Bitter Thorns (The Entwined Book 1)

by Chrissy Jaye

  Kieran threw me a wink. “Trust me, you did not want to hear what he would have said.”

  Liam rolled his eyes and turned his head toward me. “We got a summons from the council and they went to play nice. It’s nothing to worry about.”

  Every time someone mentioned the council, I noticed a small change in them, especially Liam. They wanted me not to worry, but I could tell they were. And even if it wasn’t worry, it was something that made them tense. “Are you lying to me?” I asked, glaring at him. I decided to be direct. I needed to know if my brother was there. Nothing bad could happen to him. It would kill me. His eyes widened as he sat up. I immediately regretting how accusatory I’d been. “I’m sorry,” I said quickly, running a hand roughly through my curls.

  “That’s our cue to go make dinner,” Lucien interjected before anyone could say something else. He walked over and popped a kiss to my cheek. “I’m glad you like the room,” he whispered. Then he grabbed Flynn who was only just recovering and looked like he was already plotting revenge against his twin.

  Ben shook his head at their retreating backs with a soft look that made me stare after them too. Flynn’s broad shoulders swayed as he followed Luc. I looked out the French doors of my new room, wishing that Vian and Brooke would walk through them. What was so bad about the council that it made everyone worry?

  I squealed when something tickled my side and smacked out blindly, connecting with Liam’s bicep. Liam rolled away from me with a smirk on his face. “For the record, I hate being tickled. It’s like forcing someone to laugh against their will.” I tried to keep the sting out of my voice, having already been a royal bitch to him just moments ago, but it was a struggle. I hated being tickled that much.

  “Sorry, Kitten. I was just trying to be playful.”

  I smiled weakly at him. I could appreciate the effort, if not the application. “I’m just…I feel this emptiness without Vian here,” I admitted, realizing that was exactly it. My twin wasn’t here to share this with me.

  “It’s nothing to worry about, Liv,” Kieran said.

  “They’re just answering questions the council has. They’re keeping a particularly good eye on our circle. We’re being careful with the information we feed them,” Ben said smoothly breaking into the conversation.

  “I don’t remember them leaving though. Luc and I were in the kitchen, we’d have seen them leaving,” I argued.

  “Hello,” Liam said waving his hand from the end of my bed. “Bender of space and all that shit.”

  My eyes slammed shut with a wince. I’d forgotten that little tidbit. Well, not forgotten it, just…not thought about it. “Right,” I said, sucking in a breath.

  The bed dipped and warmth sank into my back as cedar and something flowering swept over me. My eyes popped open as I looked over my shoulder, coming face to face with Kieran as he draped an arm around my waist. He looked somewhat apologetic for it but didn’t back off in the slightest. His nearness was making it harder for me to pretend I wasn’t attracted to him. Him and his four friends.

  “Liv,” Ben started, cutting off my lustful thoughts before they took off running. “I meant to sit down and talk with you about the council before this but with everything that’s been going on...” He sounded pained as he spoke which made me prickle inside. I didn’t like the sound of where this conversation was headed. “You’re really powerful. As in, off the charts normal for an Entwined. It’s triple the access that Vian has. Demaric is a friend to our families so he didn’t report that, but…”

  With every word he spoke, my unease grew. “What does it matter how powerful I am?” Was I really going to just believe this? Everyone kept talking about how much power I had, but I didn’t feel powerful. I was like a fish, flopping along the shore, trying to find the water again. I mean, yeah, a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed that I could make wind, or read tarot cards, or have an out-of-body conversation with a freaking cat. Fuck.

  Kieran pressed his face into my hair. “Because the most powerful Entwined usually become twisted. They don’t have the same limitations the rest of us have. They—the council could make trouble for us. Try to study you. There have been instances in the past where—”

  “I think that’s enough for now,” Liam cut him off quietly, not looking at any of us. He stared up at the gauze over my bed, his eyes far away from here.

