I heard Bethany’s words, but I was on the trail. I made my movements more deliberate and sloppy so she could easily follow me, but I kept pushing forward. It wasn’t fifty more feet before Charlie and I came out in a clearing—the clearing. I was sure of it.
The area was a stark contrast to the smells assaulting my senses. The scent of shampoo and body soap, of dirty denim and sweat. Wet fur, mud-caked paws, and excrement. Charlie let out a low growl and stuck close to my side. As my gaze swept across the trees again, I saw an owl sitting back in the leaves. Its eyes never left me as I took in the scene and followed me as I sidestepped to the right and left. I cocked my head and it did the same.
Finally, Bethany came crashing into the clearing unceremoniously, swearing as she yanked twigs from her ponytail and brushed her hands down her jeans. “What in the name of—”
I held a hand up and continued my silent exchange with the owl.
Bethany connected the dots and fell silent. “Stay,” I quietly commanded Charlie.
I took a few steps forward and the owl hopped out farther on the branch. Feeling a bit ridiculous, I said, “We’re here to see Elias. We’re friends of Amelia’s. He knows Bethany. We need to talk to him, please.”
I added the pleasantry, thinking it couldn’t hurt to be respectful in my demands. In response, the owl gave me a quick hoot and opened his giant wings. In two strokes, he was out of sight and into the forest.
“So, now what?” Bethany asked.
“I guess now, we wait.”
The wait wasn’t long, maybe half an hour. He announced his presence loudly as he made his way into the clearing and the once-empty branches behind him filled with bright blue eyes of all shapes and sizes. I commanded Charlie to stay with Bethany, no matter what, and received an indignant woof in response. I asked her to let me handle the meeting and received an eye roll in confirmation.
The owl swept back into the area, gliding on the breeze in a lazy circle above our heads, until he finally took up residence once again on the original branch. As he landed, I was sure he winked at me.
I pulled my eyes from the owl and focused on the man coming toward me. He was tall—built but lanky. He didn’t scare me, but he also wasn’t a guy I was intentionally looking to piss off. He was the only one in the bunch with normal eyes, likely by design. Pressure built in my chest. I was uncomfortable with all of the power around me, with the animals I expected walked on two feet for part of their days, like I did. I didn’t feel like we weren’t safe, but I surely wasn’t at ease.
I stepped out to meet the man and extended my hand. He confirmed my suspicion and introduced himself. “I’m Elias. How can I help you?” He grasped my hand firmly, but without threat. Not willing to show an ounce of fear, I met his eyes and barely caught the quick widening and enlargement of his pupils as we shook and let go. Just as quickly as I saw it, it was gone. I couldn’t help but wonder whether I had truly seen anything at all.
I went to speak when Bethany stepped up beside me. “Hey, old buddy, what’s shaking?” Her giant southern smile was out in full force, but the confidence she exuded lacked a little of its normal spunk. I was happy at least to see Charlie locked at her side. It meant one of them actually listened to me.
Elias gave her an amused smile and tipped his head. “Welcome back, Bethany. Have you missed us?”
“You know, I can’t say the wet dog smell and lack of social skills really did it for me. We’ve got bigger issues, though. You want to get to it?” She turned to me and I could only shake my head at her horrendous show of fake nonchalance.
“I’m Aidan. I was…am…might be…Amelia’s boyfriend. But she’s gone. She’s with Micah—Prince Mikail—and the Queen. And we know you said you wanted to fight. And that you would help her. And now her brother is gone, too. And I know her Uncle has been here. We need your help. I have to get her out of there.” The words coming out weren’t the ones I’d been rehearsing in my head, but they were the truth.
Elias took a moment to answer. “You seem to know a lot for someone I’ve never seen or heard of before. How is it you’ve come to all of this information, Amelia’s maybe boyfriend?”
Bethany piped up again. “Well, of course I filled him in on our last little rendezvous. As much fun as that was, you were the first person I thought of once we realized Cole was gone. We know your guys were after him, too. Just not the way the Hunters were—”
“Can you just be quiet?” I cut in, glaring at Bethany. She recoiled a little and snapped her mouth shut with a humph.
