The shaking grew more and more violent, but I was resigned to death.

The tapestries trembled, the chandelier in the foyer tinkled, shook, creating a familiar cacophony of sound. I watched it as the crystal cast the sunlight into a thousand sparks on the walls and floors. It was hypnotic and not altogether unpleasant.

It would be nice to die surrounded by beauty.

“Kimber!”

My head snapped around on instinct.

Master Dorian strode through the hall directly toward me, and he was, as usual, scowling. “What are you doing, girl?”

“Trying to figure out how I want to die.”

“The Spine is shaking! You need to do your job.”

I leaned back against the door and let out a mirthless laugh. “Well, I’d be happy to, except I still haven’t gotten laid, and my penis of choice just walked away from me again.”

Squatting down to stare at me, eye level, he was obviously pissed. “What? Rilen and Roran—”

I waved him off. “Yeah, it almost worked, but then duty called again. Actually, duty banged on the door, and now you see me in the latest state of coitus interruptus.”

“Where did he go?”

“To the university. To his infernal machine.” I looked up at him. “Because S’Kir needs him.”

Master Dorian’s face twisted even more, to a hateful grimace.

I hadn’t a moment to protest before I found myself scooped up, and Master Dorian strode to a different stairwell than the one Elex had used.

He grabbed a panicked, hurried pageboy by the shoulder. “You are to spread the word immediately that Masters Rilen and Roran need to get to the roof.”

Releasing him, he pointed a chin, and the boy ran off.

Carrying me up the stairs, we burst out onto the roof in the midmorning sun. It was warm and pleasant and would have been a perfectly lovely day except for the trembling and shaking.

“Open yourself to the magic, girl. Let it in. Tell me what color the tremors are this time.”

I rested my tired head on his toned, soft shoulder. I dropped my walls, and the magic rushed in. I sobbed, gulping in air.

So much magic and I couldn’t use it.

“The colors, child. What are they?”

Opening my eyes, looking toward the Spine, the land was covered in green. A light, minty green that pulsed and waved and traveled toward the mountains.

“Green, light green.”

“Jealousy,” he breathed. “It takes time for it to build. We may yet save S’Kir.”

The laugh bubbled up out of me. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t even care that I was laughing at the oldest and strongest of the temple masters.

Dropping me on a cold bench, he took a step back and stared at me. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“We can’t save S’Kir,” I answered. “There’s no way. Elex left again, without sex. I have no power. None. There’s no way to stop the tremors.”

Master Dorian narrowed his eyes. “You did last time without—”

“That’s because there was some left, and I had a mated couple lend me their power.” I wiped away a laughing tear, starting to sober. “I have nothing. Zero.”

A rumbling growl came from Master Dorian as he stared at me—but in that instant, I realized it was not directed at me.

It was directed at Elex. He was unspeakably pissed at him for leaving me here, time and again, and not fulfilling the primary reason he was asked to move in.

Stalking in closer, Master Dorian leaned down and hissed his question fiercely. “You presented him with this marvelous tableau, and he can’t blow off work—not even a quick fuck?”

What?

In that same moment, I also realized my robe was wide open.

Master Dorian was staring at my bare breasts.

With a yelp, I pulled the robe closed. “He left. I can’t stop him. I tried. I even begged. I wouldn’t let go, but had to at the last moment, because he would have dragged me with him. There’s nothing I can do!”

“You’ve endangered all of S’Kir, girl.”

“I didn’t ask for this, and it’s not like I’m not trying!” I pulled the robe open again as if to prove that with my naked breasts I was trying.

What did it matter if he stared at me if we were all going to die anyway?

“Close that.”

“Why?”

Master Dorian grabbed my chin. I expected the touch to be uncaring and rough, but it was…

Tender. Reverent.

“Because if you don’t, I’ll take you myself and fuck the power back into you.”

The air rushed out of my lungs.

“What’s going on?” Rilen ran across the roof from the other entrance. Alone, he skidded to a halt not a few feet from us.

I jerked the robe closed.

He sucked in a breath. “Oh, no, Kimber. He didn’t.”

Master Dorian took a step back. “She has no power.”

Rilen let out the saddest, most sorrowful sigh I had ever heard. “Oh, ilati. I’m so sorry.”

“Where is your twin?” Master Dorian demanded.

“He’ll be here in a moment.”

