Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) (23 page)

Pounding
on my door woke me and I was confused to be in my bed. My eyes were swollen from crying and I was still tucked into a ball on my side. I heard Micah on the other side, yelling, “I’m coming in!”

I sat up, pulled the covers around me, and rubbed my eyes, unsure of what was real and what was in my head. Had I finally lost it?

Micah looked concerned and my head finally caught up to reality. “Cole?” My voice was a croak in my throat and my stomach clenched as I spoke.

“He’s sleeping in my room. It was the only safe place for him.” Micah stood back and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“What?” I threw the covers off and stalked to the bathroom. It was satisfying not to wait for his answer, and even more so to let the bathroom door slam behind me. I wasn’t mad at Micah, but I was a mess.

My heart ached with worry and guilt for Aidan and my brother. They were both in danger because of me and there was nothing I could do about it. Aidan could actually…no, I couldn’t go there. He had to be okay. He just had to be. I stared into the mirror and wondered who this girl was. This girl who was challenging Hunters and Queens and fighting with power she didn’t understand. I wished I could have taken my mother’s journals from the library. There had to be information in them I could use. I sighed and tried to focus on the issue at hand. Micah was in my bedroom, looking stressed, which only meant something bad was about to happen.

It took a few minutes to brush my teeth, wash my face, and pull my hair into a knot on top of my head. When I came back out, Micah was sitting at the small table in the corner. I came up behind him and saw his leg bouncing up and down as he tapped his hand on the table.

I tucked myself into the chair opposite him, pulling one leg under me. “He saw me. He saw everything. They know about the cuff and what I can do, don’t they?”

He nodded, his expression solemn. When his eyes finally connected with mine, for the first time, I saw fear. Micah had been preparing me ever since I arrived but he had never let on that he was afraid for me. It was part of what gave me strength. He was concerned about how I would handle things, but he had never been afraid
for me
.

A lump formed in my throat. My mouth went dry and my tongue felt huge. My stomach rolled and I thought I was going to throw up right there. I swallowed down the acidic taste and took a deep breath.

“What do I do?” I asked quietly.

Micah didn’t speak for a moment. “She’s asked for you. Just you, in her chambers. I’m not allowed to join you. I don’t know what's about to happen, Amelia. But she knows. Rhi saw everything. He felt the bonds breaking, which has only happened to him one other time, and he’s spent his life searching for the man who broke his spell. I’ve…I’ve just never seen anything like it. Did you know you had those abilities?”

I shook my head, jerky motions that didn’t stop as my mind spun in circles, trying to guess what was about to happen. I was staring over Micah's shoulder, my head still bobbing back and forth when he reached out and grabbed my hand.

“It’s going to be okay, Amelia.” It was a lie and we both knew it. He couldn’t know whether it would be okay. “I can keep Cole safe for now. Bale is with him. You don’t have to worry. He’s already so much better. I think he’ll be awake in the next few hours and I think I can get him out of here. But you have to get ready and you have to have your wits about you.”

“Can you find Aidan?” The question slipped between my lips like a secret I wasn’t supposed to tell. I smashed my lips together as soon as it was out, but I couldn’t take it back. I needed to know if what I’d gone through last night meant anything. I had to know whether he was alive.

Micah’s nostrils flared as his eyes turned cold. “Aidan? Why? Do you really think he’s the person you need to be worried about right now?”

I shook my head. Aidan couldn’t matter right now and Micah probably wouldn’t believe me if I tried to explain. Besides, there was a chance Micah could be my mate. I needed to stay focused. “No. Just…never mind. It doesn’t matter. How long do I have?”

“One hour. That’s the best I could do.” Micah stood, staring down at me as his eyes softened. “Good luck, Amelia.”

