Bound by Prophecy (Bound Series Book 3) (7 page)

I
paced
the seven steps across the small parlor of Derreck’s basement apartment for the tenth time. “This is bloody ridiculous, Baleon. She’s been awake since last night. When is she coming out? We need to plan, make decisions,
do something
.”

I kicked at a small ottoman and sent it flying across the room, using my power to stop it from hurtling through the window at the last second. I rarely allowed frustration to get the better of me, but there was too much at stake. Lives. Our future. My people needed action. I needed action and Amelia was integral.

Bale looked at me with one arched eyebrow as the ottoman floated back to its original position. “She cannot physically keep you out of the room, Prince Mikail. Just go speak with her.” Of course, Baleon would completely disregard her personal preferences and simply use brute strength to do the job.

“That will not exactly grant me a welcome audience, Bale,” I said with a sigh.

“You could use these as leverage,” he said, pulling pages from his satchel. I stared open-mouthed at my guard.

“When did you get these? How did you get these? Why didn’t you tell me?” The questions fell from my mouth as a grin developed, though I didn’t actually care for answers.

Bale lifted one shoulder and with his normal cryptic sarcasm, said, “It is my job to know what you need and when you will need it.”

“And you do a damn fine job of it,” I said as I took the pages and dropped onto the couch. Amelia’s mother’s journal would surely win me at least a few minutes with her. I didn’t allow myself to read the pages, as much as my curiosity tried to get the better of me. Instead, I went through and organized them once again. When all of the pages were in order, I stood and gave Bale a quick smack on the shoulder, thanking him once more. He nodded and shook his head at me as I strolled outside.

As I made my way up to the main house and let myself inside, I wondered how Tragar was doing. The old librarian was on a short list of people I cared for and he had been through too much.

I stayed focused on the mission at hand, but made sure to say hello and exchange a few words with the Mages and AniMages I’d been introducing myself to. With each group, my welcome seemed to increase. Some called out to me and asked how I was. Outside of my experience in Brighton, it was the first time I was treated like a normal person, and I quite enjoyed it.

Smiling to myself, I rounded the corner and found Bethany and Aidan arguing outside Amelia’s door.

“Damn it, Ame,” Bethany yelled over Aidan’s shoulder at the closed door, “I’m sick to death of you acting like you aren’t in there. I’m going to kick down that damn door and drag you out here by your damn hair. Do you know what I’ve been through for you? What we’ve all been through for you? You’re being a selfish little—”

“Enough!” Aidan yelled. His voice echoed down the hall, causing Bethany to take a step back. That step only lasted half a second before she was right back in his face, her yelling directed at him this time. I pitied the poor guy, but I surely wasn’t giving her another reason to hate me.

“Oh, no you don’t, Aidan Montgomery. All you’re doin’ is makin’ this worse. You’re just makin’ ‘xcuses for her being A DAMN DRAMA QUEEN.” Bethany’s accent was as thick as her anger and wanting to kiss her should have been the last thing I thought, but it was what it was. I almost stepped in between them when the door opened and Amelia came into view.

The bags under her eyes were pronounced. Her face was gaunt and her clothes looked too big and too long worn. I made eye contact with Aidan and he looked at me with begging eyes. Amelia’s solitude was clearly not his choice either. I jerked my head to the side and he wisely removed himself from between the two girls.

Amelia spoke quietly, the calm in her voice unnerving and unlike her. “You don’t understand, Bethany. You can’t. I took something. I took something that wasn’t mine to take and I don’t know how to give it back.” Her voice cracked, despair slipping through. Amelia paused and shook her head. Her hands trembled slightly and she closed her eyes. After a brief second, she exhaled and the shaking stopped. The very power she spoke of helped to keep her hysteria at bay. “I don’t even know how I did it in the first place. I’m dangerous. I am a danger to every Immortal.”

“Then it’s a damn good thing I’m not an Immortal, isn’t it?” Bethany threw the rhetorical question out as she gave Amelia a caring, but impatient look.

