Chapter 37

Enchanting.

That was the only word for this. Fae solstice festivals were enchanting.

When I heard festival, I thought of something like a county fair. It was, really, just in an ethereal way. Kids were playing, yelling, and laughing. Rather than a Ferris wheel, there were dragons and pterolycus rides. Like Renaissance festivals, music flooded the atmosphere.

Although there was no sword swallowing, Fae of the flame spun fire into balls, climbed into it, and did acrobatic tricks that I wouldn't be able to name if my life depended on it. In one particular show, in a square where four streets met, all four elements merged into one. From one road came an of the Wave Fae, rolling in a water droplet down the street. Down the second street came a man in a ball of fire. From another, a woman of the Zephyr bloodline arrived. Rather than a water droplet, though, she rode into the square atop a small tornado. On the last street, a woman stood, waiting for the others.

When all four of them met in the middle, she shook the ground beneath our feet. A platform rose in the center. The other three, still wound in their water droplet, and ball of fire, and little tornado, began the most intricate dance.

They twisted and twirled around one another, until it was impossible to tell where one element ended, and another began. All four of them combined into one, so synergetic and synchronized. Perhaps for the first time, now that I felt that magic within me, I was understanding the Fae.

Graham had been my best friend for almost as long as I could remember, so I always thought that I knew them. He was from all five bloodlines, after all. Who could be more in touch with this world than he was? And myself, by extension.

How wrong I was.

If I hadn't synchronized with the magic of this world earlier today, I would've witnessed this as just a pretty sight. What a grotesque, simplification of an immense and intricate culture.

Now, walking the city streets, sipping Fae wine, eating creamed honey bread, watching the people coexist with the world around them, creating art from it, I felt it. The power of this place hadn't left me. I prayed it never would.

It wasn't the power itself that I loved. It was the understanding it provided. The all-encompassing sensation of comfort. Like those ravens that flew overhead almost everywhere I went, an ethereal energy wrapped itself around me, reminding me I wasn't alone. Reminding me that I was safe, that I had it on my side.

I wasn't the only one enjoying this party. Ezra had already drunk an absurd amount of Fae wine and couldn't stop giggling. Especially not when he and Warren shared a dance in the center of a cobblestone square, serenaded by an orchestra of guitars and violins. They danced beside people like them. Men who loved men, and women who loved women, and people who identified as both or neither who loved people just like them.

Ezra was always hesitant to publicly display his affection for Warren, and I knew how much it hurt Warren. He'd gotten better with it as time went on. Still, there'd been occasions when we'd gone out in public, and some asshole looked at them wrong as they walked a bit too close. He always rushed to pull away. Warren never said anything, but there was always a certain sadness in his eyes afterward.

Here, they could dance together. They could simply be who they were.

Graham and I danced, too. Just as Amara promised, he enjoyed the dress she gave me. Made sure to say so about ten thousand times. He was right to find it beautiful. It was floor length, the most enchanting shade of crimson, tight through the waist to accentuate my curves, but flowing and sheer. No corset, which I appreciated, but still just tight enough to show off my most valuable assets. Plus, it was comfortable.

Admittedly, though, my favorite part had little to do with how it looked and much more to do with how much my guys liked it. I liked getting dressed up as much as the next girl, but I loved the attention they gave me. Shoot me if that sounded narcissistic.

We danced, sang, and drank all through the day. By nightfall, my feet were tired, but I had no plans of sitting down. Not when Graham was showing me, Warren, and Ezra how to do a traditional party dance. I tried my best, I really did, but there were so many movements with the feet that I just wasn't coordinated enough for. Something with a kick, which resulted in me bruising Warren in the shin, whose pain we all felt.

Laughing so hard that my ribs hurt, I clasped a hand over my face. "I'm so sorry."

"Oh, are you now?" Warren spoke through gritted teeth, but a smile teased the edge of his lips. Hopping around on his left foot to prevent putting pressure on the right one, he made his way to me. "Usually, a meaningful apology is not accompanied by laughter."

