Bound by Prophecy (Bound Series Book 3) (9 page)

I
stood
and glared at Aidan’s back. I heard him chuckle as I slammed the door between us and was actually kind of pissed to realize I could still feel him. I couldn’t completely shut him out. Go figure. When he turned the corner and I could no longer shoot daggers at his back, I turned to find Cole next to me, his eyebrows up and lips twisted into a stifled grin.

“Oh, don’t start,” I muttered as embarrassment flushed my cheeks.

Cole put up both hands, and said, “Hey, not my fight. You guys are something else, though. He totally gets you, Ame.”

As I caught myself looking out the window wanting to see Aidan, I realized Cole was right. And, I kind of hated him for it.

“Oh, just shut it,” I said as I shoved at my brother’s chest playfully. “And I can make my own way back to my room. I’m not an invalid, you know.” Cole brought out those little sister antics in me. I couldn’t help but prod at him.

I started toward the door and Cole fell in step with me. He didn’t speak the whole way to my room and I was content to let him do just that. When I got to the door, I reached out to open it, but Cole put his hand over mine on the knob.

“Dad’s dead, Ame,” he said, his voice low and soft. “He’s dead and he died saving us — both of us. He loved you and he loved me and he did the best he could.” I stood there frozen. Aidan had told me this. I knew my father was dead. I knew I would never see him again, could never tell him I was sorry, could never tell him I loved him, or that I knew who he really was. But, as my brother held my hand and spoke in my ear, I heard it for the first time.

One tear popped and trailed down from each eye. As the words spun in my head, the tears continued to fall faster and faster, until a cry tore from my chest and Cole pulled me into him. The sobs were ugly. I didn’t try to speak, I didn’t tell my brother all the reasons I was sorry my father had even been in that room in the first place, or how I would someday find a way to dismember Rhi one limb at a time. I struggled to breathe through a clogged nose and the vise grip in my chest. No amount of soothing power could calm the heartbreak I had finally acknowledged.

Footsteps thundered across the floor and I pulled away to see Aidan careening around the corner of the hallway. His eyes were wild, until they landed on me. He took in the situation — my red, swollen eyes, the snot dripping from my nose, and the giant wet spot on Cole’s chest. He gave me a questioning look and I managed to shake my head. He looked over me at Cole and they nodded simultaneously. Then, he turned and walked away.

Aidan knew he wasn’t the person I needed, although I could feel how much he wanted to be the one I was latched onto right now. Feeling his wolf, the AniMage part of him exuding even more alpha male than I’d ever thought possible, I was impressed he could fight it. That he did fight it, for me.

“Why don’t we go into your room and talk, Ame?” Cole opened the door and gestured inside. I wiped my eyes and was thankful I hadn’t asked Bethany for makeup yet. I could only imagine what mascara would have added to the mess that was my face.

“Leave the door open. Charlie will come back soon,” I said before Cole could shut it all the way.

“Onyx has been glued to my side, too,” Cole muttered as I dropped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, the tears dripping a steady stream.

“I didn’t get to say anything, Cole,” I said, my voice wavering. “You got to talk to him. You made sure he knew you forgave him and that you understood. I never got to do that. I don’t know what he thought of me, or what he thought I thought of him. The last time I hugged him and told him I loved him was the day I left home.”

Cole reached across the bedspread and gripped my hand in his. He waited for me to look at him before he said, “He thought you were amazing, Ame. He said you were stubborn like Mom, and that you didn’t think enough before you acted. That you were more than he had ever imagined. He hated what he had to be, but he never regretted a minute of it because he still got to watch you grow up. He got to see Mom in you. That’s what he said, Ame. He saw
Mom in you
."

I turned my head toward Cole, my cheek resting in a pool of my own tears. “He saw Mom in me?”

His dark eyes were filled and he swallowed down the same cries I imagined were choking me.

“More than once,” Cole continued, his voice thick with emotion. “He believed in what we’re doing, Ame. This was what he and Mom were doing all along. They ran because she saw it. She knew they had to get far away and that it wouldn’t be easy. She knew it would hurt both of us — all of us — but we were the only ones who could change things. He looked at me, and said, ‘Cole, there are times when you have to rip your own heart out to show it how to beat.’ I thought he was crazy, but I get it now. We were his heart. And what he had to do to us tore him up, but we had to learn how to beat alone. We had to be able to take this on. He did his job the best he could.”

