The leather jackets laughed as Cole tried to fight, the largest of them walking straight up to Cole as he shot blasts. The man absorbed them without a flinch, until he reached out a hand and, without touching Cole, lifted him off the ground and pinned him against the glass windows. Cole’s head whipped left and then right, bruises formed and his cheek split open. Blood dripped steadily from his cheek to the glass, pooling onto the floor where I’d found it in the apartment. Charlie’s barking was so loud in his own head, I couldn’t hear the words of the man. The last thing I caught was, “The Queen requests your presence, Mage.” Cole tried to spit the blood from his busted lip at the man and he simply laughed. He shot one bolt of orange and Cole slid down the glass to the ground, unconscious.
As Charlie finally removed his paw from my leg and the flashes stopped, I fell back into the front door and onto the floor. Bethany was crouched in front of me in an instant, snapping her fingers in my face and clapping, shaking my shoulders. I could hear her, but the words were miles away. I could see her mouth moving, but whatever Charlie had done to me had sapped my energy and left my brain in a fog.
I looked over at him, sitting perfectly still and straight, his eyes never leaving mine. He cocked his head again and I heard him in my head, saying, “So, what are you gonna do about it?” I dropped my head back, actually satisfied to hear the thunk of it landing against the hollow paneling of the door. Bethany’s words were becoming more high-pitched and I simply held up a hand.
“Elias. You have to take me to Elias,” I said. I barely got the last word out before everything caught up with me and I, too, lost consciousness.
I woke up still on the floor, a blanket covering me, and Charlie stretched out beside me. His length wasn’t far from my own and there was something comforting about his quiet snorts. I opened my eyes to see Bethany, now dressed and apparently properly caffeinated, tapping her foot repeatedly as she stared over at me from her chair.
“You mind telling me what the hell that was all about? I’ve only seen that happen once and it was when Elias did it to Amelia, but she didn’t lose it afterward. Well, I guess she did, but not like you did.” Bethany’s tone was clipped, but laced with worry.
I struggled to sit up, disrupting Charlie as I shoved myself back against the wall, massaging my stiff neck with one hand while I scratched his head with the other. “I don’t get it, Bethany. I don’t know what’s happening either. Every day, it seems like I can do more than the day before. Apparently, today’s accomplishment was having a dog show me his memories.”
I filled her on what I saw of Cole, both with Derreck and the men. She paled.
“The men who took him, you said they wore long leather jackets and had white hair? They had orange magic?” She cowered a little in her seat, the vision clearly making her uncomfortable.
“Yes. Why? Who are those guys? Obviously they work for the Queen.”
Bethany slowly nodded. “They do. They are Hunters and they’re evil, Aidan. They kill and they torture and they are the reason for all of this. They are the ones who took Amelia and me. They are the ones who killed her mother and betrothed her to…him. I think they find joy in other people’s pain.”
She still couldn’t say Micah’s name. She hadn’t said it since we’d met up on the beach. It had to suck to know everything you believed had been a lie. At least I knew Amelia wanted me. She loved me. Or…I hoped she did. She’d never said it, though. Those thoughts were immediately replaced by cold fear, snaking its way down my spine and then igniting into anger. The beast roared for the first time in a while as I jumped to my feet and Charlie did the same.
“We’ve got to go. You said you could find Elias. Their uncle said they needed to find him. We need to find him. If he’s planning something, then he has to know where she is and how to get her and Cole out. They’ve got to be together. And we have to make them help us.”
Bethany looked a little wary. “B, don’t do this to me now,” I said. “We’ve got to stick together on this. She needs us.” I walked over and held out a hand. She looked up at me and I watched as the strength took over. Her eyes narrowed and she nodded.
“She’s damn lucky we love her,” she said dryly. I laughed a little. “Lead the way, pri…B.”
She arched an eyebrow as I caught my mistake again. Me and my propensity for calling girls nicknames. “After you, Bethany,” I corrected with a grin. With one look, I was both put in my place and thanked for not asking questions she hadn’t wanted to answer about where her fear really stemmed from.
I whistled and Charlie lumbered to my side as we left the apartment.
Chapter 8
I paced my room for the fifth time. I hadn’t had a cell phone since they had taken me at Esmerelda’s and I had no way of finding Micah. I had been awake for hours, yet he hadn’t come for me. He hadn’t specifically told me I had to wait for him, but he had been with me constantly and pretty clear about his expectations. Frustrated, I yanked open the door and came face to face with Baleon.
“I’m hungry. And I want out of here.” I stood, looking up at him as I crossed my arms, trying to project my most domineering self. He didn’t even blink.
“You will not leave the room without Prince Mikail,” he said, staring directly above me.
I huffed and decided I would do what I wanted. I took a step to go around him and his arm whipped out faster than I could fathom, causing me to run into what felt like a two by four.
“You will not leave the room without Prince Mikail,” he said again, a growl behind the words, stopping me from a second attempt. This time, he lowered his gaze, his eyes burning brightly. The lustrous end of a firecracker right before it goes off.
