Chapter Eight

 

I watched out the window at the bonfire going on in the distance. I didn’t question the magic that gave this place under the mountain a night sky and allowed the fires to warm us without choking every creature with smoke. The Fae had some strong magic, and it was enhanced by being here in the land the Huldrefólk had called home for thousands of years. The mountain itself was magic. It was the birthplace of elves and trolls and brownies, one of the strongest Fae places on the Earth plane.

I had to pray it stayed that way now that we were here.

My sons were out there, sitting around the bonfire and drinking with their friends. Likely finding someone to bed down with for the night. Perhaps not Rhys. He seemed to tiptoe around Shy, his eyes on her when he thought she wasn’t looking. There was a connection between them that couldn’t be denied, but I understood it must be hard to be interested in someone who could turn into your grandfather at any given moment.

Lee, on the other hand, flirted with everyone who came into his space. I thought I’d seen an odd connection with Dean earlier, but Lee seemed to have forgotten him and moved on to trying to seduce a pretty sidhe.

“Do you want to join them, my goddess?” Big hands found my shoulders, drawing me back against a muscular chest.

I sighed and leaned against Devinshea. “I think my presence would put a damper on the celebrations.”

Though the party was supposedly to celebrate the rescue of the royals, I felt the awkwardness any time I talked to one of the participants. The younger ones, at least. I’d had a lovely talk with Kim Jacobs and the academics, who were old friends. They hadn’t seemed to have changed, but everyone else had. Especially my children.

Dev’s arms went around me. “I decided the same thing. Daniel said he had to speak to the children before he joins us. It’s been a long day.”

It had been a day that lasted twelve years.

Sure enough, I saw Daniel walking back toward the house we were in. He had a grim look on his face, and I realized he hadn’t fed.

“I’ll take care of him.” Dev always could read my mind about some things. Or perhaps it was simply that we’d been together for so long, and worrying about Daniel had given us connected minds in some ways. “Why don’t you take a bath? Albert said the bathrooms here have tubs, and I assure you he won’t mind heating water for you.”

I shook my head and moved out of his arms. “No, I think we should talk.”

“I think we should do more than talk.” Dev was gorgeous by firelight. The shadows played over his features, sharpening some and softening others. His eyes were green jewels in that low light. “We had a terrible day. And a good day.”

“What was good about it?”

“Our children are alive,” Dev said firmly. “Our children seem genuinely all right, despite the fact that my family failed them entirely.”

The door came open and Daniel walked in. “Oh, I disagree. Parts of your family might have failed, but Albert did a wonderful job. Albert saved them. He didn’t hesitate. Harry did everything he could, and even held on after death to protect his grandchildren. Trent and Sasha raised them well. The family we put together functioned beautifully. They’re good kids.”

“I didn’t say they weren’t good. It’s just not fair. They shouldn’t have had to flee their home,” I argued. “They shouldn’t have had to become a paramilitary unit. They should have had their parents with them. Instead of worrying about setting this place right, shouldn’t we be trying to find a way back?”

“Back to where?” Daniel stared at me like I’d said something crazy.

Shouldn’t he have thought about this, too? I couldn’t be the only one who wouldn’t accept this loss. “Back to the night we fell through that painting. Back to where we belong.”

“And do what?” Daniel sat down on the big bed and pulled his boots off. “Not fall through the painting? Not save Devinshea?”

“Fine, then we go back and we don’t let Dev fall through.” My frustration was building.

“So we leave Marcus alone?” Daniel asked. “If Dev doesn’t go through, Marcus might never meet Summer. We definitely don’t meet Dean and bring him back to the Earth plane. Kelsey doesn’t get the book. The outer planes fall, and then the inner planes contract in on themselves.”

I was sick of all the ifs. We could fix this if we tried. “Fine. We go back to a time before and I’ll leave a note about what has to happen, but Daniel, they’re our children. We lost twelve years with them. We can’t allow this to stand.”

