16. Found

16

FOUND

E nergy surges through Quinn, Lucca, and me as we gaze down at the maps strewn across Quinn’s ebony dining table. Though the hour is past late, Quinn and Lucca both feel like live wires coursing through my system, as we face getting started on the key to finding the Gold Eyes’ heart. With the map Iris gave us inside our minds, I feel how confident Quinn is we can locate the heart. First, we have to manifest a complex strain of the Music to summon the Ascendant Sigils that unlock the heart’s tomb, however.

Something our trio has never done before on command.

“I kinda wish Master Ilyov was with us right now.” I gaze down upon the countless maps of Florence, unsure where to start.

“I don’t. He’s a dick,” Lucca says at once, no love lost between him and the Master of Novakitsk.

“Ilyov understands the deepest complexities of the Music—but this is our time now to figure it out.” Quinn glances at us.

“You feel very confident about all this, Quinn.” Lucca echoes my thought as he lifts an eyebrow at Quinn.

“Iris believes we can find the heart, otherwise she would not have given us her map. Now, Staphylogenes himself has given us a clue, which means he believes we can find it, as well.” Quinn’s dark eyes shine with intrigue as I feel his mind work a thousand miles a minute now to unravel this mystery. “So let us start with what we know. Our passion and closeness have always raised the Music between us; let us start with some passion and see where that gets us. Once the Music rises, I will focus upon the otherworld to see if I can locate the specific sigils we need.”

“Do you think you can find what we want in the otherworld ?” I ask now, frowning at Quinn. “So we form an entire phrase with the Music, rather than just a simple sigil like we’ve accomplished in the past?”

“I imagine that since we can use simple, specific sigils of the Music, it’s only a matter of pulling one out of the otherworld , then the next, and the next, before we have what we want.” Quinn is thoughtful as he watches me. “We have created complex phrases of the Music before as a trio, but not to do precisely what we want just yet. Lucca, however, has done it twice now, with no help from you or I, Ariana—just a few days ago in the Summer Fae Throne hall.” With this, Quinn looks at Lucca, his dark eyes intent. “Lucca, do you recall what you did when you touched your father’s heart and nullified the Gold Eyes’ taint inside him with that Ascendant phrase, let this one be released? Or when you shattered his throne with a strike from the Music and the phrase, no more? ”

“I don’t.” Lucca shakes his head. “Like the way we’ve always used the Music, it was instinctual, Quinn. Though I pulled those commands from the otherworld by myself, they were just there. I simply knew how it all needed to be. Those phrases were how my deepest heart’s intention manifested.”

“Interesting.” Quinn rubs his chin as he thinks, then drums his long fingers on the table. He looks at us. “In any case, I feel we know where to begin. Shall we get started?”

As Quinn asks, I feel a sudden eagerness rise inside me to get sexy with my men, despite the lateness of the hour. They also feel it, as they both glance at me with heat simmering in their oh-so-blue and devious onyx eyes.

As we come together before the map table, we’re not thinking anymore. We’re feeling everything we share—saved once again from all the forces that would kill us.

It makes our heat potent now, as we draw together and both men step around me. Quinn comes to my back, Lucca to my front, as I feel their dark-bright and bright-dark energies entwine me now.

Ready.

“Where do we begin?” I breathe, as Lucca whispers his so-soft lips over mine, Quinn easing his lips over my neck.

“Just do as we always do. Give in…” Quinn says as he breathes upon me, easing his lips up my neck to kiss beneath my wild red hair. He pulls it back with his fingertips so he can kiss me right beneath my ear.

“And why am I always in the middle?” I ask cheekily as both men kiss me; Quinn is on my left, while Lucca moves to my right now, echoing what Quinn’s doing.

I melt, as they both kiss my neck at the same time.

“We like you in the middle,” Lucca says with a chuckling growl as his lips press my skin. Working his way down my collarbones, his powerful hands grip me with Quinn’s now as they both knead me.