I stood as well. We were just a few feet apart and there were so many words we could have said, but we said none of them. Finally, Micah nodded and moved to step around me toward the door. Before I could stop myself, I stepped directly in his path, my eyes filled with unshed tears as fear overtook my system and my mind ran rampant with the possibilities of what might happen. I looked up at him, my mind and heart a fractured, broken heap. Facts, emotions, and suppositions piled on top of each other so quickly, I couldn’t distinguish one from the next. I hadn’t even recovered from the day and night, let alone pulled myself together enough to handle the Queen.

Micah didn’t speak as he looked down at me, eyes filled with compassion and regret. He simply wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. The tears slowly slid down my cheeks and disappeared into his jacket as he held the back of my head against him. My own arms stayed down at my sides as I absorbed the heat from his body and the moment of safety he gave me. I couldn’t bear to pull myself from him and the sanctuary he provided, allowing me to be as broken as I’d felt for weeks.

Finally, he whispered, “You have faced everything head on, Amelia. You have persevered against all of the odds. You have controlled the uncontrollable. You have broken the unbreakable. You have given yourself—all of you—to this cause. You are stronger than you believe. You are more than we ever expected. You will survive this, too.”

I expected Baleon to walk me all the way to Julia’s chambers. He was sworn to protect me and I could have used the reassurance of at least one friendly face, even it was expressionless and silent. Instead, an unknown Hunter intercepted me and took me the rest of the way. I didn’t try to speak to him, but a part of me wanted to rage at him. To scream he was the one who was wrong. I was the good guy in all of this. But, it didn't matter. So, I just followed him as he led me down hallway after hallway until we reached her door.

He knocked twice and her muffled invitation to enter came back in response. He swung the door inward and gestured me inside. Some part of me had hoped he would come in as well. Even if he wasn’t on my side, I would have felt better knowing I wasn’t facing her alone. But he stood, holding the door, finally glaring down at me until I moved.

I took cautious steps into a large sitting room. The drapes were drawn closed, blocking out the daylight, and a fire burned in the fireplace as Julia stood at the mantle, staring down into the flames. She was wearing another gown, this time a deep scarlet, a stark contrast to her blond hair.

As I looked around, I couldn’t help but wonder when the Immortals planned to fully join the twenty-first century. Her clothes were medieval, as were the decorations all over Cresthaven. Even this room was filled with high-backed furniture in drab patterns, dark woodwork, and heavy tapestries.

She finally spoke, interrupting my musings. “You think I am a crazed woman. A tyrant who’s lost her mind. But you haven’t seen what I have, child.” Sadness permeated the space as she turned to face me.

“You hear their stories of the terrors I’ve ordered, but they don’t tell you of the losses before I took control. You hear of the terrible atrocities my Hunters have committed, but not of the races turning on each other. You idolize the Elders you come from, but you don’t understand what they withheld from us simply to maintain their hold on our people. I am not the monster everyone believes—even Mikail.” I couldn’t stop my eyes from widening and I cursed myself for confirming her statement.

She simply laughed. “I know what he sees when he looks at me. I know my son, Amelia.” Julia gestured to a couch near me as she sat in a high-backed chair.

I glanced from side to side, trying to get my bearings in the room before turning my back to half of it. My mind raced, trying to determine her angle. There had to be one. Micah had told me she was all about head games. I had to find a way to play her game.

I sat slowly, forcing myself to relax into the couch cushions. It was hard and uncomfortable, as I imagined she had intended. I swallowed. “I’ve heard many sides, your highness, but not yours. Is that why you’ve called for me?”

She closed her eyes for a moment, and for a split second, I both saw and felt her exhaustion and concern. It flooded the room, the emotion becoming thick in the air. She had to be opening herself up to me. I felt that she truly loved her people. She had been fighting for so long and couldn’t find the answers she needed, but she kept going. She refused to give up on them. She wanted my help and she was making it plainly clear.

