That was when I felt his chest press against my back.
Five beautiful fingers trailed down the length of my arm until he grasped my finger and pulled it off the sink’s edge. He guided my hand upward, and I lifted my gaze to the mirror’s reflection. Julian stood behind me, the impala skull attached to his face. Two ash-brown horns pointed toward the ceiling. Silver chains hung from around his neck, one with the cylinder urn—ashes from someone he loved. My breath caught, and he brought my finger to his lips and dipped it inside his warm mouth. I felt his tongue slide up the length, and I couldn’t move.
“Julian,” came out upon a shaky exhale, and he grabbed my waist with his other hand, bolted our hips together. He was so real, I could feel him all around me. Everywhere …
I closed my eyes as Julian’s palm moved over my bare stomach under my shirt, just below the waistline of my shorts. Heat exploded inside me when his fingers grazed the sensitive skin. I opened my eyes, locked them to silver ones as his tongue swirled around my finger. Then he pulled it out of his mouth and painted his bottom lip with my fingertip. Every touch of him was light but like touching a nerve-ending, intense.
“I miss you too,” he whispered into my ear, knowingly, and I wanted this to be him because these sensations were combustible … these feelings were dangerous … it was all too much …
“Where were you, why haven’t you come back to me?”
“They bound me to the woods as punishment, I can’t leave. I’ve been stuck here, and I can’t stop them. I want them to stop!” he said into my neck almost painfully. “Please, Fallon. Come to me.Youhave to come tome.”
Bang! bang! bang!
And then, “Fallon, it’s been a while, are you okay in there?” someone asked.
Fable?
My eyes snapped up from the sink, seeing only myself in the mirror again. I took a step back, and the blood in the sink was gone. There was no cut on my finger. When I looked down, my body shuddered.
Around my feet, the apple peel spelled out one word.
Real.
Chapter 40
Julian
In an instant,my eyes opened, widened, my consciousness plummeted back to reality—my personal hell. I jerked my head, seeing Zephyr to my right, Phoenix to my left, and Beck across from me.
We’d been here for hours, the storm still strong just outside the barn. A heavy mist whipped through the opened barn doors, freezing my naked flesh as I shivered in place, my body’s weak attempt to fight off the painful jolts.
Only one hand was chained up to the ceiling, our feet shackled to the steel bars drilled into the ground. Zeph was lost somewhere now, his eyes closed as Rebecca used a belt wrapped around her wrist to drive out his element. Phoenix seethed beside me, foam spilling from the bottom of his mask. Every agony-filled groan that came from my brothers clutched at the thing inside my chest.
I squeezed my eyes closed, wanting to return to Fallon, pleading with the gods to take me away from this barn and back in her presence where it was peaceful, calm. I didn’t know how I was able to do it just a moment before because that had never happened until now. It was a brief moment with her, and I suppose I’d somehow created it from the pain, officially losing my mind to a transient state.Take me back, take me back.
Another slash, and then, “I can’t anymore!” Phoenix growled, his head thrown back, brown hair drenched and sticking to his forehead.
“Now, now, Heathen. Remember who you’re doing this for. It will all be over soon” Clarence’s voice bounced off the barn walls from behind us. Groans and cries mixed in the humidity as one of the girls in the coven slashed Beck’s skin. A cold sweat split down the side of my face just when a whip cracked against my spine, and the pain spread throughout my body.
“Fuck,” I seethed, tensing and throwing my head back. Both of my hands were clenched into tight fists, knowing I couldn’t release my element right now.Not yet.
“Give it up, Blackwell,” Clarence barked, then another crack against my lower abdomen.
I hunched forward, and my hand yanked against the chain wrapped around my wrist. I grabbed my stomach with my free hand, my skin blistering and burning and raw. I just wanted it to stop, but I had to hold on. My eyes squeezed closed again when fingers brushed down my chest and my tightened abs. When they opened again, I saw a head full of brown hair. Flo, Winnifred’s friend, looked up at me with a fire in her eyes.
“Keep going, Florence. Don’t stop now, he’s almost there,” Clarence ordered.
Grinding my jaw, I shook my head, using everything to hold myself together. “You can’t touch me,” I gritted out. My chest heaved, and I yanked against the restraint. “YOU CAN’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!”
She cracked the chain against me again, and I focused on the bottle in the center of the Heathen circle that was ready to trap our elements. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold on, but the torture was the only way to exhume all five of our elements at once.
Zeph suddenly seized, and a green aurora radiated from his chest—the purest form of his magical air element. He dragged in a breath, still able to control it after his seizing dissipated, having done this a dozen times. Zephyr Goody was the best out of the three at controlling his magic, and I focused on the way his free hand guided it into the bottle from his chained position until a chartreuse-green hue filled the decanter. Winnifred plugged the opening, waiting on the next element. The girl unchained Zephyr, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Julian,” Flo sang, pushing her fingers through my wet hair.
My head swam in agony, my body spent. I lifted my gaze to Beck, and I could tell he was giving up. I slowly shook my head, prompting him to keep going. The only way out of it wasthroughit.
