Chapter 13

Iwatched my wife as she flipped through pages of the Book of Ether, her brow furrowed in concentration and posture rigid with irritation. I had long since noticed her curiosity, that burning thirst for knowledge and power which defined her as wholly Fae, but I wasn't sure I'd ever truly noticed how frustrated she got when answers eluded her.

"It's not like it's unmanageable," I told her, adjusting my posture where I sat reclined in my usual armchair at King's Hollow, my boots resting on the coffee table, ankles crossed before me.

"I know," she grunted, flicking another page so hard that I was surprised it didn't tear.

"It could be useful," I added, and her gaze lifted from the book to narrow into a glare aimed my way.

"However did you manage to get so far ahead in your studies if all you ever do is repeat the same thoughts over and over again? I'm honestly surprised none of the other Heirs murdered you before now."

I gave her a wicked grin, beckoning her closer with a hand coated in gold rings. We'd returned here after the interrogation yesterday, discussing the movements of my father's armies thanks to the information Gus Vulpecula had supplied us with. Scouts had been sent out of course, but as expected, they were already gone.

It wasn't as though Gus had been kept in the loop on purpose; he was simply a useful pawn for my father to use in his media campaign of lies and propaganda. But he was a sneaky bastard, the type to stick his nose in where it wasn't wanted and sniff out information he wasn't supposed to have. So he might not have been able to help us locate the False King's armies, but he had helped us with an approximation of numbers, rumours of planned movements, and even whispers about the issues the Bonded were giving my father. No doubt it wasn't easy to satisfy the bond to so many.

Roxy pursed her lips at me over the top of the ancient book, then dropped her eyes to it once more.

I growled to let her know I wasn't pleased about being ditched in favour of some dusty tome, and she flipped me off as casually as breathing.

We'd discussed the cost of my life with the others long into the night, and so far as I was concerned, there were worse things that could have happened. I was a bloodthirsty son of a bitch with anger issues which I didn't mind sating on the battlefield one bit. And though we'd both gotten caught up in the high of bloodshed while fighting against the twisted monsters my father had sent to attack the academy and when interrogating his war General, in hindsight, I didn't think we had actually been out of control. Caught up in slaughter and mayhem? Yes. High on the spill of blood and crash of battle? Yes. But utterly unable to stop? Or worse, unable to tell friend from foe? No. We had not entirely lost our minds to the call of death, and I didn't fear that becoming the case either. Roxy had known that she would have to bear a cost when she'd come for me beyond The Veil, and I'd known I would bear one too when I agreed to return with her. Honestly, this seemed like a far better option than many others, and in a time of war, if anything, it seemed helpful.

With a sigh, I pushed to my feet and headed over to make us some coffee. This evening, we planned to hit the FIB impound and retrieve the next Guild Stone. Apparently today, we planned on sitting here while Roxy angrily turned the pages in that damn book like it might suddenly offer her the answer she wanted.

"You won't find some handy little get out clause," I told her, setting a steaming mug of coffee down in front of her before placing my hands on the back of her seat and leaning close to read over her shoulder.

"I'm not looking for a get out clause," she replied like that was obvious, and I frowned.

"What has you so worked up then?" I pressed a kiss to her cheek, then another to the spot just beneath her ear, my gaze trailing over the gruesome illustration in the book which was depicting the way the organs of the dead could be traded for the power of persuasion with the addition of the right herbs, runes, and incantations.

"I just want…" She turned the page, then grinned in triumph as she seemingly found what she was searching for. "Aha." Roxy pointed to the page, and I frowned.

"You want to coat your skin in impenetrable scales?" I asked, looking at the depiction of a man who appeared to be half lizard after completing the spell. "I'm pretty sure this spell is permanent, baby, and I'm not sure the whole scaley lizard-person look is the one you wanna commit to for a lifetime-"

"Not that, idiot," she said, batting my hand away as I tugged her hair over her shoulder to give me better access to her neck. "That."

She pointed at a tiny note in the list of ingredients which was blotted over with some kind of brownish stain and hardly legible at all. I was forced to take my lips from her neck as I leaned closer, trying to read the scrawling text.

A cup of water from the river of the dead, found beyond the sharp right of a crossroads at the foot of a burial mound beneath the outstretched bough of the hangman's tree.

