The Kings beat us to King Kincaid’s. Their cars were in the driveway, and we were informed by Fi — wearing a nightgown, bathrobe, and a worried expression — that they were in the study waiting for us. When we silently entered, they were all there, most of them dressed as informally as I had ever seen, some still in their pajama bottoms with a light jacket over their bare chests, the others in jeans and t-shirts, and while their attire was casual, their eyes were intent and severe.
“What’s happened?” King Venclaire asked immediately, skimming our faces and stopping dead on mine. “Lily?”
Instantly, King Kincaid rushed to my side, guiding me to the couch.
Antonio slipped inside the study, locking the door behind him, also wearing his nightclothes. I got the same reaction from him. As soon as he got a good look at me, he immediately disappeared, reappearing directly in front of me to swiftly sit beside me on the couch, wrapping his arms around me in a familiar, protective embrace.
I tried to speak, and it took a full minute to get my voice to work. I started from the beginning, rambling at first about sneaking out, but as I went along my voice evened out until I was talking in monotone, reciting what had happened — exactly — with Philip Masterson.
In harmony, every single Mystical in the room started growling or glowing at hearing what he had done. Even the steadfast Antonio holding me. His arms glowed so bright at one point I had to close my eyes against it for fear it would burn my retinas. Whenever a Mystical was threatened by a Commoner, Mysticals banded together, without fail.
Once I was finished telling them how he drove away with a wink, they all started talking at once.
“We wait,” King Nelson said instantly. “I hate it, but we wait.”
“Bloody hell!” Pearl shouted. “We kill his rapist ass. Right now!”
“I could have his throat ripped out in less than a half-hour,” Ezra murmured in a whimsical, quiet manner, gazing at the window and even taking a step toward it, but King Venclaire slammed a hand down on Ezra’s shoulder, stopping him.
Holding his Prodigy’s gaze, his grip tight on his shoulder, King Venclaire growled, “King Nelson is correct. We wait.”
“What the hell are you guys talking about?” Jack hollered, his feet pounding the floor as he marched toward the door. “He fucking hurt her!”
King Fergus sidestepped in front of the door, placing his back against it, effectively blocking Jack’s path. “We can’t hurt him tonight. Who knows who saw him enter that house? I wouldn’t worry about the students, but surely a neighbor was watching the party unfold.” With obvious forced calm, he murmured, “Patience, Jack. I’m not saying we won’t get revenge, because we will, but we wait.”
“What if he goes to the Com police?” Pearl ground out. “What if he tells them Lily attacked him?”
“He won’t do that,” King Kincaid replied, pacing the room, a growl repeatedly erupting from him. “That little fucker was there for only one reason. He won’t press charges because he’ll want another shot at her, and he won’t get it if she’s in jail.” He paused in the middle of the room and nodded. “We wait.”
All of my friends stood motionless, fuming, while my body started shaking as the adrenaline finally began wearing off, with my thoughts confused about what to do.
Antonio rubbed my arms, his gaze flicking between my friends and I, and said quietly, “You four have grown up so much this year, so I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but you still have a lot of growing up to do. The Kings are correct. If a Com congressman is killed, or disappears, the same night he’s seen leaving a Mys party it will only wreak havoc on our community.”
He smiled. It wasn’t a nice one. “You need to learn that sometimes revenge is best served cold.” He kissed my temple, and stood, telling the Kings, “I’ll watch the Congressman. Let me know when you need information.” They nodded, and he left the room.
To be exact, he left us with four angry Kings with no other outlet but us, and we had definitely caused trouble tonight, again, disobeying their rules. It was safe to assume that babysitting was in our near future. Possibly, our entire future, by the looks on their faces.
The four of us yawned, dragging our feet as we exited through the back entrance of the school, done emptying our lockers and now heading down the hill for our first session with the Kings in Awakening training. The party had been Friday night. It was now Monday morning.
King Kincaid had been correct. Philip Masterson had not pressed charges. In fact, I had received a bouquet of flowers on Sunday, sent anonymously, during one of our punishments of cleaning the Kings’ houses. They had been roses. Black roses with a single red one in the middle. That was Philip’s way of saying he still cared.
We were exhausted because not only were we ordered to clean the huge mansions all by ourselves, but we had also had, yes, babysitting duty on Saturday and Sunday night. I was actually a smidge thrilled I wasn’t mated because Gideon and Nikki weren’t exactly pleased with the situation, their mates gone all night and day. Poor Jack and Pearl had to deal with that, too.
