Page 27

26

Tits Up

It was game day, and in more ways than just being minutes away from the final Fates Festival competition and finding out which team’s fate included being part of the Gargoyle Girls reunion performance.

Today, there’d be a Finding Ceremony.

Harry hoped.

She just had to survive until then, and at this point she’d give herself a fifty-fifty shot.

“Nope. Buck up, buttercup.” Elodie’s stern voice snapped her out of her doom-and-gloom mental spiral. “We have no time for imposter syndrome right now. It’s time to pick the tits up.”

People lined both sides of the Mud Runner obstacle course, their cheers and excitement rivaling an NFL Monday night football game. Hell, three guys in the front row with their faces and chests painted screamed their unwavering support, albeit for the Big Bads, in bold colors of gold and purple.

“At least those guys are siding with the right horse.” Silas, Jax, and the other two guys joined them, Silas pointing a heated gaze in Elodie’s direction. “But I wouldn’t worry about it, angel eyes. I’m sure you have your cheerleader in the crowd somewhere. Deep, deep in the crowd.”

As if they conjured her up, Cassie pushed her way to the barrier rope, a little pom-pom in her hand and Nora at her side. They both shot them big grins and thumbs-ups.

“I’m feeling pretty good about our chances.” Harry smirked at Silas. “Feeling even better since you felt the need to come over here and try to psych us out.”

“Psych you out? Nah. Came over ’cause this one wouldn’t stop sending you goo-goo eyes through the crowd; and if bringing him over here was the only way to get his head on straight, then so be it.” He nudged his chin toward Jax, who didn’t seem the least bit worried. “Don’t know what spell you wove on my man here, but, damn, it’s lethal.”

“It’s called love, Si. You should try it sometime.” Jax came up to Harry’s side, kissing the side of her head. “I highly recommend.”

“No, thank you. I’ll leave that shit to you all while I stay as far away as possible.”

Elodie muttered “Chicken” under a cough.

Silas bristled. “So then where’s the love of your life? Hiding them under that halo of yours?”

“I don’t know, but I hope they’re a long way off. I have things I want to do before”—she waved her hands in Jax and Harry’s direction—“that happens.”

Harry rolled her eyes and looked up at a smirking Jax. “Something tells me our friends are happy for us, but happy to not be us.”

“I’m good with that,” Jax teased. “It’s their loss anyway. They’re totally missing out.”

The overhead speakers squawked to life, sounding like the muffled teacher from a Charlie Brown cartoon, but the gist was received loud and clear. It was time to take positions.

“Good luck.” Jax pulled her into a swoon-worthy kiss, dipping her for dramatic flair. “I’ll be waiting for you on the other side of the finish line.”

“Or I’ll be waiting for you.” Harry swatted his ass as he walked away with a smirk.

Every team would leave its starting line spot at staggered times, the clock stopping only when all team members crossed the finish line after completing all ten obstacles. Earlier that morning, Harry had picked her team’s fourth-spot start time, and Jax’s team had the sixth, with ten minutes between them.

“What do you think the obstacles are?” At Harry’s side, Grace looked eager and excited, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure they’ll all have a common theme.”

“Mud,” they said in unison, chuckling.

The first buzzer sounded and the first team took off, running up the steep embankment at a fast clip. Before the Fearsome Four realized, it was time for the second, then the third.…

They were up next.

“Remind me never to do this again, okay?” Harry quipped, slipping the teen at her side a wink as they got into position.

“And here I was thinking we should make this an annual thing.”

Harry loved the sound of Grace planning for things in the future, and a future that included both her and Fates Haven.

Their team buzzer sounded and they took off, Elodie taking the lead and drill sergeanting the way up the steep hill. The embankment was slick, Harry’s sneakers slipping countless times on the way to the top. When they got there, she wasn’t the only one who cursed.

From there they had to descend on their asses onto a mud slide, at the bottom of which stood at least twelve massive steps. And not any regular ones. Mud steps, each higher than Harry was tall. The three teams before them were in varying locations, struggling their way up and over and in some cases, sliding all the way back to the bottom.

Lenny cursed. “We have two people with wings. What are they chances you can fly us over this monstrosity?”

“If I do it now, I might not have enough strength to do it later, and something tells me that this won’t be the most challenging obstacle we face,” Elodie reluctantly admitted.

“And don’t look at me,” Grace added. “I can barely keep myself airborne for longer than thirty seconds much less carry anyone.”

Harry lifted her chin and straightened her back. “Then let’s do this, Fearsome Four. We won’t get up this hell climb by sitting here gabbing about it.”

Each eight-foot magically made monster step had no handles or grips, no indentation in which to fit the tip of your shoe or squeeze in so much as a finger grip. And as if that wasn’t challenging enough, each step exuded a steady flow of slick, muddy goo.

Whichever supernatural designed this particular obstacle definitely didn’t want anyone finishing it easily.

Sidling up next to the other struggling teams, Harry hoped for the best, which as it turned out, did not produce results.

Ten minutes of struggling and mud in the mouth later, and an idea hit Harry.