"It's the wine," I insisted, still laughing. So were Graham and Ezra. "I don't think your pain's funny. I feel it, and I know it sucks, but?—"

"But nothing." He grabbed me by my ribs and hoisted me in the air. After he tossed me over his shoulder, and I laughed harder, he smacked my ass. "Apologies don't come with laughter!"

"Put her down," Ezra said between cackles.

Spinning me in a circle, as if the wine wasn't making me spin enough, Warren said, "We're just having fun."

That we were. Even if my belly was starting to spin along with my vision.

"I don't think she wants to be put down," Graham said. "And I am not minding the view from down here."

More laughs, some from me, some from the others, cut off by a throat clear.

Warren practically dropped me. He barely made it to my hips in time to steady me. "I wasn't—We were just fucking around?—"

"It's cool." Jake stood behind him, shoulders hunched, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He stuck out like a sore thumb amongst everyone dressed in their Fae attire. Turning to me, he managed a smile. "Was just hoping I could have a dance with my sister."

"Yeah, of course." I smiled, too, as awkwardly as he had.

The last time we talked at any length was an argument. We needed to resolve that. And the fact that I was inebriated could help.

Or it could hurt.

Suppose we'd see.

My guys parted, letting Jake get closer. The two of us moved away from the others. Still within sight, maybe within Ezra and Warren's hearing distance, but I hoped that whatever we were about to discuss would be drowned out by the music. You could have line-danced to the earlier songs, but this one was softer, more like a ballad.

Jake placed his hands on my waist, and I put mine on his shoulders. We looked at each other for a minute, staying silent. Then, simultaneously, we opened our mouths to speak. I didn't catch his words, and he didn't catch mine, and we laughed, and the tension faded.

"You first," I said when it slowed.

Still teetering with mirth, the genuine kind, his smile grew awkward again. He pressed his lips together. "You were right. And I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." I frowned. "But what was I right about?"

"Everything?" Biting his lip, he had a hard time meeting my gaze. "Summoning the Demon, for one."

An ache throbbed through my chest. "You were young. We all do dumb shit when we're young."

"I still am." A hard swallow. "I don't know. It's hard to step out of the role I was always standing in, you know? Mom and Gran always told me to take care of you, so I did. Poorly, most of the time. But I tried. I fucked up—a lot—but I really tried to be a good brother."

That ache only got more intense. "You were. You are."

"I'm not." Struggling to hold a smile, he shook his head. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. It used to be easy. Everywhere you had been, I had been before. I was older. I was more mature, I thought. Starting to think I was wrong about that too, though." His gaze grew distant, but he recovered quickly. "I know I'm not now. I'm the little brother now. Even if I look older, I was basically in a coma for a decade. And I need to stop treating you like you're a little girl. You're not. I know that. And I'm angry that I missed watching you become who you are. I'm angry that I left you guys. I'm angry that I'm here now, when you and Graham are in love, but I didn't get to watch it happen."

"You're not alone there." Tears threatened my eyes, but I blinked them away. "You're not the only one who's angry you missed so much."

"And that hurts. It doesn't make me angry, but it hurts." He lost the battle with his tears. One pearled down his cheek. "Knowing what I put you guys through, it hurts. And I don't have the right to hurt because I did it to you. You didn't do it to me. But I feel bad.

"I feel bad that Graham had feelings for you for so long, and I told him to fight them. That I wouldn't support you guys being together. I feel bad that all he had was you for a really long time. I feel bad that I abandoned him, and I feel bad that I abandoned you, and I feel bad that I'm jealous of Ezra and Warren."

A tear or two more trickled from the corner of his eye. "They're closer to him than I am now, and it hurts. But it's my fault. I don't blame you guys for moving on. You had to. I was gone, and you had to live your lives. And I don't even think that I'm really mad at Warren for doing what he did. I'm mad at him because Graham likes him more than me. Because you like all of them more than me."

Now, I was going to lose my own battle. "That's not true."

"It is. It is, and I don't blame you." He swept the tear away, shaking his head again. "I see you guys. You're, like, together. Normal. You grew into, like, functioning grown-ups. And I know that everything's kind of uprooted right now, but you just… You have so much more experience than I do. You guys are just all on the same wavelength, and I'm ten steps behind."

