Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) (9 page)

Soul Harbor didn’t have much of a selection when it came to
clothing stores. We’d stopped at the select few and scoped them out without any
luck, before deciding to head to a few of the shops closer to Craven College.
It was at a little hippy-looking shop where we finally found what we were
looking for.

The place was called Down to Earth Apparel, and as we
stepped inside, the strong scent of incense met my nose as whimsical music
filled my ears. A woman in her late forties with ringlets of brown hair falling
to her waist and absolutely no makeup on greeted us. She was wearing a flowing
beige tunic and a gypsy-looking skirt that brushed just above her ankles.
Callie told her what we were looking for—solid-colored, flowing dresses or
robes—and the woman pointed us in the right direction without even a moment’s
thought.

“What about this one?” Callie asked, as she held out a baby
blue dress that hit just above her knees. “Too short?”

“Eh.” I contemplated its length, unsure of what would be
considered appropriate for something like this. “Shouldn’t it be something that
at least falls below the knees? I don’t know, I mean, this seems like it would
be rendered as a formal event.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Callie said. She put the dress
back on the rack and began her search again.

I shifted my eyes around, looking for another rack of
dresses to flip through. A long, fluid dress hanging on the wall behind Callie
caught my attention. It was bright red and made of a rippling fabric that
looked as though it would be breathable while at the same time remaining
opaque, unlike some of the others I’d seen.

“What about something like this?” I asked as I walked toward
it.

“Oh, that’s perfect!” Callie squealed from behind me. “I
wonder if they have it in blue too.”

I reached for the dress and got it down. Holding it up
against myself, I scurried to find a mirror while taking note of how gorgeous
the dress actually was. It was lightweight and came to the tops of my feet. The
color was a vibrant red, which represented my element. It was perfect.

“Oh, look at this color,” Callie whispered in a soft tone.

Glancing over my shoulder at her, I found her holding up an
exact replica of my dress. The only difference was hers was a pale shade of
blue. The color of the dress against Callie’s dark skin was going to be
stunning.

“We have to get these,” she said. Her lips twisted into a
whimsical smile, and her eyes widened.

I nodded my agreement, and then looked at the price tag for
the first time—$22.50. They were ideal for what we needed them for, would look
stunning on both of us, and were within my price range.

Maybe I
was
meant to become initiated after all.

After buying our dresses and stopping to get something to
eat and a milkshake at the nearest fast-food place, we headed back to Soul
Harbor. I was supposed to meet Kace at my house in under an hour. Who knew it
would have taken a little over four hours to find a freaking dress for
something?

“I need to make one stop before we head back to your place,”
Callie said. She turned down a street I knew, but I still couldn’t figure out
where we were going.

When we passed Putman’s Diner and cut into the parking lot
of Fisherman’s Brew, my stomach dropped to my toes.

“What do you have to get here?” I asked. I prayed she said
food, even though we’d already eaten.

“A spell to keep my mom at bay,” Callie said without
bringing her eyes to mine. Her voice was shaky as she spoke. “I know she won’t
allow us to go through with the initiation without some sort of interference,
not with the way she was spelling you so heavily to leave town. I just need
something that will counteract anything she might try, maybe something to make
her seem more compliant with the whole idea?” She swallowed hard as she gripped
the handle to her car door.

I stared at her, unbelieving she was even thinking of going
through with something like this, especially after the way she’d reacted when I
told her it had been her mother trying to get me to leave town.

“Do you really think it’s necessary?” I asked. I licked my
lips as I continued to stare at her.

Callie let out a long breath and looked me directly in the
eye. “She’ll try to stop us if I don’t do something to keep her from doing it,
Addison. I know her well enough to know that. I’m sorry. Please don’t think any
less of me, but this is something I feel like I have to do.”

Her eyes grew misty, making it clear to me how much she
worried I would think less of her after this.

“I know this seems sort of hypocritical of me, but trust me
when I say this is something that needs to be done,” she insisted.

“Okay, but umm, I’m hanging out here,” I said.

There was no way I was stepping foot in Fisherman’s Brew
with this tether still in place. Actually, I shouldn’t even be in the parking
lot.

“That’s fine.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her
ear, and then opened the driver’s side door. “I’ll be just a minute.”

As I watched her walked across the nearly full parking lot,
I thought about how much I hated that she felt spelling her mother was the only
way we would be able to continue the initiation without any problems. Callie
had always seemed so innocent and sweet to me. The notion of her doing
something so vindictive made my skin crawl. I prayed this was the only time she
chose to do something so malicious.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since Callie had gone
inside, but I soon felt the familiar warming sensation, which signified Theo
was nearby, swim through me. My skin tingled as the feeling intensified. A
mixture of agitation and desire rippled through me, causing a sickening feeling
to consume my stomach instantly.

Leave me alone, Theo
, I said in my mind as loudly as
I could. I hoped this new mind trick we’d obtained still worked, and he’d heard
me clearly enough to listen.

“I won’t. What are you doing here?” Theo asked from
somewhere beside my opened window.