Dropping to her hands and knees, she tapped Grace’s leg. “Use me as a stool and hoist yourself up.”

“You’re a fucking genius,” Elodie quipped, quickly getting on board.

They worked together to elevate, hoist, and help Grace up and over the first monster step. They let themselves have a little victory cheer, and then they tackled it again, next with Lenny, then Elodie. The other teams, seeing their success, quickly mimicked their tactics.

“Come on, Harry.” Grace leaned over the ledge, her arm extended. “Run and we’ll grab you and haul you up.”

“Here goes nothing.” With a warrior cry, she ran for the mud wall and reached as high as she could. Three sets of mud-covered hands latched on to some part of her arms, but it was the grip fastened around her wrists that hauled her up so fast and high Harry came crashing down in a muddy skid.

Grace glanced at her palms, shock widening her eyes. “Holy shit.”

Harry broke out into laughter, and so did the others. “I think you mean holy dragon grip. Remind me to never challenge you to an arm wrestling match.”

Elodie’s eyes lit up at the mention. “But she should totally challenge Silas… and let me record it.”

They broke out into laughter again, and a moment later, she stared up at Jax’s grinning face.

“Lying down on the job?” He helped haul her to her feet. “One down. Only nine more to go. You feeling up to it?”

Silas shouted at them both before leaping the next wall like he was a fucking gazelle.

“Sorry, babe. Gotta go.” Jax winked and then he quickly followed the rest of his team.

The game was on.

By the time they reached the top of the hell climb and officially put the first obstacle behind them, Harry was already winded, dirty, and determined. Not only were they finishing this freaking course, but they’d have the fastest time doing it.

Or she wasn’t the damn Fate Witch.

J AX ATE MUD for the sixth time in as many minutes and it didn’t taste any better than the first. Next to him, Maddox commando crawled through the muck and grime, interspersing grunts with high-pitched squeals as the dangling electrified wires zapped him yet again.

Jax released a cougar-like guffaw, laughing at his friend.

“Fuck you, Atwood. Some of us don’t have a thick hide to hide behind.” Maddox spasmed again when another wire hit him. “Shit. Shit.”

“You two are too slow,” Silas bellowed from the end of the obstacle, Gavin next to him. “Pick up the pace, fellas, or Elodie et al. will actually give us a run for our money and I refuse to dance backup for the Gargoyle Girls. Hustle! ”

They plowed through. Six feet. Then four. A foot away from freedom, Gavin grabbed them each by an appendage and pulled them free from both the wires and mud.

Maddox recited a trail of curses as he shook off the effects of the last twenty minutes. “Whoever thought up that damn challenge is fucking evil.”

Jax shifted back to two feet with a chuckle and accepted the shorts Gavin handed him. Pretty sure the answer to that was Nora Pierce. “Only one more to go, right? We got this in the bag.”

They didn’t have it anywhere even remotely near the bag.

They jogged up the next steep incline to the final obstacle. It didn’t look like much. A slick incline with no footholds. There was no electrocution. No mud pits except for the one at the base. No swinging or slippy bars to grip.

Nothing.

Except a fuck ton of people practically lying in one big muddy heap, and the few stragglers actually on the obstacle who slipped and joined the party. They looked like worms on a hook, climbing and falling, making themselves and the wall even slicker than before.

He spotted Harry and the girls easily and pride stirred deep as he watched them systematically create a human ladder, one crawling up and over the body of the others in an attempt to build their human ladder higher.

“Looks like they got the right idea.” Jax nudged his chin proudly toward his Mate. “Let’s get to it.”

Jax stopped alongside Harry as Silas went first to climb onto his shoulders.

“Fancy meeting you here, sweet pea.” He grinned as Silas stepped on his ear, nearly taking the damn thing off the side of his head.

“Couldn’t find another way to get up and over? You have to copy us?”

“Seems like you have a good plan in theory. It’s the execution that’s a little muddled.”

“Shit. This won’t work,” Elodie called from the top of their ladder. “There’s still a good ten feet to go and Grace is how tall?”

“Five feet at best,” Grace answered, hands on Harry’s hips as she paused her climb. “There has to be something we can do to make up for that amount of distance.”

“I’m all ears if you have any ideas.”

“And quickly”—Harry’s breath shuddered along with her legs—“before we all go tumbling as if the big bad wolf blew the house down.”

A slow, satisfied smile slid over the teenager’s face. “I have an idea, but I don’t know if it’ll work.”

“As long as it’s something more than what we’re currently doing, I say go for it.” Harry’s left foot slipped in the mud before she brought it back, knees buckling.

“Elodie, be prepared to grab me and everyone else.… Don’t let go of the person above you.”

Harry chuckled warily. “Why does that not give me the warm fuzzies?”

“I can’t fly us all up and over, but that doesn’t mean I can’t drag, right?” The teen stepped back and, much faster than she’d done before, transformed into her gorgeous golden dragon, her clothes vanishing with whatever magic that allowed them to disappear and reappear with each shift.

