“I’m sorry.” I gave her a sheepish smile.
“Lay down,” she coaxed. “You need some rest.”
I nodded and did as she said, cupping my hands under my head.
I doubted I’d fall asleep but somehow I did.
“Where is he?” Thaddeus thundered, spinning around a dark room. It smelled of mold and looked like a prison with cinderblock walls, concrete floors, and bars on the tiny window which looked out onto the world.
“We don’t know, sir. He shouldn’t have been able to get out.”
Two men stood in front of Thaddeus. One with dark hair was staring straight at him, unafraid. The other, shorter and with blond hair, stared at his feet.
“You imbeciles, you must’ve done something.” Thaddeus’s nostrils flared with anger.
The dark haired one shook his head. “No, sir. This door has not been open since yesterday. He must’ve had help.”
“We needed him—he was our leverage to get the girl. She’s the key to this. Without her, I cannot succeed.”
Thaddeus shook his head back and forth, his fists tight at his sides. Suddenly, he roared at the ceiling, the sound echoing off the walls.
A blast of power came out of him, uncontrolled it seemed, and I watched in horror as the two men were reduced to dust.
“Ulysses,” he called in a sharp, commanding tone.
It wasn’t long until a tall slender man appeared at his side. His hair was a shade of gray almost appearing lavender but his face was free of wrinkles.
“Yes?” he drawled.
Unlike the others this man didn’t appear afraid of Thaddeus. Instead, he seemed oddly amused.
“We need a new plan,” he growled. “This one has failed. We cannot fail again, do you hear me?”
Ulysses smirked. “What do you propose we do?”
“You figure it out. The protector is gone and he was my greatest hope of getting her.”
Thaddeus stormed from the room, his shoulder bumping the other man’s roughly.
Ulysses began to laugh, and I began to scream.
“Mara, Mara! Wake up! It’s just a dream!”
My eyes burst open to a frightened Adelaide standing over me, her blue eyes wide with fear. Winston was pale beside her.
Across the room, Jee spoke in an unaffected tone, “Stop crowding her. She’ll be fine in a moment. Here.” He stepped up beside me and handed me a piece of chocolate. “Eat it.”
I sat up and nibbled on the chocolate. My face was damp with sweat.
“What did you see?”
I jumped at the sound of Theo’s voice. I’d grown so used to only hearing him in my mind that hearing him out loud was foreign.
“T-Thaddeus,” I stuttered. “He knows you’re gone and he’s mad. He was planning to use you to get me to come to him, I think. Now he has to come up with another plan. H-How did you get away?”
The others looked at Theo quizzically too. “Yeah, mate, surely they wouldn’t have let you walk out and bit you adieu.”
“I’ll show you.”
Theo closed his eyes and we all watched him. He held his hands up at his sides and then his form began to blur, like it was melting, then slowly began to fade into darkness.
A dark misty shadow took the place where Theo had stood. It became smaller and smaller until it was no bigger than an oddly shaped baseball. The shadow moved until it was beside me and then began to solidify.
Theo appeared beside me sitting on the couch with one foot resting on the opposite knee and his arm thrown over the couch behind me.
“Just like that.”
“Whoa,” Winston blurted, clearly impressed.
“I don’t know of any protector that has the power to do such a thing,” Ethan accused. “What are you?”
“My powers extend beyond most,” Theo explained. “Mara is more special than you can comprehend, her duty to our world large, and therefore she needed a protector with powers this world hasn’t seen before. I can do other things you wouldn’t believe.”
“Like what?” Adelaide asked.
He glanced at his sister. “Control minds.”
“Is that how you were able to talk to me?” I blurted. “Because you could control my mind if you wanted?”
He shook his head. “I can’t control yours—only speak to you. I couldn’t control anyone here unless they meant you or me ill will. It’s a recently acquired power of mine, if I’m being honest. I didn’t find out about it until they took me. It kind of happened by accident,” he muttered.
“How? What happened?” I probed, curious to know more.
He sighed, moving his damp hair out of his eyes. Now that I was feeling better I could tell he looked healthier than he had before. There was more color in his skin and there was a lightness to his eyes, though they quickly took on a haunted look as he opened his mouth to speak.
Nigel suddenly came running into the room from wherever he’d been hiding and jumped onto Theo’s laugh.
“Nigel,” he breathed, hiding his smile in the cat’s fur as he hugged him.
I couldn’t help but smile smugly since Theo had wanted me to leave the cat behind. I bet he was thankful now I’d insisted on escaping with him.
Still rubbing Nigel, he sat back and took a breath before launching into his story.
“They were interrogating me. They wanted me to tell them about you.” His eyes flickered to me. “I wasn’t going to tell them of course. But they kept at it, and at it, hitting me, cutting me, whatever they thought they could do to get me to talk. The next thing I knew I was inside the one guy’s mind. It … it was too much for him, and it’d never happened to me before, so when I escaped his mind and returned to my body he sorta … evaporated.”
“Like, poof?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “All that was left was this sort of vapor mist thing and then it was gone too. The other guy looked at me and fled from the room so fast.”
