Binds (26 page)

“Reece’s chimera was only known by his mother, who kept it from his father his entire life. He appears to be a worthless Mage. I’m sure you’ve touched him.” Donovan’s lip curls up at this statement in distaste. “You’ve probably touched him the way you WILL start touching me again, wife. In doing so, you probably noticed that he has no spark. He carried this advantage from his Natural side, the same side that is completely proficient in shape shifting. I’ve never seen the like, a shape shifter that can take on the appearance of anyone. The only thing that remains of him is his eyes. Yet, he has just enough Ascender in him to pass himself off as a mediocre Mage as well, perhaps tricking an unsuspecting woman that he is just a harmless friend trying to rescue her from a bad situation. Isn’t that right, Donovan Brand?”

Hearing Donovan … or Elias, as he said, call my Reece by that name is the final hole in the ship that sinks me deep into an abyss of despair. Who the fuck can I ever trust? There are noises coming from behind the study door, loud voices and sounds of a commotion, and yet I can only focus on the depths of my solitude. I run through the list in my mind. All of the people that I have wanted to trust, all of the people who have either used me or straight out lied to me, including my supposed husband, Reece, Cass, Spencer—even my mother by not telling me the truth about what I am, about my father…

My father. Who is he, really? Are these insane things that Elias revealed tonight to be believed as truth when I can’t seem to believe anything anymore? Am I a bastard child of the King of the Fae? Then, it hits me, almost knocking me off my feet like Cass earlier…

Princess
, Spencer always called me
princess
.
‘As for Princess, I only call you that because it suits you
,’ he had said that day up on the roof. He knew.

Elias laughs, stirring me from my ruminations. “Come now, don’t be upset, Phee. Your mother stood in the way of your powers, too. With your father and mother’s blood combined, you are more Fae than Mage, and thus more dominant than any of them, including my pseudo father who believes himself to be the most powerful of all. Thankfully, your mother hid your powers from Brand as well, or he may have used his son to dispose of you, too.”

I can’t listen to this anymore. I feel Allie’s hand on my shoulder, giving me her support, and I remember her telling me to use her strength when I need it. If there ever would be a time that I did, this would be it.

I turn to Reece, unable to think of him as Donovan and barely able to look at him, I have to ask, “Why? Why did you do it? What could my mother ever have done to deserve it?” I’m crying now, each word is coming out as a bellowing shriek.

Reece swallows and looks me in the eyes as he responds, his own green orbs misty with tears. “I just wanted to finally make my father see me. I was only nineteen and had lived my whole life with him thinking I was worthless and telling me constantly that I was. My dad was obsessed with your mother, so much so that he continually tormented my own while she was alive, about how he should have married yours and how my mom produced him a worthless offspring who was as weak as she was. My mom went to her grave being told she was second best, knowing my father would be celebrating her death as an opportunity to finally have the woman he really wanted.”

“My mother didn’t even want him!” I scream at Reece. I remember now, Oberon coming to my mom’s shop when I was a kid. Some of the details are fuzzy from the years passing, but I remember Reece as a child and how his father regarded him. I remember the hate I saw in his eyes and the fear that they caused in me.

“I know,” Reece replies. “I was young and stupid. I had so much anger towards my father for what he did to my mother and me. I projected it all at yours, as if all of it was her fault. I know I was wrong. I’ve known it since the second I did it. I’ve been trying to make amends to you for what I’ve done by saving you from the life you were living. I know you will never forgive me. I’ll never forgive myself, but I was ready to give up my whole life making it up to you, making sure that you never have to go through that kind of pain again.”

Donovan barks out a laugh of derision. “You are in no way cut out for the job of protector for my wife. You were barely able to carry out the murder of her mother, even after I planted the motivation in your mind. Mage children are so easily manipulated—as you can tell from my new servants being pumped out of our reformatories even as we speak, ready to do the bidding of our queen. It’s only right; they were our children first. The humans made us flee centuries ago. We are just claiming what is rightfully ours again.”

