49. Gwyneira

49

GWYNEIRA

D rawing his robes around him like a suit of armor, Ignatius strode past us, heading for the main chamber of the temple.

Apprehension tangled in my stomach as I followed him. Did all leaders feel this gnawing worry on the eve of battle? This fear that, with the plan they’d set in motion, they just signed the death warrants of everyone they loved?

My father hadn’t. Not that I could truly tell. His generals certainly had not.

And now I was going to lead a siege against the very kingdom they’d fought and died to protect.

As we walked, Ozias bent down, growling in my ear. “You’re not alone, little mate.”

That was part of the problem.

I tried to let him feel my gratitude for his attempt at reassurance, rather than my dread, but this link between us meant I was doomed to fail from the start. The problem was that on my own, I didn’t have a clue how to stop my stepmother. And if my men were with me, it only meant they might die too.

Consternation came from Ozias. I didn’t have the first clue how to ease that either.

Up ahead, Ignatius motioned for Byron and Casimir to join him as he continued across the temple’s main chamber and past the fountain. His murmured words reached my ears, but it was merely a list of book titles and magical references I couldn’t follow.

Which only proved the point that I wasn’t prepared for this.

Exhaling sharply, I tried to push down the doubt gnawing at me like a rabid dog. In the end, Ozias really was right. Not simply that I was with my men—that still made me nervous as hell for them—but about the fact I wasn’t alone. We’d go through the gateway, we’d find the witches and Dathan, and they would come up with a way to stop my stepmother.

And maybe no one would die.

At a section of the main chamber’s far wall, Ignatius stopped. The stone surface bore an ornate carving of giants beneath a rainstorm, but bore no door or opening I could see.

Pressing his fingers to specific points on the carving, Ignatius murmured a spell under his breath.

A click sounded from inside the wall.

The door swung open, revealing a dark tunnel sinking down into the earth.

“This way.” Ignatius hurried into the shadows.

None of us moved.

“We good, Oz?” Clay prompted. “Byron?”

My scholar nodded, but Ozias took a moment longer before grudgingly doing the same. At my questioning look, he growled, “Strange magic in there.”

I swallowed down my worry. “We could just go back and?—”

“Not if this protects you,” Dex interrupted, his voice brooking no argument. “Come on.”

He followed Ignatius through the opening, and one by one, most of my men did the same, until only the twins, Ozias and I remained.

And Ruhl.

By the entrance, dark black smoke gathered and coalesced into the shadow wolf. He took one look down the tunnel and then sank onto his haunches, giving no sign he intended to follow.

“Aren’t you coming too, buddy?” Clay asked.

The wolf didn’t move.

Clay sighed. “Great.” He headed after Lars down the tunnel.

I didn’t take my eyes from Ruhl. “Is this safe? Really?”

A small huff left the wolf, almost like a scoff. But then he twitched his jaw toward the doorway as if motioning me to go onward.

It wasn’t exactly reassuring. But I also trusted the wolf enough to know if this was truly a danger, he’d stop us.

For his part, Ozias eyed the wolf distrustfully, but with his hand on my shoulders, he started toward the dark tunnel.

The air grew warmer as we descended. Damp surrounded us and moisture dripped from the stones overhead. Glowing moss and fungi clung to the rocks, emanating soft blue and green light.

“What is this place?” Niko whispered.

No one answered.

The tunnel came to an end, opening out into a shadowy grotto where stalactites covered in bioluminescent plants clung to the distant ceiling. The majority of the floor was taken up by a natural stone pool of water that shimmered in shades of blue and green from other glowing plants that grew beneath its surface. The water didn’t seem too deep. Barely more than a few feet and clear as the purest glass. But the glow of the plants within made it shimmer like it was alive, casting dancing shadows and light across the cavern and illuminating gold symbols inlaid in a ring into the stone walls. A ledge of stone ran around the pool, emptying into a recessed area beyond it, where low stone blocks formed seats and glimmering moss covered the ground like a carpet.

“Gods, this is beautiful,” Lars said softly, sounding taken aback.

I nodded, speechless.

Ignatius smiled at the cavern like he was greeting an old friend. “All magic done here is contained and amplified by the protective spells placed upon these walls. It is a sacred space for our most potent, powerful endeavors.” Turning, he bowed his head briefly to us. “If ever there was a place in Syloria to help with joining your powers as one, it is here. When you are done, come back to my chambers. We will go from there to prepare the gateway.”

Without another word, he started back the way we’d come.

