Read Cora's Kismet (The Twin Destinies Saga Book 1) Online
Authors: Cheryl Davis
“Liam will be fine. He has a lot of cuts and bruising and
there was some internal bleeding from a stab wound, but we got that stopped.
There are no broken bones, and we did full body x-rays just to be sure of that.
He’ll need lots of rest to let his body heal, but most of his trauma should
disappear within a week,” the doctor stated in a clinical manner. Cora
appreciated his candor as well as the fact that he didn’t try to sugar coat
anything.
“Thank you, Doctor. How long will he have to stay here?” she
asked him, with relief in her voice.
“I am going to keep him here for at least a week to let the
internal injury heal. I don’t want him up moving around much and reopening the
wound. Once he wakes from being sedated, I will examine him again,” the doctor
told them. “For now, the two of you may go in and sit with him, but no more
than two can be in there at a time.”
Cora’s shoulders sagged in relief at the doctor’s words. She
was exhausted but there was no way she was leaving his side until he was awake.
She looked up at Sage and gave him a small, tired smile before thanking the
doctor and moving towards Liam’s room. Sage nodded to the doctor and followed
close behind her.
They entered the room and took chairs on opposite sides of
the bed. Cora took Liam’s hand in hers and gazed at his battered face. “I am so
sorry all of this happened. I wish there was some way I could make it right. If
you want me, I will be here with you, to help you through everything,” she
whispered to him, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Cora, you have got to stop blaming yourself. It’s not going
to do anyone any good here, not you or Liam,” Sage told her with compassion in
his eyes.
“I wish I could believe that Sage. Until Liam tells me he
forgives me, I can’t help but blame myself for this entire mess. He’s my mate,
and I put him in danger.” The tears started flowing down her cheeks faster.
She’d never cried as much in her entire life, as she had since she’d met Liam.
“How did you know how to find Liam?” Sage asked.
“What do you mean?” Cora asked taken off guard.
“How did you know how to find Liam?” Sage repeated.
“He called to me in our minds, begging for help,” Cora
answered confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“So Liam asked you to come and save him?” Sage asked,
irritated.
“Yes. Why does it matter?” Cora was lost as to where Sage
was taking this conversation.
“Well, you’re sitting there blaming yourself for putting
your mate in danger, while Liam put you in even more danger by asking you to
come save him. One thing I’ve noticed about you Cora is that you don’t
distribute blame everywhere it belongs, you take it all on yourself, which
isn’t fair to you, or anyone around you. Liam played his own part in everything
that happened over the last few days. He’s a grown man who made his own
decisions, whether it was over-reacting and falling into a trap or calling you
to help him and putting your life in grave danger,” Sage said and sat back in
his chair, waiting for her reaction.
“I don’t care that he put me in danger by asking me to save
him, I would do it again for him. His life means more to me than my own does,”
Cora said meeting Sage’s eyes. Sage rolled his in response, getting more
aggravated with her stubborn inability to place any blame at all on his
brother.
“You are so infuriating. I am so glad you are Liam’s mate
and not mine because I am already having a hard time not strangling some sense
into you,” Sage said, and broke out into a huge smile letting her know he was teasing
her.
“Yeah well, good luck buddy,” Cora teased him back.
“Are you two quite finished?” Liam croaked out, trying his
best to smile, but failing with the pain in his face, head and body.
“Hey, you’re awake,” Cora said.
“It’s about time you quit slacking off,” Sage teased him
relieved.
“Ha, ha, I feel like hell,” Liam said, trying to push
himself up to a sitting position, giving up quickly and wincing in pain.
“I would be more shocked if you felt like you were in a
spa,” Sage teased again.
“Let me go get the doctor and let him know you’re awake,”
Cora said, releasing his hand before he could stop her and heading out of the
room.
Cora could hear Liam call her name, but let the door shut
behind her as if she hadn’t heard him. She walked down the hall a little way,
before stopping and leaning against the wall. She needed a few minutes alone to
pull herself together. She was tired of everyone trying to make her feel better
and telling her she wasn’t to blame for what happened, when she knew they were
all wrong. She
was
to blame.
She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, pulling
herself together. She would get herself through this and, if he let her, she’d
help get Liam through it too. She would also get her parents to unbind their powers
and start training so Anna would pay for her crimes, Cora would make sure of
it.
Cora knew she wasn’t holding it together very well, and she
needed to get some sleep soon. Pushing herself off of the wall, she headed off
to find the doctor and let him know Liam was awake, before heading back to the
main house to get started on her plans.
As the door clicked shut behind her,
Liam looked up at Sage.
