I poured my own power into her, filling her depleted well enough to bring her back to consciousness. It slowed me down and I was winded for the first time, but I gave her everything she needed. I sat in the back of her mind as she slowly came to. I felt the cold, hard floor under her cheek and saw the bars locking her in wherever she was. It was impossible to keep my own rage in check as I realized she was a prisoner.
Aidan?
Her voice cracked in the same way it always did when she’d wake up after falling asleep during a movie and try to apologize. It was a sucker punch I hadn’t expected.
I’m here, doll. Don’t worry. I’m coming for you.
She recoiled, fear churning in her mind.
No! You can’t come here! You’ll never survive them. You can’t. She was screaming inside my head.
I can and I will, Amelia. We are meant for each other. I know who I am now. I’m the leader of AniMages. I’m your mate. We are the prophecy. I can get you out. I might be the only one who can.
She was silent for longer than I could handle. Amelia? Doll, you have to talk to me. You have to help me find you.
Lies. More lies. I won’t let you twist him like this. You won’t ruin the only good memory I have left.
And then, she was gone.
Chapter 26
I closed the door on whomever was on the other end of my mind. I was so sure it was Aidan at first. I was enveloped in the same warmth and safety he always brought me—like nothing could hurt me or us as long as we were together. I heard him call me “doll” for the first time in what felt like eons and I wanted to lose myself there, wrapped in the cocoon of his voice. But it wasn’t real.
Joran had told me it was up to me to find the lies and separate them from the truths. There was no way Aidan was the leader of the AniMages. It made no sense. How could he possibly have gone from a human, to an Immortal, to being the head of the most-hunted race out there? And then, to claim he was my mate? Someone, likely Rhi, was playing on my deepest desires. I could only imagine he and the Queen in her sitting room, laughing. They were playing me and I couldn’t allow them to. I had to focus.
I pulled myself up off the floor and then pushed to stand. I felt good. Better than I should have. In fact, better than I had in weeks. I held my hands out in front of me and flicked my fingers. Bright bursts of violet power shot from my hands. I scanned my body and found no weaknesses. My flame was bright, the Keepers were peaceful, and my mind was clear. Apparently, I needed sleep. But now, it was time to figure out how to get out of here.
I called out to the other women. “When will someone come again? What time is it?”
A sleepy voice responded, “You’ve been out a while, it’s almost morning. Are you okay?” It had to be Cora.
“I’m good—really good. Can you see the tiger? Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’s great. Honestly, she looks better than she ever has. Her name is Lilith,” Cora responded.
“Can you talk to her? And Nell?” A plan was forming in my mind.
“It’s gotten harder the longer I’ve gone without shifting, but on a good day, yes. Why?” I felt Cora’s curiosity piquing and I smiled.
“I think I’ve got a way to get us out of here, but both Lilith and Nell will need to help us. I know they are pregnant, but we need them. Can the rest of you still use your magic?”
Cora sighed. “No, not really. The Hunters have us all bound in one way or another so we can’t fight back. It’s there—they need us to have it in hopes of being able to pass it on—but we can’t use it against them.”
“That’s it,” I whispered to myself. I started pacing, trying to work it all out in my head.
“Hey! You can’t just stop. What’s the plan?” Cora’s voice cut through the space between us and the hushed whispers of the other women grew louder as hope and excitement filled the air. My mind was spinning in multiple directions, trying to vet the plan that was both extremely dangerous but also very possible. There was one more thing I would need, though. I bit my lip, wavering back and forth.
“I can’t explain it all just yet, but if I can break the binds on you, can you fight? Can you get the restraints off and work together to get out of here?” I refused to acknowledge I would likely be the one who wouldn’t make it out if I succeeded in breaking the binds on them. There were at least twenty women and I barely made it through helping Cole or Lilith before I passed out. Pushing myself that far might kill me, but there was a good chance Julia might kill me anyway, so I had to try. I couldn’t allow these women to continue being tortured.