Daniel looked to Dev. “And what do you think, Devinshea? Should we sneak out of here and go searching for a magical spell that will correct all the injustice we’ve recently suffered?”

“She needs time. She hasn’t been through the things we have. This is a tragedy, and she needs time to process it,” Dev said quietly.

“Tragedy means something else to me.” Daniel reached for his boots again. “Maybe I should go.”

“Maybe you should if you’re willing to give up twelve years with our children so you can play the rebel again.” It wasn’t fair, but it irritated me that Daniel didn’t seem to need time. Daniel was handling everything beautifully and with a grace I didn’t feel.

A brow rose over his eyes and I could practically feel his anger. “Play the rebel? My love, we are the rebels now.” He stopped and took a long breath, and then he was in my space, looming over me. “Zoey, this is not the time for us to fight. They need us. I know you think there’s got to be some way to get back, but there’s not. Even if we understood the mechanics of time travel, there’s too much at stake to risk it.”

Tears pulsed behind my eyes. “We have to fix it.”

“We did.” Danny moved into my space. His head dropped to mine, and there was pain in his voice. “We did what we were supposed to do. We helped our daughter take her place. We helped her find a male who will protect her and love her forever. And you feel that loss, too. I know I feel it. It will be a very long time before Summer can walk the Earth plane and come to holiday parties with us and meet her siblings. She might never be able to. We don’t know how her position works. We lost so damn much in what felt like a second, but they need us. I’m not merely talking about our kids—though they do. I’m talking about every creature on the plane. If Myrddin succeeds, the Earth plane changes. Every human will be made slaves to the demons. Every supernatural will be in chains or twisted to serve the demons’ will.”

Why couldn’t he see what I wanted to do? “He won’t have a chance if we fix things.”

“Some things can’t be fixed,” Daniel replied. “We don’t get do-overs. We deal with the hand we’ve been given and we move on. I’ve known this since the day I died. Maybe longer. Maybe since my father died, or before that when my mom died and I was shuffled around. That’s what Dev is talking about. Despite everything you’ve been through, you’ve never really faced a loss like this.”

I stepped back. “I faced losing you. I assure you those years of my life weren’t fun.”

“And you had your dad to help you through it,” Dev pointed out. “Daniel came back, and he watched over you, too. Yes, Daniel died, but it worked out in the end. You’ve never had to face something you couldn’t fix. We can’t fix this, Zoey.”

“You’re not even willing to try.”

“I’m not willing to waste time on something that has to fail,” Daniel corrected. “You know as well as I do that there is a balance to be kept. If we change something in the past, the effects on the future could be unimaginable.”

I didn’t want to hear about effects. The effects I felt now were unimaginable, but they were getting through to me. No amount of time with my children mattered if Summer doesn’t take her place. If we don’t fall through that painting, Marcus likely dies. Dev dies when the outer planes fall, and then we die.

The baby inside me is never conceived.

And the payment for all of that, the bill that came with survival, had been paid in full by Rhys and Lee and Evan and Fen. By my father.

“It’s okay to mourn now.” Dev had moved in behind me. “We’re alone. I know I feel it. I feel every year we lost with them.”

Daniel reached for me. “Please, we need to be together on this. I know I need you now, Z.”

I needed them, and I was letting my anger and fear keep us apart. I’d lost so much time with my kids. I couldn’t lose more because they didn’t agree with me. We’d all had a rough day, had rough days in front of us, and we needed to be together.

I let the tears roll down my cheeks as Daniel brushed them away with his thumbs. I stared up at him. We hadn’t lost each other. Our children were still alive, and there was another growing inside me. It might have to be enough for now. I wasn’t giving up on finding a way to change things, but for tonight I let it go and let myself be with them.

Daniel’s mouth found mine, bringing us together as Dev’s magic started to pulse through the room.

Daniel kissed me long and deep, his tongue sliding along mine even as his hands did the same to the curves of my body. I felt Dev behind me, felt the hard line of his erection against the small of my back. His hands moved around to cup my breasts as he kissed the nape of my neck.

