Hyacinth, Scarlet - Craving Owen [Tides of Love 2] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove) (29 page)

Hash almost thought he’d die like this, defeated by his own heart, but a strong arm tore Owen away and pulled him out of the water. Hash found himself in the unlikely embrace of his half brother.

“It’s not him,” Chek said. “Get yourself together.”

“Thank you,” Hash gasped out. He looked at his brother, and he realized the other dragon looked quite shaken as well. With the number of familiar-looking people attacking them, Chek was the only one he could trust. His ever-present jealousy and resentment toward his sibling clearly kept the crystal from exploiting their relationship.

Chek must have thought the same thing, as he gestured toward the fighting people. “We have to try to take out those who look like people who would not be here.”

Hash nodded. Sassaki, Alcharr, and Owen had not come, as they were not magical beings and could not help in this battle. The wyrm and the eagle were currently trying to control the unstable situation between the wyrms, the dryads, and the eagles. Any approaching figure who looked like them was an enemy.

With that plan in mind, Hash started blasting his fake lovers. Every time a firebolt hit one of them, he felt it as if it were his own pain. Hash forced himself to see beyond appearances and focused on the connection between him and the other men. These creatures were merely a lie, he reminded himself, a lie and a mockery of the affection between him and his lovers. They needed to be destroyed. The thought anchored him and gave him renewed strength and determination. Slowly, he began to push the demonic forms back. As it turned out, Chek helped a lot. On some occasions, they could not take out an enemy, since it looked like one of their present loved ones for both him and Chek, but oftentimes, the ones Hash couldn’t touch didn’t coincide with Chek’s.

Of course, that didn’t mean they were winning the battle. Even as they destroyed the creatures, more and more appeared. The crystal was learning, however, and the new ones took the shape of the men present.

If they continued to attack the demonic manifestations, they would not get anywhere, and at any rate, they could not hope to win against an army looking like the people they loved. Even if they told themselves it wasn’t real, even if they just followed their senses, the spell was simply too strong. They needed to go to the source, to the crystal itself.

Of course, it was easier said than done. Whatever they did, the crystal countered. The spells they managed to cast at the thing failed completely.

All of a sudden, Chek roared. For a few moments, Hash was confused and followed his brother’s gaze to a certain spot around them. It seemed some of the demons had surrounded Chek’s half fae lover, Rallion. Sandros was with him. As healers, the two could not attack anything directly but insisted on coming, regardless.

Rallion and Sandros surrounded themselves in strong shields. When that didn’t work, Sandros directed a spell at one of their attackers. Shockingly, the thing screeched and disappeared in a poof of dark smoke.

Of course. The crystal absorbed life magic. It had grown to unreasonable proportions after ages of feeding on it. But it had been the enchantment who’d allowed it to do so. With the filter of the spell, the raw black magic would be vulnerable to light magic. They’d thought the same magic that worked before would help, but they’d forgotten its nature was different here in the astral realm. Essentially, they needed to heal the crystal. How had it not occurred to them?

It seemed that Kyllian realized this at the same time as they did. A lightning bolt swept over the area around Sandros and Rallion. “Get them to attack the crystal,” he shouted at Hash.

As it turned out, from their entire army, only two people were actually useful. The rest of them struggled to form a barrier around the fae and keep all distractions at bay. Through their new purpose, Hash managed to gather a good number of his actual friends around him—Sandros, Chek, Lyole, and even Yane and Kyllian. It was disconcerting to say the least to see Kyllian fighting himself, but it couldn’t be helped.

“How are we supposed to attack the crystal?” Sandros shouted when they got a brief respite. “We’d have to touch it, and that would kill us and cancel out the very point of it.”

“We combine magic,” Chek suggested. “An ice bolt from me imbued with Rallion’s power would work.”

Sandros looked puzzled. “But who could I combine power with? I don’t have a mate.”

“I’d be honored to help,” Lyole piped up.

Sandros scanned the nymph’s face and nodded. “All right. We don’t have much time.”

While the four men focused their power, it was up to Hash, Kyllian, and Yane to protect the group. It was a mess, complete chaos, and Hash’s mind had trouble processing all the emotions and stimuli assaulting him. He closed his eyes and focused on his instincts. Knowing that he had his lovers by his side, he could focus on holding back the avalanche of demons.

It seemed to take forever. Blasts filled his ears as Sandros and Rallion attacked the crystal. At one point, the thing began to shoot direct bolts of darkness at them. Hash sensed them coming and pushed it back with a firebolt of his own. He might not be able to destroy the crystal, but he could at least distract it and hold it back.

At last, just as Hash thought they would fail, Sandros and Rallion shouted and sent two more spells at the crystal. Entwined with Lyole’s water magic and Chek’s ice power, the bolts shone eerily white against the utter black surrounding them all. They hit the crystal, and the spot they struck began to glow. The surface of the evil sentient artifact began to crack, as if a black shell were being removed. And as Sandros and Rallion went limp in Lyole and Chek’s arms respectively, the crystal exploded with a deafening sound.

The intensity of the blast created a huge tidal wave that threatened to engulf them all. Thankfully, Kyllian, Fayre, and several of the other magic users managed to hold it back through their own elemental powers for enough time to allow the rest of them to retreat. “Hurry,” Kyllian shouted. “I don’t know how long we can hold it back.”

