Chapter 16

The car wasfancy with black tinted windows so no one could see in. There was a screen between Quentin and the driver, and if he wanted to talk to him, he needed to push a button. None of this seemed real.

He was going to wake up in hospital and find out he’d been in a coma or something. But as he ran his fingers over the black leather seat, it all felt very real. He could still taste Kaine on his lips, feel the sweeping flutter of fire of his thoughts. Not fire because he was angry, but fire because he was a phoenix.

There was a small part of Quentin that thought that should be the final straw. That it was all too much to take in. Yet, if witches and shifters were real, why not a phoenix shifter? Until a week ago, witches and shifters had been myth and fairytale, but they were real.

And he was a part of it.

And he was definitely real.

He opened and closed his fist a couple of times, leaving nail marks in his palm to be sure. He wasn’t quite sure how an accidental army brat had ended up in a fancy car, about to sneak into a castle with the Chief of Security, who was also part of the royal family, but not in this lifetime…

He shook his head and leaned back.

Had his birth been accidental because the Fates had conspired to bring him and Kaine together? Is that why his father quit the military and took the job in Mont de Leucoy? How many other tiny steps had been taken so their paths would cross?

And why?

Why him?

While he questioned everything, Kaine simply accepted it. As if while unexpected, it was completely normal to find yourself bound to another.

The door opened and Kaine slid inside. He knocked on the glass and the car started before he’d even done up his seatbelt. “Six minutes.”

“I know.” Because Quentin had spent those six minutes overthinking everything, and he couldn’t blame that on magic. He had so many questions, it would take decades to answer them all.

Kaine put his hand over Quentin’s. “You will meet my brothers. I promise you won’t be a secret forever.” He sighed and glanced away. “Nothing is ever a secret forever.”

They weren’t talking about him anymore.

And he wasn’t sure he was ready to meet the king. He didn’t even know what one was supposed to do. It had never been part of his reality…now it was.

He let his thoughts reach towards Kaine. Now they were touching, it was so much easier to let that fiery butterfly settle and examine it.

Kaine glanced at him as if aware of what he was doing.

With Kaine, his magic felt different. Like the butterfly was with him, not in the enclosure. He was sure that was something to do with the bond, and he wasn’t sure how to shut that off yet, or if he even wanted to.

“You think exposure is inevitable?”

“Yes. But I also think it can be done in a controlled way, with as little bloodshed as possible.” He lifted Quentin’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “I want to leave those worries behind until morning.”

He saw, or imagined, Kaine pulling his clothes off and kissing every inch of his skin. His heartbeat quickened, and the frustrated lust that had driven him to Kaine’s office door sparked up again, flooding his veins.

Kaine smiled, and Quentin was sure there were flames in his dark eyes.

“Did you deliberately do that?”

“That depends on what you think I did.”

Quentin lowered his gaze, his cheeks hot, and hoped the shadows in the car hid the very obvious bulge in his jeans. “Well, it added new meaning to undressing me with your eyes.”

“Oh, I plan to use my hands and take my time. But I wondered if you’d sense my intentions.”

“Was it a test or a promise?” Could he do the same? Did he just need to think about something and Kaine would know?

“Both.”

“How did you do it?”

“I imagine the bond between us and sent the thoughts through it. A lot of magic is?—”

“Visualizing what is happening.” Quentin finished for him. “Do you do the same when you shift?”

“Not consciously, not anymore. When I first started, I had to consciously draw up the energy and imagine myself shifting, but it didn’t take long for shifting to become no more difficult than switching hands to write or switching languages.”

Quentin nodded. Magic was a part of him and always had been. He didn’t think about every step he took; it was instinct. And magic would become the same with time. In the little thought Kaine had sent him, he had been kissing and licking as though he wanted to taste every part of him. So before he doubted himself, he showed Kaine exactly where he wanted his tongue.

Kaine laughed. Which wasn’t quite the reaction Quentin had been hoping for.

“Too much?” Some guys didn’t like it, and he wasn’t sure what Kaine liked because they’d spent so little time together.

“I have every intention of taking my time and kissing you everywhere until you are squirming and begging.”

If his cheeks hadn’t been burning before, they were now glowing like the sun.

“And I don’t want to use a condom. I am happy to shift first.”

