Bravery Read online

  I roll my hips, feeling Kit move too, and then lust flares in Litha, connecting us all together. Letting him feel that we belong together, no matter what.

  “I’m just not made for love. I’m no good at loving someone or being loved. Incubi and succubi don’t do this. They don’t do relationships, long term relationships. They don’t do that. We don’t do that. We don’t do love like that. It’s not part of who we are. I can’t change who I am, what I am. Please, forget about me, before... Before...” He sobs and we wrap our arms around him tighter, letting him fall apart, and making sure that he can put himself back together later, because we’re here keeping all his pieces safe for him.

  Litha carefully kisses him on his cheek, her voice so warm, like she’s breathing life into Kit just by speaking. “Before, what?”

  “Before you die, ripped from us, and I’ll break into a million pieces, unable to ever recover. I can’t do this. I can’t lose you like that.” He grips onto Litha and then grabs the arm I’ve got wrapped around the both of them, his fingers almost painfully digging in my skin, desperate. “I can’t watch you die again. I can’t watch anyone die. Please... Please, let me go so I won’t have to go through that again. Please... Please... I can’t do it.” He finally slumps between us, all his energy gone, all his fight gone, his darkness fleeting, wrapped all around him, almost visible enough to touch it and pull it aside.

  I kiss his back, meeting Litha’s eyes, who’s crying just as much as I am. I knew that he was in pain, that these thoughts were going through him, but to hear him say the words... To have him beg us to not let him hurt anymore... It breaks my heart in ways I’ve not felt before. “I love you.” I keep kissing his back, touching him as much as I can. “I love you.”

  “I hurt you.” The words are barely audible. “I hurt you and put Litha in danger too. I’m too dangerous to stay.”

  “I love you all the same.” I put my head to his back, not sure what else I can tell him to make him believe my words, my intentions.

  “You shouldn’t.” But he has no fight left in him to put any strength behind it, they’re only words now, void of all meaning.

  Litha moves, one hand going through my hair as she holds Kit against her tightly. “I love you. I love you both. I won’t stop loving you, ever.”

  “Even if we’re dangerous?” Kit’s voice is but a squeak.

  “Even if you’re dangerous.”

  “Even if we die?” The last word almost doesn’t leave his lips, too scary to speak out loud.

  “Even if you die. Never knowing you, and never having lived with you at my side, would be worse than loving and then losing you, no matter how short the time we spent together. We never know how much time we have left, but I’d rather have you here at my side when we’re alive, even if that’s just days, than not have you at my side at all.” She sounds so serious. “I’d rather mourn you for the rest of my life than never having known you at all.”

  “Love...” Kit gasps, like he’s finally breathing again, his lungs filling with air. “I love you. I love you so much.” There are his words, finally out, finally here. We broke whatever was holding him hostage in his mind, we broke the hold the darkness has over him.

  “I love you too.” Litha kisses him, and then tries to kiss me too, which is too awkward with Kit between us, and she can’t help but smile at that, because, of course, like anything is ever easy.

  “Rune...” Kit’s voice is stronger now, almost back to himself. “I love you. I really love you, but please fuck me until I see stars, until we all see stars, because this slow-ass stuff you’re doing now is so not the way.”

  I smirk, pushing myself up on my arms a little. “And that’s why I love you too.” I nip at his shoulder as I roll my hips with more force and our moans fill the bedroom, no longer caring if the others can hear us.

  I keep moving. Our desperation, our need, letting it all go, releasing it all. We’re a ball of body parts, desperate body parts, all waiting for the moment of release, anticipating it.

  Litha’s eyes are closed, her head falling back so her neck is beautifully stretched out in front of us and Kit puts his teeth to the pale skin, marking her, marking her as his. Marking her as ours, over and over again, as he marks her and I mark him, our energy flowing freely.

  Kit moans, probably sensing my emotions, and then his ass squeezes me tightly as he comes. I bury my teeth in his neck, as I come too, and I can feel and hear Litha’s pleasure too, sparking, exploding through us.

