Bound

by Christina Garner

  Eden’s stomach rumbled loud enough for heads to turn.

  “Damn, girl.” Skyler’s eyes widened. “Go get some breakfast.”

  “Seriously,” Ariana said. “You’re practically skin and bones. No wonder you’re so weak. You need to eat.”

  Eden was unable to contain her laugh, heedless of the stares it garnered her.

  If you only knew…

  Eden picked at her food. She’d come to breakfast to be seen eating, but each bite of toast threatened to come back up.

  Sarah had gone to meet Kai before class, so Eden sat alone in the corner, watching her sisters as they chatted and ate. Glances darted in her direction as news of the upcoming ritual spread to the women who weren’t part of the joint practice group that morning. They were afraid, but not more so than Eden.

  Hunger gnawed at her insides, and the dead demanded to be fed. It would be so easy to quiet their angry screams. All around her sat the answer to her peace—a drop or two from any one of them, and she would be free, at least for a while.

  But she couldn’t—wouldn’t—give in.

  She squished a bit of toast between her fingers, rolling it into near non-existence and slipped it under her napkin. She would stay five more minutes—enough time that she’d been seen eating. Surely she could control herself that long.

  Courtney approached, carrying a plate and sporting a smile.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer before pulling up a chair.

  Eden looked at her askance. “You realize you’re taking a bit of risk with your reputation here, right?”

  Courtney shrugged. “I’m known as a bit of a goody-two-shoes. My rep could use some damage.” She speared a roasted potato with her fork and bit with gusto.

  Eden grinned. “Don’t say you weren’t warned.” She pulled off a tiny bit of crust and took her time chewing.

  “What are we in for, exactly?” Both Eden and Courtney glanced up to see Paige as she slid onto an open chair. “Famine? Flood? Raining toads?” Paige poured entirely too much sugar into her coffee and stirred. “I want to be prepared.”

  “Ah, right,” Courtney said. “Upcoming test—I heard. What do you think, Eden? Can we avoid demon invasion?”

  “And pustules.” Paige poured enough cream to make her coffee no longer coffee-colored. “I just got over a bad breakout, so I’d really like to avoid pustules.”

  Eden’s gaze swung from one to the other, her mouth hanging open. Were they high? She’d been noticing a thaw with Paige, and Courtney had always been kind to her, but making jokes? What had gotten into them?

  “Gallows humor,” Paige said. “And don’t rob me of it.” She pulled out a miniature bottle of Kahlua and poured it into her not-coffee. “You want the truth? I’m terrified of being within fifty miles of you doing magic.” She stirred her beverage. “But I made my choice. I’m staying at Coventry House, which means I’m gonna be around for a lot of you doing magic. Might as well strap in.” She clinked her mug against Eden’s. “Salud.”

  “I’m not feeling quite so dark as that,” Courtney said with a side-eye at Paige. “But I am your sister for the long haul.”

  Eden felt humbled and struggled with her words. “Grateful is inadequate,” she said. “But it’s the best I’ve got. I’m not sure I deserve either of you.”

  “Oh, you don’t.” A tiny smile on Paige’s face took the sting from her words. “Here we are anyway.” She took another swig, and Eden wondered how often Paige was day-drinking and if she needed to be concerned. “But promise me something.”

  “What’s that?” Eden managed another bite of toast.

  Paige’s demeanor switched on a dime—her eyes boring into Eden’s. “You start feeling ooky, don’t you dare try to handle it alone. Speak up.”

  “Fair.” Eden felt more than ooky, but she wasn’t handling it alone. She had Sarah and Quinn. “Deal.”

  Mocking laughter filled her head.

  The voices were buzzing again.

  Eden was bent over, scrubbing a dog kennel at the shelter, pushing back against their onslaught. They’d been agitated since practice that morning, the small peace she’d obtained after using Maeve’s stolen power now gone.

  She redoubled her efforts on the kennel floor.

