Found by Frost: Wings, Wands and Soul Bonds Book 1

by Bolryder, Terry

  Brett frowns. “This is complicated, but I’ll do my best to explain it. You deserve to know.”

  I nod.

  “When a fae goes against the natural order, they become tainted with chaos. If they recognize it and root it out and put their selfishness aside for the good of society, for the good of the bonds they’ve made with the people around them, they will be okay. But if they persist in their chaotic actions or desires, chaos will only take deeper root in their soul.”

  “What happens then?” I ask.

  Brett sighs. “It is an ugly thing. Eventually, they come more and more under the influence of chaos, using its strength to get what they want, tricking those around them instead of honestly engaging with care. And then, when they perform an act of perfect chaos and subvert another’s will beneath their own, chaos takes over their heart and they are no longer able to bond.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t understand. How can they be unable to bond?”

  Brett shakes his head. “Their soul magic has been overwhelmed by chaos, and chaos is their only desire. They are strong because they do not fight with any rules or any worries. And their magic is destructive and confusing and often causes chaos to spread.”

  Ian looks over at us. “But they cannot defeat a strong bonded pair. Not any number of them.”

  I put my hand to my temple, thinking back to the chaos fae that attacked me in the alley. “So that guy, he was full chaos?”

  Brett nods. “He was a leader of chaos. He’s not just enslaved to it because of his own greed. He enjoys it. Delights in it. He may have never wanted to form bonds.”

  “Why not?”

  Brett looks at me meaningfully. “There are many reasons someone might fear bonding. But in a chaos fae’s case, I presume it’s because it interferes in their need for ultimate power. Because if they are fighting for anyone else, if they are taking others into consideration, they can’t just do what they want.”

  I think about the fact that the prince said chaos was in my heart. “So am I like that?”

  Brett scoffs. “No.”

  “But he said I had chaos in my heart,” I say.

  Brett’s look is gentle, and all of the fae are watching him, rapt, as if unable to believe he can be like this. “There is a kind of chaos that comes from trauma. From being hurt by someone infected by chaos’s lure. But together, being with those we are bonded to, the chaos can be rooted out.”

  I bite my lower lip. “So you think the rapists I hurt, was that chaos in me?”

  “Perhaps a little,” Brett says. “At least in your mode of carrying it out. But I don’t blame you. Seeing someone you love hurt, that leaves a powerful scar. A good, strong person infected with chaos can still choose to be very good. And you are.”

  Tanner grunts. “I think you’re doing perfectly. I think you should just keep it up.”

  Flynn grins. “I think you should share your lists so we can help you with them.”

  Brett stands, putting up a hand. “I understand your rage, but remember, we are not here to be vigilantes. We are here to protect and help.”

  “Yeah,” Ian says, cracking his knuckles together. “I want to help put people like that in an early grave.”

  Brett puts his hand to his head in exasperation. “I know you all think I am naive, but I’m telling you while your intentions are pure, these kinds of thoughts are the road to chaos.”

  “Why,” I ask, “when we want to help?”

  Brett looks around at all of us. “You just have to ask yourself: Is what I want motivated by love or hate? Am I truly trying to protect, or am I trying to vent my rage?” He looks at me. “I truly don’t think you’ve done wrong because you have probably saved lives and stopped a lot of chaos from spreading. But I don’t believe you were happy when I met you. And I don’t believe you would have been happy chasing criminals in the dark forever.”

  I fold my arms, letting out a sigh. “Maybe not.”

  “So yes, we can protect those around us, but we should make sure we can do it out of love, not tainted with rage or hate,” Brett says. “Because then we become just like them. Hateful. Out of control. Unable to care about the rules as long as we get what we want.”

  Tanner shakes his head. “I wish I saw the world as you do, Brett. I truly wish I did. Either this world or ours.”

  Brett bites the inside of his cheek. “Perhaps I am wrong. But I am merely saying that in trying to right all the wrongs of the world, you should watch out for your heart. Keep your soul intact. There is chaos everywhere, and while it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by it, you don’t want to join it.”

  Ian is nodding, but Flynn and Tanner both look conflicted.

  “Shouldn’t you guys be headed out for dinner?” Flynn asks, leaning against the counter.

  Brett nods, grabbing my hand to help me up.

  As he pulls me out the door, I turn back to face the others. “Thanks for the chat, guys.”

  “Good luck!” Ian says just before the door shuts.

  21

  Brett (Boreas)

  I wanted to take her someplace fancy, but she insisted on a tiny diner around the corner from the apartments where we live.

  We’re tucked into a booth, across from each other, while dim lights flicker overhead, eating subpar food…

  And I’d never want to be anywhere but where I am now.

  “You know, I kind of get what your friends were saying,” Avery says, pointing a French fry at me.

  Her deep, smooth skin looks beautiful tonight. Her lips are redder, cheeks flushed.

  She’s wearing a beautiful white sweater that shows off her soft curves and black jeans that tuck into little black boots.

  She’s mouthwatering and strong, and I need to pay better attention to what she’s saying.

  “What do you mean you agree with them?” I ask, picking up a French fry of my own and wincing at the greasy burst in my mouth.

