Wanted by the Fae: A Fated Mates Romantic Fantasy: Magic Bound Book 2 (Magic Bound Series)

by Allie Santos

  Minutes later, he stuttered to a stop and turned me. His hand cupped my face, his eyes roving over me, head to toe, as he patted me down, checking if I was in one piece. The drawn look on his face had worsened. He needed to rest.

  Seeming satisfied, he sighed and tugged me into his arms. I let him because I felt like if I didn’t, he would drop to the ground. At least that’s what I told myself. It wasn’t that I wanted to feel his body against mine.

  He pulled back and gripped my chin, eyes glinting. “If I ever tell you to run, you run.”

  My eyebrows went up. I was offended that he would dare try to give me orders, but a little, itty piece inside me was absurdly pleased.

  “Don’t think—”

  “Let’s get out of here.” He scanned our surroundings and tugged me along. Even though I’d been fighting it since I saw him again, him taking up my space was something I missed.

  25

  “Where are we going?”

  “Back to the hotel. It’s the only place Rian knows we’ll be.” I hadn’t thought of that. Not for the first time, I wished I knew what was happening on his end.

  By the way he trudged on ahead, a cold look on his face, Roark seethed with some sort of emotion. At last, he finally rounded on me. “When I tell you to run, you must listen,” he ground out in a low tone.

  I rolled my eyes. The whole sulky thing he had going was because I hadn’t listened to him? “Are you serious? You can hardly stand without swaying. You’re running on empty. Otherwise, I’m sure you would have had them whimpering like the cowards they are.”

  His expression tightened. Probably because he knew I was right, and he didn’t like it one bit. “I don’t have much to work with.” He scowled. “But don’t mistake me, I am not weak, and as drained as I am, I will protect you with my dying breath.”

  “Yeah, well, you didn’t need to die. I was more than capable of pulling off a distraction. As you saw.” I waved my arms dramatically and rolled my eyes. In the back of my mind, I realized I was feeling more myself than I had in months. Now experiencing the difference, I noticed how down in the dumps I’d been. I was in no way okay, considering Annie’s absence, but I felt hope for once. Not only for myself but for the entire Unnatural world. Luz’s sacrifice hadn’t been in vain, and it wasn’t until now that I realized I’d been dealing with comparison-itis, with a dash of imposter syndrome. It was no wonder I’d been so depressed.

  Even if I wasn’t down with killing Roark to free magic, we were onto something, and I was a firm believer that there was never just one way.

  His muttering tugged me out of my head, and before I knew what was happening, he had my back plastered to a hard brick wall. Roark’s eyes narrowed before he slammed his lips on mine. I moaned, arousal rising like a wave, but he pulled back just as suddenly and left me gasping.

  “You could have been hurt.” He whirled and kept on walking, his steps sure. He seemed to be regaining some strength. I wanted to make another flippant comment, but right before he’d kissed me, I could have sworn his gaze had been haunted.

  I swallowed the knot forming in my throat. “I can’t promise that when something happens, I’ll follow your directions. I saw you in danger, and I couldn’t just leave you behind.” His stance didn’t relax. “What I can promise is that I’ll be more careful.”

  What was I doing? I couldn’t promise him anything. He didn’t deserve any of my promises, right? He was still the villain. He had still passed me over.

  It was quiet for a while, but his shoulders eventually loosened.

  “That is all I can ask of you. I suppose,” Roark said, sounding disgruntled. He finally slowed his walk from furiously stomping to a loose-legged stride.

  I looked around. The back of the hotel was in front of us. Hopefully, we wouldn’t be in here too long. As we got closer, I came to a shocking realization. I’d talked to him like he was going to be in my life. It had been subconscious, but… it felt right.

  I hadn’t forgiven him. There had been too much done, and the history was too painful. But maybe I wasn’t opposed to letting him try to make it up to me? Why did I feel that way just after finding out his death was the answer to unbinding magic? I rubbed my forehead.

