“Never,” I say, biting back a smile.
She sighs. “You know what I mean. They’d be happy if you focused on someone else in your life. Maybe we could double date, Matt and me and you and that hot guy who stopped Kearns.”
I choke back a laugh. “Matt would probably try to arrest him.”
“No,” she said. “I helped him see he should be shaking the man’s hand.” She takes in a deep breath and pins me with her eyes, making it impossible to look away from them. “But see? We’re not alone anymore. As we fight evil, we find allies. And we can let down our guard just a bit. We can have fun when we’re not being angry.” She lets out a sigh. “Now that we’re not doing this alone.”
I pull my hands back gently, leaning forward in my chair to take a look at the cops outside.
I’ve only been here a few years, but the department has been plagued with corruption the whole time, giving me a lot of chances to see Sally.
I admit I was hoping to use my powers to become even stronger, but I can see what she’s saying.
There are other people out there, people who don’t even have powers, who fight to help others all the time.
People like Matt, who make a difference in their department. People like Sally, who make the kids feel safe.
People like me, who beat people down when they have to…
“You’re getting that face again,” she says, laughing as she shakes her head. “That face of righteous rage.”
I nod. “It will always be inside me. But you’re right. It’s not enough.” I look out to the horizon. She’s right. Endlessly making myself useful by pitting myself against darkness, all alone, trusting no one… it hasn’t been working out.
“I’ll help you,” she says. “I’ll be here too. It’s hard to choose happiness, but—”
“Who says I’ve chosen happiness?” I ask, glaring in her direction.
She smiles because I’ve never been able to intimidate her. “I just saw a far-off look in your eyes. One I haven’t seen often.”
I press my lips together. “Hm.”
“It looked like hope,” she says softly. She stands, and I look up at her, eyes wide. She puts out a hand to help me up, and I grab it. “I hope I’ll still see you, as a friend. And you know, if something happens the cops can’t handle…”
I grin, giving her hand a squeeze. “I’ll be there.” I swallow, though it’s painful.
“Good,” she says, pulling me into a hug, holding me there for a moment. Then she looks up at me, smiling. “We can’t let a little pain stop us from doing what’s right. We have to keep moving.”
I nod because Sally is right. And incredibly strong.
“Of course I’ll still be here for you,” I say, pulling back. “I’ll come over as your friend. Not just to lay a beatdown.”
“And you’ll cool it at night?” She looks up hopefully. “Because I worry about you.”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. I still haven’t decided on that yet. What to do with my new powers.
I do know that for every wrong I seem to right, there always seems to be another. I let out an exasperated breath, putting my hands on my hips.
“Are you okay?” She looks uncertain.
“Yes,” I say, snapping back to reality. “I’m just thinking about my next move. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
She nods, linking her arm through mine as she walks me to the front exit. Matt is already coming up to meet us, followed by his kind-looking partner.
“Hi there,” he says, giving me a wave. “Did Sally tell you it’s been going better?”
I smile at him, trying to connect genuinely for once. “Yes. And I’m glad you were here.”
“Matt here is a promising new recruit to the department,” his partner says. “Should have seen him tearing the chief a new asshole over the Kearns case. When the chief didn’t listen, he went over his head. We got us a new chief now, and I got me a new partner.” He smiles.
I nod. “Glad to have you two helping my friend here.” I go to move past them, and Matt steps out to stop me.
“Are you okay?” he asks. “How are things going with Brett? He wasn’t too happy about you talking to me.”
I laugh, though I feel a pang of pain at hearing Brett mentioned. “We’re fine. Friends.”
Matt frowns. “That isn’t how a friend would act. He looked like he wanted to take off my head.”
“That day, what were you going to ask me?” I say curiously. “You were blushing, and I think Brett got the wrong idea.”
Matt rubs the back of his neck. “Ah, I was actually going to ask you if Sally was single.” He looks over at her. “To be honest, it was love at first sight.”
He glances over at her and she beams back at him, and I can tell they will be a good match.
Both centered on justice, both good people trying to make this a better world.
Like Brett and I could have, I think sadly.
“Hey,” he says. “If you find that guy, tell him he’s off the hook. Some guy with dark hair came in to see Mr. Kearns, and he decided to drop all charges.” He lifts a shoulder. “So it should be fine now.”
I cock my head, wondering who that could have been. Then again, there are probably quite a few people who hate that guy.
“All right,” I say, waving to Sally, who is still talking to the other cop. “You take good care of her because I know she’ll take good care of you.”
He smiles at me. “No problem. And don’t be a stranger. She cares for you a lot, you know.”
I nod.
The past is finally behind me, the guilt fading. And I’m realizing I’ve just been afraid of putting myself out there again.
I still need to learn more about myself.
And I’ll have to face Brett, even though he no longer wants me.
As I walk back to my car, my heart is heavy.
Today should have been happy. Brett and I bonded last night, and I found my true form.
