Rise of the Magi (7 page)

“No, don’t do that. I’ll ask him as soon as he’s well enough to talk. How about the meeting?”

“It took some convincing, but we have a gathering of the willing races at seven this evening. Selkies, wood elves, humans, mountain trolls and representatives from the witch-warlock factions among the human population. Everyone else declined any sort of cooperation toward ending this threat, preferring the every race for itself attitude.” His lip jerked up in a sneer before flattening again. “I attempted to contact Dun Bray and the Black City, but … I suppose you know how that went.”

“Had the telepathic door slammed in your face, did you?” No real shocker there.

“Something like that.”

“Okay.” I nodded, wondering why he still stood in our room, wishing for a few more minutes of peace before I had to search out the Overseers. “Uh … good job, Gallagher. Is there something else?”

“Our scouts have returned from Talawen’s wood.” His silence made me cold. “Raze’s team is missing, and there is blood. Parthalan’s people are conspicuously absent as well, but there’s no evidence they have been harmed.”

I swallowed hard to prevent my guts from expelling my snack onto the stone tile. They were dead. Another disaster the future-seeing hags could have prevented had their heads been screwed on right. Did Raze have a family? Any of the others? Did they know yet? Would it be my place to tell them? My cowardice of dealing with sobbing people hoped someone else would do it and seared me with shame the moment after I’d thought it.

“Loved ones?” I whispered, unable to verbalize the rest.

“All aware. Some grieving. Some in denial. Brígh is with them now.”

My slow nod bought me a little time to compose myself. “Okay. Send someone to burn everything there.” At Gallagher’s crumpled brow, I added, “You heard me—everything. You and Liam wait with Laerni. If it’s possible, find out what she knows about the attack on Freymoor. Brígh and I have a date with the Overseers, then we go to the coalition H.Q. After that, if I have an ounce of care left to give, we’ll go to the other fae cities and warn them.”

6

The instant the door shut behind Gallagher, my emotions overwhelmed me. An urge to run and hide my son had my legs poised to act. How could I protect our baby? Panic billowed into my limbs, bringing adrenaline with it. Roaring, I plowed my fist into the wall, realizing too late I’d hurt the shifter as well as myself. It groaned and whined.

“Lila, stop!” Liam threw his arms around me from behind, confining but not hurting. A flash of fear lit me up from inside.

Shit
. I’d scared Garret.

Arms folded across my middle, I wrestled out of Liam’s grasp. Pressing my forearms against the wall, I rested my forehead against them while I blinked back tears. “There are too many people I care about now. And having this baby in me has done something crazy to my head. All I want to do is tuck him away somewhere so he’ll be safe, but I can’t, because then everyone else will suffer. The Magi aren’t going to stop until I’ve either done what they want or they’re shut down.” I sniffled and willed myself back into some semblance of composure. “I don’t know how to do this without losing my mind and everyone I love. Leading a nation and caring about shit sucks.”

Liam gave a half-hearted chuckle, pulled me into his arms and led me inside. As he laid me on the bed and crawled in beside me, all humor faded from him. Determined eyes stared back at me. He played fingers along my bare arm. “Listen to me, now—”

“Don’t say it, Liam, I mean it.” I poked a finger into his chest.

“These dryads are going to do whatever they can to get to you. They’ve made that pretty obvious. If they take me—”

“No.”

“You cut and run—”

“Stop it!” I thrust my palm against his chest, forcing a grunt from his lips.

“You will not come after me, do you hear me? You keep our son safe. And if the rest of us are taken, too, you hide him away.”

Tears dripped off my cheek as I lay there facing him, dying inside. “You know I can’t do that. No matter how much my instincts are screaming at me to do it. It’s like there’s this angry beast in my body ready to tear off limbs if someone gets too near him. Fighting that protectiveness is harder than fighting my darkness was last year. But I have to stay, and so does he.”

“Your instincts are that way for a reason. Listen to them.”

“I will not abandon my people, no matter the cost to me, and you can’t either. I haven’t come this far to walk away now because I’m scared or because of my maternal instincts. If we fall, then all of us fall. What would be the point of running when Garret wouldn’t have a world to grow up in?”