"Those directions seem pretty vague. If I told you to meet me by the path near the river where the oak tree grows, then you'd have no fucking idea where to-"

She placed a hand over my mouth, and I growled at her.

Roxy turned to look at me over her shoulder, her green eyes sparking with the kind of trouble that we both knew I'd be following her into headfirst and cursing her out for ever suggesting.

"Oh, my poor, sweet, linear-minded Dragon," she teased. "Thank the stars you didn't have to come get me from death or you'd have been a very old man before you ever figured it out."

She pressed her lips to the back of her hand as though kissing me through the barrier she'd placed between us, then pushed to her feet, leaving the book on the sofa.

"And what is it that you think you might find beneath the bough of the hangman's tree?" I questioned as she headed for the door.

"Not what; who."

"Stop teasing me and give me a straight answer," I demanded, stalking her out of the room and down the stairs.

"The Ferryman," she replied simply, and I almost missed a step in my surprise over that.

"And why the fuck would you want to meet with him again?"

"I dunno. Maybe he'd like to hang out? It's gotta be lonely paddling up and down the river of death all day. He'd probably like a visitor."

"Didn't you tell me you knocked him off of his raft into the river and the power of his fury almost ripped the soul from your chest as you escaped him?" I snarled.

"Yeah. Good times." She gave me a smile, slipping out of the door at the foot of the tree trunk, and I lunged for her.

I caught her wrist, propelling her around so that her back was to the bough of the enormous tree and kissing her taunting lips hard.

I felt the lurch of her pulse as my own heart echoed it, the two organs a mirror to one another and her excitement fuelling my own.

I drew her wrists up above her head, pinning her in place with my body and pressing my tongue between her lips, losing myself in the taste of her sweet mouth. She was far more intoxicating than any battle or bloodshed, far more tempting than causing death and carnage. If our cost was to deliver death to The Ferryman, then so be it. Nothing would take away the reality of this though.

We finally broke apart, our breaths rough and heavy, the desire to claim more hanging in the chilled air of winter around us. But Geraldine was bringing the ‘Rebels' Undying Mighty Province' - AKA Rump Island - around the coast today. The twins had to meet her down by Aer Cove when it arrived so that the wards could be extended to connect it to the academy, giving the army the space it needed while amassing our forces in one place at last.

I reluctantly pulled back, drawing Roxy beneath my arm so the two of us could take the path down to the cove.

Sleet began to fall from the sky as we walked, the freezing droplets speckling my cheeks while my breath rose in small clouds before me. I didn't bother to create a shield of heat to stop it though, instead savouring the change in temperature. In death, the climate didn't vary. It was calm, temperate, serene, and boring. I welcomed the crash of rain against my skin and the chill of the wind through my hair.

We climbed up the hill towards the cliffs, the shadow of Aer Tower and its ever-rotating turbines falling over us as we approached the water and the scent of the sea air assaulted us.

Rump Island was already taking up a lot of the view which had only ever been filled by the ocean before.

Gwen was waiting at the edge of the cliff, and I released my hold on Roxy, watching as she jogged over to join her sister.

The Heirs were further down the cliff, laughing and roughhousing, and I walked over to them, feeling the echoes of all the time we'd spent at the academy washing around me as though I were stepping back in time.

"Darius!" Seth called as he spotted me. "We were just trying to figure out which one of us would survive the longest on the moon, and these assholes keep saying it would be Max, even though it would clearly be me."

"Max has water magic," I pointed out. "You'd need water and air on the moon. So Max wins."

"I can make coconuts," Seth growled. "Besides, when I was on the moon, I scouted the perfect crater for a moon base."

"Oh, have you been to the moon?" I asked as if surprised by this news, and Seth's face dropped.

"You know full well that I have been to the moon. But if you'd like me to remind you of all the things that I did while-"

"I used to be quite impressed by the fact that you'd been to the moon," I mused. "But then I went to death and back and the moon kinda lost its appeal."

"The moon could never lose her appeal," Seth hissed.

"You have to admit going to death is cooler than going to the moon," Max agreed, and Caleb snorted a laugh while Seth gaped at us in horror.

"Are you comparing the lowly bowels of the underworld where every Fae and their pet lizard will one day end up anyway to the great and bulbous form of her majesty the moon?" he scoffed. "When I was on the moon, I saw all kinds of things, like-"

"I saw all kinds of things in death too," I replied, holding Seth's gaze for several seconds before purposefully looking at Caleb, who stilled under my scrutiny.

