Vicious Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac, #3)

by Caroline Peckham

She’d lied to me. And now I questioned everything I knew about her. Except, when I really analysed it all, I realised I hardly knew her at all. All we ever did together was laugh, joke, fuck, and have fun. Which had been great up until this very fucking moment. I’d been a thirsty Lion, hunting the desert for water. I thought she’d been an oasis, but it turned out…she was just a mirage.

Elise smiled at our potions Professor like she actually gave a shit that he’d shown up.

Instead I was on the outskirts, unable to participate in anything to do with her except the pain she’d left me with.

We were going to lose. And the two dreams I’d ever had for myself were ruined.

Worse than that, I’d finally had the chance to live out one of Gareth’s dreams for him and I’d failed at it.

But as I spotted him trudging away from the pitch, I realised that he was feeling a hundred times worse than me. I might have been trying to bring Gareth’s dream to life, but this had been Leon’s. And he’d ruined it all because of me.

“There’s nothing to say, Elise. You’re a liar and a fake and you just cost me my fucking dream too. I thought I knew you but it was all just bullshit. You’re bullshit. And I’m done.”

“This wasn’t just your dream you know,” I said, chocking back a sob. “This game meant something to all of us. To Gareth.”

You’re the one wearing his shirt. You’re the one standing in his place. Maybe if he was still here we’d have won and as a bonus I never would have met you either. And I wouldn’t know what it felt like to be destroyed by you.”

Did he really think I’d wanted to take Gareth’s place in this match? I would have traded everything I had to be out there in the stands now, watching my brother playing in my place.

He thought Roary only showed up to taunt and tease him. He had no idea his brother just enjoyed his company.

“I mean it,” I pressed. “I lost my brother and I’ll never get him back. It hurts me to think of Leon missing out on that bond with you while you’re right here.”

“Sure, baby,” I lied. Because fuck if anyone was going to make me dance. Even her.

“I’m thinking…that you helped me remember that I can feel more than the words painted on my knuckles.”

“I want you to feel everything, Ryder. The good, the bad. That’s what living is.”

“Well if you did, you could break off that stupid deal and both of you could come in here and the three of us could have some fun.”

A rush of emotions flooded me. My first reaction was that it was a fucked up idea. As if I’d ever share Elise with my mortal enemy. But the second was that this was my only fucking chance to have her. And I was losing my mind. And I’d lose my balls too if I didn’t take her soon. They would literally fall the fuck off.

It went entirely against my nature to share a woman. I was possessive and I wanted her all to myself. But if this was the only way I could have her, then suddenly it seemed like the perfect answer. Even though it was the most fucked up thing I’d ever considered doing. And of all the Fae in the world, why did it have to be with him?

It was just possible that one of my dirtiest, most forbidden fantasies lay waiting for me on the other side of this door. Just possible enough to send a surge of heat racing between my thighs at the mere thought of it.

Needed to see them, all of them, here, before me. No rules, no work arounds, no deals, just the freedom to indulge in the fantasies we’d all been denying ourselves for far too long.

“Non ho mai desiderato nessuno come te,”

“Yes,” I gasped as something broke apart inside me at that admission. That I could belong to both of them. All of them. And that we could all share in this together without any need for us to choose.

“You’re everything I could ever want, bella,” Dante breathed. “You’re more than I ever could have imagined,” Ryder added. “Good,” I replied. “Because I’m never letting any of you go.”

The way the two of them had flailed on the ground had probably been the highlight of my entire trip.

“Before I tell you anything, we need to make a deal that you never breathe a word about the magic I do to anyone outside of the people who are helping you catch this killer.” I nodded, moving forward and extending my hand willingly. “I swear it.” He took my palm and we shook, a clap of magic ringing between us and binding the deal.

The woman we interrogated was a councillor who’s been finding suicidal patients for King to use in his rituals. He gives them Killblaze and gets them to kill themselves.”

