Page 43 of Great Falls Protector
“We don’t have a choice,” I answer. “Please, Coal.”
The blond warrior’s jaw clenches once, his eyes never leaving Shade’s as he clasps forearms with both Tye and River. The latter’s arm hangs slack in his grip.
14
Lera
After months apart, the first shock of the quint bond descends on me like a lightning strike, the magic shooting through every nerve and fiber of my being. Burning. Waking. Making each of my senses soar so high that I feel the drop of moisture on the wolf’s salivating fangs, smell the leather bindings on each volume of Gavriel’s massive library. And the magic itself, the bundle of corded power that coils inside my core, it roars as it leaps toward its mates.
The strands of magic from all five of us crash into each other like lovers intent on coupling with bedroom-wrecking force. Magic thrusting into magic, over and over and over.
Colliding together, but not connecting. Not twining together like they should.
Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.
I can feel the horrid realization pulsing inside the bond, not knowing whether it comes from me or one of the others. I can’t speak. Can’t move as the cords of our magic tangle and battle, the quint bond that usually syncs our five hearts to beat as one now attacking itself. Threatening to tear my core into bloody bits.
The gentle prickle of Shade’s teeth brings back Coal’s warning. The quint connection can’t work without Shade’s fae form, and he isn’t here. Isn’t coming.
Now that I know what to look for, I see Shade’s silver magic—usually eager to herd all the cords together into a pack—snarling at River’s fading power instead. Tye’s hand trembles in my grip, his and Coal’s faces strained so tightly that veins stand out along their necks as they fight to keep the disjointed magic at bay lest it explode with enough force to destroy the Academy itself. As for River… The quint commander who usually directs the connection with a master’s ease is coiling in on himself instead, protecting his wounds instead of inviting the quint’s magic to ease them.
Panic floods me, my heart racing as if I were in the midst of combat. With Shade attacking River, and Coal and Tye doing all they can to keep an explosion at bay, I’m the only one left. A weaver who is supposed to be able to tie the cords of magic into knots of great power—and I can’t even untangle the strands.We need to separate,my soul yells into the bond.This isn’t working. We need to separate.
Fix it,comes the wordless answer, carried in Coal’s strained purple magic.Fix it. You fix it.
I can’t fix it!And I’m too terrified to try. I’m paralyzed by what could happen if I do. My attempts to fix things today have only had potentially world- and quint-ending consequences. I try to draw a shaking breath but can’t make my body move. Just as I can’t force the magic to obey my will. Can’t reason with Shade’s lupine instinct. What does that leave me?
The only thing left to try dawns on me with slow, gut-churning dread.Because the only thing left for me to do is to…stop. Stop coercing. Stop pretending. Stop shielding my failures and accept whatever judgment the males will make. Veils and the lies that followed tore our quint apart—perhaps trust and truth, no matter how bleak, can call Shade back. Except that it’s an all-or-nothing game now, with anything I say reaching all the males at once.
This was all my fault,my soul whispers, the tang of my fear and loneliness seeping into the bond between us.I lost control of my horse and broke the rune tablet that tore us apart. And then I lost control of my magic and set the arena on fire. It was me, not the Night Guard, who got so many people hurt. I hurt River too. I was trying to fix him, and didn’t know I was doing more harm than good. Iwas the weak link all along.Me. And I understand if you don’t want to entrust me with so much as a boiling kettle from now on.
For a moment, I feel silence. Surprise, as Tye and Coal process what I’ve revealed. Then tightness. Confusion.
Tye’s orange magic reaches an inquiring paw towards me.
The wolf’s magic snarls, lashing out at the extended cord so violently that Tye and Coal grunt with the effort of keeping the clash contained.
Tye’s pulls back before I can tell whether it’s understanding or disappointment that wraps his thoughts. Whether I’m digging a deeper hole for myself with every breath.
But even if I am, I have to keep going, have to open the next trapdoor in my soul.I hurt,I tell the bond, making myself relive stab after stab of pain that came each time the males gazed at me without recognition these past months.I tried to seem strong, but it was a bluff.A drop of wetness I can’t control snakes down my cheek.And I’m afraid,I add, staring at River’s chest, no longer fooling myself into certainty that it will somehow heal.I’m so afraid that he is going to die because of me.
I stop, my breathing ragged, my soul’s truth bare to judgment. Somewhere in the courtyard, one of the fae is issuing demands, wind magic amplifying his voice to be heard through the Academy grounds. He wants the kings not yet inside the Great Hall to make themselves known. For clerks to fetch parchment and ink for writing. In the backdrop of the demand, the bell tower tolls the time. And in the library, all is silent.
Swallowing, I fill the bond with the one truth I’ve left.I love you,I tell the bond, flooding it with every bit of unfiltered emotion.I love you, River and Coal, Tye and Shade. And I need you. I need the fae male—not just the wolf. I need the connection that is us.
The sudden flash of blinding light would have made me shut my eyes if I could blink. But I can’t.
With Shade now holding my hand, tall and golden-skinned, black hair loose over broad bare shoulders, his yellow eyes trained fiercely and protectively on mine, a new wave of power washes through the bond at once. Shade is so alive, so longed-for, that the whole room seems to glow with his presence. The magics align in a familiar, perfect harmony that makes us a quint. With the next breath, we share every sensation. Every smell. Every blaze of love flowing through our blood.
It’s instinct, not thought, that makes me reach toward the strands, weaving the cords tenderly around one another into a tight, tight braid that shimmers with orange impertinence and earthy power, with strange purple strength and silver healing. I feel River’s magic grow in strength as I pull it tighter into the weave, feel his very body start slowly to knit itself closed. A pull of my will, and the cords tighten as one, the greatest tsunami of magic yet shooting along our bond.
The amulet around my neck cracks in two, clattering across the floor.
With the next breath, the veil’s snowflake-shaped marking on Shade’s chest dissolves like frost from heated glass—and I have a feeling it’s not the only one. Tears sting my eyes. No more veils, no more stories, no more lies. The males in my quint stand as the immortal fae they are, the aura of power around them matching their ethereal forms.
The newly made weave connecting our quint collects itself, the tension in it growing and growing until the final wave of power explodes within us, scattering away all thoughts. Suddenly, there is no longer a me. No longer a them. There is onlyus, our hearts beating as a single great force.
Allsevenof us.