Goddess, I needed this.

“I know this wasn’t the way you thought we would come home,” Dev whispered. “But it ends the same. No matter where we go, each day ends with me loving you. Me loving you both.”

No matter what happened, we were here together.

I let Daniel pull the shirt over my head and toss it aside. Before it even hit the floor, Dev had my bra off. His warm magic stroked over my skin, and it was easier to shove aside all my worries because they had no place here. This was a place for the three of us, a safe space where we expressed what we felt. Love. Passion. Need. Comfort.

We’d come so far from those first tentative days of sharing, those days when we skirted the edges of what we have now. I moved to the side, toeing off my shoes, and Danny moved right in without hesitation. His hand gripped the nape of Dev’s neck and he hauled him close, their bodies bumping against each other before settling in, as if they needed that tiny bit of conflict before they made the choice to be together.

But then Danny’s hand slid down Dev’s back to his waist, where he held him tight as their mouths played against each other, tongues tangling. I love to watch them kiss. So often we’re all together and they’re focused on me. But I like the reminder that while we’re a threesome, we have our own unique relationships with each other.

Danny and Dev needed each other as much as they needed me. They needed each other emotionally, and they’d come to need the physical act of sex together to feel complete. When they made love to me, even when they were rough, there was a delicacy to the act. When Dev and Daniel got it on, it was primal. Sometimes it was almost a fight between the two of them, and they needed it.

A low, sexy growl came from Daniel’s throat and his eyes had bled to blue, the vampire inside him coming out and wanting dominance.

And probably dinner. He hadn’t eaten all day.

Sure enough his fangs were out, and my arousal shot through the roof as I watched them drag across Dev’s skin. Daniel forced Dev’s head to the side, giving him full access to his neck. They should have been naked. Then I could have watched their cocks play against each other because there was no way they weren’t hard and wanting. The very nature of the feed was sexual. It was why vampires almost always had sex when they fed.

I was pregnant, and Daniel would be gentle with me even when I wasn’t. But Dev loved how rough Danny could be. Dev craved that kind of dominance. The sex god in my faery prince loved all sex, and Daniel and I could provide it for him. I would let Devinshea indulge his dominant side while he would lovingly submit to his king.

Dev’s whole body tensed before Daniel struck, sinking those magnificent fangs deep. Then Dev relaxed and it was Danny’s hands that held him up. Dev became a doll in Daniel’s grip, riding the wave of pleasure that accompanied feeding him.

After a moment, Danny released Dev’s vein and picked him up, moving him to the bed. It was small compared to what we were used to, but in some ways that would be a comfort. We would have to cuddle, have to be reminded that no matter what happened we had each other.

Daniel pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside, his eyes focusing on me.

That was all it took to get my whole body to go gooey, every part of me softening and ready for him.

Those sapphire orbs drew me in, and I went willingly. This was the best place in the world, the one place I could forget about everything and concentrate on what mattered—them.

He pulled me against him, our chests coming together, his arms wrapping around me. “Z, it was awesome making love to you as a human, but this is what I was born to be, who I am. I spent so much time longing for the past. This is all the time we have. Here and now. And I wouldn’t be anywhere else but here with you.”

He didn’t give me a chance to reply, to argue that there was a better place for us if we only tried to find it. He knew how to blow past all my defenses.

He kissed me, dominating me with his mouth. His hands sank into my hair and I suddenly wasn’t a queen on the run anymore. I wasn’t anyone’s royal highness. I wasn’t anyone’s mom. In those moments, I was simply his. Simply theirs.

Daniel’s hands found the cheeks of my ass, bringing me close and letting me feel the hard line of his erection.

I felt another erection against my back and knew Dev had recovered and gotten out of his clothes. Warm skin pressed against mine, his hands coming up to cup my breasts. I was between the two men I loved most in all the planes, and it was the best place to be.

Daniel turned me around, letting Dev kiss me while he got out of his pants. Dev took the time to pick me up, let me wrap my legs around his waist while he kissed my breasts, sucking on each nipple in turn until I was crazy with longing.