"Like what?" he asked, the amusement slipping from his tone.

"Oh, you'd be surprised at the depravity I witnessed. Not to mention the bare-faced lies some people tell their closest friends. Honestly, I thought I knew the people I love best in this world, but there are some secrets hiding among us which would shock the entire kingdom if they came to light."

"I don't know what you mean," Seth said, his voice higher than usual.

I just shrugged, turning my focus back to the Vegas as they worked and ignoring the pointed looks which were passing between two of my best friends.

A pulse of magic washed over us as the twins connected the wards surrounding the academy with those around Rump Island.

I clapped Max on the arm, giving him a shove to get him running with me, and he crowed like a rooster as the two of us dove straight over the edge of the cliff. We plummeted for several heart-stopping moments before his air magic swept around us and propelled us back towards the sky, shooting us out across the water and passing by the land bridge which Geraldine was creating to connect the island to the beach.

We shot over her head, and the sight of blazing wings caught my attention as Roxy took off and soared ahead of us.

"I'm gonna help Gerry," Max called. "You heading after Tory?"

"Yeah," I yelled over the rush of air, and he flicked his wrist, propelling me after my girl at a ferocious speed.

The land beneath me blurred as I sped over it, the landmarks vaguely familiar from interactions I'd witnessed from beyond The Veil, but most of it was unknown.

I began to fall as Max's magic wore off, and I cast a spray of water beneath my feet so I could slow my descent before jogging to a halt in front of the towering castle which sat in the centre of the island. Carved turrets of stone and ice stood high above the open drawbridge, the moat below making it seem as if we were crossing into a medieval tale of kings and dragons from the Mortal Realm.

Roxy landed beside me, her wings fading out of existence.

"We have the afternoon to kill before we go after the Guild Stone," she said. "Want to come paw through your old treasure and everything I stole from Lionel's trove?"

"It's here?" I asked keenly, moving towards the drawbridge which had been lowered to allow access inside.

"It is. Come on." She led the way on, and I followed her through the extravagant entrance hall and up a huge staircase decorated with all kinds of carvings and paintings of the twins. There was no doubting who had created this place, and I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes at Geraldine's theatrics.

At the top of the second flight of stairs, Roxy caught hold of my shirt and dragged me against her, capturing my lips with hers.

I gave in more than willingly, lifting her into my arms and taking hold of the backs of her thighs as she wound them around my waist.

I kissed her hard, pressing her back to the door and groaning as she rolled her hips against me, making my cock harden for her with ease. This fucking girl. My fucking girl.

I knocked the door open, my hunger for her as keen as always, her clothes altogether too much for all the things I had in mind.

But as we stumbled into her room and I glanced up at the roses which hung from the walls and took in the rumpled bed sheets, I broke our kiss abruptly.

"You haven't been back here since the night you left to reclaim me from death, have you?" I asked, my brow furrowing while she focused on yanking my shirt over my head and tossing it aside.

"No. Why?" Her mouth fell to my neck, and I groaned as she began kissing her way down the side of my throat, her fingernails biting into my shoulders.

"Because," I said, pushing her back despite the desperate ache in my flesh to be merged with hers. "That night, another couple came in here and fucked in your bed."

"What?" she hissed, steadying herself on her feet and turning to look at the room which was still in a state of disarray. "Who?" She stalked towards the bed angrily, gasping as she picked up a huge, glittering, Dragon cock dildo between two fingers and brandished it at me. "Who would do this?" she snarled, tossing it away from her like it was contaminated.

"Seth and Caleb," I told her, watching the way her eyes widened at the news before a bark of laughter escaped her.

"Those assholes. I knew Seth was into him, but I never realised Caleb liked him back."

"Apparently he likes him a whole hell of a lot," I replied tersely, the memory of being trapped in this room in ghost form while the two of them fucked each other senseless was pretty hard to scrub from my skull.

"How do you know? Did you watch them?" she asked. "Was it hot?"

"No, it wasn't fucking hot, Roxy. It was two of my best friends going at it in my wife's bed. It was the furthest thing from hot."

"Hmm," she said sceptically, taking hold of the edge of her blanket and tossing it back to reveal a bottle of lube and a butt plug. "Shit. They really went for it, didn't they?"

I scrubbed a hand over my face, a growl building in my throat. "Yes, they did. And they've been keeping it secret too. You know what that means, don't you?"

