1. LONNIE

1

LONNIE

THE OBSIDIAN PALACE, EVERLAST CITY - TWO MONTHS SINCE ESCAPING FROM UNDERNEATH

I jerked awake, sitting up in bed with an audible gasp.

My heart pounded double time, and I felt the gooseflesh rising on my arms as I stared into the pitch black of the darkened room.

It was only a dream—a nightmare really, yet my body didn't seem to know that. Terror still clung to me, even as the details of whatever my mind had conjured seemed to slip away faster than I could hold on to them.

There might have been something to do with a child, I thought vaguely. Perhaps a boy?

I sighed, and tried to stand up, only to find my legs trapped beneath the blankets. This was nothing new. In fact, I nearly always woke to find myself held tightly, tangled with either Bael or Scion—often both.

I shifted my head and saw Scion peacefully asleep next to me. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, and his strong, lean legs were tangled with mine, his arm draped casually over my waist. With a slight smile, I turned over, expecting to see Bael lying on my other side.My forehead wrinkled as I noticed the space on the right side of the bed was empty. Strange.

Now more awake than ever, I carefully extracted myself from Scion's strong embrace, my body aching as I rolled off the bed and onto the cold, wooden floor. The moonlight shone through the window, illuminating my bare feet as I tiptoed to the adjoining bathing room.

I closed the door and leaned against it for a moment, breathing heavily. My body still seemed to shake with residual tremors from my dream. I shook my head, blinking quickly to banish the rest of the haze on my mind. Whatever I'd dreamed, it didn't matter. I'd been plagued by overly vivid dreams for some time now. Some seemed almost like visions, but this didn't seem to be one of those. Merely my mind, creating images out of all the fear I'd felt in the last year…nothing more.

A drink of water was sure to help.

I pushed off the door, and walked blindly across the dark room toward the sink. With a wave of my hand, I lit the lamps along the walls of the circular room, making the reflections of flickering orange flames dance across the walls.

I leaned both hands on the edges of the marble sink basin, and stared up through my lashes at myself in the oversized gold-framed mirror. The face staring back at me seemed almost unfamiliar, like that of a stranger. I had the same pale skin, the same freckles, the same wide brown eyes…but something seemed different, and I couldn't put a finger on what that might be.

I shook my head to clear it, and leaned over the sink and twisted the faucet handle, feeling the cool water run over my fingers. I greedily took a gulp of water before splashing it on my flushed cheeks. Standing straight again, I gave my reflection a final mutinous glance before extinguishing the lights and returning to the dark bedchamber.

Now feeling more awake, my attention returned to the bed. Scion's slow and steady breaths filled the silence, but there was no sign of Bael.

I squinted at the window. Outside, the dark silhouettes of towering trees were just barely visible. In the distance, a faint blue glow signaled the approach of dawn. It was unusually early for my mate to have gotten out of bed, but he was nowhere to be found. Snatching a long silk dressing gown from a nearby chair, I shrugged it on and crept out into the hall to search for him.

The castle was still asleep, and the corridors were dark and quiet as I moved silently down the hall. I felt like a wraith, haunting the empty castle, my long sink robe fanning out behind me like a trail of mist. That feeling wasn't helped by the occasional crumbling stone or smashed door, now common in the once pristine palace.

It had been nearly two months since my mates and I returned from Underneath. To them, that was a mere blink of an eye in their immortal lives, but for me, it felt like an eternity. We were once again residing in the obsidian palace, but almost nothing felt the same as the last time we'd been here.

For one thing, the smoothly running court was now in near disarray. Since the battle with the rebellion, the castle had been undergoing a never-ending restoration. The east tower where I'd once slept in Scion's old room was nearly back to normal, and the entrance hall looked as splendid as it ever had. Still, not every sign of the battle had been erased and the effects of the battle still lingered in the daily running of the court. Many of the former guards and servants had either been killed or escaped. Those who remained split their loyalty between the Everlasts and the rebellion, and struggled to keep up with daily tasks while the damaged castle was stuck in a state of constant repair.

For another, the royal family was fractured. Gwydion and Thalia remained in Overcast with Raewyn, Oberon and Elfwyn. It had been confirmed that Lysander was killed during the battle, and no one had seen or heard from Aine since we'd left her in Inbetwixt. The only members of the Everlast family remaining in the capital were Bael, Scion, Scion's mother Mairead—and oddly enough, Ambrose.

