“So…” Cain purses his lips, sitting back on his heels as he finishes tugging his shirt over his head. “I hate to ruin the mood, but can we talk about what the fuck that was?”
“You looked kind of like Roanac,” Raven admits. “In the vision.”
“I was turning into a monster?” I blurt out, terror coursing through me.
Roanac’s fuckingboneswere shifting under his skin and making him even more inhuman than most supernaturals are. I have zero fucking interest into turning into a creature like him.
“No, no,” Cain says quickly, soothing me. “Raven meant that you were screaming in pain and twisting around the way that he was.”
Damn. Okay. “I don’t know what it was. I just know what it felt like. One moment I was fine, I really felt normal, and then the next moment I was just filled with all of this power, and I didn’t know what to do with it. And there were all of these voices yelling at me. Fae voices, I could tell that they were fae. And it was just somuch.”
“I mean we can all sense each other,” Cain points out. “That’s what the whole All-Souls thing is. We’re all parts of one big soul so we’re all connected.”
“But this was so much more,” I reply. “I could feel what they were all feeling, and I knew all of their thoughts. Do you know about any soul connection that could do that?”
I’m not as educated on the fae world as my mates are. After my parents were killed, I hid from the supernatural world and tried to live as a human. I only dealt with the supernatural when I was robbing people. My fence would tell me that I couldn’t just use the supernatural when it was convenient for me, going and stealing from people but not participating in the world.
Yeah, he was right, and it’s really coming back to bite me in the ass now. If I’d studied up on the fae, on my heritage at all, I might have the answers that I need right now.
Cain and North look at each other, then shake their heads. Raven idly strokes my hair. If he had an answer, he’d give one, but he just stays silent.
“So this is different,” I conclude.
“Very,” North affirms for me. “We haven’t heard of anything like that. We can’t hear each other’s thoughts. We’re not all mind readers. We just feel a connection to others if we reach out with our minds, sort of like when you’re in a dark room and you still know where the furniture is.”
“We think it’s an extension of the same thing that allows us to use our Sight,” Cain says. “Or visit the dreams of others. It’s just related specifically to our connection with one another as fae.”
“But it sounds like you could actuallyfeelthem. Like you were the furniture, not just knowing where it all was.”
I nod. “Yes. It was like I was—I can’t even describe it. I’d never felt anything like that.”
As much as I try to hide it, I’m scared. I’ve never felt power or pain on that level before. What does it mean? And what if the next time it happens I can’t pull myself out of it?
“Kiara,” North says. He kisses the back of my hand. “You don’t have to hide from us, remember?”
It’s hard to break the habits of so many years. I’ve had to be tough, untouchable, never showing my weaknesses. This whole mate thing is so new. I love it, but I’m also going to have to get used to having it after so long just by myself.
I nod at North and lean into all three of them, letting them envelop me in their love and warmth. They give me hugs and affection whenever I ask for it. It’s comforting, so much so that I almost cry.
“Do you know how it happened?” Cain asks. “What inspired it?”
“We were just talking,” Raven says. “We weren’t doing anything in particular.”
We had kissed, but we weren’t in the middle of getting hot and heavy. It wasn’t like excessive physical exertion made it happen. And I had some pretty mind-blowing orgasms just now, and I was fine, nothing happened, so that can’t be it.
“But Roanac was going through his transformation,” North notes. “Could it be connected to him somehow?”
“You felt something,” Cain says. “When we were using our Sight on him. You rubbed at your chest.”
“I felt something, but I didn’t think much of it. I nearly died, I figured, you know, my scar’s going to hurt a little sometimes. I only just recovered.” I look at all of them. “But you think it’s more than that?”
“I think that Roanac took your blood, and it was supposed to kill you,” North says, his voice rough. “But you survived instead, and now as he gets more powerful, you’re also gaining powers.”
“Not sure I’d call this a power,” I grumble. “More like a fucking curse.”
Cain tips his head to the side and gets a look on his face that seems to saythat’s fair.
“But think about it,” North presses. “What did Roanac do exactly to get your blood?”