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THE NEXT DAY, SHEN WANDERED DOWNSTAIRS AND INTO THE LIVING ROOM IN SEARCH OF ARIES.
Terra and Brava were seated around some kind of checkered board game with round pieces. They looked up as he walked in and gave him warm smiles.
“Where is Aries?” he asked. “I have not seen him all morning.”
Brava chuckled. “Aren’t you interested in what this is?”
“A game of some sort?” he guessed.
“Aries says it’s called Checkers,” Rune said. “He showed it to us on his device and Brava begged me to conjure up a version of it...”
“What else were we to do?” he grumbled. “Aries has been locked up in his room since his friend left. He’s got that sign up that says he’s working.”
That answered Shen’s question.
“He’s been at it this entire time?”
“All night,” Brava replied as he moved a piece on the board and took one of the others in exchange.
“I don’t think he came to bed,” Rune added.
Shen frowned. “I am going to check on him.”
“Oh, ask him if he needs any snacks or a drink,” Terra said.
Shen climbed the stairs and knocked on the door to Aries’ temporary room. He waited for a response, but when he received none, his heart bounced in his chest.
“Aries?” he called out.
Still no response.
He reached for the door knob, but it wouldn’t budge.
Panicked, he squeezed the knob until it crunched beneath his fingers and was malleable enough to detach from the door. He peered through the circular hole it left and saw Aries slumped over at his desk.
Slipping a finger into the hole, he wiggled it around until it pushed a metal contraption inside, causing the knob-less door to open.
He pushed it open and stepped inside.
Immediately, he picked up on the soft whisper of music playing from somewhere inside. As he approached Aries’ sleeping form, he realized his mate had something white crammed in his ear with a long cord dangling from the end of it.
He watched Aries for a minute as he debated waking him. When he noticed tears forming in his mate’s closed eyes, he reached down to wipe them away.
Aries’ eyes fluttered open. He blinked up at Shen with a bewildered, groggy stare. After a few moments, he sat up, pulled the white objects from his ears, and wiped at his mouth. “Morning, Shen.”
“You mean afternoon,” he teased.
Aries glanced at the clock on his desk. “I guess I overslept.”
“At your desk?”
He nodded. “Sometimes I fall asleep while I’m working.”
“You were crying,” Shen said. “Did you have a bad dream?”
His mate pushed his glasses further up his nose and stretched, cracking several bones. “Sometimes I have these dreams where everything is pitch black and nothing really happens, except I can hear myself thinking a lot. And... Well, this probably sounds strange.”
It did to Shen—mainly because he never had dreams when he slept—but now wasn’t the right time to tell him that.
“No, please. Go on.”
Aries waited a moment before continuing. “I just kept thinking about what happened to Brava and Rae over and over again. Then I got to thinking about the Mayweather’s and all the other victims these monsters have taken from my world... It makes me sad and angry.”
Shen placed a warm hand on his mate’s shoulder and ran his fingertips down his back. “Your feelings are valid, Aries, and it is okay to feel the way you do. But consider this: hatred begets darkness—and allowing darkness to take root in one’s heart is like swallowing fox fire.”
“Why? What does fox fire do?”
Shen flashed a wicked grin. “It will burn you to ashes from the inside out.”
“That sounds horrible.” His mate closed the lid on his device—a laptop, he’d once called it—and stood up from his chair. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and leaned into Shen, who wrapped his arms around him. “I think I’ve seen and learned enough about fire to last a lifetime.”
He could hardly disagree with that sentiment.
Ever since Aries met the four-man task force sent from Nitehelm, he’d been stabbed, had his house burned to the ground, and now his friend and mate had been gravely injured from severe burns. They were fortunate to have Terra by their side to heal them when they got hurt. Though the toll it would take on their mental and emotional health was another matter.
“It’s only natural,” Shen told him. “Fate has dealt you a challenging hand.”
Rune popped his head in through the doorway. “Afternoon, Aries. Were you working hard?”
Shen and Aries turned to the Magi as he sauntered in and plopped down on the bed.
“I pulled an all-nighter,” he admitted. “It had to be done.”
Rune frowned at Aries and flopped back onto the mattress where he spread his arms out and stared up at the ceiling. “Can’t you rest after everything that’s happened?”