  “No,” Kieran said firmly. “She should know what’s ahead of her. Of us. I’ve said that since the beginning.”

  “I agree,” Ben said. “But it isn’t just up to us three. Everyone should have a say so we should shelve this conversation until later.”

  My head dropped back onto the bed as I tried to count to ten. “I don’t think that’s fair. To keep me in the dark just because all of you have to agree. What about what I have to say?”

  Liam rolled over, looking me in the eye. “That’s not what this is about. It’s not about keeping secrets from you. We’re trying to not color your opinions. This whole thing is a very delicate topic.” I turned away from the earnest look in his eye, but he just grabbed me by the chin and brought my head back. His eyes closed for a moment; it was clear that he was struggling to control his expression. “Some things are just not that simple.” He bent down until his forehead touched mine. “Just like you don’t like talking about your abuse, we don’t like talking about ours.”

  My heart pounded in my chest and I shifted uncomfortably. “Can you at least tell me why the council is keeping track of us?” I looked up at him, eyes wide open to show that I was trying and that I understood where he was coming from, but I needed to know what I was facing. He held my gaze and I saw his struggle there. It was almost enough to make me take back my question.

  “Our history has shown us that Entwined who have too much power almost always go wrong,” Kieran answered. Liam growled at him and rolled away again sitting up.

  “Wrong?”

  Ben coughed and I turned my head so I could look at him. Liam stalked out of the room behind him. His shoulders were rigid as he fled the room, I imagined it was to get away before he did or said something he would later regret. Kieran had been right; I really wasn’t the only one who struggled with their past. The unease I’d felt before had now morphed into full out dread and regret of my own.

  The two remaining guys said nothing to answer my question, leaving me to make my own conclusions. I had to admit, their silence on the matter made it worse for me and I wished I’d listened. Wrong could mean so many things.

  “Would they take me away?” I asked quietly. Fine, they didn’t want to answer my other questions, but this I needed. I turned sharp eyes on Kieran.

  The amount of remorse I found in his eyes had me holding my breath for his answer. “Yes,” he finally said.

  “I think I need a shower,” I said softly, holding my hands out for Ben. He smiled and reached over to lift me up but as our eyes met, I could feel the scrutiny in his gaze as he searched my face. The smile on his lips slowly turned downward at whatever he saw in my eyes. I broke our connection and without a backward glance went to my closet to find some clothes.

  As I stepped into the spray of the water my pulse pounded through my veins and a bubble of panic rose up as I thought about what Kieran had confirmed. Separated again from my twin. From the guys. Brooke. I’d already lost Emma. I had no idea how I would ever bridge things with Payton and the thought of being ripped away from this family, one that wanted me in it, made my stomach twist into knots.

  And that word. Wrong. It wouldn’t go away. How much more could go wrong with me? Wasn’t it bad enough I could detect danger but not avoid it? Didn’t I pay in blood for needing my brother? And my heart, God… what I had left of that was so broken, I doubted it would ever be whole again. Life had been nothing but a disappointment. Maybe that’s what they meant by wrong. Would it get worse? How wasn’t it already?

  And I couldn’t forget how frustrated I was with myself. I’d all but admitted to myself that I was crushing
after five guys who lived with me. I could try keeping it as platonic as possible, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off. We were supposed to be a Circle, a family and my stupid hormones were getting in the way of that.

  I had to keep it to myself. Whatever the hell was going on with me, I wouldn’t let anything happen. With any of them. They were only touching me, being nice to me, because of this stupid bond that we had to forge. The feelings those touches evoked were all on me.

  A familiar sense of peace wrapped around me, trying to strangle the surge of emotions. It was something I was starting to associate with my guardian, and I knew he was here with me.

  “You better know what you’re doing,” I said into the spray of the shower. “I can’t lose what I have here. I can’t.” I took a deep breath trying to rein in my thoughts. If it did get to that point, I’d leave, before I could ruin this for my brother. It would be hard, but I would do it if I had to. Vian was happy here. He had Brooke. Brothers. A real life, with a real future...