This time, it was me wiping one of his tears. "You'll catch up."

"I hope." Snorting a laugh, he swatted the rest away. "But, I don't know. Can you just try to give me some grace until I do? Yell at me, if you have to. Remind me of this conversation. I just… I want to find out where I fit into your group. But you got to admit, Rain, it is weird. The whole dynamic you guys have, even if it does work, and you're all normal and healthy, it's also really fucking weird."

I laughed, nodding. "Yeah, it is really weird."

"I don't know how you do it." He looked behind me at the other guys, shaking his head slightly. "How any of you do it. I couldn't handle the jealousy. Watching someone you love be with someone else. It's… I mean, that's gotta be torture."

"You know, it's not." Smiling, I raised my shoulders. "We make time for each other. When we all need one-on-one space with one another, or from one another, we take it. Jealousy crops up sometimes, but we address it, and we work through it."

"I've seen it," he agreed, still watching the others behind me, "but I just don't know if I could take it."

"Some people can't. But sometimes, it's just how it's meant to be. We're all really good about talking and working through our problems, and there's nothing about it I'd change."

"Even if one of them wanted to bring in someone else?" He squinted over my guys, shaking his head again. "Wouldn't that bother you?"

"I don't know. It'd depend?" Another shrug. "I mean, we have forever together. Even if right now, everything works, who knows? Maybe one day, one of them will fall for someone else. And as long as they fit into our group, or didn't mind keeping their distance if we didn't get along, I could accept it. I'd just have to work through it with them like we work through everything else."

"Hmm." He may as well have been a bobble head, because he just kept shaking his head. "Whatever works for you. And it does. I see that it works for you. They are good to you. All of them. I see how happy they make you, and even if it's hard for me to accept that you're grown up now, that's all I've ever wanted. Just for you to be happy."

"I am. I really am." As the song came to a close, I leaned in and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Kissing his cheek, I squeezed tight. "That's all I want for you too. And yes, I'll give you some grace."

He squeezed me back, kissing my cheek as well. "Love you, Rainbow."

I pulled back and punched him in the shoulder. He'd tormented me with that nickname as a kid, but now it was Warren's nickname for me, and it was very weird to hear that out of my brother's mouth. "Don't call me that."

"Rainbow." He laughed, and I punched him again. "Rainbow!"

Holding my open fist up at my side, I said, "Say it again. I dare you."

"Rainbow." To magnify the sound, he held his hands beside his lips. "Rainbow! Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow!"

I punched him again, and he took off running. Each opportunity I got, I punched him again, and he laughed, said it again, and I punched him, and he laughed, and the cycle repeated until he got behind Graham. Using him as a human shield, he said it again.

"Beat him up," I said to Graham. "Soulmate ranks higher than best friend. He's insulting my honor. Beat him up."

Laughing, Graham shook his head. "Don't put me in the middle of this."

"He put you in the middle of this." I craned onto my tiptoes to see Jake better, struggling to land a good punch around Graham's shoulder.

"Ouch," Ezra said, rubbing his arm. "You got us all with that one."

"Well, Graham should be rushing to my rescue," I said.

Graham stepped sideways, holding his arms out in opposite directions. "You stop calling her Rainbow, and you stop hitting." He arched a brow at me. "Better?"

I crossed my arms against my chest. "It'll do."

"Now that that's settled," Warren said, "we were just talking about going back to the cabin. It's getting late." Judging by the look in his eye, I knew what he meant by that. Still, though, he asked, "Would you like to join us, Jake?"

"I think I'm gonna a stay a while." Jake looked around, shrugging. "This place is fun. But I was hoping we could hang out later, Graham? Unless you're going to be in bed."

"No, that's all right," Graham said. "I'll keep an ear out for you."

Rather than returningto the cabin, Graham dragged us all to the forest that framed Iliantha's castle. Laughing along the way, tripping over my gown, I let him lead. Warren and Ezra didn't mind either, chasing after us the whole time.