I finally took notice of the tremors, when a particularly bad one shook the building and threw Roran out of the doorway we had come through.

“What’s going on? Kimber, why aren’t you—” Roran’s eyes darted between the four of us.

What a group we were at that moment.

“Are you serious? After all that, he left. Again?” Roran strode forward and stood next to Master Dorian. “This cannot be allowed to continue.”

“We’re all going to die anyway now.” I sighed.

“No, we’re not,” Rilen said, sitting next to me and taking my hand. “That’s why you ordered us up here, isn’t it, Dorian?”

Rilen motioned his brother to sit next to me on the bench. In a heartbeat, Roran took my other hand.

Each of them kissed my knuckles and reached their other hand for Dorian.

“This will only work with mates,” they chorused.

Dorian stepped forward. “Why do you think I called you up here?” He took their hands and completed the circle.

Power surged through me. The simple colors of magic that painted everything leapt to life, glowing and dancing again like I remembered them in the cave.

The green pulsed and flowed toward the Spine, the colors growing darker from the original soft mint. I couldn’t see the flow beyond because Master Dorian stood directly in front of me.

With his very prominent erection.

I swallowed and tried looking around him.

“Move, Dorian,” Roran snapped.

“Where?” His words bit back.

“Let go for a moment and walked behind us,” Rilen said. “You know she hasn’t had a chance to really be trained. She still uses her vision to help her.”

“Also, that’ll get your giant dick out of her line of sight and let her concentrate,” Roran barked.

With a disgusted grunt, he let go and walked around the bench. When he did let go, the magic sank back to just mere existence.

Bland and disconnected.

The twins shifted my hand to the ones they had been holding Master Dorian’s with and put the others behind my back. A moment later, Master Dorian’s hands slipped back into theirs.

The magic was back.

The flow of the magic toward the Spine was starting to speed up even as I watched it.

Grabbing a thread of the flowing green, I let my sense of it follow along, tugging gently. But the further I followed, the thicker and stronger the magic felt.

It was a consuming sense of unfairness and injustice. There was more due to me than just what I had. After all, I had—

I jerked myself out of it, snapping my eyes open.

Carefully grabbing a few of the strings near me, I pulled them close and popped them open like popcorn. It made them stick, unable to move or flow away.

Perfect.

I moved quickly through the local flow, popping them open, moving faster, and I got the hang of it.

Stop, please. This isn’t the time yet. The time is coming, but not yet. Please.

Everything I hadn’t grabbed yet slowed, listened.

Please. You are not complete. There is more you are due. Wait for it…

The trembling slowed as I pulled on the strings again. I didn’t want to pop anymore because I had to reverse them.

One more tug and everything settled.

“Don’t let go yet.” Master Dorian whispered in my hair.

“Not yet,” the twins chorused. “Take the power, fix the strings.”

I was shaking, my arms and legs felt like jelly. I used the power flowing through the three of them and spun the strings like wool, back into shape. It took me twice as long to recreate them.

Wouldn’t do that again.

“Beautiful, Kimber.” Master Dorian’s words were next to my ear. “I want to see you really use your magic.”

“Please, let me…”

“No,” Rilen said. “We trust you—”

“—but we do not trust him.”

Master Dorian was in my other ear. “You need power. You will have power.”

I knew the instant he slipped his hands out of the twins’ hands.

I passed out.

 

*  *  *

 

I feared for Elex.

He didn’t come home that night or the next.

Scenarios played through my head of where he was, what was going to happen.

Master Dorian’s scowl followed me through the days. When I saw him, his frowned deepened.

Worse, though, were Rilen’s and Roran’s faces. They were angry. They weren’t interacting with me, either. Once they saw me, they would turn and walk away, whether they were alone or together.

“They’re angry and rightfully so.” Lunella placed the dish of food in front of me.

I studied the plate. Meats, cheese, veggies, and crackers. I sighed. “No one has any right to be as angry as I am, and I am not angry. I’m frightened.”

“Frightened?” Lunella was taken back.

“Yes. Elex is not only a man I could mate with if I chose to, he’s not only the man I sleep with, but he’s one of my oldest and dearest friends. I’m positively petrified that one of those three is going to do something hot-headed, and I shudder to think if the three of them got together.”

Lunella placed her fork next to the plate and folded her hands.