I lay back on the bed and watched the ceiling fan slowly swirl around, the blades blurring through my continued tears. “I just wish I had something from him. I have Mom’s journal, but there’s no way for me to know who he really was.”

“Journal?” Cole asked. I realized I hadn’t had the chance to tell him about it. I pulled myself up, wiping my eyes and swallowing the pain. I reached into the bedside table, pulling the pages out carefully.

“These were Mom’s,” I said as I held them out for him. “I found them at Cresthaven. It’s a long story, but Micah brought them to me. I only got to read a few pages before Julia took me down to where she was holding the women.” It seemed like a lifetime ago. A nightmare, not our reality.

Cole held the pages gingerly. He didn’t flip through them or try to read the words. He just stared at the top page, where our mother’s looping script noted this was her journal. He stood and quickly put them back into my hands.

“I think these were meant for you, Amelia. You’re right, I had time with Dad and I think you need this time with Mom. I got to know her, and this is your way. If you want to share them with me when you finish, that’s your call.” I took the pages and set them next to me as I stood.

Cole reached out and pulled me into a hug. “We’re gonna make it, half-pint. I may not be able to help like I used to, but Bethany’s proven you don’t have to have power to make a difference. I’ll be just down the hall, and if you need anything, you know where to find me, okay?”

I nodded into his chest. I wasn’t ready to let him go. I wasn’t ready to be alone with my thoughts. But I let Cole pull away, squeeze my shoulder, and quietly leave the room.

I
sat
on the bed and stared at the wall. Charlie nosed open my door and leapt onto the bed next to me, jarring me out of my thoughts. He whined as he dug his giant head under my hand and I gave in, scratching behind his ears and letting the normalcy of the act comfort me.

“Where’s Onyx? I haven’t seen him lately. Don’t you two go everywhere together?” I spoke to Charlie as if he were another person in the room. I always had. We hadn’t had an exchange like the one at Cole’s apartment since I’d woken up, but I had a feeling the ability was still there. I just hadn’t felt a need to use it, and neither had he.

Charlie grunted, a quick exhale through his nose, showing his annoyance for his little brother. “Pffft, been there, buddy. Brothers can be something else.” Then, I leaned down, and whispered, “But mine’s pretty great. Just don’t tell him I said so.”

Charlie’s tail thumped a beat onto the bed and I couldn’t help but smile. As I sat back up, my hand came down on the journal pages. Aidan was busy with the arriving pack, and maybe I should have been annoyed that he didn’t even ask me if I wanted to join him, but I didn’t want to and I wasn’t.

I toed my shoes off and scooted back up against the headboard, piling pillows behind me. Charlie stood up and rocked the whole bed until he situated himself by my side with his giant head in my lap.

I laid the stack of pages on the other side of me and flipped them over one by one until I got to the last entry I’d read. A nervous ache twisted my stomach, but I knew this wasn’t a choice. My mother wouldn’t have kept a journal without reason and I knew I was meant to see this. There was something for me here, I just had to find it. I had to believe that.

Julia continues to seek me out. She hides in hallways and waits in corners for me to pass by so she can smile while she pelts me with questions she knows I will not, and usually cannot, answer. The problem is with every encounter we have, her questions only fuel more of my own. Our people have been here for hundreds of years and it is hard for me to believe that we have lived so long with no one requiring answers. But, I know what Julia is not saying. She believes Mages are better than the other races. Instead of each race having their equal place among us as the Elders believe, she feels all others should be subservient, and I cannot fathom that outcome.

Tragar continues to assist me. He brings me books from his travels and we work together to try to understand. I worried he would question my loyalty, but he only laughed and told me any intelligent person should ask the questions in their heart. My heart wants to know why the Elders try to hold us all here. Why do they contain us within the lands surrounding the castle, and why do the Elders on the council hide from the people?

The council members should not be hidden. They should be respected and celebrated. I fear for Nathaniel. He shouldn’t even know I am destined for the council. And I know Rynna has guessed. She looks at my brother the way that I look at Nathaniel. If only I’d been as smart as she was and kept my distance, then my heart would not be crumbling inside my chest.

