Page 11

Amaia

C onsidering the amount of people that came through the Elemental Room the last few weeks, it was a shock to see it in such great condition. They’d only had to replace the sensory film on the wall fourteen times. Entrance interviews may be on a backlog, but our record keeping couldn’t slow now. Now was when it was most important. Words could be manipulated, science could not.

The blank white room was illuminated by fire magic. No matter the conditions of the room or if someone lost control, the flames would forever burn, protected glass designed not to break in nuclear blast zones. This bunker was our last resort should the worst ever happen again and everything within it was built for survival.

I watched him as he entered and stopped in the center. He leaned over the machine with both arms, the muscle in them bulged against his black t-shirt. Good on me for going with this uniform choice .

Alexiares turned around and caught my stare. I tilted my head with a small smile as I watched with need. “Well, you know what to do.”

“Maybe I want some assistance.” Alexiares licked his lips with a heavy, weighing stare. “You are the blood queen, after all.”

Bloodreina this, Bloodreina that. I fucking loathed the name, and he knew it.

I strolled over to him, shoving him out of the way. “Cute.”

The motions were muscle memory as I pricked his finger and dropped his blood onto the dial. He kissed my forehead, smearing the blood across my lips as he pulled back. I pushed to my toes, kissing him and giving him a taste of his own medicine.

The computer chimed. “Ready?” I asked.

“Always. Fire first?”

“Probably safer that way,” I chuckled. “But since I’m curious, let’s try earth.”

Vines and thick moss covered the main wall. The lush green appeared impenetrable as he toyed with his magic. A pattern evolved in a brighter green than the rest. The shape of a heart appeared before my eyes. My hand flew to my heart as I mocked him in flattery before he drew the outline of a dick in roses. I cackled. Amused didn’t even begin to capture the feelings seeing a more juvenile, playful side of him stirred in me. It saddened me the more I learned about his childhood. He’d never had the freedom to express anything other than stoic anger. I couldn’t imagine growing up in a world that was only colored gray.

The screen began loading data and caught my attention. Alexiares stole it away moments later as he shifted to fire. The air around him seemed to hum, a low vibration I couldn’t ignore. It crackled beneath his skin—lightning coiled right beneath the surface, waiting to be unleashed. The gravity of it was jarring. It stirred something inside me. Awe almost, but more primal.

My Bloodhound ’s power was vast. It pulled at me in a way I could never have expected.

My breath turned shallow and my pulse quickened. A shiver snaked down my spine. I wanted to laugh and moan all the same. The ecstasy of it all. His power was beautiful. It called to me. Whispered the things it could do. The world it could bend … I wanted it.

My jaw damn near hit the ground before I remembered to fix my face. Alexiares glanced back at me, water dripping down the wall as he doused the flames. His gaze fell down to meet my stare, awaiting the results.

“Shit,” I mumbled. “You broke the scale.”

“I’m riding high right now.” Alexiares studied his hands, then cast me a glance.

“I think that officially makes you the most powerful person I know.”

“And how do you feel about that?” His large hand fell over his chest for a brief moment. Alexiares stared back at me for … approval? No. Fear. Acceptance.

“Like I want to fuck your brains out,” I cooed, inching closer to him.

“Oh?”

“Oh,” I mocked, tilting my head just enough to make it clear I wasn’t letting it go. I caught his hand, threading our fingers together, daring him to pull away. He didn’t. Instead, with infuriating ease, he dragged his finger along my bottom lip, like he had all the time in the world.

“Which part did me in, you think?” The sweet scent of fire and rain invaded my space. I welcomed it as he loomed over me, the harsh features of his face giving me a flutter in the pits of my stomach. “Moe’s woo-woo antics or Reina’s experiment?”

“You want the truth?”

His hands found my waist. “I’d expect nothing less from you.”

“You were already incredibly powerful, but you were scared, so you held back. This was there all along, but you’re in control now.”

Alexiares scoffed. The distance he placed between us was unintentional. I inched past him and back to the computer. With the prick up my finger, the screen offered me two options. An upgrade from before our time in Duluth. A new limitation of two allowed it to read both of our DNA at once. His jaw tightened as he watched me make my way back toward him.

“I mean it,” I said, rejoining our hands. “I mean yeah, the earth magic is new but the rest. That was untouched and unaffected until we do this .”

“You don’t want to test your air first?” he asked, and a line appeared between his brows. His tan skin pinched out of concern.

“If I’m honest, I don’t think I want to know. What I did scared me, controlling the life of that many people at once. I want to control it and I know doing that means I have to face the cold, hard facts. That’s what a general would do. A responsible leader should want as much information as possible regarding a dangerous weapon. Because that’s what we are, you know? Weapons. But the person in me, Amaia , I don’t think knowing how lethal she is will do her any good. No offense.”

