May

By the time I wake again, golden sunlight has replaced the green and purple of the aurora, making the walls of the ice cave glow in an equally magical way.

I roll onto my back and stretch, luxuriating in the way the sinfully soft furs brush over my skin.

I’m alone but have the feeling Aldronn hasn’t been gone long. The distant rumble of deep voices echoes down the tunnel, so quiet it teases the edge of my hearing—they must be coming from outside instead of the next cavern.

Bouncing upright, I throw off the furs and hurry over to the hot spring for one last dip. I expect to be sticky from all the come —I was seriously covered in orc seed last night—but my skin is soft and silky instead, like I used a luxury lotion.

Fuck, I can never let Aldronn know! The last thing Mr. Bossy Pants needs to know is that I want him to rub his come over my entire body.

I suppress a giggle. Who am I kidding? I’m sure I’ll let it slip at some point.

I twist my hair into a messy bun on top of my head and sink into the water up to my neck, moaning as the warmth seeps into my muscles. I’m sore from last night in the very best of ways.

My cheeks flame as I remember it. Being filled everywhere by Aldronn was the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced. I’ve always liked butt stuff and have a special toy just for that, but I never felt comfortable to try it with another person before.

But I trust Aldronn completely. As bossy and commanding as he is, I know he’ll never hurt me. And the way his stud slowly grew in size was perfect—it kept me right on the edge of sensation without tipping over into pain.

“You’re awake.” Aldronn emerges from the tunnel and straightens, a mug held carefully during the maneuver. “I wanted to surprise you with tea.”

I hop up to sit on the edge of the hot spring and reach toward him, making gimme hands. “It’s still a surprise.”

“Good morning.” He crouches down to give me a kiss, then hands me the mug.

“The best of mornings.” I take a sip and give a happy sigh.

His eyes heat. “Noises like that make me wish we could linger, but the others are waiting.”

“Got it. I’ll get ready.” He starts to turn away, and I pull him back to me for one last kiss.

Then we move. He packs away the furs while I get dressed, pulling on the heavier cold-weather clothes Naomi brought. The orcs don’t seem to notice the cold, but my cloak was seriously not enough yesterday evening. In less than ten minutes, we join the others outside at one of the cook fires. Frigid wind whistles past, and I’m so freaking glad I didn’t get my hair wet in the bath.

He wasn’t kidding about the others waiting. Everyone’s here, including Naomi, Wranth, and Sheevora. The inner council sits around the fire, while the orc guards stand watch.

“Eat.” Aldronn presses a mug of steaming porridge into my gloved hands.

“So bossy,” I tease him, right before I take a big bite. It’s sweeter now that Naomi brought honey from the village, and I lick the spoon clean, loving the way his intense gaze latches onto my mouth.

“At this rate, we’ll never get anything done,” Starfall grumps, batting Aldronn’s shoulder with her horn, then mine. “Didn’t you work it out of your system yet?”

“Nope.” I pop the p and shoot Aldronn a knowing grin.

His lips twitch.

“Don’t expect it to stop anytime soon,” Zephyr says, gesturing with her horn to Naomi and Wranth. “Mine are still going at it like rabbits.”

“I’m ready to find myself a human,” Shadow purrs in werepanther form, flashing his wide smile.

“Do you think they’ll want someone who looks like us?” Rune gestures at his heavily furred werewolf body.

“Of course they will. Or at least they’ll want me.” Shadow’s green eyes dance with delight. “ I’m irresistible no matter how I look.”

“Can we focus and stop talking about mating with humans?” Luke snaps.

“I must agree with Lukendevener,” Sheevora says, her wings curled forward around her body like a built-in cloak. “The sooner we’re on our way, the sooner I can take my proper form.”

“Thank you for joining us.” Aldronn tips his head to her, his tone formal.

“What’s this all about?” I take my last bite of breakfast, crunching into a hazelnut. I probably set some new kind of speed-eating record, but all of last night’s activities made me hungry.

“You tell us,” Luke says. When I shoot him a puzzled glance, he continues. “You said you had information about the Dark God.”

“Oh, yeah.” Heat burns my cheeks with embarrassment. Aldronn fucked all the common sense out of me last night, not that I have a lot of it to begin with. But screw worrying about a few hours delay—that’s old May, always thinking she’s messed up. New May is pretty awesome, and when I asked yesterday evening if they wanted to hear my news, Aldronn said it could wait. I lift my chin. “I learned how to use my powers.”

“Good job.” Starfall nuzzles the top of my head as Naomi beams at me and several of the others gasp and lean forward, expressions expectant.

“You will tell me how later so that I might record it.” Luke frowns like someone pissed in his cornflakes, but I’m pretty sure that’s his factory setting, and I’m not going to let it get to me.

“I went into the dark fae leader’s mind yesterday. He’s actually King Severin,” I say. “And I saw the Dark God.”

“What?” Rune barks.

Sheevora’s eyes go shrewd. “What does he look like?”

“Kind of like the Moon Goddess, actually. Only he’s this black ball of swirling energy, and the lightning that flickers over him is a deep blue.” I wince and rub my temple in remembered pain. “He sure as shit yells just as loudly as her.”

“Are you carrying extra red crystals?” Naomi asks.

I pat my pockets. “I’ve got six of them now.”

“I will carry even more in case you need them,” Aldronn says.

I smile in thanks, then turn back to the others. “The shadow fae aren’t working with the Dark God willingly. From what I saw, the Dark God has them chained to him.”

“Chained to him how?” Luke asks.

“My magic works via visual metaphor, so what I see is…” I spread my hands wide, palms up. “It’s not lies, but it’s a way to interpret the truth instead of maybe being the literal truth.”

