by Eve, Jaymin
The fragile supe in my arms was the only thing stopping the world from ending.
11
Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery II
I had regrets. So many regrets. I was not ready to die yet, not when I’d only just decided to start living, but sometimes you didn’t get a say in that. Sometimes your number was up and you had no choice but to accept the inevitable.
The warmth in my body increased, and just when I felt like my time on this world was done, the pain faded. With that came energy and clarity, and I had no idea how long I had drifted in my semi-dead state, but eventually I realized I was not dying any longer.
I’d been saved.
There was only one sorcerer with that sort of power. Louis had saved me, brought me back from the twilight of death, and there was so much light and warmth in my chest that I almost felt like I was on fire.
As I rose from unconsciousness, his deep voice was the first thing I heard. “…I remember the first day I saw you. Gods, you couldn’t have been more than five or six, and you had so much hair, even then. It was spread out around you, like a golden cloak, as you ran through the field. You were so wild. Wild in a way that I never saw from Regina. It was like more life filled you than the rest of us, and you embraced it. That was the day I decided we would be best friends, and you thought that was an amazing idea.”
I remembered that day so clearly. Louis had been two years older than me, and I worshipped him. His family was wealthy. They lived on the good side of town and had all the respect of the supernatural community. We, on the other hand, were not wealthy, and in those days there wasn’t as much money to go around our communities, so we were looked down on. Even worse, my parents were not powerful. In fact, my mother never even made it to sorceress, spending all of her days as a witch. Louis befriending me caused a lot of talk, but we didn’t care. Our friendship blossomed and strengthened over the years. The first supe to ever come between us was Regina. My sister hadn’t liked Louis much when we were growing up, treating him like an annoying younger brother even though they were the same age.
Until she no longer saw him that way.
I still had no idea what had made her pursue him like she did. One day she just saw him differently. It was the same for me, but I spent too long worrying about the consequences, and she beat me to it. Then he was smitten, falling hard for my charismatic sister.
My eyelids fluttered open, hazy memories washing away as I blinked. Sunlight was streaming in from the open bay windows nearby, and when I could finally see clearly, it was all greenery out there. I pulled my gaze from that view to meet a pair of purple-blue eyes. We stared for a few long moments. “Hey,” he said, his voice raspy.
“Hey,” I said back, my voice breaking.
Louis looked so beautiful, no darkness surrounding him, his handsome face filling my vision. I remembered very clearly that we had a bond; it was beating in my chest strongly, and my body ached to touch him, but I resisted. Just because we were true mates did not mean that we could make this work. There was so much history between us. Maybe too much. This was almost a cruel happening for us both. But I was grateful that it had brought him back to the light. Killing Louis would have killed me, and now I understood why.
We were true mates. Two halves of the same whole. Bound by fate.
When Louis leaned forward, I expected soft and kind words to come out of his mouth; instead his eyes darkened as he growled, “If you ever, and I mean ever, attempt to jump in front of magic meant to take me down again, I will kill you myself, Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery.”
I blinked at him, not sure at what I was hearing. “W-what?”
Louis bared his teeth, and I almost flinched back. “You nearly died. If our bond hadn’t kicked in, allowing light back into my magic, I would not have been in a position to save you.” He was on his feet then, power flowing almost visibly around him. “You almost died!”
He was just short of yelling, and I was both fearful of and fascinated by the new Louis I saw before me. He was glorious, his gorgeous face filled with hard lines and his power washing across everything. It appeared the darkness was gone, but … it had changed him.
I struggled to pull myself higher in the bed, still aching despite the fact I was fully healed. He let out a low curse and rushed to my side, lifting me into a sitting position with ease. “You need to rest,” he reminded me, tucking some of his emotions away again.
He was watching me so closely. I found it harder to breathe when he was like this.
“Are you sure the darkness is completely gone?” I pressed. I was pretty sure, but pretty sure wasn’t enough in situations like this.
Louis seemed to consider his answer for a moment. “It’s gone, but part of my energy has been changed. It’s almost restless now. My power has a different edge to it.” His fists clenched. “But as long as you remain in this world, I will remain in the light.”
I understood what he was saying about the restlessness. There was a feral sort of energy about his magic now. “So no pressure, hey?” I tried to lighten the mood. “I’ll do my best not to die, because dark Louis wasn’t my favorite.”
He didn’t smile. His face shut down and more black swirled in his eyes. “Losing control of myself will never be something I’m proud of,” he admitted, lowering his gaze to the side of the bed. “And I managed to create a bit of a problem that looks to be more difficult than I expected to clean up.”
I remembered then. “The spell!” I blurted. “What happened with the spell?”
His expression remained blank. “Once I knew you were fine, I reversed the spell itself, and for the most part the humans were unharmed and ended up back in their normal lives….”
“But…” I pressed, because I sensed a huge but in that statement.
“But some supes, elders, and council leaders around the world decided that my plan was a solid one.”
“They exposed us to the humans?” I whispered, understanding exactly what he was saying.
