Undying Hate~ Book Three
Chapter 17

“The Crowning is tomorrow; we can’t go to Stone Court.”

Kerensa scowled at Kian and Elias as they shut down her request. Sylvie stood, head down in the corner of Kian’s room, still ashamed of almost attacking them hours earlier.

“Did you listen to a word I said?”

“I did,” Kian replied. “But making sure Kol is the right choice for leadership of Evergreen and the four Courts should be our priority. I know you haven’t missed his behaviour.”

Sylvie stifled a scoff as her mates looked at her, a question on their brow.

“Oh, it’s nothing. He and I just don’t get along-”

Kerensa clicked her tongue against her teeth and paced the room. “He is what he is, and we can’t do anything about it now. He’s back, and he will be king. The people have already celebrated his return. The crowning is just a formality.”

“A formality we must attend.”

With a hiss, Kerensa stormed from the room, leaving Sylvie standing awkwardly, her hands sweating and clutched together as if she were a child who had just received a scolding. She was on Kerensa’s side for once, though, and that felt great.

“Come here, kitten.”

Without looking up, she padded over and collapsed into Elias’ open arms, burying her face in his chest. His cool touch eased the heat of her cheeks, and Kian’s gentle caress down her back soothed her turbulent emotions.

“I’m s-”

“Don’t you dare-” Kian grumbled, poking her ribs as she squirmed.

“We know that you can’t control it,” Elias added before she could apologise for apologising. She pulled away and walked to the bathroom. Her heart started racing as she formed a plan in her mind. One that would show just how sorry she was and might make them follow Kerensa’s idea. She was just as desperate to go to Stone Court and see if her visions were real.

“What are you doing?” Kian asked, clearly sensing her weird vibes as she paused in the doorway. Then, glancing over her shoulder, mustering as much coyness as possible, she offered a small half-smile.

“Freshening up. Would you both care to join me?”

Kian swallowed, but Elias rose to his feet with a smirk clapping his shoulder as he walked past him.

She slipped into the bathroom, stripping her clothes quickly with a grin.

The hands sliding across her body before she could even reach the shower made her gasp with delight. Her eyes rolled back as the rest of her clothes were torn from her body, and hot kisses trailed along both sides of her neck.

“I’m supposed to be apologising to you,” she sighed, running her hands down past their belts. The bulges straining for her drew a moan from her lips. “Let me show you.” She licked her lips. “Just how sorry I am.”

She fell to her knees in front of her mates and blinked up at them through her lashes.

“You don’t need to-”

She stopped Kian with a look.

“But I want to.” She turned her gaze to Elias then. “May I?”

A slow smile crept up his lips as he stood over her. “Spread your knees wider. Place your hand’s palm up on top of them.”

With a spreading blush, she did as he asked, letting her eyes waver between Elias and Kian. A slight pang hit her chest as she thought of Rowan, but Kian’s smile gave her pause. Before she could ask what he was thinking, he gave her a wink, and Elias snatched up her chin. “Eyes on me.”

“Yes, sir.”

A low hum in his throat made her eyelids flutter.

“Undo Kian’s belt. Then mine.”

She bit her lip following his order and went further, unzipping Elias’ trousers. He slapped her hand away like a bolt of lightning, and she cradled it despite the smile on her face. She wondered briefly what Kian thought of Elias’ handling, but the hardness of his cock answered her perfectly.

“Take out his cock.” She almost squealed with delight as Elias gave her permission, and she did it, running her curled hand up and down his silky length.

“Now mine.”

“Oh fuck,” she whispered, using her left hand to release him and rub circles with her thumb over his head.

“Can I?” she asked them, waiting for Kian and Elias to answer.

Both appeared strained as she batted her lashes at them, almost coming undone as she licked her lips.

Kian broke first, nodding as his adams apple bobbed while Elias held on a moment longer. She continued her slow stroking of him while taking Kian into her mouth, her eyes locking with Elias. He nodded a fraction, and she pulled back, letting the suction of Kian’s cock make a popping sound. She moved to Elias, letting him go deeper than comfortable but trusting him implicitly. Neither bucked their hips or touched her head as she moved between them.

As if their bodies were electric, a current of bliss spread up both of Sylvie’s hands latched around their lengths, and her lips buzzed. A hiss from Elias and a strangled groan from Kian revealed they felt it, too, as she drew them both to orgasm. She let their come warm her body, the white rivulets beading across her breasts and belly.

