“Ladies, we’re scouting, not pouting,” Zyion rebuked, which caused Ember to snort.
“I’d be scouting your dick, but ours is waiting for us to rescue him,” Ember pointed out. “And he’s not the smartest, but he’s an excellent hunter. Plus, he kisses me and fucks Aria so hard that she sleeps soundly, and I don’t have to hear her inner mind complain nonstop about everything that could go wrong on an endless loop.”
“Seriously, you hear my thoughts, too?” I muttered in frustration. Was nothing I did private?
“No, nothing. That’s why I’d make the best emotional support dragon.”
“I see you gave yourself an upgrade already. Why am I not surprised,” I said pointedly, “that you already upgraded yourself from an ‘animal’ to a ‘dragon’? Wait, how come I can’t hear you when I’m the one riding bitch in my body? And is it your thoughts I’m always hearing? Because that would explain so much! I guess I probably sound the same to you sometimes?” I asked, then remembered I couldn’t see through our eyes when she was in control. If it was her inner thoughts, and not her actually speaking? That would explain why she was so horny all the time, or her endless complaints of hunger.
“That is your creature speaking directly to you, Aria. You cannot see through her eyes because you’re not feral enough to peer through the eyes of a primal predator,” Eva said inside my head. My hackles went up, but Ember preened. “It’s not your fault. None of us see through the eyes of our beast well. Mostly, it’s shapes or outlines. Occasionally, they want us to see something and allow our sight to merge. You’ve been cutting Ember off, which I’m assuming you haven’t realized.”
“Honestly, I didn’t even know I had a shut-off switch from her accessing everything.” Eva was about to be my best lesbian . . . best friend. Fucking Ember.
“Aria apparently wants to be your best lesbian now, Eva. But if you teach her how to shut me out, I’ll fucking eat you.”
“Probably not the best retort after the previous statement, Ember. Plus, I enjoy both men and women. So, if you want to eat me, I’m not opposed to meaningless sex.” Eva’s words caused my head to snap toward her, even as my eyes thinned and my lips tipped into a deep frown. My nose revealed the deep, scarlet color that spread from my ears to my chest.
“Um, thanks, but no thanks? I like my meat, Eva,” I squeaked, which caused those around me to snicker.
“Am I missing something?” Killian asked, a frown line deepening between his brows. “Do you need me to hunt for you, Aria? I know Knox would if he were here, but I can do so if you need me to.”
“I can take it or leave it personally. It isn’t worth the heartache caused by what’s attached to the other end of that pole. Meaningless sex, on the other hand, I can leave before they wake, which bypasses them becoming clingy bastards.” Eva’s words caused my shoulders to shake.
“What the fuck?” Acheron’s angry shout jerked our focus from Eva’s rant to where Siobhan, Avyanna, and Soraya were hitting him with large sticks. “Fucking stop hitting me! Fucking banshees!”
“You were trying to eat her!” Soraya scoffed, kicking his knee, finally sending him to the ground.
“And that is why we didn’t eat her, Ember. Because friends are not food,” I chirped.
“You should probably stop them,” Esme muttered.
“I will in a moment. He deserves it for calling us women as if it is a slander against us.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I laughed at the sight of the girls all whacking Acheron. Even as he threw his arms up to cover his head protectively from the branches they used to belt him with. Laughter threatened to spill from my lips at the sight of the large dragon prince on the ground, getting walloped by my girls.
“This is what you wanted to retrieve for a fucking fight?” Eva asked, horror gripping firmly to her tone.
“They’re witches, Eva. Not monsters. And, yes, because if it goes down as I think it will, we’re going to need to a few people with the ability to portal out of the Kingdom of V?kya.” Strolling forward, I felt Ember’s uncertainty. “You have an issue with them, too?”
“My issue isn’t with them, Aria,” she breathed. “It’s with you doing this while we’re well . . . pregnant.” Ember had whispered the single word, and it sent me spiraling down into a dark, horrid void of fear.
I stopped dead in my tracks as bitterness roiled in my belly, scorching the back of my throat as I leaned over at the waist, throwing up. “You fucking asshole,” I whispered thickly. “Damn it, Ember. Goddamn it! I told you no, didn’t I?”
Everyone around me stopped, staring as I up-chucked what little I’d managed to eat this morning. Fear pierced my heart as Ember’s words echoed through them, repeating what she’d just disclosed. Pregnant? Now? Fuck! Glancing around, I met the pitying stares before groaning with horror and embarrassment.
“I’m sorry. But I promised Lennox I would so that he didn’t force you to open our womb for him. Honestly, I didn’t think it would happen so quickly after we’d lost the little girls.”
“Don’t. Don’t even say it right now. It changes nothing. The rest of you listening? I swear to my soul that I’ll rip your fucking heart out if any of you mention it to Killian or Esme. For now, we aren’t going there. I’m staying the course. Without Knox, I don’t want to be a mother. Not in the middle of a bloody, brutal fucking war.”
“Avyanna, Siobhan, and Soraya? It isn’t nice to beat the welcome party,” I called, before wiping my lips off with the back of the cloak I’d worn, and rinsing my mouth with water. My eyes drifted back, finding those who’d overheard Ember’s confession peering at me, with both worry and pity clear on their faces. The sound of the girls’ happy squeals forced me to turn toward them as they barreled over the clearing, racing right for us.
“You’re finally back!” Siobhan said, hugging Esme to her. “I feared you and Aria had ended up trapped there. You’d never believe what’s been happening here.”
“Yeah, well, we lost track of time, I guess you could say.” Esme grinned widely, tightly hugging her sister to her.
“It wasn’t Knox who attacked you,” I admitted, cutting their reunion short.
Soraya stepped beside me as Avyanna moved to the other side, observing the sisters still clinging to one another.
“I saw his eyes,” Soraya snorted. “I’m so sorry, Aria.”
“He isn’t dead.” I argued in a cold, angry tone. She turned, staring at me. “If we can reach him in time, I think I can try to remove the darkness before she can fully claim him.”