Jumping, I glanced at both sides of the car, trying to
pinpoint where he was standing. He had to be close, because he’d used his
actual voice and hadn’t been inside my head when he’d spoken. However, he was
nowhere to be seen, or so I thought, until I noticed the paint of the red car
beside me ripple as though it were made of flowing water.

He was using a glamour.

“Callie needed to get something from your grandma. I’m just
waiting for her.” I spoke directly to the waving paint, knowing that was where
he was standing.

“You shouldn’t be here. My grandmother has been making
herself crazy with all the spells she’s been trying to use against you lately,”
he said. His voice was low, but I could feel the concern and attraction he felt
for me behind his words. This made my stomach knot even more. “She knows we’re
tethered now.”

My breath left my lungs in a puff of air. That couldn’t be a
good thing.

“How did she find out?” I asked.

“She has her ways.”

“Well what happens now? Is she going to come after me or
something since she knows?” I asked as I attempted to swallow the lump that had
risen in my throat.

I remembered what Theo had said his family would most likely
do to me if they ever found out we were tethered, and a shiver ran along my
spine. I sunk into my seat; Callie needed to hurry up.

“I’m not sure. She questioned me some, but I denied
everything as best I could,” Theo said, still cloaked by his glamour.

A sudden desire to see his face nearly overwhelmed me, and
in an instant, the glamour was dropped and Theo stood before me dressed in a
pale yellow T-shirt and low-hanging jeans. The action sort of freaked me out,
because I wasn’t sure if it was something he’d thought to do on his own or if
he’d heard me wishing for it in my mind. How did that mind thing work anyway?

My eyes traveled up the length of him, until they locked on
his lips. This was where they froze as a rush of memory involving those lips
and their featherlight kisses surged through my mind. It was then that I
remembered the whole
he can probably hear my thoughts
thing again, and
cleared my mind as best I could.

“I expected her to continue with the questions and for my
mother to become involved in the interrogations as well, but that never
happened. Today, they’ve been acting as though they don’t care,” Theo said. His
caramel-colored eyes met mine directly. “Still doesn’t mean you should be here,
though.”

“Trust me; I don’t necessarily
want
to be here.”

Theo’s face grew somber. His eyes darkened as though he
didn’t like what I’d said, and he resorted to glancing around the parking lot.
“I still think something is going on. I’m not sure what, but I know it has
something to do with this tether and the reason it was put into place.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, perplexed.

He’d mentioned something along the same lines back at my
house, but he’d never really elaborated on the idea.

“I mean, I think whatever reason it was created for is about
to make itself known. My grandmother wouldn’t back down otherwise. I have to be
right. Can’t you feel it?”

I didn’t feel anything like that. Gaping at him for a
moment, I wondered if I should wait to become initiated.
Initiated
,
maybe that was it.

“Maybe it’s because she knows the tether will be broken
soon. She probably just knows that I’ve agreed to become initiated,” I said.

It did make sense.

Theo shook his head. “Why? That’s the last thing my family
wants…at least my grandmother. You’d take away her main source of income by
doing so.”

My sudden optimism deflated. He was right. They didn’t want
me initiated—that was the whole point of doing all the spells against me.

“Hoodoo is her main source of income? I thought Fisherman’s
Brew was,” I said, unsure why my mind chose to focus on something so trivial.

“She can make more doing Hoodoo spells for people in town in
an hour than she does working a full day at Fisherman’s Brew. Plus, it’s what
she loves to do most,” Theo answered, his voice low and deep.

Affection fluttered through me from him; he loved his
grandmother. That was apparent. There was nothing sweeter than a man who loved
his grandmother. I caught myself staring at his lips again, and inched a little
closer to the car door separating us, wishing we could have a repeat of the
kiss in the kitchen. Heat spread across my face once I noticed Theo’s pupils
dilate. He was having as hard of a time as I was with resisting our urges.

I leaned back against my seat and away from Theo. “You’d
better put your glamour back up. Callie will be back in a minute, and I don’t
want her to see me talking to you.”

His full lips drew into a thin line. He placed one dark arm
against the top of my door and leaned in closer to me. “Lapse in judgment.”

After pulling something from his pocket, he disappeared an
instant later, turning into the rippling thing he’d been before with the help
of another glamour. My insides burned with sadness at not being able to see him
physically any longer. I focused on the sensation surging beneath my skin from
his nearness, and the misery mellowed. Some.

“What’s in the bags?” Theo asked.

It took me a moment to realize he was talking about the
oversized bags crowding Callie’s backseat, the ones our dresses were in.
Shifting my gaze away from where he stood, I forced myself to look straight
ahead.

“Our dresses for the initiation,” I said.

“Even after what I told you, you’re still going to go
through with it?” Theo asked. His voice sounded broken and full of the desperation
I could clearly feel stemming from him.

I was glad I couldn’t see his face, because if I had been
able to, I was positive I would have done something stupid—like pulled him
close to me and pressed my lips against his just to erase the desperation from
his eyes, from his body.

“I am,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

The rippling wave of red paint on the car beside me
disappeared then…as did the warmth swirling beneath my skin. The emotions of
desperation and sadness stayed though, because they were just as much mine as
they were his.