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Athon felt his heart twist. She’d spoken directly to Luc about her and her importance. His very soul ached, how could Luc have survived it all these years? It felt like being ripped apart by his own shadows. The loss he felt, and he hadn’t even really met her, hadn’t had the chance to get to know her. He knew he had to give her up. But his very being rebelled at the barest thought of it. To know he’d find out her favorite ice-cream, what kind of movies she liked, what songs made her dance. But, he’d never get to hold her close and be a part of her everything.
The one time he and Roth had drunkenly bought up the idea of sharing her with Luc . . . it had not gone well. Mrs Briars had been forced to sedate Luc for six months and then wiped the whole incident from his short term memory. She’d proceeded to cuss them out for three hours straight while saying some cryptic shit about different paths that all start from the same point, and some intertwining stuff they couldn’t understand because . . . well, they were still half drunk.
“Oh, the witch sent another gift. I left it on the bar. We’ll be back after I get our honored guest some food and a nice cup of tea. Not a word to anyone. We still have a traitor, as I’m sure you all recall.”
With that said, Mrs Briars led Leraie out of the room with her head held high.
Malech was the one who gathered himself together first and approached the bar before returning to place the “gift” in front of Luc, who went to open it with a smile on his face. Deus watched with hooded lids from the seat next to him, a scowl plastered across his features.
“Who is this witch, anyway?” Caine asked with confusion. “And what’s with the gift? Has she sent more than one?”
Caine hadn’t spent much time at home the last few years, his charge had been born five years ago, and he’d been obsessed with his duties, at the expense of all else. He still collected souls when he was meant to, but it was his divine duty to see his curse through until the end. And it seemed it would never truly end. Athon often forgot that Caine hadn’t seen the witch, nor her gifts and messages.
“I’m sure you’ll get to meet her at some point, Caine. She’s my girl’s bestie, after all,” Luc said gleefully.
The smell hit them first as Luc peeled back the tape on top of the box. A combination of rotten meat and acrid smoke mixed with bitter herbs.
“Urgh, what the fuck is that?” Caine asked, hopping up to peer over Luc’s shoulder.
As he got a good look, his face turned green and he covered his mouth with both hands as he raced to the waste paper bin and hurled up the contents of his stomach.
“Looks like char-grilled testes to me,” Luc laughed. “Still attached to the base I see. Oh, there’s a note.”
Damn, the male looked positively delighted at this newest development. Lily and Perri laughed as the rest of them checked and covered their own testicles, as if they feared they’d magically been removed and were now sitting in the box before them.
“With every message and gift my girl crush grows,” Perri chortled. “Seriously, if she keeps this up I’m going to fall in love with this badass witch . . . or join her quest . . . or both. Either way, I think she’s awesome for gifting Lily and me with the priceless looks on your faces right now. Except the boss, he looks as chuffed as I am.”
Luc opened the note and cleared his throat.
Dear boys and girls,
Taking out one evil mage at a time. Careful boys, hurt one of mine and you might just be next on my ‘Soon to be nutless’ list.
Sincerely,
Your worst nightmare if you’re not careful xx
They cleared away the mess and were ready to go by the time the females returned. Leraie gave them the run down quickly and explained they were headed to a hidden place only she could create a portal directly to and from.
As they all lined up behind Leraie, Luc moved to stand beside her, but Mrs Briars stopped him and whispered loud enough that Athon could hear them, Roth too, judging by how he leaned slightly forward, so the words wouldn’t slip away.
“Don’t fuck this up, my boy,” she sighed heavily. “I know you will, but an old lady can only hope. In the end it will be what it will be, I suppose. Gook luck, laddie.” She gave him a pat on the back as Leraie opened the portal and stepped through, Luc close on her heels.
As he and Roth made to pass by their self-designated warden, Mrs Briars' soft hand grabbed one of Roth and Athon’s arms, her grip surprisingly firm as she tugged them out of line, and forced them to bend down. She stretched up on her toes as high as she could, and captured them each by an earlobe, pulling them further down, so she could whisper resoundingly in their ears. The rest of the team entered the portal one by one until they were the only ones left.
“The same goes for you two, as well. Don’t fuck this up. I can guarantee you’ll regret it if you do. And not just because the witch will kick your asses. I, personally, really don’t want to go to war with her just because you two act like idiots. Now, give me a kiss on the cheek, and get you asses through that portal before Leraie decides to lock you out and leave you behind.”
They barely managed to straighten up just before she gave them a mighty shove through the slowly closing portal, almost as if Leraie had heard her warning.
Chapter 34
Nithe had left early the next morning. In his dragon form he’d taken flight and quickly arrived at the palace. The link they shared blessed her with the ability to always be in communication with him, so long as he was open to it at the time, and conscious, of course. Before he’d gone they’d made love with so much passion she’d pretty much passed out for an hour as orgasm induced exhaustion had taken over her body. He’d woken her with soft kisses and a hot cup of delicious coffee. Then he’d left, so she’d headed to breakfast to meet up with Tana and start their girl’s night. Which, in typical Tana fashion, actually meant girl’s day and night.
Normally they’d train in combat and flight after breakfast, maybe a little monster hunting thrown in for extra fun depending on how much pent-up frustration her cousin was feeling. Unfortunately for Tana, Jezzie was enforcing a strict no strenuous activity order due to her cousin's current situation and the events of the previous day. To offset her cousin’s guaranteed annoyance Jezzie had decided they’d do some light swimming after breakfast, followed by Tana’s favorite fantasy board game, which usually took a few hours to finish. Especially if she decided to kill off the princes as slowly and painfully as possible, which was more common than not. She’d invented the game for the sole purpose of plotting their demise as a teenager, perfecting it over the years into something pretty awesome and complicated; it could give mainstream games a run for their money.
As she entered the dining room her cousin’s face lit up with genuine delight.
“Eep! Girl time!!”