Louis nodded, and his jaw clenched hard. “Yes, they finished what I started and broadcast our world on live television.”
“Fuck,” I breathed, and for a brief moment amusement lit up Louis’s face. He’d always loved it when I cursed, because he said it was so unexpected.
“Can you reverse what they’ve done?” I asked, wondering what the next plan of action was.
Louis leaned back in his chair, his broad shoulders spilling over the sides as he lifted both hands. “It’s out of my hands. The only way is a mass vote agreeing to let me stop this. It was a decision by the elders and chiefs, and only a worldwide vote by all leaders can reverse it.”
“Shouldn’t something like that have had to be agreed on by all supes in the first place?”
There were laws about this sort of thing, about exposing us to the human world.
Louis nodded. “Yes, but I broke that law when I set the initial spell in motion. I opened up the opportunity for the others, and they took it.”
Louis was lucky he wasn’t in prison right now. Speaking of… “How are you not in prison?”
That amusement was back. “Who could they send to put me in there?”
Right.
“There’s always me,” I suggested in a dry tone.
A smile spread across his face, the first true one I’d seen from him. “You’re literally the only one with the power.” His husky voice sent shivers down my spine, and I fought against the urge to throw myself into his arms.
No. No, this was not happening. Sometimes fate was not enough to overcome the past.
“Are we going to talk about it?” Louis must have been reading my facial expression, because he brought up the very thing I was thinking. “About our bond.”
Swallowing roughly, I shook my head. “What’s there to talk about? We’re true mates, it’s a shock for sure, but … we have too much history, Louis. There’s no way we can just ignore all of that and fall into….” I waved my hand between us. “Fall into whatever bet
ween us.”
“You don’t even want to give it a shot?” His tone held curiosity, and I wished I knew what he was thinking. He seemed to be so calm, while I was a total mess inside, emotions churning through me with so much force I felt sick.
“Do you want to give it a shot?” I turned the question back on him. “You loved my sister. You mourned her for decades. You … left me. How the hell do we get past all of that?”
Annoyance crashed through me when I realized my throat was scratchy and my eyes burned. I was almost shouting. I was not allowed to cry, no godsdamn way.
Louis looked like he was going to reach for me, but at the last moment pulled back. “I didn’t just mourn her,” he said, glittering eyes locking me in place. “I mourned you both. You disappeared when Regina died. There was that moment in Faerie, and then I never saw you again. You left me, Tee. After everything we’d been through, I needed you in my life more than ever.”
In some ways he did speak the truth. I’d been filled with guilt because part of me had despised my sister for what she had and I didn’t. Then when she died, I’d basically lost my mind, shutting myself off from the world, angry and heartbroken. Then my isolation grew into a habit. I found it more and more difficult to leave my house. Outside of my friends in the mountains, I was basically a hermit. Part of me though, and this was a stupid part of me, had expected Louis to come and find me. Only he never had.
Before I could stop him, Louis wrapped his hands around mine, encasing them in his warmth and strength. My heart skipped a few beats, and I felt heat rise across my body as parts of me that had been dead for a long time stormed to life.
Well, hey there, vagina. Nice of you to pop up and say hello. I hadn’t had sex for years, which for supes was more like centuries, but still … not the best timing.
“Louis—” I started, but he cut me off.
“I’m not sure how I feel right now,” he told me, “but I do know that we were brought back together for a reason. We should at least get to know each other again, see if there is anything more than just the bond between us. I don’t know if I can be a mate to you … I don’t even know if I want to be a mate again and risk that sort of pain, but I also don’t want you to leave.”
I choked out a rough laugh. “You don’t know if you want this, but you still think we should stick around and get to know each other? As far as I can see, despite the bond, all that’s going to happen is our supernatural instincts will push and push until we’re wrapped so far around each other that I can’t tell whose limbs are whose.”
Louis’s lips twitched and his eyes filled with mirth. “And that would be a bad thing?”
The ache in my chest deepened. “Yes, because it’s just sex. And that’s not enough for me any longer. I’m too old and broken just to be a powerful mage’s plaything.” He was killing me. I had loved Louis for years, and it would be so easy to just take whatever he offered. But until he knew for sure what he wanted, he would always hold me at a distance, and I had the sneaking suspicion that that would hurt more than never having him.
“You could have chosen me years ago, but you picked Regina,” I reminded him.
The grip on my hands tightened minutely. “You never gave me any indication that you wanted to be more than friends,” he bit out. “Not one. Back then I would have made the move the moment you did.”
I yanked my hands free. “You should have made the move. Who the hell do you think you are, just waiting around for us to all declare ourselves so you could pick and choose?”
Men were so freaking dense at times; it was beyond frustrating.
We were both on our feet now. I’d slipped out of the bed and was standing there in what looked like an old shirt of Louis’s. It hung to midthigh on me, leaving a lot of leg bare. His gaze traveled down the length for a brief moment before making its way back to my face.