  She giggles, the best sound in the world. “You don’t like French fries?”

  “I don’t know.” I shake my head. “I’m still getting used to them.”

  “You’re very open-minded, you know,” she says. “But I think that’s what your friends mean too. Some of us don’t want to give leeway to bad people because we’ve seen what has happened in the past.”

  I drop my half-eaten fry, longing for more Oreos. “I don’t give leeway to chaos. I’m just careful to keep it out of my heart so I can protect my bonds. I fight the chaos princes who make it to my realm fairly, where no one can get hurt. And I give them a chance to yield.”

  “That seems dangerous,” she says. “What if you got stabbed in the back?”

  “That happened actually,” I say, feeling shame even at the memory of it. “I was giving too much leeway to a chaos prince here, and he attacked Flynn, then me, when I went to help him.”

  She raises an eyebrow. “You went to help him? Don’t you hate fire fae?”

  “I do generally, but Flynn is my friend. When that chaos fae hurt him, he was marked for death.”

  “Hm,” she says. “So it’s okay to be disproportionate when someone attacks someone you’re bonded to?”

  “No,” I say. “It’s because Flynn wasn’t even hurting him, and Zareth hit him with a fatal attack.” I sigh. “Only the arrival of a friend, a radiant fae, saved him.”

  “What makes an attack fatal?”

  “He hit him with an attack from his wand,” Brett says. “It depends on the strength of the fae as well. I’m strong enough that, despite a hit from his wand, I didn’t need healing. But fire fae like Flynn… they’re weaker.”

  I frown. “How so?”

  Brett says. “Well, I suppose I have heard rumors that their offensive power exceeds our own. But their durability seems to be lesser.”

  “I see,” she says. “Well… I’m glad you saved him.”

  “As I said, I didn’t,” I say. “I had my wand out and I was going to protect all of us, but my opponent decided to attack an inno
cent bystander. We did take him down, but in the end, it was Tanner who did it.”

  “Tanner?”

  “Yes,” I say. “Though, I ensured that he could.” I wave my hand. “It was an ugly scene. I do not wish to talk about it.”

  She gets a hesitant expression on her face. “I see. You want to avoid ugliness.”

  “No,” I say. “I want to defeat it in all its forms. But I can only protect those close to me. And I have to watch my own heart. Because if a fae with my kind of strength were to turn to chaos…” I shake my head. “The fallout would be awful.”

  She presses her lips together. “Why?”

  I shrug one shoulder. “With my wand out, I’m not sure who could take me down.”

  “Why?” She leans her elbows on the table adorably as she sips her milkshake. “And how does the wand work anyway?”

  I bite my lip because this part of fae lore is most sacred. “Our wand is a way of channeling our magic. In the case of a fae prince, it means he is fighting with his life on the line. That he has pulled his magic from his soul until he is mortal to make him stronger in the fight.”

  Her eyes widen, and the beautiful layers of brown and gold are captivating. “So you… when you first met me…”

  I nod. “That’s why he ran. He knew I was fighting for my soul bond.”

  “Soul bond?”

  “My most important bond,” I say. “I could feel that with you almost from the first.” I smile at her, enjoying the way she always blushes when I do that. The way I can feel her magic call to mine. “Though, the more I get to know you, the more I know it’s right, even beyond any bond or magic.”

  She’s fidgeting with her straw now like she doesn’t know what to say. “I suppose I should be flattered.”

  “I know it’s a lot to take in,” I say. “Just know that I would do anything for you. Even fight with my wand.”

  “Do I have a wand?” She looks hopeful.

  I swallow. “Yes, though it will be a little different for you.”

  “How so?”

  I’m really not sure how much I should be saying, but at this point, with our bond swirling around us, I know I will never be able to leave this woman. So I can’t hold anything back.

  “Our wings represent our magic. To varying degrees, depending on how we are feeling. When a prince fights, his wings withdraw because he is channeling power. But when a female fae—”

  A crashing sound outside makes both of us sit up, and at the sound of a human crying out, both Avery and I are out of our seats, bolting for the door together, ready to fight chaos.

  * * *

  Avery

  I’m still processing everything Brett said about wings, wands, and soul bonds, but I put it out of my mind as we head out into the night together.

  I look back to wave at the waitress, but she’s just frozen, staring across the street at what is going on.

  There are dark figures in a semicircle, surrounding something against a wall in this dark part of town.

  Another cry rings out, and Brett is running now, flinging himself toward the chaos despite his words before about remaining calm.

  I think that’s what I like about him. His heart is just so damn good.

  “Call the police,” I yell to the waitress as I run outside to back Brett up.

  I’m not a fae yet—I know that—but my bond demands that I stay by his side. My heart pushes me to him like a river flowing downstream.

  As he reaches the group, the leader turns around, and I gasp as I look into his eyes.

  Black. Pure blackness, like the prince from the other night.

  When the other men turn, their eyes are black as well.

  Brett pushes past them, parting them, and we see a couple on the ground, holding each other, trying to cover their heads.

  One of them is bleeding.

  One of the attackers is holding a club.

  The attackers vary in shape and size, but for some reason, that doesn’t matter to me now.