Aries sat down next to him and rested his hand on the Magi’s thigh. "My house burning down isn't an excuse to miss deadlines."
"Humans are strange," Shen said, taking over the seat that Aries had just abandoned minutes earlier. "You work even though you are in a crisis."
Their mortal mate shook his head and laughed. "I'd go crazy if I couldn't work. My books are such a huge part of my life..."
As he mentioned them, his smile faded. Shen wanted to hug him and never let go, but he resisted the urge. "You haven't told us what kind you write."
On the bed, he noticed Rune's face flush. The Magi averted his gaze to the wall and stayed suspiciously quiet.
"I write romance novels," Aries told him. "The steamy gay kind."
"Oh. Have you written many?" Perhaps that was why Rune blushed.
His mate counted with his fingers for a moment. "Several hundred, I'd say."
"But you're writing more? Are you sure you do not have unicorn blood running through your veins?"
"Why unicorn blood?" Aries scrunched his nose.
"Unicorns are extremely rare creatures. Few have been seen in our time... But from what I know about them, their blood is highly sought after. Rumors say it's a miracle liquid; anyone who drinks it becomes a visionary, like seers."
"You mean they can see the future?" Aries asked.
"Yes. Drinking unicorn blood is a short cut those who were not born with vision can use to acquire it."
“With that kind of power, you would have access to unlimited ideas,” Shen explained.
Aries did not seem to like the idea. "But who would kill a unicorn?"
Rune wore a sad smile on his face as he rolled over to look at Aries and Shen. "Why do you think they're so rare?"
"That's depressing," Aries said, deflated.
Shen sought to change the subject. "So, your romance novels... You were working on one last night?"
His mate's face brightened. "Yes! I've started writing a new series."
Rune readjusted himself, turning around so he could lay his head in Aries' lap. "Tell us about it."
Aries' face reddened. He grinned sheepishly and said, "let's just say it's heavily inspired by you four."
"How so?" Shen asked.
"Hmmm," he hummed, "I'll show it to you once it's released. Fair enough?"
Shen and Rune exchanged curious looks.
"You are welcome to... But I am embarrassed to say we do not know your language..."
"Then how are we speaking right now?"
"Magic," Rune sniffed.
"Really? I would never have guessed."
"Learning a language in a couple days on a new planet is unreasonable, don't you think?"
Aries threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh. "True. It takes humans years to learn it."
"I am curious about your language," Shen chimed in, leaning over the back of the computer chair.
"When this is all over, maybe I can tutor you?" Aries offered with a seductive smile.
"I volunteer," Rune blurted. "Tutor me, Aries."
The Magi’s words only made their mate blush harder.
He adjusted his glasses and turned his gaze toward the doorway where Brava and Terra now stood, carrying the game called Checkers with them.
"We heard you talking and did not want to be left out," Terra explained with an innocent smile.
They piled onto the bed with Rune and Aries and spread their game out atop the blankets.
"You're still playing that?" Aries asked, amazed.
"I could not beat Brava," the angel complained.
Aries whistled. "I never thought you were the competitive type, Terra."
"Competitive? Me?" A sly grin spread across Terra's angelic face. "Never."
"Bullshit," Brava retorted. To the others, he said, "we've played twenty times now—he just will not give up."
"Give me more credit, Brava," Terra said, batting his eyes. "Angels never give up. It is in my blood to try until I succeed."
Aries looked back at Terra and smiled. "I admire that about you."
"You do?" Terra asked, surprised.
"Tenacity is something humans respect a lot," he went on. "Besides that, having the courage to keep trying after failure? That's what makes you strong, Terra."
The angel flashed a wide grin at Brava. "Hear that?"
The half-demon rolled his eyes. "Mm-hmm."
Shen could not put his finger on why, but the room glowed when he and his mates were together. Maybe it was the love they shared or the burning chemistry between them... But his shisa felt content for the first time in a very long time. Having claimed and been claimed by them was one of the best moments of Shen's entire existence.
Shen could no longer imagine spending his years with anyone else. Rune, Terra, Brava, and Aries were his world now.
The joy and love he saw in his mates' eyes was enough to fuel him for several lifetimes. As Shen admired them from his seat across from the bed, he made a silent vow to always protect them. No matter what.
His decision lit a fire within his shisa and his own heart. But beneath the surface, he could not help but feel that something bad was about to happen.