Chapter 23

23

I opened my eyes. My back was so damn cold.

Because I was naked, and…

I glanced left, then right. I was sprawled out on a table in the eating chamber.

Thatgot me upright. Covering my mouth, I then spotted a naked Wild beside me. Phew, if there were two of us, then this situation wasn’t as totally and completely fucking weird.

Or was it?

My body was stiff, and the eating chamber was empty—the four double doorways shut. “How long have we been here?”

Oh, fuck. I whacked Wild’s thigh.

He grunted, and I whacked him again.

“What?” he grumbled, rolling over on the table like it was a bed of clouds.

“We just completed the next step of the mating ritual in front of the coven,” I announced, pretty sure that was the case.

I groaned, covering my face.

I’d wanted to eat Wild’s magic. And so I had. He’d eaten mine too. We’d celebrated devouring the other’s power with a lot, and I mean a lot, of sex. On the tables where everyone ate their food.

I searched my body for a new rune.

Wild had decided the situation warranted waking up. “You won’t find it.”

“It’s in my vagina or butt?” I demanded.

His lips curled. “No.”

I gasped, “I fucking got horns, didn’t I?”

“It’s up the side of your neck. And beautiful.”

My fingertips rose to touch the left side of my neck where he was staring. I summoned a mirror. The new rune was similar to the tier of three flowers low on my stomach. The one on my neck was a single flower, though, and rested over my pulse. Vines extended out from it like delicate blood vessels. “What does it mean?”

“Judging by the way I can feel your magic as if it were my own, I’d say it means we’ve merged on almost every level.”

Rooke and Corentin might know more too.

I banished the mirror, then blinked at the base of Wild’s neck. “Whoa, yours are different to mine this time.”

That had never happened.

I turned the mirror to him. “And the color is different.”

“Yours too,” he told me.

Wild was right. We’d swapped.

“Must be because we share one magic now,” Wild mused.

I smiled again. “We feel right.”

His sigh was all deep relief. “It does. Tempest…”

“Don’t say sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

I glared. “You did the best you could, far better than I or anyone else could have done. You kept a level of control with the mating ritual tearing at you.”

“I’ve made things so much worse.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know. I think the truth was meant to come out. I mean, look at what we just did. Talk about dramatic revelation to the coven.” I laughed nervously. “Do you think me eating your magic looked a little Mistress of Darkness?”

He smirked. “If it did, then I’m the Master of Darkness. Pretty sure that went both ways.”

I’d literally breathed in his magic through my mouth and nose at some points. At others, I’d just grabbed handfuls of it like a kid in a candy store. How weird to think of watching that.

I grimaced. “I don’t want to open the doors.”

“Me neither. Except my ass is cold.”

“Mine too.” I chafed at my arms, then said, “Hey, my arm runes are different.”

Wild sat up. “The three prongs on this one are gone.”

They’d been replaced by a straight line that cut across the top. “Does that mean the ritual is over?”

“Too soon to tell.”

Symptoms of the next step usually took a day or so to arrive. “What do you think our magical union means then? Aside from me knowing exactly how much magic I can take from you, and you from me?”

“I think that’s what it was meant to do. Us not knowing if the other person was near their limit when drawing from them was a serious vulnerability. By having direct access to one another’s magic, we know exactly how the other person is at all times.”

Guess we could get rid of our knocking system. I had a feeling our influence over one another would be better too. If one of us got into a state as Wild recently had, maybe the other person could use the stronger connection to better help.

“My ass really is cold.” I sighed.

I mean, I was a magus and could summon any number of things to help my situation, but deep down, I knew a cold ass meant I had to move.

Wild held a hand out. “Guess there’s nothing for it, my queen.”

I stood beside him and took a moment to wrap my arms around him and rest my head against his chest. “Guess not. If all heads south, I have an apartment in Frankton Gorge. We can both find work. I know plenty about humans. You’ll stick out, but you’re hot enough to pull that off.”

Wild kissed the back of the hand he still held. “I love you, Tempest.”

The full force of his love hit me inside and out. Emotion choked my voice. “I love you, Wild.”

I summoned some clothes, and he did the same. We’d both opted to keep our runes—and the new ones—on display.

“Ready?” he asked me.

“Nope.”

Wild opened the doors.

I pushed battle into my voice, enough to echo my words through the entire cave. “There will be a coven gathering immediately for all except those on sentry duty.” I glanced around the eating chamber, trying to recall all the places my butt or Wild’s had been. “The gathering will be held out in the meadow.”

Wild grinned.

I called my magic back. “What’s so funny?”

“You were trying to figure out how many tables we’d been naked on.”

“We’ll need to purify this place. Huxley will have a fit.”

Wild winced. “Good point.” He held out his arm, and I looped mine around it.

Together, we walked from the eating chamber and out into the main tunnels. The magus we passed were wide-eyed and fell back into rooms or smaller tunnels to let us pass. They fell into step behind us.

I exchanged a look with Wild, who appeared as bemused as me.

There was a definite you practice dark magic for a living wariness to their actions, but I’d expected that to be accompanied by mob anger.