The last week gradually floated from my mind as we made it into the woods. One minute, Graham was holding my hand, and the next, Warren was, or Ezra was, and I was in a world all my own. My mind wasn't here. Not on this realm full of so much suffering and pain.

I was with them, and only them. Ezra, Warren, and Graham.

Like it had been a month or so ago when we completed the bond, it was only us and the stars. If I listened hard enough, I could still hear the festival in the distance, but that didn't feel as real as the Earth beneath my feet, the wind in my hair, and the pulse of their souls.

We must have been trekking through the woods for fifteen minutes before I said, "Where are we going?"

"Yeah," Ezra said, catching up and placing a hand on my back. "Where are we going, Graham?"

To our left, there were trees, and to our right, there were more. Trees, and bushes, and pine needles at our feet. Graham looked around, noting our surroundings as well, then stepped in and took my face in his hands. He came in, kissing me long and hard.

Ezra still stood behind me, and I heard Warren make a noise in his throat, telling me that he was close as well.

As Graham's kiss deepened, Ezra's body replaced his hand. That extra leverage gave Graham more room, more power, to kiss me harder, stronger. Squeezed between them, already winded from the run here, it was hard to find my breath.

"Want to try something new?" Graham whispered against my lips.

"You finally gonna let me fuck your ass?" Warren asked.

Laughing, I turned to look at him over my shoulder. He was just behind Ezra, watching the three of us with a smirk.

"Keep dreaming, mate," Graham said.

"What do you mean by new?" Ezra asked, sliding his hand down the curve of my waist.

Smiling, Graham stepped away and waved toward himself in a ‘come here' motion. Ezra and Warren followed. Quietly, too quiet for me to hear, they talked amongst themselves for a moment.

My shoulders slumped. "Shouldn't I be included in the decision-making here?"

All three of them pulled away, smiling as they looked me up and down.

Suddenly I felt a bit like a small animal, cornered in the forest by a few ravenous beasts.

How much I liked that sensation fascinated me.

"What?" I asked, looking between them. "What does that face mean?"

"The man asked you a question," Warren said. "Do you want to try something new? Or don't you?"

"Maybe," I said slowly, still looking between them. "Is it like anything I've done before?"

"Like a few things you've done before," Ezra said. "Just a bit more exciting."

"How exciting are we talking here?" If it was Graham's idea, it would be odd, and it would include using his powers. That, I knew with almost certainty. He always found a way to manipulate his abilities into sex toys. It couldn't have been too dangerous, though, because Graham wasn't all that interested in pain sexually. "At least give me a hint."

"Bondage and blindfolded. But that's your only hint," Graham said, coming in close again. He slipped a lock of hair behind my ear, trailing his other hand down my side. "If you don't want to try it, we can go have boring sex back at the cabin."

"But we're not gonna tell you anything else," Warren said, suddenly behind me. He leaned down and kissed my neck. One of his arms circled my waist, finding my breast. He squeezed tightly, pinching my nipple. "The surprise is part of the fun."

"And it will be fun, love," Ezra whispered, now at my other ear. Like Warren, he snaked an arm around me and slowly trailed it down to my cunt. Through the fabric of my gown, sneaking past Graham, he rubbed there for a minute, waiting until I gasped to say more. "And if you hate it, you can always say ‘red.'"

Valid point. "Fuck it. Let's do it."

I had no time to process. As soon as I gave the approval, one of them, either Ezra or Warren, wrapped a piece of cloth around my eyes. A tie, I assumed. Probably the one Ezra had been wearing. They tied it there, pulling my hair in the process.

I couldn't tell who it was, but someone ripped my head backward to expose my neck. Lips trailed over it, hands exploring my body. Whose were whose, I didn't know, and I wasn't sure that I cared. It could have been the Fae wine, or the adrenaline of this last week, or just the fact that this was new and exciting.

But I didn't care. I knew they were all here. Touching me, embracing me, kissing me, adoring me, and that was all that mattered. I had three people who meant the most to me on any world pressed against my body, and I wouldn't change that for anything.