“Wait, that’s it?” Clay looked around, incredulous. “You’re not staying to do whatever we’re doing here?”

“I am not one of the Nine,” the scholar said as if it were obvious. “I suspect this is why your strange wolf knew to stay on the surface as well. All who are here will be joined by the spell.”

The scholar disappeared up the tunnel.

“ What spell?” Clay called after him. Turning back to us, he appeared flabbergasted. “Okay, did this guy honestly just drop us off in a magical cave with a fucking to-do list and no idea how to even?—”

“Quiet,” Casimir said, his eyes locked on the water. “Can’t you feel that?”

Byron nodded immediately, watching the glowing pool too. “We need to be in the water.” He tugged his sweater over his head and tossed it to the side.

Wary looks passed between most of the others, but Dex merely turned to Casimir. “I’m assuming full nudity isn’t required?”

“As appealing as that sounds,” the vampire replied. “I suspect not.”

Clay turned a wry look on Lars. “We’ll be counting on you to dry us out when this shit is over, then, brother.”

Lars didn’t react, his eyes on the water.

“Everybody in,” Dex ordered.

Heart pounding, I removed my boots and then pulled off my sweater before slipping over the stone edge into the water. Soft leaves of glowing plants brushed my legs as I walked forward. The rocky bottom of the pool was rough, but not enough to scratch the soles of my feet, only to give me purchase. Glimmering lights like stars scattered around me when I moved, as if the disturbance of my presence caused something in the water to light up. But the water itself was neither hot nor cold. If not for the way it darkened my breeches and the bottom of my undershirt, it almost wouldn’t seem to be here at all.

“Okay, yeah, this is weird.” Clay turned around, his hands moving back and forth through the sparkling liquid. “Even the water up top didn’t feel like this.”

“Everyone okay?” Niko asked as the others spread out to form a rough circle around the edges of the pool. Around the walls, the symbols of the Order reflected the glow in dull gold.

Lars frowned. “So far.”

“Princess.” Byron motioned me forward. “If you would come to the center?”

I hesitated. “Why?”

Casimir smiled. “Because, as Ignatius told us, the Nine have a singular member at their center. I do not think my friends would disagree when I say you have been and will always be our heart.”

Around the pool, my men nodded in agreement.

I bit my lip, searching for words. “And you all are mine.”

They smiled, so much love in their eyes that it stole my breath. I wanted this moment to last. To never end.

“Go on, baby.” Clay nodded to the center of the circle.

An urging feeling came from Ozias. “It’s you for us, little mate. Always.”

Nervousness fluttering in me like a trapped bird, I walked forward. The rough surface of the natural pool helped me keep my feet, even as the strange water rose to just beneath my breasts.

“Ready?” Byron asked Casimir.

The vampire nodded.

Lifting their arms, they watched each other carefully and began to speak. I didn’t recognize the language. It sounded like Erenlian, yet not quite.

But the effect on the pool was immediate. The sparkling flecks of light stirred by our presences grew in number, spreading out like threads of glitter radiating from us through the strange water.

My lips parted. I… I knew this. What this looked like. It…

“Ley lines,” I whispered.

I looked up, realizing I’d spoken aloud. Byron and Casimir continued chanting, and the others were still watching the water. But Ozias heard me. Meeting my eyes, he nodded.

I kept my voice low. “We’re like the nexuses.”

“The world,” he murmured back.

The glittering threads radiating from us came in contact with each other. Prickling feelings suddenly spread across my skin, bringing with them a tingling in my veins.

My eyes darted to the others, landing last on Niko straight ahead of me. We all appeared unchanged, except somehow they seemed… more real to me in a way that had nothing to do with sight. As if, when I looked at them, their gifts and their strength and their doubts and fears and everything were in my mind too. It wasn’t exactly like my link to Ozias, where he and I shared an awareness of each other’s emotions. It was like I stood at the center of an eight-pointed star, and each of them were those points. Like we were distinct and yet united, and when I looked at Niko, I had only to reach out in my mind for?—

Awareness of the moss and bioluminescent plants suddenly flared to life like a tapestry of life and color. Their essence whispered without words, and somehow I knew that all I had to do was ask and they’d respond.

Gasping, I looked away, retreating from the sensation. It faded.

My eyes landed on Lars. Tentatively, I stretched out in my mind.

Heat coursed through me, and when I lifted my arm from the water, the air wavered above my skin.

I pulled back, but it was harder this time. Like even when I retreated, his power was still there, ready and waiting for me to draw upon it. Niko’s too, now.

All of my men’s gifts were.

