Chapter Eighteen #3
“What do you think mine is?” I asked, peering at my teacup. A knot formed in my chest when recalling that tingle in my fingertips and the boiling anger in my veins the other times my powers had stirred. What if my special gift would be dark too?
“Your baking.” Lake sat on the couch, legs pulled up with him on the cushion.
“Surely not.” I breathed out a rough laugh. “Baking muffins can’t be my superpower. I want a do-over.”
Briar chuckled and reached over to squeeze my hand.
“I wouldn’t dismiss it so easily, love. Think for a moment.
Even when your powers were dormant, your food still lifted all our spirits.
More than that, the knights spoke of how eating one of your meals at the end of a long, tiresome day of training helped ease their aches and stresses. ”
“It’s true, Ev,” Callum said. He stood in front of the tall window, his trousers hanging low on his hips.
Scars covered him like they did Maddox, traveling from his ribs and up to the side of his neck.
Wounds that nearly took him from me. “After the Fenrir attack when I was in the medical ward, you cooked for me, remember?”
I nodded, throat tight.
“At the time I didn’t think much of it, but it made me feel better,” he continued, his brown eyes soft as they met mine. “Not only my mood either, but my bodily aches. Perhaps that is your gift. Healing those around you with the food you prepare with love.”
“With your powers no longer dormant, imagine if you were to harness those healing properties,” Briar said. “Food or drink that restores energy better than any tonic. The ability to heal both physical and mental wounds. The possibilities are endless.”
“Or to manipulate someone,” Rowan suggested. “Like a power of persuasion. One drink of that coffee you make or a bite of a muffin and the person does whatever you tell them to. That could come in handy during war.”
“He’s not going to war,” Maddox snapped. “Not while I still live and breathe.”
Rowan glowered at him. “You think I want my little treasure anywhere near battle? Gods no. But I can’t bury my head in the sand and pretend we can run from his destiny forever. Nor can we avoid the ones who are a threat to him. King Silas. Nocturne. That asswad Cedric.”
“Lord Onyx,” Lake softly added.
My heart squeezed.
“Onyx won’t hurt him,” Rowan said with an unwavering conviction. “He and I have already discussed it.”
“Discussed what?” I asked.
Rowan’s jaw tightened, and he dropped his gaze to Oreo. As he scratched the puppy’s back, the tightness in his jaw loosened, becoming shaky. “You’re too soft hearted to defend yourself, Evan, even with the dagger I gave you. You’ll probably just use it to slice fruit to feed the critters you love.”
I pressed my lips together. He wasn’t wrong.
“Onyx asked Maddox to stop him by any means necessary should the curse awaken, but Maddox can’t be with you at all times like I can,” Rowan continued.
“I can slip through locked doors and find you wherever you go, using the shadows to keep you safe. I gave Onyx my word that I wouldn’t let him harm our mate. ”
Our mate.
Pain flared in my chest, the kind that couldn’t be eased by any healing elixir or tonic.
“How I’ve lived without you for all these years, I’ll never know,” Onyx said in the dream I’d had beneath the willow tree. “But I never wish to know another day without you by my side.”
“That’s enough talk for tonight,” Maddox said, then lifted the sheet to beckon me in. “Come here, sweetheart. Let me hold you.”
No arguing with that. Plus, he looked too damn delicious to refuse, and my willpower was weak.
My heart was weak too, feeling like it’d been run under a cheese grater.
Right then, I wanted nothing more than to hop in bed with him and cozy up to those pillowy pecs.
To feel his warmth and inhale his manly musk of leather and spice.
But once I slipped between the covers, I needed more than cuddles. Much more. I needed to be consumed by Maddox, to let him distract me from my sadness by caressing the piece of my heart that belonged to him.
Our lips melded together, and he pulled me onto his lap, dipping his tongue into my mouth as he slid his hands to my ass cheeks, cupping them in his big, calloused palms. Kisses deepened and touches became heavier.
My other men joined us in bed, and as the fire crackled in the hearth, we lost ourselves in pleasure.
Maddox fucked me hard before Callum took his place, pounding into me so hard and fast I feared the bed would go crashing through the wall. Or break. Briar watched us with heavy-lidded eyes and stroked himself.
“I have a better idea,” Maddox then said before going over and dropping down between his legs.
“What are you—oh.” Briar panted and tipped his head back against the headboard, watching as Maddox took his cock into his mouth. “Oh gods.”
As Maddox sucked him, Briar tangled his fingers in our captain’s hair, shifting his gaze from the sight between his legs and over to where Callum fucked me.
And my cinnamon roll of a knight really fucked me.
Halfway through banging me to within an inch of my life, he flipped me over to my stomach and dove back in, hitting me at a new angle that had me gasping through moans and cries I didn’t even recognize as my own.
Lake pressed kisses to my arms and back, a gentle contrast compared to the rough pounding.
And after Callum had his fill, another male snatched me.
Rowan pinned me down and rode my cock with such voracity I’d felt my soul damn near leave my body when I came, spilling into him with hoarse moans. Ones he echoed as his ass clenched around my shaft, draining me for every last drop as he spilled ribbons of cum onto my abdomen and chest.
Afterward, we washed ourselves in the connecting bathroom and settled back into bed between fresh sheets.
I lay in Briar’s arms as Maddox spooned me.
Callum lay on Briar’s other side and had his arm draped across him and resting on my waist. Lake rested his head on my lap with the rest of his body curled around Maddox’s legs.
Rowan had sunk into the shadows after we cleaned up.
Despite me and Onyx being apart, Rowan still trained with him each night.
It made me happy… but also sad. Because I wanted to see that insufferable demon lord.
Wanted to breathe in his woodsmoke scent and feel the tickle of his silky black hair as he held me in his arms.
Arms I’d probably never feel around me again.
Unless…
A thought took shape. One that’d been hovering in the back of my mind since the willow spoke to me. She said I had the power to make my heart’s wish a reality. A wish for Onyx to be free of his curse and finally know love.
If Saint Vera placed the curse on Onyx with her powers… could I lift that curse with mine?
“It may be possible, yes,” Briar said, retrieving his glasses from the bedside table and slipping them back on.
In my excitement, I’d accidently woken them all, then had explained my theory in a rambling tangle of words.
“As I mentioned, according to my research, Hallowed Saints have the power of purification. It could be argued that lifting curses is a form of purification, though it’s merely a theory rather than fact. ”
“It’s too dangerous,” Maddox said, pulling me against his side. “To test this theory, you’d have to be within the demon’s reach.”
“You say that like the curse has already consumed him,” I said with a frustrated grumble. “Until the day it does, there’s still hope.”
“I agree with the captain, Ev.” Callum expelled a breath. “I know you care for Onyx, but the risk is too great.”
“I love him, Cal.” My sternum yanked as though attached to a heavy anchor. “I refuse to give up on him. Not if there’s a way I can fix this.”
“We’ll speak more on this come morning,” Maddox gently said before guiding me back down beside him. He held me tighter than before though, his worry over me felt in every tense muscle and shaky kiss to my hair.
Hope blossomed in my chest. When Lupin told me about the possibility of one of my mates killing me, he’d mentioned another path where that mate loved me instead. Which meant there was a future where Onyx and I were happy. A fifty-fifty chance of either love or death.
Not the greatest odds, but what bothered me most was the thought of Onyx returning to a cold, sad life where he denied himself any warmth or the possibility of love. It was a risk worth taking.