest and the best nights of my life. So much so, there’s an oddly dreamlike quality to it. Knowing my luck, I’ll wake up any moment to discover none of it has been real with the whimpers of my neighbours in the basement and the skittering of rats to keep me company.
My breathing quickens, and I take a deep breath, letting the air in the room fill my lungs. Surely no dream would smell like this. Swallowing hard, I wince at how much I’ve butchered my throat from moaning and groaning all night long.
The pain is good. Grounding.
I’m really here, and we’re really doing this.
“What’s next?” Kit asks, rubbing his eyes. His hair is a floppy mess, curls drooping around his ears.
“We need to form a circle around Reva and her skin and each of us needs one hand on each of them. Do not break the circle,” I say, listening carefully as Reva translates from my native language. There’s no way I’m risking mistranslations at this point.
“Then I’ll draw out the magic and it should surge into each of us. We then collectively push it into the skin and into Reva at the same time.”
Torin narrows his eyes at me once Reva’s finished translating. “It won’t hurt her, will it?”
Reva scoffs, tossing her hair back as she nudges him in the shoulder. “I’m already hurting,” she replies.
“Fine,” he huffs, his eyes now focused entirely on her. “It won’t do permanent damage, then?”
“I don’t care if it does. I need us to try this.”
“A little too late for second thoughts, Tor,” Kit adds.
“Not really,” he replies. “We could all just go to sleep and let the magic dissipate.” He spares me a glance before his focus returns to Reva, as though his eyes are caught on a string. “Couldn’t we?”
“We’re not wasting this opportunity,” Reva says. “Please, Torin?”
“Fine,” he huffs.
As if anyone could deny her anything when she asks so sweetly.
The big man knows he’s defeated too, tugging her into his chest in a crushing hug that has her chuckling against his bare skin.
He then pulls a blanket from the pile beneath them and wraps it around Reva’s torso until it pools in her lap.
Meanwhile, Kit’s ignoring everyone around him, settling himself just behind Reva and carefully draping her sealskin on the floor just in front of her.
He then presses a kiss to her temple before pulling back, and she shoots him a soft smile.
I take a seat on the floor opposite him, waiting while the others find their places.
And then we begin.
I PRESS MY FINGERTIPS to the skin in front of me as my other hand reaches out to rest against Reva’s ankle. She holds out both hands and Torin and Kit take hold of one each. Finally, Captain Finch sits down to my left, his hand on her shoulder and his tentacle reaching out to touch my shoulder.
There’s an immediate low-pitched buzzing sound that sets up as soon as we complete the circle.
Taking a steadying breath, I begin to read the words from the book in front of me.
The ritual itself is in an ancient version of Magastrium, the language of witches, and I’m hoping that my intention overrides any mispronunciations.
The words are oddly familiar, as I’ve gone over them again and again today, in between mixing up potions and getting the room ready.
Please let this work.
I send the words out into the ether, consciously ignoring all the other words I’ve sent out in my life that were never heeded. They’re the same words that Kit said to me earlier while he was fetching and carrying, helping me in every way he could think of so that we’d be ready for this moment.
I crush lingsom seeds with a pestle and mortar, adding a trickle of seawater gathered right as yesterday’s dawn arrived, and adding a droplet of my own blood.
There are five lines that I have to repeat three times. On my second loop through, the buzzing intensifies until it’s as though there’s a nest of bees just behind my left ear.
“From the depths, we call upon our power
Power gathered, power bound
What was lost will now be found
Return, reclaim until we’re whole.”
On the first line of the final repetition, the air in the room changes. It grows denser, pressing down on me and tightening my lungs until it’s difficult to take a full breath. I pant my way through the next line, taking my time so that I don’t make a mistake.
By the time I reach the second to last line, my fingers are buried deep into Reva’s sealskin and my entire body is wracked with shivers. The fingers touching Reva’s ankle are cold, and I can feel her shivering violently against me.
No one dares to speak, but the tension in the room feels brittle and as though it might snap at any moment.
Come on. Get it done.
The voice in my head comes as such a shock, I almost lose concentration. It’s entirely unfamiliar and female.
Still, I listen. Taking several shallow breaths before I’m able to voice the last line.
The moment I let out the final quavering syllable, the shaking in my body intensifies until it’s at a fever pitch. We’re lost at sea, trapped in the air as lightning and thunder fill the air and waves crash over us, taking us under into the dark where there’s no light and no air.