My lips parted. Did they feel this from me? From each other? Casimir and Byron were still chanting, their arms raised, while the threads of glittering light emanating from all of us merged completely together.

Like we were all one.

Byron and Casimir’s words came to an end. Slowly, they lowered their arms. The glittering threads in the water faded away, but the sense of them in my mind remained, linking me to my men and their power.

“A-are you all feeling this?” Niko asked. “The…”

“Starlight,” Lars whispered.

Byron nodded. “The princess’s magic. We’re tied to her power now.”

Their eyes landed on me.

“But…” I looked around the circle again. “I feel all of you. Fire and nature and… all of you.”

Questioning looks passed between my men, but there was no worry or fear in their gazes. Just intrigue.

“So this is like the connection between her and Byron, then?” Lars asked. “But for all of us?”

Casimir shook his head. “That was accidental. Half-formed, I think. This is…” He seemed to search for words, finally settling on, “something else.”

Dex cleared his throat. “Okay.” He looked like he was trying to keep himself focused on the task at hand and not the question of what the hell this really was. “What about Niko’s protection? Can you…” He looked between me, Byron, and Casimir, and he gestured in lieu of continuing.

Consternation passed over the vampire’s face. “If it was going to work, I would have anticipated the spell to cover that as well.”

“Maybe,” Byron countered.

Worry bubbled up in me. Desperate, I stretched out in my mind, feeling for… something. Whatever the power of the wall might be like, in this form.

Gods, don’t let it kill me… or any of us.

A moment slid past, and then suddenly, my awareness of Niko butted up against a strange sense of crystalline hardness.

My breath caught. In my mind’s eye, it was beautiful. Like quartz beneath moonlight. Yet beneath it was a wealth of emotion that stole my breath—loss and sorrow and confusion, but threaded through with traces of hope that maybe, just maybe , this pain could still lead to something good. Something right in a future where those who came after could be safe.

This magic could protect us, yes. But it had been bought at a horrific cost, and not all those who paid had chosen freely to do so.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry. I know I have no right to ask, but… please. Help us stop her so this can end.”

The feeling of hard quartz suddenly moved toward me, passing around me and sending shivers over my skin. A shimmer of opalescence swept across my body, spreading out until it hovered all around me.

Slowly, I let out a shaky breath. “Thank you.”

Turning my focus to the rest of my men, I concentrated on urging the shimmer to pass through my connection to them. My shivering crested and then faded away like the power making me quiver was rushing out from me along channels I couldn’t see.

The shimmer of opalescence flared to life before the men and then ghosted over each of their bodies, translucent and breathtaking.

“Whoa,” Clay whispered.

Eyes wide, Lars nodded, watching the light.

For a moment, it hovered around them before slowly drawing in, sinking into their skin and fading to invisibility.

But somehow, I could tell it was still there, ready and waiting.

A second slid by. “So,” Clay said. “I guess that’s… it?”

Several of them looked at me, questions in their eyes, while Byron and Casimir glanced at the walls like they were trying to read something from the stones.

“Perhaps?” the vampire allowed.

My head shook.

“What is it, princess?” Dex asked carefully.

I couldn’t explain. A strange sense of knowingness had me in its grip. An awareness that, somehow, something still wasn’t complete.

My gaze landed on Lars, and I let myself reach toward his power again, my hands rising as if I could simply take it in my grasp. But when it flooded into me, instead of keeping it inside me, I stretched my other hand out to Casimir on the opposite side of the circle.

Lars’s power flowed through me like a river and Casimir gasped. Heat made the air waver above the vampire.

“Holy shit,” Clay said. “Is that what I think it is?”

I turned to Ozias. Urging and consent came from him, and so I reached out again, drawing in his power, sending it to Niko.

My sweet giant’s eyes went wide. “Oh gods …” He stretched out a hand, and the stone ledge of the pool rippled.

“Don’t stop, princess,” Dex said. “Do that—” He faltered as I sent Clay’s power to him. “Oh, damn.” Water coiled up in twisting droplet-ropes when he lifted his hand.

Exclamations of surprise and wonder came from the others, but I could barely breathe. I wasn’t giving the power to the men, exactly. Each magical gift still belonged to its original owner. But with only a thought, I could direct them to another member of our circle for them to use too.

Yet my heart raced. Even now, I had the strangest sense this wasn’t enough. Wasn’t done.

Their words and sounds of alarm washed over me, but my focus was on the power flowing between us. Drawing on their gifts one by one, I sent the energy first to one man, then another, around and around.