Breath shuddering, Liam grabbed my face and pressed his forehead to mine. “I hate this,” he whispered against my lips before crushing his down on mine. Deep and desperate, his mouth explored my lips, my face, and grazed my throat. An explosion of tingles consumed me from everywhere he touched. Fingers kneading my arm, he rolled me closer, making little needful sounds low in his throat.

When he started tugging at my clothes, I shoved him back.

“Not that again,” he said, “I need you. I need to touch you, be touched. I need to love you.”

I shrugged. “Sorry. It just feels weird now that he’s becoming more aware. And besides, we have stuff to do.”

Liam’s breath came out in a huff. “There are still a few hours before we have to go to Windsor, and you’re wound up tighter than a hyper kid’s crank toy. I’ve been wanting to try something, anyway, and it’ll give us both what we need right now. Do you trust me?”

“Always.” It came out so fast, and without even a shred of hesitation, I shocked myself. Judging by Liam’s grin, I’d surprised him, too. Since we’d had so much distrust between us in the past, that admission was proof we’d come a long way in our relationship.

Giving in to my desire to be close to him for a few minutes, I relaxed. “What are you going to try?” It wasn’t like we didn’t explore the full spectrum of activities in the bedroom—very colorful, energetic, blush-inducing activities. I couldn’t imagine there being anything other than what we’d already done.

The air crackled and fizzed as Liam transformed into pure Light, a whitish blue glow that warmed my face like a kiss of moonlight on a summer’s eve. I could follow the outline of his fine body if I squinted hard enough.

At first, he simply passed his hand over my exposed skin, the tiny hairs lifting to greet him. Tingles raced across my throat and down my chest to my belly where they burrowed deeper. I closed my eyes, savoring the tantalizing contact. A tug of his fingers relieved me of my shirt, and another of my yoga pants and underwear, leaving me bare to him. His touch deepened somehow, like deep tissue massage, only more. Delicious and warm. My breath quickened. My muscles softened into languid goo as he invaded me completely. His energy disappeared into my body and fused with mine.

The intensity brought moans to my lips. To be so full of him, so completely joined, I couldn’t distinguish where he ended and I began. Two minds became one. Twin joy. Twin pleasure. Twin sorrow. There was something so soothing, erotic, and consuming about it, I couldn’t resist opening myself completely to his thoughts, his desires, to be devoured and loved by him. Couldn’t think about anything but what he wanted me to do. To relax. To find a moment of peace in his aura. I surrendered.

The world slipped away as Liam slid through me like silk over velvet. There were no secrets between us, but if there had been, he would have known them all with the depth of his exploration of me. Pressure built within. Not just in the usual place but everywhere. The beginnings of a full body earthquake began in my chest and ripped out to every corner, tearing a cry from my lips at the exquisite pleasure. His sound echoed mine within my thoughts as he shared the aftershocks with me. It wasn’t an orgasm but something much grander in scale and far more delicious.

Panting, I whimpered as he left me, and re-solidified on the bed. His absence induced cold emptiness inside me, a void only he could fill up with his solid heat. My head lolled to the side, which was all I could manage given my liquid state.

A satisfied smile lit his whole face as he peered down at me with shimmering eyes. Lips playing along my brow, he said, “Better?”

“How did … where …” I smacked myself in the forehead. “Brain no worky.”

The dark chuckles that escaped him tickled my spine until I giggled. “Well, if I’d known I’d get that kind of reaction I’d have done that a long time ago,” he said.

“Where did you learn that?” I rolled into him, burying my face in his neck to inhale his sweet, masculine musk.

“Since you did it to me when you went searching for my Light, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. A little intense, isn’t it?”

“Intense. That’s the understatement of the effing century.” For a few minutes, I enjoyed the euphoria, the closeness, and let myself bask in the fantasy that everything was wonderful. Everything was peaceful. Liam and I were together at last, about to become parents, and life would go on happily until the end of our days.

As my brain function returned, I remembered what the rest of the day held. Nothing better than a little end of the world talk to spoil the mood. “I need to go.”

He groaned and tilted my chin up, gracing my lips with a kiss so tender and full of promise I didn’t want to move. Ever. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had to say that to one another. And I know you have to. It just about kills me to have you out of my sight now.”