  Everything goes bright and light for moments, nothing making sense, like I’m no longer myself but something more, until I come back to this world, Kit in my arms, and Litha in our arms, all embraced, all connected.

  Kit’s darkness and pain isn’t gone, but something inside him is easier now, softer now. We’ve broken the chain around his mind, around his heart and we can now heal him, heal all of us.

  Slowly, with a hiss, I pull out of him, accidentally putting too much pressure on my leg and I let myself fall to my side on the bed, the pain a blinding flash. So not how I’d planned for this to end. Definitely not how I’d planned for this special party to end...

  “You shouldn’t have overdone it...” Kit growls as he helps me reapply the numbing stuff Finn and Phoenix made for me.

  “You should have given in to us sooner. I had no pain when we started.” I grin and that gets me a smack on my arm as he rolls his eyes at me, which only makes me smile more. At least I’ve got my love back, or, as my dragon calls him, my ‘dark love’, which is a fitting description of Kit.

  “Next time, you’re on the bottom. You need to watch out with that leg, it needs rest to heal properly.” He sighs, shaking his head.

  “At least I’m getting a next time, that sounds promising, more than I’d have gotten an hour ago.” I wink, pulling him to me, embracing him, way too happy to have him back.

  “Yeah, yeah.” He lets out a deep sigh, but I feel the happiness inside him, the small flicker of a flame of hope and love, and he wraps his arms around me too. “Just make sure you take better care of yourself.”

  “You too.” I tickle him slightly, my fingers on his way too visible ribs. “You’ve lost weight, even in the last couple of days.”

  “I think Litha is going to fix that right now.” But he doesn’t move away from me, just holding me, leaning into me.

  The door opens and Litha comes inside with a plate full of food, mostly sandwiches, but also some fruit and even leftover meat from the fire they had last night. She puts the plate on the bed, looking fairly smug at everything she’s collected for us. “If you want anything heated up, just tell me. I think I’ve mastered that skill mostly by now, so reheating some meat should not be an issue.”

  I look at her, and then at Kit, who’s looking very doubtful too before he bursts out into a bubbly laugh. “I think I’ll chance the cold meat.” I grin, trying my best not to burst out too.

  “Hey!” Litha’s eyes grow as she stares at Kit. “That’s mean! You’re teasing me. You know, I can control my fire much better now, thank you very much. I practised a lot last night.” Slightly pouting, she crawls slightly behind me, leaning her head on my shoulder, so Kit can sit on the other side of the plate.

  “You may have gotten more control, but you’ve never tried to use it after an orgasm.” Kit smiles at her, his eyes soft, filled with love. “That stuff can do interesting things to your magic. Explosive stuff.” He winks.

  ”Oh.” Her face turns bright red as she quickly puts a piece of fruit in her mouth, staring down as I feel her lust grow again.

  I reach out, pulling her closer and giving her a quick kiss on the side of her head. “You’ll get used to it soon enough. Controlling your magic in a controlled situation is one thing, but using it during a high-emotional situation is a different skill set altogether.” Then I take a sandwich and take a big bite of it. I’m definitely hungry now, after everything that has happened, and I didn’t really eat since dinner last night, mostly sleeping
while the others were outside with the fire.

  I glance at Kit. At least he doesn’t seem to want to push us away any longer. He may still be a little raw emotionally, but at least he doesn’t look like he’s going to run off at any moment anymore. For now, I can’t ask for much more than that, for him to stay at our side and love us.

  7

  When I wake up, it’s just Bane and me in my bed, Litha probably having left a good while ago, as the space between us is cold.

  I sit up, looking around the room. My shirt from last night is missing, probably taken by Litha, as her dress and bra are still on the floor. I let out a short laugh, figures. That girl grew up in the human world, with human morals, but a week with these shifters, all types of shifters, and witches like Phoenix, has definitely made her comfortable with walking around the place with very few clothes on her. Another week or two and I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts doing the same thing as Kit and Rune and just not bother with clothes most of the time, at least nothing more than the bare minimum to keep delicate bodyparts from getting hurt. Another good reason for them to move in here and not stay at the halls, at least she can do things like that here, without it being a constant source of gossip. Not that Litha and Phoenix moving in with us won’t be enough for gossip anyway.

