Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) (22 page)

I brought her image into my mind. Her smile. The way her eyes gave away everything she was thinking. The purple dress she was wearing the night she told me she wanted to give us a try. I thought of all the time we spent on her couch playing twenty questions, just trying to get to know each other and realizing though we were so different, we had lived similar lives. We had just never known exactly how similar until it was too late.

Since I had started figuring out what I was, I spent a lot of time trying to put myself in her shoes. I tried to understand what it had to be like to hide yourself from the world, to try to live two lives and be two people in the same body. And the more I learned about the Queen and the history of her—our—people, I respected Amelia even more for the choices she made. Bethany had been right. I couldn’t judge anything Amelia had done until I understood it. Now, I did. And the only thing that mattered was getting her back. I’d get her away from the Queen and I’d protect her. I’d be whatever she needed because I wanted to be the choice she made. So much in both of our lives hadn’t been a choice, and I wanted the time they took from us. She would choose me this time. I knew she would. I had to believe that.

I knew the second Will entered my mind. The pressure in my head increased and my wolf reacted to the perceived threat. My senses sharpened and I wondered how I could stop myself from attacking him, but he simply sat in the back of my head, waiting it out. Slowly, my wolf calmed and Will started to move. He probed around, looking for something. I spent minutes feeling him making his way through me, a warmth spreading to each cell and extremity as he passed through. I braced myself, expecting pain, but so far, it had felt like a warm blanket, soothing my system and dulling my senses to a twilight feeling where I wasn’t sure whether I was awake or asleep.

Then hands pressed down on my chest and the first shot of pain ripped through me. I struggled to breathe and tried to sit up only to be shoved back down. It felt like my heart was exploding. My body seized and I ripped at the restraints. I couldn’t form words as my skin felt like it was being ripped from my muscles one centimeter at a time—a razor scraping between the two layers, leaving raw, open wounds in its place.

Will’s hands gripped my head like a vise. His forehead pressed into mine, the connection point between our skin burning. I bucked and tossed on the bed while Elias straddled my hips, trying to keep me still. I could hear them yelling back and forth as I pulled at the restraints and roared wordless promises of retribution. My screams were short bursts of sound as each bone in my body was broken and reset. As each fingernail was removed and replaced. I would swear he ripped out each hair on my body individually and replaced it with new. I couldn’t think of anything but the pain—never-ending, all-consuming pain. It could have been minutes, or hours, or days, I had no idea. I screamed until my voice gave out and my throat was raw from the attempts.

Time stretched on, until finally, something inside me snapped and broke open. Relief flooded my system and euphoria drowned out the pain. The wolf’s memories assaulted me, a barrage of images, sounds, and words hitting my mind all at once, like a family video showing every scene simultaneously as his mind merged with mine. I saw the world from his eyes. I saw Amelia. I saw her apartment building, her sitting on the couch at Cole’s with Charlie, and the gym. They weren’t my memories, yet they were. I must have been watching her. Her arms were wrapped around my wolf form and I heard her words as she cried into my coat. I saw her laughing as she lay with her head on my chest, her fingers twirling in my fur. Somehow, she and I had been together while I was shifted and I had no memory of it until now.

I heard the low yips and barks from my wolf as he celebrated us finally being one. I could no longer separate myself from him and I felt…everything.

My hyper-senses were on overload. Smelling the sweat coating our bodies, feeling the fear we all held, and knowing the trash needed to be emptied from the kitchen. Then, the memories took hold once again, and I saw the first clear memory I could remember of my parents. They were holding a small wolf pup, laughing as they congratulated me on my first successful shift. I saw the loving looks they exchanged and confirmed I truly was the spitting image of my father.

Then I saw Rhi. I saw him fling my mother across the room, her body flying through a window and the glass puncturing her skin. I saw the pleasure he took in holding my father locked in place while he drained my mother's life. He stood there, smiling, his hand outstretched and orange flames connecting him to her. I had been upstairs, watching through the crack of a door, where I had hidden when I heard my mother’s screams. Another Hunter found me, cowering in the back of my closet, where I had shifted in response to my fear. The large hood from his jacket fell over his face, like the reaper, as he held me by the scruff of my coat and then pulled me to his chest, whispering, “You must live. You are the one. I will do what I can to protect you. This will only hurt for a moment. Quiet now.”

Finally, darkness pulled at the edges of my mind and I welcomed the reprieve. I couldn’t fight anymore, so I let it take me under.

I
had been awake for a while, but was afraid to move. Nothing hurt, which was more worrisome than I expected. After what I had been through, I was afraid if I did more than breathe, the pain would return. There was just no way I was going to be able to get up and walk around after that ordeal.

“Yes, you can. Well, theoretically you should be fine.” Elias’s voice came from somewhere else in the room and I sighed.

“I thought you were staying out of my head?” I asked, moving only my mouth and nothing else.

“We had to make sure you were healing properly so I didn’t have a choice. You shouldn’t even be awake yet, but from what we’ve been able to tell, you’re fine.” His voice had moved closer and I turned my head slightly to see him standing at the edge of the bed.

“You’re sure?” I was unconvinced.

"As sure as we can be. Try to sit up," he suggested.

I moved slower than I needed to. With every inch I pushed myself up, I expected a reaction I didn't get. Finally, I was sitting fully upright and decided to stand. I swiveled my body on the bed and took Elias’s outstretched hand, allowing him to slowly pull me to my feet.