  We got to the entrance and strode toward the elevators again, but just as I reached forward to click the button, a frantic voice huffed for attention behind us.

  “Mr… ?” We turned to see the huffing young man trying to catch up to us. I gave Roark a look, and he gave an almost imperceptible shrug of a shoulder. I rolled my eyes and looked at the man, who stared up at Roark. “A man was here for you. They left a message just in case you returned.” He held out a sealed envelope.

  I snatched it out of his hand before Roark could and tore it open. It must be Rian and Annie. Roark was right. They would come here to look for us. Excitement coursed through me. This meant Annie was okay. I looked down at the paper, trying to make sense of the symbols and even turned them around, not too sure I wasn’t looking at them upside down.

  Roark grunted from over my shoulder and took it from me. “It’s in Fae. Rian wrote it.”

  I watched him, anxious to know what it said. As soon as he scanned over the symbols, his face went cold and harsh. “What is it?”

  “Let’s go.” He grabbed my arm and toted me out the door.

  I wanted to argue, but I sensed the severity of the letter in the very lines of his body. He led me out through the staff exit, pushing through doors until we’d exited through the back of the hotel. Towering trees lined the back of the hotel.

  “We must get deeper into the forest,” he said, looking around. Yeah, this was in no way forest-like at all.

  “I mean, if we stick around this collection of trees, I guess it’s relatively forest-y.”

  “Civilization is too close.”

  “What’s going on, Roark?” I was starting to get scared. I didn’t want that letter to have bad news, but the impending feeling of doom begun to creep up.

  “When you end my life, I need you to be in Faerie, as close to protection as I can get you,” he said and swooped me up.

  “Roark, what the hell is going on?” I yelled, truly frightened now. He took off at Fae speed, cutting me off. “Roark,” I croaked, the wind whipping the word away.

  He stayed around wooded areas and the back of buildings, going too fast for any human eye to see. I knew he had to have heard me, but he ignored me and kept running as he searched for a portal.

  I fisted his shirt in my hand, frustrated. He had mentioned me ending his life. I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t do that. This was Roark. He’d broken my heart. Hell, he’d broken me. But I just couldn’t even think of him being… gone.

  Not only was it because I’d never killed someone, but because he was my mate. I may not want to be with him, but I wanted him kicking around somewhere, regretting that he’d lost me.

  Drawn out of the agonizing hypotheticals with his jarring stop, I blinked and looked around. I hadn’t seen where we had been going because the perception looking sideways was always blurry. It was always easier to see everything when I was the one doing the running. He dropped his arms, and I slowly slid down, landing on my toes.

  “What was in that letter?” Not much time had passed since he’d read it, but it already seemed to throw a shadow over him. Roark was stiff, and his featured had returned to cold and remote. I was confused, and the look on his face wasn’t helping any. “Why are we going to Faerie? We need to wait for Annie and Rian. What’s going on, Roark? You’re scaring me.”

  His jaw worked, and he turned to look at me, his eyes hooded. “Let’s go.”

  He strode to the portal, but I’d had enough. I grabbed his arm and dragged him to a stop, gritting my teeth from the effort. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “I just—” He ran his hand through his hair. “I knew it would have eventually led to this one way or another, but I—” He paused and turned his back. “I just wanted more time with you.”

>   “Spit it out, Roark.”

  He whirled and stalked closer. “You have to kill me.”

  He reached over my shoulder, to the zipper on the backpack. It tugged on my shoulders as he pulled something from within and zipped it back up.

  It was the dagger he’d given me.

  Roark pressed it into my hand, forcing my finger to wrap around it as he angled the tip against his chest. With a gasp, I pulled away and dropped it on the ground as if it had burned me.

  “You have to be the one that kills me, Rae. That’s the only way magic will return. The Queen bound magic because her mate was killed. You heard what the goblin said. You must kill your mate for it to be returned. That’s why the Queen was never able to bring it back. It was impossible since she no longer had a mate—”

  “No, no, stop.” I took a step back and put my palms over my ears, shaking my head.

