Chapter 25
Austin
Tumultuous power tore at every part of him. He struggled to breathe through it, pulled down into the surge, overwhelmed and overcome. His gaze blurred as little strings of power felt like they attached to him and then warmed. Then turned to fire, burning into him. Through him.
He yanked on one, trying to detach it. Thunder rolled overhead. He tugged at another and felt a person at the other end. Tristan.
More latched on to it, burrowing down deep. Darkness filled in the gaps. Still that power glowed. Throbbed, threatened to wash him away.
Within it…rage. He vibrated with it, like in the days of his youth. Thrashed against it, afraid of what he’d do.
“Stay with me,” Jess told him. Love and support fought the blistering intensity. “Play as much as you want, but stay with me. I’ll share it all with you. You don’t have to fight to have access to this power. You don’t have to fight for control. It’s already yours.”
It didn’t feel like his. It felt like it was bubbling up from the ground…and bubbling up inside him.
He yanked on another thread of power. Darts flew. Another. Dolls ran out onto the grass. Doors opened and closed all through the house; Austin could feel it. He could control it, like an extension of his body.
“I’m right here,” Jess said, confident. More love and support pumped into him from her. His mind spun. “We can do this together, Austin. We’ve always been in this together.”
He breathed faster now, his chest shallowly rising and falling. His grip on her was tight. Too tight, probably. He was afraid to let go.
“I love you,” she whispered, and smiled, so beautiful.
So angelic. “Fall into it. Sink as deep as you want. I did that, remember? I let it take me on the battlefield in the redwoods, with the basajaunak. And then I found you to pull me out. Well, I’m right here.
Nothing will keep you from me, Austin. Nothing. ”
He snapped his head back and roared, an animalistic sound but not like any animal that walked the earth. His body shook. Sweat broke out all over him as he resisted it. He tried to push it away, fighting the rage.
The circles moved closer around him and Jess. His primal urges rose up to lash out, not wanting anyone near his mate.
“Don’t bother,” Jess said, a note of command in her voice. “We’re okay.” Her eyes blazed as they held his. “I’m grabbing all the connections now, Austin. All my magic and power. I’m holding it right here. Come to me. Share in this with me.”
His beast thrashed, feeling that thrumming power. Trying to get away. Sensing danger and trying to fight it.
“Join me,” she whispered. “Don’t fight it. Join me in it.”
She would never hurt him. She would only help him. He had to trust.
He forced himself to slow his breathing, to inhale deeply, and then he closed his eyes and did as she said.
White-hot points of power tore at his flesh as the darkness settled into him. It scraped along his bones.
She jerked within his grasp, and his howls were echoed by her. A gush of blinding power flooded his body.
“She has shared her magic with you,” a female voice said within his mind. “She has done this of her own free will, trusting you mean the best for her. You now have the option of sharing your magic with her. I cannot force this. You must share of your own free will, like she did.”
“Will it hurt her?” he asked.
“No more than hers hurts you now. The difference is, she’s a woman. She can handle it without whining.”
The voice belonged to Ivy House, then.
“Did the past protectors share their magic?”
“No. And they all died in the end, as did the heir. Take the hint.”
Having her in his head would take some getting used to.
“Yes, share the magic.”
Jess’s gasp of surprise said she wasn’t expecting it. Her eyes squeezed shut, fear and worry racing across her face.
“Does she know what’s happening?” he asked in alarm, wanting to tell her but unable to unlatch his jaw for the chaotic magic and rage still ripping at him.
“She does now.”
She dropped her head forward, her body tense, her fingers gripping his hands like claws.
“It’s okay,” she said softly, taking deep breaths. “It’s okay.” More deep breaths. “It’s primal.”
She released her tension and straightened. Her eyes fluttered as her gaze found his again. A beautiful, sparkly sheen covered them for a moment before settling. A smile soaked into her expression.
“Thank you for sharing with me,” she told him, love overwhelming the bonds. “You’re the first to do so, I guess. You’re the very best mate I could’ve chosen.”
His body trembled, as did hers, but he soaked in her love and returned it through the bonds. Her power pumped and pulsed and threatened to tear him apart, ripping at his skin, at his bones, at the very fabric of his being…and then she laughed, coaxing his higher. Pulling at him to match her stride.
He did so, only to feel her going higher still. And higher, the magic building, washing back and forth between them, feeding from his, feeding him hers; he felt the crystals in Ivy House sinking power down into the earth, and it flowed around them like a river.
All her connections—no, their connections now—snapped taut and then burst in light and emotion. Something like a thick cord replaced the thread between them and then ballooned out. She was no longer the nexus. Now they both were. She’d rule the sky; he’d rule the land.
Confusion, delight, and excitement filled the bonds, some from very far away. He felt Kingsley clearly. Drex, too. Gerard and Evan. He could easily read their whereabouts—everyone’s, all across the country.
They muted the power, Jess doing it slowly, showing him how.
“It’s not all darkness, this magic,” she murmured to Austin. “It’s a community. It’s a family. We’re all connected, and that’s miraculous.”
Her nose twitched and then her brows drew together. “Wow. You can smell way better than I can.” She grinned. “Or could, I guess.” She wiggled her body. She’d undoubtedly have more strength and speed. Maybe more stamina. There was no telling what else their combined magic would afford her.
As for him? He had no idea what enhancements her magic would give him, besides the ability to direct and monitor their people. That in itself was worth the price of admission.
His breathing slowed. The dark clouds cleared from the sky.
The garhettes—apparently called in by Mable and Vera?
—and Cyra froze in their assault on the skeletons.
What was left of them crawled and scratched their way back into the ground.