Kaine wasn’t the first guy to say he didn’t want to use a condom, but Quentin had always insisted. “Back up. Why would you shift first?”

“Because nothing survives the shift. That’s true for any shifter, and you are the only person I’ve slept with since my last shift.”

That kind of made sense. After all, it wasn’t as though animals could catch human germs. “You aren’t worried about who I’ve slept with?”

“Only if you’ve slept with someone since me,” Kaine growled.

“No. I haven’t had the time or the chance…not that I would have.” If he’d thought about it, would Kaine have been more attentive?

Kaine’s gaze narrowed. “Do not seek to play games like that because you will not like the result.”

It was the first time he’d seen a sharp edge in Kaine. He didn’t want to test how deep that blade would cut. They were mates, but there were still boundaries.

“And no, I am not worried because I can shift.”

“But I should do a test? They won’t be able to tell I am a witch?”

“You should do a test for your own health, and no, they won’t be able to tell. Human STI tests are not designed to pick up paranormals.”

The car stopped, and Quentin glanced out the window as a security guard let them through. He is now on the castle grounds and not in the tourist area. He had gone twice, once with the school and once to see his father.

The trip with the school had been much more enjoyable.

“You don’t need to shift first, but I would like to see it at some point. It doesn’t have to be tonight.” He wanted it to be tonight.

The car rolled to a stop, gravel crunching beneath the tires. A car door opened as the driver got out. Quentin reached for the door handle, but Kaine stopped him.

“You wait. He will open your door after mine.”

Before Quentin could speak, the driver opened Kaine”s door. Kaine murmured his thanks and apologized for the short notice.

“It’s not a problem, sir. It gave me something to do.”

“I will try to use you more often so you don’t get bored.”

“Thank you, sir.”

A couple of seconds later, the driver opened Quentin’s door. While Kaine had slid out as a cat, Quentin was ungainly, like an oversized puppy who didn’t belong.

“Thank you.”

“Enjoy your stay, sir.”

He wanted to say that he wasn’t a sir, but the driver was already getting back in the car to take it to wherever it was parked. Leaving him staring up at a part of the castle he only ever saw in photos.

“This part is over five hundred years old,” Kaine said as he took Quentin’s hand.

“Doesn’t look a day over four hundred.” The gray stone had been well-maintained over the centuries. Most of the windows were dark, but light spilled from a few.

“Come on, I promise it’s a lot more modern on the inside.”

The area open to tourists showed how the castle had been added to over the centuries, and some of the rooms had been done up in the style of the period they represented. The original castle had been a little more than a fort and it was well over one thousand years old.

“You and your brothers built this, didn’t you?”

“We did. We founded the kingdom. We have some records in Latin, which we can read, and from them, we know we lived here before Rome fell because we have a record of that.”

The little flutter of excitement in his chest had nothing to do with the man and everything to do with the secrets.

“I don’t know if I should be offended that you got excited by that, or talk dirty to you in Latin.” He unlocked a door with his thumbprint and held the door open for Quentin.

“Sorry,” he said, as he brushed past.

“Don’t apologize for something you are excited about. I want to find out what’s written in some of those scrolls.” He shut the door and locked it. “Perhaps it’s boring castle maintenance, or a lost piece of history, or…” He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“But you think that’s why we’ve been brought together?”

“Maybe. I don’t want to question the Fates or appear ungrateful.” He led Quentin down a corridor. “That was my private entrance. There are two other entrances into my quarters. One for staff and one into the rest of the castle.”

“Which is how you knew you could sneak me in, and you trust the driver not to talk.”

“My driver gets paid extremely well for doing about five hours of work a month. He’s not going to talk.” Kaine stripped off his jacket and hung it up, and Quentin followed suit.

“Even with the staff?”

Kaine glanced at him, a small smile on his lips. “I am sure some things are talked about. But because of my job, he knows that anyone I am with never gets mentioned.”

“I’m not the first person you’ve snuck in.” He shouldn’t be surprised about that.

“No. The last person was a prince from a country who would not appreciate knowing that the third in line to the throne enjoyed having male lovers. I think he’s unhappily married now.” He sighed. “That was about five years ago. Besides, it’s my job to know how to sneak people in and out. And how to stop them—Everest was a pain in my ass for a couple of years.”

Quentin stared at his mate. He’d called the prince a pain in the ass.

