Rise From the Embers (Lightness Saga #4) Read online

  “Guys.” I buried my hands in my hair, itching with frustration. “I understand you want to fight with us, but this isn’t merely some bad guy. This is one of the most powerful magical objects in the world. I will not risk any of your lives. I have no idea what we’re up against. I need to know you’re safe. I have almost lost every person in this room… I won’t go through that again.”

  Croygen leaned against the wall, watching us, smug in the knowledge he wasn’t part of this fight. He already told us where we could shove it when we asked him to stay back. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell Croygen what to do.

  “And we won’t either.” Annabeth moved beside Lexie. The girls were so different but made perfect harmony. Sisters. Friends. I should have known they’d stick by each other. “You think this is solely your fight? It’s not. If this stone wins, it’s the world’s problem and you know it. We are a family. We love and we fight as one. Isn’t that what you say all the time to us? You can’t preach it only when it works in your favor.”

  My head tapped against Ryker’s arm with a groan. Leave it to Annabeth to throw my own words in my face. “I didn’t quite mean it in that way.”

  “Too bad.” Lexie jumped in with Annabeth. “It applies to everything we do. And in all honesty, we’d follow you anyway. Wouldn’t you rather that we were with you, protected, than sneaking behind…exposed and vulnerable.”

  “Holy shit.” I peered at Ryker, my mouth wide. “Hello, manipulators.”

  “They’re good.” He shook his head in amazement. “Can I say I’m glad we didn’t have a girl? I’m not sure I could handle another in this house.”

  Croygen snorted. “They twist us until we have no idea which way is up.”

  Lexie looked over her shoulder, a mischievous smile on her mouth. They held each other’s gaze for a moment too long, before Croygen looked away, moving off the wall.

  “If they go, I go. I’m needed much more. You wouldn’t have made it without me last time! What if someone is chained up? Or puts you in a cell? What if you need someone to call the elevator while you’re being shot at again?”

  “Not helping, Sprig.” I groaned.

  “Who wouldn’t want a monkey who falls asleep in the middle of a heist?” Croygen quipped dryly.

  “Exactly!” Sprig held up his arms, missing Croygen’s joke. “I’m the most valuable. You can’t go without me. And Pam. Must take her. She is still really, really mad at me.”

  He sat back on his hind legs, nipping at his lip. “Are we having dinner soon? It feels like it should be dinner time. We haven’t been to Izel’s in a while. Ohhh, I am craving honey pancakes now. But I could have the honey French toast too. Maybe both. I’m going to die if I don’t eat soon.”

  Croygen rolled his eyes. “Don’t tease us unless you’re actually going to.”

  “Stuff it, smelly butt pirate.”

  “So.” Annabeth gave them both a glare, then turned back to us. “We do this together. As a family.”

  My mouth opened.

  “Don’t even try, Zoe.” Lexie shook her head. “It’s futile. We’re going. You fought for me my entire life. You’ve fought for all of us here, never giving up. We’re not giving up on you. The stone can’t have you. You belong to us. So we either all hide together or we fight together. You choose.”

  My shoulders fell, my resolve slinking out of me. They were all of age, and as much as I didn’t want them hurt, I knew Lexie too well—she would find a way.

  “If we do this,” my voice became stern, “you listen to everything Ryker and I say. No exceptions.”

  Lexie clapped her hands together, bouncing. She was so ready for an adventure she didn’t get the seriousness of the situation or what was at stake.

  “There will be rules.” I pointed at her. “You break or even bend one of them, I will send you back to Kate and spell your ass to a chair.”

  “Okay.” She nodded eagerly. Annabeth stood strong, but I could see the fright in her eyes. At least she understood this wasn’t some family vacation to Disney World.

  “I will be sure they stay safe.” Croygen rolled his shoulders back. We exchanged looks. He seemed to understand and nodded. He didn’t look any more pleased they were going than I did, but he knew Lexie too. I couldn’t keep her locked up forever. She might do something even more stupid if I didn’t give her a little rope. When it came to the actual battle, or when I faced the stone, my loved ones would be nowhere near. Croygen would make certain of that.

