Jaguar's Passion

The Quint is Bound. The Black Knight is Exposed. The Final Battle has Begun.

With my mates and I bonded in body and soul, the quint is fully aligned. And while it feels sometimes like it's the five of us against the world, it's not. Along the way, we've built family and friends and allies invested in our success. They stand behind us as we tackle our final trials.

Our time of being on the defensive is over... it's offense now.

Our destiny... Open a portal to StoneHaven. Unite the realms. Live happily-ever-after.

With our lives on the line, the five of us dig in. We fought hard for the future that's within our grasp and no one will take that away from us.

Calli
I circle the clearing, my flaming feathers flapping in the auburn and tangerine sky of sunset. With each lift and thrust of my massive wingspan, I ensure my flight doesn’t go so high that I’ll be noticed from a distance but high enough that I can say without a doubt, there’s no portal gate here. No remnant magic tingles over my heated flesh. There’s nothing that could be rebuilt or repaired to allow entry into the fae realm.
Dammit. My phoenix lets off a long squawk and then I meet Hawk’s gaze and turn back. Another dead end. I should be getting used to it by now, but it still sucks. With the clearing below, I lean back and flex my talons at the ground.
Hawk’s instructions for a smooth landing play back in my head: slow down, wings out, backward thrust, lean back, release my phoenix, and drop to my feet.
Easy for him to say. The ground always seems intent on coming at me and taking me out. That could be paranoia.
Whoa… wait… yikes…
Right before I hit the ground, I release my phoenix, and I’m a woman once more. I don’t stick the landing one hundy percent, but it’s nothing a few running steps to catch my balance doesn’t take care of.
I’ll take it and call it a win.
At least I’m not skidding across fields and back lawns on my face anymore.
“Anything?” Kotah asks, meeting me with a flare of his never-ending optimism. My wolf is the spirit of our quint. He’s all the hope and patience and beauty we could ever ask for in a mate. He’s the youngest of the five of us, but in some ways, he is the old soul of the group. I think that comes from his native heritage and his connection to the natural world.
Or maybe it’s his genius IQ.
Or his Omega gift coming through.
I meet his expectant gaze and remember he asked me if I found anything. “Oh, sorry, no. Nothing. I’m not picking up anything we could use.”
He helps me into one of the new fireproof wrap dresses Hawk had made for me and I cover up. As a human turned wildling, I missed out on a few of the natural abilities they enjoy as preternatural perks.
I can’t detect scents in the air like them. I don’t have a bonded identity to my animal side like them—although they think that might develop with time. And I can’t shed and re-manifest clothing like them.
When I shift, I either start naked and end naked or I start clothed and end naked because my clothing has gone up in flames. And where it used to take me days to regulate my body temperature back to normal, now it only takes ten or twelve hours, but that’s still a long time to have to be naked when we’re out and among other people.
Thank goodness for fireproof fabric.
“Don’t look so dejected, Spitfire.” Hawk steps out of his landing and flashes on black slacks and a black button-down dress shirt without breaking stride. He rolls the cuffs as he walks, and I don’t think he even realizes how incredible I think that is. “We knew this would be a needle in the haystack endeavor. We’ve still got a dozen or so other sites to explore.”
“Besides,” Jaxx says, closing up the lawn chairs and tossing the lid on the cooler. “A good time was had by all. Brant, Kotah, and I got to sit here, shoot the breeze, and relax a bit while we watched you guys fly. Seein’ your phoenix light up the sky steals our breath, kitten. It never gets old.”
“You can say that again,” Brant says. He picks up the cooler and lifts it into the open door of Hawk’s Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin, a twin-engine, long-range luxury helicopter. “It’s a good thing we’re mated for life because I want to watch that until I’m an old and grizzly grizzly.”
I chuckle and pull my hair free from the collar of my dress. Jaxx hands me a cider and I take a drink. It’s unbelievably cold, but then again, it might be because my insides are still molten hot. I slip one foot behind the other and offer them a little curtsy. “Thank you. Thank you. I’m glad you boys enjoyed the show.”
Kotah’s smile is too cute. “We did. We talked about showing you how much but decided not to put Hawk’s pilot through watching us get naked.”
“Again,” Brant chuckles.
Hawk sends them a look of pure censure and frowns. “Yes, thank you for your restraint. I’d rather not be flagged for that HR complaint twice in one month. That last afternoon delight cost me twenty grand in pain and suffering.”
“Pain and sufferin’ my dimpled behind,” Jaxx says. “You never should’ve paid that one out. That guy was just mad he didn’t get an invite to join the party.”
I chuckle and send Hawk a sympathetic smile.
Brant and Jaxx finish packing up our belongings and then Hawk offers me a hand and helps me inside the helicopter. My seat is covered with a fire blanket, just in case, and I settle in for the ride. “What’s our next stop?”
Jaxx highlights our current position with a red swipe. “That’s it for today. Time to head back to the palace.”
Kotah falls noticeably quiet at the mention of going back there, but there’s not much to be done about it. As the new Fae Prime, his coronation ceremony isn’t something we can skip.
Although we totally would if we could.