by CC Solomon
“You could have said goodbye,” I stated, keeping my voice even. “We spent a long time looking for you.”
Lisa sighed. “My friend assured me that she told Felix before we left.”
Felix shrugged sheepishly. “I don’t remember seeing the woman until after Lisa came back. You all know by now my mind gets messed up without a moment’s notice. I’m sorry.”
“I should have been the one to say goodbye, but—” Lisa looked to Charles, who didn’t look back at her. He stared stoically at the wall in front of him. Something was off here. I really had missed a lot. “I was really in pain at the time, Mina. I wasn’t thinking clearly. And then in the fairy world, I didn’t think I was there so long. Maybe a couple of weeks. When I came back, I learned I had been gone for months. Fairy time is very different.”
“Yeah, we know,” Ed said gruffly.
I titled my head back towards Ed. “That’s Ed. We met him on our forced voyage. Ed’s town was terrorized by Fae a few times.”
“I’m sorry for anything my people have done. Although we are few, we are not all the same.” Lisa started, “While I was in the fairy world, we talked about the evil coming. We discussed the danger of soulmates. When magic ruled, soulmates came about every few generations. They often started good but that level of power always mutated into something awful. Some soulmates did some pretty bad things. I mentioned to the Fae that you and Phillip were soulmates,” Lisa went on. “They already knew and were very concerned. Fae make it a habit to know such things. They can even predict pairings. When the magic mostly went away, they stopped predicting. During the time of little magic, soulmates were of no importance to the Fae. Until the two of you. At first, they couldn’t figure out the importance of knowing who you were. For the Fae to be alerted to a new soulmate pairing seemed odd when there was no magic. They followed you. They knew about the kind of humans you were.” Lisa looked to Phillip. “Then the magic came back and everything become clear. When I explained your behavior to the Fae, it was very concerning to them because they didn’t believe that was your true character. They knew you were bespelled.”
I looked around the group. “I’m going to assume Lisa told you all this already. Why do you still hate him?”
“Don’t be mad at them,” Lisa stated.
“We have to see it all for ourselves. Make sure his magic isn’t influencing you both,” Erik explained.
“Well, does Phillip smell or feel like he did before?” I asked Erik. He’d been unsettled before when we first came to Silver Spring but wasn’t able to pinpoint the smell of dark magic to Phillip alone.
Erik scrunched his face and looked away. “He has B.O. but other than that, I don’t smell dark magic,” he mumbled.
Phillip looked up to the ceiling and rolled his eyes.
“I don’t get a bad feeling either,” Felix announced. “Okay, well, that’s something, right?”
Mae and Bill said, “Yes.” The others answered with shrugs and twisted lips. Seems they just didn’t want to give Phillip the benefit of the doubt.
I shook my head and turned to Lisa. “So, if you knew that Phillip was cursed, why did you send us away?” I asked, crossing my arms. This is what I really wanted to know beyond anything else. How could someone I called a friend turn her back on me?
Lisa gave me a sad smile. “I was told by a Seelie Fae Queen that it was the only way to stop Phillip from doing more harm and to strengthen your soulmate bond without any distractions.”
“So, you sent us away for me to focus on healing Phillip and having us bond? You couldn’t tell me first?”
Lisa sighed. “There wasn’t time. To be honest, I didn’t want to do it.” She walked over to me and grabbed my hands. “You’re like my best friend now. I thought we should just lock Phillip up in fairy world where he couldn’t harm anyone. But the other Fae made me afraid of the evil to come.” She looked to Phillip. “You really have the Fairy Queen I was with to thank. She’s the one who actually came up with the plan. And she said you, Amina, were needed to help heal him, so he couldn’t go alone. In all truthfulness, if I hadn’t done this, someone else would have.”
“So how long were we supposed to be gone?” Phillip asked, his eyes neutral.
“We were thinking a month, maybe a little over. We figured you both would find common ground quickly without any distractions, which would open you up to being healed.”