  I get out of bed, pulling on clean jeans and a shirt and then go in search of Litha, and maybe some food. I’m not really hungry after all the meat and snacks from last night, but I believe that at least eating something, even small is probably a good idea.

  Finding Litha isn’t as hard as expected, even in a house this size, as I immediately hear her voice drift over from Rune’s room. I open the door further and look inside, the sight making me smile and my heart warm up a little. Litha is sitting on the bed, Rune and Kit at her side, all having breakfast. I guess that whatever went on between them earlier today must have gone over well, as I’ve not seen Kit this relaxed all week and he doesn’t look ready to bolt at any moment.

  “Finn!” Litha looks up, her eyes bright, and she climbs off the bed, my shirt climbing up enough to show that she’s literally only wearing my shirt, not even underwear, and she bounces over to me. Taking my hand, she pulls me along with her back to the bed. “Do you want something to eat too? I’ve got the flowers you like.” She holds up one of them, close enough that I could just eat it from her hand.

  I look from the flower up at her, raising an eyebrow. “Didn’t you have enough to eat last night?” It seemed like almost half of the things she roasted last night went into her own mouth.

  “She just had an intense workout.” Rune grins as Litha goes bright red. “Spent a lot of energy on that.”

  Ah, that type of ‘workout’, I guess that’s one way to get through to Kit. I smile too and quickly take the fruit that Litha is offering me, before she decides to retract her offer. And then climb on the bed, behind Kit, next to Litha. I slowly reach out to Kit, playing my fingers over his back carefully. He’s got Rune’s marks all over his back, blotches of colours in random patterns. How we’ve been so blind for years, always explaining away their marks, never considering the very easy and logical explanation for them... “You letting them spoil you?” I try to keep my voice light, easy, and he nods slowly. He can feel the questions I don’t dare to voice, the things I worry about, like if he’ll stay with us now.

  “Spoiling is a big word... After pushing himself to the limit, and we all had our fun, I had to help out dragon-boy redo the bandages on his leg. Seems he’s not as healed as he’d like to pretend.” Kit looks sideways, his voice low, but his gaze is soft. He’s okay again, maybe a little raw, but he’ll be fine again.

  I lean back on my arms. “Well, that’s to be expected, he’s always been like that. So I can’t really fault him for doing exactly what we expect of him, even when he should know better.” I raise an eyebrow at Rune, who just smirks and shrugs. Then I take some meat from last night, holding the cold piece up to Litha, but she shakes her head, glaring at Rune and Kit.

  “They’re not allowing me to do that. They think it’s too dangerous.” She playfully pouts, still glaring.

  Rune looks back at her, smiling as he shakes his head. “That was over half an hour ago. You weren’t allowed to do magic because you just had an orgasm. I could still feel the hormones rush through your system. We didn’t want you to set the whole bedroom on fire.” He lets out a short laugh. “Do tell the whole story when you’re complaining about being treated unfairly.”

  “My version sounds better.” She sticks her tongue out to him but then holds her hand over the piece of meat I hold up, a flame sparking in her palm for a moment, jumping over to the meat, and she ‘sears’ it, heating it up. “There you go.”

  I turn the piece in my hands, looking at it closely. It was already cooked last night, so it only needed some warming up, and it looks like she managed that well enough. “Thanks. We should definitely take you camping at some point. We wouldn’t need a fire or a stove when we’ve got you with us.”

  “Camping?” Litha looks between us, doubtful. “You’ve been camping together?”

  Kit bursts out laughing, like it’s the silliest question in the world, shaking his head. “Hell, no. Unless you call making a tent out of a table and some blankets in Bane’s parents’ living room ‘camping’. We’ve not been camping together. I like my house-luxuries too much for it.”