Someone's hand slid over my ass, down to my thigh, then scooped it up. One of them flipped my skirt up while the last untied the strings just below my breasts. Suddenly, all of my most sensitive spots were exposed to the elements. Cool wind slapped all those delicate places, and then warm fingers spread out over my clit.

"Fuck, I've been wanting to do that all night," Graham murmured.

"It's this dress," Ezra said, voice in my left ear. He must've been the one holding my leg up. "I've never seen her in anything more stunning."

"I don't know," Warren whispered, pointed teeth scraping against my earlobe. "I think she looks pretty damn good without it."

I was way too cold to be naked, and I prayed that wasn't the next part of the surprise.

Graham fingered me harder, breathing heavier with each pump into me. "But this red dress spilling over her thighs…" A low growl vibrated from his lips. "It's like adding color to a sketch. It was beautiful to begin with, but changing something…"

"That's how to phrase it," Ezra murmured. "Just adds a new layer of excitement to it all."

Surely this wasn't the new layer of excitement. Standing here, in the forest, blindfolded, getting fingered?—

Cold wind rushed around us.

My foot, the one still on the ground, lifted into the air.

I gasped, and Graham circled an arm around me. Chuckling, fingers still deep inside me, his body pressed against mine provided stability. "This is the new part."

"What—"

"Shh," Warren said. "Just enjoy it."

Which I planned to do. If I understood what I was enjoying.

That wind. It came from below, pushing us higher. Were we floating? Was that the plan? To fly while fucking?

Suddenly, one of the guys grabbed my arms that I had tossed around Graham when the wind began. Whoever it was grabbed each of my wrists and pulled them above my head, forcing them to rest on top of one another.

"You got her?" Graham asked.

Ezra released my thigh and grabbed my waist instead. "I've got her."

Graham dropped me, and something rough and strong curved around my hands. I knew this feeling. It was similar to something he'd done before. He bound me with the branches of the tree. Afterward, he hadn't liked it. He had preferred using the vines of a silky flower bush.

But that was before I was eternal. That was when it took weeks for my skin to heal.

Still holding me, Ezra's lips came to mine. The wind whipped around us, but his grasp never faltered. He held me close, held me tight, and made me feel like I was in the safest place in the cosmos.

Someone, either Warren or Graham, kicked my legs apart. Not only a few inches, but as wide as they would go. Then, like had happened around my wrists, rough, strong bark circled each of my ankles. It spiraled around them, yanking them even farther than I knew they could go.

"There we are," Warren said. His voice came from behind me. One of his hands peeled between Ezra and me, traveling down to my pussy. Through the fabric of my dress, he massaged my clit slowly, firmly. "Who's going to take her mouth?"

"I want her pussy," Graham said.

Ezra vanished, no longer pressed against me. Graham took his place. I knew because of how warm his chest was, then how big his cock was sliding into my cunt. How the hell he managed to stay so close against me at this angle, all with his dick inside me, I doubted I would ever know.

But I was not fucking complaining.

"I think I'd just like to watch for a moment," Ezra murmured, voice close, but not so close he was just at my ear. "God, if I had a camera right now."

"Fucking gorgeous," Graham said, breathing hard.

"Really was a great idea," Warren said, voice low. With his damp fingertips that had been on my clit, he spun around and slid them up and down the slit of my ass. His other, now free, hand returned to my clit. "I just know I'm gonna come so god damn quick."

"You have no fucking idea," Graham murmured, coming in again for a kiss. He swallowed my moans with each one, tongue tracing along my lips, then my own. Groaning into my mouth with pleasure, he stopped a time or two. "Jesus, this is unreal."

I couldn't disagree.

Especially when I visualized how this looked from their eyes.

I was suspended in a tree, and the three of them were fucking me from all different directions, flying as they did.

The air was so cold, but with Warren pressed against me, and Graham within me, it was magnificent. That aside, the new sensation, that cold air, was thrilling in its own regard. In theory, I would've thought that this would dry me up, but my cum was dripping down my thighs.

