Page 29 of A Song of Air (Fae Elementals #4)

B ryson wondered in the days that followed if she could shed her skin for a new one. Though logically she knew that Weylyn hadn’t touched her, not really, she could still feel the phantom press of his palms sliding sensually against her skin. When she closed her eyes at night, she remembered everything with an ache between her thighs that burned. It could only be driven away by her fingers, gliding over her sensitive flesh until completion.

She hated how it made her feel afterwards.

Like she was hurting Ev all over again. Like she was somehow being disloyal by remembering the savage touch of Weylyn’s hands and body and the dark promises he whispered in her ears.

She didn’t want him to claim her. She didn’t want to belong to the mysterious, golden Fae. But every time she remembered those words, something stirred inside her. Like Mana was awakening, demanding she give in.

She would listen to Mana on everything but this.

Bryson had managed to avoid Ev as much as she possibly could. She chose to busy herself, asking Arlo for task after task to keep her mind occupied on things other than Weylyn.

She had to tell Ev.

Bryson knew she had to tell him what had happened. But anytime she tried to form the words, they caught in her throat and she ran away. Especially when he looked at her so lovingly. Especially when he displayed her claw marks so proudly, with the buttons of his shirt open to reveal the evidence of what they’d done. Of what she’d done to him.

It only made her stomach churn.

When Bryson finished her chores for the day, cleaning and mucking out the horse stalls, she wandered through camp. Part of her avoidance of Weylyn had also extended to the Resistance. In fact, Bryson had barely spoken to them outside of their first meeting.

Even the Elementals, for all the curiosity Bryson possessed of the three Fae women, hadn’t indulged in any type of conversation. Though by this point, Bryson could recognize them by scent alone. By the way they walked, and by the sounds of their voices. If by nothing else, at least she knew them that way.

Shula Azzarh, the fire Fae, always smelled like a mix of confections and embers, with the subtle hints of medicinal herbs that clung to her skin and clothes, courtesy of her mate. He was a scarred Fae named Ryker, and whenever she saw flashes of his face, Bryson didn’t feel so alone with her own scars.

Iona Wilde, Malika’s sister, was the more... conspicuous... of the Fae Elementals. Her scent wasn’t as sharp as Shula’s, but her demeanor was more boisterous, as was her mate’s, the giant ginger named Julius. They trained together almost every day, the sounds of their fighting and passion loud enough to echo through the trees.

Corvina, the water Elemental, was more subtle in everything she did. She didn’t train with the others. She sat back with a group of humans and Fae that had come with their party, tending to her son and watching the others with quiet determination.

The Elementals all flocked to each other, too. And Malika trailed after her sister as well. It made a strange sense of loneliness spread through Bryson’s chest.

Never before had she felt so alone.

Her own group of friends were sparring lightly near the Resistance. Bryson closed in to watch, if only because Everette wasn’t there at all.

Weylyn was, though she forced herself to ignore him in favor of watching the swords clang together in percussive, fake violence.

“Basil, be careful!”

Bryson’s attention turned to the water Fae. Her blonde locks were in disarray over her shoulders, the golden strands shielding her face. She’d spoken to her son, who was running around near where they were sparring.

“Mommy, look at me!” Basil jumped over a particularly high rock and as he landed on the other side of it, his feet skidded along the ground, causing him to trip. He let out a cry as he neared the area where they were fighting and fell in between the fray.

Bryson winced.

Basil pushed himself to a stand, and as he did, he was shoved back by a very adult forearm.

“Watch what you’re doing, kid.”

The force of the shove sent Basil sprawling to the ground once again. Only this time, instead of getting back up, the tears came, and he began to bawl.

Everything after that happened so fast.

Bryson’s legs carried her in that direction, but Weylyn got there first, putting his lithe body in between Basil and Otis. Corvina arrived only seconds after Weylyn, pulling Basil to a stand.

Within moments, it appeared to be a battlefield. The Resistance on one side, the rebels on the other. And Bryson stood in the middle, between Otis and Weylyn. Her glare faced her friend.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” she demanded.

“He’s in the way, and this is no place for children to be playing.”

“You didn’t have to shove him, Otis.”

Weylyn stepped forward, his overwhelming scent crowding Bryson, though she didn’t flinch away.

“This world is no place for the likes of you,” Weylyn whispered, low and deadly. “Shall I eliminate you?” He started forward, his hand darting out—

Bryson grabbed it, and the touch of his skin against hers burned.

“You aren’t killing anybody,” Bryson hissed.