“His royal highness seems lovely when he gives interviews.” He was the kind of man who looked so proper and spoke so well. It seemed as though he never said a bad word about anyone.

Kaine laughed. “He has a very good speech writer and has been getting a lot of coaching while he is acting king. He also swears like a sailor, corrupts every bodyguard I give him, and he’s the only person who has ever beaten me at chess.”

“He’s gay?”

“He has never pretended to be otherwise in this life.” Kaine paused with his hand on the door handle. “I don’t know if it’s living for as long as we have or because of what we are, but none of us has ever been what humans call straight. Maybe because he had to pretend for so long in his last life, that in this one he’s gone in the other direction.”

Kaine opened the door.

Quentin had expected to be stepping into a bedroom, not a cozy sitting room. The dark wood and leather gleamed in the golden firelight. Heavy curtains covered the window, and on one wall was a very large TV.

“I thought we were going to your room.”

“My rooms. This is part of my public facing section.” He walked over to the coffee table and poured himself a glass from the open bottle of wine. “Drink?”

“No.” Alcohol was not what he needed.

Kaine tilted his head. “You want to see the rest?”

He shook his head. He wasn’t sure how much more he could process. Just as he was getting on top of all the changes, there was something else. “I’m a little overwhelmed.” And it wasn’t from too many competing thoughts. “It was one thing when you were super important…but now you’re a…a not-a-prince.”

“That’s the bit that’s bothering you? Not the paranormal aspect?”

Quentin shook his head. “It’s easy to believe in the magic. But this? You snuck me into the castle. To your rooms. When you said I didn’t need to work, I thought you must be paid well, but now…and I…not that I’m only interested in the money. I need a moment.”

“Why don’t you go upstairs to the bedroom and have that moment?”

“Yes.” That he could do. “God, but I don’t want to walk away from you, either. It’s like my body is craving you.” He walked over and kissed Kaine hard enough that it even shocked him. He tasted of red wine and heat, and when his arm snaked around Quentin’s waist, he didn’t want him to ever let him go.

“Some of that is the bond. I feel it, too. Even when you were angry with me, I was delighted that you’d come to me.”

Threatening to scream if Orion tried to stop him had not been his finest moment, but everything had bubbled to the surface, and he hadn’t been able to stuff it down.

“So I’m not losing my mind.”

“You are not. But I do want to take you upstairs and get you naked and in my bed.”

Kaine’s eyes were dark, and his grip on Quentin was firm. “I suggest you take that moment now, or we may not make it that far.”

There was a roughness to his voice that hit Quentin in all the right places or was it the surge of heat and desire that wasn’t his own? He was so used to closing off parts of the world, to trying to fit in and be normal, that now Kaine was flipping open doors and windows and telling him to fly it was unnerving.

For a few heartbeats, the familiarity of the rush and stripping before making it to bed was what he wanted because if he hoped for more, it would be taken away.

But they were mates.

It was meant to be.

The Fates had decreed it—while Orion wasn’t chatty, he did at least answer his questions, or at least some of them.

And if it was meant to be, then everything would be fine.

Kaine’s cheek brushed against his. His stubble was rough, and his breath was warm on his ear. “You deserve good things, and I intend to make up for being absent.”

“You are used to good things.” People like Kaine didn’t know what it was like growing up with two working parents who were always bickering over money.

“Which is how I know you are a good thing. Someone I want in my life.” He released him. “Come on, I’ll show you upstairs.”

Quentin let Kaine lead the way. The stairs were steep and made of stone as if they had never been upgraded. The center of each step had been worn into a dip over the centuries, and the wooden railing was also smooth with use. The staircase spiraled around, and then they were upstairs. He expected cold stone walls and old-fashioned heavy wood furniture. Instead, the bedroom was quite modern. The bedframe was metal, the walls were a soft white, and there wasn’t a tapestry insight.

Kaine smiled over the rim of his glass as if he knew exactly what Quentin was thinking. He probably did because of the mate bond. That was either going to be really annoying or really useful, possibly both.

Quentin sighed. He might as well admit Kaine read his thoughts correctly. “I was expecting it to look more like the rooms on display in the wing open to the public.”