"Umm…that they want some privacy from the interference of assholes and probably didn't think any ghosts would be perving on them while they hooked up?" she suggested.

"I wasn't perving on them," I snapped. "And your mom and dad were here too."

"What?" she blanched, dropping the edge of the blanket and moving away from the bed. "Why do ghosts perv on the sex lives of the living?"

"They don't. It's a long story. The point of which is that my asshole friends came here and had sex in my wife's bed and have decided to keep their little affair secret from all of us. I ended up stuck here watching far more of it than I ever wanted to know about, let alone see, and I plan on getting revenge. So I'm going to let them keep their little secret. And you're going to help me fuck with them."

"Oh, I like this," she said, her eyes glimmering at that idea like I'd known they would.

"Yeah you do."

"So…as the bed is a no go, how do you feel about the closet?" She backed up slowly, stripping off her top as she went and dropping it to the floor, leaving her in a black lace bra.

"I don't think the closet is going to have the space for what I have in mind," I replied, stalking her towards the door as her fingers curled around the handle.

She opened it before I could get to her and slipped inside.

I moved after her, pushing the door wide and frowning as I found a row of clothes hanging before me, her jeans discarded on the floor in front of them and no sign of her at all.

A growl rumbled in the back of my throat. "Where are you hiding?"

"Come see for yourself." Her voice came from behind the hanging clothes, and I pushed them aside, revealing an open space beyond which was strewn with the treasure I had left in The Burrows before my death. Better yet, mixed in with my treasure was countless gold and jewels that I knew had belonged to my father before Roxy had stolen them.

"You little thief," I rumbled, closing in on her where she stood in her underwear before a mound of gold coins which was taller than her.

"Never forget it," she agreed and then I was on her.

Roxy moaned into my mouth as I kissed her, my hand fisting in her long, ebony hair as I forced her head back and sank my tongue between her lips.

Her hands roamed down my chest, teasing at the buckle for my belt, but I needed to own her in that moment. I needed to take complete control of the woman whose heart beat as one with my own.

Fire sparked from my palms and lashed itself around her wrists forming flaming chains which I bound to the walls before repeating the process with her ankles.

I stepped back, looking at her where she panted for me, watching the way her pupils dilated, and the reflection of the flames danced in her eyes. Anyone else would have burned from those chains, but not her. She relished the kiss of my fire.

I coated my fingers with flames, then reached out and caressed her throat, watching her hungrily as I trailed my fingers down the deep bronze of her flesh, burning the bra from those perfect tits and groaning as she cursed me for it.

"I fucking love it when you insult me, baby," I told her, meeting her eyes while my hand roamed lower, burning those little panties off too.

"Asshole," she said with no grit at all, and I smiled wickedly before pushing two flame-coated fingers straight inside her.

She cried out at the kiss of the fire, her wings bursting from her back as my touch almost made her lose control, and I watched her as I began to fuck her with my hand, letting more fire spill from me and commanding it to kiss her neck, her lips, her nipples.

"More," she panted while I dragged my fingers in and out of her, rolling them over her clit with each slow push into her slick core.

I let the Dragon in me come closer to the edges of my flesh and leaned in, capturing her lips with mine while Dragon Fire rolled up the back of my throat. She moaned hungrily as the heat of it washed over her tongue, the impossible strength of her Phoenix meaning she felt nothing but pleasure at the full weight of my power.

I dropped down to my knees, a subject before his queen, and let the Dragon fire roll over my tongue again right as I lapped at her core.

Roxy moaned so loudly that my cock throbbed with need, and I kept driving my fingers in and out of her while working to devour her clit. Her hips rocked against my face, her muscles straining against the hold of the chains that secured her, and I kept licking and thrusting with my fingers until she was coming all over my face, her pussy clamping tight around my fingers like she never wanted to let them go.

I growled with a desperate need of my own, the fire inside me burning hotter and the air around us shimmering with the intensity of the heat we were giving off.

I yanked on my control of the chains, moving them lower and taking hold of her body as I guided her down to lie on the mound of coins before me, her wings splayed beneath her like some fallen angel.

I kept her limbs wide, biting down on my bottom lip as I let my gaze roam over every naked inch of her flesh. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly, her tits full and nipples tight with need. The gleaming wetness of her pussy had me groaning, and I gave up any intention of dragging this on for longer.

