Page 58 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Four

ELIAS

In Teddy’s kitchen, I brewed a pot of coffee with sugar and cream inside the pot like Teddy had shown me months ago.

I considered making eggs for her too but figured it was safer to stick with the coffee.

Especially since I’d then have to make eggs for everyone else who’d spent the night after my brothers and I finished playing.

Watching Teddy had been like a dream. Floating around from friend to friend as she danced and laughed. The smiles she’d given me were like a gift from the Guardians. Every coy look, each slight touch.

From behind me, Teddy slipped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my back. I grasped her hands and breathed in the moment.

I’d come so close to asking her if I could hold her again last night.

I thought she’d come close to asking me too, but neither of us did, her for her own reasons while I’d held back because of fear.

I loved Teddy. I’d continue to love her even after my last breath.

But I was afraid to hope. To want more than she could give me .

So I slept on the living room floor with the other males while the girls slept in the room with Teddy.

She inhaled a deep breath. “Smells amazing.”

“Me or the coffee?” I turned around to face her and hold her to me.

Like she’d done so many times in the past, she kissed my chest.

“Definitely the coffee.” She grinned up at me.

It was one of those expectant smiles where she waited for me to smile back. I did. Hesitantly. Lovingly.

She poked my side, and I yelped, jumping right into Hee-haw, who had decided to lie in the middle of the kitchen. He sent me an accusatory look and huffed at me.

“Why’s the donkey being loud?” Ryenne stretched her arms over her head and yawned.

“Elias stepped on him,” Teddy told her.

Everly snuck in behind them and sat down next to Hee-haw. He peered up at her with sad eyes before he dropped his head on her lap.

“Was that nasty fae mean to you?” she asked him.

He gave out another huff, which sounded a lot like yes.

“I think we should roast him.” This from Donnie.

Quickly, Teddy’s kitchen filled. The girls spilled in with shouts and giggles while Javier hung back by the entrance, still trying to blink sleep from his eyes.

George picked up Victoria and rested her on his lap when he sat beside Everly on the floor.

Everly gave him a shy smile that I’d never seen on her before.

But then again, I didn’t know they tolerated each other much until last night when Everly told Teddy she’d take a chance and believe with her.

Those words sent George’s heart into a race with my own.

After we finished our final song, George finally told me about how he and Everly were mates.

They’d known for close to one hundred years, and while they’d never rejected each other, they hadn’t exactly accepted their bond.

All because of the duty they felt to my parents.

Royals or not, both my parents would’ve knocked them over their heads for their foolishness. While there was pride in duty, nothing sustained life like a mate’s love. My parents were the perfect example of that.

“What do you have for food?” Brenton asked, comfortable enough with Teddy to open the refrigerator without asking.

Teddy held a finger up while she took her fill of the coffee she’d poured herself.

“I think we have two or three eggs left,” Javier said when Teddy took another big gulp. “Plenty of fruits. There’s bread in the pantry too.”

I needed to go back out and hunt, not just for the creatures from my realm but also for more livestock. While there’d been plenty of sweets the day before at the market, we’d all have to go back to half rations.

“I want strawberry shortcake,” Ryenne said, rummaging through the pantry.

“Me too,” Victoria said, and the other two girls agreed.

From outside, Nalari roared so loud that it shook the walls of Teddy’s house.

“Nalari?” I asked.

When she didn’t reply, I ran outside past the porch to the clearing where Nalari liked to rest.

Nalari crouched low to the ground, fire roaring from her open mouth toward the forest in front of her.

A shot rang out. Then several more.

Sniffing the frigid air, I tried to find whoever was stupid enough to shoot my Guardian.

I heard four heartbeats in the forest where Nalari’s fire hit. There were at least five more beyond them.

Everly, Brenton, and George ran alongside me. From the back of my mind, I heard Teddy call my name. I didn’t look back. Couldn’t look back.

While George, Brenton, and I ran into the woods, Everly turned and headed toward Nalari.

“I’ll fight alongside Nalari,” Everly shouted. With her shield in one hand and sword in the other, she stood by my Guardian’s side.

We ran into the thick woods, tall trees engulfing us on either side as I followed the closest heartbeat.

The first man was hidden beneath a few layers of snow, wearing all white clothes that almost blended with the snow above him.

I pulled him from his hiding spot and broke his neck before his body hit the ground again.

