Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) (20 page)

A little sliver of pride rolled through me from her comment.
It disappeared as soon as I heard the crunching of gravel and the sound of a
vehicle driving wildly toward the house.

“Things are about to get interesting real quick it seems,”
Kyra said, the toe of her shoe tapping against the metal chair she had her feet
propped up on.

Theo stood and came to my side. “You should have left while
you had the chance. I don’t think it was wise to go against the Spirits' orders
from my grandmother.”

I opened my mouth to speak—to tell Theo exactly what I
thought about the Spirits, him, and his family—but Kyra cut me off.

“Actually, she
didn’t
go against the Spirits.” Kyra
smirked. “In fact, she did exactly as they wanted her to.”

My heart dropped to my toes.

“What do you mean?” Theo asked. His eyes grew hard as he
shifted to look at her.

“Gran said to tell her to leave—she even gave me the excuse
of going to the dock—but only because the Spirits know her so well. They knew
that if she was
told
to leave, she’d do the opposite.” Kyra tossed her
hands up and glanced at the sky. “Spirits win.”

I gaped at her, disbelieving what she said. The thought of
dead people, or whatever the Spirits actually were, being able to predict my
every move was beyond creepy.

“Anything else?” Theo asked Kyra pointedly, just as we heard
three car doors slam shut.

She flashed him a devious smile. “Just that all three of us
are supposed to be here right now. Whatever
they
have planned to keep
the balance in order is about to begin taking effect.”

When she said
they
, I knew exactly who she was
referring to, and it gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Theo began to pace back and forth. I didn’t know what to do,
so I remained where I sat.

“Calm in a stressful situation,” Kyra said. “I like you.”

I flashed her a nervous smile. “Eh, not calm, just
mind-boggled. Sitting seems like the best option at this point.”

My heart pounded against my ribs as I saw Kace and the
others come from around the side of the house. I watched Kace’s face closely,
waiting for the moment when he would notice me sitting at the table. It didn’t
take him but a few of my rapid heartbeats before his eyes met with mine. A
complete look of relief washed over his face, and he sped up as he rushed to
where I sat.

“What the hell is she doing here?” Kace asked Theo once he
reached me. “I swear, if I find out you’ve hurt one hair on her head, I’ll
fucking kill you!”

I stood up. “Kace, he didn’t. Calm down.”

Kace placed his hands on my waist, and the smallest flickers
of warmth I’d ever felt from him met with his touch and fluttered across my
skin before dying out. It was more muted now than it ever had been before. My
stomach sank.

“What’s going on?” Kace asked. His hands pulled away from
me. Obviously, he’d felt, and taken note of, the muted sensation just as I had.

“What on Earth are you even doing here?” Callie asked, not
realizing what Kace had been talking about. Her voice was soft, but there was a
large amount of concern and nervousness mixed with it.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words couldn’t seem to
get from my brain to my lips fast enough. Maybe telling them why I was hanging
out here wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d initially thought. Especially not
with the muted sensation of Kace’s touch that seemed to baffle us both.

How was I going to explain
that
without giving away
my new ability and telling them I was part Conjurer now because of the tether?

“Avery, seriously, this is messed up,” Adam said as he took
another step closer to me, causing me to feel like I was being cornered.

“She can go wherever she wants,” Theo growled. “You don’t
own her.”

A twitchy feeling coursed through me—Theo’s irritation
directed toward Kace and this entire situation. I quickly shifted to look at
him. He stood just off to the side at my right. His eyes were narrowed at Kace,
and his hands were clenched so tightly at his sides his knuckles were white.

I spoke before anyone else could respond to him, turning my
gaze back to Kace. “I came to see if the tether was broken.”

Kace locked eyes with me. Callie and Adam didn’t speak, and
I wondered if Kace had taken a moment to fill them in during their frantic search
for me or the ride here. It seemed as though he had. I was glad. It was less
explaining that I had to do.

“And?” Kace prompted.

My eyes gazed between the three of them standing around me.
The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn’t get them out.
Finally, I settled my stare on Kace. He looked so pensive and hopeful that my
answer would be a resounding yes, but the longer I dragged the silence out, the
more those emotions faded. He knew what my answer would be without me having to
utter a word. They all did.