Elias chuckled. “Lively one, isn’t she?”
“You have no idea,” I responded dryly, feeling better about the fact that so far, he wasn’t some kind of power-hungry douche.
“Still here. Still standing right here,” she threw out in a sing-song voice. We both turned and once she took in the similar glares, Bethany stomped over to an overturned log. “I’ll just be right here,” she muttered.
There were more logs in the middle of the clearing and Elias gestured for me to sit. I waved a hand toward Bethany and she and Charlie joined our circle. This time, with minimal dramatic stomping.
“She’s right. I really only know what I’ve been told.” I left out being told part of the story by the dog sitting next to us. “But I know Amelia is in danger, and I suspect her brother is, too. I know you didn’t want her with the Queen either, and you want to fight. So, I’m asking if you’ll fight with us. Will you help us get them out?”
Elias rubbed a hand over his stubbled chin. “I think there’s more to this than you’re telling me, friend.”
Alarms blared inside me at the same time Charlie let off a string of deafening woofs. I jumped up from the log and grabbed Bethany from her perch next to me. In just a few seconds, I had us on the other side of the clearing.
Elias stood slowly and turned, his hands out. “Now, now…no need for that. We’re all friends here, aren’t we?” With a small motion of his hand, the eyes filling the trees stepped into the light. Bethany and I watched as each and every one of the twenty-odd animals shifted right in front of us. Wolves, panthers, eagles, chipmunks, foxes, deer…they all changed so fast, I couldn’t keep up with what they all had started as and then who they were moments later. Each one stayed crouched, naked as I always was. The last to shift was the owl. One moment, he was perched on the branch, and the next, a naked young boy with bright red hair was swinging back and forth, a huge grin on his face.
The red-haired woman came through the trees, fully clothed, and started tossing stacks of clothes out to them all. Bethany piped up beside me, “Still on a leash, are we, Melinda?” This time her grin was real and Elias erupted in laughter.
“I do love how you have a sense of humor, even though you are a human. Aidan, whether you realize it or not—because I don’t think you have—you have already given yourself away.” Elias crossed his arms and leaned back on his heels.
My eyes. I turned to look down at Bethany and she shrugged, nodding. “Okay, so you know something about me now, too. It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong, my friend. I do know something about you, but it’s more than you think. You are Aidan Montgomery, son of Zendrick and Kayla Montgomery.”
I was stupefied. No one had spoken my parents’ names since the day they died. There was no funeral because there was no family to organize the details and I was only two. From then on, my case workers and foster families never referred to them by name. When your parents die, people get weird about mentioning them—acting like they were never here to begin with.
“How do you know them?” I sputtered out the words and felt the world shift a little under my feet. Elias blurred and refocused in front of me as my head tried to keep up with my erratic heartbeat and the beast inside roaring in defensive frustration. A jolt of something blitzed through my veins and at once, I was right again. I tried not to outwardly show my confusion as Elias watched me closer than I would have liked.
�
��Why don’t you two come with me and we can have a more cordial conversation? This way.” Elias turned and led us through the group of people to a narrow trail winding out of sight.
Following him was obviously a better plan than staying with all of the AniMages, so I placed Bethany in front of me, sensing her desire to stay far away from Melinda and her friends. Charlie followed behind me, making me feel marginally safer. Eyes followed us as we walked through the group and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was all some kind of set-up.
“No set-up. It sounds like we just need some time to chat in a safer place. But I will say, your arrival couldn’t have been timed better.” Elias’s deep voice boomed out from ahead of us and I looked down at Bethany, wondering how he had known.
She shrugged as she eyed him. “He did that to Ame, too. Be careful what you think around this guy.”
“Thanks for the heads up, blondie,” I muttered.
