by Wendy Cole
“You and I…” His mouth shut, and his jaw clenched. He shuffled himself around until he was facing me, then took both my hands in his. His eyes began to glow, not fully but around the edges, just enough to pull me in and make it impossible to look away. “You and I are connected.” He watched me closely, but I couldn’t understand what he meant. “Jinn have free will in every way a human does, but there is one thing that’s different. One thing that’s chosen for us.”
My palms grew sweaty, and my chest tightened. “What?” The word sounded raw coming from my dry throat. My heart thundered.
“Our souls are predestined for one person. Once we find them, it’s like a knot is tied, and that’s it. You spend eternity together. You never want anyone else, it never dies or fades—”
“Like a soul mate?” I dared to ask.
Brady’s mouth shut, and he nodded twice as he continued to intently gage my reaction.
“You’re not saying—”
“You’re mine, Sweetheart.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“No.” He was lying. He had to be. This was a trick. “You don’t own me, Brady.”
His eyes glittered, and while he didn’t do anything to combat my statement, every muscle in his body stiffened in a way that made me shiver. “It’s true,” he said in an overly even and controlled tone.
I pulled away, and Brady held firm for a moment before reluctantly letting me go. He ran a hand through his hair, then gripped either side of his head and stared at the ground beneath him.
Crab walking backwards. I tried to ignore the pull in my chest at the sight of him that way. It was a trick. Magic. It wasn’t real.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured as I continued to move away. Why was I apologizing? It’s not real. There’s no reason to apologize, but still, when Brady looked up at me, I did it again. “I’m sorry.”
He suddenly seemed darker, even the moonlight knowing to keep its distance. “For what, Sweetheart?”
As if he were a deadly snake, I crept slower than what I thought was possible, each movement a precise decision, each time checking for a reaction from him.
“Humans don’t have soul mates,” I said, equally as slow.
Brady watched me intently. “That’s true.”
I let out a sigh.
“But, for some reason, you do.”
“Are you sure?”
My heart jumped as he shifted. “Yes.” His muscles were poised, as if he actually were a snake readying himself to strike.
“And, uh, you can’t just find someone else?” I said amidst labored breaths. My arms ached, my legs had grown stiff, and I took a moment to assess my position and how it must look to him.
“No.”
His eyes were bright neon blue. Where was I even going? There was no escape. For all I knew, this was a deserted fucking island. I let my butt hit the sand and hugged my knees tight, as if balling myself up would somehow protect me.
Brady relaxed a bit when I stopped moving, and to my relief, he let me keep the distance I’d gained. Soul mate. Forever. Nobody else. I hadn’t even dated. I’d barely begun to live. Not to mention, he was the monster. “I’m not ready for that,” I said, giving a normal answer to a not-so-normal question. Understatement of the year. “I’m young.” I watched him closely, but his face was an unreadable mask. His eyes glimmered and glowed, and seemed to shine even more compared to the darkness surrounding them.
“I want to live,” I continued awkwardly. “To have friends and be normal, to go to school, achieve my dreams and have a career.” Brady listened, unmoving, and the darkness seemed to grow and stretch. “Humans don’t just jump into stuff like that,” I scrambled. “They date and get to know people. They have boyfriends and then decide—”
The Cobra struck.
A flash of blue stole my breath, and the next moment, I was on my back, pinned to the ground by a very intimidating Brady. “Humans get divorced. Fathers leave their wives and children for younger women. Men beat, abuse, and disrespect their spouses. Human men will try to take advantage of young girls,” he growled the last part, staring pointedly down at me as the memory of the party filtered through my mind.
I shook it away and tried to remain rational, to ignore the heat already filling my stomach, the magic coursing through me. “Not all men are like that,” I said weakly.
Brady hummed. “Not all, but most. They have no tie, no bond. Those that don’t stray do so out of a sense of duty. They all think about it, at least once. They meet some young woman.” His fingers touched my cheek. “Beautiful, and new, and they think about it.”
“I’m a human.” My voice was far too breathy and not helping.
Brady let out a humorless chuckle. “Trust me, Sweetheart. I know. If you were a jinni we’d already be mated. You’d feel it the way I do.” He leaned down and placed a kiss onto my neck, then my collarbone, sending a shock more powerful than any I’d experienced before. His teeth lightly grazed my skin, and my back arched. I moaned, a deep soulful sound I didn’t even think I was capable of making.
Brady hummed again. “Take that feeling,” his voice was rough, “and multiply it times one hundred, and that’s how I,” he kissed me gently one last time on the shoulder then met my eyes again, “feel about you.”
I sucked in a deep shuddering breath and tried to shake away the feelings he’d caused, but it was too hard with our position, with him so close. “But I don’t feel—”
Brady kissed me then, not hard or demanding but soft, torturously soft and languidly. I couldn’t fight the temptation. It was too nice, too perfect and amazing. I wasn’t strong enough to push him away, to make the smart choice. Before I knew it my hands found the back of his head and held him to me as he continued. Slow and sweet, his tongue massaging mine, evoking emotions I couldn’t even try to explain. “When we mate,” he finally spoke in between his torturous kisses, “you’ll feel it too. You won’t want anyone else.”
