by M. Leighton
“Madly, are you alright?”
I jumped when Kellina spoke. I’d been so lost in thought, I hadn’t heard her approach.
I smiled. “I’m fine. Are you having fun?”
She smiled back at me, a wide and genuine lift of the lips that said she was having the time of her life.
“Actually, I am. Thank you so much for inviting me.”
“It was my pleasure.”
Kellina frowned.
“So, what are you doing down here all by yourself?”
Before I even opened my mouth with a polite yet truthful response, my warming bracelet reminded me that I might not have another chance to talk to her in a casual setting.
“Just thinking about a story that my mother used to tell me.”
“What story is that?”
“It’s the story of Ulrich Wolfhardt and the Straus Maiden.”
“Who are they?”
“They are two people who lived long ago,” I said, turning to resume my walk along the edge of the surf. Kellina followed. “Ulrich Wolfhardt was a young misfit boy who used to take refuge from his cruel classmates in the sanctuary of the trees. That’s where he first saw a wolf. As he grew, he became a man obsessed with wolves. He would travel into the woods late at night just to be near them. During one of his jaunts into the forest, Wolfhardt was bitten by a rabid wolf, a wolf with one blue eye. The bite nearly killed him. Some say that’s when he lost his mind.
“Miraculously, however, Wolfhardt survived, swearing vengeance upon the animal. After several months, he found and slay the wolf, keeping its teeth and pelt as trophies. It is said that he developed a hunger for human flesh after the wolf bite and that he used to prowl the woods, wearing the wolf’s pelt, scaring the village folk.
“One night while out for his ritual hike, Wolfhardt stumbled upon a beautiful maiden that wore a red hat. He fell instantly in love with her and watched her secretly for weeks afterward. He left daisies in the woods for her to find every night as she made her trip to visit her grandmother.
“What Wolfhardt didn’t know, however, was that the Straus Maiden’s grandmother was a very powerful witch. She knew of Ulrich Wolfhardt, his unnatural hunger, and his obsession with her granddaughter. One night, out of fear for the safety of the young Straus Maiden, she journeyed into the forest to warn him away. When Wolfhardt became angry, the grandmother placed a curse on him that if he should ever taste of human blood, he would be condemned to life controlled by the hunger of the wolf and slave to the light of the full moon.”
I stopped and looked at Kellina. She was spellbound, her wide eyes fixed firmly on my face in avid curiosity.
“What happened to him?”
“Well, Wolfhardt refused to heed the warning of the old witch and continued his covert pursuit of the young maiden. When his hunger became unbearable, rather than hurt the maiden, Wolfhardt attacked an unarmed blacksmith. It is said that the instant the first drop of blood touched his tongue, the furry wolf pelt melded to his body and Wolfhardt’s teeth became that of the wolf he’d slain.”
“What happened to the maiden?”
“Wolfhardt, overcome by his increasing hunger and unable to control himself in the cursed wolf-like form, attacked the Straus Maiden.”
“Did they catch him?”
“Yes, Wolfhardt was eventually captured. In fact, he was apprehended just after he slew the maiden’s grandmother. Legend says that if he were ever to escape his confines, one drop of his cursed saliva in an open wound would doom a human to his fate for all eternity.”
Kellina watched me closely, wordlessly. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking as she listened unwittingly to her family’s history. I was hesitant to ask.
I needn’t have wondered long, however, because she soon satisfied my curiosity.
“That’s ridiculous!” Kellina exclaimed, laughing. “That’s like saying werewolves are real.”
“People actually called him a werewolf, though he didn’t really transform into a dog. I think the modern moniker for Wolfhardt would be a ‘wolf-man’.”
Kellina laughed again.
“Surely you don’t believe that.”
“Of course I believe it,” I said honestly. “Surely you don’t believe that just because you’ve never seen something that it doesn’t exist.”
Kellina’s smile faded. “Well, no. Of course not, but...”