None of us spoke, moving like the dead as we headed outside. That was where the majority of our class time with the Kings would be held during this preparation. Apparently, there was the slight possibility we might blow something up in the beginning, so it was a precaution to take our training outside of King Hall. The sunlight hit us as we exited the building, and we flinched at the brightness, holding our hands up to shade our eyes as we moved past the track to the wooded area.
The four Kings were talking quietly amongst themselves just past the tree line in the shade. Oddly, they were dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and boots, looking amused as we trudged toward them. They had told us they had something “special” planned for Philip Masterson when they deemed it the right time, so their minds were off that issue and back to enjoying our state of fatigue.
“Set your things over there,” King Nelson pointed to the side.
We stood in place and, as one, let our laden book bags, heavy with our lockers’ remains, slide off our shoulders, and we chucked them where he had indicated, glaring.
“Perfect,” he said cheerfully, ignoring our attempt to irritate him. “We’re going to begin simple.” He paused, smiling. That didn’t bode well. The man rarely smiled. “Today, you’re going to learn to touch one another while exuding your power.”
I blinked. Well, that didn’t sound so bad, and it was ironic they were ordering us to touch one another. Especially him. The stodgiest of the four.
My shoulders slumped in relief. I glanced at Jack with a small smile. He wore the same look of reprieve. All of us were nervous. Because of me.
First, we had no clue if I could even funnel my power into them as Shifter. Second, when we got to vesseling, we had no clue, other than what an old journal said, if I could do that either. And third, our “final” for this class at the end of the month, was to transform each of one Mys group — only a smidge earlier than the real Awakenings — to make sure we had the kinks worked out before doing it en masse, and again, we had no clue if I could do that.
So yeah, we were nervous.
King Venclaire clapped his hands. “All right, listen up. Each one of you is going to put only a small portion of your power in your hands. Only a bit, that’s very important. You will stand in a circle and, one at a time, you will grab the other’s hand until you are eventually all linked in a connected circle.” He paused. “Think you guys can handle that?”
We glared. Um, yeah.
King Kincaid rubbed his jaw. “Let’s keep them out there.”
The other Kings peered around their environment, and nodded.
King Venclaire herded us back out into the blinding sun, and then he strolled back to the shade, where he and the other Kings leaned against tree trunks.
“Does it matter who we stand next to?” Pearl questioned loudly.
“No, the order doesn’t matter,” King Fergus shouted so we could hear him. “Just one at a time with the smallest dose of your power.”
“Why do I get the feeling they’re not telling us something?” Ezra grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.
We stopped at that. This did seem too easy.
I murmured quietly, “They keep saying a small dose. I think we’d better listen to them.” They hadn’t put any special inflection on the word, but it had been repeated a few times.
“Well, let’s do this,” Jack muttered, his eyes starting to glow brown. “Small, it is.”
Standing in a circle, we turned toward each other.
I let my eyes glow blue, feeling my Shifter power surge in my Core, and quickly tamped it down to a small amount, then let it ripple to my hands.
“You ready?” Pearl asked, her eyes glowing gold.
“Yep.” I nodded.
She and I held hands.
We staggered as our powers touched. Gasped.
Hers felt like raging spells and time, purely charmed.
My wolf instantly growled. My magic didn’t like hers so much.
“Wild…” She whispered, starting to shake beside me. “Animal…”
“What’s wrong?” Ezra asked immediately.
I wanted to pull my hand away so badly, but when she started to loosen her hold, I hissed, “No!” It was still Pearl. Differences be damned. “It’s still me. Lily. Just me.” I held back my wolf’s growl wanting to erupt again.
She was visibly trembling, but she gripped my hand harder, which made us jerk, but we didn’t let go even as our magic warred with one another’s.
Pearl spoke to Jack and Ezra, her voice trembling, “It’s bad. Prepare yourselves.”
Their jaws clenched as determination etched their features.
Slowly, not really wanting to at all, I held my other hand up to Ezra.
He stared at it for a heartbeat, and then clamped his hand on mine.
I choked, my knees hitting the ground, scarcely keeping the howl at bay.
Ezra stiffened next to me, his Vampire growling deep inside his chest.
