Footsteps clattered down the staircase. Flynn appeared at the doorway first, that cheeky grin plastered across his face. Rowan was next, the front of his shirt dusted with flour. “Arthur and Blake were out in the garden,” he said. “I told them to come inside.”
“What, together?”
Rowan smiled. “I don’t think so. Arthur was swinging his sword. Blake came from the back of the garden, but I don’t know what he was doing. He ordered enough curry to feed an army and he took a couple of boxes outside with him.”
Blake appeared then, his black hair tousled and wet leaves stuck to his sleeve. He carried a bowl of curry fresh from the microwave. As he shot me that scintillating grin of his, I remembered what he’d said to me last night. A shiver of power raced along my spine.
Finally, Arthur’s bulk appeared in the doorway. He wore one of his black metal t-shirts with an indecipherable band logo across the front. Sweat dripped from his body as he strode across the room and stood by the window, remote and resolute.
“Have a seat, Arthur. Or don’t, if you don’t want to. Standing is fine,” I babbled.
“You’re nervous,” Corbin said. “Maeve, is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Finally, something is actuallyright. Or, at least it could be right. I’m wondering…I don’t know…” Heat flared into my cheeks. I took a deep breath and started again. “You’re right, I’m nervous. I want to say something to all of you, and it’s a bit unconventional, and I don’t know how you’re going to take it.”
“You’ve decided to give up the space program to become goalie of the Shamrock Rovers?” Flynn asked, flicking a red curl out of his eye.
”Shut up for a minute and let her talk,” Arthur said.
“Corbin explained to me that as the High Priestess, I draw my power from sexual encounters.” My cheeks flared with heat. How the hell was I going to get through this without dying? It wasn’t so hard being with the guys, but talking about it…yeesh. “We’ve seen this happen in practice, how I gained more power after each, um…encounterwith one or more of you.” The heat spread down the back of my neck. I must look like a tomato.
The guys exchanged looks – Flynn and Corbin and Blake smug, Rowan intense, Arthur furious.
“I know you all had an agreement that you’d try not to compete for me, that you’d sit back and let me choose which one of you would become my magister, whom I would use to draw down my power. I know that I have complete autonomy here – that I can choose any of you, or someone outside of this coven, or no one at all.”
“That’s true,” Corbin said firmly. “This is your choice, Maeve. We don’t want to pressure you.”
I took a deep breath. “I’ve decided that I don’t want to choose.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. There. I’d said it. I had given voice to the darkest perversion – to the thought that had occupied my mind ever since I’d seen that drawing of an orgy in our coven’s grimoire, ever since I’d thumbed through the pages ofSacred Polyamoryand discovered that this desire inside me had a long and complex history.
Silence.
Why isn’t anyone saying anything?I didn’t dare open my eyes, half expecting them all to have fled after my announcement. But no, I could still feel the weight of them in the room, their silence saying everything as loudly as it could.
A lump rose in my throat. Tears pressed at the corners of my eyes.I read this all wrong. They think I’m a freak. I should have known they’d never go for it.
After an eternity, Corbin cleared his throat. “Just to be clear, you want…”
“All of you,” I choked out. “Together or individually. I don’t care which.”
“You mean…” Flynn’s voice lifted. I still couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes.
“She means she wants us to shag all her holes at once,” Blake said.
“Well, fiddle-de-dee.” Flynn sounded stunned.
I opened one eye, then the other. All my guys were still there, looking from one to the other like they were just meeting for the first time.
Corbin glared at Blake, who loudly chewed a mouthful of butter chicken. “Do you have to be so crass?”
Blake shoved another spoonful into his mouth. “My curry was getting cold waiting for you all to say what you’re thinking. As the resident expert on this, I thought I’d fill you in.”
I glanced at him. “You’ve…done this before?”
“Fae don’t exactly have any hang-ups about monogamy,” Blake tore off a triangle of garlic naan and dipped it into his bowl. “One of the only good things about being banished to an alternative reality is that we missed all those centuries of English sexual repression. So, as soon as I finished this curry, what’s say we bend you over that desk and?—”
“Fuck!” Arthur growled.
