Bound

by Christina Garner

  “Tell her? Are you kidding?” Paige swung her head from Eden to Sarah. “I want in. Battle magic is way more effective than glowing crystals.”

  Now that Paige knew the truth—or part of it anyway—Eden couldn’t think of a reason not to teach her. If anything, it seemed wrong not to.

  Eden turned to Sarah. “Why don’t you show her what we were working on?”

  If being with Sarah as she accessed magic was difficult for Eden, adding Paige to the mix made it doubly so. She did her best to maintain her outer composure while hunger gnawed her hollow.

  Just a drop, one voice pleaded.

  A drop from each, commanded another. It was always more unsettling when the souls within her spoke as individuals.

  That bitter windroot couldn’t come fast enough.

  “Eden?” Paige’s expression was a mix of annoyance and concern.

  “What?” Eden blinked. “Sorry, what was the question?”

  “I was saying, this would be a lot easier if you showed us how to do the spell.”

  Eden’s stomach flipped. She’d let Sarah take the lead and demonstrate because Paige didn’t know Eden couldn’t access enough magic to complete the spell herself.

  She glanced at Sarah, silently willing her to loosen the binding, already tasting the freedom it would bring.

  Just a few minutes, her eyes begged. Just enough time so Eden could show Paige the weaves. Enough time that she could breathe.

  “She can’t,” Sarah said.

  “Why not?” Paige scrunched up her face.

  She swung her head toward Eden, who in turn stared at Sarah. This was Sarah’s lie; she’d need to be the one to tell it.

  But it didn’t seem as though Sarah had one ready. She licked her lips, appearing flustered.

  “Because…” Sarah’s expression turned stricken. “Because she’s bound.”

  Chapter 19

  Sarah felt the words tumble out, catching in her throat as they did. Paige’s eyes became as big as saucers—smaller than Eden’s by only a fraction.

  Sarah’s heart thrummed inside her chest. She had told the truth for the simple fact she hadn’t been able to come up with a lie fast enough.

  Paige picked her jaw off the floor enough to say, “You’re bound?”

  Eden still appeared dumbfounded, and Sarah rushed in, the explanation clicking into place.

  “Not all the way.” Sarah cast her friend a meaningful glance, a request she not speak. “It’s temporary. Davida is sure Eden can’t bring another Av Rek—or any demon—but you know how Alex is. She’s drunk on being H.P. You’ve seen the way she treats Eden at practice.”

  Paige turned to Eden. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re bound.”

  “It does,” Sarah said. “It’s not sanctioned by the Council, but while Alex is H.P., she’ll do what she wants. And she wants control over Eden.”

  “Is that why she was all, ‘You guys are babies. Eden doesn’t scare me,’ the other day when she announced the ritual? Because she’d already made sure you couldn’t do anything all that bad?”

  Eden’s expression was unreadable, likely still reeling from Sarah’s revelation. How was she going to make this up to her?

  “Does that really surprise you?” Sarah said.

  “Not even a little.” Paige rolled her eyes. “And you guys thought Rebecca was a bitch.” Saying her friend’s name brought a flash of pain to Paige’s face. “She’s not wrong though. It might be for the best. I just don’t know why Alex wouldn’t tell the rest of us.”

  “Because interim High Priestesses can’t go around binding sisters, especially when the Council already said Eden isn’t dangerous. It’s a power move, that’s all. And as soon as the new H.P. comes, she’ll have to let Eden go. But until then, we just need to keep our heads low and not let on. I’m not even supposed to know.”

  “This is some next level espionage crap.” Paige shook her head. “If I keep this secret, whose side am I even on? Am I some kind of Wiccan double agent?”

  “You’re a friend.” Sarah reached out and squeezed Paige’s knee. “Right? We’re friends.”

  Paige exhaled sharply, the force of her breath ruffling her bangs.

  “Two weeks ago, I hated both of you. Blamed you for bringing Bes’tal.” Paige gestured to Eden and then Sarah. “And you for making her excuses. To call us friends might be pushing it.”

