Forbidden Bond (Twin Curse Book 1)

by Rinelle Grey

Lylis gave him one last accusing stare and then threw herself into her mother’s arms, snuggling into the bed between them. Lyall smiled at Brianna over her head, and she smiled back.

  “I’m going down to cook breakfast.” Mianna’s voice sounded totally normal through the partially ajar door.

  It was almost possible to forget that there was a deadly threat, preparing for invasion just over the ridge. Lyall looked down at his family, the image warming him and sending him cold at the same time.

  Could he keep them safe?

  Never, in all his twenty-seven years, had he doubted his magic could protect him. But then again, he’d never seen a threat like these mages. The other mages had always seemed like a fairy tale, a story to frighten children at bedtime. He’d always half thought that they must have died or never existed in the first place.

  Even when his father had said they’d sensed their magic, and that they were coming, he’d been sure they would be able to be reasoned with, negotiated with. But how did you negotiate with trolls? They didn’t even speak the same language.

  A door crashed open below them. Mianna’s scream carried through the floorboards, followed by the childish scream of Kylis. Lyall’s heart froze. They’d be too late. By the time they made it down the stairs, Mianna, Terion and Kylis would be dead.

  Brianna threw back the covers and jumped out of bed, grabbing the sword that stood against the wall. “Stay here,” she ordered Lylis. She turned and threw the gem to Lyall.

  No other screams followed the first. Had it really happened that fast?

  Pausing just long enough to throw the blankets over the terrified child, Lyall raced down the stairs after Brianna, his heart thumping.

  “Where is my son!” His father’s voice echoed through the small house.

  Lyall froze, one foot half way down to the next step. Brianna turned to glare at him, her face pale.

  Not trolls then.

  “How dare you barge into my house like that and scare my daughter.” Mianna’s indignant voice made Lyall smile. She wasn’t any more afraid of his father than Brianna had been. And who would be, when the alternative was a troll?

  He took in a shaky breath, trying to take in the fact that no one was in imminent danger of death. “You’d better go get Lylis, she’s probably scared to death,” he said quietly.

  Brianna’s eyes widened, and she turned and took the stairs two at a time.

  Lyall tucked the gem into his pocket and continued down the stairs at a more sedate pace this time.

  By the time he reached the kitchen door, Brianna had joined him again, a scared looking Lylis clutching her around the neck. They exchanged one look before Lyall pushed open the kitchen door and stepped inside.

  The scene made him grin. Mianna stood there, hands on her hips, a wooden spatula still held in one , glaring at his father who looked at a loss for words.

  As soon as he saw Lyall though, his expression changed. “Just what do you think you’re doing, bedding women at a time like this? I gave you some time, because I thought this little temper tantrum of yours might give you an opportunity to get that gem, but you didn’t need all night. You should have been back at camp planning for the coming invasion. Do you want everyone in this village to die, followed by everyone on the mainland?”

  A blush stole over Lyall’s cheeks. How did his father always manage to make him feel so young and incompetent?

  “Watch what you’re saying, there are children present,” Terion snapped and he stepped up beside Mianna.

  Even Terion wasn’t afraid of his father. Lyall stared at the man he’d always let make him feel inferior and suddenly couldn’t understand why. He’d been half a head taller than the king for years, not to mention nearly as powerful. With the addition of Brianna’s magic, the man was no match for him. Why then, had he never stood up to him?

  His mother had always been an excuse. He didn’t want to upset her. But there was more than that. His father had always known exactly what to say to make him feel like a schoolboy again. Well he’d had enough.

  “Do you think you can stop these trolls?” he demanded. “I can tell you now that even the gem isn’t going to make you powerful enough. Brianna and I scouted their camp astrally last night, and the main troll has a partner. No one person is going to be a match for their forces.”

  His father’s frowned. “That is why we need a twin bonding. Do you have any idea how powerful the three of you would be if you worked together? The twin bond doesn’t just double your level of power you know, it triples it.” He looked at Mianna and Brianna as he spoke, taunting them.