  Chapter 20

  After dinner, I spent the evening in my new room, still a bit dazed by the fact that they’d gone to so much effort to put this together for me. I wanted the time to myself to decompress from the day. Dinner had been nice, relaxing even, except for the frequent exchanges of energy that left me blushing more than once. I’d also tried to thank them all for everything they’d done for me but that had blown up in my face.

  “I don’t want you to thank me, Princess,” Flynn had stated, looking murderous. He hadn’t looked at me, but I still shivered from the intensity behind his words.

  The moment had been softened by Ben who leaned into me. “No one should have to be thankful to have a space to call their own. We know what it means for you, but it pains us to hear it.” He’d followed it by planting a sweet kiss on my cheek. I’d fled the table as soon as humanly possible after that.

  I noticed new additions to my belongings on my bedside table as soon as I entered. A cell phone, which I tucked into the waistband of my leggings immediately without looking through it, and a deck of tarot cards that called to me like a siren song. There was an itch on the palm of my hands that begged me to pick them up. I ended up sitting in the middle of my bed, knees drawn up with the side of my face turned in their direction.

  The others had wanted me to join them for a movie, but Ben had notions of watching Mary Poppins which I was so not into. I liked music and some musicals, just not those sorts of musicals. The ones that were all happy smiles made me want to claw my eyes out. Maybe I could get him to watch The Genetic Opera instead some time.

  “What’s so funny?” Flynn asked, startling me so bad I screamed.

  Hand on my heart, I glared up at him. He just smirked down at me before dramatically falling over on the bed. His weight displaced mine and I went rolling onto my side with my hair spilling in my face.

  “Asshole,” I muttered as I pushed myself up.

  “You need new material,” he chuckled, earning him a hard roll of my eyes.

  I settled back, putting a foot of space between us. “What do you want, Flynn?” I tried to look at him, but my eyes slid past him to the deck of cards as the urge to pick them up hit me again. Fucking cards. A panicked thought settled into my brain.

  “I was wondering if—”

  “Can Arts be addictive?” I interrupted him, my eyes locking with his.

  His smirk disappeared as he gave me a quizzical look. “Umm, maybe? Ben would—”

  I waved off his answer and smirked in return when he glared at me. I knew I was being mean, but the cards kept prickling at me. It was irritating the fuck out of me. My gaze slowly turned from his face to them again. He tracked my line of sight and sighed. Loudly.

  “Guardian,” he muttered, grabbing the deck, frowning as he did so and held them out to me. “It’s not going to go away. Liam probably gave these to you since you and Vian are precogs.”

  “Wonderful. So, I have to carry these around or something so I can tell people’s fortunes?” I asked, snatching the cards from his hands. As soon as I touched them, the feeling faded. “Jesus. That’s weird.”

  “Just shuffle them and get it over with,” he said with a wave of his hands.

  “Is it stupid to admit I don’t want to know the future?” I asked quietly. Part of me really didn’t. I’d never liked that part of me. To me, it brought nothing but pain. Sure, this morning, it had seemed cool, exciting even, but I’d had a long day to think about it and I just…didn’t want it.

  “Hey,” he said, scooting closer to me, “what’s wrong?”

  “I don’t want to know,” I said back. “Knowing what’s to come feels like I should be able to do something about it and I don’t. I never have.”

  He pierced me with a heavy look, one very different than any other I’d seen on his face so far. Instead of the intense glare he usually wore, this one seemed to see right through me. “Sometimes, I get woken up in the middle of the night.” His voice was soft as he spoke, keeping his indigo eyes on me. “I’ll have to get out of bed and head into the woods, sometimes for miles, just to heal something. Just last week, I had to go fix a tree that got hit by lightning.”

  “That’s insane. Your... ability makes you do that?”

  He smiled. “No, Princess. Our guardians. Yours is trying to tell you something.”

  “So, why doesn’t he just come out and say it?” I asked, looking around, almost half expecting my cat to appear. He didn’t.