I knew the feeling but didn’t bother to verbalize it since the fizzy popping inside my head let me know he’d gone spelunking to make sure I hadn’t conjured a plan to play hero on him.
“Heroics aren’t going to get us out of this one, babe. Nothing short of a Goddess-sized miracle will do that.”
I wished with every corner of myself I could have stayed in bed with Liam and hear him call me his wife a few more times. God, I’d turned into such a sap.

He rocked up to his feet abruptly, causing me to topple over as he stared down at me wearing a silly grin—as if both confused and happy about something. “You liked it when I called you my wife.”

Damn
. My cheeks heated as I rolled my rotund self out of bed and scrambled to find a shirt. Anything so I didn’t have to show him how red I imagined my face to be. “Yeah. So what? That’s what I am, isn’t it?”

“Come here.”

Stooping to snatch up my pants, I said, “Nuh-uh. Busy. Stuff to do. You know, the world’s about to end again, blah, blah, blah. What else is new, right?”

“I want to see my wife blush, because she’s so damned cute when she does.” His voice had gone bedroom husky, a tease to send my nerve endings into dancing fits.

I snorted, unable to contain the laughter that came tumbling out. “Oh, fuck off and get dressed already before I pull my moves and kick the crap out of you. Don’t think I won’t just because you’re my baby’s daddy.”

Just as I finished tugging my shirt over my head, Liam grabbed me and pressed his lips to mine, possessive, demanding, claiming me so completely it was as if he’d marked me. It wasn’t a sensation I would have imagined enjoying or accepting, but I did without hesitation.
Mine
. “Your scent is so thick on me right now, you’ll be with me all afternoon. Be careful, do you hear me?”

I nodded, savoring the tingling in my swollen lips. I snuck in a few more pecks before hopping one-legged into my pink yoga pants and making for the door. Once there, hand on the knob, I turned. “I love you.”

Instead of saying it back, he pushed his emotions out to me, raw and visceral, nearly flattening me with the profoundness of it. While I struggled to breathe, he smiled and pulled on black dress pants. Before I started blubbering like a baby at having to leave my security blanket behind, I raced off down the white hallway and took the transport down.

Liam loved me in a way that made the tiny shred of a romantic that existed inside me cry. To save that, I’d have done just about anything. It gave me courage, more than I had on my own, and dammit, I didn’t care how much of a sap that made me.

It was time to get to work. First stop: the Overseers.

7

I stood in the grand hall, soaking in the serenity to chase away the dread in my bones. On either side of the thoroughfare, white columns rose from floor to high ceiling along the walls, stretching all the way to the gigantic wooden doors at the far end. Behind the columns, little alcoves jutted out, complete with window benches below stained glass where light from the liquid sky filtered through. I’d whiled away a few afternoons there, reading, my legs propped up on Liam’s lap while he massaged my feet and watched me with that hungry gaze of his. Half of the time, the book could have been upside down and I wouldn’t have noticed, too distracted by his touch and the utter peace his presence gifted me with.

I stepped out into the day more determined than ever to come up with some answers. Brígh saved me the trouble of looking for her, as she sat on the bottom step of the castle waiting for me. Her pink T-shirt sported wrinkles and stains, as if the whole city had cried on her shoulder, and circles of dirt and grass stains decorated the knees of her light blue jeans. The hunch of her shoulders let me know her day hadn’t been any less shitty than mine.

After a few moments of watching her eerie stillness, I descended and sat on the step beside her. A glance at her profile no longer reflected a girl of nineteen years, but a woman who’d seen too much horror to hold onto her innocence a moment longer. At some point, when I wasn’t looking, her youth had grown black wings and fled into the horizon. If it had been within my powers, I’d have given it back to her.

Arms wrapped around her knees, Brígh gazed off into places I couldn’t imagine.

“You okay?” I asked, knowing it was a stupid question.

Without turning, she said, “I’m not sure what okay means anymore. Doesn’t the Goddess care about us? Is that why she didn’t bond us yet? Because she intends to let us get wiped off the face of the earth.” She balled her slender fingers on her lap. “This sucks.”