  “So…what’s next?” Annabeth rubbed her arms, as though she could feel what was coming.

  “I’ve already talked to Kate. We drop Wyatt off with her, then we go see a queen.” There was a good chance Kennedy already knew what had happened to Lars. She was in contact with him all the time and with his compound. She might know how we defeat a treasure of Tuatha Dé Danann. She really was my only hope right now.

  “Uh. Is it possible we can have dinner first?” Sprig moaned. “I mean, come on, I’m actually really dying this time.

  Chapter 8

  Ember

  Rolling to my side, I flopped my head on the pillow. Five seconds later, I flipped to the other side with a heavy sigh.

  “For fuck’s sake, woman,” Eli grumbled, pressing his hand on my thigh. “Be still for two seconds.”

  One.

  Two.

  I shifted into a different position.

  He moaned and threw his arm over his eyes as the dawn bled through the split in the curtains.

  “I can’t stop thinking about Lars.” I sat and leaned against the headboard, giving up on sleep. Eli wore me out for a few hours, but once I woke up, my mind wouldn’t stop. The constant soldiers patrolling the grounds, moving past our bedroom doors, were like a ticking clock in a silent room, the crunch of stone under their boots, the clink of their weapons hitting their legs.

  Fionna and Kennedy put extra protection spells around the castle. We were still on full lockdown, all of us anxiously waiting for the first attack. We needed rest to be at our best, but I couldn’t seem to actually do that.

  Earlier I visited Marguerite, who was still recovering in the healing room. She was a tough lady, still more concerned if I was eating enough than about her broken arm. She had a line of people out the door waiting to see her. She was loved by everyone: fae, Druid, and human. She loved each and every one of us back with the same ferocity.

  “Mr. Lars…he will come home, my dulce niña.” She gripped my fingers firmly with her good arm. “Love will bring him back to us.”

  I nodded, blinking back the tears. I wanted so badly for her to be right.

  Lars. My uncle. My only living blood family. The bond between us had grown stronger over the years, so much that I hated calling him uncle. He meant more to me. My real father was his identical twin, but every time I looked at Lars, I saw myself: jet-black hair, yellow-green eyes. Sometimes I would catch myself using his same mannerisms. He wasn’t easily lovable like Mark, but I loved him just as deeply. We had been through a lot together. Sometimes I felt as if I were the only one who could calm him.

  The image of Fionna popped in my head, making me frown. I liked her. She was strong. Someone who could truly challenge him. But I couldn’t help a twinge of jealousy, as though my dad was dating someone new and moving on from my mother, forgetting her.

  Damn, Em. He’s not your dad. She’s not some wicked stepmother.

  I wanted him to find someone, ever since Rez had taken up with West. He deserved to be happy. His heart had walled up after my birth mother’s murder. He’d barely let anyone in. His life was his job. If Fionna gave him even a slice of happiness, I was so happy for them.

  But, of course, it wasn’t long before they were ripped apart.

  “No rest for the wicked, huh?”

  I looked down on a pair of deep green eyes burning into me, bringing me back to the present.

  “Not in our family.”

  He grinned, turning me into the pillows, his naked body crawling over
mine.

  “We’ll get him back, Brycin.” He nipped my ear, his strength trapping my body under his. I sank into the overstuffed pillows in the guest room, blocking out any view except the man over me.

  Sometimes I just stared at him, dumbfounded he was real and mine. I remembered how our paths led us to each other that night at the police station when I saw him for the first time, handcuffed to a chair. Little did I know he would change my life forever, shattering my world. But I’d gotten an even better one.

  My fingers laced through his hair, his mouth caressing my nipple, setting me on fire in an instant.

  “I know what you’re doing.” My back arched. “You think you can distract me with sex?”

  “I know I can.” He grinned at me, moving to the other one.

  My breath caught in my throat, my legs opening wider, wrapping around him.

  Groans and a knocking on the wall popped my eyes open. Eli paused; the bangs and cries against our wall become louder.

  He lifted his hand, pounding on the wall. “Shut up over there; we’re trying to have sex here.”

