Page 45 of Lera of Lunos
The males obeyed, hauling over armfuls of moss until Lera’s whole body was buried beneath a purple blanket. The jabs of magic hit Coal often now, a new burst each time a fresh purple bouquet poured magic into her. Breath held, Coal focused on the jabs, trying like hell to grab one. To hold and caress it. Failing at that, Coal knocked his own magic against Lera’s, slamming it like a bloody fist.
The magic liked that. Liked it so much that it stayed to play for a whole heartbeat before disappearing. Then three. Four.
“The moss stopped wilting.” Tye’s frantic voice pierced Coal’s concentration. “Why isn’t it wilting?”
Coal blinked. Tye was right. The moss had stopped wilting, but the magic within Lera still sparred with Coal’s. Grew. Yet, as the jabs and taunts strengthened, Coal felt a difference in them. A new personality, a mischievousness now balancing out the raw, predatory fury he’d feltbefore,when the mortal had simply echoed Coal’s magic.And he could feel something else too—some force was coaxing the severed quint bond back to life, knitting it along the torn joint, strand by strand, into a new weave. With it, the fist clamping Coal’s heart slowly began to loosen.
Digging his hand under the moss, he groped for Lera’s neck. For the tinybum, bum, bumof a pulse tapping against his fingers. And he felt it.
Beside him, Tye was already clearing off Lera’s face with frantic motions, breath coming hard. New tears dampened his face—tears of desperate hope. The purple moss fell away until the girl’s chocolate eyes filled Coal’s vision. Familiar, wonderful eyes. The same. Yet different. Coal was still staring into them, trying to work out what had just happened, when Tye’s voice broke the reverent silence.
“Stars,” he said. “Have you ever seen a fae female this tiny?”
Coal blinked, his gaze following Tye’s until he saw it. Lera’s pointed ears and elongated canines, the slight lengthening of her bones. A perfect, tiny immortal, drawing a shaking breath.
35
Lera
Standing on the edge of the palace courtyard, overlooking the evening revelry and bonfires on the vast sandstone square below, I inhale the scent of fire and crackling leaves, hear the insects escaping from the flames across the stone, smell the tang of yeast from the bread rising in the kitchens. It seems all of Ferno has paraded through the streets to dance and drink and frolic here in the city center. Children smelling of dirt and sweets chase hoops and balls across the square, darting between legs and screeching in laughter. A thousand flavors explode along my palate, all from a single breath. Most of all, I inhale the musky metallic scent of the blue-eyed male stepping up behind me.
“You die again and I’ll make you run hard enough to wish you were dead.” Grabbing my wrists, Coal backs me into a low tree with a dense, flat crown, his hips pinning me to the bark as his mouth takes mine savagely.
Fire fills me, shooting down my spine, goading me to lift that old phantom limb of Coal’s magic that’s too heavy to play with just now. Despite the cold and fatigue, need flares low in my belly and one of the four new invisible cords tugs on my soul. I pull against Coal’s restraints, chafing against the sharp bark, desire and fury rising when his strength defeats my own.
I bite the male’s lip. Misjudge my canines. Taste blood. Where before, his scent was intriguing, now it’s intoxicating. I inhale deeply, running my tongue through his mouth, claiming him as thoroughly as he claims me.
Coal growls against my mouth, deepening his intrusion, lifting one of my thighs to wrap it around his waist—
“Stop and let Lera breathe.” Autumn’s melodic voice wedges between us. “The healers just let her out of their clutches.”
“She can breathe later,” Coal says, kissing my neck, drinking me in, pulling on that invisible tether between us. One of the four new tethers I woke with last night. He huffs at Autumn. “My magic is good for her.”
“Your magicwasgood for her when she was human,” Autumn says. “Now, it might be simply as annoying as you are.”
Was human.I trace the pointed edge of my ear as I’ve done so many times since last night, when everything changed. For Slait. For Blaze. For my quint. For me. Even now, surveying the palace gardens, with fires licking the night sky and children in qoru masks running about in a hunt for Samhain sweets, I still can’t quite grasp the reality.
I remember dying, the soft blue-purple moss covering me with warmth and promises while my males still waged the battle against Mors. Then I was alive, the battle over, the moss a blistering predator instead of a friend.
I was alive, yes, but alivedifferently. Even in the Gloom, my senses rampaged wildly, my limbs and heart not quite knowing what to do with themselves. Plus, these new tethers. Not the quint bond—though I felt that awareness instantly as well—but something else entirely. A new, deeper connection to each of the male’s souls that lives and pulses with a life of its own. A bond so profound and intimate that I still can’t bring myself to speak of it aloud. To ask what it might be.
My males took turns holding me, none strong enough yet to make the trip into the Light, until Viper arrived to help. We all spent the rest of the night in the infirmary, while Klarissa’s forces swept Blaze’s Gloom for stragglers. By the time Autumn arrived early this evening—having left Slait Palace only a couple days behind us, after contacting the Citadel for help—little outward sign of the war remained. Except for the damaged temple, two mourning flags flying atop two palaces, and two new kings shrugging into their power.
I scan my own mind, trying to figure out if I miss my mortality, my old self. But all I find is relief, comfort. My old self isn’t gone—just the body she lived in.
Autumn laces an arm through mine, pushing away a reluctantly yielding Coal. “Let’s walk, Lera. You should see what sorts of mischief Blaze rolls out for Samhain. And the things they do with apples and sugar? You’ll think you are flying.”
Apples and sugar. “Everything is so much more potent now,” I say quietly, letting Autumn pull me away from Coal toward the bonfires below. With the golden sun starting to set, the bright yellows and oranges of the buildings and the dense green crowns of the trees make the city look like a painting. “The tastes and sounds and smells. I used to just smell stew and now I can pick apart the carrots and mutton and onions and… It’s like when I first entered Lunos, but more so.”
“Mmm.” Autumn gives me a wicked look. She’s dressed as a fire imp today, in bright autumn colors with embroidered gold flames and a woven crown of dried leaves atop her silver braids. Tiny golden bells on the braids’ tips chime as we walk. Compared to her, in my simple yellow dress, hair loose down my back, I look positively drab. And now I understand why fae wear soft, natural fabrics like silk and leather—my skin feels every bump, stitch, and loose thread. I have a feeling I’ll be dressing more and more like Autumn as time goes on, whether I want to or not. “And haveothersenses woken as well?” she continues. “We could ask Coal to lend a bit of his body for the good of science.”
My face heats. So does the rest of me. Very low down.
Autumn snorts.
I wrap my hands around my shoulders and give her a glare. “Where is everyone?”
“They’ll appear any moment. Just as soon as the wind carries the scent of your freedom to them.” Autumn tips her face up to the breeze. “After the healers kicked them out of the infirmary this morning, the four set up camp in the corridor, with Shade’s wolf refusing to budge for serving staff who needed to pass. So the guard kicked them out. Five times. Finally, Xane had to conjure reasons to occupy the bastards, before the whole palace staff revolted.”
