Euphoria: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Carnal Court Book 2) Read online

  Verys nods. “You’re right.”

  Magic pulses under my skin, and for a second I feel like I see the puzzle clearly. But I can’t hold onto it. Just the edges—which gives me an idea. An idea that they’re going to hate and reject out of hand. But they’ll have to get over that, because I don’t see another way.

  “You’re not going to like this,” I say.

  Aeric rolls his eyes. “Safe to say none of us are going to like anything that starts with that sentence.”

  “We don’t know where Ariana is. We don’t know what her plan is. The only thing that we know is that she wants me, and we’re not even sure if it’s alive or dead. We have no leads on where to find her.”

  “You’re right,” Kent says, hands tightening on my shoulders. “I don’t like this.”

  “We need to draw her out,” I say. “Or I need to.”

  It takes a second to sink in, and then they’re all talking at once, telling me absolutely no fucking way. Standing up, I wait for them to finish voicing their objections before I hold up a hand and they go quiet. None of them look happy, and if it weren’t such a serious situation, I’d tease them for how identical they look in expression. Stern and moody and sexy.

  “Tell me the other option,” I say, looking at each of them in turn. “Seriously, I’m open to suggestions, but I don’t see anything.”

  “There has to be something,” Kent says.

  “The only thing that’s coming to mind is what we’re already doing—running and hiding—and I am done with that.”

  “Kari,” Urien says, taking a step closer and reaching for my hand. “Hiding isn’t weak. It’s keeping you alive.”

  I don’t let him take my hand. Instead I cross my arms. “Yes. It’s keeping me alive. And believe me when I say that I’m grateful for the way you all are trying to protect me. While we’re here Verys is going to teach me to use this magic that I have, so I can defend myself, but I’m not going to turn into a warrior overnight. I know that. But running is only going to make her chase me. And I’ve already lost enough.

  “I love you, and I want to spend my life with all of you. I don’t want to spend it running and looking over my shoulder. So unless you guys have any other ideas, I’ll be the bait.”

  Brae scrubs his hands over his face, leaning over and bracing his elbows on his knees. “I wish I had a better option. I don’t.”

  “I don’t want to have to do this,” I say. “But I refuse to be helpless.”

  Kent wraps his arms around me from behind. “You’ve never been helpless.”

  “It feels that way,” I say. “I need to take control of this. Please, don’t be angry at me.”

  “No,” Urien says. “Of course not. You’re right.”

  The way Aeric is looking at me right now, I’m not sure that he agrees, but the tension in the room eases, and I feel like I can breathe. “Where should we set the trap?”

  “Somewhere that Ariana would feel that she has the upper hand,” Verys says. “Where she feels like she has the element of surprise.”

  “I’ll find a place,” Aeric says. “We can make sure there are wards that only activate when she enters so that she won’t escape. We should see about getting you some kind of armor. Maybe Kaya will help.”

  “That would be perfect. I’d love to see her. And in the meantime I’ll learn some magic.” I say, sudden sadness filling me. “I wish you could all stay. Since the plan is me being bait, maybe we could all just go home? I promise I’ll stay inside the wards.”

  “We need time to make the plan and execute it effectively. With the attack last night, it’s safer for you to be somewhere Ariana is not aware of while we put it in place. And so far,” Verys says, “There aren’t any signs that she knows you’re here.”

  It hadn’t hit me how much I’d fallen into comfort living in the mansion with all of them until it’s suddenly not an option. “I’ll miss you.”

  Brae stands and pulls me close. “We can be here in moments. And I doubt any of us have the strength to stay away for long.” He kisses me, letting his magic fall into me like a sunny wave. I don’t want him to go, even though I know he has to. Verys and I staying here is already putting strain on his family, and I can’t imagine what Darran might say or do if he found out that Verys invited four more males into his home.

  I take a moment with each of them to say goodbye before they leave, intentionally using portals a distance away from the house so that the magic is less traceable.

  Aeric is last. His hands are hard on my hips, pulling me firmly against his body. “If you’re going to train, you train. I want you to be able to show me some badass moves.”

  I grin. “Maybe I’ll even be able to take you down.”

  “I doubt that,” he says, raising an eyebrow. He kisses me hard, stealing the last of my breath. “But I’m definitely going to enjoy feeling you try.”

  He’s gone before I can ask him to stay a little longer and show me exactly what he means. They all are, leaving me alone with Verys. I curl up with him, letting him hold me.

  I wonder if this is always the way it will feel when we’re apart. Will it be worse if our bonds are sealed? Whatever the case, I need a distraction. “When do we start?”

  Verys brushes back my hair and tilts my chin up so I’m looking into his eyes. I’m not sure what he’s looking for, but I hope he finds it. “How about right now?”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  ________

  KARI

  We go out behind the house, onto that same hill that overlooks the city of the Lunar Court. A sharp wind is cutting across the plain, and I feel very awake. It reminds me of the depths of winter in New York, when some of the midtown streets become wind tunnels with freezing cold air that cuts through your clothes and makes you wonder why you live in a place that has that weather.

  This is a little softer, but still cold. “Maybe you can teach me how to make the air around me warmer.”

