Blake
Marianna is just as close. I feel it before she can–the way she tightens and begins to spasm around my cock, the way her thighs lock and her toes curl behind my back.
Her teeth graze my neck as she pants, breathing my name as our worlds collide and burst into nothing but starlight, and there it is… the tapestry. Our threads–once frayed, now binding into one. I see our life stretching through the stars.
A long life.
“Please,” I damn near beg, and she bites down, sucking a bruise as her teeth sink into my skin and the mate bond erupts into what I can only describe as madness. I slam her against the rock as my release barrels through me like a rogue wave. She comes as well, screaming my name into the night, but I bite down on her neck, holding her still, damning the still healing skin left behind by the mark the healers cut out of her–a mark that should never have been there.
It should always have been mine.
I keep us there, suspended, my feet flat on the bottom of the pool as we drift through echoes of pleasure, through hints of pain, our bond healing what was broken because we finally faced it head on–together.
I’ll always regret the years I wasted. I’ll always regret not being man enough to tell her how I really felt and showing her who I really was before it was too late, but I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for it.
It’s deep into the night when we arrive back at the castle–loose and unburdened, holding hands and walking slowly through the dark, empty hallways.
But it’s the screech from above that brings me back to startling focus, and Marianna’s hand tears out of mine, her body a blur as she runs toward the guest suite where our daughter’s screams curdle the air all around me.
It’s a familiar sound. My own screams have pulled me out of nightmares most of my life.
The guest suite is cloaked in shadow when I step inside and close the door behind me. The voices in my head titter nervously as they return, igniting my powers as Skye’s own gifts fill the suite. Marianna’s voice is soft and low as she speaks to Leona in the bedroom at the end of the hallway where dimmed light spills into the shadows, but my focus catches on the two crystal spheres on a coffee table in the cozy living room just before Skye’s bedroom, which are lit from within, swirling with childhood memories the nightmare displaced.
I close my eyes for a moment before reaching for one, holding the smooth, moonstone ball between my hands.
Skye screams again in the bedroom, which quickly turns to a whimpered moan, and I close my eyes, setting the sphere down, and turn to the bedroom.
Maeve creeps into view, having slid so silently into the suite behind me I hadn’t noticed her opening the door.
I walk into the bedroom and see my mate and her mother on either side of Skye’s bed. Marianna’s eyes are glassy with tears. She looks up at me, shaking her head. “Waking her up makes it worse.”
“I know,” I reply, my voice painfully dry. Leona moves out of the way. I edge toward the bed, feeling Soren’s presence joining Maeve’s in the doorway, Fallon resting on his chest.
I lean down and gently brush Skye’s dark hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear, then take a breath and press my fingertips to her forehead.
My body jerks. My powers rage to full strength, and it catches me off guard. I’m sucked in, past the stars, past the tapestry, past… anything I’ve ever been able to accomplish before.
Skye is… everywhere, but invisible. Her fear and torment bleed around me as a wide, circular room made of stone comes into view. She’s trying to get out, to wake up, but she went too far in her dreams. She can’t control them yet. She can’t dig her way out of this dreamscape, but then I realize this isn’t a dream at all.
She’s having a vision.
Hannibal steps into view, his long, pale fingers knitted behind his back. He’s inspecting a basin of sorts full of flickering crystals. He picks one up, inspects it, and sets it down as another man, just as tall, lean, and inhumanly good looking, comes to a step beside him dressed in fine clothes made of dark velvet and silk.
I shield my powers immediately, stretching them to their breaking point to cover Skye’s presence as well, and the crystals in the basin flicker out, turning to useless, dull rock.
Hannibal lets out a breath in an annoyed sigh, but the regal man beside him frowns, his dark brown hair trembling around his pointed ears.
“I’m growing tired of this,” the man says, and Hannibal bows his head in a show of submission. “You said this would be easy. Getting you back to the homeland was incredibly difficult and a strain on our resources, Arachnis, and for what? You failed your mission.”
“I did not fail, Your Grace,” Hannibal says lightly, his milky white eyes lifting to meet his king. “I was correct about a Firestone rising to power. I was correct about an Alpha King returning to the ancient basin of life–what they call the Deadlands now. I was correct about Uvansa being painted red with blood–a baptism to honor us.”
Uvansa? I don’t so much as blink as Hannibal goes on, “Everything I prophesied happened.”
“You prophesied the royals in Eastonia falling with the coronation of their new queen. And yet, they are still as strong.”
“They have mystics on their side. The mystics–their king. He’s one of them–a family member.”
The king turns to Hannibal, his face washed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Hannibal smirks as he picks up another crystal. He turns and I… I nearly lose my grip on my powers. A glimmer of light distorts his body, his back, and as he turns into the light of the room, wings of silver ignite along his spine.
My heart skips a beat and holds.
