Anchor of Secrets by Tessa Hale

55

“Something’s different,”Saoirse said, tapping her finger to her lips as we all stood in the backyard.

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. I was sure I looked thoroughly fucked after my lazy afternoon.

Colt cleared his throat. “We let Leighton sleep in.”

Trace snickered, but Saoirse seemed oblivious to it. She simply nodded. “Obviously, a little rest agrees with you.”

I made a humming noise, not trusting my own voice.

“I want to try something a little different today,” she continued.

“What?” I asked, eager for anything new and different that had a shred of hope of working.

“Clearly, stressing your body out didn’t spark a magical response. I’m wondering if you need to connect with your being more.”

My brows furrowed. “How am I supposed to do that?”

Saoirse lowered herself to the grass gracefully. “Sit.”

I did so, but not nearly as gracefully.

“Once you have fully bonded to your mates as their anchor, you will take on some of their magical abilities. But there should be flickers of it in you now with the amount of time you all spend together.”

I worried the corner of my lip. “Will I shift?”

Saoirse shook her head. “No full transformation. But you might gain their increased senses of sight, hearing, and smell.”

I grinned. “So, I’ll be a human lie detector like they are.”

She chuckled. “With some practice, it’s possible.”

“I’m in.”

Saoirse just laughed harder. “Glad to hear it. Now, close your eyes.”

I did as she instructed.

“Listen to the world around you. What do you hear?”

I let the sounds roll over me. “The waves crashing into the rocks. The wind. A bird.”

“Good,” Saoirse praised. “Now, pull that focus into yourself. What do you hear from your own body?”

I had to think about it for a few moments. “My breath. My heartbeat.”

“What do you feel?”

I kept breathing. “My hands on my legs. The sun on my face.”

“Deeper,” Saoirse urged.

“The beat of my heart reverberating through me.”

“More.”

I worried my lip. “My blood moving through my body.”

“Even deeper,” Saoirse whispered.

The world around me melted away as I disappeared inside myself. It was as if there were a whole new layer to my being that I’d never experienced before. I could see it but not quite reach it. It was like a sea of sparks at the very center of me.

I reached out, trying to touch it, but something kept me from getting through.

“Holy shit,” Ronan muttered.

My eyes flew open. Sparks flew around my hands. They were a mix of colors. Golds, silvers, greens, and purples. My guys’ colors.

Then they simply disappeared. Disappointment coursed through me. “How do I get it back?”

Colt’s hands landed on my shoulders. “Don’t push it, LeeLee. That was amazing.”

“That was magic,” Declan said with a grin.

Giddy excitement coursed through me. “I have magic.”

Ronan grinned. “We always knew it.”

Dash studied me for a moment. “I think this might be because we were all together today. Connected in a way we never have been before. It lit something inside of you.”

A mischievous grin spread across Saoirse’s face. “Now, that’s my kind of homework.”

I blushed.

Dash knelt in front of me, his hand lifting to my cheek. “The secret has always lay with us. It wasn’t with us being in danger. It was in us simply being one.”

My throat burned.

As he released me, my gaze found Trace. I didn’t miss the fear in his expression. It made my chest ache.

I climbed to my feet and crossed to him. I pressed a hand to his chest. “This is good. Don’t run on me.”

He swallowed hard. “My magic could hurt you.”

“It won’t,” I vowed.

“You don’t know for sure.”

“You have to have a little trust,” I whispered. “Please.”

Trace dropped his forehead to mine. “I trust you with my life. It’s me I don’t trust.”

* * *

I letmy toes sink deeper into the sand as I walked, Ronan on one side, Declan on the other. The moon was bright, casting more than enough light for us to walk by.

“How do you feel?” Declan asked.

My lips tipped up. “Aren’t you tired of that question yet?”

He gave me a sheepish smile. “Today was a lot. You can’t blame us for asking.”

I got it, I really did. I felt it in my own ways, which was why I’d begged the twins to get me out of the house. Their version of that was a walk where the house was still in sight.

“I feel…hopeful. And terrified that I won’t be able to move past those baby sparks.”

Ronan dropped a kiss to my temple. “This is just the beginning. You need to give yourself time to work up to more.”

I kicked a clump of sand. “We only have twenty days left.”

I had to voice the thing that none of us had said.

“Twenty days is a long time,” Declan assured me.

But maybe not long enough.

Ronan slid his hand into mine. “We know what works now. Resting, taking care of yourself, and being together.”

“Orgasms,” Declan added helpfully.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I certainly like that last one.”

“Me, too,” Declan said, waggling his eyebrows. Then his body jerked, eyes going wide. He began convulsing as he dropped to the sand.

“Declan!”

Ronan shouted, but then he was falling, too, and I didn’t miss the dart sticking out of his shoulder.

I screamed as loud as humanly possible, praying that Colt would hear me from the house.

A sharp sting lit my neck, and I batted at the sensation, but it was too late. The world went blurry around me, and then there was nothing at all.