In the circumstances, the wave was bound to engulf the wizards. Hash would rather die than to allow that to happen. His beast burst from the enchantment keeping it bound, and he shifted into his dragon form. By his side, Chek did the same. They grabbed the wizards and flew up just as the tidal wave came crashing down, swallowing everything in its path. The sky elves helped, their levitation abilities coming in handy, and between them and the dragons they managed to sweep everyone away just in time.

Hash refused to take any chances, though. He hastened to get out of reach of the blast zone and retreated toward Kyllian’s home, his brother close behind him. It took a while, but with Hash’s speed, he reached his destination just as Kyllian started to fidget.

Hash dropped Kyllian and Fayre on the balcony and turned into his legged form. He had the time to hug Kyllian before the crowd of people interfered on the moment.

“Well, the good news is that my wards held,” Kyllian said in bemusement. “The bad news is that I seem to have no home because of it.”

Hash pressed a kiss to Kyllian’s lips. “Don’t be ridiculous. You have five lovers. You’ll always have a home.” He grinned. “And you forgot the best news of all. We did it. We destroyed the crystal.”

Kyllian nodded, although he looked thoughtful. “Or rather, Sandros and Rallion did. Are they all right?”

“They’re fine,” Chek offered. “Don’t worry about them. Fae are sturdy creatures. Or so Rallion tells me all the time.”

His brother sounded calm, and for once, Hash knew Chek actually meant his words and it wasn’t just a mask. They had one more thing they needed to do, one thing both he and his lovers yearned for. Owen was waiting.

Owen paced through the room, chewing on his fingernails nervously. He still couldn’t believe his men dumped him in the dragon coven and had flown off to fight the crystal on their own. By his side, Connor fumed. “They’re unbelievable,” he said. “Sometimes, having five lovers is such a pain.”

Owen nodded. “You just worry and suffer five times more.” But they also loved five times more, and Owen wouldn’t give it up for the world. He plopped on Hash’s huge bed and moaned. “Why aren’t we receiving any news? What if something went wrong?”

Connor shook his head and joined him in the bed. His friend’s arms wrapped around him in a tight hug. “I don’t think so. You know what they say. Bad news always travels fastest. We’d know something already if they’d failed.”

Owen closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax in his friend’s embrace. “It’s so strange, isn’t it?” he said. “This entire thing. Sometimes, I believe I’m dreaming, and then I look into my heart and realize I could not be imagining these emotions.”

Connor chuckled. “I know. Who’d have thought it, huh? I guess we owe my editor big-time for sending me to that desert. Otherwise, we’d never have found out about this place.”

Owen couldn’t help but laugh as well. “I owe you,” he said, absently drawing an IOU on Connor’s thigh. “Big-time.”

And truth be told, Connor’s presence was the only thing keeping him sane. With Sassaki and Alcharr struggling to keep the political situation in the plague lands in check and the other men fighting against the crystal, Owen thought he would lose his mind.

They spent the entire day just moping around the room, but the next morning, Connor cracked and dragged Owen outside. The dragon coven was situated on a beautiful island, a fair distance away from the plague lands, just far enough so that the dark clouds above the dryad country were visible without reaching them. There were a lot of people milling about, talking in hushed voices. Many dragons had gone with Hash and Connor’s mate, Che’kendral, and it made everyone nervous.

Owen and Connor made their way to the beach and sat on the sand. “They’ll come back,” Connor said. “You’ll see.”

Owen thought his friend might be trying to convince himself, as well as Owen, but he didn’t say it. Instead, he stared at the horizon, willing someone to appear, to bring them good news from the proverbial front.

When he first spotted the tiny dot, he thought it was his imagination playing tricks on him. But as the dot became larger, Owen shot to his feet. “There!” he shouted. “I see people coming.”

As it turned out, the small thing Owen had spotted morphed into a cloud of approaching dragons. Owen’s heart thundered as other people burst from the coven and lunged into the sky, ready to meet the incoming group. He wanted to ask someone to carry him there, but in the chaos, they seemed to have been forgotten about him entirely.

Frustrated, he swore at the careless dragons. He didn’t think anyone would stop, but a huge beast did backtrack and landed in front of them. It gripped him and Connor in its paws and took off once more. Once, Owen might have pissed his pants out of fear, but now, he couldn’t have been more thankful. As the huge dragon took position in front of the group, Owen realized it was Ogash’Dral, Hash and Che’kendral’s father, and felt even more thankful. It surprised him to see the man seemed so accepting of human and male mates for both his sons. Then again, dragons seemed to live very long lives. Perhaps heirs weren’t a problem.

With both groups flying toward each other, it didn’t take long for them to meet. Owen couldn’t suppress a sound of glee when he spotted Hash among the other dragons, Alcharr and Kyllian by his side, looking shockingly small but comfortable in spite of it. Fayre was also there, smiling widely. Sassaki and Yane rode on Hash’s back, having foregone transportation through their favorite element for the purpose of this trip. Similarly, Che’kendral carried his flightless mates.

As soon as they reached each other, the dragon leader handed Owen to Hash. Alcharr helped him climb on Hash’s back, stealing a kiss in the process. “My God,” Owen whispered. “Does this mean you destroyed the crystal?”

Kyllian nodded. “It was difficult, but it’s gone. We’re safe.”

“We came after you and Connor, and to lead the others back, but we have to return to Anethone,” Sassaki added. “There’s still a lot to be done.”

Owen didn’t care. As long as he was with his lovers, the sky could fall and he would not mind. “All right,” he answered. “Let’s go.”

He had very few possessions brought here to the coven, and nothing that could not be replaced.