by Alexia Black
“What the hell is this plan you keep going on and on about?” She was truly mad. I touched my cheek with the tips of my fingers. It still smarted.
“Calm down,” Dave shot her a patronizing glance. “We still have time. Get the druid in here,” Dave ordered the guards.
They had a druid too? Damn it, how rich were they? The fear that my survival instinct had suppressed was slowly resurfacing. I was fighting way out of my depth here.
Aiden took my hand in his, interlacing our fingers. I squeezed his hand in gratitude. At least, he wasn’t holding my lies over me in this situation.
The druid came, just shy of five feet and a half, he was a portly man with an amused face that reminded me of Santa Claus. His white beard rested over his big belly. Behind him, another man walked in, he seemed to be in his early thirties, the kind that lived and breathed gyms; an apprentice from the look of it. Both clad in the traditional long black hooded robes of the druid.
The head druid took one look at our tattoo covered body and shook his head, “The bond is only half complete. He isn’t stable yet, we can’t use him.”
“You two,” Caroline snapped her fingers. “Fuck. Now.”
“Excuse me, what?”
Aiden’s control snapped, his grip crushing my bones, his power latching onto Caroline. She gasped in pain. Dave didn’t hesitate, the bastard sucker punched me.
“Control your powers or I will kill her,” he warned Aiden.
“Don’t hurt her,” I heard Aiden reply through the ringing in my ears. “I will. Leave her alone.”
“I will be back in one hour,” Caroline said. “Complete your mating bond by then or Dave here would very lovingly carve her face out. That will fasten your bonding. You don’t want that now, do you?”
Aiden must’ve nodded because I heard footsteps walking away.
Strong hands enveloped me. Aiden cradled me against his chest, “Are you okay?”
“No. But I will be. My grandma punches harder than that,” I caught my slip of tongue too late.
He didn’t question me, probably assuming I meant it figuratively.
Aiden rested his chin on top of my head. “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have lost control,” he whispered against my hair.
“I don’t blame you,” I said softly. The soul marks glided over my skin and flowed into his body while his did the same. It didn’t take away my pain but the sensation was a pleasant distraction.
“No. I should’ve done better. I should’ve controlled my emotions better.”
“Like, I said. The only people I am blaming for this situation is the two of them. Don’t feel guilty for the stupid things others do. They put us in this situation.”
Aiden didn’t reply, just gave a non-committal hum. I knew he didn’t fully believe that. That idiot was going to blame himself for me getting hurt and not our actual kidnappers.
“I get why Callum was acting so weird.”
“Why?”
“Did you notice how every time he pulled some shit you felt protective towards me? The bond sped up every time. I think they had made Callum do it on purpose. It makes sense, goes with the ‘protect your mate’ thing, I guess.”
That day I met Aiden, were the kidnappers after me too? When their plan failed, they must’ve had to improvise it. They had their in through Dave, and Callum must’ve been their backup plan.
So, that meant, Bart was right, the druid who got arrested with the forbidden texts must’ve been a distraction to get security to leave. The roots of the sinister plan were spread far more wide than I had even considered. Damn it. And now instead of finding a way to break the bond, I had to find to a way to complete it. I wanted to laugh at the irony of it all.
“Do you think, if we stay like this long enough, the bond will completely settle?” I asked. “No offense, but I don’t want to have sex because some psychos told me to. I’d rather be tortured.”
He chuckled. Rich and deep. I let the warmth of his voice wash over me.
“None taken. Is there any other way to complete the bond? Did your books mention something?”
“I don’t know. I was mainly focused on finding a way to break it. The soul bond is tied into the very essence of our being. Unless you become a human and I become a non-human suddenly, I don’t know how to break it.”
“But, you are not a human, are you?” Aiden pointed out.
Ah, I was wondering when he was going to bring that up. I moved out of his embrace and sat down, leaning against the wall. The handcuffs meant he also had to sit beside me.
“If it’s related to our situation, I would like to know,” he said.
“I remember asking you the same thing.”
“I did it for both our sakes.”
“Same goes for me. Besides, I already know what you are.”
His eyes widened in surprise, “That’s impossible. How?”
I did a half shrug, “I figured it out.”
Aiden narrowed his eyes, not believing my words, “What are you then?”
“Why should I tell you? It was something that could kill me and you still refused to let me know. I don’t want to tell you what I am. You can figure it out yourself, it’s not like it will help us get out of here.” Besides, I didn’t fancy letting a dragon know that I was a curse on them, least of all, a dragon of his clan.
We sat in uncomfortable silence, neither of us willing to trust the other. The camaraderie we had built over the last few days had completely broken.
I scratched my palms. I was the cause of this but I hated this sort of silence. It reminded me of my empty apartment.
“Sorry. I’m pissed off,” I said.
Aiden closed his eyes. “I should be the first to apologize. I forgot how much this bond affected your life too.”
We went silent again.
“What are you thinking?” I asked, unable to take the suffocation.
“Daryl and Travis must’ve come back from wherever they were, right? Callum, they must’ve gotten to him.” Aiden’s shoulders were tense. He wasn’t telling me. He was trying to convince himself that Callum had gotten help.