I heard Cora addressing the other women. She was clearly the leader. “Are you willing to fight? Will you work together and help each other? We can make it out. Together, they cannot take us all. And we have what they want. We carry the livelihood of our races inside us. We have the upper hand. Are you ready to get out of here?”
Her words were loud whispers and the chorus of “Yes!” in response gave me goose bumps. I couldn’t back out now.
“Okay. Here’s what I’m going to do.” I laid out the plan, asking Cora to make sure Lilith and Nell were on board and the other women understood what they needed to do. Cora confirmed everyone was in agreement and understood, even Lilith and Nell. Now I had one last task: to get my brother from wherever he was into this cell.
I paced the cell, waiting for the Hunter to arrive with breakfast. My mind kept coming back to whoever had been inside my head. Before this week, I would have taken it at face value. I would have added up the feelings, the emotions, and the sound of his voice bouncing around in my brain, and I would have told you it was Aidan. My Aidan. But now I knew better. With every turn, the Hunters or Julia had been capable of yet another atrocious act I couldn’t fathom. I wouldn’t put it past them to use Micah for information, and upon realizing what Aidan meant to me, use him to their advantage.
But he had felt so real. I sighed, slowing my steps and resting my back against the wall. I closed my eyes and pictured him—his eyes layers of smoke and ash, either a cocky grin or an intense stare always on his face. I saw him sitting in Esmerelda’s, lying in the grass talking to me about growing up in foster homes, and sitting on the beach, looking at me like he held the world in his hands and would give it to me if I only asked. I felt his fingers tangled in my hair and his lips slanted across mine. His hands around my waist, pulling me into the safety of his arms. He told me he loved me and I never had the chance to say it in return. So much had happened so fast, I never got to decide whether or not I really did. I thought I did. When I had to walk away, I poured everything I had for him into my goodbye, but was it really love?
Love was such a strange word. It encompassed so many emotions and assumptions. I knew Aidan made me feel things I had never felt, but I’d also never had another boyfriend. Love implied I would and could share all of myself with him, and I had never been able to do that. Every person who had expressed love for me had made choices that took them away from me. My mother died, my father allowed Rhi’s binds, Cole left to find answers, Rynna knew the truth and hid it from me. Did I even know what love was really supposed to look like? Could I love him?
The door slammed as the Hunter pushed in a cart of food, stopping my maddening train of thought and bringing me back to the task at hand. As the nameless Hunter appeared in front of my cell, I pushed my hand through the bars. “I know you don’t talk to me, but can you just listen? I have something the Queen will want to know.”
Thankfully, she stopped, staring at me. Like the other Hunters I had met, the woman had light brown skin and white hair. Hers was thick and long, pulled back in several small braids feeding into a larger one hanging to her waist. She was wearing all black and her eyes held little emotion. At my plea, they narrowed and she waited. I didn’t make her wait long.
“She needs to bring my brother, Cole, to me. He was last with Micah, in his room. I don’t know whether he’s still here, but if she wants me to attempt to fix these women and their childre
n, he is the only one who can temper my power and keep me from killing them, or myself, in the process. She can ask him. She can bring him here to prove it. I don’t care. I just need him. Micah may have taken him somewhere, but she needs to get him back.” The Huntress still didn’t speak. Her eyebrow rose and then she turned away, tossing a hunk of red meat into the tiger’s cage. She was surprised to find her hand coming within millimeters of being bitten off as Lilith snapped at it. She jumped back and I couldn’t stop my laugh.
“Make no mistake, Huntress. I am the Keeper.” I shouldn’t have goaded her, but I couldn’t help it. She glared at me and maintained a larger distance as she tossed Nell’s breakfast into her cell. The door slammed behind her and my pacing began again. Nervous energy buzzed through me and the Keeper magic bounced back and forth, faster and faster. There was no turning back now.