“We were both afraid to ruin our friendship,” he said, his eyes pleading with me to understand. “It wasn’t about me wanting to choose between you and Regina. It was always you, until I realized that I was only ever going to be a friend to you. Then … I got caught up in Regina. She was amazing, there’s no denying it, and our relationship was good. Losing her… The guilt almost destroyed me. I can’t risk that again.”
My sister had been amazing. I was never surprised that Louis fell in love with her. She was tall and smart and powerful. She had long raven black hair and big blue eyes. She was so different to me that most people never even believed we were sisters. And I had loved her.
Louis took a step closer to me, his chest almost touching mine. “This is new … a shock. We should take some time to get to know each other again. I miss my friend. I miss you, Tee.”
Everything hurt in that moment: my body, my heart, and my eyes from the burning tears threatening to fall. “Friends … is not going to work for me.”
I pushed against him, my hands slamming on the hard planes of his chest. There was no way I could have moved him if he wanted to fight me, but thankfully he took a step back and gave me some breathing room. I was feeling as feral in that moment as the light in his eyes had been.
“I’m going to have a shower and get cleaned up,” I said quietly, never taking my gaze off him. “Can you tell me where my clothes are?”
“I had them all brought here.” He waved a hand toward a nearby dresser. “You’ve been out for a few days. I wanted you close by, so you’re in my home.”
Of course I was.
I nodded and waited until he started to move toward the door. “Bathroom is through there,” he said, pointing to another door nearby. “Call me if you need anything.”
Yeah, that was a big fat never going to happen right there. I would literally drown before I called out for his help, especially while I was naked. But I just smiled and nodded, and then moved to open the drawers of the dresser, pulling out underwear, jeans, and a white shirt.
When I was safely locked in the bathroom, I allowed myself a minute to fall apart, turning the shower on full blast. The noise hid my small gasps as tears ran down my cheeks. I didn’t cry much anymore. Strong emotions were not part of my world. But in that brief second I wasn’t sure I would survive the pain in my heart.
Louis … how could he be my true mate? How could fate be so cruel? To have separated us for all these years, only to pull us together now when we truly couldn’t be mates…
Your choice. My inner voice reminded me that it wasn’t fate’s fault. She put us in each other’s paths from childhood. My pain was from my own fears, and my own bad choices. Louis’s as well. Both of us were to blame. We had ignored the path and suffered greatly for it.
Another sob choked out of me, and I struggled to stuff my emotions back inside. If I left the room with the evidence of my crying session across my face, I’d have to deal with Louis, and he was relentless when he was trying to get to the bottom of something. He would not stop until I poured all of my feelings out in the open. Which was redundant, because nothing I felt could change reality.
He didn’t want to risk the pain of us developing this into a true mate bond, and I didn’t want to be someone’s “sort of” mate just because the true bond pulled us closer. Eventually my tears dried and I got in the shower. The warm water beating down on me was soothing, and as I stood there under the hot spray I decided that I wouldn’t stay in Stratford any longer. I was going to go back home, for a while at least. Louis would be busy dealing with the elders, and I needed some distance. Time apart would hopefully give us clarity, and then … we could both reassess.
Some of the weight had lifted from my chest by the time I got out. I’d always liked a plan of action, even if I didn’t always want to follow it. At least my brain was focused, and that let me not dwell on how shitty the situation was. When I was dry and dressed, I pulled my long hair up into a messy bun, letting tendrils fall around my face. The messy bun was literally the greatest creation since fey wine.
Stepping into my room, I was relieved to see the door
still closed. Louis had exceptional hearing, and I’d been worried that he might have heard my tears and would be waiting for me. When I opened the door out of my room, I let out a gasp. On the other side it looked like a tornado had gone through the place. Furniture was upside down, glass was smashed everywhere, and there appeared to be enough feathers to fill a small city.
“Hey!”
My head snapped up to see a familiar supe standing amongst the chaos.
“Jessa, hey!” I said, hurrying toward her, stepping over debris. “Where did Louis go? And … what happened in here?”
Jessa looked around, a wry grin tipping up her lips. “Louis has exceptional hearing,” she said, repeating my thought from a moment ago. “And he makes things explode when a woman he cares about is crying.”
I slammed my mouth closed, reaching up to rub at my tender eyes. “He heard me crying in the shower?”
She nodded. “Yeah, and he didn’t take it very well. I convinced him not to smash the door down and surprise you with his fury, and Braxton has taken him out into the meadow for some cool-down time.”
“He did all of this while I was in the shower?” I said, trying not to cry again. The mate bond drove supes insane at times, that was for sure.
“No.”
My head snapped up and I met her blue eyes.
“He did most of this when you almost died. He brought you here, and he was not in a good place. Which for someone of Louis’s power…”
“Is very dangerous,” I finished, somewhat breathlessly.
All of a sudden, panic filled me. This was too much. The bond was too strong already. We would not be able to fight the pull. It was going to take all of our choices away, and I refused to let that happen. I needed to be away from him while I tried to think about the future. About what I wanted.