Fated Release (Fated Keepers Series Book 2) (3 page)

“I will get you out of here. I promise. But I will have to leave you first.” I tell her because I feel myself being pulled away.

“Don’t leave me Arsema. Don’t leave me here alone!” Her screams follow me as I am forced back into my body.

              Lyon is yelling my name, in my head, using the bond. When I come back to he picks me up off the bathroom floor and carries me to my bedroom. “She’s in the basement of her house. Lyon do you hear me. He kept her in her own basement. Get her now.” I tell him telepathically and I hear him relay the message to the others. “We will bring her back now. Haas lets go.” I hear Orin yell and then I hear nothing else. The dark abyss claims me as its own.

Lyon...

Orin and Haas find Tris chained in her basement just like Arsema said she would be. She is brought back to the house and fed and bathed and then she lies down and sleeps for about 12 straight hours. Orin hasn’t left her side yet. He has appointed himself as her personal guardian. Arsema had been out since I found her in the bathroom, blood running down her face from her nose, her eyes rolled back into head. I thought she was dead when I saw her. I had been sitting downstairs with the guys trying to come up with a plan for finding Tris when Arsema cut in mentally to tell she loves me. I love to hear those words come from her and then she disconnected and something just didn’t feel right.

I tried to push it aside as me overreacting until I felt her disappear completely. It was like she just wasn’t there anymore. I ran out of the living room and took the stairs two at time trying to get to her. I find her on the floor of the bathroom. Here but gone. After screaming her name out loud and in her mind for over 2 minutes she finally comes back to me, just long enough to tell me where Tris is and then she passes out. Only she isn’t just sleeping. She appears to be, but I can’t feel her. I can’t feel the bond.

              “How is she?” Erik has made it a point to check in on her every couple of hours. I look over at the clock. 1 am. It has been exactly 2 hours since the last time he came in.

“Still no change. I don’t know what to do. I don’t understand any of this. I can’t feel anything from her.” I tell him frustratingly.

“I’ve got Elmeri looking into it. She has a hypothesis.”

“Really? What is it?” I ask him truly interested. Elmeri walks in at that moment.

“I think her mind has shut down. It’s severed all connections so she can recuperate. She pushed herself too far and it is trying to protect her in the only was it knows how. By shutting off.”

“Is that possible? And how do we fix it?” It makes sense what she is saying, but I need to know how to make her better. I was supposed to protect her. And once again I failed her.

“I don’t know. This is just a hypothesis. We need a healer to check her.”

“A healer? No healing works for Craecia.”

“Well one kind will.” Erik says. “We need to find a shaman. They are ancient healers, but they are very rare. No one has seen one the last 12 centuries. They all went into hiding when Ose turned and created the Orfeo, but they still exist and still practice. Just in secret. You will have to be the one to search for one. Only a loved one with a true heart can locate the shaman. You are the only one.” How was I supposed to leave her? I had no choice. To save her I would have to leave her.

“Ill pack right away and leave at first light.”

“I’m going with you.” I didn’t even know Tris had come into the room.

“She is like this because she wanted to save me. I am going with you to find the shaman.”

“If she goes I am going also. Sorry lass, but I’m not letting you out of my sight. That fire headed lass there would skin me alive if anything happened to you again.” Orin volunteers as well.

              I am overwhelmed with love for the people in my life. Orin and Tris are packed within minutes and both are following me throughout the house to make certain I don’t leave without them. I can’t say the thought has not crossed my mind. I stop by and ask Haas to stay with Arsema and watch over her, and to look out for Cash and make sure he stays out of trouble too. He agrees and I am able to breathe a little lighter with that small worry off of my mind. 

              “We leave in the morning, get as much rest as you can now because there won’t be time for it once we leave.” I tell Tris already knowing Orin won’t sleep a wink. Neither of us needs sleep to function, but I go to Arsema’s room and crawl into bed beside her so I can soak in her essence for the next few hours anyway. I don’t know how long I will be gone. I want to soak up every minute I can of her before I leave.

              Tomorrow a new journey begins. I don’t know where it will take me or when I will return. I am ready for this. I will walk to the ends of the Earth for this girl in my arms. I will never stop searching if there is even a chance of finding someone out there that can cure her. She is my life. My whole world now revolves around her. Before she came into my life I was lost, barely living. I existed, but I didn’t start to live until I first saw her. Her beauty took my breath away and her spirit breathed life into my shattered soul. She was my soul keeper. My one and only. Fate may have captured her but I would release her from this prison her mind had created for her. There was no other option. I would not fail her.

Prologue

Tris

             
We have been searching for some strange, magic wielding being, for the better part of three months. Three months, that Arsema has been trapped in a self induced coma. I keep hoping every day that I will get a phone call telling me that she is awake. I know this is not going to happen; things don’t ever happen that easily in real life. And let’s face it, if this was a fairytale, she wouldn’t be in the coma to begin with. If this was a fairytale, she and Lyon would be off, sailing into the sunset, enjoying their happily ever after.

I want nothing more than to see them happy and making memories. I look forward to the stories they will make together and hearing them when they return from their adventures. Arsema deserves her happy ending, with the magical wedding or whatever she was always dreaming of. Her knight in shining armor sweeping her off her feet, waiting on her hand and foot, admiring her from afar, and loving her up close. Arsema always was the more romantic one between the two of us. She could carry on for hours with her insistent chatter; he must do this, and he must say that, he must be this way and on and on and on she can go.