“None taken though, duly noted.” His chin rested atop my head, and his posture relaxed as he pulled me close.

I pressed my head to his chest, trying to find some peace. There it was. All out there for the world to know that I was afraid of my power. Me. The general. Again . Prescott would be so damn disappointed. “I know how to maintain control, knowing the number isn’t going to help me at this point. Just remind me how much damage I can cause.”

“Do you feel guilt?” he asked, pulling back and his hands crawled up my sides, landing on my shoulders. The intensity of his narrowed eyes was uncomfortable. “For killing all those people?”

“No.” The word slipped out on reflex. It was the truth, however. “But I can’t say I enjoyed the experience.”

Commanding armies didn’t make me immune to the weight of war. Sure, when my anger took over, it was easier to make a kill. But at night when I laid in bed listening to Alexiares’s soft snores … all I could think about was how they were someone’s family. Someone’s husband, their father or their son or their brother. Maybe all the above. They had people who cared for them and would never see them again.

Jax had been a casualty of war. So had Prescott. We mourned them. Felt the stomach clenching, heart hurting, headache bringing pain of never getting to say that final goodbye. To know the last words we spoke to each other would be the end. In a different chapter of this story, those men that died in the field for Covert, they were the hero of their family. As Jax and Prescott were mine.

“While I can’t relate to your … level of empathy, it makes sense. And I’m sure the people around here would prefer that you have those emotions. I’d imagine they sleep more peacefully because of it.”

I took a moment to center myself, locking away the emotions. “All right, show me how much you got, Bloodhound .”

A tingling sensation crawled to the tips of my fingers as our magic teased each other. Threatening to join in a force meant to destroy the world. I turned to face the wall and held out my free hand. Alexiares mirrored my motions, dark gray. Our magic joining was orgasmic.

An ethereal hue of blue danced against our skin, flickering as ghostly shadows in the dim light. The mist-fueled flames of our Steamfire roared to life and slammed against the wall. The heat of it in this room was lethal to anyone but the wielders. It was thick and heavy. A second skin. Each wave of warmth left the wall glowing, yet not a single ember burned us. Only we could command it, and only we could endure its lethal embrace.

Tomoe was a damn genius. She had allowed us to harness power that no one else could rival, and in our hands, it made us unstoppable.

“That can’t be good.” Alexiares’s laugh was one of pure chaos.

The white film coating the Elemental Room’s wall had completely melted away. Raw, reinforced concrete was exposed from beneath. It glared back at us. Jagged and scorched, it posed a surreal reminder that Steamfire’s heat index far exceeded anything we had anticipated. The wall wasn’t damaged—it was obliterated. Charred beyond recognition.

Steamfire had turned it to ash.

“Eh, it’s replaceable … I think.”

That wasn’t going to spare me from Reina’s rage. Alexiares followed me over to the computer. I wasn’t sure if I expected the data to populate or not after the destruction we caused.

Warning: Unregistered magical entity detected. Unable to process magic signatures. No prior records found in database. Error code 404: Magic Not Found. Please contact system administrator or initiate manual override for further diagnostics.

“Dammit.”

He stayed silent as I typed into the computer. I couldn’t remember the last time I had to reboot this thing, and I knew nothing about coding it, but Reina had the same password for literally all of her shit so it had to work. I tried a few times, but no dice. Made sense, considering it was Seth’s birthday.

I glanced up at Alexiares and found him watching me. His gaze lingered, unwavering, even as the data on the screen flashed with errors. “ Unregistered ,” the computer droned, but his eyes stayed locked on mine, more focused on me than our problems. It made me want to fucking melt into his arms. Forget all the shit we were dealing with and spend the day together—nothing else. We’d never had that luxury. I mean, we had but never a peaceful one.

Our ‘dates,’ besides what he’d planned for my birthday, had consisted of hiding out in an abandoned house during our travels. If we found one with a mattress, we could cuddle up on, it was damn near a vacation. Those little moments that most couples got to have never happened for us. Instead, we stole them in moments like this.

“What?” I asked after a few seconds passed, my voice steady despite the way my pulse pounded.

Strong hands gripped my arms—not rough, not demanding, just there , and I didn’t fight them off. I barely had time to react before he pushed me back against the wall near the door. His body hovered close, heat radiating off him, an arm pressing against the wall above my head, the other tilting my chin up. A soft grip. Too soft for the way his eyes burned into mine. “Can’t keep looking at me like that if you expect me to keep my hands to myself.”

“We’re on duty,” I said, my hands trailing up his torso and stopped on his solid chest.