Warren used it as lubricant for my ass, gently teasing my hole. He dipped in softly, slowly, until I gasped into Graham's mouth. "You want us both, Rainbow?"

"Mhmm," I murmured, stretching my head back to rest it on his shoulder.

Graham's lips tickled a path from my own, down my neck, onto my chest. Once there, he brought my nipple into his mouth and sucked hard, fast, making me scream.

"Fuck yes," Warren said, pushing his finger in deeper. So deep that I felt his knuckles against my ass. "Jesus Christ, you're so sexy."

"I want her mouth until you come, Graham," Ezra's voice. Before I could speak, there he was, gagging me, thrusting so deep, so hard, that words, even thoughts, escaped me.

Warren kept working my ass, rubbing my clit, releasing a few moans of his own. I felt his face close to mine, then his tongue at the edge of my lips, like he was sucking Ezra's dick with me. Or teasing him, at least, considering most of Ezra was in my mouth.

"Fuck," Graham moaned. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. I don't want to come yet."

"I don't think she'll be too happy if you stop," Ezra said between deep breaths, thrusting deeper into my mouth.

"I don't think she's really in a place to argue either," Warren said at my ear. His finger was already deep in my ass, but now I felt the girth of his cock against my hole. "Are you, Rainbow?"

All I could do was scream my pleasure around Ezra's cock.

Because, even though I hadn't prepped today, we were only relying on the lube from my pussy, and I certainly wasn't wearing a plug at the start of this, there was no pain when Warren slid into me. Either I was so wet that I was dripping, or just so relaxed at their touch, and all of their embraces, that there was no resistance. I just opened straight up for him.

"Fucking stars," Graham groaned. "Fuck, it's so much tighter with you in there."

"Jesus Christ," Warren said, far more breathless than he usually was while fucking me. He was usually so focused, so precise, in bed. But supposed we weren't in a bed. "My god, I don't know how long I'll make it, Rain."

I wanted to tell him that it was okay, that he could come as fast or slow as he liked because as long as we were all here, like this, touching, and absorbing, and giving, and taking, I wouldn't dare complain.

"Maybe I'll take her ass when you finish then, love." Ezra's voice was gravelly, firm, falling from somewhere above me, combining with the rippling wind. "Would you like that? Do you want me to fuck your tight little ass?"

All I could do was moan around his cock in answer.

"Fuck yes," Ezra groaned. "Hold her face still for me, Graham."

A hand fell on my cheek, circled around the back of my head, and twined into my hair. He pulled back, which only turned me on more. It must've done the same for Ezra, because his moan deepened. "God, I don't know if I can make it much longer either."

Neither could I.

Knowing that I was the object of all their desires, bringing them so much pleasure with the show they arranged, being the obedient toy they wanted so badly, almost had me at my breaking point. I was so close to the most intense waves of euphoria and pleasure. Every time Warren spun his fingers in a circle, and Graham pumped into my pussy, and Ezra thrusted into my lips, and Warren spread my ass, I got closer and closer.

My legs were shaking, entire body trembling, when Graham screamed out, "Fuck, I'm coming."

The heat of his cum shot deep inside me, climaxed by Warren sweeping his arm around me to hold me closer, to pin me in place as he groaned my name into my ear. Ezra finished it off with, "I can't. I can't wait."

As soon as I tasted his cum on my tongue, feeling Warren's and Graham's fill every inch of me, spasming, I couldn't hold it in any longer. Like the others, the ecstasy soared through my body in waves. Contracting, tightening and loosening, that cold wind against my bare flesh only multiplied and forced the orgasm. I trembled and shook, and the tree branches trembled with me, crackling and quivering. Still, they held me up, along with all three men, squeezing me tight, moaning as my pleasure strengthened theirs.

When the bliss began to fade, leaving me lightheaded and dizzy, Ezra pulled out of my mouth, Warren dropped his head to my shoulder, and Graham fell onto the other. "Fucking hell," I said between deep breaths.

"You're telling me," Warren said, laughing quietly.

"Now, to figure out how to get you down," Graham said.