Despite not touching herself once, she moaned as the familiar undulating pulses of pleasure clenched her walls, and she cried out, startling both of her mates in the process. Kian pulled her to her feet while Elias pulled her into his arms, cutting the circuit of pleasure they had been feeling and forcing tiredness into her bones.

“Damn.”

“Damn’s right, kitten. Now let’s get you cleaned up.”

She knew they told her not to, but after the millionth nightmare of Stone Court in ruin, she couldn’t help herself. So Sylvie wandered the halls alone, letting the cool breeze of the Fae night in Evergreen ease the burn still on her skin.

Kerensa’s door passed by; silence lay behind it, and she trekked on. She hummed a wordless tune softly as her hands brushed by each open window, pausing when she reached the spot she almost fell to her death on her wedding night. A smile tugged on her lips when a shiver ran down her spine.

“Perving from the shadows, are we?” she asked wryly, turning to where Kol stood, his purple iris’s flickering in the darkness.

“Here to congratulate me?”

She exhaled sharply from her nose as if it could shoo away his bad vibes. “Don’t think you should be celebrating so prematurely.”

“Are you threatening me?” He stepped forward one quiet foot at a time. He moved like a cornered feline.

Sylvie leaned back against the wall and opened her hands. “Not at all. It’s just- It’s fascinating to me.”

“What?”

She crossed her arms and shrugged. “Well, I know Fae grieve differently from what I’m used to, but you- you just seem so, well, so indifferent to Katarina’s death.”

He sneered. “Watch what you imply, whore.”

A demonic growl from Sylvie’s left made them both stand up rod straight.

“And you watch what you say to our bonded,” Elias said with a brutal look. “You are the reason your son was abused for years. You are considerably lucky he asked me not to harm you but disrespect my mate again, and I won’t hesitate to rip your head from your pathetic shoulders.”

Kol’s expression darkened as Elias guided Sylvie behind him and into Kian’s waiting arms. He had been hidden in shadow, and Sylvie was certain Kol hadn’t seen him yet. She pressed her lips together as Kol grunted.

“You pretend to be different, but you are not.”

The silence between them was icy, and the most subtle tensing of Elias’s shoulders proved he had struck a nerve.

“You are exactly like him."

“And you are nothing like your son.”

Elias spun, not waiting for a rebuttal and ushered them back to the room, keeping them concealed behind his hulking frame.

As they passed the safety of Kian’s room, instead of chastising Sylvie for running away, Elias turned straight for Kian.

“Are you alright?” His hands gripped both of Kian’s shoulders, and they held each other’s gaze for a long time, with Sylvie pinned between them. Despite the intensity of the question, Sylvie felt safe with her mates surrounding her, and she nuzzled deeper into Kian’s warm chest.

“I’m fine,” Kian finally answered, kissing Sylvie’s head. That seemed to snap Elias out of his stupor, and he trailed his hand down Sylvie’s back.

“We’ll talk about your wandering later.” He turned back to bed, climbing in and turning his back to them. For once, the threat of punishment didn’t excite her. Instead, she sulked back to bed, opting for the edge as Kian wordlessly took the middle.

She stared at Kian’s door for a while until the bed shifted, and Elias appeared in front of her, sitting in the crook of her belly from the foetal position she lay in.

“I’m not gonna leave again.”

“Don’t.”

“Elias, I-”

“I said don’t.”

She snapped her teeth shut and scowled, squeezing her eyes closed and scooting away just in spite of him. Kian’s warmth soothed her back, but she couldn’t ignore the iciness from her front.

Peeking one eye open, she eyed Elias. He hadn’t moved, but his hunched posture held a weariness she hadn’t seen from him before. He was always so put together and unbreakable, but the way his over-tousled hair brushed his cheekbones changed that perception and Sylvie scooted back towards him. He absently placed his hand across her hip as he continued staring at the door as she had before.

“I can’t lose you. Any of you,” he said finally.

She bit her lip, fighting the urge to tell him he wouldn’t.

“Every second you’re out of my sight brings you closer to a fate I cannot protect you from that I cannot stop. I can feel it. And it’s killing me.”

His voice thickened like he was fighting emotion. Sympathetic tears swam in Sylvie’s eyes as if his sadness demanded company, and she snaked her hand across his thigh. His free hand clasped hers, his thumb running lines across her knuckles.

“I have never, and will never, love another as much as I love you, Sylvie. And I know I cannot steal you away from the world, but I wish you wouldn’t run headlong into it.” He sighed and raised her hand to his lips, offering a ghostly kiss.

Her mouth opened and closed, unable to come up with anything as he stood and returned to his side, leaving her with the company of her thoughts for the rest of the night.

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