Chapter 27
She had closed me out. She wasn’t gone completely, but I couldn’t feel her emotions or see through her eyes as I had briefly been able to do. She didn’t believe it was me. I wanted to be hurt, but her words made sense. I had explained to Elias what had just happened and he brought me back from the ledge. After thinking about everything she’d been through, it only made sense she wouldn’t trust what had just happened. But I had to find a way to get to her again.
We had run all night and arrived at a small cabin a few miles from Cresthaven as the sun was coming over the horizon. We were exhausted, hungry, and dirty. I mentally thanked the genius who had installed a tank-less water heater as one after another of us paraded in and out of the bathroom. The mud caking my fur covered my skin after my shift and it took some solid scrubbing to feel human again.
I got out of the shower and wiped the moisture from the mirror. With both hands on the pedestal sink, I leaned forward and stared at my face. It was the same face I’d been staring at for years, yet it was different. I had spent my life looking into mirrors and wondering who I really was. I would search my features and have silent conversations with myself, asking whose eyes or nose I had. Whether my laugh sounded like one of my parents or if it were my own. Now, I could call upon memories and see them as clearly as I saw myself.
I had my mother’s eyes, but the rest of my face was my father’s. I had the same collection of freckles over my cheeks and nose and my jaw was cut exactly like his. I had always wondered whether he had the same hassles while shaving. My dark hair matched my mother’s but my build my father’s. As I stared at myself, an emotion I hadn’t expected took hold. I watched the electric blue start from my pupils and work its way out to the edges of my iris. The alpha of my wolf spread through me, my need to show Amelia who I really was becoming paramount. I had to get to her. It was more than how I felt about her. I couldn’t help but believe in the prophecy, because an obsessive drive utterly foreign to me pushed and pulled inside of me, screaming at me to get to her.
When I finally emerged from the bathroom, the rest of the pack was in the dining room. I had made them all shower first, wanting to show I wasn’t the kind of leader who took first and gave last. As I turned the corner into the kitchen and came face to face with Bethany, I laughed out loud. She was wearing a bright yellow apron, her hands were covered in white powder, and she had pancake batter on her face.
She didn’t even break stride as she hip-checked me out of her way and resumed pouring batter into multiple skillets. “Cheese and rice, Aidan. You might have warned me your little horde was going to eat like a bunch of rabid coons.” She opened the oven and pulled out a pan of biscuits, turning the pan upside down onto the table. She had no sooner turned her back than hands were snatching them up. I heard a chorus of “Ouch!”, “Hot, hot!”, and “Ow!” as the table looked to be playing a game of hot potato.
“Where are Elias, Rynna, and the others?” I asked.
“Out back. Elias said they had some catching up to do, so I sent them with plates and let them be,” Bethany responded.
Bethany was flipping pancakes when I stepped up and stole the spatula from her hand. “Sit. Eat. I bet you’ve been at this all morning.” She blew a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face and for the first time, I noticed how tired she looked. “Sit,” I said, more gently. “Thank you, but let me help.”
Bethany nodded, but as she sat in the chair at the head of the table, the one I knew had been reserved for me, she threw out, “If you burn my flapjacks, there will be hell to pay.”
Some of the younger AniMages I didn’t really know stopped eating and looked up, waiting for my reaction. I laughed and shook my head. “Eat, everybody. We’re going to need all the fuel and rest we can get. We go tonight.”
I took the time to meet the eyes of everyone at the table. I could feel their fear, but also their commitment. “Once you’re all finished, get some sleep. We’ll go back over the plan again this afternoon.”
I finished another round of pancakes and by then, a spot at the table had opened up for me to sit and eat as well. I took the spot to Bethany’s left and dug in. We ate in silence as the room emptied until it was just her and I left. I could hear both soft and loud snores coming from various corners of the house. I needed sleep myself, but not just yet.