“Somehow, in their filthy, wasted bloodline, a true mystic has been born again. The seer of all seers, and I had him in my clutches before that Firestone demon got in my way. We lost the war because the mystics switched sides and aligned with the Moon Goddess. They aided the Firestone Queens in the last battles, and their Goddess rewarded them for it by dropping those veils and trapping our Kings inside that dome of chaos and madness. The mystics refused to help the Kings of Eastonia. But this one… this mystic I’ve found? He has a dark side, something… deep, and twisted. I saw glimpses of it when I was inside his head, but he’s strong. His shields are… worth looking into, if I can get my hands on him again.”
“I should be punishing you for letting him go so carelessly. You’re lucky the Trials are upcoming–”
“If you want the fae to walk freely in Eastonia again,” Hannibal grinds out, edging toward the king. “If you want those filthy mongrels and their witch queens to bow to their real gods once again, we must get the mystic on our side. He is how we win this war. These shifters aren’t meant to be free. You’ve seen what happens when they fall out of the fray. They killed their last king in cold blood. Filthy, bleeding pigs killed a fae god.”
“The great-grandson of King Tithus was less fae than a Firestone witch,” the king growls. “Of course he failed in his mission. He had no powers. He had no strength. He was useless.”
“But the new Firestone Queen and her predecessor did what he couldn’t do–they dropped the veils. Eastonia is ripe for the taking, and now Emberfyll is open, and the progeny of those escaped halfling slaves can finally be brought to justice.”
“And what do you suggest I do?” the king sneers.
“You mentioned the upcoming Trials?” Hannibal’s smile is sick and twisted, just like I remember. “How many centuries has it been since someone born on Eastonian soil has bled on ours?”
I’m ripped from the vision in an instant, my veins full of ice. A sharp echo of sound breaks through the darkness funneling into my body, and then Marianna is leaning over me, talking rapidly to everyone in the room. I reach for Skye, but she’s safe in Leona’s arms. With the last remnants of my powers, I shield Skye, wrapping her mind in starlit magic, then collapse.
***
“Blake? Oh, Goddess, Blake?” Marianna’s voice is sharp and rushed as blinding light explodes around me. I try to sit up, but hands press me back to a bed that smells like… us. Marianna and I. I shove what I realize is Soren away and sit up fully, fighting past a wave of dizziness that nearly sends me under again, but the room comes into view, and the faces looking down at me are familiar–no pointed ears, thank the Goddess.
“I need to speak to Ryatt, Isaac, my father, and Ryan immediately,” I shout then fly out of bed where I promptly fall to my knees as the ice in my veins shifts and thaws.
Marianna makes a sound deeply tinged with frustration and tries to pull me upright. “Just lie down–”
Soren, my saving grace, asks, “Why?”
He crosses his arms over his chest as I drag my body upright by pulling on the sheets of the bed until I’m sitting on the edge of the mattress. I turn to my mate, however, asking, “Where’s Skye?”
“She’s with my mom and Maeve. She’s not feeling well, and she’s–she’s back to being quiet again–”
“She didn’t have a nightmare last night, Marianna. She had a vision.” I run my hand over my face while trying to make sense of what I saw. “Soren, I need your help now. Gather the men, put out the call to the family. I will meet with everyone in Veiled Valley. I want my mother to stay here, in Moonrise, with Skye. Her training needs to begin as soon as possible. As soon as she’s well, but… Maeve needs to use her powers to shield her and Marianna–”
“What’s going on?” Marianna asks, but Soren’s face is set in grim determination.
“What did you see?”
“Hannibal,” I say, his name like acid on my tongue. “Hannibal and his king. I know where they are. I can find them.”
Soren stills. Marianna blinks at me. My brain feels fuzzy, and the voices are gone when I need them the most.
“I just need a moment to remember the details,” I tell them.
“You need to rest. You passed out.” Marianna squeaks. Concern shadows her features. Behind her, the windows are bright with sunlight. I’ve been out all night. It has to be midmorning by now.
I turn to Soren, weary. “You need to come to Veiled Valley with me tomorrow.”
He nods. “I’ll put the call out.”
“Tell Maeve–”
“About the shields,” he says, waving at me in dismissal. “I know.” He glances at Marianna and then moves toward the door. Marianna wrings her hands until he leaves then turns to me, but just as her lips part, I cut her off.
“Marianna, there are things I don’t think I can explain to you about what Skye and I can do with our powers,” I begin, forcing the words into existence. “But you have to know that she is… incredibly powerful for her age. More than I ever anticipated. This cannot happen again.”
“Did they–did they know she saw them?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m using my powers to shield her mind from now on. Maeve can help until I’ve fully recovered, but it took… it took all of my powers to even come close to how far she’d gone in the stars.”
Marianna looks utterly confused, and I don’t blame her. I’ve kept her out of this successfully until last night. I don’t want this burden on her shoulders. I never did. “What do we do? Is she in danger?” She wrings her hands.
“No. No, I made sure that man–that thing doesn’t know about the two of you, but when it comes to it, you’ll go into hiding. Just like we planned. Just like what’s written in the contract.”
She pales, but I manage to rise. I take her hand and pull her close.
“Everything will be okay. I promise.”
A burst of energy cloaks the room, powerful enough to make the palace tremble.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who could feel the force of Skye’s powers.
Ryatt’s voice echoes through my suite, sharp and stern.