“It’s not,” I said, shaking my head. “In fact, it’s stronger
than it was before.”

I had expected that saying the words aloud would have
somehow made me feel at ease, but they didn’t. In fact, they only made me feel
worse. Now, not only was I feeling Theo’s intense irritation, but my scalp also
began to prickle from all of the tension building between the six of us.

My eyes never left Kace. I noticed the change in his
demeanor the second the words had passed from my lips. He dropped his gaze from
me as he drew his lips together, making them into a thin line. His shoulders
slouched, and a stony expression spread across his face.

“But didn’t you say going through with the initiation would
get rid of it?” Kace asked without meeting my stare.

I hated the fact that he couldn’t even look at me right now.

“It was supposed to,” I said, fiddling with my bracelets.
“At least that’s what Admer told me.”

“Then why didn’t it?” Adam asked.

I shifted on my feet. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe he lied,” Kyra chimed in.

I’d actually forgotten she was there. She still sat at the
table with her feet propped up in the chair beside her. My eyes shifted from
Adam to Callie and then to Kace as I watched them all stare at her. It became
clear that, for whatever reason, no one had paid her much attention before now.
No one had even seemed to notice her. Their confusion over who she was hung
heavily in the air.

“And who are you?” Adam, always the straightforward one,
asked her.

“Kyra, I’m Theo’s cousin,” she answered. A smirk twisted her
plump red lips. She continued to tap her shoe against the chair her feet rested
in without a care in the world, and she toyed with a string hanging from the
neckline of her top. I envied her ease in the moment.

“Why would Admer lie?” Callie asked, her soft voice breaking
the awkward silence that had been blossoming between us yet again.

“You have to admit, he hasn’t been the most forthcoming
person I’ve met here,” I muttered, amazed I could speak at all.

Maybe what Kyra was saying held some truth in it. Somehow
that didn’t surprise me as much as I’d thought it would.

I watched as Kace shifted his gaze from Kyra to me. I
couldn’t label the emotion flittering across his face. Did he not agree with
me? His eyes drew back to Kyra too soon for me to decipher what he was feeling.
I caught myself wondering if Kyra was using her talent of fascination on him,
and felt extreme levels of jealousy float through my mind at the sight of them
staring at one another.

Movement from Theo caught my attention. I figured he didn’t
like feeling my jealousy much. He turned toward the path that led to his house.

“I’m not standing here any longer,” he said, his back to us
as he walked away. “The tether isn’t broken, and I’m not about to fight any of
you for the sake of Addison and her decision to seek out whether it was or not.
She had every right to wonder.”

Nobody stopped him as he disappeared down the worn dirt
path.

My insides twisted as I watched him go. It took everything I
had not to go after him. Instead, I chose to ignore that part—no matter how
big—and erase the tiny distance between Kace and me. Taking his hand in mine, I
squeezed it slightly.

“Come on. Let's go,” I said, noticing he was still sharing a
stare-down moment, or whatever it was, with Kyra.

He dropped his eyes to our intertwined fingers and then
looked at me.

“Fine, let’s go,” he muttered. His words seemed cold and
hard—detached even—but he never dropped my hand.

We hadn’t made it far before Kyra spoke. “I’ll be seeing you
soon, Addison. We’ll have to pick up where we left off with that
thing
,”
she called. Her voice was sultry and sexy.

Kace glanced over his shoulder at her, and I couldn’t help
the anger that boiled within me from the action. She had to be using her talent
on him, because he seemed completely captivated by her right now.

“You’re right,” I said. I shifted slightly to glance back at
her.

She wiggled her fingers at me and smiled the most malicious
grin I’d seen on her yet. Heat simmered across my skin, and I thought I would
burst into flames when she blew me a kiss. I turned back around without
returning her smile. Kace was still looking over his shoulder at her. I cleared
my throat at him and heard Kyra laugh as we rounded the corner.

She knew exactly what I was feeling and she was enjoying
every moment of it. This whole thing had been nothing besides a big show to
her, a little live entertainment. What a witch.