Chapter 10
I wiped the moisture from the bathroom mirror and stared at myself. I was exhausted from the hours I’d spent with Micah over the last few days. We had yet to dig into the library in the way I wanted. So focused on working on my power, he immediately forced me back to the couches and had me work on levitating stacks of books, shooting them across the room, and directing energy blasts he would intercept and break apart. All things I would have been able to do easily when my Keeper was free, but with her power bound by the cuff, I was forced to work with just my own and it felt like relearning how to ride a bike. It wasn’t that the capabilities weren’t there, she just amplified them so much when I had her on my side. Micah was frustrated and didn’t understand how I’d lost so much ground. I was frustrated and couldn’t decide when, or even if, I should tell him about the cuff. Even Baleon looked down on me as he walked me to my room, as if to tell me I needed to try harder, like I didn’t already know.
I sighed as I acknowledged the bags under my eyes. My night was only beginning and I needed a lift. I concentrated, staring at my own eyes as I watched the hazel disappear into iridescent purple. I watched the bags fade and my skin brighten. Energy zipped along my spine and through my blood, a current of strength and focus. It did more than any caramel latte ever could have, though I would have killed for a syrupy-sweet sip right now. I closed my eyes and gave my head a few quick shakes. When I opened them again, I nodded into the mirror and held back my smile as I confirmed my once-wet hair was now dry and straight. Nobody needed heat damage, that’s what Bethany would have said, and she would have loved the idea of never needing a flatiron again.
My smile faltered. I missed my best friend fiercely. I imagined the conversation around my tricks, hearing her in my mind. “Oh girl, you have no idea how good you’ve got it! It took me years to perfect this.” She’d wave her hands around and act all put out, but she’d be lying. Bethany only ever wanted people to be happy, in whatever form happiness took. And she knew I was miserable at pulling myself together most days.
I pulled on clothes and ground my teeth together at the emotion I hadn’t expected. My heart ached. Thinking of Bethany led me to thinking of Aidan and I couldn’t. I wouldn’t cry for them, or for me, and I couldn’t do anything for them from here, aside from keeping the Queen happy enough to stay away from them. I gripped the thick quilt covering my bed with both hands, fabric straining and bunching between my fingers as I tried to get my mind back in the right place. I had to focus on me. I had to focus on this. You are the key. That’s what Micah had said. I had yet to figure out to what, and how exactly to unlock myself, but I would try again tonight.
I relaxed my fingers, closed my eyes, and brought one hand up and around the cuff. This time, I didn’t even have to say anything. As soon as my hand closed around the metal, I was standing in front of the door again. I put my hand out and simply flattened it against the wood, feeling heat and her. She prowled the room, a cacophony of sounds coming through the door and the fear she created landed directly in my gut—a ball of anxiety I couldn’t shake. I could feel the anger, pain, and frustration she had as she paced. I jumped backward as she attacked the door from the inside. She beat on it, assaulting my ears with wordless wailing. Her pain hurt me, too. I wanted to understand why she was so upset. Was it just being locked in there? It couldn’t be. Her actions reminded me of a crazy person in an asylum. There were no real explanations because she couldn’t form the words. But in her own mind, the truth was buried, I just had to find it. I had to know why sometimes we could work together, while other times she overtook me like a wild animal. If I were going to survive, I needed her on my side. I needed her to let me control us.
I reached out hesitantly, grasping the handle. I stepped closer to the door and tried to block out the wailing rattling my nerves. I had only moved six inches, yet she sounded decibels louder. Before I could lose my nerve, I yanked the door open wider than I had before and shoved my arm inside. Instantly, the silver cuff illuminated a brilliant white and the blackness of the room filled with color. Relief washed over me as the painful emotions faded and something else invaded the air. Relief? Happiness? Whatever it was, it was intoxicating. Before I knew what I was doing, I stepped fully into the room, my arms spread wide as the colors surrounded me and a siren’s song sounded in my ears.