There’s a loud cracking sound at the door. For the first time, Elias appears worried. He marches over to the phone, picks up the receiver, and hits a button. “What’s the status?”

As he waits for an update, I focus all of my hate on him. All of this is his fault. Reece carried the murder out, and I will hate him forever, but if it weren’t for this creature in front of me, I think it never would have happened. He’s also responsible for the reformatories, the destruction of our society, everything the Mages have gone through over the past few years. I now believe that Oberon was more of a sock puppet than the mastermind behind it all. Hate builds inside of me, swirling around in my body until it feels like the tempest is about to break free. I think about all that I’ve been through, how helpless I’ve felt my entire life, and a word makes its way up my throat, sliding on my tongue until it reaches the very tip.

As Elias slams the phone down, looking more agitated than I’ve ever seen him, I feel slightly remorseful that he won’t be able to watch as Allie’s army comes through and destroys this entire house. I open my mouth and with a smile on my face and a gleam in my eye, I say, “
FREEZE
.”

The look of alarmed surprise on his face is followed by haughty disbelief, until little by little, a frost takes hold of his body. He attempts to struggle towards me, but his legs have already been frozen to the floor. In a matter of seconds, Elias, supposed emissary of the Queen of the Fae, has been frozen into a statue of ice, suspended for the time being with a look of horrific incomprehension on his face.

Before a stitch of regret or compassion has time to be sown in my mind, I feel another Bind creep its way up and with a laugh that doesn’t sound connected to me in any way, I open my mouth to spit it out. “
Shards
!” I scream it and at the intensity of my voice, his body breaks apart like a fragile crystal statue hit by just the right high chord and destroyed. Pieces of the man, Fae, or whatever the abusive bastard was, fall and slide around like ice on the polished marble floor. It makes me laugh out loud. I laugh until I am bent over clutching my stomach. I laugh as the door is broken down and the Skulls start filing into the room. I continue to laugh as Allie helps me up from the floor and starts to guide me from the room.

I’m halfway out the door when some semblance of sanity creeps back into my body and I turn back to Reece, still hunched in the chair but looking after my departing figure as if wishing he were going with me. Cass is still kneeling at his side and stroking his arm in a tender, consolatory way. “This is your one reprieve. Come near me again and you’ll suffer a much worse fate than my late husband … Donovan Brand.” I speak the name, his real name with such malice that it causes him to shirk back in the chair.

Without another word and grinning maliciously, I follow Allie from the room. She is questioning her people about what has transpired while we were in the office, but I don’t pay attention to any of it. There is a thrill of power shooting through my body, the likes of which I have never felt. I wish I would have known that it would feel this good to get revenge. I would have started sooner. Never again am I going to let anyone have any power over me. I feel reborn, revitalized, and energized for anything that may come my way. As I head down the stairway and turn into the main foyer, the first test of my new life is there, propped lazily against the front door, waiting for my arrival.

The SSA and Allie are rapidly hurrying from the house. Allie is sure that reinforcements are on the way. This Army has proven its power against a small contingent of soldiers. It’s impressive given the rag-tag nature of their arrangement. As triumphant as they are and should be over taking down the Brand estate, we all know there isn’t much chance of escaping if more power makes an appearance.

Spencer is checking his wristwatch breezily as I walk past him and out the front door. Without a word, he follows me. I feel his breath at my neck and hear his footfalls behind, but I say nothing, just keep walking. As I am about to pass the front gate, I notice something and stop. The Brand family crest is affixed to the gates of the house and centered on each panel of fence the entire length around the property. It was there in my face, the entire time I was married to “Donovan” and yet I never noticed it. It’s a shield with a griffin on one side, a crown and blazing sun on the other. The name Brand is blazoned above and at the bottom, scrolled across a tiny banner, is the word
Potestas
. My mother’s warning was right under my nose all along and I never took the time to notice it.