  “We have our own plan for defeating them,” Brianna said firmly. “One that we decided on last night. And we can do it without anyone having to marry someone they don’t want to be with.”

  Had he missed something last night while he was unconscious? He didn’t remember planning anything, and he was pretty sure Brianna hadn’t gotten back up after he’d gone to sleep. Had she?

  “Look, little girl, do you really think your planning can match mine? I’ve been preparing for this fight for years! We don’t need your plans, we just need your magic, and your sister’s.” He paused, then looked at Brianna and Mianna earnestly. “Don’t you want to defeat those monsters once and for all? Aren’t the needs of your village and the rest of the mainland more important than your own desire for love?”

  Lyall winced at his father’s words, said in just the tone he’d used to belittle Lyall all these years. And when directed at Brianna, they irritated him even more.

  Brianna glared at the king and opened her mouth to speak, but Lyall stepped in before she could.

  “Do you think Brianna knows nothing about fighting and planning? Her people have been fighting these trolls for centuries, and she has created a very effective strategy to protect the village already. She knows more about them than anyone else here, and she is just as capable of planning a way to defeat them as you, perhaps more so.”

  “Stay out of this, Lyall. I gave you your chance, sent you here with an army at your command, and you couldn’t even handle one little girl. It’s a shame I only have one son, or I would pass you over for the crown. You can’t handle it.”

  Lyall laughed. “You know something? I don’t want it. I don’t need it. I’d far rather stay here with Brianna than return to Isla de Magi and live under your thumb.” He spared an apologetic thought for his mother. But he couldn’t keep living his life out of fear of hurting her. She’d chosen his father, not him.

  His father’s eyes bulged. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.

  “Trolls!” the distant yell drifted through the silence and froze everyone in the room. The bells began to toll, a solemn, terrifying sound.

  Lylis screamed and clung to Brianna’s neck even more tightly. “Mama, no leave me!”

  King Balen looked at the little girl clinging to Brianna’s neck, comprehension in his eyes. “Give me the gem,” he said quietly, “and take everyone to safety. I’ll hold them off while you escape.”

  Brianna stared at him consideringly. “We’ll take care of these trolls,” she said firmly. “You take your granddaughter to safety.” She detangled Lylis’s arms from her neck, ignoring her wail and handed her to his stunned father. The king took her automatically, though his mouth hung open.

  After glancing at her twin, Mianna scooped up Kylis and handed her to Lyall’s father as well. “Look after her, please,” she entreated.

  The king stared at them, shaking his head. He looked at Lyall. “You really think you can do this?”

  Lyall looked at Brianna who nodded once. He had no idea what she had planned, but he trusted her completely. “Yes, I do.”

  His father nodded. “Then I will protect these children with my life. Now hurry.”

  The sound of steel clashing against steel rang out across the field. The fighting had started.

  Still, Lyall watched as his father took the two wailing children out of the house before turning to Brianna. “I�
�m hoping you really do have a plan.”

  “We need to block the pass. Hopefully only a few trolls have made it through. But we need to get to the towers, where we have a good view of the pass.”

  Of course. Blocking the pass would take far less magic than killing the trolls would. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but for now, he’d take that. They could look at permanent later.

  They just had to reach the towers. Hopefully the trolls hadn’t made it through the gate yet.

  Stopping only to grab swords from the several stationed at the back door, all four of them raced towards the gate. Many of the villagers already waited at the solid wooden gates, swords ready.

  Crash. The gates shuddered as an axe smashed into them, the shining edge of a blade appearing through the splintering wood. Crash. Another one appeared beside it.

  Lyall judged the distance to the tower. They could make it before the gates gave way, but that wouldn’t help the villagers ready to stand guard. If only there was some way he could protect them?