I shoved my pants down and thrust into her with one sharp, violent movement which had her name spilling from my lips and a cry of pure bliss echoing from hers.

She yanked on the chains, but I held her firmly, rearing back and watching her as I knelt between her thighs and fucked her hard and deep. I watched my cock sinking into her over and over again, my fingers biting into the perfect curve of her ass as I drove myself in to the hilt and stole her breath with every thrust.

Her wings flexed beneath her, black hair spilling over the gold coins and her eyes on me, drinking me in like she never wanted this to end either.

I grew frantic, pumping my hips harder, faster, meeting those green eyes which held me entirely at their mercy while I fucked her like a heathen and felt her break beneath me.

She swore loudly as she came again, and I released a Dragon's roar as I came too, the tight pulses of her pussy claiming every drop from me as I filled her with my cum and marked her as mine all over again.

"Fuck you," she panted beneath me while I could do little more than smirk down at her in pure masculine satisfaction. This creature of mine. This dream I had claimed. The beautiful thief of my heart.

The night pressed in thickly around us, so deep that even the aid of my Dragon gifts did little to pierce the darkness as we closed in on the FIB impound.

We had split into two groups, and I was with Roxy and Caleb trying to disable everything which had been put in place to keep us out of here. Roxy had said she was the best equipped to get us into the place due to the illegal nature of our task which she claimed to have far more experience in than us. I couldn't say it was entirely untrue, but I knew she was mostly enjoying pulling the queen card on us whenever she could.

"You done with the wards yet?" Roxy hissed in the darkness, and I gritted my teeth while I ignored her, focusing on the wards that me and Caleb were trying to deactivate instead.

The magic was complex and intricate. There were alarms and trips built into countless layers of it, meaning that simply breaking them open with brute force wouldn't work. This was the FIB, not some low-life thug's Killblaze stash we were trying to gain access to.

Caleb's magic butted up against mine, nudging subtly as he detected a crack I hadn't spotted and I nodded at him – though he likely couldn't see it in the darkness – and eased our combined power into it.

A snap sounded faintly and I released a slow breath as I felt the wards parting, a gap opening up which we would be able to slip through unnoticed.

"Done," Caleb announced. "So how are you going to deal with the fences?"

The FIB had installed high electric fences which ringed this entire area for miles. At the centre of the giant compound was a mountain like no other. It was carved from the inside out into an impenetrable fortress that required a seriously high level of security access to enter.

Flying over these fences was out of the question because of the magical wards doming above this place, and if the twins broke through them, an alert would be set off that drew every emergency FIB unit across Solaria to this very spot. And the key here was to gain access without them realising we'd done it. So we were breaking in a little more subtly, and as the fences were coated in sensors as a second layer of protection for this place, that was where Roxy's knowledge outweighed ours. This was mortal security, not the kind of thing many Fae bothered with and no doubt precisely why the FIB had decided to include it in theirs. Not many Fae would know how to get around such a thing, but Roxy's pastime of stealing motorcycles from people with a whole lot of money made her pretty well versed in such things.

Roxy led the way across the grass to the fence line and paused as she surveyed a metal box set against the ground beside it.

She prised it open carefully then began doing something to the mess of wires inside.

"How long will this take?" Caleb asked as the seconds dragged into minutes, and a muffled thump echoed from somewhere inside the compound.

"Not as long as getting fucked by a Werewolf," she muttered.

"What?" he asked, his head snapping around to look at her and I smirked.

"Longer than getting fucked by a Vampire though I'd say," I added thoughtfully. "You know, because of the speed thing."

I felt his eyes on me but I innocently looked up at the cloud-covered sky like I was hunting for a star among the darkness.

"That's not a thing," Caleb grunted.

"So you think the Werewolf would finish first?" Roxy asked curiously, her head still inside the box, a faint glow from her Faelight illuminating one side of her straight face. She was damn good at this.

"He…what…I dunno. How would I know that?" Caleb asked, glancing at me again, and I shrugged.

"Voila," Roxy interrupted, and the constant buzz of the electric fence suddenly fell silent around us. "Time to go."

She got to her feet and hurried away into the darkness and I followed right behind her, ignoring the way Caleb was staring after us and heading straight towards the action. I didn't know what it was going to take to claim this Guild Stone but one way or another, I was determined to see it done tonight.