Then the hard part. Transforming back.
I reach for my human form, pulling the phoenix back inside me, compressing all that power and flame into a smaller shape. The transformation hurts, like shoving something massive through a tiny opening, but I've learned to handle the pain.
When I'm human again, naked and covered in soot, I'm panting but triumphant. "I did it."
"You did it perfectly," Harlow confirms, wrapping a blanket around me. "No hesitation, no loss of control, perfect execution."
We run through the sequence seven more times that day, until I can transform back and forth without thinking about it, until the movements are muscle memory instead of conscious effort.
By the time we finish, I'm exhausted and my fire is dim, but for the first time since this whole nightmare started, I actually believe we might pull this off.
That night, tangled in bed with my mates, I can't stop shaking. The anxiety is back, worse than before, and even Jade's feeding earlier isn't enough to take the edge off.
"You're spiraling again," Skye murmurs, his hand sliding down my chest. His power flows through his touch, warm and grounding, but it's not enough. "Let us help."
Jade shifts behind me, his demon heat pressing against my back. "He needs more than feeding tonight," he says, his voice rough with hunger. "He needs to feel wanted. Cherished. Reminded that he's ours."
Skye's eyes darken with understanding. "Then let's remind him."
What follows is slow and deliberate, my mates taking turns showing me exactly how much I mean to them. Skye's mouth on mine, soft and reverent, while Jade's hands map my body like he's memorizing every inch. Harlow's cold lips trace down my spine, the contrast with my fire making me gasp. Rumi's divine warmth surrounds us all, amplifying every sensation until I can't tell where I end and they begin.
Ambrose doesn't touch me directly, but his contracts weaving around us, binding us together in ways that transcend physical contact. I feel all of them at once, five different flavors of love and desire and fierce protectiveness flooding through me.
When Jade finally wraps his hand around me, stroking slowly while Skye swallows my moans with kisses, I don't last long. The orgasm crashes through me like a wave, and for one perfect moment, there's no fear, no anxiety, no dread about tomorrow.Just pleasure and love and the absolute certainty that I belong to them and they belong to me.
After, Skye traces the bond marks on my arm while I float in satisfied exhaustion. "Tomorrow the journalists arrive. The day after, the hunters. Are you ready?"
I think about the question seriously. Am I ready? No. But I'm as prepared as I'm going to be, and I have five mates who just spent an hour proving they'll stand with me no matter what happens.
"I'm ready," I say, and this time I actually believe it.
14
SKYE
Onedaybeforethetest, and Ambrose's journalist contacts start arriving at Grimrose. I'm in my office when Tamara brings the first one to meet me, a sharp-eyed woman named Vera Chen who runs an independent Magila news network that's been critical of Council overreach for years.
"Counselor Bardot," she greets me, analyzing me and cataloging the details. Spirit elemental, I think, though her energy reads differently than most. More layered, more complex. "Or should I say Praestes?"
The title still feels strange. Like wearing someone else's clothes, something I haven't quite grown into yet even though Mother Nature insists it fits perfectly.
"Skye is fine."
She nods, settling into the chair across from my desk with the ease of someone used to interviewing people in uncomfortable situations. Through the window, I see students going about their day, but there's a tension in the air that wasn't there a week ago. Everyone knows what's coming. The whispers follow me everywhere now, speculation and fear and hope all mixed together.
"I need to be clear about what I'm agreeing to," Vera says, pulling out recording equipment that looks more advanced than anything I've seen. Compact cameras, audio recorders, something that looks like it might transmit directly to satellites. "If this demonstration goes the way Ambrose suggests it will, if the hunters declare your mate dangerous despite clear evidence of control, I'm putting my entire network at risk by broadcasting it. The Council could shut us down, strip my license, possibly arrest me and my entire team for sedition."
"I know." My throat tightens with the weight of what we're asking her to do. "And I'm grateful you're willing to take that risk. More grateful than I can express."
"I'm not doing it for gratitude." Her eyes are hard, the look of someone who's lost too much to the system we're fighting against. "I'm doing it because I had a sister. She manifested an essence type that didn't fit the seven elements. Something between water and spirit, could manipulate mist and fog in ways that should have been impossible. Beautiful, really. She could create entire landscapes out of nothing but moisture in the air."
Vera pauses, her jaw tightening with old pain. "The Council sent evaluators when she was fifteen. They declared her unstable after watching her for exactly twenty minutes. They stripped her essence three days later, didn't even give us time to say goodbye properly or prepare her for what was coming."
The pain in her voice is raw, even years later. The bond marks on my arm pulse as my mates, spread across the campus, respond to the story.
"I'm sorry about your sister," I say quietly, meaning it.
"Don't be sorry. Help me make sure no one else ends up like her." Vera's expression hardens with determination, with purpose that's clearly been driving her for years. "Show me everything. I want to document not just the test, but the preparation. I want the world to see who Stellan is before the hunters try to destroy him. I want them to see what Grimrose really is, what the rejection system actually does to people."