With each pass, my men became quieter, until there was only the soft, desperate sound of our breathing in this grotto deep within the earth. Only the glow of plants illuminating our wide, stunned eyes. Every time I transferred their power, it felt like a filament of a magical bond tying us closer together, as if I was a weaver sending the shuttle of my thread back and forth… back and forth…

Until there was no space between us at all.

I trembled, my hands lowering. We felt like something new. Something stronger than we had been, reinforced by one another, and connected in a way that transcended definition.

“The Nine are as one,” Casimir said quietly.

Exhilaration bubbled inside me, tugging at my lips with a smile. Turning a slow circle, I met my men’s eyes. Magic coursed through my veins, the feeling as sharp and bright as starlight on a winter snowfall. The presences of my men hovered in my mind like pinpoints of blazing light, connected to me by cords of power so very like ley lines. The world around me felt more solid than ever before, like every drop of water and fleck of stone, every trace of plant life and each glimmer of light and heat was so real , it was practically a part of me.

And something out there wanted to destroy that. I could feel that too. It was still some distance off, stalking across the land like a predator with all the time in the world. But it was coming with the intent to shatter everything. And we couldn’t— wouldn’t —let it.

But the nine of us were still too far apart. We were one. We needed more than this.

And my men felt that too.

Together, they came toward me. Ozias’s hands took my shoulders, turning me toward him. His eyes blazed with need as his gaze locked on my lips. All he could say was, “Please.”

I nodded breathlessly.

That was all it took.

Instantly, he tore my undershirt away and tossed it aside. Lifting me up, he slammed his lips to mine while other hands—those of Dex and Lars—pulled away everything else covering my body. Clay and Niko took my breasts, massaging my soft flesh, while Byron, Casimir, and Roan hovered beyond them, their eyes trained on me.

My legs wrapped around Ozias, and I clung to him while he fumbled with one hand quickly, unfastening his breeches. His thick, hard length pressed to my core.

I moaned against his lips.

“I want you, little mate,” he growled. “But I need you relaxed first.” His eyes went beyond me, a smile pulling at his lips that was decidedly wicked. “So each of us will take a turn at that, stretching that delicious pussy of yours until your monsters take you last.”

His words sent a surge of craving and need rushing through me, but I had no time to say a word before Ozias spun me and handed me off to Clay.

My blond giant was already naked, and when my legs encircled his hips, he grinned. “You want this inside you, baby?” He rubbed his hard cock against my slit.

Taking his cheeks in my hands, I nodded frantically before crushing my lips to his. He kissed me deeply for a moment before lifting me up, positioning me. In a long, slow stroke, he drew me down onto his length.

Another moan left me. Immediately, I started rocking against him, desperate for the friction that would bring me release.

He made a hungry noise, thrusting harder. Water splashed against my hips, my back.

But it didn’t stop. The liquid only climbed higher.

I broke away from Clay’s lips, gasping. Rivulets were coursing up my sides, twisting over me like watery versions of Niko’s vines. A shiver rippled through me as the water turned cold like fragments of ice tracing deliciously over my skin.

But like my body couldn’t make sense of the sensations, somehow the cold shivers sent quivers straight down to my pussy, making my channel clench around his hardness.

When I looked back at Clay, he was staring at the water, surprise in his eyes.

We were different. I could feel it. My men had always been strong in their relative powers. But now, somehow we were fueling each other. Supporting each other in a way that left our magic absolutely overflowing.

Clay looked back up at me, grinning. “Have I ever fucked you in my element, baby?”

The water froze against my nipples, sending a shock of sensation through my sensitive flesh. But a moment later, it became as warm as a caress.

Still grinning, he started thrusting harder while the water never stopped. Ice chilled me and made my clit throb. Heat made me tremble while my pussy melted into pure need.

“Deep breath, sexy.” Clay drew me down with him beneath the surface.

Hot water coursed over me, into me around his cock. Icy water froze my nipples, making me jolt with a sudden shiver of pleasure. Tiny waves pulsed against my skin, massaging and stimulating every sensitive place I possessed.

The effect was overwhelming, instantly throwing me over the edge into my release. Water streamed from my skin as Clay lifted me back above the surface. I clung to him, shuddering with pleasure. His hands dug into my ass, his body thrusting raggedly as his cock pumped out his cum.

I barely had time to catch my breath. Dex’s dark eyes insatiable with need. Behind him, my other men watched us, naked and hard.

With a smile, Dex said, “Ozias is right, little one. We’re all claiming your pussy tonight.”