His power was dark. Dark and dangerous and sensual. None of those in a good way when it met mine. I instantly wanted to be free. I was a wild animal, as Pearl had said, and not only was I battling Ezra’s power against my left hand, I was also battling Pearl’s against my right. Dark and sensual on one side, spells and time on the other, and wild animal in the middle. I had never felt my power want to physically take control but, now, it wanted to push them away.
Savagely. Instantly.
I grunted, standing on shaking feet as sweat began pouring down my face, and gasped, “Pearl, can you feel Ezra’s power?” He had cut off his Vampire’s growl, and was now crushing my hand so hard he was most definitely leaving bruises. That was a good thing. It gave me a focus. If I so much as even contemplated letting my power go off, it would. In a heartbeat.
Pearl shook her head jerkily.
“Ezra, can you feel Pearl’s?” I asked, still panting. That was all I could manage.
“No.” His voice was deep. Scary deep. Trying to keep himself in check.
“I can feel both of yours.” I licked my lips. “It’s…horrible. My power’s on the verge of exploding to push yours away. I don’t know how long I can hold out. Whoever takes—” I grunted, feeling Pearl’s power surge a little. “Pearl, don’t do that. I can’t hold if you—” Her power surged again, not much, but just enough so that mine reacted. “Shit!”
Well, I learned something new. An explosion can be invisible. It wasn’t seen but it was most definitely felt. It was like a mini-grenade went off when my power instinctively surged to epic extremes, making theirs counter and surge all at once. And…boom.
All four of us shouted as we went flying high into the air away from one another with a force that took my breath away and cut my shout short. Then, I was falling. Screaming, I watched the ground come at me faster than I had left it, I was pretty sure. I tucked. There was nothing else to do as I hit the ground.
Sinking in to the softest dirt I had ever felt, my screaming abruptly cut off in shock. I kept going down, the ground bowing like I had fallen on a trampoline, until the force of my fall died away, and then the silky earth was pushing me back up slowly to the even surface where it hardened to normal grass and dirt beneath me. From where I lay, I glanced around frantically, and saw King Fergus with his arms raised, eyes glowing.
My best friends were on the ground like me, all of us dazed. I was pretty sure Pearl and Jack could have saved themselves on a normal day from that fall, but it felt like my power was fried right now, which meant theirs probably were, too. King Fergus had just saved all of our behinds.
King Nelson sauntered out of the shade into the sun — smiling — as King Fergus’s hands lowered, his eyes no longer glowing. King Nelson folded his own hands together, appearing as happy as a clam, and said, “Let’s try that again, shall we?”
“I hate them,” I muttered, two hours later.
Pearl and Ezra were currently holding hands.
Looking sickly, Jack stared at Ezra’s outstretched free hand.
We hadn’t gotten past three of us linked. Whoever was in the middle always blasted us across the lawn. The Kings found this entirely amusing. They had even had Mrs. Jonas bring them lawn chairs and drinks so they could sit comfortably to watch the show and not be parched from the heat.
My wolf growled. “If we didn’t need King Fergus right now, I’d say kill them all.”
King Venclaire laughed outright, sitting safely away from us, and leaned over as he murmured to the other Kings, probably tattling on me.
“Hurry up,” Ezra hissed, gritting his teeth.
“I don’t want to,” Jack mumbled.
“What are you, like, two?” Pearl muttered. “Grab his damn hand.”
“Screw you,” Jack retorted, but without much conviction. I didn’t blame him. This was awful. Inhaling deeply, he lifted his hand and slowly set it on Ezra’s, closing his glowing eyes, jolting at the contact.
Ezra’s head fell back, muscles cording in his neck, his Vampire growling furiously.
I blinked gradually as a crawling thought arose. Maybe, we had been going at this too slow. Ezra had said hurry up. We kept grumbling between grabbing the other’s hand, the suffering drawing out. Possibly, it should be handled like a bandaid. Rip it off and be done with it. I held up my hands and said quickly, “Everyone, drop hands! I have an idea!”
They groaned, their heads tucked down, all of them physically shaking. Ezra was panting and his fangs were fully extended, appearing like he wanted to use them to rip my throat out, whereas Jack and Pearl looked like they wanted to use their bare hands to rip my throat out.
I said hurriedly, “It’s not a bad idea. Hurry and drop hands before we get blown away again.” Their bodies shook more. “What could it hurt? Drop your hands!” Hurrying was the key.