No dolls were in sight, and no gnomes. The spikes that had sprung up in the grass—he hadn’t realized he’d done that—shook before sinking back into holes that Mimi would not be happy about.
“That was hairy,” he said softly. “I don’t think that would’ve gone well if you hadn’t been here.”
To put it lightly. He shuddered to think what might’ve happened if she hadn’t been grounding him, coaching him through it.
She shook her head in lighthearted reproach. “One of these days you’re going to learn that we are best when we do things together.”
“And until I do, you’ll just keep forcing me to remember.”
“Obviously.”
He let his lips linger on hers, feeling this new buzz of shared magic. His mate’s eyes still shimmered a little, a hint that she was more than she seemed.
“Your eyes sparkle now,” he murmured against her lips. “As if you needed another way to be drop-dead gorgeous.”
She laughed. “So do yours. And…same.”
He hugged her close and turned to look out at the woods. Then the house. Peace and love settled within him, overlaying the darkness that still lurked, volatile and brimming with fire. Ruthless and vicious. Honestly, though, it wasn’t so different than what he’d already learned to control.
“I’m good,” he said with assurance. “I’m okay. I can feel the power buzzing, but I don’t want to”—he shook his head—“destroy the world, I don’t know. Parts of that magic are dark.”
“Darker than yours?”
He looked down at her. “Can’t you feel mine within you?”
A shiver of arousal wound through him as he thought of his mate sharing something so personal, so intimate, as his magic. As his beast.
Her smile was serene and full of love. “Yes. I don’t find it so dark. More…restless, is probably the word. Gargoyles are a battle species. Shifter magic seems more primal. It wants to hunt more than battle.”
He nodded. “That’s a good way to describe it, I guess. I think yours is just unfamiliar. You’re a little more used to dealing with new, strange magic.”
“Oh really, you think?” She laughed. “You might have a wobble when you really use it for the first time.”
He turned to cup her face, looking down into her eyes. “We’ll do it together.” He kissed her softly. “We’ll get our peaceful retirement and happily ever after, Jess. I know we will. We just need to kick a little ass first. Sharing magic will help us do that.”
Her eyes turned glassy as she looked up at him.
“Don’t bother yer arse,” Niamh said behind them somewhere. “Retirement is boring. Less so with a basket of rocks.” She sighed. “Ah sure, might as well go for a pint now. This magic business was anticlimactic.”
Austin snorted, turning toward the house. “Not us. We’re going to take the night off.”
“Muffle the links, please,” Jasper said. “Your stamina is a sore point among some of us.”
“Not me,” Ulric replied. “Too much effort to last that long. Rapid fire Os for the ladies, and then some shut-eye. Seems to work out just fine.”
“Who watered Ivy House?” Edgar asked as the large group on the grass moved to allow Austin and Jess passage through.
Jess jerked to a stop. It took Austin a second to realize what she was looking at. Part of the back area of the house had changed shape, grown, as Edgar had oddly suggested.
“What in the world?” Jess said, stepping out from under his arm. Grabbing his hand, she tugged him along. “It’s the council room. It’s bigger.”
He felt the map of the house, now so incredibly detailed in his mind’s eye. Given it hadn’t been before, he couldn’t accurately compare the new with the old.
They walked in through the back door and made their way to the council room where Austin had first officially joined her team.
The shape of the room was now indeed different.
Longer. Instead of one circle of chairs, there were two interlocking loops, the chairs set in the shape of an infinity symbol, eighteen in all.
Where the loops intersected, there was a large space… for the heir and her Mate Protector.
“You will need to choose your council anew,” Ivy House told them. “Larger, for there are two of you now. These are your battle advisors, with you until the end. Choose wisely.”
“But how did the room get bigger?” Jess asked in confusion.
“With magic, obviously. I am a magical house.” If a house could roll its eyes, this one just had.
Jess looked at Austin with wide eyes, and then at the people crowding into the room to see.
Everyone had been set free. They’d need to choose to join once again, assuming she would ask them.
Which she would, of course. They were her family in this turbulent magical world.
They’d join just as quickly, one and all, already wanting to be with her until the end.
But now Austin would need to choose, too. He’d taken the magic, and now he’d assume the burden of the responsibility.
He wondered if people would be as eager to join him as they were to join Jess. Somehow, he doubted it. She’d probably have to ask people on his behalf. That would be embarrassing.
He looked at his mate and knew it didn’t matter. Whatever he had to do, he would, no questions asked. It was a small price to pay—this magic, the council, the surly house talking in his head—to be with her. Worth any cost. He knew she felt the same way.
“Your mate is why the magic exists,” Ivy House told Jess, the distinction somehow clear despite it just being a voice in his head.
It was like they were standing there talking to a real person, using their gazes and body language as cues.
“It’s what Tamara Ivy wished for. What she longed for.
His love, your connection and commitment to each other; it’s what she’d always wanted—what all the heirs wanted, I think.
It’s what you found. Maybe the right heir was always meant to be a woman in midlife, after living through the trials and mistakes of youth, after shrugging off other people’s expectations and parameters, and finally able to choose her own path.
Finally able to decide her own future. You do this magic and my legacy proud, Jacinta Ironheart. I am honored you are the heir.”
Jess leaned harder into him, smiling with pride.
“Although sometimes you really make me question that,” Ivy House finished.
Jess’s smile dropped away. She rolled her eyes and Austin barked out a laugh.
“Learn this new facet of your magic quickly, you two,” Ivy House went on. “Choose your commanders to go into battle at your side. Now we set our sights on Momar. No more playing defense while we prepare. Now…we attack!”
Thank you for reading!