As they both press into me, gripping me with their hands, I know they can feel everything of my body. I’m naked beneath my lacey silk dressing gown while they’re both dressed.

I don’t mind, though; their love is decadent as they begin to bite and suck my skin, in a coordinated way that makes me think they’ve done this a hundred times with other women, long ago.

We all share so much through our bonds, however; as the Music simmers to life between us, rising to our passionate heat, I don’t resist. I give in to that ephemeral flow, loving how the Music swells as we feel our true love. Because it is true love, free of the Gold Eyes’ taint, as Lucca slips down now, taking a knee before me .

Biting my robe and moving it aside with his mouth.

Lucca wraps a muscular arm around my ass as he dives in now, suckling at my breast. Pleasure spikes inside me and the Music increases tenfold, chiming all around us. A heady, roaring sensation rushes inside me as Lucca sucks me harder; as he bites my nipple, I feel his Fae-fangs come out, though he doesn’t need to bite me deep like Quinn would.

But Quinn senses it; and the rush for him is too much. His long Vampire-fangs come out as he grips me hard around the waist, pressing his mouth to my neck.

“Do it. Bite me.” I reach up, gripping the back of Quinn’s neck and pressing him to me. I reach down and grip Lucca’s shoulder, urging him to keep going at my breast. “Bite me, Quinn. Drink… and awaken the Music between us.”

Quinn needs no second urging as he takes a deep breath against my neck. We don’t need bloodshed now to raise the Music; but for Quinn, it’s still a primary aphrodisiac. He readies himself, then strikes into my neck. I gasp as he breaks in.

Then moan, shuddering as Quinn takes me with his bite.

Lucca sucks my nipple hard now, stretching it out and biting, as Quinn grips me, drinking deep at my neck. Lucca echoes him at my breast; switching sides now, he bares both my breasts to the night as he works me while Quinn drinks.

Overcome by passion as the Music blazes between us, Quinn rips my dressing gown aside now, growling into my neck as he drinks. I’m so wet, my thighs are slick as he thrusts a hand down and opens me.

Then shoves two fingers roughly up inside me.

I gasp and explode with the Music as both my men take me, Lucca devouring my breasts as Quinn drinks from my neck and thrusts his fingers deep inside me. Quinn moans as he thrusts up into me again and again; I’m so wet. The Music powers up tenfold, then a hundredfold as it truly begins to sear between us, powerful in the night.

Our wings shoot out then, thundering through the hall; bright, dark, and fiery rainbows cascade through the night as a whirlwind of silver-gold, fire-red, and cerulean blue devours our power.

As we work a powerful Music into being now, I see ephemeral sigils in the otherworld , shining through to become manifest. I feel it then, as something tries to come to us. It’s something related to our lovemaking; a spontaneous manifestation of our togetherness as we enjoy each other in the night.

Quinn arrests the Music then, commanding it with his Master’s nature. With his fangs still in me, drinking from me in a powerful delight while finger-fucking me to maintain this high as Lucca ravages my breasts, I feel him go distant.

I feel it as Quinn uses his incredible mind now, and his unfailing command over all things magical, to pour himself into that ephemeral space. As he finds the sigils in the otherworld we want to create, I feel him start to harness them, pulling them out of the ether to become manifest in our world.

As the Music rings so powerfully inside us and all around, I feel Quinn try to assemble the phrase we need out of its parts. Even as he tries, with all his masterful command over the Music, that phrase suddenly breaks in the otherworld . Our Music doesn’t lose its tune or become discordant, not like it once did with Staphylogenes’ power in our mix, but it doesn’t manifest the phrase Quinn’s looking for, either.

As those Ascendant Sigils shred apart—no longer manifest.

The Music crumbles. It snaps out between us, recoiling like a broken rubber band as those Ascendant Sigils rip. That recoil shoves us apart with the strength of its snap.

As we separate, heaving hard breaths with me in a decidedly carnal state of undress, Quinn gasps in pain. I whirl around fast, as Lucca comes to him, as well. We both know the consequences of the Music breaking and recoiling upon Quinn.