A few feet from where the dead man lay, another man shot from where he hid beneath the snow. He stumbled to get to his feet, and just as his mouth opened to scream, I grabbed him and snapped his neck. He fell quietly onto the soft snow.

I scented the death of the others my friends had killed.

Bullets sprayed toward us, and one hit George in the leg.

He growled deep within his throat, and I stopped my attack to heal him quickly.

Before I could do so, I felt the magic within him awaken and stir, as could happen in battle.

The magic that had been taken from him rose and returned like a flood.

In an instant, George healed himself. When he took chase toward the cowards running and hiding deeper in the forest, Brenton and I followed. Suddenly, George stilled, turning toward Nalari and Everly.

I shifted my attention toward them. “What’s wrong?” I ground out, my own anxiety mixing with the adrenaline that fueled the fight within me.

Without a word, George ran toward them. Trusting his seer magic to speak to him, I didn’t question him further and instead pressed Brenton’s shoulder toward the remaining humans.

I spotted several running between the trees as they looked behind to see us quickly approaching. A few feet from them, Brenton leaped on one. The man pointed his gun toward Brenton, and I heard the loud bang that echoed from its chamber as Brenton killed him.

Not far behind, a man tripped and fell, his body staggering to the snow-covered ground. With dribble and snow spilling from his mouth, he pushed himself off the white ground. He was dead before he could do so.

A blast burst behind us from Teddy’s home. A wave of heat flung Brenton and me into the air. I barely felt my hard landing against a tree before I jumped to my feet and raced toward Teddy.

Panicked and forgetting the humans who’d shot at us.

Gray smoke filled the air around me. I hurried through it blindly, screaming Teddy’s name. Victoria’s. Anyone who’d answer me.

The silence that followed was deafening.

Until I heard Nalari’s roar and the flap of her wings.

“Your mate is fine,” Nalari told me. “Everyone’s fine. Everly and your foolish human friends surrounded me to defend me.” It came out as a vicious snarl. “Everly was shot but I already tended to her wound and healed her. I will hunt the humans who did this to us.”

“Wait!” I shouted through our connection, still running blindly. “Were you shot? Do you need ? — ”

“Their weapons did nothing but anger me.”

“The explosion?”

“Teddy’s house,” she answered, her anger rising until it engulfed me.

With that, she slammed our connection closed before I could ask about the children. I’d rushed out and left them and everyone in the house. Had the children made it out?

As the smoke cleared, the first thing I saw was the fire that raptured Teddy’s home. But Teddy was okay. She stood shaking in the clearing where Nalari had left them. Victoria clung to George while Javier hugged his sisters to him.

When I reached them, Teddy fell into my arms, her body trembling so hard I worried she’d break. She clung to my shirt, sobbing against me, her limbs still quaking.

I kissed the top of her head and ran my hand through her hair, down to her back.

“You’re okay,” I whispered. “Everyone’s okay.”

“The kids,” she stammered out.

George continued to soothe Victoria as Everly rested her chin on George’s shoulder.

“The kids are okay,” I reassured her.

I heard the way her heart beat rapidly and the way her blood rushed through her veins like a flood. It made my own heart race.

“George. . . he got them.” She cried harder into my chest.

I scooped her into my arms and when I sat on the ground, I swayed us back and forth.

“George got them,” she pushed out. “He—I didn’t—my house. . .” Her terror flooded me, threatening to drown me.

“It’s okay,” I soothed, forcing my own body not to shake with hers. “Everyone’s okay.”

“Nalari?” she asked, her voice quiet .

“She’s okay,” I repeated, trying to sound calm when everything inside me wanted to hunt with Nalari.

Destroy those who’d come to hurt my family.

She nodded. Wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her nose to my throat, where she breathed deeply. Slowly. Steadying herself while I hugged her to me.

I looked up at George, who stood in front of me, still holding Victoria in his arms with a haunted expression on his face.

“I shouldn’t have left you,” he said, his tone remorseful. “I put you and Brent in danger. I’m sorry, Elias.”

I wanted to stand, to hug the male who was like a brother to me.

“You got the children out.” I pressed another kiss to Teddy’s head when she shifted to peer up at George.

He swallowed. “My magic came back,” he said quietly, rubbing a hand across Victoria’s back. “I saw what was going to happen. I. . .” He shook his head.