“There you go,” I said casually. “There are, no doubt, all sorts of creatures in existence that we know little to nothing about. And there’s no more perfect way to keep the world ignorant than to suggest that the presence of the supernatural is simply a fairy tale or a ghost story. It’s quite brilliant actually.”
“Well, I for one hope you’re wrong. I walk home through the woods every day.”
I gazed meaningfully into Kellina’s eyes. “I guess you’d better be careful then, huh?”
When Kellina began to frown, I laughed to lighten the mood.
“Ohmigod,” she said, relieved, yet not completely. “You’re just plain mean.”
“Why is that?”
“Trying to scare me like that.”
I merely shrugged, winking at her mischievously. She didn’t have to believe me now. Just so long as she knew who to come to if she noticed anything strange.
“Hey, Kellina!”
We both looked back toward the party. I could see Aidan standing a few feet from the crowd as he called to Kellina. Boy, he sure wasn’t having any trouble befriending her!
Kellina looked to him and then back at me.
“Are you coming back to the party?”
“In a little bit. Go on. Have fun,” I said, trying to be as encouraging as possible. No sense ruining everyone else’s night with my sudden burst of melancholy.
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m positive,” I said reassuringly.
After a few seconds of deliberation, Kellina turned and jogged up the beach toward Aidan. I saw him hold out his hand and she stopped in front of him to take it. Even from a distance, I could see the dazzling smiles they exchanged before they headed back into the crowd.
Watching them from afar, I analyzed my feelings about Aidan’s reaction to Kellina. He was obviously drawn to her—very drawn to her. Yet, we were to be betrothed in a matter of months. I should feel jealous, shouldn’t I? I should be mad that he and Kellina were looking at each other with such unabashed attraction, shouldn’t I?
Yes, I knew I should feel jealous. But I didn’t. Not about the right things anyway.
As I watched, Aidan bent to whisper something into Kellina’s ear. She laughed and, at that moment, I did feel a stab of jealousy, but it wasn’t over Aidan. Watching their blatant and very mutual fascination, I realized that’s what I envied—that their feelings seemed to be enthusiastically reciprocated.
As they disappeared into the crowd, I found that my thoughts drifted toward Jackson and how he acted toward me. I realized that I would’ve given anything for him to be so taken with me.
I turned my back to the party as my mood darkened. It seemed that as people laughed and flirted behind me, my life was falling to pieces.
Feeling sorry for myself, I ticked off all the things that were wrong in my world: my home, Atlas, was under attack; there was very likely a royal traitor at the root of it; at least eight Lore were on their way to Slumber; my soon-to-be fiancée was plainly developing feelings for someone else; I was falling back under the spell of forbidden love. Oh, yeah, and the object of my increasing affection could barely stand the sight of me. That was the cherry on top of it all.
How had my life come to this?
With salty sea water swirling around my ankles, I felt the power of my emotions stirring the ocean. In the distance, above the noise of the music and laughter, I heard a loud crack of thunder and the clouds began to roll toward me.
My bracelet warmed against my wrist and the waves rose ever-higher, crashing violently against the shore. The wind whipped my hair a
nd stung my face as the sound of distant rain teased my ears. The atmospheric unrest mirrored that of my heart, of my soul, and there was little I could do to quiet it.
A flutter in my stomach brought my attention back to the shores of reality. I felt an awareness, a knowledge. I felt a recognition stir inside me, one so clear that I wasn’t even startled by the movement that I saw in my peripheral vision.
I didn’t need to turn my head to confirm visually what I already knew with bone-deep certainty. Instead, I closed my eyes and reached out with my senses—senses magnified by the water all around me, water that pumped extraordinary life into my veins—and I felt.
His eyes were on the side of my face. They felt like warm honey as they began to move, sliding down my body. From my throat to the curve of my lower back, to my ankles and back again, they finally ascended and came to rest on my face once more.
