Page 36 of Power of Five
22
Leralynn
The bed beneath me rises and falls in a steady rhythm as a ray of sunlight tickles me awake. I crack open one eye to find myself sprawled atop Shade, my cheek resting on the male’s smooth and powerful chest. I expected Shade’s fae form to be furrier, given the wolf, but the taut skin is bare.
Very, very bare.
As is my own.
Given last night’s activities... My face heats before I can finish the thought. And goes hotter still when my body throbs in delicious memory, wondering without permission what it would feel like to have one of the males inside me. Stars. Cringing, I slither off him, hoping to get beneath the blanket before Shade wakes to find me naked on top of him.
The male’s arms tighten around my waist, keeping me right where I am, even as he continues sleeping on his back. I try moving again, this time eliciting a displeased growl. “Where are you going?” Shade murmurs sleepily.
“To me, of course,” says Tye.
I yelp, twisting to find the redheaded male sitting on one of the chairs, his arms crossed lazily behind his head. He, at least, is fully dressed, in an orange shirt with a wide cloth sash tied snugly around his hard waist. Tye’s eyes rake my naked body, from the crown of my head to the arches of my feet, grinning when I snatch up the blanket. “Did you enjoy last night, lass?”
Yes. Stars, yes.I swallow, my cheeks blazing, the renewed desire to do it again prodding at my thighs. No, not just to do it again. To do more. To feel the sizable length of them... I clamp my legs together, very directlynotanswering Tye’s inquiry. “What are we doing today?” I ask instead, realizing too late the opening I’ve just given the smirking bastard.
“I can conjure up an idea or two,” says Tye, catching with one hand a pillow I launch at him. “Oh, you meant outside the bedroom?”
If I weren’t naked, I’d punch him in the nose. Well, if I weren’t naked and he weren’t three times my size. I huff, and the mattress shifts behind me as Shade sits, his warm hands running down my arms. “It’s River’s decision. He and the Elders Council have a complicated relationship.”
“Explain, please,” I say, gathering the blanket around myself and encountering a new problem. With my clothing still on the floor, I’d need to take the blanket with me to retrieve them—leaving a naked Shade behind. If I leave him the blanket, it will be a naked Lera parading through the room. “And tell me how Coal can be from Mors.”
Shade solves my dilemma by climbing out of bed first and stretching, the whole naked length of him on display with unabashed ease. I pry my eyes away—with effort—and go for my clothes, leaving Shade to his own devices.
“Well?” I prod when I realize neither of the males has spoken.
“River is a prince, may one day be king, and is bloody powerful,” Shade says, his attention on his breeches. “That alone would be enough for the council to see him as a challenge to their authority. Add to the mix him being an opinionated sort of male, and you have an explosive brew on your hands. As for Coal, his story is his to tell.”
Tye nods. “Suffice it to say that for the fae, the magic’s quint call is impossible to resist. Coal was... on the other side when the magic came, and he was all but dead when we found him.”
“I thought the fae all left the dark realm.” I frown. “What was Coal doing in Mors to begin with?”
“You are half-right,” says Tye. His voice sounds odd without his usual mirth. “Mors needs fae and humans the same way mortals need cattle and horses. Work. Food. Sport. In the uprising a thousand years ago, many fae and humans escaped Mors—enough that the dark realm was weakened for lack of labor and food. Enough to build the wall and set up wards. But enough doesn’t mean everyone.”
I shudder, suddenly cold despite the toasty room. Behind me, Shade takes a step forward, bracing my blanket-covered shoulders. “You don’t have to listen, cub,” he says quietly. “If you don’t want to.”
I swallow. I don’t want to. I need to.
Catching my eye, Tye continues. “Mors has been trying to break through the wall and its wards for as long as the wall has stood. To reclaim their escaped beasts. They are forever testing the barrier for weaknesses, and... Coal was one of the slaves they used for it.”
Slave.Coal’s words replay themselves in my mind, their colors changing with each new grain of fact. “So it worked?” I ask. “They sent Coal through, and it worked? Why did the hordes not follow?”
“It only worked because Coal is too bloody stubborn to die,” Shade says behind me. “No one fully understands how the quint bond works, but the union gives us power, enhancing our innate abilities outright, and when the quint joins in aphysicalunion, it creates a whole new reservoir of power to draw on. When the bonding call goes out, it’s like nothing else known. Coal was the last one chosen, our fifth, and I think the magic borrowed our life force and strength to let him join us. That isn’t something the bastards in Mors can replicate, thank the stars.”
I swallow, pushing the images from my mind until I can think of them more. “A quint in a physical union—like holding hands, you mean?” It sounds simple enough. “Should we try it, then, the five of us? Test whether the magic still works with a human?”
“No,” Shade and Tye say together.
Shade spins me toward him. With his flashing wolf eyes and flexing jaw, it turns out the large male can be bloody intimidating. I lean away instinctively, but Shade’s grip on my shoulders tightens. Not hard enough to hurt, but not gentle either. “No, Leralynn.” Shade’s low velvet voice is brutal. Unyielding. “Quint magic has killed fae before. You are mortal. Understand?”
My chest tightens, my heart beating hard and fast beneath Shade’s relentless stare. The beautiful, hard planes of his face, framed by black hair mussed from the bed we just shared, are arranged in a shape I don’t recognize. I pull against his grip again, meeting similar resistance.
“You made your point, Shade,” Tye says behind me. Not a challenge, but a request. A plea on my behalf made from subordinate to superior.So that’s how it is.River might be the commander, but the quint’s hierarchy—whatever it is exactly—goes deeper, the subtle rank now plain in Shade’s rigid posture and Tye’s bent, supplicating face. Tye clears his throat. “She was just asking a question.”
“And I want to hear her acknowledge the answer,” Shade snaps at Tye. “Leralynn, you do not play with quint magic. You do not experiment. You do not connect hands with the four of us, no matter what happens. Do you understand me?”
My jaw tightens, this new side of Shade sending a shiver through me. “Yes,” I hiss between ground teeth. “Let the hell go of me.”
He nods his acceptance and tries to give my shoulder a gentle squeeze before releasing me, but I jerk free and stalk to the other side of the room. My hand closes around a hairbrush and Shade bows slightly as I sink the brush’s teeth into my tangled hair.
“I’ll show myself out,” he says quietly, and I say nothing to stop him.