I have been invited to my first meeting. Next week, I will stand before the council for the first test. With each test, I will understand more about what my life will be. I both fear and look forward to the coming days. It will stretch my power and my understanding, but perhaps it will all fall into place as it should.

She sounded so optimistic and hopeful, but I read between the lines. There were secrets and lies she was wading through to get to the truth. I turned the page to find a new entry.

Nothing is as it seems. Maybe Julia is right to question it all. My heart breaks a little more each day I’m away from Nathaniel and the visions grow darker. All I see is death. Our people. Their children. Our home. It will fall to ruin, and I’ve tried to tell them. I’ve tried to tell the council.

I’ve passed my first test, if you can even call it that, and I know who they are. I see how tired they are and I don’t understand what they do in that chamber that taxes them to this point. But I can see they need me. They need someone with fresh magic, yet they continue to question my abilities, wanting to know each and every thing I’m capable of. I haven’t told them, though. Not yet. Unless someone compels me, there are some secrets I must keep.

When I approached Lavignia after my test and I told her of my visions, she pushed me into a corner and told me to hush. She told me the time would come for the truth, but it was not now. That I still had too much to learn before I could understand what I saw.

One thing is certain, there is something in that chamber they don’t want anyone to find, and I will know what it is before I am made to be married. They will not sell me off to the highest bidder. I will not have it. Since that moment, just days ago, I have slowly fallen apart, piece by shattered piece. Food has no taste. I see no humor in Derreck and Elias’s antics like I used to. The only thing I know is I have a job to do and there is something wrong here. I just have to find it.

She was so strong. It was hard to believe I came from a woman who held so much strength. She gave up love. She did what she was told, sort of. For the hundredth time, I wished she were here so someone could point me in the right direction.

“
Y
ou aren’t alone
,” I said from the doorway I had been standing in for the last two minutes, watching Amelia read.

She gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth. “Ohmygod, Aidan, you scared the crap out of me!”

“You aren’t alone, Amelia. We’re going to do this together,” I reiterated solemnly. I wouldn’t allow her to forget I would be there for every single step.

I loved watching her pupils expand. Her eyes shined, a thin rim of violet around the darkness, like an eclipse from another planet.

“Are you a mind reader now?” she asked. “Do you just lurk around, Montgomery?”

I laughed out loud at the sassy look she threw me. It was a look I’d seen so many times before.

“You were projecting your emotions pretty strongly, doll. At first, I thought you were actually talking, but when I got to the door, I saw your lips weren’t moving. Since then, I haven’t stopped staring at your lips.” That last part, I didn’t actually mean to verbalize, but I did and the creeping red blush sweeping from her neck to her hairline was worth it.

“Charlie. Out,” I said. An ache inside me I had ignored since she woke up made my voice a little harsher than intended.

He hopped off the bed and didn’t look up as he lumbered out the door. I kicked it shut behind him without taking my eyes off Amelia. The blush was still there. I watched as her eyes shone brighter and her breaths became shallow. I probably could have picked out her heartbeat, but it didn’t matter. It matched the thundering of mine.

“I can’t get you out of my head, doll. Every second we’re doing what we should be, all I can think about is getting you alone.” It was increasingly hard to keep myself still.

“Well, there, um, have been a lot of…um, things, we needed to take care of,” she stuttered, rifling through the papers in her hand and shoving them toward the nightstand. They scattered onto the floor instead and she turned, but I couldn’t let this moment go.

“Leave them. We’ll get them later.” I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. I could smell her, could feel her power luring mine, drawing us both to her side. With each slow step I took toward the bed, I felt her wrap around me.

The air between us was thick with unspoken words, missed opportunities, and hope.

I wasn’t afraid for her anymore. She was here, whole and herself. She was the girl I watched come down the stairs to the beach that night. The girl who flicked her sunglasses onto her head and told me she didn’t need me, but she did. The girl who put on a tiny purple dress to seduce me back to her side.

She was sitting in the middle of the bed. There was no way for me to get to her without us being in bed together, and that hadn’t happened with both of us awake. I briefly considered whether it was something she wanted. When Amelia sharply inhaled, my eyes jumped to hers and that was all I needed. I took one more step and lowered to my hands and knees on the mattress, crawling until my face hovered just above hers.

