“Thank fuck!” Liam shouted as we powered out into a grey, drizzly afternoon. The clouds shifted rapidly, growing darker and greyer as we ran down the driveway, past the manicured lawns and garden beds, meeting a crowd when we met the gates. Liam’s arm swept out, a massive gust of wind flattening them easily, especially as the land began to break up.
“Here,” Johnno snapped once we were out on the road, the lot of us pulling up into a gasping group. The staff screamed as the estate collapsed, swallowed by the earth in one big gulp until all that was there was a rough mound. Rutherglen estate was gone as if it’d never existed.
Well, all of us but Luc.
Was he always this beautiful? I found myself cursing for not having taken his photo before now, the silver crackles in his hair, those keen ice blue eyes as they stared at the sky, hearing something we didn’t. People knew what he was now, the remaining staff going to their knees. He paid them no mind, just listening until his eyes dropped down to meet mine.
Who was I looking at right now? In those eyes, I saw all the love and need and pain I’d always seen in Lucas, reaching for me to hold my hand, taking me on a date and holding me to his chest when we sat on the rock overlooking the valley. Despite whatever his father had done to him, his eyes were still soft, he still loved me and I loved him, then he looked past me, and I followed his gaze.
How many times had I seen this rocky outcropping just outside of Jen’s place, driven past it as I swung into the estate? It wasn’t especially attention getting. Gisbourne had plenty of rock formations, particularly on the way up to the estate since it had been built up on a plateau, looking down at the town.
You knew.
Was the thought for him, me, or Lilith? I wasn’t sure, but it was him that answered.
I told you, he’s always whispering to me. Everything we did, from the day we met onwards, he’s been pleased with. This, everything, it’s what he wanted. We played right into his hands. I’m not sure we’d be able to do anything else.
You regret it.
How can I? You chose me, Kira. Kept choosing me despite knowing… No matter what happens, how this goes down, I’ll always keep that with me. The smell of your hair, the feel of your skin, the taste of your lips. You’ve always haunted me, and now it’ll just be worse because I’ve had a taste.
I knew what this was. This was goodbye. Everything was in past tense, the tone sad and desperate.
You’re leaving, I said.
I have to. He wants you, wants me to take you back to Aragide and plunder that fucking lush body until every single one of us is so sated we can’t move. And then he wants me to get up out of the bed we share and sit my arse down on that throne of yours and make the palace mine. Somehow, that’s important. I love you, babe. I’ve never said that to another fucking human being. I wish I could stay in your arms, but I can’t. If you love someone, what they need is more important than your needs. That’s how it works.
Tears formed in my eyes as I watched the silvery power Luc wielded grow brighter, slowly eating away his form and turning him into something else.
I’ll never stop loving you. Never. You’ll be queen in my heart for as long as I live. Always. Now see to your consorts. They’re hurting, Aen most of all.
It was good advice, sensible even, but I couldn’t look away, not as the blinding bolt of light shot down from the sky, not as he stared up into it, becoming one with it until there was a flash, a rumble of thunder, and then he was gone.
I moved woodenly, a broken doll as I joined the others, brushing past my consorts who all fucking needed me, who I wanted to bundle up tight in the room and never let outside again. Aragide would be our cocoon, our cell. I found her shivering, dull eyed, and in Marlow’s arms, which should have been warning enough. No one touched her in this form but me. So I enfolded her in my arms, her tremors, her sobs only growing louder when they did, until finally, she shoved her face in my hair and cried. Marlow looked broken, smashed through, and his hand raised up, a glowing ball of light in it, but I shook my head. We didn’t know what had happened to Aen, but touching her, even with healing power, before she was ready was not OK. I stroked her red hair in one hand and then traced out the sigil Nan had shown me so many years ago, just down the hill, opening the way to Aragide.
What happened?
Rutherglen took the guys back to his Estate in Gisbourne and tortured them in the basement he tortured Marlow. They tried to fight back as best as they could, but weren’t really getting very far, but did manage to redirect the violence away from Kira. Aen was sexually assaulted off screen. It took for Luc to take the power of being the sky father’s avatar to break Rutherglen’s hold and anyone who had the red stones found they instantly dissolved. The only person in the world with Sky Daddy’s power is Luc. He and Johnno caused the whole estate to collapse in on itself, just leaving bare earth. Now freely in touch with the sky father’s father, Luc lets Kira know he has to go, that staying with her in Aragide, taking the throne there is what the god wants. To do his best to save her, he has to leave. He then disappears in a flash of light, leaving Kira to look behind her at an outcropping that looks exactly like the one Luc had created inside Aragide when he took her on a date.
Chapter 31
“What the fuck just happened?” Liam snapped as we filed into the room. This was ours now, any of us could come and go from it if we wanted, but right now, I laid my girlfriend down and sent a thought out to Vervain. Not now, not yet, but I’d jokingly said I needed girlfriend help. Well, I needed to know if she knew anyone who’d helped their girlfriend through a sexual assault before. I tucked her body up against mine. Somehow, she seemed smaller, frailer. Then I remembered her constant refrain. She looked at me blearily as I began to tug my dress off, but her eyes closed when I settled her against my bare skin.
I told the guys what Lucas had said, and that was met with stony silence. It was hostility directed at me, I could feel them out much more now. Mark was fractious, sitting incredibly still while wanting to move, do something, anything. No, he wanted to contact his sentinel cronies and find out what the fuck had just happened to Luc.
Johnno was longing to get closer but feeling ashamed of wanting that as I was holding a hurt Aen. I smiled slightly at that. He’d welcomed Rutherglen smashing his face in because every hit was one he didn’t give me. Not such a bad man after all. I looked across Aen’s head, kissing her crown as I sent him a wave of love. His eyes went wide, then looked at me in wonder. Love was fucking awesome, and I wasn’t sure why I’d been so scared of it. It washed over him like a warm bath, soothing all the hurts, shoring up our bonds until it was stronger than ever.
Billy wanted Lilith, a drink, a guitar, anything. He hadn’t felt this full for so long, the customary ache he’d learned to love having been so thoroughly eradicated, it was like it didn’t exist. He felt my stroke down the bond, and his eyes fell closed. I couldn’t, wouldn’t take it from him, but I could hold him through it, allow him to let those high walls down, inch by inch, because we were rushing into each other, no matter what.
Marlow wanted to fix it all, Aen, me, the guys. He felt the ache way too keenly, so I stepped in and stopped that. He was enough, just here, just being. He was mine, and I loved him exactly as he was.