When we exited the caves onto the knolls, the crowds there parted like a curtain to allow us passage. No big deal.

My pulse hammered as we walked down to the meadow where I’d been initiated and where the demons last attacked us.

Wild and I stopped by the pedestal I’d once sat upon, and the coven surrounded us. Rooke broke away from the others and first hugged Wild, then me.

I tried to read something from her expression, but she was well aware of everyone watching. Sven hugged us, too, then Huxley and Spyne. Corey followed. They stood closest of everyone, my advisors just behind them.

Where to start? I ate Wild’s magic. No. You know how Vissimo and Luthers have that thing? No.

Wild took my hand and lifted it to his lips.

There was an outbreak of murmurs at the gesture, and I saw both of our runes were glowing. Wild called his magic forth to his hand, and though his magic glowed gold in his palm, his runes glowed pink.

I did the same. The magic hovering in my palm was pink, and my runes gold.

Wild said, “Never in magus history has the Mother granted us the gift of a mate. Until now.”

There was a frantic uproar at his words, but what confused me was that it wasn’t angry. It was… jubilant.

What was going on? Where were the pitchforks?

The coven pressed forward.

“How?” one called over the din.

There were furious hushes from those who’d heard his question.

Wild wrapped an arm around me. “We don’t know. Our theory is that the Mother wishes to ensure maguskind are able to hold their own as one of the four main supernatural species over time. If we’re right, then in years to come, more magus may find a mate.”

The coven surged forward again.

“When did it start?” another magus shouted.

More hushing.

I answered this time. “When I joined the coven and my magic met Wild’s at the initiation. We didn’t know what it was for a while, only that there was a series of steps in the process. After each step, we gained a rune, and from there—with help—we managed to put together some of what was happening.”

Another uproar. That confession had surprised many. Maybe they’d assumed what they saw recently was the first encounter between us.

A battle-strengthened voice boomed. “Might I suggest that if you all want answers from our high esteemed and esteemed advisor, Astar, that you take a seat where you stand?”

I almost laughed at the promptness with which Winona’s suggestion was taken up.

The volume died down, and I glanced up at Wild, who smiled. His smile told me everything would be all right.

He scanned the coven. “Firstly, we’ll start with an apology to the coven. I understand that my behavior in the last few days has alarmed many of you. My excuse is that the mating ritual has a way of making an animal out of the male involved—this step in the ritual was the worst it’s ever been in that regard. I also would like to invite you to imagine what it’s like to be the first—to our knowledge—mated magus. Tempest and I needed to figure out what was going on, what might happen next, and where this would all end up. At every turn. And that only came after we realized this might be a mating ritual—” He paused and cocked a brow. “—and that we weren’t the victims of dark magic.”

There were a few chuckles at that, and some winces.

“What was happening did feel private,” he admitted. “I’m sorry you felt we were lying to you or hiding something important.”

“It is important,” Opal said. “Not just for our coven but all maguskind.”

Wild nodded. “I can understand that. I know that Tempest feels as I do in that it’s an odd feeling to be chosen for such a gift. We don’t wish to be treated in any special way because of it.”

Yet I wondered, as I surveyed the upturned faces, if that wouldn’t be the case. I fought back a grimace.

“In saying that,” Wild said, “it is important to maguskind, particularly if more of us are gifted a mate. With each step in the ritual, Tempest and I grow stronger and more connected.”

“We saw your bond in the eating chamber,” Ruby said in awe. “There are four strands to it. We saw the way you took each other’s magic into yourselves.”

“We saw your ass, too, Wild,” Sven said.

More chuckles.

Was this really going to work out okay? I didn’t want to believe it. And yet if it did, I could only kick myself for not doing it sooner, though I could also see that our light display had been important for the other magus to witness.

“It’s a bond unlike any other known to magus,” Wild answered her after rolling his eyes at Sven’s comment. “At first, I could only feel Tempest’s emotions, and then we gained a three-strand bond. The night the demons attacked, Tempest and I had just completed the latest step in the ritual. The Mother held me in a deep slumber, allowing Tempest to wake. She joined the three-hundred-year anniversary celebration and then fought the leader of the demon army. When the army attacked, the Mother woke me, and at that moment, Tempest was struck by her lightning and the fourth, gold strand in our bond appeared. That’s also when Tempest was given a fourth affinity.”

Understanding dawned on many faces.

“But you don’t possess four affinities?” Winona asked him.

Wild shook his head. “The mating, for us at least, has cast us in two clear roles. Tempest is the ruler, and I am her protector. This is why, when the ritual has gotten the better of me, you might have heard me refer to her as queen.”

I pulled a face, and he flashed a grin, adding, “Which she hates.”

“And is that why you attacked Frond? To protect her?” a young magus asked, perhaps not thinking through his question to the full extent.

I smiled. “Control was hard for Wild as the mating ritual pressed more urgently at him every day. We’d put things off for too long, and yes, with the way Frond has been acting lately, Wild’s mating instincts were telling him to protect me against the danger.”

Some looked taken aback by that.

Frond’s eyes had narrowed at my words, but he didn’t say anything though magus checked him for a reaction. Right now, the coven wasn’t with him. He’d wait.