  A laugh burst from me.

  “Fucker.” Eli’s eyes glinted, gazing hungrily back down on me. “West thinks he can outdo us?”

  “Do they not know us?”

  “Exactly.” Eli winked. “Ready to put them to shame?”

  “I’m always ready, Dragen.” Hearing them turned me on more.

  “You say that now…” A wicked expression crossed his face. Oh crap. I knew that look. Excitement thrilled up my spine; things were about to get rough and kinky. Last time he got that look, I had trouble walking for a week. No complaints, as he struggled along with me. But part of me felt bad, as though this wasn’t the time for this.

  Lars needed me.

  But Eli and I didn’t have that inappropriate switch, the same as others did. Sex helped us focus and energize us for missions. It made us a better team.

  He pulled me up my knees, folding my hands over the headboard, his tongue gliding down my back, licking. Exploring. His fingers sliding inside me.

  “Oh gods.” I gripped the headboard.

  His tongue broke through the entrance, lighting every nerve ending on fire, stroking me faster and harder.

  Our headboard cracked against the wall, my cries exploding in the room. He was ruthless. Making sure I had hit my third orgasm by the time he replaced his tongue with his cock, sending me over so far, so fiercely, everyone in the castle heard us.

  Not that we cared. West and Rez seemed to take it as a contest. Their bangs, cries, and moans battering the wall in competition only spurred us on, as though the four of us were on a mission to outdo the other couple, cracking glass and popping bulbs. I knew the energy we created was overwhelming. I felt bad for anyone in the same hallway as us. Particularly Cole, who slept in the room on our other side. Well, he wasn’t sleeping now.

  He had to hate us. Eli said Cole went out but didn’t bring any women back home. He tried to act as if everything was fine, but I could see the loneliness. He seemed to carry the weight of Jared and Owen heavy on his soul.

  Sparks crackled in the room as I cried out. Eli groaned as my body squeezed him. The glass vibrated in the doorframes off the balcony, all thoughts of West and Rez becoming a distant haze. He moved over me, his hands gripping mine on the headboard, as he moved deeper and faster. He pounded into me, chasing his own release, and only extending mine.

  “Fuuucck!” He bellowed as he slammed into me. As he filled me, my body gripped and pulsed harder, both of us groaning, pleasure thrashing through us.

  Sweaty and breathless, we didn’t move for a few minutes.

  “Dammit, woman,” he muttered in my ear. Sex was getting more intense between us.

  “And you decided to go easy on me tonight.” I huffed, trying to fill my lungs. Last time I did pass out.

  “Yeah, I didn’t want to completely emasculate West.” He nipped my shoulder, smirking, his palm rapping against the wall. West returned the knock, their room also quiet, but energy still churned between the two rooms like the remnants of a storm.

  He moved, pulling me back down in the bed with him, holding me against this chest, our heartbeats slowing together. He held me, knowing my fears were still not at rest.

  “It’s Lars,” I whispered into his arms. “He was untouchable. A rock, as if nothing could actually ever happen to him.” I dug my head into the pillow, fighting back the dread I’d shoved away. Lars was fallible. It was wrong to think him incapable of weakness, but that’s how he came across. Someone you could always trust to be there. Never faltering or lost. Now it was my turn to be his rock.

  When Eli, Lorcan, and I had gotten to the Honey House earlier, Lars was already gone. So were Zoey and the children. Board games still lay where they’d been played. Apple slices were half eaten. Everything was left as though they all simply vanished. We searched the area for hours trying to pick up a scent, a direction. Nothing.

  At the sound of a loud rap on the door, I jumped out of Eli’s arms and sat up. “The Queen needs to see you.” Torin’s cold voice boomed through the wood. A blast of resentment and hurt flooded through to me, before a wall came down, blocking me from his feelings once again. “Immediately.”

  I pulled up the sheet, my lids squeezing together. “Dammit.” He had heard us. Torin knew Eli and I were mated, but I still didn’t like rubbing it in his face. He was good at shutting down our link as much as he could, but I could feel that it would always be there. And sometimes his emotions would blast through our connection before he slammed it shut again.

