Then, the rhythm began.
It wasn't the chaotic war for dominance that Kaelen and Flynn had waged. This was a symphony.
Thane thrust upward, heavy and relentless, hitting the deepest part of me, anchoring me in the physical world. As he withdrew, Elias dove in, sharp and deep, hitting a different angle, sparking fires along my spine.
I was the instrument they were playing.
"More," I gasped. My vision blurred, tunneling down to the sensation of them stretching me, filling me, claiming me. "Don't stop."
"Never," Thane growled against my breast, his mouth finding my nipple through the torn fabric of my tunic, sucking hard.
The sensation sent a bolt of pure lightning straight to my core. I squeezed my eyes shut, rocking my hips to meet them, trying to take everything they had. The magic in the room swelled, no longer just a hum but a roar in my ears. The golden markings on my skin flared blindingly bright, casting long, dancing shadows on the walls that looked like wings and claws.
Elias leaned over me, his chest pressing against my back, sandwiching me between himself and Thane. He bit the sensitive cord of my neck, his hand coming around to find my clit. His fingers moved with a scarily perceptive rhythm, circling, teasing, pushing me toward the edge.
"Feel it," Elias murmured into my ear, his breath coming in sharp pants. "The circuit closing. The vessel filling. You are endless, Aria. You are the sky."
"I'm going to—" My voice broke as Thane picked up the pace, his thrusts becoming harder, faster, driving me into Elias’s hand.
"Fly," Elias finished for me.
The pleasure crested, a tidal wave of white light that obliterated thought. I screamed, my body bowing taut as a wire. I clamped down around Thane, my muscles spasming, milking him.
Thane roared and drove into me one last time, burying himself to the hilt. I felt his release, a heavy, pulsing flood of earth magic that settled in my womb like stones in a riverbed.
A second later, Elias was inside me, thrusting frantically as my body still clenched and released. He shouted something in the old tongue, his body jerking against my back. He poured himself into me, his essence feeling like liquid starlight, effervescent and singing in my veins.
And then, the heavy, final piece slammed home.
It wasn't a sound. It was a shift in the universe.
I felt four distinct clicks in the center of my chest, like tumblers falling into place in a massive, cosmic lock. The bond wasn't just a thread anymore. It was a star.
I collapsed against Thane’s chest, panting, sweating, glowing like a beacon in the dark. I wasn’t just full; I was overflowing.
Eventually I rolled off Thane and the four of them seemed to cluster around me, each of them touching me in some way. Kaelen's hand on my stomach, Flynn's on my thigh, inching higher as though he was testing to see if I wanted to go again. Elias had twined his fingers with my own, and Thane was pressed against my side like a mountain range no one could cross without permission.
Time seemed to slow, or possibly even stop entirely for a moment as we all basked in the glow of what we had just done and the full bond we now all shared. I hadn't realized sex could be so amazing, so satisfying, anything other than clinical, really. My mind needed time to process, even though my heart was overjoyed with what we'd just done.
Through the bond, I could feel them all watching me, though trying not to.
"We need to move," I said, the words rolling off my tongue with an authority that wasn't entirely my own. I sat up, ignoring the way my muscles protested the movement. "The Void song masked us for now, but Hera will still be looking for us."
"Let her come," Thane grunted, finally giving me space. His massive frame blocked out the remaining light from the tunnel as he stood first, before offering me a hand, his expression satisfied but with an edge of worry to it. "We aren't running anymore."
I took his offered hand, letting him pull me to my feet. "No," I agreed, feeling the collective rage of four demigods simmeringjust beneath my skin, waiting for a target. "We aren't running. We're hunting."
But as I took a step toward where the rags of my clothing had been abandoned on the floor, a sound stopped us all dead.
From the darkness of the tunnel we had just descended through, the one leading back to the surface, back to the Throat, back to Hera, came a rhythmic noise.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It wasn't Steve. Not only was the sound wrong, but I could see he was asleep in the corner, completely unbothered by what I'd just done with my men.
It was the sound of a cane against stone.
"Impossible," Elias breathed, pushing himself off the wall, his light flaring defensively.
