Page 77

His skin rippled as he shifted from beast to man. My eyes widened as I watched him shrink, as the bones of his body snapped into place. Those dark eyes remained trained on me the entire time.

I recognised him immediately from the palace ruins. He’d been the one to talk to the leader on our behalf. My magic had reacted to him before, but I never would have expected it to reveal a bond.

He still had the same pointed ears decorated with rings running the length of his left ear.

The only thing different about him was the fact he was completely naked, letting it all hang loose.

He had tightly coiled muscles, and although he wasn’t nearly as broad or large as Elias, he was still larger than Adrian and Rowan, who were lithe.

The male had a body shape similar to Hawk’s, but taller, I was certain.

His ebony skin was smooth, with no blemishes or scars that I could see.

Was it because his people healed faster, or because he’d never seen a fight before?

Something about that worried me.

Elias growled, the sound startling me out of my thoughts. “Fucking hell, man. Clothes.”

The male smirked. “We do not have clothing that shifts with us.”

My cheeks flushed, but I quickly looked away. “No wonder you didn’t want to shift.”

Damon, though, snorted. “Oh, he isn’t worried about perception. It appears he inherited the way of dragons.”

I frowned, looking from Damon to the male. “Uh, do I want to know what that means?”

“He means a knot,” Maeve deadpanned, though she looked at neither of them. “Dragons would knot their mates.”

That sounded like something Thea would read about. “Again, my question stands.”

“You may want to know for future reference. That’s what they’re getting at, Princess,” Hawk replied, tone hard. “Knots are at the base of a cock, and swell during the climax, locking you in place until you’ve been sufficiently bred.”

If I had coffee in my mouth, I would have spat it out. Instead, all I could do was gape at him. Not a single word would form on my lips. Normal dicks, I was used to. As a matter of fact, that was all I was used to. That was all I read about, because weird ones were Thea’s domain.

Damn, I missed my best friend. She would know exactly what to do and say right now.

Instead, I was pretty sure I looked like an idiot.

Adrian snickered, still lying in my lap. “You have rendered her speechless, asshole. Good work. ”

My cheeks burned, and I knew the rest of my body did, too. Clearing my throat, I blinked hard and glanced back at the male without looking down at his junk. “Sorry about him.”

The male shrugged. “That is generally the function,” he said, though he wasn’t arrogant about it. “For those like me, we mate in our Primal form.”

“Primal?” I asked.

“Yes, that is what we are when we…shift.” He cocked his head. “Is that not how you do it?”

I quickly shook my head. The tension from my earlier promises was completely gone now. Because the bonds were less dark with anger, and more open with a desire to understand who my new mate was.

Do you think I would have to mate him in his…Primal form? I asked no one in particular. There was something about the idea of it that had me questioning everything. But especially Nyx and this choice.

“Mating looks different for different, uh, species,” Rowan explained. “I’m a mage, so it’s magic with sex. That snaps the bond. Shifters claim with a bite. Ivy has one on her shoulder from Elias. For vampires, like Maeve, it’s about sharing blood.”

“Fae fuck, too,” Orion muttered. “Though it depends on the court.”

“I don’t remember anything other than, uh, sex when we bonded,” I said. It was hard thinking about that night. Especially in front of everyone. But I was also curious.

Orion rubbed the back of his neck. “Each court has a different speciality of magic, obviously. So, when you complete your mate bond, you connect through your court’s magic. I took you into a dream. You probably don’t remember it, which is for the best, but that was how I completed the bond. ”

“Oh.” I didn’t remember, which made me feel guilty. The night had been blocked from my mind for so long, that all I really remembered about it was the utter betrayal afterwards when I woke up and he was gone.

Orion’s violet eyes softened with sadness as he ducked his head. “I still have a lot of work to do to make it up to you, but just know that if anything happens out there, I already have a plan in place.”

My stomach sank. “What sort of plan?”

He briefly met my stare before straightening. “Blythe knows it. And if any of us return home, but I’m not amongst you, you’ll need to find her.”

“Why?” I asked, though I had a feeling he thought, with the potential bomb in his head and his father being here, he wasn’t likely to survive.

“During my first year at the academy, I decided to set up an escape plan. I was finally being brought into the folds of Hyperion’s schemes, and I knew we would need a place to escape to if anything happened. So, I took control of one of the islands.”

There was a heavy silence that followed his words, the air between us thick with uncertainty.

“You mean, one of the islands off the western coast?” Rowan clarified.

Orion nodded, running a hand through his thick silver-blond hair.

“Protected by the sirens and mermaids of the Abyss Court, but heavily fortified by me.” His eyes fell to the witch stones.

“I wasn’t sure if I should say anything, because really, it was never meant to be a place to escape to in case of war.

It was meant to be a place for us to…to go to when we wanted peace. ”

I sucked in a shuddering breath, my throat thickening with emotion.

Everyone was quiet now. I knew the wheels were turning in Maeve’s head as she considered all the possible safety and protective measures in place at one of those islands.

I already knew they were meant to be pretty secure, because Adrian’s other brother, Griffon and his two mates, had an island off the same coast, and that was where Thea and my sisters were hiding until it was all over.

“It has a manor. Sometimes, I was able to sneak away for a few days. Hyperion didn’t care unless it interfered with one of his missions .

Whoever had been on the island before left it to rot, but I was able to secure the building and the land itself.

The island is also shielded with a glamour, so if anyone were to look at it, they would see a barren, small island with only sand and not the rest of it.

The only one I trusted with its location and the spell needed to get through was Blythe.

” He looked up from the witch stones, meeting my stare again.

Through the bond, I felt his hope, his honesty that what he was saying—and what he meant—was real. “I was fixing it up for you, Ivy.”

Any response I could have possibly had died on my tongue. He’d found an island for me, was rebuilding the house for me . He had secured it and hidden it so no one else could find it just in case.

I didn’t want this to be the end of everything. In a few hours, we were going to war against Dante and his army.

I wanted a chance to see the island for what it was, for the peace he’d promised.

I wanted a chance to figure shit out with Hawk, lay our conflict to rest. I wanted the chance to get to know the Primal male better, to know more about who he was—other than the creature he could shift into.

I wanted to be able to give Damon his soul back, to know that he was going to be okay.

And I wanted a future with my bonded mates.

I didn’t want this to be the end of everything I knew and loved.

But that dark, unsettling feeling didn’t go away.