I’m in love with him, and I thought he was in love with me.
As I drive away from the shelter, I have no idea in which direction to go.
I need to think. I need solitude.
So I just keep heading up a road that leads to a forest nestled up against the base of the mountains.
Then something dark lands in front of me, right in the road, and I slam on my breaks as hard as I can.
I’m not stopping fast enough, so I jerk the wheel. It’s a mistake because now everything is rolling.
And then, when the world stops moving, as I’m trying to get my bearings, I see feet walk up to the side of the car.
“Well, well, unprotected again,” a dark voice says. Something crawls into my mind, making it impossible to think.
I let out a groan of pain as everything gets darker.
“Don’t resist. It will only make things worse,” that low, syrupy voice says. “Now sleep.”
I have time for one last thought of Brett, his handsome face looking my direction, just before it all goes dark.
25
Brett (Boreas)
“Get out here, you big idiot,” Flynn’s voice calls as he comes around the building to where I am.
I suppose we do have a friendship bond, somewhat.
I’m sitting in a pile of snow near the fire exit, wishing a bunch of snow would just fall off the roof and bury me.
I hate myself right now.
Flynn looks at me, and I can feel his fire soften slightly. “Why do you look like hell?”
I glare up at him. “My soul bond thinks everyone but me should be trusted with her true form. Why do you think I look like hell?”
I pound the ground next to me, making it rattle.
I was so confused last night when she didn’t manifest. There was so much love between us, and I felt so free to be myself.
But I could sense something, her hesitance, and I should have paid more attention to it.
It kills me to know that she thought she ha
d to hold herself back.
And that my friends would be more trustworthy than me.
It should have been such a special moment, and I know it’s my fault for ruining it.
I feel like a bigoted piece of shit.
“So you’re not mad she’s a fire fae?” Flynn asks, plopping down to take a seat in the dirty snow next to me. “You’re just jealous we saw her true form first?”
“Of course I am,” I say, letting out a sigh. “Well, not exactly because you saw it, but just that she didn’t trust me. I love her so deeply that I feel like an utter failure that she didn’t feel safe with me. That she couldn’t be herself with me, but she could with the rest of you.”
Flynn sighs. “You’re a bit fanatical about true forms, you know. Do you remember what it felt like when Avery rejected seeing yours, even when it was just by fainting?”
My face blanches as I recall it. “Yes. It was terrible.”
Flynn glares at me. “So… how do you think Avery felt when you just left?”
I bite the inside my cheek as horror at the possibility that I have hurt her washes through me. “I thought she would be relieved… After all, she was downstairs behind a shut door. She looked so panicked when she saw me, as if I wasn’t supposed to see her. I thought she’d want me to leave.”
“You thought wrong,” Flynn says lightly. “She took it as a rejection.”
I sigh. “I would never reject her. I should have told her before. It doesn’t matter what she is. Or who she is. She’s mine.”
“You should probably find her and tell her that, then.”
“But why, when she doesn’t trust me in the first place?”
Flynn just watches, listening.
I sigh. “My heart, my wings, everything was out there. I thought she was all in with me too.”
“You hurt her,” Flynn says quietly. “She heard you the other day, talking about fire fae. She thought you would be disappointed and came to show us first.”
I sigh. “I never said I wouldn’t accept her. I simply refused to consider it because I got it stuck in my mind that she was another type.”
Yeah, that backfired,” Flynn says, a small smile curving his lips.
“So I guess we’re going to have an alliance with the fire fae,” I say, looking over at him.
Flynn raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
I push myself up, brushing off my knees. “Because I’m going to go find my soul match and make sure she knows I love her. And I guess I’ll need to make sure she can learn about her people. And make sure our kingdoms can make peace with each other.”
Flynn’s eyes are warm as he takes my hand, and I pull him up. “Sounds good.”
We walk back to the apartment, and I can feel my heart pounding.
My pride is still wounded, but I can’t sit and pout while my soul bond’s feelings might be hurt.
While she might be thinking I don’t want her.
“Is she still in our apartment, or did she go back to hers?”
Flynn frowns. “I don’t know. When I left, she was still in our apartment.”
When we walk in the door, I’m greeted by a fist to the face that nearly levels me, knocking me to the floor.
I rub my cheek as I sit up, seeing stars, and Ian glares down at me, the usually peaceful fae with both hands in tight fists.
“That’s for hurting Avery,” he growls at me as Tanner puts a hand on his shoulder to pull him back.
I rub my jaw. “I deserved it. But it’s not what you think.”
“He wasn’t rejecting her,” Flynn says, surprising me by being the one to extend a hand to help me up. “He thought he was walking in on something he wasn’t supposed to see and saw her showing us her true form first, so he ran.”
Tanner nods curtly. “I can understand why it would hurt, but you still shouldn’t have left her.”