“You are so young.” Her words startled me. While she still sat perfectly straight, she rested her chin in her palm, her elbow on the arm of the chair. She studied me and I could only do the same. “I was young once, too. I looked around at the world and thought I could make a difference. I thought I could live my dreams and have the life I wanted, but it was taken from me, brutally ripped from my hands and tossed in my face.

“I made choices, Amelia. Choices that didn’t feel like choices at all. My anger and my grief sent me down paths I hadn’t known existed and once I was there, it was too late. Do you know what it takes to control these Hunters?”

Her question surprised me even more than the honesty she was sharing. “N-No, your highness.” I stumbled over the words and forced myself to swallow, sitting straighter myself. “I can’t imagine, your grace.”

The corner of her painted lips rose in a wry smile. “Of course you don’t, because you are a child with power you don’t deserve.” I recoiled a little, but she continued. “The collars they wear link them to me. At any time, I can use them to control their actions or see their thoughts. They are an army belonging to me. But it requires power I thought was lifelong. It is not. And I need your cuff so I can continue. I need you to give it to me, Amelia.”

“Excuse me?” There were no respectful pleasantries. The words just fell out of my mouth as I stared at her. I couldn’t reconcile her confession of waning power, or her belief I would hand over my cuff simply because she asked.

“Rhi saw what you did yesterday, Amelia. You need to use your power. You need to embrace it and channel it. You don’t need the cuff for control. You don’t need control. You just need to try harder. You’re an Elder, which means your power can be used at will. This is an opportunity and you have to stop running from it.”

I couldn’t even speak. She had absolutely no clue what she was saying. All along, I thought she understood the prophecy and what was happening, but she thought I was actually choosing not to use my power rather than actively working to figure out how.

“You need to look around you, child, and realize you are lucky. You will marry my son. You will have glorious little babies filled with the most powerful magic ever known and you will be the beginning of a new era. You will continue to build the Mages to their rightful place and we will create the next dynasty.” She looked so sure, so eager. I could only continue to stare at her as the words replayed in my head. I tried to connect the excitement and hope I saw in her eyes with the realities of what she’d outlined.

I swallowed. It was a dry, worthless act, but it made me think before I spoke. “Do you truly believe it is so simple? Do you even understand what I have inside me? And you think I’m just going to go along with this demented plan of yours simply because you said so? I’m just going to marry Micah and pop out some babies and the world will be right? Have you lost your mind?”

I had wanted to be deferential and appropriate, but the panic lodged in my chest and the subsequent anger over her ignorance took over the connection between my mind and my mouth.

The Queen sighed and stood. “As I suspected, you are still a foolish child. With everything you’ve seen and what you know I can do to you and those you love, you still refuse to do your duty. You are willful and disrespectful and everything I despised about your mother. She refused to fall in line and play her part as well.” Julia closed her eyes for a brief second and I heard the door open.

I jumped to my feet just as arms closed around me from the back. I struggled, kicking and shooting blasts at the feet of whomever was restraining me, screaming out for Micah and Baleon. I got half of Micah’s name out before my limbs were locked at my side and my mouth snapped shut. Julia’s fingers pinched my chin and turned my face to hers. I was just inches from her and her bright red eyes.

“I want you to understand I tried to do this the nice way,” she hissed. “I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, as my son asked me to. Mikail obviously did not do a good enough job convincing you during your time together. And you don’t even appreciate having your brother returned to you.” She shook her head slowly, a low “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” accompanying the movement.

Arguments and counter points were swirling in my mind as Rhi moved from behind me and stepped next to the Queen. I had instantly known it was him controlling me. With a tight-lipped smile, looking far too satisfied, he yanked my sleeve up. As he reached for the cuff, the Queen stopped him.

“No. Let me.” She looked like a kid in a candy store, her eyes wide as she stared. I waited, staring at her, knowing if she removed the cuff, I would destroy everything. I would end them and this could all be over. They didn’t realize this. She didn’t know what was truly inside of me. I stopped resisting and instead, hoped she would. I was tired of it all.