All Chapters of Circle of the Stars: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

I jumped forward as her body crumpled towards the floor like a puppet with cut strings. I hauled her up into my arms and moved behind Ari and Thane and Drace. They'd made a barricade between Brigid and Hols. "Does she still breathe?" Ari asked, not taking her eyes off her sister. I laid my ear to Hols' face. Felt the gentle puff of air against my cheek. "Yes." Saying it relaxed the band of fear around my chest. Allowed my lungs to expand, my heart to beat. "Where is Sidney?" Thane asked. "Where he belongs," Ari said. "In hell.""Good," Thane and I said in unison. "You don't even know what you've just done. You fools!" Brigid roared. "You've given the Villagers exactly what they wanted. You've released Patrick's power."I curled Hols closer to my chest. "Explain. Now."She stuck her nose up in the air. "Answer the man, sister. Or suffer the same fate as the idiotic coward you brought to hurt my granddaughter," Ari said, her voice hard as diamonds. Brigid didn'

Sweetcheeks' body jackknifed into an upright position as I was leaning down to pick up her unconscious body. The resounding smack of our heads had my ears ringing and my belly fighting to stay in place. "The fuck, cheeks?" I growled as my eyes watered from the pain. "Grumpy?" "Yeah. Who the fuck'd you think it was?" She flung her arms around me and started shaking like a withered leaf on a stiff winter's breeze. I curled my arms around her. "Hey. Hey. What's wrong?" I pulled her into the shelter of my body. "You've been sleeping for hours now. You're safe. You're in the penthouse." "Oh stars, Grumpy. I pissed him off. I punched him in the face. I'm so screwed. You guys have to let me go. If he comes, he's going to kill us all. I made him mad. He's going to be so angry." She immediately began pulling against my hold. Tried to climb from my arms. I tightened them around her until I felt like our flesh melded together. "Not happening. And you better stop trying to dit

I gritted my teeth as the raw emotions filtering over the connection from both Tag and Stretch had me reading the same email for the seventh time. I'd never had so many unanswered emails in a twenty-four hour period. Never thought anything could take that top priority in my mind. Hollyn was it. The only thing that could ruin my focus on work. Shift my brain from the puzzles of ruling the telecommunications industry. "Are you getting anything done over there or are you just peeping on your brother and your mate?" Drace asked from the couch. "These moony sighs make me feel like I'm back in high school."I grimaced on a laugh. She wasn't wrong. I felt like a hormonal teenager again. I shut my computer, resigned to the fact that no work was going to be done until after I could sate myself in Stretch's body. I moved back to the couch, flicked my gaze to the TV. Game of Thrones was playing. I winced. Not the best show to take my mind off sex. "Seriously?" I asked her. She smile

I rolled my eyes. "Come on. We need to go find Drace." I turned towards the front door. Grumpy's hands around my waist stopped me. "Clothes. Even if they're magical. I'm not sharing your body with anyone else. Even visually." He slapped a hand to my still sensitive butt. I hissed out a breath. "Ouch."He laughed as he rubbed his hand lightly down the abused cheek. "I'll rub some oil on it, make it feel all better."Tove blew a raspberry. "No. We'll rub some oil on it. Our turn." He flicked his finger between himself and Thane. Thane nodded. "Agreed. Out voted."I left them to their game as I focused and tried to pull the magic around me like Drace had shown me. It felt like ages ago instead of a handful of hours that Grumpy and I had disappeared into his room. I got the last thread of magic settled around me as I pulled the front door open. Drace was slumped against the wall. "Drace!" I hurried out and grabbed her around under the arms. "Help me!" I shrieked at my guy

I looked at my brothers. At Sweetcheeks. Confused expressions covered their faces to varying degrees. Finn and Drace looked ready for war. I cleared my throat as I transformed back to fully human. "I'm guessing ollpheist isn't some weird elephant then."The three others laughed. "Means monster in Irish," Drace said, the slightest lilt to her voice. I nodded. "Then yes, let's go bag ourselves a monster." Tove, Thane, and Cheeks all nodded as well. Victorious smiles on their faces. Ari smiled. "First, we do need to train. If Patrick is drawing from the ley lines that shadow and protect Alder Valley, then we need to be at the tops of our games. This is not a time for hesitation nor bravery. We need routine. We need learned movements. We need learned reactions that take the place of our current thoughts, feelings, and actions." She looked at each of us. "Our replacement at our company is supposed to be here today around noon," Thane said. Ari nodded. "Excellent. O