  Even just a small bit of magic to strengthen the gate…

  “There’s no time!” Brianna tugged at his arm, pulling him into the tower. She slammed the door behind him, then turned to begin climbing the ladder. Probably for the best. Any magic he used now would be magic he couldn’t use to block the pass.

  Brianna disappeared through the opening above. Her soft gasp half prepared him for what he saw as he followed her.

  The scene below him chilled his heart. In the time it had taken them to climb two stories to the top of the tower, the trolls had broken through the gate. There couldn’t have been more than a dozen trolls scattered among the villagers, yet already at least three human bodies were sprawled at awkward angles on the grass. At nearly twice the height of a human, they proved they weren’t easy to take down. Each troll held off about four humans, despite the valour of the villagers.

  And as he moved aside for Mianna and Terion to climb up beside him, Lyall saw two more trolls, swords waving, heading down from the pass.

  This was only a fraction of the numbers he’d seen on the other side of the ridge. And so far, there was no sign of the head troll, the mage. He scanned the ridge.

  A strangled cry below drew his attention back to the closer field. Another villager fell, blood staining the grass, galvanising him into action. “We need to take out these trolls, then block the pass.”

  “No, block the pass first,” Brianna said.

  “But people are dying,” Mianna said, her voice high pitched and frantic.

  “And the more trolls that get through, the more people will die. There are many more coming, and if we don’t stop them before they get here, we have no chance.”

  Lyall nodded. Brianna’s words made sense. “Block the pass,” he agreed and took Brianna’s hand.

  Terion took one last look at the field below and nodded as well. “They’re right, Mia.”

  Mianna scanned all of them, their faces firm, then nodded. She took Terion’s hand with one hand and Brianna’s with the other, joining them together in one long chain.

  Lyall’s hand held the gem. He hoped their connection would spread the power through them so that they could all use their magic. There was only one way to find out.

  He summoned his magic, letting it flow through him and focused it on the ridge. A rainbow of colours joined his, obscuring his view of the ridge for a moment, startling him. He glanced at the line of people beside him.

  Brianna frowned in concentration, blue and green magic streaming from her. Mianna, eyes closed, gave off the yellow light, and Terion’s red light blended with hers, creating orange in between. Lyall’s own magic had taken on a violet hue.

  He’d never seen anything like it. Yes, magic had colours, and some people’s colours were different, but to see a rainbow like this? What did it mean?

  He shook himself. He didn’t have time to wonder. People were dying.

  Focusing his attention back on the ridge, he picked the narrowest point of the pass and began to weave.

  It was a fiddly and difficult job. Brianna, Mianna and Terion tried to shove their magic in as though they could hold off the trolls with sheer force of will. As the only one with any magical training, Lyall tried to bind their weaves together, to make the barrier strong enough to withstand the onslaught, both magical and physical, it would no doubt be subjected to.

  Every now and then, there was a dying scream below them, sometimes human, sometimes troll. The magic would falter then, as the other’s attention wavered, and Lyall had to work doubly hard to patch the holes again.

  A loud roar in the field below startled him enough for him to glance down for a moment. Mages poured into the field, swords held high, surrounding the remaining trolls. He smiled, grateful for his father’s show of support. The knowledge that the villagers had help enabled him to focus back on the barrier they were building. If they could just make this hold…

  A dark purple maelstrom of magic poured down the tunnel, crashing into his barrier, tangling with the bright colours. Lyall fought to hold the barrier, adding his magic to it as the dark magic ate it up. Beside him, Brianna, Mianna and Terion added theirs.

  He could feel Brianna’s hand tighten on his, as though by holding him tightly, she could bind their magic together. It gave Lyall an idea.

  “We need to each hold one part, make a rainbow,” he said, not taking his focus away from the ridge.

  He had no idea if the others could hear him, or if they were too focused on the ridge, but slowly, their colours separated from the writhing mass. They each took up one part of the pass, the colours separating into a rainbow, blending where they joined. Using the colours helped them each focus on their own section and joining with the next.