Somehow I found myself on the bed, my back against the soft blankets and Devinshea in between my legs. He spread them wide and kissed his way down my torso.

Daniel climbed on the bed next to me, his hand going to my breast as he cuddled close. “I love watching him work.”

Dev’s head came up, a sweetly lascivious grin on his lips. “It’s my favorite job. And since our love is pregnant, I can see a lot of this in her future. Or one of us in the middle, Your Highness.”

Danny winked his way. “We’ll find a way to take care of her.”

They always did. I didn’t take this chance to point out that I was only pregnant and not fragile. I suspected they would treat me like fine china for the next nine months. I would let them for the most part because this was probably my last pregnancy. I would do this upcoming job and then happily hide away.

I would definitely let them take care of me this way.

Dev put his mouth right over my pussy, and I couldn’t think about anything but how I felt.

Really damn good because that magic of his pulsed through my body.

“Devinshea, this feels amazing, but we need to think about how it affects the others,” Daniel said, his voice deep with desire.

Dev didn’t bother to look up. He merely worked a finger inside my pussy. “There are wards. Bris can feel them. He says we’re safe. They were likely put up for Rhys. I can control it, but the wards will keep my magic inside this room. So enjoy it.”

Dev’s magic was a drug. It took away anything but the love between us. It heightened pleasure, softened pain, made us warm and happy.

I welcomed it as I welcomed Danny’s kiss and Dev’s tongue on my clitoris. I welcomed the orgasm that came shortly afterward.

“Come on, baby. I want to feel your mouth on me.” Danny urged me to turn over, to get on my knees.

I did as he requested, my body relaxed, but already Dev’s magic was working on me, getting me ready for more. I rode that warm, happy wave as Danny moved in front of me, stroking that big cock of his with one hand while Dev moved behind me.

“I love that I don’t have to wear a condom. I love feeling you like this. Nothing between us.” Dev’s cock stroked against my core. His hands gripped my hips as Danny pressed his dick to my mouth. They would treat me like a toy they shared between them, and I was all up for that. A sex toy.

I licked the head of Danny’s cock and sucked it into my mouth, gasping when Dev thrust inside me.

He filled me, stretching me in the most delicious way. No matter how many times I’d been with these men, there was always a moment of wonder that came with it, that came with being caught between them.

I moved, paying attention to Daniel as Dev drove me higher and higher. I worked Danny’s cock deep, letting my tongue whirl around and loving the taste of him.

I felt the moment his hand tightened on my hair. It was a sure sign that he was close. He stopped letting me play and started using my mouth, fucking in and out as Dev did the same to my pussy. A pulse of magic washed across my skin, pushing me over the edge as surely as the cock deep inside me.

The second orgasm hit me as Danny filled my mouth and Dev stiffened behind me.

We fell together, rearranging ourselves. I was gently pushed and pulled until I was safely tucked between them, warmed by their naked bodies and the soft quilt that covered us.

I let myself revel in the moment. Sleep I thought would elude me was starting to take over thanks to the warmth and relaxation. I was safe for now. I would deal with all the other problems in the morning. I could make decisions then. Tonight was for rest.

Daniel hugged me close, my head on his chest. “Sweetheart, there’s something we still need to talk about. I should have told you I suspected it a long time ago, but I didn’t want to worry you. Now there’s no doubt.”

I only half listened to him. I didn’t want to. He and Dev were murmuring over me, and the sweetness of sleep beckoned.

“How are you going to kill him?” Dev asked.

If he was talking about Myrddin, I was sure it would be bloody. I yawned and wished they would stop their whispering.

“I think I might leave that to someone else. I don’t think I can kill my own child, but it must be done.”

I sat straight up in bed. “What?”

Yeah, he had my full attention now.

“I told you she was half asleep,” Dev said.

Daniel groaned and let his head fall back.

“What the hell do you mean you’re going to kill one of our children?” I nearly screeched the question.

Daniel sighed and started talking.