As they debated silently, I felt their power rising… They quickly dropped hands.
I rubbed my own hands together, feeling my power zing between my palms. I was giddy I might be right. “Okay, here goes.” They were each gasping, bending over with their hands on their knees. “At the Awakening, they touched each other quickly.” I paused, slapping my hands together. “We do it like them. Fast. We quit lollygagging around, and get it done.” I grinned.
They glared.
“That’s your great idea?” Jack asked sarcastically, wiping his brow, and then his eyebrows slammed together and he looked at the ground.
My smile dimmed. “It’s not a bad one.” I pointed at the lounging Kings. “They do it that way.”
Pearl’s lips thinned, but she didn’t say anything.
“Maybe,” Ezra straightened, cracking his neck, “we should try it.”
Jack arched, popping his back. He had dirt on his cheek, and his brown, glowing eyes lifted to mine. “That was rude of me. I’m sorry. It’s not a bad idea.” A sheepish expression. “I’ve never failed this much before. I’m not used to it and I’m not handling it well.”
My grin brightened once more. I reached to pat his shoulder but quickly yanked my hand back, remembering I couldn’t touch him, plus, he wouldn’t want it now with only my pure power in my palm. “That’s alright, but let’s try it. Remember, do it quick.” I held out my hand to him, feeling hopeful.
He nodded, and grabbed my hand.
His power connecting with mine, I had to grit my teeth as his water currents fought with my wild animal, but I instantly turned my head, holding my other hand out to Pearl.
She grabbed it, and I barely stayed on my feet as an added power bombarded me, spells and time pushing at my wild animal, but Pearl sucked in a harsh breath, ignoring my wolf’s growl, and immediately held out her other hand.
Ezra quickly slapped his hand on hers, holding tight, ignoring that Pearl almost crumbled, and slammed his other hand down on Jack’s already extended free one.
Sizzling warmth instantaneously suffused my entire being, the kind that makes you want to curl up and slip farther into it, and a groan slid past my lips.
“That’s more like it,” Pearl sighed heavily.
“Hold!” King Venclaire shouted, suddenly next to us. “Don’t let go.”
We blinked, staring. As if we were going to do that. This feeling was unworldly. As bad as our powers touching had been, this was worth the torture. Unbelievably cozy and relaxing and exhilarating, all at once.
In one word: perfect.
“We’re not planning to,” Ezra said softly, even though he scowled at his King. “Why the hell didn’t you just tell us to do it quickly?”
“Because you needed to learn, and experience is priceless,” King Venclaire answered, glancing to the other Kings, who were slowly making their way to us…exchanging money with each other. He pointed at King Fergus. “You owe me a grand. They did it within three hours.”
“And, you owe me a hundred,” King Fergus retorted. Grinned. “They didn’t beat our time.” He and King Kincaid high-fived. “Running champs still!”
“Fine. Nine hundred.” King Venclaire’s twinkling blue eyes swung back to us. “In five hundred years — it’s recorded — no one has beaten our twenty-minute time.” He looked downright smug about that.
“They’re freaking betting on us,” Pearl sputtered. Her golden eyes were on King Nelson. “I can’t believe you’d bet on us!”
“It’s not the first time,” King Nelson pocketed his cash, “and it most assuredly won’t be the last.” He shrugged when we glared, pointing between himself and the other Kings. “It’s our thing.”
“Wonderful,” Jack muttered, but his features were still relaxed in our power.
It didn’t really surprise me, so I asked King Kincaid, my tone sleepy, “Did you win or lose?”
“A little of both.” His lips curved. “Although, I did win big, betting you’d be the one to figure out the trick.” His grin conveyed, Attagirl. Nice.
“Glad I could help the coffers,” I mumbled, letting my head fall against one of my shoulders. “So, what’s next?”
King Nelson pulled a quarter out of his pocket, and then flipped it in the air.
King Fergus rapidly said, “Heads.”
On this went, until only King Kincaid was left the loser of their quarter toss. The other Kings walked away, snickering, and King Kincaid sighed, turning back to us, and said, “The next thing you need to learn is this.” His eyes glowed dark and he rested his hand on the back of Pearl’s neck.
And…boom.
Away went our sizzling warmth, and in came an explosion of our powers.
Again, we flew through the air.
At least one of the Kings went with us this time.