I swallowed hard, my hands dragging up the solid plane of his torso, fingertips trailing over muscle before stopping at his chest. I gave him a slow, deliberate push. He didn’t budge. If anyone walked in here right now, it could be a problem. I mean, I kind of owned the whole damn place, technically, but still, it didn’t feel right. Not when there was shit to do. In the same breath, I found myself not caring. I deserved a pocket of peace in my days. How else was I supposed to do my job without going completely fucking nuts?

Alexiares’s eyes locked on my lips, his head tilting in that way that always pulled me in and refused to let go. His tongue traced over my ear. “I think it’s time for a break.”

That voice—low, with an edge that sent heat pooling between my thighs—stripped away any lingering hesitation. “Word on the street is you can make me do whatever you want. Especially with all that power.”

Alexiares’s lips hovered a whisper over mine, the warmth of him sending a shiver through me. His presence alone stole the air from my lungs, the space between us vanishing as his hands found my hips. “Seems to me we’re at our most powerful when we’re together.”

He kissed my neck, the heat of his lips a slow burn as he nibbled and bit. Each touch was an agonizing taunt until he found his way to that spot behind my ear he knew made me squirm. The way he knew exactly where to touch, where to devour, was its own kind of magic. A soft moan escaped my lips—brief, before he swallowed it with his mouth. Gentle until he wasn’t. Until he couldn’t be. Our tongues danced. My back arching against the cold, hard wall as his teeth nibbled at my lip. I ground against him in need.

Alexiares tilted his head back with a groan as I pressed against him, feeling the hardness of his dick trapped between us. A wicked smirk played on my lips. I knew exactly what I wanted.

I dropped to my knees.

Alexiares sucked in a gasp for air, sharp and ragged, as I worked at his belt. My hands were desperate. Searching. I licked my lips, mouthwatering at the sight of him, the idea of him filling my mouth—thick, heavy, flushed with need.

“Fuck,” he groaned, his voice low and ragged as my hands moved over him, teasing the length of him with slow, deliberate strokes.

I didn’t rush. I wanted him starving for me—desperate, undone, begging.

Using both hands, I tickled the base of his balls as my tongue followed my hands. My tongue flicked out, teasing the tip, savoring the taste of salt and heat. I licked along the length of him, slow, torturous, my hand working in tandem. He tensed, fingers digging into my scalp, tightening in my hair as his hips snapped forward.

Hard, dark eyes stared down at me. Lust simmering in them as he whispered a command. “Open up.”

Outside of these four walls, I was in charge. In the bedroom with Alexiares—I obeyed, parting my lips as he thrust deep into my mouth. His grip on my hair tightened, his hips snapping forward, pushing deeper, filling my throat. There was no such thing as air, as oxygen, as he pumped his way in and out of my mouth. Using me to feed an insatiable hunger that I understood all too well. Being with him was a different adventure every time. To say we fucked like jackrabbits at every opportunity would be an understatement. An air shield surrounding our room with Elie and the dogs on the other side of the house.

Each thrust sent a pulse of arousal straight to my core, a wicked kind of power coiling between my thighs. I moaned around him, the vibration making him hiss through his teeth.

His control snapped.

With a swift motion, he yanked me upright, crashing his mouth to mine in a kiss that was all teeth and hunger. I smiled a mocking grin, daring him to do his worst. Alexiares took it as a challenge. My cargo pants and briefs were burned off my body in his impatience.

It was his turn to kneel. He kissed the scar along my waist that spelled out his name. His hands moved to replace where his lips left, rough and urgent as he spun me around. A slap, sharp and stinging, landed on my ass. Large hands gripping my hips and pushing me forward. His lips followed, trailing fire along my hips. The wet stroke of his tongue found my pussy as he dragged it up, stopping at my lower back. He kissed it, then worked his way back down. I trembled beneath him, pleasure encased me at the sensation of his hand tightening its grip as he stroked himself to the sound of my muffled moans.

“Alex—”

He knew what I needed. But he made me wait.

I clenched my thighs around his shoulders, desperate, the edge of release so close, so maddening. I wanted us to come together or not at all. The tease was as much fun as that final release.

I turned around. A struggle given how anxious he was to finish me. He peered up at me with a grin, lifting me easily and pressing my back against the wall. I wrapped my legs around him. We paused, our eyes locking in that familiar way when words were a barrier, too dangerous to speak aloud. Those three words lingered on my lips, but fear held them back, locking them inside me where they’d stayed for so long. That didn’t mean I didn’t feel them. And he knew that.

“I love you,” he said as he thrust deep inside me. The sensation made my head spin, but it wasn’t just physical. Those words. They pulled at something raw and hidden inside me.

I held on to the space behind his neck and pressed my forehead against his. Our breath mingled as I whispered, “Inevitable.”

A vow. A claim.

My own little way of saying that I intended for us to be forever. Whatever that looked like, it began and ended with him.