“Fine,” I responded, raising my chin when I wanted to cower. “But you need to find him. Now. I’m starving and I refuse to be treated like a prisoner. I’m his fiancée. Making me your soon-to-be boss.”
One of Bale’s eyebrows lifted in an uncharacteristic response to my threat. He quickly covered it up as he shoved me back into the room and pulled the door closed. I heard him order one of the others to find Micah and I laughed a little.
Amelia, 1; Bale, 0, I thought to myself.
It didn’t take long for Micah to show up, and he looked inordinately pleased as he gestured me out into the hall.
“What’s gotten into you?” I grumbled, eyeing him, wondering whether good for him meant good for me.
“Well, I have a surprise for you today, Amelia,” he said, his eyes alight with mischief. His enthusiasm forced a smile from me.
“Yeah? Did your mom take a dive off the nearest cliff?” I couldn’t help it. Sarcasm was my best offense and he had left it wide open. I was surprised to hear Micah chuckle as he shook his head.
“Well, in a manner of speaking, she did. I was informed this morning the situation in the East is larger than she expected and she will be gone for the rest of the week.” He rolled his eyes as he continued, in more of a mumble, “All the better for us to bond, she said.”
I chose to ignore that last part. A betrothal was one thing; this whole consummation business was something else. “What does that mean? Have they found the—” I didn’t get to finish my sentence before Micah started speaking loudly over me, glaring at me intently as he did.
“It means we can do some uninterrupted work together and I can show you around. This home is one of my favorite places in the world and I’ve never really been able to show it to anyone.”
I mentally smacked myself in the forehead. Of course. We were in the middle of the hallway and there were Hunters everywhere. I let my questions lie and jumped into his line of conversation.
“No one? Didn’t you have friends growing up? Aren’t there other royal people you hung out with? Did they keep you away from everyone, too?” It disturbed me to think he had been as isolated as I was and I was genuinely shocked to see the sadness Micah didn’t bother to hide. He looked knowingly at me, all of his normal charm was gone and it was plain to see we we
ren’t so different after all.
He clasped his hands behind him as we strolled along a hall. As we turned the next corner, he grabbed my arm and quickly drew me into a room, closing the door. “There are stories I owe you. Explanations you need. But this isn’t the time nor the place for them.” Micah’s words were quick and hushed. He kept glancing over my shoulder at the door. “They are watching—always watching. They will report our every word to my mother. For both of our sakes, give me time and I’ll find a way for us to talk openly. Just try to keep your more in-depth questions to yourself. Do you understand?”
His breath was warm on my face as I nodded. A hundred questions raced through my mind and I pushed all of them back but one.
“But why? Can you just tell me why you’re helping me?” My own words were an exhale into his ear as I tried to be as quiet as I could. Micah’s lips were at my ear as footsteps moved toward us. The loud, thudding footfalls could only be the Hunters.
“Blood does not trump madness. She must be stopped, and you are the key.”
I didn’t even have time to register his full meaning before he snapped his fingers, the drapes opened, and he started loudly describing the library and the hundreds of years’ worth of knowledge stored there. The door banged open and an unknown Hunter looked disappointed to find us five feet from each other with Micah droning on about the ancient tomes of our people. Micah didn’t spare him a glance as I smiled widely and winked at him. His lips pressed into a tight slash against his light brown skin and he strode from the room, leaving the door wide open.
I turned back to Micah, my smile real this time. “Hundreds of years’ worth of knowledge, huh?”
His grin was all I needed to know I was right where I needed to be.
I started to walk the perimeter of the room, stopping in my tracks as I rounded a bookcase. My feet were rooted to the ground as I stared, my head swiveling back and forth. What I had thought to be a small room was only the entryway to a massive gymnasium-sized cavern. Three floors with rolling ladders and thousands of books. Micah sauntered past me and stood in the atrium of the room.
He spread his arms wide, and said, “Amelia, meet my friends. Welcome to my playground.”
“Where did all of this come from?” I exhaled the question from a gaping mouth, my eyes wide. I couldn’t even begin to estimate how many thousands of books were here. Micah’s smile softened as he looked around fondly.
“Everywhere. Every royal family added to it and Tragar, the royal historian, maintains it. He’s not here right now, he’s out tracking down more volumes, but he’ll be back soon and I can’t wait to introduce you to him. He’s hundreds of years old and a walking encyclopedia. He spends all of his time piecing together a history no one can agree on.”
I couldn’t miss the insinuation buried in Micah’s tone as we stood across the room, knowing we were sharing a secret. Rynna had told me to find out everything I could and Micah had planted me exactly where I needed to be in order to make that happen.
I walked around the edges of the room, running my fingers along the bindings of the books. I was shocked to feel the Keeper flare in response. Certain books sent waves of energy through the pads of my fingers and brought an onslaught of noise and emotion from her. I had been afraid to try to approach her again, since I had barely been able to handle our last interaction, but I knew I couldn’t keep wasting time. I dragged my fingers along another set of ten books and only one sent a jolt through me. I fingered the book and just as I was about to pull it from its place, Micah interrupted me.
“You have two options. We can start the arduous task of haphazardly trying to find books that will tell us something helpful, or we can wait for Tragar and start working on your training. Which would you prefer?”