  Verys smirks. “Maybe that would be a good reward. Or maybe I shouldn’t. The cold could be a good motivator for you to learn quickly.”

  “I don’t like to be cold,” I say, narrowing my eyes and folding my arms over my chest.

  “I’ll warm you up later.” I love the confidence and mischief on his face. Verys is fucking sexy, and I’m more than happy to let him warm me up wherever he likes.

  I rub my arms to inject some warmth and shake my head. “Okay. Where do we start?”

  “Start with what you did in New York,” he says, squaring off across from me. “Just reach out.”

  When I reach for the magic, it’s there and waiting. Fire and glitter and light and heat. Just holding it in my mind warms me, and I can’t keep the grin off my face. That’s awesome. I can be my own furnace.

  It’s not winter yet in the human world, and from what I’ve seen and been told, the weather is not strictly seasonal in Allwyn. So I haven’t needed to bury myself in sweaters and blankets the way I usually do when winter rolls around. Now I may not even need to.

  I use the same process I did at Lincoln Center—imagine holding a ball of that glittering gold in my hands, and pushing it away from myself, all the way to Verys. The magic collides with his chest and knocks against him. It’s a strange sensation, feeling his body press against the magic, feeling him, but not touching him.

  “Good,” he says. “But you’re forcing it.”

  “How can you tell?”

  His own silvery magic curls around mine, and I can feel the twisting vibrations running back to me. “Because your reach is good, but that magic hit me like a battering ram. You pushed it out for the sake of pushing it out. Because I asked you to. But in order for magic to be used most effectively it has to be an extension of you.”

  I nod. That’s the way it always felt when I pulled on that tiny thread of magic that I used in the shop. I was able to shape it with ease and instinct. And it should be the same concept here.

  Dropping the image of the pile of magic in my hand
s I try to figure out how that feels with this much magic. My own little sliver is an extension of myself, but I had to reach for it—straining to pull it from the depths of my gut.

  I can still feel the thread of my personal magic floating through me. Smaller and delicate, and darker than the gold. It’s more of a violet or blue, like the purest color of flame. But I don’t have to reach for the Goddess’s magic—my new magic—I still don’t know how to identify it for myself. It rises to my fingertips almost before I have the chance to call it.

  This time instead of holding it close to myself, I let it move with me. Moving my physical hand, it follows. I reach across the space between Verys and I and use the magic to touch him on the shoulder. It’s so much easier this way, though I wouldn’t have been able to put a finger on why if he hadn’t explained it.

  This feels more like inhaling and exhaling the magic like it’s part of the oxygen around me, instead of trying to form the power into a shape like play dough.

  “That’s better,” Verys says. “How does it feel?”

  “Easier,” I say. “I expected it to be harder.”

  He chuckles. “I won’t say that it will be easy the whole time, but you definitely have an advantage because you’ve used magic before.”

  Thank the Goddess. I don’t know how you would figure out how to shape any kind of power if you had never encountered it before. “I want to learn more than just defense. But I guess that’s probably what we should start with.”

  “I agree. And for today, let’s focus on stopping something physical—because that’s easier than stopping a magical force.”

  “Really?” I pull my power back from him. “I would have thought the opposite.”

  He crosses to me and places his hands on my shoulders. “Even the strongest person has physical limitations. But magical limitations are harder to define, especially since we’re dealing with someone who is actively trying to steal magic. She may have more power than we expect—the same way that you do.”

  Shit. That’s true. I didn’t even think about that. “Okay.”

  “Start slow,” he says. “Push my hands away.”

  I try, and nothing happens. The sensation of Verys’s hands is real, and I can feel it on my skin and with my power, but the magic seems to seep right through his hands. “Use your hands to get the motion right, but try not to touch me. You don’t want to rely on the physical movement.”

  I press myself into him, enjoying the feeling of the way we fit together. “Why not?”

  He doesn’t miss a beat, and his face is entirely serious. “Because if you’re in a situation where you need to defend yourself magically, there’s every chance that you’re going to need to do it physically too. And it’s also likely those two things will be different.”

  Panic rises in my chest and I push it down. This was my idea. I can do this. But thinking about actually being doing this—about being attacked again—makes my breath go short.

  I push up with my hands, filling them with power, but stop short of grabbing his wrists. The magic is an extension of me. And I can visualize the glittering frameworks of it in my mind. They are my hands, but more than my hands.

  Verys’s hands lift off my shoulders an inch. “They’re heavy,” I say. “Way heavier than your actual arms.”

  “It will feel that way,” he says softly. “For a while. The larger the object, the more magic it requires. And the higher your level of focus and practice, the more you can do with less.”

  I let his hands fall, and they brush down my arms to my shoulders, adding an entirely different type of warmth to me. “That’s how you’ve been able to do so much with so little?”

  He nods, letting his arms slide around me more, until I’m sealed around his body and our faces are close. “Yes. And I’ve had a lot of time to practice. Now that I have more to work with, I have more work to do.”

  I’m distracted by his closeness, and the way his fingers are pressing into my back. He tilts his head down to mine, a faint smile playing on his lips. “Stop me from kissing you.”

