Chapter 420

“So,” Ben says, his mouth turning down as he heaves an awkward shrug. “In the thousand times that I imagined meeting you…it never went like this.”

Elias stays still for a moment before his shoulders twitch and he lifts his head to look Ben in the eyes. “You mean you never imagined introducing yourself to me in the Land of Darkness? Inside a cage that my brother built to keep his mate trapped here? With said brother laying at our feet, gasping for air?”

Ben just stares at Elias for a second before Elias’s face breaks into a wry smile and Ben stumbles out a laugh. God – god damn it – but he’s hot and he’s funny? Shit. Shit, but he lucked out on this one.

“Are you okay?” Ben asks, taking three hesitant steps forward, his hand lifting towards his mate without him really meaning to.

Elias shrugs and, to Ben’s surprise, takes his hand – just lightly. “I’m surprisingly okay. Gabriel has been…challenging lately. And he murdered our cousin last night, so I guess I’m not entirely surprised that divine retribution came and bit him in the ass like this. Though I am surprised that Ariel was the one who did it. I…didn’t know she had that kind of grit.”

“Ariel poisoning someone,” Ben murmurs, looking down at the dying Prince, “is…oddly enough the one part of this situation that does not surprise me.”

Elias huffs another laugh and glances up at Ben, a little shy. But he doesn’t pull his hand away.

They’re quiet for a long few moments.

“Hey, so,” Ben says, trying desperately hard to be casual. “…so, Pippa?”

“Yeah,” Elias says, lifting his head and looking Ben square in the eye. Ben turns towards him and squeezes his hand, hoping that Elias feels his support, that he can tell him whatever he wants. “Pippa is my Luna. We’re married. She’s…my best friend in the entire world and…I’m not leaving her behind.”

“I…would never ask you to leave her behind,” Ben says, giving a simple shrug, telling the utter truth. Anyone who is family to Elias is family to him now. “And…the baby?”

“Yeah,” Elias says, heaving a sigh and letting his shoulders slump. “That’s…mine. We’re going to have a daughter…kind of any day now.”

“Wow,” Ben says, smiling despite himself, kind of…god, is it weird that he kind of likes that? It’s going to be insanely complicated, and he has no idea how Pippa will feel about Ben being Elias’s mate but… “daughters are amazing, Elias. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” Elias says, squeezing Ben’s hand back, a hesitant smile coming to his mouth. “Yeah, I’m really excited. Though…” his cheeks puff out with air, an exasperated sigh. “I’m not crazy about bringing a little girl into the world amidst so much chaos. I kind of…wanted a simpler life for her.”

“Well, whatever you need,” Ben says quietly, stepping closer, meaning it with his entire heart. “I’m here for you. I’ll help…however I can.”

Elias looks back at his mate in surprise, not used to such an honest offer of aid from a relative stranger. But his wolf howls and eagerly shifts from foot to foot, urging Elias to take it – to leap forward and accept this with his whole heart. The help, and Ben, and the bond – all of it.

Elias steps forward too, pulling Ben towards him with a tug on his hand, just one step –

When suddenly, Ariel appears before them.

“Hi!” I say, snapping my hands to my hips and grinning between Ben and Elias, who hastily drop each other’s hands. My smile widens as I take in their blushing cheeks, but as I laugh I go to one knee at Gabriel’s side and look him over, giving them the space they need to regain their composure.

After all, I’ve got a poisoned mate on my hands. And I really should be worrying about that instead of my bestie’s love life.

Elias clears his throat. “Is Pippa getting the antidote?”

“Yup!” I say, still not looking up at them and instead taking in the basics of Gabriel’s condition and reaching out to take his pulse, which is slow but not erratic. “She said fifteen minutes.”

“Ariel, why did you half poison him in the first place?” Ben asks, his voice a little frustrated. “If you wanted him gone, why didn’t you just…go whole hog? Did you not have enough cyanide?”

I glance up at him. “No, I have enough,” I murmur, taking a deep breath and folding my legs beneath me as I settle in next to Gabriel and take his hand. “I don’t want him dead. I just want him – and his wolf – incapacitated. For a bit.”

