Chapter Twenty-Four Neo

Chapter Twenty-Four Ne o

"That's bullshit," my Zara says, in a hard voice that's meant to downplay how freaked out she is, just so we don't worry about her. "If Ash is supposed to be here and he's not, that means there's a major problem. We gotta find him. Like, now ."

I'm worried about the Seelie Prince too.

I mean, it's not like Ash and I are lovers or anything (yet) because things are really complicated between Ronin and Zephyr (and don't even get me started on Zephyr and Vasili). So we've all been taking it really slow when it comes to integrating Zara's Fae ménage with the rest of our polycule.

But Ash is just really decent. He's always been super nice to me.

Plus my fated mate's in love with him.

Zara falls fast and hard. I think it's a queen thing and her Gemini instincts tell her when someone's right for us.

At least, that's the way she's been with all us guys. She falls in love like a woman falling off a cliff.

But we're always there to catch her.

Lucius lowers his briefcase and satchel to the floor and studies the endless rows of fascinating-looking books lining the king's den with wistful eyes.

Then my headmaster turns away from all that literary temptation with a determined sigh. "We'll gladly assist you in the search for Asher Aurelius, Your Radiance. Only I'm not certain how much help those of us who are new to Avalon will be in locating your lost prince—"

"No point searching for Ash in Avalon." Zephyr gives an impatient headshake and rushes over to a bookcase, where he starts scanning the titles on the spines like all our lives depend on it.

Vasili sneers horribly at our host's averted back, then strolls over to the desk and drops into the ornate royal chair parked behind it (which is clearly some kind of throne and not where he's supposed to be sitting). Totally undaunted, V drapes his long legs in his glitter jeans across the desk and props his combat boots with their violet soles right on a pile of important-looking papers.

"Well, if we're not going to bother searching for the winged wonder," V says coolly, examining his black-painted fingernails, "I could use a manicure before tomorrow's Ball. My cuticles are getting ragged. Does this kingdom of yours have a beauty salon? Or better yet, a day spa?"

"No. But if Ash is missing, I know where to find him." Zephyr drags a massive brass-bound book off the shelf with a soft exclamation, rushes over to thunk it down on the desk, then gives V's elegant sprawl a narrow look. "That chair is an Unseelie relic and a royal throne, Vasili Romanov. It is rightly mine."

"Apparently, I'm the Unseelie King's consort." Vasili frowns over his fingernails. "If you don't want me sitting in this chair, darling, where exactly do you want me?"

Ronin's drifted over to check out the massive orrery suspended from the ceiling that dominates the back corner. There's even a little staircase with a landing he's climbed to get a better look at a ringed planet. The moons and plants in that orrery are actually revolving around a bronze sun, and the whole fascinating assemblage definitely draws the eye.

But Ronin looks away from that so he can eyeball the unfolding Goblin King vs. Unseelie King dynamic. In a few seconds, it'll be like Godzilla vs. Mothra in here (I mean, if the monsters fucked while they fought).

Ronin snickers into the suddenly loaded silence.

I guess I'm not the only one who noticed the way Zephyr was ogling V in his black lace panties back at the lighthouse.

Zephyr's been flipping through the big illustrated book and poring over the heavy volume in a barely controlled frenzy. He's in such a rush I'm seriously worried he might tear one of those gorgeous hand-painted pages.

Now, hearing V's loaded challenge, he pauses in his frantic rummage to glance sharply at Vasili .

"If you're asking where I'll have you later," the Unseelie murmurs darkly, "I suspect the St. Andrew's Cross above my bed will do nicely. For now, get out of my chair."

Holy cow.

The charged silence that electrifies this room leaves me breathless. There's literally enough amperage crackling through the dim gloom of this room at twilight (despite them not having electricity in Avalon) to make my skin tingle and my hair rise.

Oh my gosh, the thought of V on that cross…

Vasili shatters the impasse with an eye roll and a rude snort.

"Keep dreaming, little king, do, " that snake hisses. "I'm the dominant alpha in this polycule. If anyone in this harem's getting spreadeagled over that cross with a dildo planted balls-deep in his derrière—beyond our First Boy, who's clearly already considering it—that person is going to be you ."

I'm so startled to hear my secret fantasy dragged into the open like that, I almost swallow my tongue.

I let out a mortified little moan that makes Max (who's pacing the perimeter of this room like a predator) pivot toward me with a hungry growl.

Zephyr gazes up at V in astonishment, then blinks and returns to his reading. "By the moon. At least you are now willing to concede that I belong in the harem. Now get out of my chair."

Deliberately Vasili leans back in the forbidden chair and closes his eyes with a look of total boredom that makes even me want to smack him. "What do you imagine you'll do if I don't?"

"Do you truly wish to know?" Zephyr breathes, in a voice that smokes with danger.

"Wow. Okay." Zara sounds breathless, and I totally don't blame her. There's enough testosterone swirling in here for me to grow a third testicle just from proximity to those two. "Let's not get distracted. We need to find Ash PDQ, guys."

"'Tis precisely that task I intend to accomplish," Zephyr mutters, turning pages in a frenzy. "Ah."

He stills like a fox who's just spotted a mouse. I mean, he's crouched over that book so intensely he's almost quivering.