  “Sisters then.” Sarah could not let her leave the room without swearing to keep quiet.

  How had she been so stupid to expose all of this? It hadn’t even been her secret to tell. There had to be something she could say that would convince Paige—

  “Sisters stick together.” It was the first Eden had spoken since Sarah had begun to spin her half-truth. Now she touched Paige’s shoulder. “We keep each other’s secrets. This is a secret that needs to be kept, Paige. From everyone. Please…give me your word.”

  Eden’s gaze held Paige’s, and the moment stretched until Paige spoke the words with a distinct monotone. “Sisters keep secrets.” Then, sounding more like herself, she added, “But you’re going to teach me every single spell you know.”

  “I will,” Eden said. “But not tonight, okay? It’s been a long day.”

  “I’ve got a paper due anyway.” Paige stood, and Sarah and Eden followed suit. “Tomorrow?”

  Eden nodded. “Tomorrow.”

  Paige left, and Sarah steeled herself before speaking. “What was that?”

  “What was what?”

  A few weeks earlier, and Sarah might have been convinced by Eden’s innocent expression, but that time had passed.

  She gripped Eden’s shoulder. “Sisters stick together.”

  Except when Sarah said it, the little hairs on the back of her neck didn’t stand on end. That had been the tip-off.

  Eden’s expression said she knew she was caught. “That was me trying to fix the problem you created.”

  “That I—”

  “You told her I was bound!” The words came out a whispered hiss.

  “She caught us! I had to think of something. It just…came out.”

  “You had no right.” Pain and betrayal marred the beauty of Eden’s face. “You just risked everything, and you had no right. If Paige tells anyone…”

  “Can she?” Sarah asked. “After whatever that was?”

  “I’m not a vampire, Sarah. Or some Jedi mind master. All I did was a variation of what Davida did to all of us at the memorial. I made a suggestion and then upped the odds she’ll take it. It wasn’t even that strong because as you might remember, I’m bound.”

  Sarah couldn’t decide which was worse: what she’d said or what Eden had done.

  “What are we doing?” she asked, sinking to her bed. “Who even are we anymore?”

  Eden slumped in a chair. “I don’t know. I think I’m whoever I need to be until we get the bitter windroot and do the containment ritual. I don’t have the energy for anything else.”

  Eden’s face took on a haunted cast. It wasn’t the first time Sarah had seen it, but it was the first time Eden hadn’t tried to hide it.

  “I’m sorry,” Sarah said. She didn’t just mean about the secret.

  “We’ll figure something out,” Eden said. “After I get rid of Bes’tal, we’ll give Paige a reason that Alex decided to unbind me.”

  “Right.” Sarah had checked the tracking multiple times a day since they’d placed the order, even though they’d both turned on alerts to get pinged every time the package traveled more than a mile. “Once you’re rid of hitchhikers, we’ll figure everything else out.”

  Three more days.

  Chapter 20

  Eden hadn’t planned on seeing Quinn that night, having already visited him between classes and his shift at The Grind earlier in the day. But after being exposed to so much magic while Sarah and Paige had practiced and clamping down on the anger that had threatened to boil over at Sarah, Eden needed help to quiet the voices.

  “Not that I�
��m complaining,” Quinn said, spent and near breathless. “But we used to leave the house when we had dates.”

  It sounded a little like complaining.

  “What can I say?” Eden gave her best attempt at a sultry expression. “I guess I can’t get enough of you.”

  The voices were nothing but a low hum, and she basked in the near silence.

  “Again, not complaining.” Quinn kissed her forehead. “But we used to talk and do stuff. You used to stay over.”

  “That was before Alex started her early morning practices,” Eden said.

  “But those aren’t every day, are they?” Quinn’s question grated on Eden’s nerves and intruded on her peace.

  Sex with Quinn was necessary. Being with him afterward had grown problematic.