This was going to be bad.

“You should not fear for him. You should be as angry as the rest of us are.”

“I’m not used to having my sex life discussed as a public point of order.”

She leaned forward. “You think we enjoy this? Badgering you about getting some dick? We are not used to having a sex life on display. You know damn well that we prefer to keep our relations behind closed doors.”

“I am afraid they are going to hurt him.”

Her hand hit the table with a hard slap that made the dishes jump. “They should! We don’t flaunt our sex! Yes, we’re horny! Yes, we enjoy it! And yes, we fuck a lot. But this… flagrant display of disregard for a basic tenet of our magic is inexcusable.”

There were tears in my eyes. Again.

Lunella leaned back. “Since you’re someone I would consider a friend, we should be talking about the mystery couple in the yard. Smirks on our faces, knowing just how far our partners drilled our pussies last night. Shit eating grins because we know it will happen again. I should not be sitting here, telling you Elex is not the right partner for you. That should, at this point, be completely and utterly obvious.”

My jaw worked, but no sound came out.

Lunella rolled her eyes and tossed her napkin on the table. “You hadn’t even considered that.”

“No.” The word hurt.

“Then you need to consider it.”

Pushing back from the table, she grabbed her plate. “If you’ll excuse me, I feel that my appetite would be better served elsewhere.”

I watched as my only real friend in the temple walked away from the table.

What had Elex done to us?

Now, I feared I was going to be ejected from the temple, have my robes stripped, and exiled to another province.

My heart squeezed in my chest.

I was so frightened.

I picked up a piece of cheese from the plate and studied it. I had no appetite. I hadn’t for days at this point. Not since that breakfast.

I couldn’t get kicked out.

I had nothing else. I didn’t even have my little apartment anymore. My position at the school had been filled by another, younger teacher, a new acolyte.

There was nothing else but here for me now.

Vitas sat across from me, looking grim but determined.

“I’m sorry, Master Vitas, but I’m not good company right now.”

Nodding, he folded his hands. “I’m not really here for company, Kimber. I’m here to talk to you.”

“More talking.”

Shrugging, he settled forward. “Then, you don’t have to talk. Please listen.

“You are the Breaker of the Spine. There’s no doubt about that. And as the Breaker, you need power. Power we magic wielders gain from sex, sexual contact, and climax. We normally pair off because it is far easier to learn to please one person than it is to keep asking a random partner if they are coming the entire time you’re buried in each other. That said, we do make exceptions. Kind of often, really. We’re horny. And we need the power. And in that light, I spoke with my partner, and she and I would like to invite you to join us. Just one night, just to insure you have the power you need to keep S’Kir safe.”

My jaw was on the floor.

I had just been invited to have sex with two other people.

And I was sorely tempted to say yes.

“Master Vitas.” The voice boomed from behind me.

Master Dorian had arrived, and I was about a minute from breaking into full-on sobs again.

“Master Dorian,” he answered and stood.

“Will you excuse us a moment, please?”

“Of course,” Vitas nodded.

Reaching over, he laid his hand on mine. “It’s an honest offer, Kimber. Think about it.”

Pursing my lips, I nodded. “Thank you. I will.”

Vitas left the table and walked back to the food service area to pick up a few pieces of bread.

The looming druid behind me didn’t move. He made me nervous as he stood out of my view.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Please, have a seat, Master Dorian.”

“I am not here to make pleasant conversation, girl.”

I hated when he called me ‘girl.’

“Could you at least not stand behind me, master?”

There was a pause, and he moved around to the side where I could see him. He was grim, grimmer than I had seen him yet.

The silence that filled the air was awful. I had no idea how to break it. Or even if I should break it.

“Tomorrow evening, you will come with me.”

Wait. Did he mean…

“There is something you need to know, and you must see it for yourself to believe it. Tomorrow evening. Wear dark riding clothes. And if you have a sword, bring it.”

Blinking a few times, I finally nodded. “Yes, master.”

With a smart turn on his heel, he started to walk away. I was about to let my guard down when he was suddenly next to me again.

Hot breath caressed my ear. “While Master Vitas’s offer is kind, you will not take it. If there is anyone who is going to fuck you and fix this, it will be me.”

While Master Dorian was gone in the next moment, the air still crackled with his sexual threat.

Gods and goddesses, what had I gotten into?