  He grabbed my arms, pulled them down, and caressed my face. “Magic is a fickle thing. It’s grown a mind of its own being confined for such a long time. It’s demanding its due. This is the only way.” Roark paused and sighed. “Your sister…” I ground my teeth, wanting him to finish his sentence. “She got hurt. The type of hurt that can only be cured by magic.”

  I stepped back, horrified by the words coming out of his mouth. My lips opened as if something was going to come out, but nothing did. I didn’t know what to say.

  “S-she what?” My heart raced, struggling to catch up.

  He scooped up the knife and pressed it into my hand again. “You have to kill me. You do this, magic is freed, and your sister can be healed.”

  He pushed it in, and I felt the blade slicing his flesh. I gasped and pushed him back. With only that small cut, he had to be seen by a healer. He would die of iron poisoning with how weak he was.

  “Do you want your sister to die?”

  “No,” I cried out and shook my head, taking a step back. The knife shook in my hand.

  “Then kill me now.”

  I clutched my head. My thoughts were jumbled, and pressure settled behind my eyes. Killing him should have been easy for me. Even with all the sides he’d shown me these last few days, the good didn’t outshine the pain, did it?

  Even ruling out who he was and what he meant, I was no killer. I’d considered it plenty of times, but never seriously.

  There was only one person I’d ever kill without a second thought and that was Sabine, but that was a can of messed up worms I wasn’t about to open. But this was for my little sister. She deserved a long, happy life.

  The choice was impossible.

  I hung my head. I had to protect her. That had always been my role. She was my little sister, and although I’d let fear make my priorities skewed in the last few years, I couldn’t let her down. Her life was on the line.

  He must have sensed when I came to the cruel acceptance because he nodded with a satisfied jerk of his head and strode toward the portal a few feet from us.

  “Stop!” I yelled.

  Roark froze but didn’t turn to look at me. I grabbed the edges of his coat with my free hand and desperately pressed my lips against his. He walked us backward, and the chill of the portal shivered over me, but I could hardly feel it with the heat of his lips searing me.

  The freezing subsided, and we were once again in Faerie.

  26

  His palms gripped my face, and he stared down at me with such heartbreak. A shudder worked its way through my body.

  “We must finish this for your sister.” Those lavender depths told me a story in that brief moment. But what called my attention most was the unmistakable longing in his gaze. It spoke to the feeling inside me that I hadn’t shaken since I’d laid eyes on him at the castle. Hell, even before then. I longed for him for so long and in that second, I saw his need and yearning for me. A shudder rolled through me and regret filled my soul.

  It didn’t mean everything we’d been through—everything he’d done—would be forgotten. But I wished he had the opportunity to make it up to me.

  “We had a rough beginning.” I cleared my throat, restarting. “But I will miss you. I was supposed to be yours.” Tears prickled my eyes. God, I’d become such a crybaby.

  “Rae,” he said, leaning down so his lips brushed mine. “You will always be mine.”

  He bent down and took my mouth, devouring me. I moaned at the feel of his skillful lips cajoling mine open. He was gentler than he’d ever been, as if he touched the delicate petals of a flower. Wetness escaped the corner of my eyes and trickled down the side of my cheek. He brushed away the trail, and I blinked my sight back into focus.

  Roark gazed at me tenderly. “Just one more step and you’ll be free of me.”

  Time had run out. I wondered how many days had already passed in the human world considering that time moved differently here in Faerie. More tears pressed at the back of my eyes at this fucked up world I’d found myself in.

  It was time to save the Fae. It was second to saving my sisters, but it had also been a promise I’d made.

  “What’s wrong with Annie?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes,” I rasped, fiddling with the handle of the dagger.

  “Gargoyle-induced deterioration. Gradually, it will make her lose function of each part of her body until her heart stops.” Grabbing my arms, he pulled me to him. “My goal had always been to help my race. To save them from extinction.”