I wonder if Lyon fit in the dream she had planned or if he blew it to pieces in her mind. I know he makes her happy. Well, more than happy, he is her soul keeper. He is the other half of her; of course he broke the mold.  My heart breaks for them both and the circumstances that lead them where we all are now. We all knew when Lyon showed up proclaiming Arsema as the chosen one, that her life would be a constant battle, but how can she face these battles and win this war against evil, if she is stuck in a coma?

              The time away from Arsema has really taken its toll on Lyon. He is getting thinner and thinner as the days go by. He hardly ever eats, no matter how much Orin and I pester him to do so. And trust me, if there is one thing I am good at, it is pestering someone. His face is sunken in and his cheekbones are protruding at sharp angles high on his face. He has dark, purple circles under his bloodshot eyes. I don’t know when the last time he had a full bath, or shaved. His beard is a good 5 inches long and looks like crap. His hair has grown even longer, now passing beyond his ears and the curl Arsema once loved to twist around her fingers, now lays listless against his scalp. Instead of the hot as all get out twenty two year old he used to look like, he now more closely resembles a washed up thirty year old drug addict.

I chuckle to myself as I write this last line in my journal, causing Orin to look over at me with a perplexed look on his perfect, stunning face.

Lightning bugs light up my insides again, like they always do when he gives me he his undivided attention. I can’t help but wonder if my presence affects him the same way. My heart is racing in my chest as he smiles in my direction, causing my own lips to turn up in a grin of their very own accord. I swear this man has the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. It could light a path through the darkest forest.

              I shake my head to clear my thoughts. I am here to help Lyon search for the Shaman. I need to quit entertaining fantasies in my mind of Orin taking me by the shoulders and dipping me backwards and giving me a swoon worthy kiss. See there I go again.
Come on Tris, focus girl. Arsema is counting on you.

I was so focused on my internal monologue that when Lyon broke the silence, I nearly fell over. “I think we should separate. It will be better and we can cover more ground that way. Besides I know you guys are tired of dealing with my sulky attitude. You and Orin can continue north and I will head west.”

Crap, crap, crap… this is not a good idea. Nope, not good at all. But before I am even given the chance to respond, Orin has agreed. Lyon’s suggestion has caught me off guard. Shouldn’t I have a say in this? Why am I not saying anything? Here I go again, my mind is running away, locking itself up, and entertaining new possibilities involving Orin. My lips have decided to stay glued together despite me wanting to protest against this.

              Oh! My! God! How am I going to keep my mind focused on the mission now? I am about to be all alone, in the middle of nowhere, with the sexiest man to ever walk the earth. Orin glances over at me with a shit eating grin on his face. That brat! He reads my face like the pages of a book, knowing exactly the turn my thoughts have taken. This is going to be a long trip. A very, very lonnnngggg trip. I try to come up with any reason that I can to tell Lyon that will be good enough for all three of us to remain together, but every excuse I’m able to come up with, my mind rejects with a solid NO! How can I argue with the smartest person I know?
You can’t argue with me, dummy, I am you, accept it and move on.
Ughh, sometimes I am so annoying.

              One of the side effects of being held in captivity for so long without another person to communicate with is that I have started talking to myself. In my mind of course, well, most of the time. I can sit for hours in silence, staring off into space, all the while carrying on a two sided conversation in my own head. It is a tad disturbing if I do say so myself. The second side effect I have noticed is that once I start talking, I don’t seem to be able to shut up. Then again, I’ve always been a bit long winded. I chuckle to myself causing Orin to glance over at me with a funny look on his face.

“You don’t talk that much, Babe.”

Oh my god! Have I seriously been having this whole inner conversation out loud? Someone shoot me right now. Where is a hole I can crawl into and die? I smack myself in the forehead and walk away to check on Lyon.

I am actually really worried about him being out there all alone and I don’t hesitate to tell him that myself.

“I don't like it Lyon.”

I don't need to elaborate on my thoughts. He knows exactly what I want to say.

“It will be fine Tris; Orin will take very good care of you and make sure nothing happens to you.”

How can he be so stupid? I am not worried about myself. I fold my arms over my chest, push out my hip and tap my foot. Arsema would have recognized the move immediately. She always says I look like a five year old about to pitch a fit when I do this.

              “That’s fine, but who is going to take care of you? Who is going to make sure you eat and rest? Why don’t I come with you and let Orin go north alone?” I ask him while my mind is trying to accept my own suggestion and my body screams NO, begging him to disagree.

“Orin would not ever allow that Tris. I’ll go west and you two head north together.”

I don't care if he will now allow it. I am my own person. I make my own choices. I am starting to get irritated now. I know I should calm down but something in that statement just triggered the ‘not so nice side’ of me.

“What the hell do you mean Orin won’t allow that? Who gives him the say over what I do or don’t do?”

Seriously! The nerve of these two.

“The bond won’t allow him to let you out of his sight, Tris. He’s not being controlling; he just can’t physically be away from you.”

What the hell is he talking about? I give him my best confused look but I think it is coming across more as a sympathetic look. One that screams ‘he is going insane’ and I'm super worried about him. 

“The what? Bond? Who?” You have got to be kidding me. Is he serious?

              As soon as I think the words, bond and Orin in the same context, I feel it. It’s like a lifeline, tied straight to the absolutely gorgeous man sitting less than twenty feet away from me. All of a sudden, almost like he senses the path my thoughts have taken, his head snaps up and he jumps to rush to my side.

“No, no, no you have got to be kidding me. How?” These are my last thoughts and words, before the ground opens up and swallows me whole.