Page 42 of Skyla

Looking at each of them in turn, my anger came back in full force. “And that isn’t something you thought I shouldfucking know?” Comet opened his mouth, and I cut him off. “If you’re about to say anything about telling me now, I swear to fuck, Comet, I will lose it. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What would you have done?” Silver asked.

I didn’t have an answer to that.

“To us, you were human,” Wraith whispered. “If you didn’t want us, we weren’t going to prevent you from being happy for the short lifespan you had. How long we live isn’t a secret. It wouldn’t have been fair to you.”

“Wouldn’t have beenfair? To not know I have five soulmates I could have been with for the last three years instead of fantasizing about you all alone in my bed? Fantasizing about things that felt likethatand wishing we could break the line I needed to draw?”

All the air disappeared from the room, and I felt the shift in their focus. It sharpened and honed in on me and my body, ready to make good on three years of pent-up lust.

“What are the rules?” I asked.

“Rules?”

“Yeah. I assume there are some kind of rules or rituals or something for it. The short version. I know enough mating lore to get the idea, but I’ve never heard of the fae having mates.”

Silver stood. “It’s rare, but simple enough. There is no explanation. No race has one for why mates exist. They simply do. Whatever the deepest powers in this world are, they weave something that can’t be broken. And after you are immortal, what you just experienced? That can be every day.”

“Why not now?”

“Your magic is dormant,” Wraith said. “To bond with you now would probably kill you.”

“I don’t have any magic.”

Comet laughed under his breath. “Bull-fucking-shit.”

“I’m serious,” I said. “Not a single drop. I have the senses and the strength, but no power.”

Delta stretched, showing off the lean, powerful lines of his body that was wreathed in tattoos and more piercings. Both nipples had rings. “I would have believed you, except I’ve felt it. We all felt it. Maybe,” he looked at Silver, “her real fae self woke up when you claimed her?”

Silver nodded. “That’s possible.”

“I don’t—” I took a breath. The power I’d felt earlier thrumming through me. The magic I felt when Silver kissed me. “Fuck me.”

Someone chuckled.

“Fine.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “Maybe.MaybeI have some power that’s hidden deep down. And that means we can’t bond or whatever? That’s no fun.”

“There will be plenty of fun, baby girl. Everything you felt? That’s just us. You were made for everything you saw. Every kink and quirk we have, you match us in every way. So when I say you belong to us, this is exactly what I mean.”

A shudder wracked through my body, recognizing the feeling which had sung between us for so long. They weremine. “I should kick all of your asses for not telling me all this time.”

“You can still choose,” Comet said. “We won’t force you intoathanasíaif you don’t want it.”

Delta laughed. “That doesn’t mean we won’t do everything we can to convince you. Including fucking you within an inch of your life.”

They were mine.

It didn’t compute.

I’d wanted them for so long, it felt like reaching across an impossible distance to do more than kiss them. And there were five of them. I’d had every variation of fantasy with all of them together and individually, but I didn’t know if there was an order I had to follow.

“What are you thinking?” Wraith’s voice whispered along my shoulder.

“I’m thinking I don’t know how to do this when we’ve just... been like this for so long. It’s terrifying. There’s so much to think about with all of it, not to mention the Legion, and it’s a hell of a lot to have in my brain. Magic, soulmates, taking the next step. I’m overwhelmed.”

Silver tilted my face up, pinning me to the spot with eyes that burned. “You’ll have all of us,” he said. “By ourselves and together. Whatever you want, and everything we want, because those things are the same down to our bones. But right now, baby girl, I think you need to stop thinking.”

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