At times like this, I remember what Zara always says about how the Dark Fae King's not actually human and we can't expect him to behave like one. The Fae aren't a witching race, they're a whole other thing. I'm betting that's why Zara didn't totally lose her shit when he brought her the severed head of his enemy as a bridal gift . Kind of like a cat leaving dead mice on your doorstep.

Anyway.

Zephyr's crouched over that open book like a feral animal.

Lucius pads across to peer deferentially over his shoulder. Zara grips my hand to draw me with her and pushes up against Zephyr's other side to look too. The Unseelie slips an absent arm around her little waist that makes me so happy, because those two need to touch more and interact more, until Zara forgives him for ghosting her.

Even V edges his combat boots casually to one side to get a peek at the book that's getting all this attention.

"Is this an Unseelie spellbook or what?" Zara looks up at Zephyr with her pretty eyes all round. "Cuz I can't read it."

"'Tis written in Ancient Fae," Zephyr says, clearly distracted, one finger gliding over the esoteric-looking glyphs and sigils inscribed in a rusty red ink that's all faded and flaking. "If you wish to read the Old Tongue, I'll teach you."

"Merciful Christ," Lucius murmurs, sounding deeply intrigued. "Is that volume… a demonology?"

"Yes." Zephyr leans in to peer at a faded line of text. "Written in mortal blood and bound in mortal skin."

"Eeeew." Zara recoils from the thing and from Zephyr with a shiver, and I swallow a quiet sigh of regret. So much for those two kissing and making up. "What the fuck, Your Radiance?"

The whole time we've been parked here, Ronin's been pretending to check out the orrery while Max paces the room like, well, a chained dragon. Now Ronin curses and swings over the brass rail to drop lithely from the viewing platform to the floor. He and Max both converge rapidly at the desk and crowd in close to get a look.

Vasili lowers his combat boots to the floor and leans over to see too.

Zephyr adjusts his eyepatch with a slight grimace like the thing bothers him, which it probably does. I've literally never seen him without it, he's probably self-conscious about the disfigurement. Now he presses the tips of his fingers to the bridge of his narrow nose and squeezes.

"If Ash is not in his accustomed place," the Dark Fae sighs, "that assuredly means my enemy must have him. I think perhaps 'tis time and more to speak to you of my cousin Mordred. He is the one whose brother's head I buried in your garden."

Yikes.

"Is that what you did with it? You buried that head in my garden?" I squeak like a mouse, which isn't a great sound for me. I clear my throat and dial it down an octave. "Um, no offense, Zephyr, but I hope you didn't bury it with the veggies. We eat from that garden."

"What kind of primitive do you take me for?" He lowers his hand and spares me a short exasperated look.

"Don't answer that," Ronin mutters to the room in general.

"If you must know," Zephyr says stiffly, "I interred him under the rose trellis in your domus courtyard, which is more honor than he deserves."

"Dez's roses." Ronin hovers behind him and looks like he's trying not to laugh. "She's been whingeing they're not thriving. They'll probably grow like bonkers now."

"I think we're all getting off topic," Zara mutters, peering warily over the Dark Fae's shoulder at the book. "You were talking about your cousin, uh, Mordred, right? Geez, I know you said before that he's demonic. But I didn't think you meant that shit, like, literally. I mean, you're not a demon yourself, right?"

"Of course not. He's merely a second cousin once removed," Zephyr says repressively. "Our bond of kinship is not close. But, yes, Mordred is half-Unseelie and half-demon. When he is not making my life hellish here in Avalon or tormenting those foolish mortals in your realm who dare to summon him, he resides in the demonical plane. Wherever he resides, if I wish to compel him to speak with me, then I too must summon him."

Whoa.

Actual, old-fashioned demon-summoning.

I didn't even know demons were a real thing.

Under normal circumstances, the Dark Fae King isn't exactly forthcoming. He's actually kinda taciturn. But when he isn't all clammed up, he's really worth listening to.

For example, there's so much information packed in that last reveal he just uncovered I don't even know where to start digging .

"Are you really going to summon Mordred from the demonical plane like Beelzebub?" I venture, peering at the book. "Is that even safe? I mean, even with chanting and candles and a pentagram, like that one right here in this book, for protection?"

Everyone pushes in closer to see what I'm pointing at.

We're all staring down in varying degrees of horror and fascination at the page blazoned with an inverted pentagram (apparently drawn in human blood on a skin page, which is really awful all on its own) when a sudden breeze from the open stained-glass door behind the desk brushes my skin.

At the exact same moment, a fresh whiff of ocean air and citrus hits my nose.

"No need to go summoning that little shit on my account," a craggy voice says wryly from the balcony. "Besides, Mordred's been kickin' up plenty of ruckus right here in Avalon since you lit outta here, Sparrow."

Both Zara's teal head and Zephyr's green one jerk up from poring over that awful book like they're marionettes and someone just tugged their strings in unison.

Behind his eyepatch, Zephyr's ruthless face ignites.

The stained-glass door swings wide under the thrust of a brawny male arm. I can't see much from this angle, just a big hand and a leather-cuffed forearm and a dark thorny vine with drops of crimson blood inked around a really impressive biceps.

But that's a tattoo I recognize.

My wonderful fated mate lights up like a Christmas tree and rushes around the desk toward the balcony. "Oh, thank fuck. Ash."