  “His name is Baxter. He’s not a bad dog.”

  Eden popped her head out to see who had spoken. A middle-aged man stood beside an aged beagle, whose eyes darted fearfully. The sights, smells, and sounds of the shelter were overwhelming for any dog, and they always knew. Eden sensed this poor dog knew too. He was being abandoned.

  “He’s just too old to be of much use anymore.” The man handed the leash to the shelter manager, Ted, so casually, as if he weren’t sentencing his best friend to die.

  Of course, the shelter volunteers would do everything they could to find Baxter a home—post to social media, bring him to adoption events—but senior dogs especially were tough to place.

  “We’ll take care of him.” Ted had managed the shelter for three years, and Eden wondered how long it had taken him to say those words without a hint of anger. She wanted to bash this guy’s face in.

  Eden lessened her grip on the scrub brush, the blood flowing back into her knuckles as she flexed them.

  The man knelt down and patted Baxter on the head before walking away. Tears stung Eden’s eyes as Baxter whimpered and pulled, trying to get back to his person. She turned away, unable to bear it, her eyes landing on the back door.

  In a flash, she was up and striding toward the exit.

  She slipped outside and around the corner, hidden from view as she watched the man amble toward his car, not a care in the world.

  Rage blazed in her veins, and she wondered how dark a person’s soul must be to send a helpless animal to their death. The din of the voices grew louder. Some were nonsensical, while others demanded justice—commanding her to make this jerk pay.

  How would he like it? Eden wondered. To be scared and helpless and alone?

  Spells cycled through her mind, ways she could hurt him. It was their knowledge, not hers, but she weighed the options all the same.

  Make him bleed.

  She didn’t have much power but marshaled what little remained.

  For once, the souls were onto something. This asshole deserved what he got.

  Chapter 16

  Dark tentacles drifted from Eden’s hand toward the man as he opened his car door. She was stretching her muted power to its limits. It would be days before she could so much as light a candle, but she didn’t care. Someone had to teach this guy a lesson.

  The man couldn’t see the magic, but he felt it as it wrapped around his neck, squeezing. He rubbed his throat, a confused expression on his face. Eden used the last drop she had to press harder. Now his eyes bulged as he clawed at his throat.

  She watched him struggle for air—for life—and she wondered how he liked it.

  More. End him.

  Eden snapped back to herself with a gasp, the intruders’ words making her realize what she was about to do. The tentacles dissolved, and she pressed her back against the building to steady herself. Her heart pounded as she listened to the man gulping in air.

  The souls screamed and gnashed their teeth at being denied their pound of flesh. They hadn’t reached through her as they had with Davida. This time she wasn’t an unwitting accomplice. They’d preyed on her sympathies for Baxter, so she would do the hurting herself.

  The souls were learning her from the inside, and that knowledge turned her veins to ice. She put her hands to her head and squeezed. They were so loud. Something had to make them stop.

  “Babe, you okay?”

  Startled, Eden glanced up to see Quinn staring at her, concern in his eyes. She dropped her hands and pulled herself straight.

  “Yeah, I just… There was a guy…” She heard the man’s car pulling away. If he was driving, he had to be okay. “He dumped his dog, and you know how I get.”r />
  Quinn wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry. What is the matter with people?”

  An embrace from Quinn usually calmed her, but this time she felt suffocated. She wasn’t big enough to hold all of the souls, and he was no longer big enough to hold her.

  She wriggled loose just enough to press her lips to his. It was a hungry kiss, filled with desire and something more—need. She needed oblivion, had to escape what had almost just happened, what she had almost just done.

  Eden wrapped her fingers in Quinn’s hair and clutched tight, wanting him closer than he’d ever been. She pushed him up against the wall and slid her hand beneath his shirt, gripping his flesh.

  “I take it you’re done for the day?”

  The two sprang apart, and Eden’s cheeks burst into flame at the sight of Ted at the back door.