“There are formal rooms that look like that, but this is my private quarters, so I can decorate them how I want. We all have private quarters. Plus, there are the official quarters for the king and the royal family. Private quarters mean that we always have a place.”

“No four-post bed with curtains?” That might have been nice.

“Is that what you were hoping for?”

Quentin shrugged.

“Curtains are a fire hazard. Besides, we have glass in the windows, better heating and insulation, so the need for curtains around the bed is gone. If you want to see some history, there is a section of the castle that is original. We’ve talked about doing something with it, but it’s a nice piece of history. And our names are carved into the stone…the names we had at the time.”

“How do you know they’re yours and not the stonemason’s?”

“Because we have a rule of writing the date of death and the new name at the end of the dead brother’s book, we also fill any last wishes. But it means we can guess dates and names, even if we can’t read what they say.”

“It must be incredibly frustrating. All of this.” He flung up his hands. He was struggling with the enormity of it all. With the idea of living time and time again but having to relearn everything. To lose so much, while holding on to so much.

“It is, and at times some of us have wanted to discontinue the books or burn them all because of the weight of history, but without that history, we would repeat the same mistakes again and again and again. It also helps to know that there is always a next time, even if it will be very different.”

He swallowed, needing an answer, even if it scared him. “You said my magic is in my soul. Does that mean I get a next time?”

Kaine drained his glass and put it on the dressing table. “It appears so.”

“It appears?” They didn’t know?

“We don’t know everything; we are only just putting some things together because it’s taken four hundred years for the answer to become clear to the question that was never asked. Not all of my brothers are as patient.”

But Kaine could be.

“Let me finish the grand tour of my not-so-grand private quarters.” He opened the door to the bathroom. It was all black-and-white tiles and gold taps and mirrors. The bathtub had gold feet and was big enough for two. When it was installed, this bathroom must’ve been expensive. “The running water was added in my last life…but I believe this was quite fashionable when indoor bathrooms became all the rage.”

Quentin turned, sure he’d be able to see himself from every angle.

Kaine watched him.

“Either you’re worried about getting killed in the bathroom, or you like…” He’d been going to say that Kaine must enjoy watching himself fuck, but there wasn’t a polite way to say that.

That lazy grin formed again. “Watching my lovers squirm and writhe?”

Quentin’s cheeks were on fire.

“I do. That’s why there’s a massive mirror on the dressing table. As well as the full-length dressing mirror in the bedroom.”

He wasn’t sure he wanted to watch; sometimes, even watching porn was awkward. But he could keep his eyes closed.

Kaine cupped Quentin’s jaw with one hand and pulled his hip close with the other before kissing him. It was almost too easy to sink into the kiss and forget about everything else. Is that why Kaine enjoyed coming here? In these rooms, nothing else existed. The rest of the world could go to hell, and they were safe, protected by the thick stone walls that had protected the castle for centuries.

Kaine’s hand slid under Quentin’s clothes. His touch burned his skin, and his hunger was already flowing through Quentin’s veins. Between kisses and touches, Kaine pulled off the shirt and then his undershirt, and Quentin felt as though he needed to hurry up and catch up. He didn’t want to be the only one naked.

“I like the idea of you being the only one naked.” Kaine’s fingernail raked up Quentin’s fly, bringing his half-hard dick to attention. He licked and kissed over Quentin’s throat and along his collarbone as though he wanted to taste every inch. His hands were everywhere, caressing his bare skin, cupping his ass through his jeans. Dragging the zipper down.

And he was struggling to undo even the buttons of Kaine’s shirt.

That was the problem with living in a cold country. There were too many layers of clothing to take off. Which is why he didn’t usually bother. He took off what was needed. Nothing more.

If he didn’t want more, it couldn’t be taken away. Because nothing this good ever happened to him, he was expecting it all to end.

“You’re stuck with me, witch.” Kaine’s voice was soft as he whispered in Quentin’s ear. His teeth raked over the lobe as his hand slid into Quentin’s jeans to stroke his cock.

“I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment.”

“It could just be a statement of fact.” He licked one of Quentin’s nipples, then gently bit, drawing a gasp from him before moving lower.

There went any chance he had of getting Kaine’s shirt off. He undid Quentin’s boots so he could step out of them. As soon as he did that, his jeans were coming off.

Kaine glanced up at him. This time, Quentin saw the red flames in Kaine’s eyes.