“So then why are we only now getting back? And of our own accord? Phillip was helped around two months in,” I said.
“Because I couldn’t get you back. Some other magic was preventing me from doing so.”
“So, someone hijacked your spell?” Phillip asked.
Lisa nodded. “We were thinking maybe there was another type of magic that enforced the spell.”
“But we used fairy magic to get back,” I explained.
“You found some Fae to help you?” Lisa asked. Her green eyes squinted in suspicion.
I tilted my head from side to side. “Not exactly. While we were in banishment,” I gave her a pointed look. “Phillip and I were able to work on our soulmate magic, once we stopped hating each other, that is.”
“What did that entail?” Erik asked, arms crossed.
The stupid hand-holding, levitating, eye-color change and dream kiss all flashed in my mind. I broke into a slight sweat in my armpits, wondering if Erik could read my mind. How could I explain this all to him and make it seem as innocent as I wanted it to be?
“Opening our magic up to each other instead of working against each other like we had been doing for the challenge,” Phillip cut in to explain. “It’s as simple as that. Once we stopped fighting each other, we got stronger.”
I gave Phillip a grateful nod. He really was becoming less irritating. Erik looked to me; eyes inquisitive. “Tell me more later,” he said more than asked.
I raised my eyebrows and smiled, hoping I didn’t look as guilty as I felt. “Of course. So, Lisa, why didn’t you just come to Ireland and get us then?” I asked quickly changing the subject.
Lisa shook her head. “We didn’t know where you went. I sent you away but had the destination removed from my memory by the Fae Queen. It was better to make sure you stayed away if I didn’t know where you were. Amina, I can’t apologize to you enough,” Lisa said. “You’ve been nothing but good to me. You saved my life. I just…I just didn’t know what else to do. I knew Phillip had to be stopped and that we couldn’t hurt him or you’d be hurt.”
I looked at her without speaking. For almost three months, I had hated her. Even with her very sound explanation, I wasn’t sure I was ready to forget. I had put trust in her that I had not in Phillip. Her sending me away without discussion felt more like a betrayal of a family member than Phillip’s behavior. With him, perhaps, I might have always been a little leery. At least, for a while. I didn’t want to be suspicious with her and yet, now I felt I had to be. It was upsetting.
However, I had more important things to focus on at the moment. I needed to find a genie lamp.
Chapter 26
“By the way, I was wondering, whatever happened to Phillip’s animal he raised in the challenge?” I asked. It was probably the wrong time to find out if I was as powerful as Phillip as I was hoping I was, but it had always been on my mind.
Erik’s walkie talkie went off and picked it up to answer it.
Phillip nodded. “Yeah, I raised a puppy,” he said.
“Did anyone keep it like Erik did Poppy, my kitty?” I asked.
Faith snorted. “No.”
Erik turned back to the group. “I’ve gotta go. Some idiot is causing a riot at the hospital. People are acting more and more like nut cases,” he surmised. He looked over to me. “I won’t be long. You going to be okay?”
“I’ll come with you. I can help,” I said, not really wanting to leave his side so soon after reuniting with him.
“It’s too dangerous.” He walked over to me.
I opened my mouth to protest
but he kissed me hard. “I love you. I won’t be gone long.” He then turned and walked out, giving Phillip a solid stare.
Phillip rolled his shoulders. “What happened to my dog?” he asked, his voice tight.
“Well, Chelsea killed it. Drank it dry,” Faith replied.
I raised my eyebrows in shocked horror. “What?” I questioned.
Faith nodded. “Yeah, your friend is hardcore. Phillip, watch your back.”
“Who kills a dog?” Ed asked.
“It was a puppy,” Phillip muttered, shaking his head.
Chelsea drank the blood of a familiar. More importantly, she’d murdered a puppy. That was beyond unsettling. I added this to the growing list of things I’d have to resolve.