  Eden wiped her mouth and gave him a sheepish grin, her cheeks aflame. “I finished the last kennel.”

  “I was just coming to pick her up,” Quinn said, seeming unsure where to look.

  “Mission accomplished, I’d say.” Ted smirked at them both and turned back toward the door. “See you next week.”

  “That was…” Quinn scrubbed a hand through his hair.

  Eden said, “Embarrassing.”

  At the same time, he said, “Hot.”

  They shared a look and hurried to his car.

  The drive back to Quinn’s apartment took all of seven minutes but might as well have lasted a lifetime. Eden found it physically impossible not to touch him as he drove, kissing him at every stoplight. They stumbled into his apartment, bodies already tangled, and she was pulling his shirt off before he even closed the door.

  She felt feverish, her flesh burning for him. She always wanted him, but this was different. She needed him, needed the fever to break.

  When it finally did, she collapsed on top of him, utterly spent. He wrapped his arms around her, and again she found it hard to breathe, but it didn’t matter. She needed silence more than breath, and right now, her mind held a complete lack of sound, save for the beating of Quinn’s heart.

  Chapter 17

  “Got a sec?”

  Eden leaned across the open doorway of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom that separated her room from Sarah’s.

  “Well, this world history textbook seems to have only been written by white men. It’s super fascinating,” Sarah said, gesturing as she reclined back in her desk chair. “But I think I can spare a second.”

  Eden smiled inwardly at the change in her friend. Before Kai, Sarah hadn’t been exactly apolitical, but she also hadn’t taken jabs at the patriarchy.

  “I’ve been thinking…” Eden had practiced the words, not wanting to freak Sarah out. “I believe what Davida said—that I won’t act as a portal key for demons.” Mostly because I need to believe it. “But this is Coventry House, and Bes’tal might have been the worst of the bad things, but he isn’t the only bad thing. I think we should be prepared. As things are, I can’t practice battle magic…” Sarah stiffened, and Eden realized she was afraid Eden was going to ask for more power. “And that’s a good thing,” she added quickly.

  Especially after what I tried to do with the little power I have.

  The memory of almost squeezing the life from the man at the shelter had become fused with the ominous indictment of the borahn demon before she’d burned him alive. You’re the perfect kind of monster.

  “But I still know the spells. And I could teach them.”

  “Teach them?”

  “With Carolyn gone, Alex and I are the only ones fully trained in battle magic. Who knows what she’s passing on to fourth years? Given our…history…doesn’t that seem wrong?”

  “You think she should teach the rest of us?” Sarah appeared thoughtful.

  “Well, yeah, but she’s not going to. So, I thought, maybe I could teach you.”

  Sarah appeared taken aback, as though the thought had never occurred to her, but she wasn’t saying no.

  “And you’d teach them how?” Sarah’s eyes narrowed a fraction.

  “I can’t show you. I don’t have enough power, and we can’t risk it.” Eden noticed Sarah exhale. “But I’m a walking textbook.” She tapped the side of her head. “Or at least they are. And they totally suck, so shouldn’t we get something out of it?

  “Are you sure it’s safe?” It won’t trigger something? Wake Bes’tal up or…?”

  “The spells are working. You’ve bound me from too much magic, and together we’ve bound Bes’tal. I haven’t heard a word from him since then. If we’re playing the odds, I think it’s riskier for you not to be prepared. It’s Coventry House—who knows what’s coming?”

  Sarah’s face grew pinched, and she rubbed her temple.

  “You okay?” Eden stepped forward.

  “Yeah.” She didn’t sound okay. “I’ve been getting these weird headaches. They just last a few seconds, but they really hurt.” Her face relaxed, and she stopped rubbing. “See? It felt like an ice pick stabbing my brain, and now it’s gone. It must be TMJ or something.”

  “That is weird, have you been under stress?” Eden tilted her head and tried to sound incredulous.

  A sardonic grin spread across Sarah’s face. “None I can think of.”