“You didn’t go into his memories?” Aldronn asks. “The ones you saw in my mind yesterday were highly accurate.”

“I didn’t have time to look around.” I describe the palace and the ornate throne room. “The Dark God sat on the throne, even though this was Severin’s mind. That’s wrong—I can feel it—it should have been Severin on the throne.”

“Where was he in this vision?” Sheevora asks.

“He sat at the foot of the throne, and a silver chain led from his ankle to the Dark God.”

“It’s as Tumbletoad said.” Wranth leans forward, scowling. “The Dark God tricked the elves and turned them into the dark fae.”

“It’s interesting that after three-hundred years, they still don’t serve him willingly,” Aldronn says. “We should find a way to use that.”

“How?” Sheevora asks.

“I don’t know,” Aldronn admits. “All my premonition magic tells me is I’ll see this King Severin again.”

A gust of wind howls past, making the flames leap, and I hunch into my cloak as a shiver runs through me.

“Where do we go today, May?” Luke asks.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“We’ve gone north, like you said. We’ve reached the Northern Wastes, so where do we go next?”

“The goddess didn’t say. I already told you that.” I throw up my hands and let out a frustrated huff. “She was more than happy to scream me into a coma. She could have told me something useful . But no. All I got was: ‘Find me. Free me.’”

“Therefore, she must think that you have the ability to find her.” Luke says,

“What? You think I have a built-in goddess-radar or something? No, wait. There’s got to be a better word for that. How about goddessdar?”

“I don’t think any of us fae know what radar means,” Aldronn says, pronouncing the word carefully. “Another of your colloquialisms?”

“Nope, you can blame this one on scientists. It’s a device that sends out signals and finds things.” I wiggle my fingers like waves floating through the air. That’s about as technical as I get. Science was never my jam.

“Try to use your goddessdar,” Aldronn says.

I shoot him some side eye. “You know I made up that word to be funny.”

He shrugs. “I believe in you.”

“We all do,” Naomi says.

Sheevora’s face is carefully neutral, and Luke definitely looks like he doesn’t believe in me, but screw him.

Closing my eyes, I grip my crystal. If Aldronn’s mind is a castle, and Severin’s is a palace, what does the mind of a goddess look like? Then I realize the visual metaphor for her is built into her name. She’s a moon, shining cold and bright, floating so high overhead she doesn’t have to deal with the consequences of her actions.

I picture walking on the moon, bouncing around in big space boots like Armstrong, a bubble helmet on my head. But this is just me, my imagination running wild. I’m not actually connecting to her mind. Does my power even work long distance? Aldronn and Severin were both close when I read their minds.

Old May would give up at this point and assume she couldn’t do it. I don’t want to be her anymore.

Straining with everything I’ve got, I reach for the goddess. This time, I imagine I’m in space and need to get to the moon. There’s a flash of warmth I can feel through my glove, and the sound of the wind falls away as I truly enter my mental space this time.

I fly through velvety darkness sprinkled with stars, and the tiny dot of one of them grows into a silver disk. The faint strains of beautiful music tease my ears. I dive forward—

Only to slam into an invisible barrier that knocks me back into my body.

I jolt, and only Aldronn’s quick move to wrap an arm around my back keeps me from toppling off the log.

“I found her,” I say. “But the second I tried to get close, something blocked me.”

“Didn’t the goddess tell you she’s imprisoned?” he asks.

“Yeah, which means I still need to figure out how to break her out.”

“You’ll do it,” he says, and the conviction in his voice makes my heart skip. It’s still amazing to have someone who believes in me the way he does.

“So what do we do?” Luke cuts across the moment.

“We fly.” Sheevora stands. “I will carry Naomi and Wranth, and you will bring May, so she can find the goddess.”

“And me,” Aldronn growls.

The dragon tips her head and stalks off, Luke following her.

“You’re not leaving us behind!” Rune leaps to his feet. “We want to be there when you find the Moon Goddess.”

“Exactly,” Starfall adds. “The unicorns must be represented.”

Shadow grins. “The goddess will certainly want to meet me.”

“No one’s leaving anyone behind.” Naomi pats at the air with her palms. “I promise I’ll come back and get you all.”

“Until then, the rest of you pack up everything and wait in the largest cave,” Aldronn says. “Place the door crystal in an inner cave with a low ceiling. If the dark fae come through, they won’t be able to fly. It will even the odds somewhat.”

Once far enough away from camp to have room, Sheevora shifts into her dragon form. Luke does the same, a jolt of magic pulsing through the air like someone set off an invisible bomb.

“Fuck me,” I whisper.

He’s even larger than Sheevora, a gigantic red dragon with amber eyes and wings that blot out the sun.

While the green dragon makes a ramp with her foreleg that Naomi and Wranth can walk up, Luke stands tall.

“Well?” Aldronn frowns up at him. “Are you our ally or not? You’ve still have to prove yourself trustworthy.”

“How many times must I tell you I followed orders?” Luke booms, his voice a bass drum. But he lowers his leg for us.

Aldronn ushers me ahead of him, placing a hand on my lower back to make sure I keep my feet. When we get to the top, I scramble over Luke’s shoulder to sit in the dip at the end of his neck, and Aldronn settles behind, wrapping his arms around me.

Sheevora takes off, and Luke springs into the air with so much force that I would have flown off his back without Aldronn’s strong thighs clinging to the dragon, keeping us anchored.

The massive red wings pound the air, sounding like drumbeats. My heart races, excitement pouring through me as I crane my neck to try to see everything. Laughter bubbles in my chest, building until I let it out in a whoop.

I’m riding a freaking dragon!