Since we'd returned from Underneath, Ambrose had thrown himself entirely into restoring the castle, to the point that I rarely saw him outside of the occasional meal, or passing in the hallways.

I'd thought—or perhaps feared—that once we returned to the mainland Ambrose would disappear again. Instead, we were all living in a state of uneasy tension. The animosity between Ambrose and the rest of his family—particularly between him and Scion—had not lessened. If not for the fact that they maintained the common goal of ending the curse on their family, I was sure it would have come to blows.

Clearly sensing this, Ambrose had distanced himself as much as possible from Bael and Scion, and me by extension. So, while two months ago I'd thought we were something like friends, now I felt like barely more than strangers.

I reached the end of the hall and turned the corner toward the grand staircase, only to jump back in surprise as a large shape loomed toward me out of the darkness. I shrieked, raising a hand already filled with dancing blue flames.

"Careful, love." Ambrose held his hands up, as if in surrender. "The last thing we need is another burnt corridor to clean up."

I let out a relieved breath and lowered my hand. "What are you doing here?" I demanded.

Ambrose raised his eyebrow at me, perhaps taken aback by my accusatory tone. I couldn't find it in myself to feel guilty for snapping at him. It felt as if my very thoughts had summoned him, and I was filled with frustration and something like embarrassment at the very idea.

"I could ask you the same question," Ambrose said, a teasing note in his voice. "Why are you up?"

"Nightmare," I said briskly. "And I was looking for Bael."

Ambrose tilted his head at me, almost concerned. "Is he missing?"

"I doubt it," I replied, already edging away toward the stairs. "I mean, he's missing in the sense that I don't know where he went, but I'm sure he's just downstairs somewhere."

Ambrose quickly turned to fall in step beside me as I continued toward the grand staircase. "I'll help you look."

I stiffened. A large part of me didn't want that. Any time spent alone with Ambrose sent my mind reeling. Still, another part of me missed talking to him. I looked up at him, meaning to ask if he could so easily abandon whatever he'd been doing. Instead, however, I found myself caught in his penetrating gaze.

Like all fae, Ambrose was almost supernaturally handsome. I'd noticed that from the very moment we first met—it would have been impossible not to. He looked a lot like Scion, except that his eyes were dark and his hair was an almost luminescent silver. He wore it in a long intricate braid on one side, and shaved close to the scalp on the other revealing the dark tattoos that climbed up his neck and over the side of his head. His pointed ears were adorned with a collection of gold hoops, as well as a single bone, which stabbed through the top of his right ear like a tiny dagger.

Ambrose blinked at me, his mouth tilting up in an arrogant smirk. I looked down and flushed, suddenly realizing I'd been staring at him for several beats too long.

I cleared my throat, and looked down as we descended the stairs into the entrance hall. "I haven't seen much of you these last weeks."

His smirk died. "No. I've been doing my best to stay out of the way."

"Out of Scion's way, you mean?"

He grimaced. "Exactly. There's no need to provoke him more than I already am with my mere presence."

We crossed the large entrance hall and walked through the door into yet another winding corridor. I pressed my lips together in a flat, considering line. "I don't think–"

"Stop," he interrupted with a laugh. "Whatever you're about to say will only scald your throat. We both know full well that my brother would like nothing more than to stab me in my sleep."

I let out a breath. "True. He hasn't, though. That's something."

"He hasn't only because he thinks you'll all need my help to break the curse. The moment we're finally free of it, I'm sure my days will be numbered."

I frowned at him. He seemed oddly casual–cheerful even–about the idea of his own death at the hands of his brother. Unfortunately, I was quite sure he was correct: Scion was practically foaming at the mouth to get rid of Ambrose, especially since he'd captured me and taken me on his ship to Underneath. Nothing, not even Ambrose helping to free him and Bael from the dungeon would convince Scion that his brother was anything but a monster.

"It could be far worse," I said weakly, trying to ease the discomfort of the situation. "I think Bael likes you, at least,"

"Not really," Ambrose said, still a bit too cheerful. "Except for you, and perhaps Scion, Bael likes everyone and no one exactly the same. Which is to say that he's a friend to anyone who is useful to him, but would slit his own mothers throat without thought if she betrayed him."

"Yeah, well, you can hardly blame him for that. If I had Raewyn for a mother I'd consider slitting her throat at least twice a day."

Ambrose laughed, but I didn't join in.

I'd spoken without thinking, and the mention of mothers always put me in a foul temper. Hoping to ward off my own depression, I changed the subject. "Have you seen anything useful to do with the curse?"