  I shook my head, squeezing my eyes together, his proximity wreaking havoc on my brain. I better understood the duty he felt for his people. With my sister on the precipice of death, I felt like I was being torn apart.

  “Isn’t there another way? Maybe you can call in another debt with your connections. I-I mean—”

  “Rae,” Roark bit out, expression hardening. “Stop being foolish. You are trying to hold on to me, but even if I live, we would never work out.” My stomach dropped, and he must have sensed the horror I felt because he looked away. “I would never be faithful to you. I enjoy… variety too much.”

  He was tearing my insides apart. He gripped my hand on the dagger, and the blade slid into his chest.

  What was happening? I must have been having an out of body experience. Disbelief ran through me rampantly as I remembered what he had shown me. His words were not computing with his actions. I shook my head.

  “You don’t mean it,” I rasped from my tight throat. The pitying look he gave me made my self-doubt rise and ultimately win out.

  I’d almost let myself forget. I was always second best.

  He curled my stiff hand around the hard hilt. Tears blurred my vision. Even though he didn’t want me, he was still a part of me.

  “I would have been an awful mate. This is the only way I can think to repay you for my failure. You have to kill me. Make sure of it. Like I told you, magic is fickle, and it demands its due.”

  I nodded wordlessly as pressure built in my chest. I found myself swallowing more and more as I gripped the hilt. He pushed my hand, forcing the dagger into his flesh. He quickly cut off his hiss, stifling his pain for me.

  With a sob, I pushed one more time.

  27

  My ears rang as a bellow exploded around me. “No!”

  The next thing I knew, my body was flung to the side, and I landed on the other side of the clearing like a rag doll. I coughed and sat up, favoring the side I’d landed on.

  “Roark?” I blinked and tried to make sense of what was in front of me. Of who was in front of me. The one thing I wanted to kill.

  “What are you doing?” Sabine gritted out, crouching in front of Roark with daggers in each hand, defending him… from me.

  Roark disappeared from sight, but not before I saw his shock. With my Fae vision, I was able to barely keep up with his quick movement until he appeared in front of me. He reached his hand down, gaze boring into Sabine as he pulled me to my feet. The cold expression was one I hadn’t seen in a while.

  “What are you doing here, Sabine?” Ro
ark asked in a low voice, expression betraying nothing but contempt.

  “Me? You were about to let this human,” she turned her head to look at me, her lip curled, “slide a dagger into your heart.”

  “I was.”

  Apparently, Sabine hadn’t expected him to answer so candidly because she took a step away, her head jerking back. “B-but why?”

  I had never seen her so taken off guard, and the look in her eyes almost seemed lost, but then I guarded myself against whatever sympathy was trying to build.

  “It’s not your concern,” he bit out. “Since I will be dying momentarily, if you’re lucky, you will have but a few days to live before you follow, thanks to your little dark meld. Let us be, before I kill you myself.”

  I’d completely forgotten about what the connection meant. She would be dying, too. At least there was one positive in this shitstorm.

  She shook her head slowly, and I wanted to pounce on her when her gaze softened. I saw it, then. I saw the thing that drove many women crazy.

  Love.

  In her twisted way, she loved him.

  “You,” she hissed at me. “Those mutts should have killed you by now.”

  I blinked, shocked as I processed her words. The werewolves incessantly coming after me suddenly made sense. “You gave them my top,” I accused.

  “Yes. I told them that your death would unleash magic.” Her grin widened. “I also told that gargoyle you were its mate. The mindless brute didn’t hesitate in coming after you.”

  Rage made me take a step forward, but Roark’s arm held me back, clutching me to him. My hands clenched. “He took my sister.”

  “If only I’d known you had a sister, I would have used her to get to you,” Sabine sneered. I pushed against Roark’s hold, wanting to claw her eyes out. “What are you going to do to me, Rae?” she mocked.

  “I’ll kill you, you psycho bitch.”

  Her neck craned as she busted out laughing. My chest billowed with my locked down magic. I inhaled sharply and clutched my chest, needing to get it back under control before I imploded.