There’s a horrible moment where there’s no air left in my lungs and I’m left hovering there, knowing I won’t reach the surface in time. I’m stuck here in the dark, buoyant body rising through the water, but it’s not fast enough. I’m going to—
An almighty CRACK rends the air as a column of solid white light, as large as the room, shoots up from the floor through the ceiling and into the air outside.
A blast of pure energy erupts from the centre of the room, throwing all of us backward.
I fly through the air, the back of my head smacking into the wall with a sickening crunch.
Then it’s like the entire world is screaming at me, a half dozen voices all raised and all yelling inside my head.
My eyes are squeezed shut as the deluge of voices threatens to overwhelm me.
“What is happening?”
“Maybe all of this will turn out to be a dream.”
“What the fuck is that light? We’ll all go blind.”
“Deep breaths. Steady breathing. Do not lose control now.”
“I’m sorry. Oh gods, I’m so sorry.”
And then... silence. The voices stop.
When I peel my eyes open, there’s still that same blinding white light in the centre of the room.
Kit’s voice comes out strained as he breaks the silence. “What did you do?”
My gut twists. Did it not work? Did I mess up the wording or not concentrate hard enough? Of everyone, I wouldn’t have expected him to immediately point the finger when something went wrong.
My eyes struggle to focus and the world has taken on a fuzzy edge as I use the wall to help me to stand up.
It’s only when I’ve blinked a few times and the fuzziness retreats to the corners of my vision that I notice Kit isn’t talking to me. He isn’t even looking in my direction.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack replies.
When did Jack get here? He wasn’t supposed to be in the room. He wasn’t part of this.
Kit continues to hiss something at Jack that I can’t make out, and Jack responds in an equally low tone.
But then Reva’s just getting to her feet a few steps away from me, drawing my attention her way. Even though I’m unsteady on my legs, I reach out to support her, bending down to pick up her skin and hoping against hope that I feel the telltale buzz of magic that tells me its magic has returned.
Instead, a zing of lightning flits up my hand, striking me dead in the heart. Sucking in a sharp breath, my hand goes immediately to the spot in my chest.
... and I’m not the only one.
Jack frowns, rubbing at his chest while Kit’s hand hovers just over the same spot. Even Finch has frozen, his tentacles both taking turns to prod the spot.
Well, hello there.
That same female voice speaks again, even though I can’t see anyone else beyond the six of us.
Reva’s also rubbing at her chest, and her eyes go from me to her sealskin and back again. As she reaches out to take hold of the skin, I get another shock of sensation and her eyes widen.
“It worked,” she whispers. “I really think it worked.”
Nice work, sweet witch.
Reva rubs her ear, scrunching up her face. “One side effect seems to be that I can hear Noush all the time, though, not just while I’m in her body.”
I don’t know what she’s complaining about. I’m fabulous.
I lick my lips, swallowing past an impossibly dry and tight throat. “I think... I think I hear her too.”
Reva blinks at me. “You do?”
A shot of sheer glee goes through me, it’s unfamiliar and makes no sense given the current situation.
“Is this you again?” Reva asks me, tapping her chest. “It feels kind of like last time, but different.”
You are five lucky, lucky males having us for a mate.
The final word rings in my head.
Mate.
Her mate.
“It wasn’t my magic this time,” I stutter. “I swear it, Reva. It’s... the real deal.”
A mate bond.
With all five of us.
“Five?” Reva repeats, her expression morphing into one of horror as she stares around the bedroom, putting up her hand to protect against the blinding column of light that’s still shooting from floor to ceiling in the middle of the room.
“All of them?” she hisses, glaring down at the sealskin in her hands. “You mean you forced a mate bond with every male here, including the captain and Jack? What are you doing, Noush?”
“Is that what that is?” Finch asks as his tentacles continue to prod at his chest. “Feels a bit like indigestion.”
“Are you sure that’s what it is?” Jack pipes up. “Might just be a side effect of—”
It’s protection, you bunch of gorgeous dummies. We don’t want anything like this to happen again. I was dead. Felt the light calling me all the way. You’re lucky I turned my back on it, said no way, siree.
My legs aren’t quite up to holding me up, and I stumble back to lean against the wall.
“There are five of you,” Reva says again.
We established that.
“But I can only see four,” she continues.
“So... where’s Torin?”