Page 48 of Power of Five
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Leralynn
Iwake to the scent of citrus and pine and the rhythmic rustle of running water. The sun piercing my eyes blinds me for a moment, until something beneath me shifts, veering my face away from the inconsiderate rays. The cold air nips my face, but an insistent warmth seeps through my back and sides, balancing the chill. Which all leads to one undeniable conclusion. “Why the hell am I naked and in your lap, Tye?”
The green-eyed male grins down at me. “You must be in paradise.”
“If I’m in paradise, then stop ruining it with your cold hands,” I mumble, though it does no good, as Tye’s fingers continue stroking my face and forehead. I try to sit up, but Tye’s hold tightens and River’s concerned face appears in my field of vision.
The quint commander crouches beside me, his liquid gray gaze piercing into my own. I want to reach up a hand to smooth the worry lines on his forehead, but the wall he keeps around him is firmly in place.
“How is Coal?” I ask.
“Yes, in case you were wondering, you are alive, Leralynn,” River says flatly. “Not that you should be after your mortal body conducted enough magic to knock out a herd of horses, but you are.”
“For the time being,” Tye clarifies. “We make no promises once Shade learns you’re awake.”
“Is he very mad?” I ask.
“For tricking us into doing the one and only thing none of us were willing to risk?” Tye says, his hand still stroking my face. “For utterly disregarding the one demand he made of you? What do you think?”
“I think I might prefer piranhas’ company.” I shimmy to sit up more, relieved to see that Tye has at least covered me with a cloak. None of which explains why I’m naked to begin with. And as far as I can tell, so is Tye. “Did the magic kill my clothes, or is this your way of keeping me from running off from... Where are we exactly?”
“About a mile from where we were,” says River, and I look around what appears to be a partially covered alcove in the side of the mountain. A natural rock wall separates the space into two chambers, the water I heard earlier running over the partition in a tiny waterfall and feeding an outgoing stream. Ahead of us, the evergreen forest and distant river wink in the sun. “And you lack clothes because you were freezing and skin-to-skin contact was the most efficient way of warming you.”
I turn back to the rocks, blinking at the glowing blue moss covering them. No. I shake my head, clearing my vision. No blue moss. Just a bit of natural yellow and green growth.
“We’ve been trying to warm you for five hours,” River tells me, tucking the cloak tighter around my shoulders. His gentle fingers and careful fussing are so at odds with the no-nonsense commander I’ve come to know that I feel a sudden lump of tears in my throat. Tye draws me closer still, my back pressing against his smooth, sculpted chest. “The Gloom consumed your heat. That, at least, is normal.” River blows out a long breath. “Are you hungry?”
My stomach growls, answering River’s question before I can even check in with my own body. Great.
“How is Coal?” I ask again, now pushing against Tye in earnest. My memories return in a vengeful storm. The arrows. The blood. The searing pain. The desperate need to do something, anything, to keep him alive. What if I failed? My heart stutters. Coal took arrows meant for me, and the last I remember seeing him, he was dying. “Where is he?” I’m shouting now. “Is he... is he—”
River catches my shoulders, looking into my eyes to ensure that his words penetrate. “Coal is alive. In more pain than he’ll admit, but Shade was able to staunch the bleeding in time. Fae heal faster than humans. All right?”
I nod, not realizing I’m shaking until River leans forward, adding the heat and strength of his body to mine. His scent blends with Tye’s, the two of them holding me in a tight cocoon of safety and warmth, and I cling to both males, unbidden tears rolling down my cheeks.
A too-short eternity passes before the sound of footsteps interrupts us, and River squeezes my shoulder before leaning away to look behind him. My gaze follows his, stopping dead at the familiar sight of Coal’s muscled body.
I swallow, wiping my face quickly.
“Shade is hunting dinner and the horses are grazing,” Coal tells River. He holds his body rigidly, nothing like the lithe panther I know him to be, but my gut warns me to feign blindness to Coal’s soreness just as fiercely as Coal pretends not to see my tears.
“Pyker?” River asks. “Has he become any more talkative?”
Coal goes to cross his arms, winces slightly, and lets them drop to his sides. “The prisoner confessed to leaving bait for the piranhas and paying the two bastards to hide in the mountains and attack the mortal. All to convince us to let him join the quint.”
“Klarissa.” River’s voice is ice.
Coal shrugs. “Of course. However, Pyker will not admit to it, and the one male who showed himself is long dead. But Klarissa did leave the severing knife in Pyker’s care.”
River snorts.
“Klarissa will say it was simple precaution given the nature of our quint,” Coal continues, then pauses, letting the silence hang as his eyes finally find mine, a thousand emotions streaking through that purple-tinged glance. Relief. Fury. Need. Violence. Worry.
I press deeper into Tye’s arms, wondering if I might be able to will my body into an instantaneous sleep.
“I’d like to speak with the mortal, please,” Coal says. “Alone.”