  It was hard to limit his focus to one area and not jump in and tidy up the loose magic that the untrained mages used, but Lyall forced himself to. He wove his own colours together, over and over, until they formed a tight barrier. Beside him, Brianna copied him. He hoped that the others copied her.

  Behind the barrier, the dark magic rolled and tumbled. Then the head troll appeared out of it, holding his partner’s hand.

  But their combined magic was no match for the magic of four that had built their barrier. The magic rolled around, searching for a crack, but it could find none. Beside the mage, trolls beat at the barrier with their swords, but they couldn’t touch it.

  Lyall smiled. They’d done it. Even as he celebrated though, he knew it was too easy. As he watched…

  Up, up, the dark magic rolled, then it was over the barrier and flying straight at them!

  Their magic might have held, but their plan hadn’t been strong enough. They had counted on being able to keep the trolls at bay physically, but magic wasn’t bound by physics. Lyall wavered between holding their barrier and keeping the trolls at bay, to pulling it away to fight the magic coming at them.

  There was no doubt they could beat it, they were easily stronger. But that would leave the pass free, and the trolls, far greater in number than they were, would pour through. But once they died from the magic that would happen anyway.

  Before he could make a decision, the magic that rolled towards him stopped. Lyall stared at it as it hovered in the air in front of him, then to his complete surprise, it withdrew back behind the barrier.

  “What’s going on?” Brianna demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Lyall admitted. He focused back on the pass where the trolls had stopped hammering at the barrier with their swords. They stood there, waiting, staring at the head troll.

  The head troll seemed to look straight at Lyall. When he was sure he had his attention, he held up the gem, then placed it in his pocket. He stared at Lyall as if challenging him.

  Was he… offering a truce?

  Below him, the other trolls still fought. They weren’t winning. Slowly, surely, bit by bit, they were going down. But the battle was taking its toll. For every troll lying on the ground, there were two or three humans, s
ome villagers, some mages.

  Lyall looked back at the mage troll who still stared at him. Could he trust him? If they dropped the barrier, would he tell the trolls still fighting in the meadow to stop, or would he bring the rest of them down to finish the humans off?

  “Why did he stop?” Mianna asked.

  “I think he’s offering us a truce,” Lyall voiced his thoughts. “He can see we’re more powerful than he is, and he knows he can’t win.”

  “He’s just trying to trick us,” Brianna growled. “If he can get us to lower the barrier, then he can bring the rest of the trolls down and wipe us out.”

  “He could have already wiped us out,” Lyall said quietly. “We had a choice of holding the barrier until he killed us, or defending ourselves. Either way, those trolls were coming. He doesn’t need to be still standing behind that barrier. But he is.”

  Brianna frowned, but she had no argument for that. “What do we do?” she asked gruffly.

  Lyall took a deep breath. “We lower the barrier.”

  “But they’ll kill everyone!” Mianna squeaked.

  “We can fight them if they try. But we can’t fight them and hold the barrier. I’m sorry. It was a good plan, but it failed.”

  “Lower the barrier,” Brianna said quietly. “But be ready to fight if we need to.”

  Mianna stared at her for a moment.

  “She’s right, Mia,” Terion said quietly.

  Heaving a sigh, Mianna nodded as well.

  Even with everyone’s agreement, it took all Lyall’s willpower to pull back his magic. Beside him, the others did the same.

  Then they waited, the rainbow hovering in the air above the trolls.

  Without moving from his spot, the troll mage gave a guttural yell. The trolls in the field below paused.

  The villagers and mages, seeing an opportunity, hacked at anything they could reach.

  “Stop!” Brianna’s voice rose before Lyall could speak.

  It was enough to make the villager’s heads turn in her direction.

  Lyall added his voice to hers and the mages paused too.

  The trolls took that chance to retreat, back to the pass where the mage troll still waited.