My chest ached at the bittersweet pleasure of his presence. It affected me more profoundly with each passing hour. I felt consumed with him, consumed by him. I’d waited so long to feel something so deep and overwhelming. I’d always assumed it would come with the mating tie. And, even as I stood there, I believed that it had. But it was all wrong.
Yes, it was just as exciting as I’d always imagined it would be, but it was painful—horribly painful—and I’d never expected there to be pain. I knew that my feelings for Jackson were forbidden, that nothing could ever come of them. I would never be able to have what my body, my soul and my heart craved most. I would be forced to spend the rest of my life bound to one man while mourning another.
I tried to resist the magnetism of Jackson, of the supernatural tie that bound me to him in both visceral and spiritual ways, but it was no use. I couldn’t not feel it. I was drowning in it, like I could drown in neither water nor air. It took my breath and stole the world from around me, leaving only him and me and what was between us.
Steeling myself against the overpowering desire, I didn’t turn toward Jackson, didn’t go to him like I wanted to. Instead, I waited, waited for him—to move, to speak, to turn and go, to do something. I waited. But he did none of those things.
Jackson simply continued to stare at the side of my face, the heat of his gaze penetrating my human skin and searing the nerves beneath. I wondered if he felt it too, and if that’s why he hated me so.
Finally, unable to stand the torture any longer, I opened my eyes and turned my head. A large, dark form was standing down the beach at the water’s edge, facing me. As I’d known, it was Jackson. He was dressed in solid black and too far away for me to see his eyes clearly, but I knew that he watched me. I knew it as deeply and as certainly as I knew there was sand between my toes and wind caressing my face.
“Madly, you’re being summoned,” Kellina called from behind me.
I turned toward her voice. She was standing at the periphery of the party and, beside her, Aidan was waving me toward them.
As I looked at Aidan’s smiling face, I wished with all my heart that the tie had materialized between us, like it was supposed to. It would’ve been perfect in so many ways. But it hadn’t. Instead, we’d both tied to forbidden love and now our future was complicated and incomplete. Broken. I knew that Aidan would eventually come to that conclusion, too. When he took the time to examine his feelings for Kellina, he would feel as betrayed by them as I felt by my feelings for Jackson.
I waved to him and turned quickly back toward Jackson. He was no longer there. I scanned both the sand and the water, but there was no sign of him. He’d melted away like a figment of my imagination. And maybe he had been. Maybe I’d willed him there, willed him out of the truest, deepest desires of my heart. Maybe his presence was not meant to be, just as our tie was not meant to be. Maybe it would fade away, just as he’d faded away. Maybe…
CHAPTER FOUR
My inner turmoil and close proximity to the sea had stirred up a tempest, a tempest so turbulent it curtailed our party with threats of a violent rainstorm. I was likely the only one glad to see the ocean-side gathering come to an end. For me, the entire night had been an exercise in frustration and secret heartache.
It came as no surprise to me when Aidan offered to walk Kellina home, reasoning that I had Jersey to keep me company and Kellina had no one.
“That way, all the beautiful women will make it home safely,” he said, winking at Kellina.
She blushed becomingly and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to roll my eyes or vomit. To my credit, I did neither.
“That’s fine,” I chirped as cheerfully as I could manage. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
“Thank you so much for inviting me, Madly. I really appreciate it. I had a great time.”
Genuine gratitude was written all over Kellina’s face. She was clearly having the best night of her life, and why not? She’d met a guy she liked and was fortunate in that the feeling was mutual. Very mutual. She had every reason to be aglow, which she was.
“No problem. I’m glad you could come.”
And I was. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone happiness, and it was clear that she was as smitten with Aidan as he was with her. He was a great guy and she’d be lucky to have him.
As I watched them walk away, I examined their body language. They were so close their arms brushed as they walked. Aidan was leaning toward Kellina to listen as she spoke. Kellina had her face turned up toward Aidan and, even at a distance, I could see that she was enamored.