My logic drifted back to me at the finality in his statement, and Brady must have sensed it because he suddenly lifted my leg up and put himself even closer. I’ll feel it too. Like a zombie, a Brady loving zombie.
“Can’t you just—” It was hard to speak, to articulate while his body was pressed so closely with mine. I could feel every inch of him, his hands gripping me, his weight trapping me in a cocoon I never wanted to break free of. “Give me a while?” I finally managed. “Let me live a little, then maybe later—”
“Live a little how?” he demanded. “You’re living in the dorm. You’re going to school. You can do all those things. You can go to any school you want. Have anything you want.” His tone was sharp, his grip tighter. “You want to be a psychiatrist? I can hand you a degree now.” He met my eyes, locked me in with his fierce look. “But I can’t let you be with other men. I’m sorry. I can’t.” He ground himself against me, and the feeling it caused made me cry out. He held me steady, his brilliant blues locked on my face. “I can deny you nothing else.”
“You already have,” I managed to say despite my racing mind. “You denied me my sanity, my childhood.” The more I spoke, the more levelheaded I became. “From the first time.” My breathing eased, and my anger began to rise. “When my mother sobbed because she thought I was crazy. That I’d written those words inside my closet. That I’d made you up.”
Brady leaned back slightly, and his eyes darkened back down to their original color as he listened to me speak.
“All the nights you tormented me. All the games. Night, after night, after night.” My voice rose, and I pushed him away. Brady let me, his gaze intense.
“I was five! Five years old. My father left because of you. My mother almost lost her mind because of you!” My words died as Brady’s eyes began to glow red.
I stared at him, holding my breath as my heart began to try and run away before the rest of me. His shoulders were tense, his hands fisted. Every muscle in his body seemed to ripple with visible rage, just waiting to be released.
The moment I moved, Brady’s hand came up, and I was locked into place. As if chained, I struggled to break free, but there was no use. Fear gripped me, and a whimper made its way past my lungs.
Brady heaved a breath in through his nose, and his voice was tight when he spoke. “I’m not going to hurt you, Sweetheart.”
The glowing red of his irises, combined with my current state, led me to believe otherwise.
“When did it start? The first time?” His voice was controlled, monotonous, as if he were fighting to keep hold of whatever demons truly did reside within him.
Confusion filled me at the question. “You already know,” I accused.
Brady’s look hardened even further. “No, Sweetheart. I don’t. That wasn’t me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Every fiber of my being rebelled against his claim. Of course, it was him. It’d always been him! He’d admitted it. His rage ceased to frighten me as my own anger took precedence. “You’re—”
Brady flicked his wrist, and my voice locked up in the same spell my body was under. I seethed. Inside my mind, I was screaming, bloodcurdling sounds that couldn’t break free no matter how bad I wanted them to.
He stood up and left me there, turning away and walking towards the ocean, stopping just before the waves could touch his feet and staring out over the view. He loosely shook his arms out on either side of him, and his legs moved ever so slightly as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Brady must have finished whatever it was he was trying to accomplish because when he turned back around, the glowing red eyes had gone dark.
His shoulders heaved when he started back towards me, and the look he held let me know he felt no shame whatsoever in holding me mute. “You need to hear me right now,” he said, as if reading my thoughts. “And try to keep an open mind.”
I would have snorted, but he’d somehow locked that in place too.
“I’ll take your silence as agreement.” He didn’t smirk the way he usually did. There was no humor behind what would usually be a teasing statement from him. Brady looked anything but playful.
He lifted me up and carried me the short distance back to the bed, then gently placed me upon its surface with my back against the pillows. “Comfy?” He didn’t wait for the answer I couldn’t give before taking a seat by my feet.
His hands continued to work their way in and out of fists, as if he were imagining himself strangling someone, but his face was blank. He stared at his lap, and I could clearly hear each controlled breath he took in through his nose. “Tell me everything you remember,” he said, his voice that commanding tone that left no room for disobedience.
The words tumbled out of me like a monologue—every memory, every terrifying occurrence, every doctor’s visit, every episode at school. The more I was forced to relive the pain, the more my anger with him grew. It wasn’t enough that he’d caused so much heartache, he had to make me revisit it. When the emotions grew too powerful for even his spell to keep inside, each word became raw and hoarse, each breath began to shudder, and I could feel the tears threatening to escape.
Brady watched me for a full minute with an expression I couldn’t decipher. “Enough,” he spoke softly, hoarsely. “Enough.” He gripped my ankle, and a soothing feeling settled over me like a warm blanket. My pain eased away, and euphoria took its place. I was on a cloud, floating a million miles away where nothing and no one could ever find me.
Brady buried his hands into his hair and looked back down at his lap. His muscles were tight, his posture stiff. He took a deep breath, then another, then once more. He made a sound, a rumbling echo from somewhere deep within his chest, like a growl but more.
The minutes ticked by like hours, and it felt like an eternity before he finally looked over at me and spoke. “Sweetheart.” His jaw clenched. “I didn’t find you until you were fifteen.”
