TheSea Bladeis a leviathan that towers over the small Sunnish ship when she heaves to, sailors crawling the rigging like squirrels in their favorite tree, and the moment I make out a blond head at the railing, I’m screaming his name.
“ATLAS!”
Zenthris appears beside him, dark red and pale platinum barely flecks in the distance, but I don’t care.I’ve never felt so excited, literally giddy, and it’s agony to wait, to anticipate them, while the two ships come together and finally, a million years later, they anchor together and the gangplank of theSea Bladeslides down onto our deck.
I’m running, flying, up toward the belly of the massive ship, but I’m too late because they’re careening down toward me, throwing themselves at me in reckless abandon, and now we’re at risk of going over the side.
There are mouths on mine and hands in my hair, bodies pressing to me, familiar scents and oh, so beloved tastes, and I’m sobbing, not Remalla of Heald, not the War Queen’s daughter, not the Dragon’s Flame.I’m Remi, and they are my loves, and I’m never letting them go ever again.
“Remi.”They’re both trying to kiss me at once, making me laugh, throw back my head and scream in delight, the gorgeous men I love doing the same.“Remi.”
“We need to untether,” someone says from theSea Blade.“Before we tear their deck off.”
I look up and wave at Isolatta, the tattooed mistress of this ship beaming and waving back with far too much enthusiasm for so fearsome and fierce a pirate witch.
“Aye, captain!”I turn to retrieve the two who came with me before the Sunnish captain can flee back to the river, finding Sheelan and Aurous already waiting.
We cross together, the plank retreating, Hepha’s silent observation expected as the hatch to theSea Bladecloses, leaving us in the dimness beneath her main deck.
“Sheelan, Aurous,” I’m talking too fast, “Atlas, Zenthris.”The introduction will have to do for now.I’m frantic with need, though not just to strip these men before me to nothing and make them mine again.It’s far deeper than that, well past desire.I can’t get enough of them, and find I’m standing frozen, staring and grinning like a fool at them both, their dear faces, their equally stunned and happy expressions.
When I reach for their hands, they clasp mine, the kinspark racing between us, stronger than ever.I spin and hook Sheelan’s ankle with my foot, pulling her toward us, lifting my arm to allow her into the circle of our contact.She spins to look up at us all, laughing as she does, though it's with shy and sweet concern that she finally stops at me.
She’s nervous, unsure.And now, when I bend and kiss her, linking her to the kinspark, to them as much as to me, in person, activating the ties that bind us all, I feel why she’s held off from me, why she’s kept her distance, turned down my advances, though I’ve dreamed often in ecstasy of the men I love, on our journey north.She experienced some of it, surely.
Of course, yes.And.What if they don’t want me?She’s terrified this isn’t real.
I straighten, wicked smile for Zenthris answered.
“Sheelan,” he says.She turns to him, and when he bends slowly toward her, she stands on her tiptoes, lips parted, and accepts his kiss, too.
If I thought the kinspark’s welcome of our return to one another was hot, this is an open flame raging through all of us.She’s panting and swaying when her mouth parts from his.Atlas whispers her name, even as she’s already turning toward him, and when my blond Overprince’s soft lips find hers—
I shudder where I stand, the orgasm unexpected, making me stagger, while Zen does, into me, Atlas into him, and Sheelan, gasping with her hands on his face, looks at me in wonder.
“That was…” Sheelan stops.
“I know,” I say.“What’s it going to be like with five?”
Zenthris starts a little.“Wait, what?”
Atlas is laughing.“You have a lot to tell us.”He eyes Aurous.“And another for us to meet more officially.”He sweeps her a bow.“Lady Dragon,” he says in his best Overprince manner.
“My love,” she says, cupping his face and kissing him gently.Before turning and doing the same to Zenthris.Then me, and Sheelan, too, for good measure.“Kinsparks,” Aurous says.“All my loves.”
My body is zinging with the contact, and I’m not the only one.
“You’re going to explain what this is,” Zen growls at her, so much himself it makes me giddy, the grump.
“I will,” Aurous says with a shrug.“And, you’re welcome.”
Sheelan giggles.I can’t help but join her.
“Are you done?”We’ve forgotten completely that there are those who exist outside our circle.I spin, losing Atlas’s hand but hanging onto Zenthris as I turn to face Isolatta.She’s smiling, too, despite her tone, and when she steps forward, I release my grip and hug her.“Welcome back, Remalla,” she says.“I think you have an epic story to tell.”
Someone squeals and pushes Isolatta out of the way, and now I’m crouching and swinging Farah into my arms, the girl who isn’t, who I knew as Apple once, who I feared dead despite Fethest’s assurance, squeezes me so hard around the neck that I’m choking a little, but I don’t care.
Not when I spot Kell and Raltair, Two behind them, the drakonkin crew waving at me with shining relief and joy to see me again.