“What’s going on? Why did she leave like that?” he asked,
the hurt evident in his voice.
“You are a fool little brother,” Sage said, shaking his
head. As frustrated as he was with Cora, he understood her point of view
because he was very much the same, but Liam’s stupidity was more than he could
take. Even though he knew now was not the time to rip his brother a new one, he
couldn’t hold himself back.
“What? Why?” Liam asked confused.
“You have a great girl for your mate, and you run out on her
over a little bump in your relationship? What the hell were you thinking?” Sage
lit into his brother.
Liam scrunched his face up, the pain evident in his eyes,
while he tried to remember the last few hours, but things were fuzzy for him.
“To be honest, I couldn’t tell you Bro. Things are a bit
hazy right now,” Liam told his brother with frustration. “Could you maybe help
fill in the blanks, so I can remember?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course you wouldn’t remember your
own stupidity, that’d be too easy. Ok, here’s the deal, Viola spilled to you,
and their parents, about a guy Cora had been dating before she’d ever met you,
but forgot all about once she did meet you. Then you threw a tantrum and left
her, long story short. When you left her, you got caught in one of Anna’s
traps, and she whooped your behind. We had to come save your sorry butt,” Sage
came close shouting at his brother.
Liam let his breath out in a whoosh, as it all came flooding
back to him in a rush. He remembered it all, the discussion with Thomas and
Angelica, the revelation about Charlie, Cora pulling away from him, him walking
to clear his head, but then deciding to fight for her, until he overheard her
begging her parents to bring Charlie to her, and him packing his things to
leave the grounds.
“I can’t compete with a guy it’s obvious she cares so much
about. She was begging her parents to bring him here to be with her,” Liam
spoke, his heartache filling his voice.
“Where in the hell did you get that dumb idea from?” Sage
asked, getting even more frustrated with his idiot brother.
“I overheard her begging her parents to bring him to her. I
was going to fight for her until I heard that,” Liam’s voice hardened when he
remembered his overheard conversation.
“Well, it’s now obvious you suck at eavesdropping, otherwise
you would know the only reason she wanted him anywhere near her was to make
sure the guy knew, without a doubt, he had no chance with her, and she wanted
your sorry butt present for that discussion. Like I said, you threw a tantrum
and ran. I can’t even begin tell you just how disgusted I am with you right
now,” Sage said, throwing his hands up in the air.
Liam stared at his brother, stunned at his revelation. ‘
Could
it be? Is that really why she wanted Charlie brought to see her? I am such an
idiot!’
Sage smirked as he watched the horror of his actions hit
home with Liam.
“Oh man, I messed up big huh?” Liam sighed out. “I need to
fix this.”
“Yeah, you do, so I’d start planning if I were you. You’re
stuck here in the hospital for a week so whatever you need help with, let me
know, and I’ll do it, but you’d better make this right with her or I’m gonna strap
you down to a torture chair and teach you a lesson myself,” Sage told his
brother and stood to leave. “I’m glad you’re ok, but I still never thought you
were that stupid.”
“Sage, thanks for helping save my butt,” Liam said.
“Uh, I’m not the one to thank on that one either. Thank your
mate. You called to her begging her to help you, and she put together one hell
of a rescue mission in the blink of an eye. When we got there, I hear she was a
force to be reckoned with and had Anna pinned against the wall with not only
her unbound Solarian powers, but with her bound Lunarian powers as well. It
took you begging her not to kill herself while trying to save you, to get her
to back down from draining her own life in her attempt to kill Anna,” Sage
said, before turning to leave the room just as the doctor entered.
*****
After showering and changing into her favorite pair of
comfy, faded green yoga pants and a form-fitting tank top, Cora pulled her dark
hair back into a pony tail and headed for the kitchen. She needed coffee, and
it would be bad if anyone came between it and her at the moment.
As she entered the kitchen, she was relieved to find it
empty and an almost full pot of coffee sitting on the counter. She grabbed a
cup and filled it with the nectar of life. Holding the cup up to her nose, she
inhaled the aroma in deep through her nostrils.
“What are you up to Sis?” Viola asked, as she entered and
made a beeline for the coffeepot. “Ah, heaven exists.”
“I’m getting ready to do a workout and then find Thomas and
Angelica to reschedule our unbinding ceremony, so we can begin training. Anna
is gonna pay for what she’s done and I’m going to be the one to make sure she
does. Next time I meet her, she won’t get away because I am too weak to defeat
her,” Cora declared, pissed off.
“Wow Sis, not holding back punches anymore huh?” Viola said
with her eyebrows raised.