Walking back to Erik’s place, my mind still raced with my to-do list. Calm down Chelsea. See what was going on with Charles, jumping to violence was never his thing. Find the genie lamp. Find possible, female original soulmate. Get rid of Seth as head of the town. Gain supporters against the original soulmates and big bad that was coming. I’m sure I was missing something but that seemed enough for now.
“Amina! Is that you? I heard you were back!” Cried a voice I was not too pleased to hear.
Raya.
I turned and faced the pretty werewolf. News certainly traveled fast in a town the size of a small college.
Raya gave me a tight smile. I did the same. We weren’t friends and wouldn’t be hugging.
“I guess I’ll be seeing you at the party Saturday?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“What party?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“For you and Phillip, of course.”
I frowned. “I’ve only been back a few hours and there’s already a party?” I did not have time for this. I had a lamp to find before a Jinn came and set me on fire.
She shrugged. “We have nothing else to do on a Saturday night. It’s not like we’re getting any new movies or going out for wine tastings.”
I smirked. “Is that what you used to do on a Saturday night, before? Pretty tame for someone who’d been in their early twenties, then.”
She smiled, showing me her wolf teeth in an anything-but--friendly way. “I was just suggesting something I thought was more your speed. I was more of a dive-bar or live-music person. Kind of like Erik.”
I squinted my eyes at her. “Well, nice talking to you,” I replied and turned away.
She walked up beside me. “I’m going the same way. Back to the pack apartment.”
I nodded and we walked together in awkward silence.
“So, how was it being with Phillip all that time? You hated each other when you left and now you’re going to have a party together. I’m assuming you’ve called a truce?”
I really was in no mood to chit-chat with Raya and it was clear to me that she was fishing for information. I’d give her just enough to shut her up. “Yep, we called a truce. He promised not to be an ass anymore and I promised not to keep trying to hurt him. All’s well that ends well.”
We reached the front of the apartment and I climbed the steps and opened the door. Raya followed me through.
“That’s really impressive that the two of you were able to make amends. Is that all that happened? Three months is a long time for two attractive people to be together.” She gave me a sideways glance.
“Thank you for calling me attractive. That was really sweet of you,” I replied. I pressed the elevator button. “Well, I’m going to Erik’s now.” The elevator doors opened. “What floor are you?” I pressed Erik’s floor number and my hand hovered over the numbers waiting for her to tell me her floor.
“Actually, I’m going there too. I left something at his place the other night.”
I dropped my hand and balled it into a fist.
What.
The.
Hell?
I wanted to twist her head off. I actually envisioned doing it, which was dangerous because had I really meant to do such a thing, her head would be rolling on the elevator floor by now.
Calm down, Amina, maybe it was a pack leadership meeting that Erik was hosting and she’d left her hat there. Yeah, that’s what happened, I told myself.
I didn’t say anything as we headed up on the elevator and walked what felt like an exceptionally long way to Erik’s place. I opened the door with a key he’d given me and walked inside.
“Honey, I’m home,” I announced. Not my style to make such an announcement but the petty in me wanted to play.
Erik walked from the bedroom hallway. “Hey, Mina,” he said.
“We have a guest,” I said pleasantly.
He looked at Raya and then me. “Hey,” he said in a tone that sounded more like a question.
“Hey, yourself,” Raya said. She touched his arm as she moved past him. It was brief but it was enough to annoy me.
“What are you doing here?” Erik asked.
“Left something in your bedroom.”
She walked back to his room without waiting for an invitation, as if she was used to being there.
I tightened my lips together and walked past Erik to the spare room, closing the door. I sat down on the bed and crossed my legs, yoga style, resting my hands on my thighs. I wasn’t sure I had the right to be angry, but I was. Raya was in his room. At this point, the whole left-a-hat-behind theory was probably not the case. He’d been with Raya for who knows how long and here I was, spoiling things for her. At this point, she’d probably been with him longer than I had.