“Don’t worry. I had called for emergency backup. He must be in the hospital now. My mentor would know what is wrong with him. Callum will be fine.”
“Thank you.” There was something else other than gratitude in his voice. Something else I couldn’t identify. Admiration, maybe.
“Aiden,” I said. “Why were you so wary of me when we first met?”
He looked surprised by the question and hesitant to answer it, “Because of this.” He raised his palm, where the soul mark had twined around his fingers. “I couldn’t understand why I wanted to be near you. Why some invisible force wanted me to touch you. I could feel the pain at every step I took away from you the first time we met. I thought you must’ve used some kind of potion on me. It had happened a few times in the past. So, I thought you were one of the crazy stalkers.”
I blinked, “Of all the explanations, I hadn’t expected that. I guess, because your magic is so powerful, you were more sensitive to the soul bond. I hadn’t felt anything like that.”
Our soul marks shimmered, taking me off guard. The mark had withdrawn from the tip of our fingers.
We looked at each other. “Is the bond breaking?” he asked.
“No,” I sighed, remembering what I’d read. “It’s the second half of the bonding process. The marks will slowly recede till it concentrates on a point below your chest. I wonder why it suddenly started though.”
“What exactly does a soul bond need to work? Only sex?”
“From what I’ve read, the word they used meant something similar to intimacy. I had assumed physical intimacy but they might mean emotional intimacy too. That’s a loophole I didn’t expect a breeding curse to have.”
“Maybe, the curse was not meant for that,” Aiden said quietly.
What else was it meant for then?
“I don’t want to complete the bond. I’m afraid we won’
t be able to break it if we complete it,” I said.
“We don’t have an option. I don’t want them laying their hands on you again because we didn’t complete the bond.”
“But, if we complete the bond. You will probably die during the ritual. That means I’ll die too. If we somehow survived it, they will definitely kill us. The only thing completing the bond will buy us, is time.”
“We don’t have an option, Kiara.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose with my non hand cuffed hand. He was right. We didn’t have any good options.
“We will take turns sharing secrets then,” I said. “The moment the bond completes, we will stop.” I poked his arm, “You can go first.”
Aiden chuckled, short and harsh, “I don’t know if you were bluffing or not about knowing what I am. But since things have come to this I might as well say it.”
He caught my gaze, our face inches apart, “I’m an Aether dragon.”
Chapter 21
The mark glowed. It slowly receded till my entire palm was free of the iridescent tattoos. The glow was fading as I spoke. Aiden’s face was blank, but there was wariness in his eyes, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, like I was going run screaming for the hills. His shoulders relaxed when he saw how calm I was.
“You really did know,” Aiden said, seeing the lack of surprise on my face.
“Yeah.”
“And you are not scared?” Aiden cocked an eyebrow.
“I am terrified of your powers,” I paused. “I’m just not scared of you. Stop glaring at me.”
“I am not glaring.”
“You are.”
“I’m not. I’m just surprised.”
“That I figured it out?”
“That you kept it a secret,” he stared at me, like he couldn’t believe someone would do that for him.
Embarrassed by the intensity of his gaze, I looked away. “Don’t be so sure. Once we get out of here, I am definitely blackmailing you.” I smiled. “Besides it will be too hypocritical of me to judge you based on what the book said considering how badly they paint my kind. So, don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. I won’t betray you to the high council.”
Aether dragons were considered the demons of our realm and had council sanctioned bounties on their head. To the general public, the last one had been murdered almost hundred years ago but some must have survived. Otherwise how would Aiden have been born?
“You keep surprising me,” he said softly.
I flapped my hand as if I could ward away the goosebumps his stupidly gentle tone was inducing. Time to change the subject.
“My turn I guess,” I took a deep breath. “I am a Kshara.”
He reeled back in surprise but quickly schooled his face back. His power touched and left me, not having enough time to harm me before it was reigned back in.
“We look like disco balls,” I commented wryly at the way our soulmarks glowed. Apart from that initial surprise, no other expression graced his face. Impatiently, I waited for him to speak. I had no idea what was going on his head.
“Kshara are real?”
“Aether dragons still exist?” I quipped back in the same tone.
“Touché,” he admitted. “I thought they had gone extinct.”
I scratched my wrist, uncomfortable with the topic. “Yeah, we are usually murdered off at birth. I happened to be a lucky one. Oh look,” I raised my hand. The mark had receded till my elbow.
“Do you think,” I asked “the marks recede based on how big the secret is to you? So, your darkest secret will have more impact?”
“Yep, I think so. It makes sense. We should test it out.”
“I’ll go first this time,” I said to his surprise. “How much do you know about Kshara?”
“Not much. They don’t have powers and are considered bad luck.”
I smiled bitterly. “We are not just bad luck. We are cursed. Only the Kshara have soul mates. Because we are duds, we are partnered up with the strongest in our clan or another dragon clan, which inevitably leads to our deaths. So yeah, the fact that we are stuck here is kind of my fault too. Carol knew what I was. I don’t know how, but she managed to make us meet and kick start the bond. You know, you wouldn’t be in this mess if we hadn’t met.”
