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He was gripping my hand a little too tightly, but he realized it and let up.
“Al, tell me you understand?” Luke pleaded. “They’ll take you away from me. They’ll lock you up. People will doanythingto get their powers back,” he said, his voice raising.
“Guys! GUYS!” I said, squeezing both their hands.
“I think you’re crazy. I don’t know why or how you got your powers back. And I don’t know why Cass got his wings when he did. I don’t have any more magic than the next fae born during the last twenty-four years. And I certainly don’t have the kind of power you are talking about.But…” I said, cutting off their protests, “I will talk to Cass after the Ball tonight.”
Rhett squeezed my hand and then dropped it, slithering away back to his post behind the bar. I looked at Luke inquiringly. He leaned in, kissing me gently on the cheek before pausing near my ear.
“Don’t think coming home dressed in another man’s clothes will keep me away from you,” he growled, scooping me into his body.
A rush of excitement flooded through me before settling into an aching throb between my thighs. He squeezed my ass with both hands, but the kiss he gave me on the lips was soft and sweet.
“I’ll let you start getting ready,” Luke said, releasing me.
He gave me a smile that didn’t quite make it to his eyes.
“Hey, Al, did you hear the news about the King?” Rhett called to me, back to his normal, confident self.
“No, what is it?” I asked.
“The King is using the Fall Ball as one of the five or ten engagement parties he will probably have. It’s going to be the biggest celebration we’ve had in decades, and it starts an hour before the Ball!” Rhett exclaimed.
“I have to go get ready!” I yelped, already half-running down the hall.
I hopped into the shower, and as the hot water poured over me, I ran my fingers through my hair and thought about what the boys had said. My magic.Mymagic. But I didn’t have any magic. I’d never done anything remotely magical in my entire life. There had been times in my life where I’d wished I had some kind of magical ability. Of course, all fae had some magic. It was that spark of magic that made us immortal. But I’d never flown, fought, or so much as baked a pie with any kind of magical prowess. I’d come to terms with that fact and accepted that, probably because of my being born around the time that the magic began to fade, I just had less magic than most.
I wasn’t completely oblivious to what they were talking about. Jay, Luke, Rhett, Cass—all men who I had been with in some capacity and all men who now had recovered their powers while others’ powers continued to falter. But there had to be something other than me that tied the powerful group of men together. Their relationship to the King? The fact that they are the first-born male in their family? But even as I ran through a list of possibilities, I remembered that Luke wasn’t the eldest—his brother Brad was.
I was not the reason for them getting their powers back. I couldn’t be. I just couldn’t be. That kind of power didn’t exist. There was no power that could reverse the dying magic. There wasn’t even a power associated purely with sex. What they were suggesting—that somehow these men had gained their power back from sex with me—was not a thing. It was unheard of.
It did not exist.
16
Alarie
“Good evening,little star.”
A man appeared out of the shadows of the foliage surrounding the courtyard. I saw his icy blue-gray eyes appear out of the darkness before I could make out the rest of his features.
I was walking from House Rein to House Heroux for the Fall Ball. I was alone and running very late. I had spent the entire time that people were downstairs at Rhett’s pre-Ball festivities getting ready for the Ball. I convinced Rhett and Luke to leave without me, promising to catch up with them at the Ball.
Little star?I thought, stopping my hurried steps.
“Oh.”
I could make out his blue hair and his shorter, wide frame now that he was closer. I recognized him as the man who had saved me from falling flat on my face earlier in the year when I had slipped on a slippery cobblestone. I had never gotten the man’s name at our last meeting. It seemed rude to ask at this point, so I brushed past it.
“Hi. Are you here for the King’s party?” I asked the unusual lesser fae man with high fae light-hazel eyes.
“Grey must have forgotten to send out my invitation,” the man replied.
I furrowed my brows at the implication that this man was on a first name basis with the King.
“But no, I’m not here for the King’s celebration or the Fall Ball,” he continued. “I’m here foryou.”
I scanned my surroundings. Everyone else had already made their way inside House Heroux. The sound of water cycling through the grandiose fountain behind me filled the otherwise silent courtyard.