“She was there—inside my head. I was able to help her and give her some of my power. I saw where they have her, even though I don’t know where it is. But she refused to believe I was real. She told me I was lying and just using her.” I watched Bethany as I spoke and her expression went from joyous, to questioning, to deflated. I could understand the roller coaster.
“But she’s alive and she’s okay. And, on some level, she knows we’re coming for her, right?” Bethany asked.
“I think so. She was in some kind of cell, so I don’t know how okay she is, but I gave her what I could. I’m trying to open the door between us again, I’m just not sure how.” I dropped my fork onto the table and my head into my hands. I pulled at the roots of my hair and tried to remind myself I was still figuring all of this out, but I didn’t have time to waste.
Bethany’s hand covered mine and she pulled it to the table. She squeezed my fingers and I looked over at her. “You’re going to get to her, Aidan. As sure as the damn rooster I saw in the backyard is going to crow when the sun rises tomorrow, you will get to her. And what she believes as real is irrelevant right now. She’ll believe it when she sees you. She won’t have a choice.”
Chapter 28
It took less time than I thought for the door to the chamber to open again. My annoyance with seeing Rhi was far overshadowed by my joy at seeing my brother. Cole looked good, healthy. I hadn’t laid eyes on him since I’d broken Rhi’s binds and Micah had brought me back from the brink.
Rhi shoved Cole forward and my brother turned to glare at him, his eyes glowing green. It was good to see, and feel, his power back to normal. The bonus was Rhi’s scowl as my brother reminded him his binds had been broken. Cole was wearing the cuffs again, but those would only bind him from using his power to fight, not from having it, just as it did for the women in the room.
The two of them were followed into the room by Queen Julia and then Joran. “The gang’s all here,” I muttered under my breath. Cole finally locked eyes with me and I was surprised to see his narrow. A strange look came across his face as his brows furrowed and his jaw tensed. I wanted to call out and ask him whether he was okay, but the answer came sooner than I could ask the question. I felt him probing at my mind and opened the door for him, proud that he had figured out how to make the connection.
I’m fine, Ame. Are you okay? What the hell is all this?
Relief coursed through me.
I’m okay. These women are Julia’s science experiment. They can’t have babies with magic. It’s the real reason behind all of this. She’s been capturing these women and forcing them to have baby after baby. She has tried everything to give the babies power so they aren’t born human and since she’s failed, she wants me to do it.
Cole finally made it to my cell
door. His eyes widened as he passed Lilith and Nell. They both growled at Rhi, but he ignored them, waved a hand, and my door opened. I stepped back and waited for him to un-cuff Cole. He shoved him harder than necessary and Cole stumbled into me. The door slammed back closed and we were left facing Julia, Joran, and Rhi. I knew exactly why there hadn’t been any argument with bringing Cole to me and prayed my instincts about Joran were right.
Julia stepped toward us, her arms crossed and her head tilted to the side, as if she were studying animals at the zoo. “You said you required your brother to temper your power. I have brought him, much to my son’s dismay. You’ve clearly been hard at work while I’ve been away.” Her eyes flicked toward Lilith and she was rewarded with a deep growl and a snap of Lilith’s massive jaws.
“Tell me, girl,” she said, scowling, “how is it your brother can do what you cannot do for yourself? And don’t try to lie to me, dear. You know it won’t work.” She snapped her fingers and Joran stepped toward me, but his face was a mask of indifference, giving nothing away.
I pretended to be thinking while I explained to Cole what was about to happen.
I’m going to tell her a story, but I’ll tell you the truth as I go. Listen carefully.
I kept my gaze directly on the Queen while speaking to Cole through our connection, hoping I could hold two conversations at once.
“Just as I was infused with the power of the Keeper, my mother found a way to give Cole the ability to calm me and my power.”
I’m going to take off the cuff and you have to help me stay focused on breaking the binds the Hunters have put on these women so they can fight for themselves.
Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) Page 23