  “Good, because I’d hate for anything to take away from that white man’s history you’re so fond of.” Eden returned Sarah’s smile. “So, you wanna learn to kick demon ass or what?”

  “I do,” Sarah said. “I really, really do.”

  Eden had already picked the spell they should start with. She’d known Sarah would say yes. Who wanted to stay helpless? Sarah was a powerful witch. Not as strong as Eden—not even before she’d consumed Bes’tal—but still more powerful than anyone else at Coventry House, except for maybe Alex. Sarah’s knowledge should match her skill.

  That was what she’d been prepared to say, if Sarah had needed more convincing. What she wouldn’t say, was the other reason Sarah had to be an expert in battle magic.

  One day, Eden might not be able to stop herself from doing something terrible. One day, the voices might win, and it would be up to Sarah to take her down.

  Chapter 18

  It had only been a few days, but Eden was pleased with Sarah’s progress. Pleased as long as she didn’t think of the real reason she was teaching her friend battle magic. Knowing it was necessary and liking it were two different things.

  They had started small, but her friend was a quick study. The power Sarah accessed while practicing made the voices growl, but being uncomfortable was worth Sarah knowing how to defend herself. Besides, Eden had found another way to quiet them.

  Quinn.

  Eden took every opportunity she could to see him—sometimes even skipping classes.

  Being with him had become a necessity—a panacea that silenced the tormented souls and blocked out all other thoughts. She couldn’t afford to let her ideas get too dark, or the voices get too loud. According to the tracking on the shipment of bitter windroot, she just had to hang on three more days at most, and then all of this would be over.

  As drugs went, Quinn was the best she could ask for, and he was always willing, if sometimes surprised by her insatiability.

  “Like this?” Sarah’s question brought Eden back to where they both sat—on the floor of Sarah’s bedroom.

  Chaotic sparks danced from Sarah’s fingertips.

  “Not quite,” Eden said. “It’s more like—”

  The door creaked open, and Paige stepped in. Too late, the sparks disappeared.

  “Whatcha doin’?” Paige closed the door behind her.

  “Nothing.” Eden spoke at the same time Sarah did. “Practicing.”

  Paige focused on Sarah. “Practicing what?”

  “Nothing really,” Sarah replied. “Just a little party trick.”

  “Interesting given that we’re not allowed to practice magic at parties.” Paige’s expression stayed flat. “Except at the supe
r lame parties we have at the house, and Alex would skin you if you did a spell she hadn’t personally sanctioned.”

  Sarah shrugged but said nothing more. Eden watched the impasse, knowing better than to jump in. The less said, the better.

  “Look, I know you were practicing a major spell, not some silly trick. From the neck of her t-shirt, Paige pulled out a clear crystal hanging on a chain. “A few minutes ago, this was glowing.”

  Eden and Sarah exchanged puzzled glances.

  “Is that supposed to mean something?” Sarah said.

  “It means if you don’t tell me what you two are up to, I’m going to Alex. This crystal is an alarm, and it only goes off when serious magic is happening.”

  “Why do you have something like that?” Eden asked.

  Paige snorted derisively. “Why do you think?” She shook her head. “Look, there’s no point in denying it. My little alarm when off, and the first place I look, I find Sarah with little lightning bolts around her hands. It’s not like you can’t trust me—I helped with your bad dreams spell, didn’t I?”

  Eden had to admit she had—and kept it secret too.

  “No offense, but the whole reason I need this thing is because of you.” Paige glanced at Eden. “It only works once, and I can’t afford to get it re-spelled until next month. If you’re gonna leave me without protection, the least you can do is make it worth my while.”

  Sarah’s expression held a question, and Eden answered by motioning to Paige. “Sit.”

  Eden voiced her concern that Alex was leaving the sisters unprepared and had decided to take matters into her own hands.

  “You’re saying you’re doomsday preppers…but with magic?”

  “Pretty much,” Sarah said. “But we’re being really careful. You don’t need to tell Alex.”