Page 37 of Risen (Love and Revenge #6)

Ruya

One Year Later

L ast year at this time, The Fox was in ruins.

Ruined walls, a hole blasted in the foundation, cracked floorboards, singed curtains, water damage from burst pipes.

And so much of the beautiful, intricate interior paintings and embellishments ruined.

Now, somehow, the place old theater and rebel lair was nearly back to its former glory.

A suitable place for an alpha dragon shifter to keep her hoard.

Using my connection to Vlad, and Queen Cat, I brought up my shaman sight for a moment, drinking in the way our nest sparkled.

Someone—probably Cicely—had hung silk garlands across the walls of the open theater space, bright with charms that shimmered and shifted colors, from bold red, to orange, gold, and silver.

Floating lanterns bobbed far overhead in the domed open space, each one glowing with a warm, golden light.

A sea of people in festive solstice garb mingled and twirled through the vast open space before the stage, which had one held theater seating, but was now a gleaming ballroom.

Up on the stage, surrounded by Robin’s art collection, a paid group of fae musicians with beaks, and feathers, and tails happily played their hearts out for the guest.

The dancers and guests who made their way in from the glittering lobby and into the ballroom were human and paranorm, high fae and underfae—a term that was slowly being eliminated—shifters, vampires, and any other race or combination you could imagine.

No class divisions, no separation. Just laughter, the clink of glasses, the buzz of music and conversation that vibrated in the ribs like a second heartbeat.

There was a lot of work to do still. But our main had been achieved.

At least here in Detroit, there equality and true community were growing, allowed to thrive now that the syndicate was no more.

I stood at the edge of the mezzanine, overlooking it all.

In the ballroom below, tables draped in gold fabric and sumptuous antique benches lined the far walls.

But up here in the more private area the court had claimed for itself, there was just one long table surrounded by mismatched chairs and piles of pillows, so it looked less like a carefully catered party, and more like a comfortable den.

Robin stepped up beside me and looped her arm through mine as she looked out on everything her revenge had built.

I took a moment to drink in the sight of her before I let go of my magic vision.

My dragon wore a sheath dress of silky, shimmery gold that clung to her willowy body like a glove.

Her long, shiny red-gold hair was half-up in an intricately braided pile atop her head, the bottom half left to ripple down to her hips like a waterfall of bloody gold.

And perched on top of the upswept hair was a thin, understated gold band reminiscent of a crown.

Her high cheekbones had been lightly dusted with gold powder, and the dark kohl around her eyes accentuated the glowing gold there.

Her perfect lips, painted a blood red shade, slowly turned up with a wicked tilt as she caught where my focus was and realized I was using my magic to stare at her. She was breathtaking.

Those glowing golden eyes swept over me from head to toe and back again, and her smile grew.

While Robin was a vision in red and gold, she had dressed me in red and silver.

She had been trying to put me in red since our early encounters, and it was only recently that Sanka had let slip what was behind the fascination.

Apparently, Robin’s dragon side loved red.

It was her color, and I could feel the deep, primal satisfaction she felt at seeing me adorned in the color.

I had to admit, I also enjoyed letting Robin dress me up.

It made the omega side of me feel cherished and attended to, cared for.

And Robin was amazing at finding things that looked good on me, putting far more thought into it all than I ever would have.

I had used Odin’s eyes to peek at myself in the mirror earlier and was stunned at the vision before me.

The shimmering hints of silver in the embroidery of my dress, the jewelry I wore, my makeup, and yes, in the matching thin circlet that was woven into my hair drew attention to my unusual hair color and made my pale eyes sparkle.

I let go of my link to the animals as Robin leaned in to capture my lips, my eyes fluttering closed, senses attuned only to this, to the feel of her soft lips on mine, her aura like cozying up next to the coals of a banked fire.

I basked in the bond that hummed between us, in the feeling of love, and contentment, and peace—things I once thought I’d never feel from this powerful, complicated woman.

Getting her birthright back had healed more than just her magic.

