Page 72 of The Lost Elemental

I didn’t look away from his stare. “I won’t let you use me. I won’t be some dumping ground for your pain and anger. You want me? You’re going to have to shred that damn mask and keep showing me who you really are.”

Kai let out a low growl and stalked towards the bed. “You want to see the fucking mess that’s inside me? The fact that I’m never without a knife.” He slid a blade from his waistband. “Usually three.”

He pulled one from the other side of his waistband and another from a holster around his ankle. He placed each one down on the nightstand with a clang.

I looked from the blades to his face. “You do what you have to do to feel safe.”

“I don’t know how to let you in.” His words were pained, as if saying them took everything he had.

I reached out, gripping Kai’s shirt and pulling him towards me. My hand went to his face as I ignored the pain along my ribs. “You’re doing it right now. We have to show each other the ugly if we have any hope of living in the good.”

Kai swallowed hard. “We want you.”

Heat flared to life in my body, that buzz turning to a hum that had the potential to make me take flight. I looked around to each of the guys. “All of you?”

So much had been swirling around me lately. Discoveries and threats. Explosions of power and fears taking hold. I hadn’t had a chance to wrap my head around this possibility. That these friendships might become so much more.

Atlas leaned forward, his thumb tracing along my jaw. “All of us. Never wanted someone more.” He pressed a featherlight kiss to my lips, the barest tease of a touch.

Sparks danced in Phoenix’s eyes as Atlas pulled away. “You already know the answer to that question, Aura. You felt it the first time we were on that roof. There’s something meant to be between you and me.”

Everything in me tightened at those words, because they were true. I’d felt a calmness with Phoenix that had made no sense from that first moment.

“But royals don’t share. Not anymore.” It was something that Kerry had told me. After the aethers had died out, the royals had begun taking a single mate, leaving a king and queen for each kingdom.

“Do you think we give a fuck what’s expected of us?” Phoenix growled.

“This will only bind us closer together,” Kai added.

My gaze traveled to the door. “Riven doesn’t want me.”

Kai chuckled. “Oh, he wants you. He just thinks he can’t let himself have you.”

“Trust me, there’s been zero want vibes coming from that direction. More like abject hatred.”

Atlas’s thumb swept back and forth across my jaw. “Give him time, Aura. I’ve known him since we were born. He’s working things out.”

“But we can’t wait around for him to pull his head out of his ass,” Kai quipped. “We move forward. He’ll catch up or he won’t.”

“The power surges…” The whole reason I’d bolted from the clearing in the first place. “I could kill one of you and not even mean to.”

Phoenix traced circles on my thigh, sending a cascade of shivers over my skin. “We’ll be careful. The minute one of us feels an overload, we pull back.”

“All it took was one kiss in the forest—”

“You mean a make-out session,” Atlas said with a chuckle.

I glared at him. “You know what I mean.”

Phoenix linked my fingers with his. “We’ll slowly get used to the new power levels. It’ll take some time, but Aura, we know how to handle an overload of power. Even earlier, I would’ve gotten it under control if you hadn’t stepped in to play superhero.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. But I also couldn’t imagine walking away from Phoenix, Atlas, and Kai. Because somehow it already felt as if they had a piece of my heart.

Kai looked down at me, so much hope in his gaze. “All we’re asking is for you to try.”

“You’ll let me in?” I asked.

Anxiety flickered in those blue-green depths. “I’ll let you in.”