“How badly did they hurt you?” I asked, my voice no more than a whisper.
“Nothing I can’t handle, doll face.” His lips quirked into a smile and he pulled me closer, placing a tender kiss on the side of my forehead. My eyes fluttered closed and I sighed happily.
“What did you learn when you were there?”
Theo released me and turned to Ethan who had spoken.
“Thaddeus is after Mara—we knew this, but … he’s almost insane with some need to have her. Mumbling to himself constantly. It seems like he’s more focused on getting her than trying to control or hurt enchanters—I mean, he will if someone gets in his way, but …”
“He wants me.”
“Yeah,” Theo sighed. “I followed him as a shadow most of the time, when I knew no one would be coming for me, and the guy is unhinged. He’s mad. He wants to bring someone named Ganon back to life—but it’s impossible. We have some wicked amazing powers but nothing can awaken the dead.”
I felt suddenly bad I’d never thought about a spell to bring back Theo when I believed he was dead. I knew he said there wasn’t one, but nonetheless I felt angry it hadn’t occurred to me. I’d been too blindsided to think straight.
“How does Mara tie into this?” Ethan asked, his brow furrowed with worry.
Theo sighed. “Apparently, he needs something from Mara to bring this person back to life—or so he believes, because it’s not possible.”
Jee cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, it is.”
All of our heads swiveled to him.
Jee’s face grew shadowed and he bowed his head. “There is a very old, ancient spell, used to bring back the dead. It’s only worked once, and … well, it wasn’t exactly successful. The person who was brought back wasn’t quite living, but wasn’t dead, either.”
“Like a zombie?” I interjected.
“Yes, I suppose, without the eating of the brains part.” He stood and paced a few steps. “Thaddeus should be smart enough to know trying to bring back the dead isn’t worth it. Unless …” He paused, tapping his li
p and pacing some more.
“Unless?” Theo probed in a not very nice tone. I couldn’t help but smile. Theo’s smartass tone was one I was very familiar with.
“If he’s trying to bring back your mother—he could, if he got the hair of her parents and the blood of her child. You.” Jee looked straight at me, as did everyone else. “There are other ingredients needed of course, but those are easier to come by. Did you see her mother’s body when you were there?” He directed the question to Theo.
“No.” Theo shook his head. “But there was a room I was barred from. It was sheltered with some strong magic I couldn’t penetrate.”
“Ew, can you not use the word penetrate in a sentence?” Adelaide interjected.
Theo looked straight at her and enunciated, “Penetrate.”
She shuddered and I stifled a laugh.
“I wouldn’t put anything past someone like Thaddeus Lucero,” Jee warned. “He was a powerful enchanter, one of the best, and turning to the Iniquitous would’ve only made him stronger. We have to stay vigilant. Especially when it comes to you.” Jee’s eyes met mine.
“Me?” I pointed to myself.
He nodded. “If Thaddeus wants you—he’ll find a way to get you, mark my words.”
After the excitement of the day, I lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, with Adelaide snoring softly behind me.
Theo was back.
Thaddeus needed me.
And I hadn’t told them about my brother—who he really wanted to bring back from the dead, if what he’d told me was true. He was an Iniquitous so he could always be lying.
I didn’t have any explanation for why I didn’t tell them. Something made me not want to.
My eyes fell to the clock on the nightstand. The bright green numbers blinked to tell me it was after two in the morning.
With a groan I slipped from the bed. Adelaide stirred and I hovered by the bed, waiting to move until I knew she was settled.
When I was sure she was actually asleep, I tiptoed from the room, out into the hall, and down the stairs.
“What are you doing up?” Theo’s voice seemed loud and booming in the eerily quiet space. He was sitting up wide awake.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
He swung his feet to the floor and tipped his head at the now empty space beside him.
I settled into it, sitting so I could look at him.
For a moment neither of us said a word, only studied one another. It was our first moment truly alone since he’d reappeared.
He looked older, his eyes holding a darkness, which hadn’t been there before. Theo had already been through a lot, but I was sure this experience was far worse.
Finally, I spoke. “I want you to know, it’s okay if you’re not okay.”
He exhaled slowly, running his fingers through his overgrown dark hair.
“This life … this is what I was born to do. It might not be easy, it’s definitely dangerous, but I will never regret doing what it takes to protect you. You are my top priority.”
“They could’ve killed you,” I breathed, my voice cracking. “I thought they did.”
“And I would’ve let them,” he declared.
I swung my leg over, settling onto his lap so I was facing him.
His Adam’s apple bobbed and his eyes flicked down to my lips.
“What are you doing, Mara?”
I curled my fingers into his hair and angled my face over his, our noses brushing together. His eyes closed and he let out the tiniest sigh. That sound made something in my belly stir. Having him there, this close, in a position we’d never been allowed before, excited me.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I whispered.
His hands settled on my hips, his fingers curling around my butt. His muscles strained like he wanted to push me away but couldn’t bring himself to do it.
I could see the war still raged in him—the one that had been ingrained in him to push me away.
For once, he didn’t say anything, which shocked me.