It was Ambrose's turn to look morose. "Not recently. I've been struggling to see anything clearly since we left Underneath."

"Really?" I looked up at him again, surprised. "That's unusual, is it not?"

He shrugged. "Yes and no. Like any other skill, all magic requires regular practice. Admittedly it's been many years since I had to consciously work at improving, but there are new…factors that have changed things for me."

"Factors like what?"

"Nothing you need to worry about now," he said airly. "But don't be surprised if I join you in your practice sessions."

I smiled weakly. There certainly were enough opportunities for him to join me if he wanted to. For the last two months, I'd spent nearly everyday practicing my magic.

It was still difficult given that I had no idea what the source of my power was, or how much there was to pull from, but steadily I'd been getting better. I could conjure flames now at will, and had much better control over setting entire rooms on fire when upset. Best of all, I hadn't summoned any afflicted to me in weeks. Bael theorized–and so far he seemed to be correct–that the better control I had on my power, the less likely it was to call Wilde creatures to me. Why that was, we had no idea, but I was grateful not to have to contend with the vicious monsters of Aftermath on a daily basis.

"Where are you leading us?" Ambrose asked conversationally.

I looked up and realized I hadn't been paying any attention to where we were going. It took me a moment to recognize the corridor, and realize we were still a floor above where I'd intended. I set off again, this time in the right direction toward the servants' stairs. "I'm going to check Bael's old room." I explained. "If he's not himself at the moment, that would be the first place he'd go."

"Ah," Ambrose nodded. "I'd better leave you here, then."

"There's no need to be afraid." I rolled my eyes. "Bael wouldn't hurt you in front of me, even in his other form."

"I don't know about that. I wouldn't want to test the lion's patience. Especially if he thinks I'm encroaching on his territory."

"What, like his room?" I asked flippantly. "I think he's probably over that, given that he has an entire kingdom to call his territory."

Ambrose stopped, turning to face me in the dimly lit corridor, and reached out to push a lock of my hair behind my ear. "Not what I meant, love."

He didn't lower his hand, holding it there tangled in my hair. My breath caught and my heartbeat picked up, pounding loudly enough that we could both hear it clearly in the quiet corridor. I looked up slowly, half dreading the moment when our eyes would meet.

Abruptly, Ambrose pulled back and stepped away, brushing his hands on his jacket as if wiping away dust. He cleared his throat. "Right. Well, I'll just go then."

I merely swayed on the spot feeling a bit drunk. "Okay."

Without another word, he turned on his heel leaving me alone in the dark hallway.

Barely a few minutes later, I found myself in front of Bael's door. Though he wasn't using the room regularly anymore, the door and the surrounding walls had been repaired. All the soot and debris from the fire had been cleaned up, and there were no more blood stains on the stone floor. Still, I could practically see the bodies that had once lain in the doorway as I knocked and pushed the door open without waiting for a response.

I stepped inside, and immediately knew Bael was there.

"Hello," I crooned, in the same voice I might use to speak to a house cat.

Bael raised his enormous lion head to look at me, and blinked once in greeting. He'd once told me that he couldn't exactly understand my words while in this form, but he knew who I was. Not all that long ago, even that much control over his lion form would have seemed impossible. For many years, he'd been trapped in a constant cycle of bloodlust, but since defeating his father to take the crown of Underneath Bael had been rapidly gaining more and more awareness

Now, his huge yellow eyes tracked me as I closed the door behind me and strode across the room toward the cage. It wasn't locked, I noticed, so I had no difficulty swinging the door open and stepping inside.

Bael growled at me, in what I assumed was a low warning.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, shut up."

I closed the bars of the cage behind me and then sat on the floor beside the enormous lion, curling into his side and resting my head against his powerfully muscled shoulder. He yawned in response, and put his head back down on his paws, closing his eyes in surrender.

Bael purred, sending rumble through my entire body. I sighed in contentment, and closed my own eyes thinking vaguely I might be able to steal a few more hours of sleep before rising for the day.

As my breathing grew steady and I drifted off again, my thoughts turned back to Ambrose. I wondered suddenly where he'd been going so early when we ran into each other, and then if perhaps he hadn't been going anywhere at all–perhaps he'd simply wanted to see me.

I wasn't sure if I wanted that to be true or not.

Especially, given that I had not one but two mates already.

What was wrong with me, that I couldn't seem to stay away from the Everlast males?