Weylyn’s eyes flicked over her, the golden depths flaring alongside his nostrils. “Are you going to stop me?”

“If I must.”

They stared at each other.

Up close, he appeared even more formidable than in the visions he liked to send out. It wasn’t so much his stature, though he was rather tall. It was in the expression. The way she could tell there was something lurking beneath his eyes. Like a beast hidden within darker depths of waters, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

“Fine.” Weylyn pulled his arm gently away from Bryson’s touch and he looked up at Otis. “Only because she asked so nicely. Otherwise you’d be dead.”

“You owe the child an apology,” Bryson told Otis. “Your actions were uncalled for.”

Otis scoffed in disbelief. He glared at the Resistance, the same way Arlo did.

Arlo’s reach touched more than half of the entire camp. It wasn’t surprising. There was something very convincing about him, and he locked everyone else within the perimeters of his own views. Nobody thought fondly of the Resistance, and she doubted he’d apologize at all.

“Otis,” she snapped, wind stirring at his feet.

Otis huffed a breath. “Fine.”

Bryson stepped aside to allow him his chance to apologize.

“Basil?”

Bryson jerked her attention back to Corvina’s distressed cry. Her head was flailing wildly from side to side, almost as if she were looking for someone.

“Basil?! Where is he? He was right here and now he’s gone!” Corvina picked up the ends of her skirts, jerking her gaze around.

As if Basil would appear out of thin air.

Bryson gave a slow turn, squinting her eyes, wondering if she’d see the blurry sight of a small body.

“Basil!”

“Where is he?” Had he moved and they hadn’t noticed?

“Children don’t just disappear out of thin air!”

“We have to find him!”

“Basil!”

“No, Mana, please, no!”

So many voices rose at once, the panic evident in every single person. But Bryson didn’t feel it. She felt a strange sort of calm wash over her. She raised her face to the air and pushed her magic out, letting swirls of wind waft all around her and fill every sense.

She caught the faint whiff of Basil’s scent. Something similar to oranges. Her brows furrowed in confusion. His scent should have been much closer, unless he’d torn away in silence without anyone else realizing it. Her face slowly turned in the direction of the forest.

His scent was strong in that direction, though she wondered why nobody else had sensed it yet.

Steady, she walked over to a panicked Corvina and took the water Elemental’s hands in her own. She gave them a strong squeeze.

“I will find him,” she said. “We will all look. Please, try to stay calm.”

The place where their hands touched seemed to create sparks of electricity beneath the skin. Like their magic was reacting to each other’s proximity. A call of a wildness that lived inside them both. Corvina gasped and Bryson knew it must’ve been surging through her as well. Just the brief moment of contact was enough to make the magic inside Bryson swell. She’d never felt a power like this before. So grand that it seemed to want to explode.

What would have been like for all the Elementals to touch? What kind of havoc would they wreak?

Bryson’s fingers smoothed over Corvina’s gnarled ones. They were bent at crooked, imperfect angles. Corvina must have had a story to tell, and Bryson regretted the fact that Arlo constantly had her busy, unable to connect with these women, who she was sure were amazing in their own right. She wanted to know them. Wanted to know everything about them.

“Thank you,” Corvina whispered.

Bryson pulled away and turned to dart into the forest. Her head tilted up and she scented the air. Nobody knew these woods like she did. Nobody knew the pathways and the scents better than her.

She followed Basil’s fragrance. It was faint, like he’d run through here, feet barely touching anything. But soon, his scent was overpowered by another. Shivers slid along her back as footsteps approached, and she tried to keep her anger in check as Weylyn approached her from behind.

The Fae didn’t touch her. But he moved close enough to her side that she felt everything. A flash speared through her mind, memories of last night and the ecstasy she felt as she fell into his arms.

Bryson took in a breath and faced ahead, squinting as if that could make the images clearer. The action caused the scars on her face to itch something fierce, but she resisted the urge to swipe her hands over them.

“You will ignore your mate?” Weylyn said.

She wasn’t prepared for the impact his voice had on her body. Whispers in her ear, through her mind. A claiming. The way his hips surged up to meet hers. The vicious way he clawed and demanded to be clawed in return.

She shoved all those memories aside and gritted her teeth. “You are no mate of mine.”

“If you truly believe that, I would be writhing around in agony due to a rejected mating bond.”

Bryson’s nostrils flared and her temper spiked. “Leave me alone, Weylyn.”

“You know I cannot do that.”

I will claim you, one way or another.

His words from a few nights ago echoed through her. She let out a breath. This was the first time she had seen him after what had happened, and she needed to clear the air with him, because it was time she told Ev the truth.