I throw up both hands in exasperation. “How was I supposed to know she wanted me to see?” I shake my head. “I need to go find her. Do you know where she went?”
“She got a phone call from a friend,” Tanner says. “She said she was going to meet her in broad daylight. That she would be safe. She left really quickly like she was in a hurry. And honestly, after how hurt she was, I thought it would be good for her to be with a normal human friend.”
As my eyes narrow in fear, I think I know where she went, and I’m furious that she went without me.
But she doesn’t trust me, and until I earn that trust back and tell her she’ll never be anything but the most amazing woman in the world to me, that’s my fault.
“I’m going after her,” I say, jogging out to the truck we all share.
“Do you want us to come?” Ian asks, already looking like he forgives me now that he knows why I left.
I’m a little grossed out that all my friends seem to believe I would have rejected her.
I think I have proved, in the time since I’ve been here, that I’m a pompous bastard, but I’m capable of growth.
For all my shit talk about Flynn, I almost got myself killed trying to save him.
No matter what powers a person has, whether they are human or fae, all I really care about is the heart inside them.
That’s one thing I’ve been getting better at in this world.
The drive to the shelter is easy because with our bond complete, I can trace Avery’s stream.
God, how could I have mistaken red for pink, heat for warmth?
I guess I wanted things to be uncomplicated, and Avery being radiant would have meant that.
But I’m glad she’s fire and heat and everything she is because she’s all I could ever want.
I want the Avery that hunts down bad guys. The Avery that cares too much about the world.
The Avery that cries in my arms and yells at me when I’m wrong.
And I want to tell her I can only ever love everything about her.
But when I arrive at the shelter, I realize something is terribly wrong.
I follow Avery’s trail away from it, realizing she must no longer be there.
Our bond is so strong that I can follow it easily now.
I drive down a road for a while and see the buildings become sparser as we leave town and head in the direction of the wilderness in front of us.
If I go much longer, there won’t be much more than campgrounds.
Then I screech to a halt as I see a flash of red in the ditch beside the road. Avery’s car.
I pull the truck over and jump out, running toward the car with my heart in my throat.
I leap down to open it, but I already know before I look in that she’s not inside.
Because I can see her stream again, though this time it’s entwined with chaos, dark and murky, and the two streams lead into the woods.
I jump onto the road again and realize that as the pavement disappears into the forest that stretches up to the mountain, there’s a dark shadow at the base of the hill.
Whoever has Avery is there, waiting for me.
My wings surge out instantly, and I feel my wand in my hand, ready to be charged with fatal magic.
If this chaos prince wants a fight, so be it.
And this time, I won’t be bothering with any rules.
26
Brett (Boreas)
I fly over the cloud of darkness, and when I sense Avery’s stream disappear into it, I soar down to land in the center, my feet hitting dirt with a thump that rattles the ground.
As I look around me, I see that the chaos is only in a dome, stretching far overhead, making everything the color of twilight.
I squint as my eyes adjust, now that I’m not in bright sunlight, and finally see Avery on some kind of stone slab.
It’s stood up at a slanted position, and she’s tied to it with thick, enchanted bonds around her shoulders, waist, hands, and legs.
She’s gagged, and her anxious eyes infuriate me as I turn to look at her captor, who is facing away from me, standing in front of her.
Finally, I get to face off with the chaos prince that’s been trying to take her.
He turns, emanating black smoke as he faces me with a smirk.
His dark hair is long, floating with tendrils of chaos. His features are handsome but cruel and sharp.
He’s already in his armor, which is oily black leather with sharp metal accents. His black wings of chaos shoot out of his back, smelling like rotted flesh.
“Well, well, he decides to show up.”
“Mph!” Avery tries to call out to me, but he simply steps in front of her, blocking her view.
He paces in front of me, only making me angrier by keeping me from the woman that means everything to me.
“Prince Boreas in the flesh,” he says, grinning at me as if he’s delighted that I’m here, even though I’m about to end him. “You know, you’re not what I pictured. Then again, someone like me would never be able to reach a high enough place where you and I would fight.”
“It’s your lucky day, then,” I say, letting my wings retract. “You not only get to fight me. You get to die by my hand.”
His eyes widen as I slowly focus all of my magic. Normally, it flows through my veins, ready to burst out of me at any moment, manifesting in my wings.
Right now, I’m focusing it all into my wand so I can use it to protect Avery.
My world is nothing without her, so I’m not afraid to put everything on the line to keep her safe.
I meet Avery’s eyes, and they widen as she shakes her head at me, unable to talk.
She tries to yell something, but it’s muffled and she’s struggling against her bonds.
“Don’t worry, Avery. I’m going to get you out of here.” I finish focusing my magic, and the crystals on the edge of my wand glow bright.
My body is slightly weaker, but I should still be able to withstand an attack or two.
Found by Frost: Wings, Wands and Soul Bonds Book 1 Page 17