Maybe he was too tired to, or maybe he wanted this as badly as I did.
I pressed my lips softly to his, almost scared he might turn to smoke beneath me.
I didn’t know what I’d do if he disappeared.
Life without him had been barely a life at all. To get him back and have him ripped away—I wasn’t sure it was something I could recover from.
The pillow-light touch of my lips to his ignited a fire.
One second the kiss was soft, barely there, and the next we were grappling at one another like we were afraid the other was going to be ripped from our arms.
Tears coursed down my cheeks.
Tears of sadness, of fear, and of pure and utter relief because he was there.
He was real.
He was alive.
His heart beat steadily against me, a strong reminder of how he’d fought to get back to me.
I could never understand how our love was supposedly forbidden. Anything that felt like this needed to be shared, not smothered. He made me feel whole in a way I never had before. He was my missing piece, my other half, and now that I’d had him, lost him, and had him back again I was determined to never lose this again.
“Please don’t cry for me,” he murmured, pulling away. He brushed my tears away delicately like each one was precious and something to be cherished. “I don’t deserve your tears.”
“Of course you deserve them,” I choked on a sob. “I love you—no one deserves them more than you.”
He shook his head. “Loving me is too big of a burden. We were never meant to be together, and this is one of the reasons why. Your … attachment to me can lead to you neglecting your duty.”
“Theo,” I argued, steel in my tone, “we don’t even know what it is yet, so I can’t exactly neglect it. And I refuse to allow you push me away now that I have you back. I thought you were dead. What if you’d spent six months thinking I was dead? Huh?”
His jaw clenched and I knew I had my answer.
“I don’t care what rules there are or what other people say—you can’t deny how right we are for each other.” I took his hand and pressed it to my chest, over my heart before laying my own hand against his. “Do you feel that? Do you feel how they pulse together in sync? Some truths can’t be denied and this is one of them. I was made to love you, and you were made to love me, and love … it’s the purest magic that exists, and you can’t squander it once you find it.”
With a growl, he crashed his lips to mine, kissing me with a bruising force. The metal of his lip ring stung my lip, but I didn’t mind. He ravaged me with his kiss, almost like he was trying to punish me, or maybe himself, but he was failing miserable. I craved this rawness, the realness. This was us, always had been and always would be. We butted heads hard and loved harder. I wouldn’t have it any other way. With Theo, I’d found my other half, and I wouldn’t let him go easily.
He was stubborn.
But I could be worse.
I pushed my hands under his shirt, shoving it up and off.
My hands explored his chest and I stopped, his lips falling from mine.
“What?” he panted, out of breath.
My eyes followed the trail of my hands, stifling a sob.
“What did he do to you?” I pressed a shaking hand to my mouth, horrified by the sight in front of me.
He gathered my hands in his and forced me too meet his silvery gaze.
“He wanted to see how much pain he could inflict before I died. Fortunately, he never succeeded in his end goal.”
Theo had always boasted tiny scars, from training over the years I assumed, but these were large gashes, still healing. They almost looked like claw marks. The skin was raw and red, clearly sore though he acted completely unbothered by my touch.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I wish I could take your hurt away.”
He kissed the palm of my hand and then held it to his chest. The bumps from the gashes felt like mountains
on his skin.
“I would walk through hell and back for you. This … this is nothing.”
Shaking, I couldn’t stop thinking about healing him. He didn’t deserve this pain. A blue light began to shimmer around my hand. Theo’s lips parted as he watched, and my own mouth dropped open in awe as the skin around the cuts began to knit together and heal. Soon, nothing was left behind, not even a scar.
The blue light pulsed a few seconds longer before fading away.
Our eyes met in surprise and I remembered a long-ago conversation with Jessamine, one of my teachers, saying Chosen Ones could heal. I hadn’t paid much mind to her, knowing she was half out of her mind, but right in front of me was the proof she wasn’t lying. I’d healed Theo to the point not even one of the small scars from training remained behind. His skin was soft and smooth, as new as a baby’s.
“That was …”
“Strange?” I supplied.
He shook his head. “Wicked amazing.” His tongue slid out suddenly, moistening his lips, and his eyes grew sad.
“What?” I prompted. “Theo?”
He shook his head, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I should stay far away from you. You’re too good for me.”
“Stop it,” I growled out, my eyes full of fire. “Stop it right now. We are not going down this path again. I refuse. You will not push me away.”
“He’ll stop at nothing to get you,” he confessed on a whisper. “Believe me, I know. He tried all kinds of ways to get the information out of me, but …”
“But what?” I pleaded.
“My love for you was stronger than any sort of torture he could possibly think up.”
“Exactly.” I gripped his face between my hands, pressing my forehead to his. “That’s why you can’t deny what we have. It can’t be wrong. I refuse to believe it.”
He nodded slowly and I pressed my lips lightly to his. A tear fell down my cheek.
Theo was back.
He was here, in my arms, but our journey was only beginning and I feared I might lose him again, but for real this time.
“You’ve only been back a week and I swear you’re trying to kill me,” I panted at Theodore as he ran me through drills.
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