  She knew she loved Quinn—knew it in her bones. But it had become difficult to feel. Her insides were a jumbled, chaotic mess of voices and urges, only some of them her own. It was harder to discern her feelings from theirs, their hunger and desires from her own. She felt herself slipping away, merging with their whole, and it terrified her.

  At first, the increased sex with Quinn had been win-win. She needed a way to quiet the voices without hurting anyone, and what guy didn’t want more sex?

  But Eden was beginning to think that last part was a myth. Men—her man, at least—wanted more than sex. He wanted her. He wanted the connection she used to crave and now couldn’t bear. He wanted to hold her and be with her, and she wanted to run. Every time he said he loved her, she knew it was a lie. He loved who he thought she was, and she was desperately trying to get back to being that person. She wanted to be that Eden—the one Quinn deserved—not whatever monster she was now.

  The perfect kind of monster.

  “I don’t want to keep you awake with my tossing.”

  “A few nights a week, I can deal with you tossing.” Quinn ran his hand along her arm. “Unless you don’t want to be here.”

  “Of course I do.” She kissed him, feeling crappy for ever making him think otherwise.

  The problem wasn’t Quinn. It was her. And soon, everything would be fine, and she would stop feeling as if she was trying to fit into clothes that had become too tight. She just had to keep it together until then.

  “Can I stay tonight?”

  Tonight, she wouldn’t bail. She would stay and be the girlfriend Quinn deserved, even if she had to pretend to sleep the entire night. It was the least she could do for this man who had stood by her this long.

  His answer was a kiss, and she lost herself in it.

  She heard a distinctive chime, and she broke apart from Quinn, grabbing her phone from the bedside table.

  Good news! Read the text alert. Your package is arriving tomorrow.

  Chapter 21

  “Oh, good. More Latin.” Eden scrolled through the spell that would free her from torment.

  The bitter windroot had been delivered early that evening, and Eden had hurried to meet Sarah and Kai at Quinn’s apartment.

  “Ancient Sumerian,” Sarah said, her head bent over the same spell on her own phone.

  “Even better.” Eden tried to pronounce the foreign words, but they came out sounding of gibberish. “Why can’t we just use a translation app?”

  Sarah glanced up. “Well, we could. Of course, a spell like this is intricate and meant to be precise. With online translations being what they are, we could end up making Bes’tal ten times stronger rather than imprisoning him. But, by all means, type it into a translation program and see what you get.”

  “Okay, Okay.” Eden held up her hands. “Sumerian it is.”

  Sarah had always been good-natured, but the past couple of days, her humor had bordered on testy. Eden glanced at Kai, sitting behind Sarah and rubbing her shoulders, and noted her slightly satisfied smirk. Anger twisted Eden’s belly at the thought Kai might be turning her best friend against her.

  She thinks she’s so strong, but look at her, only now able to walk without a limp. Teach her a lesson.

  Eden bit the inside of her lip so hard she drew blood. Once she’d composed herself, she said, “Thank you for doing this. I don’t know what I would do without you guys.”

  The inmates would run the asylum.

  “You’ll never have to find out.” Sarah smiled, back to her old self.

  “I keep telling her the same thing.” Quinn entered from the kitchen carrying a bowl filled with the black salt Eden had brought with her in a plastic bag.

  He set the bowl on the coffee table next to a pair of candles, some incense, a neat pile of bitter windroot, and the Urn of Capio Sarah and she had risked their lives for.

  “I mean it.” The more Eden felt as though she no longer fit inside her own skin, the more she felt compelled to. “Sticking with me through all of this…it’s above and beyond.”

  Eden always struggled to come up with the right words to express her gratitude. Most people would have abandoned her the second she’d consumed Bes’tal. Sarah and Quinn kept her tethered to herself. Without them, she’d be lost.

  “It’s what friends do,” Sarah said.

  “And boyfriends.” Quinn kissed her cheek.

  “All in favor of getting this show on the road, say aye.” Kai raised her hand.

  Sarah and Quinn replied in unison.

  “Aye squared.” Eden raised both hands.

  No more temporary fixes, she was about to be done with Bes’tal for good.