With a resigned sigh, I turn around and face him. We just stand there, staring at each other for a couple of minutes. I search his eyes for a reason. I know somewhere in there he’s holding on to excuses for keeping everything from me. I wish I could jump into his mind like he can and find out everything he knows.

I point at the crest on the gate, shake my head, and glare at him. “You knew. “

He just stares at me, not saying a word. I can’t even decipher his thoughts; he is such a blank page.

“You could have prevented a lot of what just happened by being honest, but you’re not an honest man, are you, Spencer?”

“I might have, yes,” he says. His façade drops momentarily and I catch a hint of regret in his face. “You could have prevented some of it, too.” He points at the fresh bruises on my face with a look of consternation. “If only you’d listened to me about staying at my side the other night, it wouldn’t have happened.”

“I’m happy it happened! I would rather have been beaten for a thousand days and get the truth, than to be sheltered by you and kept in the dark for one more day!” I yell at him as I feel the presence of Allie slipping in next to me again. It’s strange, the connections that can form between people who have suffered the same cruelties. I’ve known her for mere days and already, she is someone I can count on to be at my side in times like this. Having her there now, I feel that bond growing stronger and I know what I’m meant to do, where I’m meant to be. Allie reaches out and grasps my hand for strength, cementing the conviction of my decision even more.

“Let’s go,” he says, reaching out for my other hand. “More NWO are on the way, this isn’t over … not by a long shot. We need to get back to the apartment and come up with our next plan of attack. We can discuss the rest of your issues there.” He looks to Allie as if including her in this plan for us. The way he talks sometimes, as if his word is naturally right and anyone would be a fool not to follow, well … it would normally piss me off. Today, it just makes me want to laugh again.

Although I am in agreement that we need to leave the premises and quickly, I dismiss his commands. It might leave us with mere moments to retreat safely, but I have to ask him. I’m done waiting for the other shoe to drop with this man. If I’m going to have anything to do with him now or in the future, he will be honest with me. Spencer knows now that I am aware of the truth about Reece. I’m not so sure if he realizes that I’ve also learned other things. Things such as my supposed parentage and the real reason he refers to me as princess. I give him one last chance to come clean with everything he knows.

“Reece, Donovan, whoever he really is, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is a murderer and you harbored him in your building, protected him from justice, and shielded the truth from me, the remaining victim of his crime.” Spencer looks to be preparing a retort to my statement, but I cut him off before he can even get in a word. “You said it wasn’t your secret to tell. That’s complete and utter bullshit and you know it. I won’t act like it’s going to be all right, because it’s not, however, I will continue to be a part of the resistance with you … but first, you have to tell me right now, any other secrets you might be carrying that have anything to do with me. I want to know everything. It’s now or never, Spencer.”

Spencer studies me thoroughly, searching my face for what I assume is a giveaway to everything that I already know. I don’t let him look me in the eye, although I’m pretty positive I now have the ability to keep him out, I’m not going to take the chance right now. This is about more than learning what he knows; this is about whether or not I can trust him in the future. Something inside me wants to, but I won’t make the same mistake I did with Reece again. Even though I feel that connection with Allie, I probably won’t even be able to trust her completely for a long time … if ever.

A minute passes and Spencer smirks, it’s the know-it-all expression that he displays when he finally answers me. “Ophelia, I see that after everything, you still believe that the world revolves around you. You want a hero, right? Someone who will come around and give you everything you’ve dreamt of, take you and show you the way so you don’t have to find it on your own, a hero to worship at your feet and blow smoke up your ass? You’re looking for those things in the wrong person. I’m neither and don’t ever wish to be. What I can offer you is a place to call home, a confidant who doesn’t turn out to be an enemy, and a place in history that shows you we’re on the right side of the fight. I am not offering you equal standing. We aren’t co-captains of this team, and therefore, if I have confidences of others, it’s not your place to go around demanding to know them too. But, as to your question, I have nothing more to tell you, nothing I can tell, anyway. You say now or never, I say take it or leave it. That’s your answer.”