I felt sick. Perhaps I was being a bit hypocritical. I’d made out with Phillip in the dream world. What right did I have to be indignant about Erik doing the same with Raya? However, I thought my make out session was just the result of a subconscious dream. That was my excuse. What was Erik’s? That he thought I was gone and wouldn’t come back or ever find out? Did that make it worse or better?
I was beginning to second guess my decisions. I needed to focus on finding the lamp and here I was pouting in my room jealous. This was what I had wanted to avoid before. I was too emotional and it was a distraction that could cost us all.
A few minutes later, I heard a knock at the door and then it opened. Erik appeared, not waiting for me to answer. I turned my head away and felt him sit down on the bed. I stiffened, moving forward to the edge of the bed, but he wrapped an arm over my stomach and held me tight to him.
“You’re not going away from me again,” he whispered in my ear. “You already said you love me so it’s too late.”
“Of all the people,” I began. “Maybe you should just go be with her. It’s what she wants. You have feelings for her.”
“Is that what you want? So you can go to Phillip?” His voice sounded stiff and bitter.
“No. But you were with her. Do you love her?”
“I wasn’t with her. She used my bathroom because the other one was occupied when I hosted a pack meeting for some of the canid weres. She left her scarf. Yes, she wants something more. She wanted to be my mate; to help me when you were gone.”
“Help you? How?”
“I wasn’t doing so great being apart from you so early in our bond. If she’d broken it by becoming my new mate, I would have…recovered.”
“What exactly happened to you?”
He didn’t respond for a long moment.
“Tell me, Erik.”
He wrapped his legs on either side of mine and rested his forehead to the back of my head. “You ever been addicted to anything?”
“Candy.”
He chuckled and I elbowed him. “Don’t laugh at me, sugar addiction is a real thing.”
“Fine, Mina. How’d you feel when you cut back on candy?”
“Irritable.”
“Well, that’s what it was like for me. Only worse. It was like I was suffering from drug withdrawal. I got pretty sick.”
“Erik, I left you to suffer. I’m so sorry.” I could understand Raya being so bold as to try to become his mate if it meant healing him. My mind raced with
images of Erik in despair and weakened. Meanwhile, I’d been only getting stronger. “Why didn’t you let her help you?”
“Because I didn’t love her.” He kissed my shoulder. “Are you in love with him?”
“No.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s been so long. And you both seem to be getting along now.”
“We’re friends. Nothing more.”
“The same with Raya. I don’t want anyone but you.” He gave me a light squeeze before taking in a deep breath. Inhaling, I assumed, my scent as he used to do before. It didn’t freak me out and even comforted me.
“Mae. She told me to be patient and that I’d see you again. I tried to keep the faith but it was hard.”
“It was hard for me too.”
“But the way that he looks at you…”
My stomach tightened. It was now or never. “Erik, I need to tell you something.”
I felt him stiffen. “Yes?”
“The bonding magic between Phillip and I made us closer. We had a teacher that we practiced with and she was really the one that stated that we had to be nicer to each other to get to full strength. By that time, Phillip and I were in a better place with each other. So, we just thought good thoughts, held hands and we levitated. I mean not super high, but we can float! And then our magic just burst through. Our eyes even change, like yours do. I get purple eyes.” I paused, waiting for a reaction from Erik before I went any further.
“Interesting,” he replied.
Well, that wasn’t helpful at all. Okay, be strong, Amina. You’ve come this far.
“But then I had a weird dream where Phillip and I made out,” I said in a rushed sentence. “I woke up in shock. Phillip and I never kissed or anything while over there.”
Erik didn’t say anything for a long moment. “So, your subconscious mind really wants to be with Phillip.”
I shook my head quickly. “No! Not at all. It was a just a reaction to opening our bond. I haven’t had a dream like that since. I don’t want Phillip. I only want you. I have a better handle on this bonding magic now.”