That’s not true.
I stared at his torn state, his tortured expression. I took in the white knuckles of his fists and the controlled tone to his voice. He shook his head, and his jaw clenched. “I was twenty when I saw you out with your mother. You were shopping and I knew, I felt it, the moment my eyes landed on you, that you were mine. I followed you the rest of the day. Watched you as you got all dressed up. I wanted to make myself known to you, to talk to you, but you were so young.” He took a deep breath in through his nose. “Then you went to that party. When that boy kissed you, I couldn’t control myself. I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t believe him. I shouldn’t. This was just another trick. A new game.
Brady once again fell silent. That dark gaze went distant as he seemingly became lost in his own thoughts. “I’m going to make it right, Sweetheart.” His tone was menacing. “I’ll take care of it.”
The last phrase took me back to what happened with Justin, and a shiver traveled down my spine.
He looked over at me, and his hand made a motion that released me from his hold.
I’d planned to shout, to have a million things to say, and to call him a liar. But the moment I was able to do so, no words would come.
Brady gave me a soft look and climbed up beside me. He pulled me onto my side, bringing us eye level with one another. No words were said. We just lay there, looking at each other.
A million thoughts scrambled through my mind as I stared at his inhumanly perfect face. The face of my enemy. But was it? I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything anymore. Since his return, the monster had been different. It was a constant thing that I couldn’t understand. If what Brady said was true, it would explain his change in behavior. If it wasn’t Brady, then did that mean there was another jinni? Something else out to get me? But why?
“You don’t believe me,” Brady spoke.
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what to believe.” I looked up at his eyes. “I’m scared. I’m so tired of being afraid.” I didn’t know why I said it. Probably because it was the only thing I knew to be real. I was afraid. My only constant: fear.
“You don’t have to be. Not anymore.” His eyes settled on my shoulder, and his fingers drifted over to lightly trace along my skin.
I let myself relax as his touch sent that same tingling sensation down my arm. Fatigue followed. The softness of the bed, combined with the events of the night, had my eyelids drooping despite my fight to keep them open.
Brady’s touch moved to my cheek. “Rest.” It wasn’t a command, just a word, spoken so softly that my heart lurched at the sound of it.
I closed my eyes and lingered in the feel of his touch as he continued, from my neck down to my hand then back again. Despite my better judgement, I wanted to pretend for a moment that he was being honest. I wanted to be fooled. For this to be real. I wanted him to be a savior come to rescue me from the real monster still hidden away.
“Brady?” I said, not bothering to open my eyes.
“Yeah, Sweetheart.” His voice was soothing, calmer than the sounds of the ocean waves echoing in the distance.
“I want to believe you.”
He was quiet for a long moment, but his hand never stopped its motion. Back and forth. So calming. So soothing. I was just about to drift off when I heard him answer, “I can deny you nothing.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Crashing waves. Rustling palms. The cry of a seagull. I opened my eyes. A cool breeze drifted across my skin, bleeding through the equally cool white sheet covering me. The memories of the previous night floated back, and I looked over to find myself alone.
I sat up. The sun had given a new life to the already spectacular view—white sand, crystal clear blue water, and enough trees on either side to make it feel like the world’s most beautiful hiding place. But none of it compared to what I found in the distance.
Brady stood, waist deep in the water, every inch of naked back on display, and regardless of my refusal to give in to this so-called destiny, I c
ouldn’t help but stare. The sun glittered off his richly tanned skin, painting it golden as beads of water clung to him like liquid diamonds. Clean lines moved along his muscles, tightening and stretching as his arms circled the air like a martial artist. It was unfair. Inhuman. Magic.
Something else moved in the water, pulling my attention.
A fin.
My traitorous heart raced forward, pulling within the confines of my chest as it tried to save the man that held it so enraptured. I scrambled to my knees. It sliced through the water’s surface like a knife, heading directly towards him, and Brady seemed oblivious to the danger. “Brady!” I shouted, but my cry fell of deaf ears as the waves continued to crash in the space between us.
I jumped off the bed, clearing the steps with a force that sunk my feet deep into the sand. My arms pumped, legs wobbling as I desperately ran forward, kicking more sand up behind me, stumbling as it fought to hold me back.
Brady finally turned, and his eyebrows furrowed at my clambering and desperate approach. “Sweetheart?”
I pointed, gasping for breath. “Shark!”
Brady looked over at the cause of my racing heart and smirked. He smirked. He didn’t back away or try to get rid of it. “Yeah. I know.” He raised his arms, and more fins popped up, dozens of them, many much larger than the one in question.
“Amazing, aren’t they?”
I took a step back. “You’re controlling them?”
His tone dried. “Did you really think a shark could outmatch me?” His wrist flicked, and a moment later a hammerhead jumped from the water, it’s massive body twisting before disappearing back into the blue with a splash that rained down onto Brady’s head.
My mouth fell open. I’d never seen anything more exotic than a squirrel up close, and definitely not in the wild.
“Come in,” Brady called.