“Who was the one who told me not to feel guilty over what they did again?” he asked in a teasing tone.
I couldn’t help the way my lips kicked up at the corner, “We’ve been cursed by a deadly curse and kidnapped by lunatics. I’m going to be hypocrite as much as I want.”
He coked an eyebrow at that.
“Don’t think I forgot it’s your turn now.”
“Fine,” Aiden looked at the ceiling.
“Hurry, we don’t have much time left.”
“Fine. I have a sweet tooth.”
I snorted, “That is not a secret. You definitely don’t think it’s a secret too. See, the marks haven’t receded an inch.”
“You should go again. I like listening to you,” Aiden said.
“Flattery will get you nowhere in this case, honey,” I said, in a bad imitation of Daryl.
“Too bad. Why don’t you go again? I’ll think of something by then.”
“Don’t think I don’t know you are stalling. This shit isn’t easy for me too. You better have a good one next time.”
He didn’t respond to that.
I scratched my wrist again, struggling to control the nervous tic. How many more secrets would it take to finish the mating bond damn it. “I am not an orphan.” The marks disappeared off three more inches of my skin. “I have a twin sister.” Two more inches of clear skin. “She is the reason I joined the company. I wanted to earn a favor from the dragon king so she could get out of mercenary training. I know, I know, it’s an impossible shot but I know someone who had gotten an impossible favor. So, I’m hoping the fates will smile on me too.”
“Your clan is forcing your sister to be a mercenary?” I was taken aback at the pain that singed my skin, at the hatred swirling in his mercury eyes.
“Sorry,” he said, reigning back his power. “Are you okay?”
I took a deep breath, “Yeah, it was only a second.” The guilt in his eyes didn’t abate. All this emotional opening up must be chipping away at his control. I was surprised at the visceral reaction he had to my words.
I squeezed his knee, “It’s fine. I’m okay.” I was not. I was still mentally reeling from the aftershocks of that pain but there was no way in hell I was letting him feel even more guilty and lose control again.
“The clan isn’t forcing her, my family is. The training is open for any dragon, as long you pass the exams. My grandma was one of the founders of the academy and dad, one of its distinguished alumni. But, Sam wanted nothing to do with it.”
I took a deep breath, I missed the monstrosity of a teddy bear Sam had gifted me. I wrapped one arm around me, the other still handcuffed to Aiden. He had withdrawn into himself, mouth grim, controlling his power with iron will.
“Anyway, when grandma realized this, she threatened to kill me. Sam has a one-track mind and grandma knew I was the only one she would change her mind for.” I let out a watery chuckle. If only I wasn’t born, then they would have no leverage over her. It was like I was created to be her weakness.
Aiden offered no empty platitudes. I was grateful for that.
“The exams are more like trials, the final test of which is to turn fully into a dragon.” Turning fully into a dragon was a sign of puberty. Children could only partially shift.
“I’ve heard rumors about it.”
“Yeah, they are foolproof, almost. Sam and I are identical twins,” I shivered, the horrors of those tests clawing at me like an unhinged wolf.
There was a gentle press of fingers on my elbow, “You don’t have to tell me.”
I knew I could ask him to share, it was his turn, but, I wanted to tell someone. And ironically enough, he was the one I trusted the most to hold onto my
secrets for me.
“We did a little switcheroo. My parents are the only ones who could distinguish between us and they were barely home so no one had a clue what was happening. I passed all the tests in her stead except for the last one. No matter what they tried…” Burning cigarettes pressed against my arm, whips against my back, glass shards under my foot. “I never turned into a dragon.” I gathered my knees to my chest and rested my chin on them. “No one suspected us all those years. I don’t know how grandma figured it out this year.”
“I will help you get her out,” Aiden promised.
I knew the smile I gave him didn’t reach my eyes. I didn’t want a facade of a promise. He couldn’t help me and that was the truth. If I had wanted empty promises I would’ve asked my parents.
“How much is left?” I changed the topic.
Our arms were clear of the marks. Aiden pulled up his tee, the marks were still present over his abs but only above his navel.
I let out a sigh, “There is still a lot left but we will be soul mates soon.”
Silence fell at that. We looked at each other in dismay. Well, I looked in dismay and he did whatever was a wall’s imitation of dismay.
“I think it just hit me that we will actually be soul mates,” I said.
“You didn’t do too badly for a soul mate.”
I punched his arm, “Shut up dumbass.”
Aiden smiled, his teeth showing. This was the first time I had seen him fully smile. I stared in awe at the sight. But, before the pain caught me in its grip, he erased his happiness, tamping down his power.
“Whose turn is it?” I asked, knowing it was his turn. “We don’t have much time left, maybe a few minutes. I have shared all my worst secrets. It’s your turn now. The bond won’t settle if I’m the only one sharing.”
He didn’t respond for a while and when he finally did, I did not know how to react.
Chapter 22
“I took a vow, years back,” his voice, eerily flat, “to never let my powers take another life.”
“Another life…you have killed someone before?”
Aiden looked at the ceiling with a sad smile, “I killed the only person that had cared about me. My dad.”