I stood between five energy fields. Five individual sets of color and light. As they had before, four burned violet, but with other magic clearly embedded within them. Mage magic was represented by green and red, each individually swirling in violet light. The electric blue I had to force myself to associate with Elias and not Aidan—the AniMages. The orange could only belong to Hunters. And then there was the fifth. I hadn’t seen this one last time. It was stark white and sparkled like hundreds of white Christmas tree lights twinkling at once. It was set back, away from the others, whisking quickly around the room. I reached out to touch it, but it moved away before I could fully extend my hand. I turned in a circle and ran my fingers through the energy of the other four, one at a time. Familiar spikes of power drew me back to being in Derreck’s cabin. The same energy bursts had filled me then, but in such a dark way. Now I felt right—righteous even. If you asked me, I would have told you I could take Julia right then and there, but even my power-drunk brain knew it was a lie.
I allowed my hands to meld into their bright light, and with each one, there was a surge of something else. The violet and orange mix brought strength. I wanted to knock down walls and take on anyone who pushed me. Into the violet and blue, I heard and smelled everything in the room. The soap from my shower, the detergent in my clothes, the footfalls of Baleon as he paced the hallway outside my door. The violet and green brought on something different entirely. Baleon’s emotions assaulted me. His discomfort at being assigned to me, his struggle over his beliefs, the fact that he didn’t want to believe I was who everyone thought I was, but to him, it was so obviously the truth. I had to force my hand away and into the violet and red. There, I simply felt powerful. Like I had every magical trait at my disposal. I wished I wasn’t stuck in this room, wished I could be out in the open to try them out. There was so much power in this tiny little room, buried deep in the recesses of my mind. Within each of these ethereal beings was more power than any one person should ever have. And they were all inside of me, just waiting to be called upon. Waiting for me to figure out how to use them.
I forced my hands to my sides and finally spoke. “We have to work together. You have to stay hidden and I have to wear the cuff. But I need you. It’s going to get bad, I know it is. I can’t risk letting you out completely, and honestly, I’m afraid of what will happen. But I need to know you’re going to help me. Can you somehow tell me you’ll help me and not make me crazy, like before?”
I was looking around, but I had no idea what I was looking at. These weren’t people. They might have been the spirits of the Elders my mother had gone to, or some part of the essence of their power, but I wasn’t sure. All I knew was they were locked inside me and I needed them. I saw how ser
ious Micah had been and the situation with Julia at Esmerelda’s had shown me enough. If push came to shove, my power alone wasn’t going to be enough.
I waited only seconds longer before they answered me in the only way they probably could. All of the colors, and especially the brilliant white light, grew brighter and brighter, until I had to cover my eyes. I could feel the heat, like I was standing too close to a bonfire and it was threatening to pull me into its dancing flames.
“Okay! Okay, I believe you!” I had to laugh. There was nothing but light and laughter in the air. I needed to leave but I was worried about what would happen if I walked away again. Would they merge back together like before? As quickly as the thought appeared, the purple and green-tinged light was inches from me. It collapsed down into a smaller and smaller ball, until it was the size of a basketball hovering right in front of my right hand. As I slowly lifted my arm parallel to the ground, it followed it up, staying level with my outstretched fingers. I inched forward and my fingertips grazed the ball of energy. It snapped and sounded like twigs crackling in a fire. It hurt, but not really. Without allowing myself another thought, I shoved my arm through the ball, all the way to my elbow, fully immersing the cuff. In one thunderous boom, the ball burst into a million individual particles, showering the room. I shielded my eyes from the bright light and was awestruck to find it snap back together just as fast. It stayed a small ball, hovering in front of me.
“What just happened? Will you stay this way now?” I didn’t expect an answer, but the orb quickly illuminated, dimmed, and then settled in the back of the room. The violet and blue energy pulled together and came to me in the same way. I repeated the act of pushing my cuff through each one until the white energy was all that remained, but it didn’t come to me. It hovered at the top of the room, refusing to come down. I cajoled and begged, but exhaustion was quickly taking hold again. Finally, I could barely hold my eyes open and frustration got the better of me.
Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) Page 7
