Page 149 of Wicked Magik

The crowd gasped.

"He is my mate as well. We are all mates, we will be bonded to each other!" Veylor's voice strained against the growing murmurs.

“There cannot be three!” A man yelled. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

A woman dripping in sapphires clutched her velvet handbag against her chest like a shield. "No one mentioned anything about these 'soul bonds' before tonight," she hissed, her painted lips barely moving. "And now you claim three people can be bound together? What kind of perversion is this?"

The crowd erupted into chaos. "It’s an abomination!" a woman in emerald silk shrieked, yanking her wide-eyed daughter behind her skirts. “That poor woman beside them has to be with those two?”

Chairs scraped against marble as guests scrambled backward, creating a widening circle of empty space around us. Veylor raised his hands, his mouth forming words that disappeared beneath the rising tide of hisses and shouts. A glass shattered somewhere to my left.

Oryx roared, his tail slapped the ground to get everyone’s attention, but instead caused more chaos. “Be still!” He snarled.

Veylor and Oryx moved apart, leaving me suspended between them as darkness crept in from the edges of my vision and the room's uproar dimmed to a distant echo.

I was passing out, being swallowed by the darkness.

“We are a triad!” Veylor screamed. “We all love each other! The fates want us bound! She’s a frostwhisper fae, we are fated as three!”

My legs shook and I fell to the ground. I felt heat near my face and the smell of smoke invaded my lungs.

Then someone lifted me up from the ground.

“Vesper!” Oryx snarled, his hooves galloping from a distance. “LET GO OF HER!”

Chapter 48

Veylor

Oryx's spine arched backward until his torso formed a right angle with his legs, muscles straining beneath his formal attire. His jaw unhinged like a serpent's, revealing rows of gleaming fangs as a thunderous roar erupted from deep within his chest, vibrating through the marble floor and rattling the crystal chandeliers overhead.

The grand ball—meant to unite fae, goblins, and vampires in their search for fated mates and educate the uninitiated in such mystical fated mates dissolved into chaos before our eyes.

They really couldn’t accept a triad? Could they not accept Oryx?

The hypocrisy staggered me. These same people who indulged in every carnal pleasure behind closed doors—threesomes, foursomes, shadowdamned orgies that would make even demons blush—now stood outraged at the mere suggestion that the gods might bless a triad with the sacred bond of fated mates?

Oryx roared again, the sound reverberating through my bones. I summoned my shadows, ready to contain the panicked crowd, when his massive form collided with mine. The impact sent me sprawling across the polished marble, my power dissipating into wisps of darkness around me.

Heat scorches my left cheek, forcing my head to jerk sideways. The sound of shattering glass filled my ears as tables crashed to the floor. Even our supporters, those who knew of our union, the ones I had given new vessels… all held torches. Their faces were twisted with rage as they set the ballroom on fire.

Magik. Someone was using powerful magik to twist the minds of these people. That was the only way this was happening.

Even Pyrrah and Josephine weren’t acting themselves but were pulling on curtains, causing the fabric to fall to the floor.

Oryx roared again. “Let go of her!”

I regained my footing and leapt upward.

Flames devoured the velvet drapery, transforming the gilded windows into gateways to hell.

When I turned to grab Oryx by his arm, a burning curtain sailed through the air toward him. Oryx's mighty roar dissolved into something I'd never heard from him before—a high, primal shriek of pure terror.

The curtain landed on his face and on the right side of his body. I took my shadows and pulled it away from him. His natural animalist instinct took over. He snapped his jaws, the smoke of the fire invaded the room and he charged forward toward whoever tried to burn him.

Instead of going after him, I stood my ground.

Where the fuck was Vesper?