“It may be hard to grasp the lack of control in a mating ritual with this being a first for our species. From what I can fathom after meeting with Vissimo and Luthers, however, it is much the same for them. We can look to their species to gauge how similar our mating ritual is.”

Wild kissed my temple. “We also plan to record the mating ritual in the near future so that any other magus going through this have some warning of what’s ahead.”

Boy, would that have made a difference to our journey. Though being the first, I wasn’t sure I would’ve believed it until later in the piece.

“Is that the mating ritual done then?” Sage spoke.

“No idea,” Wild admitted. “The next few days will tell.”

“And can we ask why you put it off?” she replied. “If the urgency gets worse each day, then why didn’t you just fulfill the next step?”

Serene answered, “Because we were attacked by demons and the high esteemed was so busy protecting us.”

The coven murmured and nodded at her answer.

Uh… sure.

I was glad neither of us had to lie our way out of that one. Yet I was sorely tempted to get everything in the open, my demon nature included. The vibe felt welcoming. More than that, now we’d shared our mating with the coven, concealing more felt disrespectful. I was torn. My life was my own. Also, if magus mating could only occur between a woman who was half demon and a male magus, then Wild and I were creating false hope of other magus finding their mate.

“How long were we in the eating chamber?” Wild asked in the general murmur of conversation that had broken out.

“Try two days,” Corey told him.

Combined with the time spent reuniting with my demon, I’d been out for five days. Nearly half the time I’d been leader. My bad.

“That’s why I’m hungry.” Wild glanced at me. “You must be starving.”

I fucking was too. “Let’s eat.”

“Be nice not to have our meals outside,” Barrow said wryly. Moving over, he hugged me and then Wild. “You two have been dealing with a lot. I wish the coven could have helped you, and I understand this came at you like a hurricane too.” He was almost blinking back tears. “The first mated magus in our coven. What an honor.”

My stomach churned at his words, and Wild’s hand slipped into mine, calming my discomfort.

“Thank you, Barrow.”

He’d broken the charm on the other magus, and a flood of our coven members pushed forward to congratulate us.

Ty clasped both of my hands in his. His eyes roamed my runes. “Fascinating. Close to Nordic runes, but not quite the same.” His perusal was clinical, and his gaze locked on the lowest rune on my stomach. “Fertility.”

The word was passed back like a drunk crowd surfer at a concert.

Nope. None of that.

Ty released my hands. “Perhaps now you will accept your new seat.”

Had this stood in the way of accepting my authority? I’d dismissed Ty’s word at first, but I could feel what he meant now. I was holding back. My secrets had held me back.

Would I accept the authority in truth?

“They’re acting like we’ve had a union,” I said under my breath in a brief lull between hugs.

Wild hummed, sending me a surge of desire at my words. I staggered back as an image of me in a short black, tulle dress—my legs long and smooth and my feet bare—hit me in the forehead. In the vision, Wild was waiting, all his pendants and runes on display.

My new view of the sky was obstructed by Wild.

I was on my back in the meadow and concerned coven members edged in my periphery.

“Tempest, what happened?” Wild half growled, cradling me to his chest.

My frown deepened. “I… What were you just thinking of?”

“What do you mean? I’m wondering why you just collapsed.”

I looked up at him. “Because I got a vision of me in a black dress walking toward a man dressed in black jeans.”

Wild’s cheeks colored. “Oh. Yeah, that was from me.”

“What was it?”

He muttered, “Just an idea of how our union might be.”

My jaw dropped. He’d already planned that down to my outfit? Did he have the guest list and seating arrangement done too? “Wild…”

“I know. It’s just something that’s been in my head. Nothing to worry about.”

I wasn’t worried. I couldn’t believe his mind had the capacity to think that far ahead. Meanwhile, my mind was shouting that I may not make twenty-two, let alone get married to a hottie.

I didn’t know what to say, really, but Wild was mega-embarrassed I’d seen his fantasy. Resting my hand on his jaw, I said, “Your dream is beautiful. That’s exactly how I’d like our union to be.”

How ideal that I didn’t need to put any thought into the day.

Wild’s color deepened.

The other magus had caught the gist of our exchange, and chuckles were interrupted by the repeating sound of aww.

“So we can see images from each other now,” he said drily. “Good to know.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re cute when you’re embarrassed?”

“Only you would dare, my love,” he said, then rose to his feet with me in tow. He addressed the crowd. “A new development. One that showed Tempest how enamored I am with her.”

I wasn’t sure the coven had ever seen a mortified Wild.

He was fucking irresistible like this.

Hmm. I wondered if the vision thing went both ways. Not all our gains did. I focused on an image of his erection slowly sliding into me.

Wild jerked and a loud growl ripped from his chest.

His dark eyes burned into mine, his grip like iron around my shoulders and thighs. “That was a dangerous thing to do, my queen.”

“Was it?” My lips curled.

“Fuck this,” Huxley said. “Everyone to the eating chamber. We need to cleanse it like we’ve never cleansed it before. They’ve claimed the meadow for the next few hours.”

Yes.

Yes, we had.