Page 36 of The Queen of Ash and Magic

“Hold on,” I say. “I have a question.”

“Yes?” Mom asks.

“Dad, how old are you?” I ask.

“A year older than your mother,” he says simply.

“I thought children couldn’t mate? You were kids,” I say.

“So….” Mom says. “I was eighteen when I had you.”

“I thought you were thirteen?” I ask. “How… what?” I ask.

“I thought I was too,” she says. “I have huge gaps of time missing from my memories but the only thing I can equate that to is Rystar was more turned on by younger kids, so I was manipulated into thinking that I was younger. When I woke up months later, Salvor was the one who told me I was five years older.”

“So… am I actually twenty-three?” I ask.

“You are,” she says with a smile. “Although, your birthday is actually the day after you think it is. It was after midnight when I had you.”

“I assumed that was the case, but didn’t want to ask,” Drake laughs. “Blissful ignorance.”

“Okay. That’s all I want to know,” I say. “For now, at least. I haven’t sorted through all of your memories, so thingsare still jumbled.”

“You have a lot of information being thrown at you all at one time,” Dad says. “We are an open book, so ask whatever you want to know.”

“Okay,” I smile. “Night, guys.”

We watch them walk out and I get up to move away from them again. Eyrx hasn’t said a word, but I can feel the start of our mind link. “Lysa,” Drake says. “Come here.”

“Why?” I frown.

“Because I want to prove a point. Come here,” he says. I huff and roll my eyes as I walk over to him.

Drake stands me so that I’m facing Eyrx before casually undressing me. Eyrx’s eyes are scanning my body and he is incredibly tense. Julianna smiles as she does the same to him. As she starts to pull his clothes off, I can’t make myself look away. Every inch of his body is drawing me in. I thought he was handsome before but the more time that passes, the more those thoughts turn to how I see Drake.

“So, here’s the deal,” Drake says as he moves off to one side with Julianna on the other side. “You two are fighting the bond right now. I understand why, but I’m breaking you two of this shit right now. I care deeply about both of you, but you are hurting each other right now by fighting it. I want you both to stand like this until you break and let yourself go to the other.”

“You can’t force two people together,” Eyrx says simply.

“You forced me to be with him in the beginning,” I say with more of an attitude than I realize. He growls and Julianna giggles. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was I not supposed to point out that you are being a hypocrite?”

“Stop being a brat,” he snarls.

“Or what? You can’t even fucking stand to look at me,” I snap. “What kind of fucking mate bond is this? You would rather be anywhere but here, but now I’m fucking stuck standing here staring at you.”

“You know, I’d figure by now you'd have learned how to shut your fucking mouth,” he growls.

“Oh, fuck you, Eyrx,” I say with a heavy layer of sass.

“Well, that’s one way to build a bond,” Julianna laughs.

“It will make for quite an interesting show,” Drake chuckles.

“What? Was I not supposed to point out when you’re being a bitch?” he asks with a frown.

“Why are you even fucking here?!” I scream at him. “If you don’t fucking want this, then walk away. Why is it that hard?”

“Because I fucking love you, Lysa. I felt it the moment I walked into that goddamn room in Thalorin, but I resisted it. I fucking tortured myself trying to keep from bending you over and taking you every fucking time you had an attitude. Do you know how fucking close I came to taking you on that balcony? I kept resisting it and I didn’t know why. Then you mated with him. Now, I’m afraid if I act on it, he’s gonna break my fucking neck and I would deserve it. How the fuck am I supposed to be mated to a woman who is mated to my best friend while I’m mated to his sister? Seeing him fuck you like that made it literally fucking impossible to resist Juli. Now she’s pregnant, and I have to worry about her, our baby, my best friend, and you. What if he ends up getting you pregnant? Then there is another baby to be worried about, allwhile I’m trying to make sure that Drake doesn’t fucking kill me for touching you.”

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