There was nothing but a tinge of dizziness. And then my stomach growled. Elias laughed. “Well, outside of hungry, how do you feel?”

I stretched my arms out to the side, allowing my body to expand while I tried to get a read on each group of muscles. “I feel…amazing. Like I could run a marathon. Or go five rounds.” I couldn’t help but return Elias’s smile as I pulled my fists up into a fighter’s stance and bounced on the balls of my feet.

“Where’s Will?” I asked, looking around.

Elias’s smile faltered. “He needs to rest, so he’s in the other room. He…well, he was a little shocked at what we found inside you. We both were. Let’s get some breakfast and I'll explain."

Elias led me into a small kitchen and gestured for me to sit at the table. I took one of the chairs and he set a glass of water and orange juice down in front of me before pulling out eggs, pre-cooked bacon, and bread. I downed both glasses and he refilled them as he started cooking. I waited for him to speak, aware on some level he was nervous about what he was about to say. The senses that had gone ballistic during the unbinding were still at level ten and I was barraged with smells, sounds, and emotions.

Elias set the plates on the table, sat down, and finally spoke. “It’s only been four hours, Aidan. You should have been out for days, maybe a week. In four hours, your body has completely healed and your mind seems to have recovered every moment you lost. We didn’t intend to spy on your memories, but you can do things our people shouldn’t be able to do. And this bind wasn’t placed on you by Rhi. It wasn’t done to hurt you. A Hunter did this to protect you.”

Elias paused, running a hand through his red hair before saying, “He didn’t just bind you, Aidan. The Hunter gave you a part of him. He shared his power with you. You are part AniMage and part Hunter. Right now, we don’t know what that means, who he was, or why one of them would ever help one of us. All we know is you are something we’ve never seen before, and if there was any question before, there is none now. You are our King.”

I was their King.
Being an AniMage felt right. Being their King felt ludicrous. And knowing I had the most evil power out there running through me was deflating at best, depressing at worst. But now was the time to deal in facts, rather than dwelling over more unknowns. And the fact was, I was whole, I was free, and I had everything I needed to get to Amelia.

Chapter 18

I
opened my eyes to find myself in the woods, lying on bed of leaves and staring up through empty branches. I exhaled a shaking breath, wondering whether these dreams were a matter of protection. Did my head bring me here because it knew I couldn’t handle the real world anymore? But Cole was fine. He had to be. When I got up from his body, he was breathing and his power was unbound. I was certain of it.

Micah had to have put the cuff back on my arm. It was the only explanation for the reaction from my Keeper. I silently thanked whoever was up there for the Keeper, but also for Micah doing what he had. I would have gone after Rhi. I would have broken down every door and killed whomever was in my way to get to him. There was no question. And I wasn’t a killer. That was what scared me most about her. She turned me into someone I wasn’t and made me want to be that person. She made me crave the destruction she loved.

I lay back against the leaves, hearing them crunch beneath me as I waited for Aidan to come. So far, every time I’d woken up here, he had been there as well. I needed the relief my mind had been giving me and smiled at the thought of him—even in wolf form. I wanted to curl into his chest and splay my fingers in his fur while I told him what had happened today. I needed his reassurance that I had made the right choice and it was going to be okay—that whatever I woke up to, I could face.

But he wasn’t here, and the longer I sat there, the more frustrated I became. This was my dream, damn it. I sat up, saying as much. “Come on! These are supposed to be the dreams I want to have, so give him to me!” I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to communicate with my own subconscious, but my heart was still racing and I was so agitated. The after-effects of the Keeper were a mad rush in my system and all I wanted was the proximity to Aidan I knew would bring me balance.

I shoved myself up from the ground and decided to go searching. He had to be here somewhere. As I worked my way through the bare trees, I could hear something. The sound went from an echo on the wind to drumming in my ears and my heartbeat raced. Cries wrought with pain filled my mind and stole my breath. I worried the Keeper had taken some of Cole’s memories of Rhi’s torture, but those weren’t Cole’s cries. They were Aidan’s. Every fiber of my being reacted to his bellowing howls as adrenaline shot through me. He was here somewhere and I had to get to him.

I ran, yelling Aidan’s name as I tore through the forest in search of him. His agony was torture. My lungs ached and my muscles burned as I ran harder, but it didn’t matter how far I ran or loud I hollered his name, the sounds coming from Aidan never changed in volume. I couldn’t determine whether I was getting closer or farther away. I stopped, using a thick trunk to hold myself up as I heaved breaths in and out.

Trying to decide which path to take, I turned first right and then left, but the screams stopped. I stood still, a statue in the clearing. I took shallow breaths as I strained to find the sounds again, but there was nothing. I sat down in the exact spot I stood, my legs crossed and my hands in my lap. I tried not to make a sound as I scanned from one edge of my vision to the other. I waited, jumping at every rustle of leaves or snap of a twig. I waited for Aidan to appear, or the sounds to begin again, but neither happened. As the sun slowly started to go down, I lay down, pulling myself into a fetal position as tears slid from my eyes.

I couldn’t feel him. My power sought his, expanding out of me and searching everywhere it could reach. I had no idea where Aidan was or what had happened, but I was suddenly certain these were not dreams. I had felt the echoes of his pain ricocheting through my own body and it was very real. I pulled myself into the smallest ball possible, silent sobs wracking my frame. I had told myself I could protect him by making this choice. Now I had no idea if he was even alive.