  Quinn nudged Bella awake and guided her to the bedroom and then closed the door. Concentration was a must; one bark from Bella and the whole thing could go sideways. What sideways would look like, Eden didn’t want to know.

  Sarah poured a circle of salt around Eden on Quinn’s living room floor. Eden had never used black salt, but the spell said it was better at absorbing negative energy, and she couldn’t think of anything more negative than Bes’tal.

  The souls expressed their fury at what was about to happen. Eden was almost grateful for their screams. When they got this loud, she could no longer make out individual voices, and she’d become better at ignoring the cacophony.

  She passed her hand over the large, green candle, and it sparked alight. She placed it in front of her.

  Quinn shook his head as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “That never gets old.”

  The cool expression on Kai’s face said she might not agree.

  Both had insisted on being present, but they stayed well outside the circle, having nothing to do during the actual ritual.

  Sarah opened the ritual by summoning the power and protection of the four directions. Fragrant smoke filled the room as Sarah began the complex incantation. She stumbled at times over pronunciation, but Eden smiled at her encouragingly.

  Sarah gave a nod, and Eden closed her eyes, focusing her vision inward. The voices receded to a dull hum.

  “Hello, pet.”

  The hairs on the back of Eden’s neck stood on end. In her mind’s eye she turned, blood rushing to her ears.

  “You can’t actually be surprised.” Bes’tal was as beautiful and terrible in her mind as he had been in the flesh. “Your friend summoned me.”

  “She’s banishing you.”

  “Oh, but she isn’t.” Bes’tal’s smile seemed confident. Amused.

  Eden called his bluff. “Then why are you here?”

  “I thought we might chat.”

  “Why now? You’ve been so quiet.”

  “Yes, and you took that as a sign of your dominion over me.” He smirked as he made a lazy circle around her. “Has no one ever taken the time to explain just how deeply stupid you are?”

  “I beat you.” Eden forced her gaze level with his. “I killed you.”

  “And yet…” He splayed his hands out in front of himself. “Here I am.”

  “You’re about to be in an urn, trapped like you deserve.”

  “Do I really strike you as someone destined to play genie in a bottle?” He closed the distance between them. �
�I had such high hopes for you. For us.”

  “There is no us.” Eden prayed her eyes spoke only of the hatred she felt, not the fear.

  “It is a sadness.” Bes’tal’s expression turned from remorseful to mocking. “But one I will endure.”

  He was toying with her, but why? From far away she heard Sarah, still chanting. Was he telling the truth? Did they lack the power to expel him?

  “I didn’t say you lacked the power.” Eden’s stomach flipped, and Bes’tal continued. “Come now, do you really think I don’t know your every thought? We become closer every day.”

  Eden’s heart pounded in her chest. “Then why don’t I know yours?”

  “Because you reject me. Until you accept me as part of you, I will always be a stranger.”

  “I will never accept you. Now, which one of us is being dense?”

  “You’re the one trying to contain me.” He slid a hand down her cheek. She stiffened. “How long until you realize, it is I who contains you?”

  Chapter 22

  Sarah eyed Eden, still sitting in the circle. She’d warned Sarah not to touch her, taught her how to access her energy without needing to. It was too risky to breach the circle when they were calling Bes’tal forth. What if he ended up inside Sarah rather than the urn?

  Sarah prayed the spell was working. The urn would begin to glow once the transfer had begun, but for now it rested in Eden’s cupped hands.

  Sarah tried not to think of Kai and Quinn as they looked on. Nervous energy seemed to radiate off each of them, but she needed to focus on the task at hand. She needed to get Bes’tal out of her best friend and locked into that urn.

  One of Eden’s eyes twitched. Quinn shifted but said nothing. Sarah had warned them both to stay quiet.

  Sarah ran through the incantation a fourth time. Each repetition raised the energy. Her scalp tingled with power.

  After the fifth recitation, it seemed to Sarah that the spell was chanting her. The magic vibrated within, demanding to be released, but she held fast. Eden would tell her when it was time.