  All I can see is the chaos. In them, around them, swirling like smoke, infecting their eyes, their minds.

  I understand what Brett means now. When you see chaos everywhere, you have to choose how you will deal with it.

  Brett goes to the couple and helps them up, then points for them to run, shoving his way through the group of men so they can get out. “Go!”

  They do, and the dark group closes in around Brett, surrounding him in darkness.

  I look back at the diner, wondering if the waitress has called the cops.

  It’s a dark night but someone might still see us, so it’s not like Brett can transform here.

  One of the men turns to me, smiling. “He is coming. He will find you.”

  The man doesn’t seem to be speaking on his own. It’s like someone’s speaking through him.

  Brett stares at me, eyes wide, and I just stare back, not knowing what to do.

  It would be easier if it was just a chaos prince. Then Brett wouldn’t have to hold back.

  “Will you hurt their human bodies?” another man says, glaring at Brett with dark eyes as Brett backs into the wall behind him.

  He looks trapped, as if his innate desire not to hurt innocents is at war with his desire to protect the world from chaos. He locks eyes with me. “Avery, run. Get out of here.”

  But I don’t because he’s probably just planning to let them go at him, and I’m not going to let that happen.

  Instead, I cock back a fist and slam it straight into the face of the man taunting Brett. “I’ll punch the chaos out of you if I have to!” I say as the man falls to the floor, totally out.

  Brett just stares, then puts out a hand toward me. “Don’t hurt them. They—”

  “If I were them, I would want to be stopped,” I say, grunting as I take another one down. “And if I didn’t want to be stopped, I would deserve to be.” I pant, picking my next target. “Humans aren’t as weak as you think they are. They can take a few hits.”

  He looks at me, and I can tell he’s struggling with it, hitting anything so much weaker than he is. But then he looks up at the sky, and snow begins to fall so thick you can barely see through it.

  “I hate that he’s forcing us to do this,” Brett says, grabbing a man by the collar. “But you’re right. They’re infected with chaos, and they need to be stopped.”

  He turns to the man he’s holding and carefully hits him with a punch that sends him sprawling into a nearby dumpster. Brett then looks down at his hand in dismay. “Too strong.”

  I laugh, sliding up behind him to kick one in the stomach, sending him down. “I can help with that.”

  He sighs. “I can’t use my magic. Not with people watching.” He dodges a swing by one of the dark-eyed men, then trips him, then puts a foot on his chest, holding him to the ground as he growls and struggles. “I did not know they could infect people directly now. Possess them even.”

  “Me neither,” I say. “That’s messed up.”

  Brett grabs a man by the neck and slowly chokes him out with one arm while his other hand grabs a guy by the collar and throws him to the ground.

  “I think you’re right about stopping them,” he says, watching one of them groan, then come back to himself, looking up at us with blue eyes. “Though, I was hesitant to do it.”

  At the last minute, the tallest of the men comes from behind to attack Brett, and for just a second, I reach out my hand as if I have some kind of magic.

  Nothing happens, and despair rushes through me, emptiness at the thought that I can’t defend my mate.

  But Brett’s fist moves back, directly into the guy’s face, and then he’s out and everything is quiet.

  Well, except for the groaning of the men on the ground.

  The chaos around us is abating, and Brett crouches to grab one of them by the collar, jerking him up. “Who sent you? Where is he?”

  But the man looks confused. “I don’t know. Where am I?”

  Another man sits up, rubb
ing his head. “Weren’t we at a bachelor party?”

  “Damn, where’d all the strippers go?”

  “I don’t know,” says the one who appears to be the leader. “There was this guy, remember? And we all just… I don’t know. Wanted to… do terrible things.” He shakes his head. “Shit, that sounds crazy.”

  I step back because all of this is so confusing, and even Brett doesn’t seem to know what’s going on.

  The last man to wake sits up, but to our surprise, darkness is still swirling around him. He stares at us blankly. “You will not escape us. We will come for you soon.”

  But before Brett can ask him more, he passes out again and this time lies still on the ground.

  My heart is in my throat, and I’m still reliving that moment when I couldn’t get to Brett fast enough.

  When I couldn’t use everything in my disposal to keep him safe.

  Mistaking my upset for fear, he comes over to hold me for a moment, pulling me in close and stroking his hand through my hair. “It’s okay, Avery. No matter what, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  I smile against his chest, then push away from him when sirens sound in the distance.

  He hears them and almost looks betrayed by the fact that they were called.

  But before he can think too much of it, I grab his hand and drag him back to the restaurant.

  We pay the bill, then run back to the apartment, making it to the complex just as we see cop cars pass by, their sirens flashing in the night.

  22

  Avery

  I don’t know if it’s the fight, the date, or hearing that he was willing to give his life for me even that first day when I saw his true form, but we’re barely inside my apartment before I’m pulling off his coat and shirt.

  He helps me, stripping my clothing aside as though he can’t wait either. Like our bodies need to join and anything between us just needs to get out of the way.

  Smooth, soft skin over hard muscle meets my hands as I let out a sigh, finally touching his shirtless chest.

  It feels so right, and the bond in me is swirling, making the air heady and hard to breathe.