  Torin was a good man. Misguided in love, but still an amazing guy. He deserved happiness. For a moment in time he had believed it to be me. Then Kennedy. Poor guy, both of us falling for the Dragen brothers instead. Dark dwellers and his enemies for so long. I was surprised he could even stand to watch Lorcan, day in and out, while he stood at Kennedy’s side. I hoped we hadn’t really broken his heart. We weren’t his true loves. Someone truly worthy of him would hopefully make him see that.

  “Fairy boy will get over it.” Eli got out of bed, stretching.

  I sighed, getting to my feet and searching for my clothes. We had this conversation a thousand times. He would never understand how much it hurt me to cause Torin to suffer.

  We rushed to the library, Cooper catching up with us on the way, smirking at my messy hair.

  The library was the perfect place for Kennedy to have her meetings. She loved facts, so a source of information was always close at hand. This room was a lot more relaxed than the throne room, which I knew she didn’t like; that was where Aneira had ruled with pleasure, and it was the location of her cruelty.

  The buzz of magic lashed at my skin as the murmurs of others grew louder. I was accustomed to the magic of the dark dwellers and my friends. This was new. And strong.

  The double doors were open. Castien and another guard, Sturt I think, were on each side of it. The library was already full of my loved ones—Mark, Mom, and Ryan were farthest on one side. Cole, Gabby, Alki were next to them. Fionna, Lorcan, Dax, and Dom were over by the window, hovering near the one who stood center—Kennedy. West and Rez had yet to show up.

  “Holy shit,” Cooper muttered under his breath, his mouth parting, his eyes locking on something across the room. She is…wow. Damn. Fucking stunning. His voice came barreling through our link. Shit, did I just say that out loud?

  Not exactly out loud, but his entire pack heard. All of us turned to him in shock. Cooper always complained about us mated couples, but no girl ever seemed to entice him for more than a few hours or even minutes. I had never seen him stop dead in his tracks in awe.

  Yep. And before the huge guy near her beats the shit out of you, you better shut down those thoughts now. That one looks barely of age. Eli lifted his brow at his brother.

  I followed Cooper’s enamored stare, my gaze falling to the group next to us until I found the object of Cooper’s reverence: a twenty-something, ethereal bl
onde girl with wavy hair to her waist and huge blue eyes. She was so fair and delicate, you could almost mistake her for a fairy. She stood close to a similarly aged tall, stunning, dark-skinned girl, whose beauty would make you want to weep with envy. But even from here, I could see her legs were not quite right. The way they bent wasn’t natural.

  The shorter girl standing slightly in front pulled my focus. I knew instantly it was Zoey Daniels. Heart-shaped face, blistering green eyes, toned but curvy, her long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. I could feel enormous strength radiating from her. Something told me she would not be afraid to throw down. Possibly me.

  But it was the two males behind her who made my thoughts jumble.

  “Oh. Holy crap.” My mouth spilled out my inner thoughts. The man standing behind the two girls was tall, lean, but his ripped body showed through his shirt. He had long black hair pulled back, sultry bedroom almond-shaped dark eyes, which felt as if they were peeling the clothes right off you with every look. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

  The beast of a man next to him exuded force and power. He looked an inch or so shorter than Eli, but so corded and built, he seemed bigger. Wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, his chin-length blond hair, shaved on the sides, fell to one side, covering some of his bearded face. An axe was strapped to his back. He clenched his jaw; his unnerving white eyes moved over the room, taking in every moment. His attention lingered over each dark dweller.

  He. Was. Sexy. As. Hell.

  That was all my brain could register. He looked like a modern-day Viking. You wanted him to throw you over his shoulder and drag you back to his cabin. Yet the longer I stared at him, the more I was drawn to him; the pull of his white eyes was strong. There was something about him. Familiar.

  “Seriously…just wow.” I felt a blush heat my cheeks, my gaze still locked on the two guys. “They’re sooooo pretty.”

  “You know I’m standing right here, right?” Eli folded his arms with a smirk.

  “Yeah.”

  “Your mate.”