A handful of people fell where they stood, taking in the sight of the large reptile, and others who didn’t see it at first were knocked over with one flap of her powerful wings. Dragon Grace went airborne, and people ducked and dodged. Jax chuckled as a talon nearly knocked Silas on the side of the head, the tough demon letting out an unexpected squeal.

Grace perched on the top of the wall like a dragon on a castle, and lowered one massive wing with a soft chuff.

“No fucking way,” Silas grumbled as Elodie, Lenny, and Harry worked their way onto Grace’s wing. “That should be fucking cheating.”

Jax chuckled. “That is fucking genius.”

Harry walloped him with a broad smile and waved. “See you when you cross the finish line, Alpha Atwood. After us.”

They disappeared from view on their very own dragon slide. Harry’s throaty chuckles, mixed with the sounds of the surprised crowd on the other side, slowly melted away. Time moved at a snail’s pace after that, team after team gradually making their way up and over. By the time Jax and the rest of the Big Bads stumbled over the finish line, it was clear they hadn’t won the bet.

Not even close.

Harry waited for him with a clean towel and a smirk. “The Gargoyle Girls take the stage in thirty minutes, so you may want to clean up a bit and get those stretches in. You don’t want to pull a hamstring or something.”

Emitting a low, playful growl, he hauled her into a muddy hug, their bodies squishing. “Enjoying yourself?”

“Immensely. I’ll be enjoying myself even more when you’re shaking your hips to the Gargoyle Girls’ greatest hits.”

A faraway commotion rippled through the crowd of spectators. Murmurs and questions. Bodies shifted, creating space as the people parted for something… or someone.

The air shifted, and Jax wasn’t the only one who felt it. Harry stilled next to him as she turned toward the new arrival who was stepping out from the mass.

A tall, broad-shouldered man strode into the small winner’s clearing, his long dark hair and obsidian eyes raking over everyone until they paused on Harry. Jax stepped protectively in front of his Mate.

“Seriously?” she griped, her annoyance palpable.

A small gasp broke the sudden silence and Cassie took a step forward, her eyes wide and mouth agape. “L-L-Luke?”

A slow smile bloomed on the man’s face, immediately transforming his stern look to one of pure longing. “ Cassandra. ”

He closed the distance between them in three strides, his large hand cupping her cheeks as he stared at her adoringly. “I’m here. I’m not sure how you were able to locate me, but I heard your Call and there was no keeping me away.”

“It worked.” Harry heaved a heavy sigh, leaning into Jax’s side. “It actually fucking worked.”

Luke’s gaze slid to her. “You’re the one who sent the Call?”

“If you mean the large golden dragon in the sky? Then yeah.” She nodded. “I was.”

“I’m not sure how you managed it, but I am thankful that you did.” He settled one hand over his heart as he glanced back into Cassie’s tearstained face. “So very thankful. You have no idea how often I’ve fantasized about coming back to you.”

“Why didn’t you?” Cassie asked. “You crossed realms once before. You did now. Why didn’t you come back sooner?”

Luke smiled wanly. “ That is a much longer story, and one that I don’t wish to taint this magical moment with. But it’s our memories together that have kept me warm on frigid, lonely nights, and I am forever in debt to your friend for signaling for me.”

Cassie nibbled nervously on her bottom lip. “Harry didn’t do it alone. She used a little piece of you to help direct her Call a little better.”

“A piece of me? I wasn’t aware that I left anything behind.”

“Well, you did.” Cassie shot a quick glance to the left where Grace stepped forward looking a perfect blend of Cassie and her father. “This is Grace. She’s your—”

“Daughter.” An amazed look slid over the dragon shifter’s face as he glanced between the teen and Cassie. “I didn’t even know this was possible. It shouldn’t be possible. My kind…” His head snapped back to Grace as he studied her from head to toe, soaking in her existence. “You have a dragon.”

It wasn’t a question.

He knew, his eyes flashing gold and in answer, so did Grace’s.

Tears sprang to Grace’s eyes and she nodded. “I do. She’s—”

“Magnificent. I can see her within you. You’re both absolutely stunning. I… don’t even know where to begin.” Luke looked back to Cassie, tears in his eyes. “We should probably find somewhere to talk… all three of us?”

Cassie nodded immediately, reaching out for Grace. “I know the perfect spot.”

Harry and Jax watched as the reunited family headed toward Starlight Gazebo, Cassie’s hand firmly encasing her daughter’s. The fae’s eyes bounced from mother to daughter, pure amazement still lighting up every inch of his face.

Jax planted a kiss on Harry’s head. “You did that, Harlow Pierce. You brought a family together, and I have no doubt that you’re about to do even more miraculous things. How’s that for finding out where and how you belong?”

Harry smacked his chest playfully. “Throwing my words back at me isn’t very nice.”

“Who said I’m nice?” He emitted a low, playful growl as he gently nipped her earlobe. She squirmed and released a stream of giggles.

Silas groaned somewhere to his right. “We’re being summoned to the musical stage area, Jax. Let’s get this the fuck over with.”

Harry smiled against Jax’s mouth as she gave him another kiss. “Now go swivel those hips.”