“You invaded my mind. You spied on me and Everette.”

There was a brief second of silence. “I will not apologize for watching you and your human fuck. Nor for giving you more pleasure than he ever could.”

“That was wrong, and you know it.”

“Was it?” He seemed to press closer to her, his body heat enveloping her like the rays of sunlight in the sky. “Was it so wrong to give you what you’ve been vying for this entire time?” His hands played with the ends of her curls, and she couldn’t bring herself to pull away from him. “We are evenly matched, you and I. I can give you the aggression you seek. I would let you use me as you saw fit. I would fuck you like we were nothing but two wildlings in an Unseelie Court. Isn’t that what you desire? What the human cannot give you?”

Bryson jerked away from his hold. “It doesn’t matter what I want. You’re missing the point entirely. I’m with Everette. I’m loyal to Everette. And I broke that loyalty to him because of your mind tricks.”

Bryson knew it had also been her own fault for being so weak and succumbing to him. But he never should have invaded her mind in the first place. She’d told him to get out of her head several times. Why would she want a mate who didn’t respect her most basic wishes?

Because you loved every bit of it.

She silenced the voice in her head. This time it wasn’t Weylyn’s. It was her own.

“I broke Ev’s trust,” she went on. “I cheated.”

“What the human does not know will not harm him.”

Bryson scoffed. “Are you saying you want to be the other man? My dirty little secret?” She found that very hard to believe.

“Oh, no, little mate. You misunderstand me completely. I want to absolutely destroy that human of yours. I want to tear him apart until there’s nothing left but scraps. I want to obliterate him from this world because he is allowed the privilege of holding you at night, of fucking you until you scream. He is afforded everything I’ve ever wanted, and he doesn’t even fucking deserve you.”

Her feet skidded on the ground as she forced herself to a stop and whirled to face him, forcing him to stop as well.

“You don’t get to decide who deserves me. You have no fucking idea what I deserve or not.”

His eyes flashed and his smile kicked up. There was no offense in his gaze, but he looked at her like he relished in the challenge she presented. Like she was a delicate morsel that he wanted to swallow whole.

“You deserve someone who will fuck you until you cannot remember your own name. Not someone who will barely scratch your itch.”

Bryson’s eyes rolled. “Is that all you have to offer? Sex? I can get that anywhere. I don’t need you.”

Weylyn stepped forward then, so close that their chests brushed, and she could feel the steady beat of his infuriating heart. His braid swayed as he leaned down, slipping over her shoulder. “I could offer you the entire world, little mate. If only you’d let me.”

And she believed him, too.

There was something in his eyes, a gleam, a promise of violence that let Bryson know he spoke the truth. He would cleave the world in two for her, if only she asked it of him. He would set it to flame, kill and murder and maim anybody who got in his way.

The idea thrilled as much as it frightened her.

She took a step out of his presence, trying to shake his scent from her nostrils and clear her head.

“Leave me alone,” she said firmly. “I don’t want the world, and I certainly don’t want you.”

“Little mate—”

“I said no !” Her magic lashed out, a vicious, choking force that swirled around him in a violent torrent. It choked around his neck like invisible ropes. And when he staggered, Bryson lifted her hand and pulled the breath from his lungs.

Weylyn clawed at his neck, choking and gasping for breath that wouldn’t come. Bryson’s rage fueled her magic, controlling the very air around them, preventing him from drawing a single breath. His face began to redden, and she let it, lifting him with the wind until his feet dangled beneath him.

And then she let him fall.

Weylyn dropped to the ground. He didn’t cry out, but she could hear the soft gasps as he drew in breath after breath.

“Now you know what I’m capable of,” she hissed, letting her magic swirl around his body. “Mate or not, I will kill you next time you cross my boundaries. I swear it on Mana.”

Weylyn looked up then, his golden eyes flashing, his lips pressed into a thin line right before they curled into an unnatural smile.

“You think I fear you?” he whispered. “No, little mate. Your violence and willingness to murder me only makes me want you that much more.”

Bryson fought back the urge to groan. He was crazy. There was no other explanation for it. He was absolutely insane.

Weylyn pushed himself to his feet, dusting his pants off with his palms. “I will respect your wishes, little mate.”

The words rocked Bryson back on her heels, and she narrowed her gaze on him, the action making his form clearer. It felt like a trap, like a lie. She loathed to trust it.

“We have dallied long enough.” He started forward. “Basil needs us. Lead the way, Bryson Varik. We have much ground to cover.”