“Are you ready for this?” I asked her, my eyes trained on hers. I knew mine were glowing bright blue. We couldn’t stop our power from taking hold when we were together. It had happened constantly since she woke up without the Keeper. Blue and violet swirled above us, dancing and twirling around each other.

“For what, exactly?” she whispered on an exhale. She licked her lips, just the tip of her tongue darting out and then disappearing. I wanted mine to be where it was.

“This is the moment of no return, Amelia,” I warned. “This is the moment we don’t come back from. There are no do or die situations. This is you. And me. And the truth of what we have. Are you ready for
this
.” I struggled to get the words out. My wolf was howling in my mind, my power spinning a cyclone around hers. The pressure inside my head felt very similar to shifting, but I wasn’t going to shift. This was something else entirely.

She nodded, a small jerk of her head.

“No. Say it, Amelia. Tell me you’re ready, that you know this is you and me and nothing else.” Every other declaration between us had been fueled by emotional desperation — life and death circumstances. She would choose me.

I didn’t realize my eyes were closed until I felt her hands on my cheeks.

“Aidan, look at me,” she whispered. I did, and it took my breath away. “I’m ready for us. For this.” She didn’t just look at me, she opened herself up. In a second, I was overwhelmed with everything she felt. It slammed into everything I was, and I couldn’t stop myself any longer.

I wrapped my palm around the back of her neck and pulled her up to meet me. I kept her gaze until our mouths met, and only then, as I swirled my tongue with hers, did I truly let go. Her hands were in my hair and her leg wrapped around my waist as she pulled herself up to meet me. I let go of her neck and ran my hand down her side.

Those ballerina curves were just as I remembered — the dip into her slim waist, the flare of her hips. I grabbed her hip, yanked her to press against me, and then rolled onto my back, pulling Amelia on top of me. I needed my hands free. I shoved one into her hair and pulled her mouth back to mine. We explored each other, our rhythm needy and frantic. I felt her around me, above me, inside my soul. I couldn’t separate the physical caress from the way her power seduced my own, drawing me in and completely encompassing me.

I let my hands wander, gripped her hips again, and then slid one up her back beneath her shirt. The feel of her skin, smooth under my fingertips, only made me want her more. At the same time, her knees gripped my sides and she held herself up with one hand while the other fisted my shirt. Amelia kissed me in waves; a fury of exploration and then slow, lingering kisses that branded me as hers.

I reached up, content to lose myself again, when banging started on the door.

“You guys need to get out here, now!” Cole’s terrified voice sliced through the sexual tension. We scrambled to right our clothes and I yanked open the door. He was already halfway down the hall, and yelled back, “Come on, I can’t get her to talk to me and she’s covered in blood.”

Like a rocket, we were both on his heels. We sprinted behind him and around the house. We careened around a corner, and there was Bethany. She sat on the ground, her back against the wall and knees pulled up, feet planted firmly. She held her hands out in front of her. The dark blood coating them matched the red of her flannel shirt. It was smeared on her jeans and had somehow ended up on her face.

Amelia motioned for us to stop as she slowly moved closer. “Bethany? Hey, B,” she said gently. Bethany’s eyes were unfocused as she continued to stare at her hands, turning them over and back. Amelia took another step and called her name a little louder. This time, her head shot up and I could see the anguish etched in her features. The shock and pain were plain as day in her stricken face.

“I…I just…I was there to keep watch, to help,” she started to speak. She couldn’t maintain eye contact and her voice held no emotion. “I wanted to help. But she passed out, and then the bleeding started. It was everywhere. Something went wrong. I yelled. I yelled for help. I screamed, but no one heard me. I tried to stop the blood, but she woke up and tried to hurt me. I couldn’t do anything. It all happened so fast. All the blood. And her claws are so sharp. I had to leave her. I had to find Cora. I couldn’t help her.”

Amelia slowly knelt beside Bethany. “Did you get to Cora? How are Nell and the kittens?”

Bethany shook her head quickly, short snaps back and forth. “I…I don’t know. They yelled at me. Not Cora, but the others. They told me to get out, that I shouldn’t be there. That I could have killed her.” She stilled. “She could have died because I don’t have magic,” she said, her words tortured and full of disbelief.