As we’re shocked—fearing the return of his Revenant state.

Quinn is just in pain, however, as he leans on the table and holds his hands to his head like he has a massive headache. He growls, then slams one fist to the ebony wood in a gesture of frustration I rarely see from him.

Cussing a blue streak in his native Italian.

“Well, I guess that didn’t work,” Lucca says as he and I help ease Quinn to a seat at the table.

“I almost had it! And then it all just shredded apart…” Quinn growls now as he curries his hands through his dark auburn hair, massaging his scalp as he shakes his head to clear it. “Fucking hells…”

“Maybe we need to try something different.” I kneel before Quinn, stroking his thigh as I pull my disheveled robe closed, thinking.

“Such as?” Quinn lifts a dark eyebrow, though I can feel how much his head still hurts as he massages his temples.

“Well… the phrase the Gold Eyes gave us, Find the way to the tomb of Staphylogenes’ heart , is sort of like, open sesame ,” I say now as I ponder it, some deep truth rising inside me as I think about what we’re trying to do here. “It’s a heartfelt wish to get our maps, especially Iris’, to reveal information to us. To open their secrets and let us see where to start. Maybe thinking about our objective that way might be better than trying to pull it from the otherworld piece by piece.”

“Ariana, you’re right!” Quinn’s hands fall from his head as his mind goes a mile a minute once more. “I’ve been thinking about this all wrong. When Lucca summoned complex phrases of the Music to do his intention a few days ago, he didn’t think of the parts of those phrases. He tuned into the feeling of what needed to happen—and it did. It makes sense that the Music works holistically to manifest whatever it needs to when we summon it. Not piecemeal.”

“Everything that came from us before was instinctual.” Lucca nods, his hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “My phrases were, too, when I banished my father’s magic and shattered his throne. I was only thinking about the outcome, not the process. And the phrases became manifest.”

“What needs to happen here is just to unlock Iris’ map and find where to begin.” Quinn nods as he glances at the maps on the table. “ Staphylogenes has given us the key, but perhaps it’s not as complex as he said.”

“ Open sesame. ” I joke again as I grin, though I mean what I say. “Hey, it worked for Ali Baba. Why can’t it work for us?”

“I’ll try it, or something like it.” Quinn grins back at me now—and my heart soars, because grins from him are so very rare. As we all stand from the table, I feel a renewed energy take us.

To do this—and find the way to Staphylogenes’ heart.

“ Open sesame .” Lucca jokes now as he steps back to where he was before. Kissing my lips, he gives a renegade grin as his blue eyes light.

“ Open sesame .” Quinn echoes as he takes up his place behind me, kissing my neck and gently licking his fresh bite upon my skin. I shudder rather than wince, because Quinn is able to mesmerize me through his magic so his bite doesn’t hurt. But as he sucks gently now on that trickling flow of blood, he sighs. Moulding back into place, he eases his hand down.

Slipping up far more gently into me this time—and taking me with delight.

I cry out as Quinn’s long fingers enter me. As he parts me, taking me in a languid rhythm now, but just as intent, Lucca grips my hips with his strong hands and kneels down again, continuing his sucking at my breasts. I’m heating up fast, right back to where we were when our power broke. Quinn and Lucca are, too, as the Music shimmers to life between us again.

Ready, at last.

As we try again to tame the deepest complexities of the Music, clothing is shed, fast. I don’t know when we got naked, we just are, as Lucca seizes me and Quinn pins me to him.

All at once, it’s not enough for us just to be finger-fucking. As I get the deliciously wicked thought from Quinn that there’s so much more we can do, he heaves me up with his hands on my ass. He somehow hefts me so I jump-straddle onto Lucca; Lucca’s there to catch me with his strong hands gripping my thighs.

As he just thrusts right into me .

I gasp and cry out, in the best possible way, as Lucca takes me. We hadn’t planned it, but we were just suddenly there, thanks to Quinn’s maneuver.