“Ariel,” Elias says, stepping forward towards me, putting the pieces together before Ben does. “Don’t do it. It’s not worth it.”

I sigh, giving Gabriel’s hand a squeeze and looking up at my friends. “You don’t get it, Elias,” I say, a little sad. “If I accept the bond, I have access to his magic. And I can experiment with it, try to understand why…why my grandmother gave me this mate to begin with.”

“But the corruption will spread,” Elias says, kneeling down on Gabriel’s other side and reaching across him to squeeze my shoulder. “It’s not worth it, Ariel – what I watched Gabriel go through? I can’t watch you do it too.”

“Corruption?” Ben asks, his voice suddenly frantic. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve come this far,” I say with a sigh, shaking my head at him. “No time like the present. And if it starts to corrupt, I can always just…break the bond.”

I sigh, looking down at Gabriel, hoping desperately that it’s true.

“Ariel, please,” Elias begs.

But it’s too late.

I say a little prayer to my grandmother for protection, and close my eyes, and give my wolf a little nod. She stands at the edge of my soul and lifts her nose high, proud and regal, her pretty rose-gold fur blowing in some phantom wind.

And then we accept the bond, which snaps into place between my soul and Gabriel’s.

His wolf shifts in his place sunk deep in the oil, eager, hungry. My wolf steps back, afraid and ready to run. I tense, both in my body and in my soul, ready to break the bond – to reject him – to flee…

But Gabriel’s wolf collapses back into the oil, unable to stir.

I open my eyes in the Land of Darkness and find Gabriel’s eyes fluttering open, searching for me. His mouth moves, making shapes, perhaps trying to say my name. And guilt rushes through me as I feel, anew, his pain – his physical pain, and his emotional agony.

God, how horrible, how terrible – the corruption just clangs through him. How can he have survived this for years?

“Oh, Gabriel,” I murmur, reaching out and stroking a hand over his hair. “You poor thing.”

He moans a little, turning his head towards my hand, even though I’m not sure he’s fully conscious.

“What’s happening?” Ben asks, tense.

“It’s okay,” I say, glancing up at Ben and Elias. “As long as he’s…out, I don’t think he can corrupt me. But when he was healthy…he certainly wanted to. Which means we don’t have a lot of time.”

“Well, all right then, Princess,” Ben says, his personality and his humor coming back to him now that some of his fear has subsided. I look up and smirk to see him looking down at me with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. “You got what you wanted, so? What’s your magic say?”

I smile a little and close my eyes, squeezing my mate’s hand as I pull on his magic. It comes flooding towards me, as Jackson’s does when I pull on it – the magic of a man well used to using it. And to my relief, no corruption comes with it. Instead, I begin to explore the blue light that seems to fill my body – the same light blue magic – almost white - that manifested itself in shackles around my hand, stopping my power.

And I begin to understand it, then. Elias’s power’s functions as a shield, as a block to other magics, a nullifier. Unboosted by the commitment that he made to Darkness five years ago, it could work as a personal shield, something he could wrap around himself so that magical influence can’t touch him.

But I frown as I realize that…it’s so much more than that.

That Gabriel’s magic has two sides. It functions as a stop to magic – an emphatic no, a shield.

But as I experiment with the blue light I realize that it…it also functions as an impetus, as a catalyst.

A huge smile spreads across my face as I open my eyes.

“What?” Ben asks, grinning at me. I laugh as I look up into his face. “What’s that smile for?”

“I get it,” I whisper, shaking my head in awe. “In the end it’s…it’s so simple. Three mates for the three elements of fire. One for air, one for fuel, and one for…” I look down at Gabriel and shake my head. “And one for a spark.”

Immediately I pull on the magic that Luca gifted me with his mark and let wind curl in the Land of Darkness. And then I use my physical connection to Gabriel to pull on his, adding it to Luca’s air.

Elias, Ben, and I all gasp as sparks appear all around us, blue and lovely, soaring through the air, eager and ready to fly.

“Now all we need is Jacks,” I whisper, staring around in delight at the magic. “And then we can really see what I can do.”

“Great,” a voice says, ringing out, making me laugh as I snap my head left towards the sound. “I love it when I have perfect timing.”