  “I don’t want to do that.”

  “Try,” he smirks. “It takes more focus to resist something that you want.”

  At first I just push out with my magic, but it skims off him like a pebble skipping on a pond. He’s leaning closer, and the way he’s looking at me with lust in his eyes and promises of more makes me want to abandon the mission. But I don’t. I call the magic, and let it fill my entire body until I’m nothing but a being of sparkling gold, and I push.

  I manage to stop him from leaning closer, freezing him in time. But his arms are still around me, drifting down my back towards my ass. Off, I think the word.

  Nothing.

  I focus, envisioning the magic become sharp and hard like a shell, and I shout it in my mind. OFF!

  The magic blows outwards with a snap. And Verys’s arms fall from around my waist and he takes a step back. Now he’s beaming. The force of the magic isn’t much compared to some that I’ve felt before, and the power contracts back into me immediately. But I did it. “How was that?”

  This time when he kisses me I don’t stop him, and I can read the approval in his kiss. For not having had any practice, Verys is a damn good kisser. With the dedication he’s had to being celibate and making do without magic, I know that he’s only going to get better with time. That’s the thought that makes me shiver with want. Because if he’s already this good, Verys a year from now is going to wreck me.

  Goddess, I want him to wreck me.

  “That was very good,” he says, holding me close again. “You’re going to feel the effects in a few seconds.”

  “What?” Right after I say that, I feel it hit me. Swooning weakness that strikes me in the knees and the rest of my limbs, and I sag against him. “Woah.”

  “There it is,” he laughs. “You’re not used to expending power like that, and it’s not like sex and Carnal power where the magic you expend is given back to you. With more experience, you’ll feel the effects less.”

  “This is why the three of you tried to preserve your magic on the trip.” I feel weak and a little depleted. But even now the magic is building back up. How much magic did the Goddess give me? Is there an infinite supply? If I run out is that the end of it? How do I recharge it if I’m low?

  The true weakness only lasts for about a minute before my body doesn’t feel like jelly and I can once again carry my own weight. “That feels the way I used to feel after a full day of dancing. And not easy dancing.”

  “I would imagine. We’re going to have to test your limits. But not now.”

  “Why not?”

  “I want to see how you react to using magic. Training is important, but making sure you can survive the training is equally important. Would you like to see the city?”

  “I can do more.”

  He chuckles and leads me towards the house. “There will be plenty more, believe me. You’re not done for the day. I’m tempted to take the next training session to our bedroom.”

  “I don’t think that I’m going to do much learning while I’m naked.”

  That cocky smirk that’s new to his face but that I’m learning to love crosses his face. “On the contrary,” he says. “You need to be able to defend yourself even if you’re naked. Especially if you’re naked.”

  The eagerness in his voice makes me wonder what exactly he has planned. This is Verys unrestrained. For the first time in I’m not even sure how long he’s not holding a part of himself back, and it’s beautiful. And I’m absolutely sure that he’s going to accomplish the goal of helping me use my magic, even if he has to use my own desire against me.

  That thought draws me between anxiety and anticipation. If he tells me to push me away when he’s in the middle of pleasuring me, I don’t know that I’ll be able to to do it.

  But there’s a part of me that’s curious to find out.

  “What will we do in the city?” I ask as we cross through the courtyard
of the house and out the beautiful front that I have only seen in the moonlight.

  “Maybe see Kaya?”

  “We can send her a message?”

  Verys takes my hand. “Just like human cities, the courts have evolved in commerce and specialties. Though it doesn’t quite compare to the artistic courts, the Lunar Court has established itself as an excellent place for textiles. After meeting Kaya I’m sure there are shops that will know her, and that she’ll be excited to visit.”

  I’d like that. Kaya’s vibrant energy sounds like something that I could very much embrace right now.

  We walk down the hill in the wind, and it strikes me how different the Lunar Court appears from the Carnal Court the Crystal Court. Every Court I’ve seen before has been wildly different. Far more diverse than anything in the human realm.

  Unsurprising since it’s Lunar, but the landscape in front of me is stark and the road is made of fine white powder that curls up under my feet as we walk. It looks like the moon might, with everything shining in pale monochrome.

  The few trees that I can see look like what might be birch trees on earth, but shot through with shining silver and glittering white with gilded leaves. They shimmer in the near constant wind.

  Unlike the other cities I’ve seen though, the Lunar Court doesn’t have walls. The buildings on the outer edges of the city are tall to shield the city from the wind, but also to allow it to pass through in places. The architecture is all clean lines and simple shapes, very unlike the colorful chaos and intricate details of the Crystal Court.

  A thought hits me. “You said it was safer for me to be in a place where we were sure Ariana didn’t know about.”

  Verys nods. “Yes.”

  “So wouldn’t it be safer for me not to be seen?”

  He slows a step. “Yes.”

  “So we’re already using me as bait, to see if we’re actually safe here.” I smirk at him. “Clever.”

  He laughs. “I knew you would figure it out. I don’t have any expectations of being in danger here, but if we are, I’d rather know sooner than later.”