Which did I prefer? I was being drawn toward the books and the information I knew I needed, but an underlying fear of what I could actually do without my Keeper had been nagging at me since I’d put the cuff on.
“Let’s train first. I…uh, need to brush up on some things.” I hadn’t told Micah about the cuff and I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to. Rynna said he was an ally, and he had certainly been acting like one, but I still felt like the only person I could depend on right now was myself.
Micah gestured to a few couches and we both sat while Bale stood guard at the door. Micah explained as long as the other Hunters knew he was with us, we wouldn’t be bothered.
“How honest can I be here?” I asked.
“Well, out loud, we should probably still be careful. But we do have another way.” Micah tapped his temple and I instantly felt like an idiot.
“Is it still there? I know I, uh, shut that down at one point.” I wasn’t necessarily sorry or ashamed of how we had fought after I found out Micah was actually Prince Mikail, but it was another instance where I had acted without considering what would come of it.
“Connections are never really gone. But, because you are the one who closed the door, you also have to be the one to reopen it. Shall we start there?” Micah leaned back on his couch and closed his eyes, clearly waiting for me to begin. By his relaxed posture, I knew he was defenseless right now. He had completely opened himself up to me, allowing me inside his head. I was surprised he would allow himself to be so vulnerable.
I took a long inhale, holding the air in my lungs for a second before letting it out in one continuous, slow breath. I closed my eyes and focused on the small violet flame deep within me. Bigger. Bigger. Bigger. I muttered the words until what had been a small candle flame was a kindling fire inside me. Warmth spread through me, fire simmering in every crevice. I opened my eyes but didn’t allow them to focus. I saw a blurry Micah, still reclined on the couch, but now surrounded in a red haze. I pushed my fire out toward him, smoke tinged with lightning. It floated across the feet between us but flared in bright bursts, especially as it got closer to him. Micah had to feel me coming. His own power reached toward me, pulsing red. The two poked and prodded at each other, smoke swirling as they circled. Finally, as they had the first time, red and violet spun around and around, until they were braided together. At last, I both saw and felt the snap of electricity when they merged.
Still reclined, but looking quite smug, I heard Micah.
And here we are again, Amelia.
I rolled my eyes. If you want to stay this way, perhaps we can use this to tell each other more truths and less lies, yeah?
Oh, you pain me. You know I was only trying to help while we were in Brighton. I had to know where you stood to understand what we were up against.
And where exactly do we stand, huh, Micah? Because while I appreciate the library and not being a prisoner in my room every minute of every day, your mother is going to come home eventually and we both know she wants more from me than just a wedding.
He sighed and pulled himself up. Putting his elbows on his knees, he steepled his fingers and pressed into his forehead.
You ask as if it is a simple question with a simple answer. My mother is nothing if not entirely unpredictable. So, the only thing I can definitively tell you is you have a few days of reprieve and in that time, you need to work fast and learn fast. The library is at our disposal and there’s a lot to learn here, but getting you ready to handle my mother and her Hunters is just as important.
You ask as if it is a simple question with a simple answer. My mother is nothing if not entirely unpredictable. So, the only thing I can definitively tell you is you have a few days of reprieve and in that time, you need to work fast and learn fast. The library is at our disposal and there’s a lot to learn here, but getting you ready to handle my mother and her Hunters is just as important.
“Okay,” I said aloud, closing down our connection. I needed the mental space to reconcile the fear and determination swimming within my system like minnows and sharks in the same stretch of water. “I want to start.” I stood up. “But I just need a minute, okay?”
I walked away from him without waiting for an answer. I
couldn’t leave the library, but I could find a quiet corner to collect my thoughts. I forced strong, sure steps that conflicted with the gut-wrenching realization that even his help would only go so far. I would have to handle the Queen on my own and there was no way to even guess what she had in store for me. For the hundredth time, I wished my mother had lived. She could have prepared me for this. As it was, I walked into a minefield wearing clown shoes.
Chapter 9
“Do you have any idea where we are actually going?” It was my turn to ask. We had been scouring the woods for a few hours, looking for some particular clearing Bethany was “just certain” she remembered how to get to. In response to my irritated question, she let a low branch fly back and almost smack me in the face. Thankfully, my reflexes were better than she likely assumed and I caught it before any permanent damage occurred. I glanced down at Charlie and muttered how lucky he was to be lower to the ground.
“I was sure this was the way we came. We came over a hill and then there was a scratched up tree and we went right. Or did we go left?” She turned in a circle, looking genuinely perplexed.
“Well,” I stated dryly, “left and right are complete opposites, so it kind of makes a difference. We’ve come to this same tree three times now. Think, Bethany. Which way did you go?”
The breeze shifted and in my first inhale, I knew exactly which way we should go. “This way,” I hollered over my shoulder, finally happy to be getting somewhere. I took off through the trees with Charlie on my heels. Bethany wasn’t quite as quick.
“Aidan! Aidan, wait for me. Human, remember? No super-fast floaty running skills over here. Still tripping over the bushes and crap. WAIT UP!”
Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) Page 6