“Nope, Anna crossed the line. You and I both know she’s not
finished. She will be back with something worse next time. We need to be on top
of our game so we can win this war, and save the innocent people who don’t
deserve the hell she’d rain down if she was left out there free,” Cora said
with more vehemence than Viola had ever heard from her. Something had snapped
in her, and she didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, but she
was going to put it to good use.
“Yeah, I get that, but shouldn’t you be over at the hospital
with Liam?” Viola asked, being very cautious.
“Why? He’ll be fine, and he told me everything I needed to
know when he left. He woke up, so I left.” Cora shrugged, even though she knew
Viola could see through her act of nonchalance and right to the core of her
pain. Sometimes she hated being such an open book to her sister.
“Cora you don’t believe that, I know you don’t. Go talk to
him. I’m sure all of it was a huge misunderstanding, and you can work things
out between you.” Viola nudged her toward the back door of the house.
“No. I have to concentrate on moving forward and training
right now.” Cora maintained her stubborn stance.
“Fine, I guess you leave me no choice,” Viola said and
shrugged.
“What are you talking about?” Cora asked, a bad feeling
rolling around in her gut.
“If you won’t go talk to Liam, and try to work things out,
then I refuse to go through with the unbinding ceremony and there will be no
training. End of story,” Viola said, and then strode out of the room confident
in her decision, her coffee firm in hand.
“That’s not fair Vi!” Cora shouted after her.
“I don’t care,” Viola called back with a chuckle.
Cora slammed her free hand down on the counter, full of
anger and resentment toward her sister. Viola knew how to play her like a
fiddle. She slammed her coffee cup down in frustration and cradled the hand
she’d slammed against the counter up to her chest, since it was throbbing from
the abuse she’d just inflicted upon it, and swore under her breath.
“Problems?” Sage asked as he entered the kitchen and grabbed
himself a cup of coffee, then started another pot when he noticed he’d taken
the last of it.
“You could say that,” Cora muttered, seething.
“Want to talk about it?” Sage asked, sitting down at the
island looking at her.
“Just my annoying twin blackmailing me. Nothing new,” Cora
bit out.
“Blackmail?” Sage asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Yeah, she thinks I need to go talk to Liam and work things
out. I think he made his decision about us and there’s nothing left to be
said,” Cora said.
“Ok, I don’t get blackmail out of that, although I have to
say, I agree with your sister,” Sage said, and scooted away from her to be
safer.
“You too? He left without giving me a chance to explain, I
think that speaks for itself. She told me she would refuse to participate in
the unbinding ceremony and training if I don’t go talk to him. That’s where the
blackmail comes in,” Cora said, and started pacing back and forth, feeling as
if her back was pressed against the wall. She needed to train to be ready to
face Anna. Without her twin, that would never happen and Anna would win.
“Things aren’t always black and white Cora, no matter how much
we wish they were. Maybe you both need to let the other one explain what you were
thinking and feeling. Then see where you both stand. Oh, and for the record,
I’ve already read him the riot act for being so stupid,” Sage said, as if it
was an everyday occurrence, hoping to breach the wall Cora was doing a pretty
good job of building around herself rather fast.
“The riot act? Why?” Cora asked him, intrigued.
“Because, like I told you, he behaved like a spoiled child
who got his feelings hurt, and I told him so,” Sage said with a smug smile.
“I wish you wouldn’t have done that,” Cora groaned.
“Why? Because you insist on taking all the blame instead of
placing it where it belongs? No, he needed to hear it to realize just how big
of a child he was being,” Sage insisted.
“The blame is mine Sage. I just wish you would see that,”
Cora said, feeling ganged up on.
“No, the blame is not on you. It never was and never will
be. You did nothing wrong at all.” Sage tried to comfort her and get her to see
what everyone else already did.
She shook her head, being very stubborn, picked her cup up
from the counter and sipped it without saying another word to him. She just
wished everyone would back off and let her handle things the way that she felt
was right. She didn’t feel that forcing Liam to be with her, when he’d already
chosen
to walk
away, was
the right thing to do.
“Have you seen Thomas or Angelica this morning?” Cora asked,
changing the subject and daring him to go back to the previous one.
“Yeah, I had to debrief with them a little while ago.
They’re in Thomas’ study, my guess, waiting on you to find out what you want to
do next,” Sage said with a shrug, deciding to let her have her way. He knew how
wrong she was, and he knew his brother well enough to know he’d find a way to
make things right with her very soon.
“Thanks,” she said, and topped off her coffee before heading
out of the kitchen towards Thomas’ study to put her plans into motion, with or
without Viola.