“That’s the problem with more,” he said, steering me out into the lounge room. “The point between enough and too much is pretty damn close.” He pushed my wet hair off over my shoulder. “We’ll work it out, together.”
“Together,” I replied, nodding.
Chapter 25
Initially, that took the form of a conversation. We all decamped to the couches in the living room, wrapped in blankets and each other. That was my first challenge. They all reached for me when I went to sit down, then pulled back, seeming to know what kind of predicament that put me in. Shaun had just claimed me, surely he had priority, but Axel looked a little hesitant when he put his hand out, something that felt like it physically hurt. He was always such a confident guy, so seeing hesitancy in him seemed wrong.
But if he was reluctant, Ethan was doubly so. We hadn’t had much time together, since this was all so bloody rushed, and I saw his body tense before he even raised his arms, and then there was Shade. He sat down apart from everyone else, obviously feeling like he wasn’t part of the pack, so I settled down beside him, his arm going around me on automatic. Then I told them everything.
What I’d seen, what I’d heard and experienced, what I’d heard Branwen say, which of course made them stiffen. They all looked at each other, as if the answers could be found there, but it took Ethan to say it.
“We have to get the alpha involved in this. That’s…”
“Jules said she used to hear Sylvan in her mind, before shit went down,” Shaun said, then shrugged. “Things have gotten weird since he came to Sanctuary.”
“Another person to speak to, but not yet, not for a while. Not until the afternoon I’m thinking,” Axel said. He stretched, a big cat of a man, and now he was lazy with it. “We need sleep and a lot of it.” Shade’s arm tightened around me, something that Axel noted with a nod. “None of this is urgent, unless this Branwen is telling you to axe murder us in our sleep.”
He shot me a silly grin, but a cold finger slid up my spine, now I was fully present and in the moment. I’d spent my life talking to a voice inside my head, but hers? Maybe because I’d always been bonded to my Tirian, maybe because her advice, while grumpy, always served me well. But Branwen? There was something…insatiable about her, putting my own need for more to shame, wanting and wanting in a kind of indiscriminate way that would get people hurt. My eyes slid over the guys, the fear spiking higher as I considered that.
No, my Tirian growled resolutely. She will not harm our mates.
“Sleep would be good,” Shade said, moving closer, pressing his lips to my neck in a slightly tentative way. “Dunno about you blokes, but I feel like I’ve been up for hours.”
“In more ways than one.” Axel chuckled and then got to his feet, reaching out a hand, but I wasn’t sure who for. When I took it, he smiled, making me think I’d made the right choice. He moved in closer, smoothing the hair back from my face. “But we need to rest, recharge, relax. Try to recoup some energy before it all starts again.”
Which was a good plan, one my body well and truly stood behind, which, of course, meant it wasn’t to be.
We wandered down to the main bedroom, to a bed that spanned the back of the massive room, my feet feeling like lead. I wavered at the edge of the bed, wondering how we were going to do this, but ended up just flopping back onto it, no longer caring. This was beyond more. Way, way beyond more. Bodies fell beside me, everyone pulling blankets around themselves, then snuggling in tight. That was all I felt as I dropped into sleep—that deep pressure on my body and exhaustion.
But that soon changed.
We stood upon a dais, a dozen beautifully clad women working madly on the dress that hung from our body.
“You look radiant, my lady,” an older woman said, though she didn’t speak in English. I’d never heard that language, a small frown forming as I considered what the hell I was doing, translating words I couldn’t understand. The woman saw that response and grew flustered. “Come, Jaya, see how our priestess comports herself.”
She gestured for a slip of a girl, also dressed in a rich gown but not as fancy as ours, something we noted with a smug smile. She was all slender limbs and big brown eyes, staring at us with what we felt was the requisite degree of awe. While that was entirely appropriate, it said something about the girl.
“You will do the same, at the ascension rite.”
We watched the older woman, Hara, clasp the girl around the shoulder and give her a hug. A hug. This was to be our replacement, the next conduit for the goddess? She looked like she was barely able to tie her own shoes unsupervised.
Something she seemed well aware of. She just stared with the wide-eyed look of someone who knew they were outmatched.
“Lady Hara, are you sure? I fear—”
“Don’t fear,” Hara said with false cheer. “What will happen at the ascension ritual has been written in the stars themselves.”
It had.
“You and Lonan will ascend as conduits, and Branwen and Fearn will step down. We have known this since you first came to us as a small child. Every conduit has their time, and now is yours.”
It wasn’t.
“Lonan is your true mate and a fitting consort.”
He wasn’t, and we would snatch the girl bald if she tried.
Lonan certainly hadn’t got the message about the true mate thing, from what I could see. The faint flicker of memories that came to mind all showed Br