“I’ll go with them,” Samuel said, sharing a respectful nod with Reed and Fiona. “I was going to head back to Alaska, but I don’t have anything back home more pressing than this.”
“If the three of you are willing to go, I can’t be too proud to accept the offer. But I think one of the maidens needs to go with you. Fiona needs protection, as do all the marked females.” Kane said solemnly.
“So, is everyone else going to Egypt?” I asked, scanning the much-larger group of remaining pack mates.
Kane was already shaking his head. Arguments ensued, my impatience growing by the second, but in the end, it was agreed that we’d split into three groups.
The first group would get the piece here in Canada. Galyna would go with them to protect Fiona from any more issues with the ODL and, I quote, “To avoid sand in her fucking boots.”
The second group consisted of me, Olivia, Shay, and Dirge, heading to Egypt. After some disagreement, it was agreed that Oli was safe enough with both her mate and a full-powered greater fae at her back.
Elodie would stay with Brielle, Kane, Leigh, and Gael. We’d all be meeting back at the enclave as soon as it was safe, but no later than the day before the full moon, for our bonding ceremony.
The group was just about to disperse for a night of solid rest before we split up when a thought occurred to me. “How are we going to get to Egypt? The pack jet should probably stay here, in case most of the pack needs to get to the enclave quickly.”
Shay snorted, throwing an arm around Oli’s shoulders as she smirked at me like I was missing something obvious.
It was Dirge who finally filled me in. “How do you feel about light travel?”
Shit.
We were gonna get flashed across the world by a fae. My groan had everyone laughing.
Olivia
The next morning dawned like any other, except I woke up in the arms of my mate, content. It was a beautifully mundane experience, and I wanted ten thousand more exactly like it.
He kissed me good morning before he climbed out of bed, and I was a woman obsessed.
Only partly with watching his bare ass flex as he crossed the room, disappearing into the bathroom. The bigger part was just the feeling of us being solid for the first time. Sure, we’d had sex and it was mind-blowing-but in this moment, it felt like we were on real, solid ground.
There was a comfort in it, in him, that I had never experienced before.
My dad had been my world growing up, but it wasn’t the same, the way a little girl put her daddy on a pedestal compared to the love of mates. Lucien completed me in ways I hadn’t realized were incomplete before.
I kept my thoughts to myself as we got ready for our journey, packing our few belongings into backpacks. The hiking boots, unfortunately, got to come along, but hopefully, this time, it would be quicker to find what we were looking for. The phoenixes weren’t there, and they weren’t actively hiding from us.
Within an hour, we’d loaded up, had breakfast, and shared hugs with the pack as everyone parted ways. All that was left to do was step onto the lawn with Shay and Dirge.
My stomach flipped with curiosity and anxiety in equal measure as she asked us all to touch her arm.
“Everybody ready for the ride of a lifetime?” she asked, grinning from ear to ear as she looked from me to Lucien, then Dirge.
“Not at all,” Lucien grumbled, but he closed his eyes in easy acceptance anyway.
“Is it scary?” I asked, even though I’d meant to keep my trepidations to myself.
“Not for the fae, it’s not. Just… don’t let go.” Shay winked, and then, before I could ask a follow-up question, everything around us turned to light.
Solid objects bled into streaks of color, making me think my eyes were playing tricks on me for a split second.
Then my stomach kicked into gear, vicious nausea, as if the force was trying to rip my stomach out through my throat. A hiss escaped my lips as the world faded to nothing but white, and time lost all meaning.
After what felt like both a thousand years and a single blink, my feet hit semisolid earth, and our new surroundings came into focus.
Well, they would have if I hadn’t bent over and puked up my breakfast into the sand.
Lucien was there, holding my hair back and whispering soothing words. To my surprise, when I’d finished, he handed me a real cloth hanky, with baby blue initials monogrammed in one scallop-edged corner. LVJ, the V very grand and curlicued in the middle.
I cleaned myself up, then gave him a regretful smile. “That was too fancy for cleanup duty.”
His smile was tinged with sadness. “Just a memento, nothing that can’t be laundered.”
Before I could ask who it was a memento from-I’d assumed the initials were his, Lucien J. Vasilescu-Dirge was ready to get moving.
I’ll ask him later.
“So, where are we going?” I asked instead, seeing nothing before us but empty sand. “Because civilization appears to be behind us.”
Shay laughed quietly. “Phoenixes are solitary creatures, mostly. They would have built their nesting grounds well away from any human populations.”
“Ahh.” I tripped over the sand, one of the waves higher than I’d realized as we trudged along. “In that case, I don’t think we packed enough water.” I only had two bottles in the drink pockets of my pack, and that was just because it was sometimes inconvenient to find when you were traveling. When they said we were going to Egypt, I envisioned modern Egypt.
“My pack and Dirge’s pack are both full,” Lucien said, hiking easily at my side, unaffected by the massive amount of weight his pack must have been holding. “Reed worked with a local magical historian last night and, one obscenely large bank deposit later, said this was the direction to go if we were interested in phoenix history. Supposedly, it’s walkable if you’re willing to spend the whole day in the desert.”
“But don’t worry, if we get in bad shape, I can always flash us somewhere safe,” Shay added.
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