“Is there any way to remove the Elemental magic King has taken? I don’t wanna put this on your shoulders, but the bastard is going to take on the Celestial Councillors when he has enough power. He wants to rule over Solaria and who knows what kind of kingdom this would be with someone as ruthless as that on the throne. We have to stop him.”

“You’re Elysian Mates?” he asked in awe. “Man, if that’s true, then you’ve got nothing to worry about. The stars will bring you together.”

“Hang in there. No Fae can fight fate.”

Leon still wouldn’t speak to me and suddenly I was without my most constant companion on campus.

I wasn’t smiling as much and I certainly wasn’t laughing. In fact, my heart just felt even heavier now that I had lost him too.

I wanted to fix it. I wanted it so much that it hurt. But I had to respect his wishes. He’d made it clear he didn’t want me near him and there were only so many times ...

My relationships with them couldn’t be open. No one could find out that I was seeing them both or my life and theirs would be in danger from their gangs.

I got the feeling he was just waiting me out, expecting me to wake up one day and realise that I didn’t want the others. But that was never going to happen. And this distance he was building between us only served to isolate me more.

For Leon, my brother, the girl I’d been before my world had been ripped away from me. Sometimes I felt like I was growing into someone new. Someone braver, stronger, tougher. But then that idea cut me apart. Because if I wasn’t the girl who Gareth had loved anymore then who was I?

“I don’t enjoy running from you, Gabriel,” I said, holding his gaze to make sure he could see how much I meant that.

“I’m just waiting for you to get bored of them, my angel,” he growled firmly and I hissed as he stopped my movements in his lap and tugged his hands back out from beneath my shirt. “Did it ever occur to you that when you tell me you don’t like the fact that you have to share me, you’re telling me that you don’t like one of the core parts of my personality?” I growled, my lust fading fast in favour of my anger at this stupid fucking argument coming up again.

“Did you ever think to ask me why I don’t want to be tied to one guy or are you just so set on the idea that what you want is so much more important than my desires that it doesn’t even matter to you how I feel about that?” I asked.

“I hate that it hurts you to see me with them,” I breathed. “And maybe it’s selfish of me to want so much with so many… Or maybe it’s selfish of you to expect me to give the others up for you. Would you ask me to give up my friends? My hobbies? My family to be with you?”

“So you’re just counting on the stars to change who I am as a person?” I balked. “You’re putting your faith in them stamping out an integral part of my personality because that would suit you better?

“You’ve fallen for some fantasy version of me who only wants you. Did it ever occur to you that I might like who I am? That I don’t want the stars to steal anything or anyone from me?”

But if you’re asking me to cut the other Kings out of my heart then you’re asking me to discard a huge part of myself with them.

“Okay,” he agreed and the look in his eyes said he really meant that. He really would try and see my side of this.

I hoped they hadn’t banded together to form an I Hate Elise Club. That would be too damn pathetic.

He kissed me deeply, his tongue stroking mine and his passion making me weak at the knees as he showed me just how much he meant that. He loved me. This beautiful, powerful, dangerous creature loved me. Even though I was broken and grieving and had lied to him, he loved me still and my heart pounded with the aching need for me to say it back to him.

So instead of labelling it, I showed him how I felt with that kiss, I gave him every piece of me, even the broken, ruined parts and laid them bare before him.

“Run, Uncle!” I demanded, an Alpha command in my voice. But he didn’t listen. He dove forward with a tremendous fireball ripping from his hands and shooting up above me a moment before a colossal storm of ice shards cascaded down around me. The fire burned away the ice directed at me, but the shards pinned Gino to the ground, killing him instantly. His eyes were glassy, but his smile was still tilted up in victory.

I was his kid sister, his avenging monster and his little angel all in one. He may have put me up on a pedestal to try and keep me out of harm’s way, but it was far past the point at which he could protect me. I might have been his angel once. But even angels fall…

but I was so relieved to be acting on all of this information at last that I could have cried.

“Is there a point during the time in which you have known me that you got the impression that I was some kind of damsel in distress? Or that I required saving?” I demanded in a hard voice.