I smiled against her lips as another strong aura approached and my soul hummed in recognition. Sadavir stopped just behind us, making himself known, but not wanting to butt in. I could feel his respectful admiration down our bond. And so could Robin.

No one had warned us that there might be unexpected consequences for bonding an omega to two alpha true mates.

Probably because it rarely happened. From everything we had been able to find on the subject since our bonding, most alphas would kill each other rather than share a true mate.

To me, that just reinforced what I already knew—my mates were extraordinary.

Though they insisted that the whole thing was because of something to do with me and my unusually strong omega nature.

Whatever the cause, the bonds between me and Robin and me and Sadavir weren’t separate, the way we had expected them to be.

Sadavir and Robin were now tied together as well.

Their connection wasn’t quite as strong as mine was to them, but it was close.

It had caused no small amount of alarm and ruffled feathers at first. But once the two alphas got past their ingrained societal, posturing nonsense…

well, it was hardly a surprise to me when they realized they actually liked each other.

And that initial respect and friendship between them had quickly ignited into more.

How could it not, when they were both such perfect compliments to each other?

Robin was fire, all spark, and heat. And just like fire, her nature could manifest as either a warm, gentle glow or a raging, all-consuming wildfire.

Sadavir was earth, steady and grounding.

While he was the rock we needed, proceeding through things with a sense of steadfast calm, sometimes he needed a little spark lit under him to remind him not to be so serious and let go.

They balanced each other. And the three of us balanced the entire court.

All of us were meant for each other. I knew that with a certainty that I felt deep in my being, where my magic was rooted, where the dormant bit of prophetic sight I sometimes possessed slumbered. But I tried not to be too smug about it.

Robin pulled back a bit, ending our kiss so Sadavir could lean in and steal one of his own.

One of his big hands came to rest at the curve of my hip, and I suspected his other arm had curled around Robin.

There was no tensing up, no snarling or biting, snarky words.

I could feel myself practically glowing with contentment, and I knew my aura must be unfurling, seeping out to fill the space with the sensation of happy omega.

Sadavir chuckled when we came up for air.

Robin sighed dramatically. “I think we’ve made a grave error, snake,” she said with mock weariness.

At Sadavir’s questioning hum, she elaborated.

“We stood too close to each other, and now our poor guests are drunk on omega pheromones.” She sighed again.

“Cleaning up after community orgies is such a hassle.”

I nudged my shoulder against hers. “Oh, be quiet, it’s not that bad.”

I felt Cicely join us before he spoke in my mind, his tone lace with warm humor. Oh, it’s definitely that bad. Not that anyone is actually complaining. They all love knowing their queen is happy.

He came and dropped a kiss to my bare shoulder before settling in against the railing at my side, opposite Robin. I shook my head. “Stop calling me that.”

The paranorms in the area—the unaligned in particular—had taken to calling me Queen Ruya.

Or, when they were really in a fine mood, Empress.

Apparently, everyone thought all of this was my doing.

They didn’t know how long Robin had been planning her revenge or all the plotting that had occurred behind the scenes, all they knew was that a strong omega had appeared in the rebel court, bringing with her a bunch of new faces, and suddenly our court was overthrowing the syndicate.

My little outburst back when everyone was gathered in the streets waiting for us to mete out justice hadn’t helped matters.

Now everyone thought I was the leader of the court, and they held us all up as saviors, referring to the other court members as princes and princesses.

It went against the grain, since we had set up a council and were striving to eliminate classism and rankings that smacked of royalty or dictator ship…

but I had the feeling we weren’t going to win this particular battle.

I sighed. Although, it was quite amusing to see the reactions of my lovers when someone called Martina “Princess,” or referred to Dusek as their “Prince.”

The snapping sound of dragonfly wings told me Yukio had just flown up to the balcony from below, rather than taking the stairs.

Cool fingers trailed down the side of my neck, where it was exposed by my upswept hair.

“I felt whatever you idiots were doing to her all the way across the building,” he said in a cold voice. “Do you have no restraint?”