Exclaiming his delight, Lucca seizes me with one arm around my waist as his other strong hand hefts me by the ass; he eats his kisses into my mouth as I straddle him and we fuck.

We’re heady and wild, as the Music careens around us. It’s heated up a hundredfold now, roaring with a level of power we weren’t even close to before.

As Quinn masters the game, adjusting my position so I’m standing on one leg now with my other leg high over Lucca’s hip as Lucca continues to fuck me, Quinn gets in close behind me.

Gripping my ass with one hand and spreading me wide, he wraps around me from behind, holding my throat with one strong hand. Quinn pauses, giving me a moment to know what’s coming.

Then presses up—deep inside my ass.

I gasp as Quinn takes me at the same time as Lucca, Lucca thrusting as deep as he can get to fuck me hard against Quinn now. Quinn holds us all steady as both men kiss above my shoulder; they bite at each other as I grip their necks, screaming with delight between them.

Reaching around, Lucca grips Quinn’s arm now as both men hold me pinned between them, fucking me. Quinn grips Lucca’s bicep, making a cage around me now as they thunder against each other through me.

As we rut and fuck and kiss.

I’m pinned, crushed in between them as they thrust in deep, powerful waves. I cry out as the Music crests, impossibly bright as we fuck; Lucca thrusts into me strongly now, as Quinn penetrates me deep, opening me as wide as he can get with his strong hand hauling my thigh up.

It makes me undulate between them now, but at the best angle for them both, so they can take me at the same time. It’s heaving and hard, deep and animalistic; perfect in this roaring dance as both men match each other like they’ve done this a thousand times, fucking me hard in waves .

I feel like I’m being taken and loved, pleasured beyond my wildest existence as they kiss each other and roar now, pinning me as we fuck. The Music blisters us all, our power gone wild in every-color cascades of rainbows, fire, and light as it blazes through Quinn’s entire cathedral now.

As both men fill me, over and over, I’m beyond pleasure; I’m inside my body but also in that otherworld , as I see a towering array of Ascendant Sigils manifest.

As my head falls back on Quinn’s shoulder, annihilated by our wild, endless fucking, Quinn gives a victorious roar; I finally feel him take command of our trio’s power in that otherworld , as Lucca’s star-bright energy catapults us into that space with Light, power, and grace.

I’m the one who unites our trio, however, the soul of our endeavor as both men fuck me and Quinn makes his move. As Quinn fucks my ass, sliding the hand that holds my ribs up to palm my breast and roll my nipple viciously in his fingertips now, I gasp, heaving us into that otherworld a thousandfold.

Quinn kisses Lucca, biting Lucca’s lips with his fangs now and drawing blood. Both thrust up deep inside me like animals, as I’m overtaken by them.

Quinn pins me, making every thrust decadent in a way I can’t possibly describe but want more of, endlessly. Long, Lucca hits the end of me, over and over. It’s pain and pleasure, and a searing tower of Light as they thrust into me, and take me.

With one final thrust, they seem to join deep inside me. They crash together in a kiss, as Quinn pinches my nipple hard now, insistent.

And we roar into that otherworld together—and come.

I cry out with abandon as we come, boneless as everything grips and spasms inside me. As we finally come together, Quinn roars—breaking his kiss with Lucca as he thrusts his intention into that otherworld , finding the sigils we want.

The phrase of Ascendant Sigils we’re looking for blazes into being, thrust through the weave of worlds by our mutual orgasm, as we roar with power. It’s not where the Gold Eyes told us to start; but we all hold our intention in our hearts as Quinn sears into the otherworld for us.

Pulling what we were looking for back into creation.

We’re burning, we’re blistering with Light; we’re all of creation as that incredible phrase writes and rewrites itself all through us now, claiming us as much as we claimed it.

The phrase, seek and ye shall find , scrolls through us, over and over. And then we’re gone, falling to the floor in a pile of exhaustion as that incredible sigil-phrase blisters out.

A trail of pure white Light writing through all our minds—as it cascades across our plethora of maps.