  “I’m with Kit.” Rune smiles. “I prefer a house to stay in, no tents.” But he also meets my eyes, reminding me of what he asked me at the start of the week, to find us a place to stay, for when we have to flee from my dad... Which is definitely more of a ‘when’ than an ‘if’ situation, no matter how you look at it. I’ll have to dive into the books, at least find us some spots we can hide out at.

  Litha looks thoughtfully. “I’ve been camping once or twice, not often. My parents weren’t really into it either.” Then she’s quiet for a few moments. “But knowing what I know now, I guess it was also because it’s easier to protect me when we’re not out in the middle of nowhere...” She lets out a low sigh and I’m acutely aware how much of her life she’s had to reconsider since she’s found out who she is, why she lived where she lived, how much her parents have been protecting her.

  “I’d love to go camping again.” Bane is standing in the doorway, looking very relaxed in just his jeans from last night, hanging low on his hips, leaning against the door. He walks over, sitting down at the foot of the bed, looking up at us all. “I used to go camping with my parents during full moons. There is nothing better than running around the meadow as a wolf, the whole world around you this strange mix of colours and scents. It’s a great experience.” He takes a sandwich from the plate, leaning back on an arm, comfortable. “Why are we discussing going camping?”

  “Finn said that with if I went camping with you guys, we wouldn’t need anything to make fire or to cook.” Litha smiles.

  “Not disagreeing with him there, not after your pyromaniacs from last night.” Bane grins, wolfing down the sandwich.

  “See?” Litha grins at Rune and Kit. “I’m pretty safe to be around. My magic isn’t that unpredictable.”

  Kit smirks. “Yeah, but with the five of us around you, keeping you well-fucked and high on orgasms all the time, I’m not so sure that we should solely depend on your magic for things like that. Orgasms have a very strong effect on people’s magic, just like any emotion really, makes it less predictable. This goes for anyone, by the way.” He looks at me and I shrug. I’ve not accidentally blown stuff up with my electricity since the night at the headmaster’s office, I call that having pretty good control, especially with the shit that has happened since.

  A phone buzzes and Bane pulls it from his pocket, then his face falls and he stands up. “Seems my uncle is coming to the campus to join in on the talks about the attacks.” He eyes Kit. “Seems your mother and her court are coming too. I guess we should get dressed to meet them. They’ll arrive in an hour.”

  My stomach
drops and my heart feels heavy. If they’re getting the king and queen of the two other kingdoms involved, that means that they’re considering much worse things than simply trying to keep the campus and the town safe. It means that we’re edging ever closer towards a full-blown war...

  I eye Rune, but he’s already looking at me, his eyes dark. We both know that our parents won’t show up here, his because they’re in hiding and mine because they’re the cause of this whole mess.

  Phoenix walks into the bedroom, holding a mug of coffee in her hands. “They want all of us to dress up nicely and show up to meet them. That includes the dragon and the fae...” She looks at me. “They want all of us there, at Litha’s side, as a show of how close we are to fulfilling the prophecy.”

  “They’re parading us around again, then?” Kit grumbles but he stands up anyway. “It wouldn’t be a semi-official or even official occasion if they didn’t do that.” He lets out a deep sigh, looking very annoyed.

  “I know.” Phoenix’s voice is low. “I’ve been pretty good at staying out of all the parading around, out of anything showing off the ‘future leaders’. Why do you think they didn’t parade me around, even though my mum is the highest priestess and I’m to inherit her position?” She’s smiling a little, proudly.

  “Because you were never here during the first breakfast? Or the final dinner? Or anything official?” Bane levels a look at her.

  Phoenix grins. “That’s always been on purpose. My parents being close friends with your parents got me a couple of nice perks. But now that the whole ‘prophecy’ thing is kicking off, even I can’t get out of it anymore.” She rolls her eyes and looks at Litha. “Our mums are bringing over a couple of dresses for us to try on, since we don’t have anything here that we can wear.”

  “And the rest of us?” Bane grumbles, obviously not impressed with how easily Phoenix had been able to get out of things when he’d been forced to show up everywhere, no matter how much he complained to his parents.