  “Because, sometimes, they can’t. They have their own lives. We’re their job. Our job is to keep the balance.” He laid down, putting his head right beside mine. I almost leaned into him to smell his dark hair. Almost. Doing so would show him I craved him. Even when he was an asshole, but even more so when he was being sweet.

  “What balance?” I needed to distract myself.

  “Of everything. Life, death. The endless cycles. We keep this orb we live on going,” he replied.

  I thought it over for a few seconds. “Seems like such a huge job. Does that mean not all Entwined live here then?”

  “All of us have a home here. But no, most don’t live here full time. We’re out saving the world.”

  I laughed then. As in completely lost it, laughed. “Saving the world? From what? You make it sound like we’re superheroes or something.”

  “Maybe we are. Did you think about that?” he asked seriously. “Consider everything that happens in this world. How people fuck it up all the time. Pollution, senseless violence, corruption. We keep it all from going completely out of whack.”

  “How can we possibly prevent war and violence?”

  “The things our Circle are capable are only a few of the gifts that Entwined have. There are empaths, like my mother. There are others with the gift of persuasion. We have people in every government across the world who work hard to deescalate tough situations.”

  “That’s sort of incredible,” I said, a bit in awe. “I feel like I need a second brain just to remember all of this. Sometimes, it seems so big that I can barely wrap my head around it.”

  He chuckled. “You’ll get there. You’ve known about all this for maybe two weeks. Give yourself time to adjust.”

  “Can you go back to being an asshole?” I asked. “I sort of like you better that way.” I was joking and smiled to let him know before he really thought I wanted that.

  “Wow. You’re a piece of work, woman,” he said playfully. “Anyway, shuffle your cards and then get dressed. You and I are going for a walk.”

  I groaned and rolled into his shoulder. “I changed my mind. Stay nice,” I joked.

  He laughed into my hair and rolled off the bed. “Up, Princess. If you’re a good girl, I’ll give you a treat later.”

  My blood heated at his comment even though I knew he probably didn’t mean it to sound so flirtatious. I buried my head in my pillows until I was sure my face wasn’t blushing. When I lifted it, he was gone. “Fuck me,” I whispered. Keeping shit to myself was g
oing to be terrible if I blushed like that all the time.

  The cards were still clutched in my hand and while Flynn had distracted me for a few minutes, the insane itch to read them returned. I grimaced at them before placing them on the bedside table. I’d read them after our walk if it was still there later. No way, no how, was I going to let it control me.

  I met Flynn on the front porch. Everyone was still in the living room watching movies. Luc had given me a curious look when I paused in the doorway looking for Flynn, but Kieran had nodded toward the front door, so I just gave them a parting wave and headed outside, checking to make sure I had my new phone still tucked into my waistband. It wasn’t the best place for it, but something so expensive and easily lost would stay as close to me as possible.

  The man in question stood at the railing looking out at the forest, wearing a long-sleeved henley and a pair of dark jeans with sturdy boots. I stopped for only a second, admiring the way his shoulders looked in such a tight shirt. The waning light cast him in shadows, looking more handsome. My breath caught in my throat as he turned toward me.

  He looked me over from head to toe, making me shift uncomfortably. I glanced down nervously, thinking I’d buttoned my flannel shirt wrong, but everything looked fine. Paired with my gray leggings and sneakers, I sort of thought I looked adorable.

  “Gonna be warm enough in that?” he asked.

  I nodded, still feeling nervous. Ugg, why was I so nervous? It was just a walk. Nothing crazy. Still, part of me wanted to go grab Brooke and make her go with us.

  “Let’s go, Princess.” He kicked off the rail and led the way down the front steps and set off down the dirt road.

  I hurried to catch up with him, only glancing back at the house once. “Where are we walking to exactly?”

  He kicked his feet in the dirt as he went, bring up plumes of dust and shrugged. “Nowhere in particular. Just figured you probably needed some air. You’ve been in the house a lot.”