I’d never believed in love at first sight for a variety of reasons, but it was plain to see that there was something far from casual between the two. And Aidan, I’d never seen him act this way before. Ever. Not even when I’d sensed his attraction to me. It was mild in comparison to this. He was tying to Kellina. I could see it, just like I could see it with my parents. There was no mistaking it.
My envy and irritation turned to sympathy for Aidan’s plight. If my tie to Jackson was strictly forbidden, Aidan’s tie to Kellina was an abomination. It wasn’t just frowned upon or criticized. It was one of the most egregious insults a Mer could deal to his own kind. Such unions were supposedly how the pure royal blood had become polluted, giving the Mer non-pure varieties such as Sentinels and bondservants.
Shaking off such thoughts, I turned back toward the dwindling party to search for Jersey. It was then that I saw that someone else was watching Aidan and Kellina walk away. It was the skinny kid with glasses I’d seen earlier. Once again, I thought he looked as lost as I felt.
Just then, he glanced in my direction and forced a tiny, troubled smile. I returned it, like the kindred spirit that I felt like I was.
He turned to wander off in the opposite direction and I concentrated my attention on the search for Jersey. When I finally spotted her, she was talking and laughing with two good-looking guys. They both had blonde hair and athletic builds and, by the looks of them, one had taken a particularly keen interest in Jersey. Watching her, it was apparent that she wholeheartedly returned the feeling.
I couldn’t help but sigh. It seemed that everyone was winning tonight. Everyone but me. Well, me and the skinny kid with the glasses and braces.
Loathe to interrupt them, yet desperate to get away, I approached Jersey and her two friends.
“Hey, you about ready to go?” I asked without preamble.
All three heads turned toward me. Jersey’s smile was rife with excitement as she darted her eyes meaningfully to blond number one, the one closest to her.
“Um, not really. Are you?”
I looked up toward the starless sky.
“Well, yeah. These clouds look pretty promising for some rain, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Jersey grudgingly admitted.
“Who’s your friend?” blond number two asked.
I glanced toward him and introduced myself.
“I’m Madly James, Jersey’s roommate.”
“Madly? As in ‘I’m madly in love’?” he teased with a wink.
I felt a blush
warm my cheeks and a smile tug at my lips. As I looked into his appreciative brown eyes, it occurred to me how nice his attention felt. It was like a soothing balm to my bruised and battered ego.
“That’s right,” I confirmed.
“I’m Berlin. How have I missed you in school?”
“We both just started here this year.”
“Who can I thank for that?”
Thoughts of my parents sobered me, putting my ego in the backseat, where it belonged. There was no room in my life for such frivolity. I had serious responsibilities that these carefree boys knew nothing about.
“Hey, we could go to our house,” blond number one suggested.
“That sounds awesome,” Jersey exclaimed excitedly.
“Maybe another time, boys,” a deep voice said from behind me.
Chills broke out all over my arms and my breath caught in my throat. Pleasure flooded me as all my senses honed in on the presence at my back.
Jersey sighed, a loud, put-upon gesture that didn’t go unnoticed by any of us.
“This is my bothersome brother, Jackson.”
Jackson’s long tanned arm shot out from my right side as he offered it to Berlin.
“I’m Berlin Kender,” he said as he shook Jackson’s hand. “This is my brother, Aken.”
“Aken,” Jackson said formally. He was still squeezing Berlin’s hand though.
I could see that Jackson’s knuckles had turned white where he gripped Berlin’s hand so tightly. Berlin looked uncomfortable, but was obviously unwilling to say anything.
I turned to look up at Jackson where he loomed behind me. His eyes were burning holes right through Berlin.
Finally, he glanced down at me and then back up at Berlin.
“So, city names?” Jackson commented amicably, releasing Berlin’s hand.
Berlin smiled uneasily.
“Yeah. Our parents were weird like that. They picked out names as they were traveling through Germany.”
“Ohmigod! That is so bizarre. Our parents did the same thing, only ours are American names,” Jersey said. Then she grinned sheepishly at Aken. “Like you couldn’t have figured that out on your own, right?”