“Honey, I know all of that and it doesn’t matter,” Bethany’s voice softened. “Your brother is fine. He might not be happy, but he’s alive and we’re figuring it out. Everyone knows what happened, and no one wants you to hide in here. We want to see you, to help you.
I want to help you
. I miss you, Ame. I’m not one of you and until two days ago, I was the only human here and completely worthless. I just want my best friend back.” Her last words were a hushed admission meant only for Amelia’s ears. I felt like an intruder on the moment.

“Oh, B,” Amelia choked out as she allowed a single tear to slide down her cheek. The girls fell into each other’s arms, both talking simultaneously. They moved toward the room and I knew I could not lose my chance.

“Amelia?” I called out. She looked up at me in surprise as I came down the hall. Bethany glared daggers, but that was our normal exchange.

“I apologize for intruding, but I wanted you to know that I, too, have been waiting for you to emerge. I thought you might want these.” I held out the pages and watched her eyes grow wide as she realized what they were.

“You brought them,” she whispered.

“I will have to give Baleon the credit. He had the forethought to ask Tragar for them, but I am glad to put them in their rightful hands.” I smiled as Amelia gingerly took the stack of pages. Bethany and Aidan looked at both of us curiously.

“It’s my mother’s journal. Something we found while I was at Cresthaven,” Amelia explained. “Tragar, who you would love, B, is a little old man who hates Hunters and grumbles all the time in the most adorable way. He kept them and hid them, hoping to someday give them to me. I had only just begun reading them when I was taken downstairs. I thought I would never see them again.” She looked back at me and the happiness brightening her expression was a relief. “Please thank Baleon, Micah.” Her eyes shone with more tears, which was not what I wanted to see. I wanted strong Amelia to return.

“You tell him yourself,” I said, shaking my head at her. “Bethany is right, you cannot hide any longer. You did what was necessary and now you have to be the woman you were meant to be. There are people here who need someone to fight for. They’ve already rallied around Aidan and they wait to rally around you. The fight is coming. We can’t stop it. You are wasting time. You cannot outrun destiny, Amelia. And you will never find a set of people who believe in you more than the people you have here.”

I hadn’t expected to say so much, or be so personal, but it was the truth. And the way Bethany’s eyes softened as I spoke, how she looked at me for the first time like she remembered what we were…I needed that as much as Amelia needed to hear me.

Amelia looked between the three of us, holding her mother’s journal in one hand with her arm wrapped around her best friend and her mate standing feet from her, and said, “They’re wrong. You’re all wrong. I’m not part of some destiny, or prophecy. What I am is a curse.”

“
O
h
, that is it,” Bethany said with a huff. Grabbing me by the elbow, she pulled me back into the bedroom, slamming the door in Aidan and Micah’s face. She shoved me toward the bed with one hand and shooed Charlie off with the other to make room for herself. He let out an indignant snort and settled on the rug on the floor.

Once she situated herself against the pillows, she said, “You know, I would just about kill someone for a latte,” as if nothing were different and we were at home in our apartment, not in the middle of the woods fresh off a conversation about the fate of the Immortal races and my role in it.

“Yeah?” I responded drily.

She bent one leg and pulled it under her. Her nose wrinkled as she said, “Seriously, Ame, these people have no class. The AniMages run around here, shifting all the time, leaving their shreds of clothes everywhere and setting a terrible example for little Dillon. Though, his mamma is the sweetest and has been doing everything for Nell.” She stopped and tilted her head. “You remember her, right? Her babies are gonna come any minute and I cannot
wait
to play with them. Cora tells me they’ll stay kittens for at least a few months, and if they have power, Nell can start teaching them how to switch back and forth. And the Mage women…bless their hearts. Don’t get me wrong, that crazy psycho Queen put them through the ringer, but
all
they do is complain about their pregnancies. Their backs hurt, their feet are swollen, the baby is sitting on their bladder — their bladder! Have they no shame? Who talks about their bladder in public? Can you even believe it?”

She went on, her arms swirling as she punctuated her comments with grand gestures and the most ridiculous facial expressions. She raised and lowered her voice to mimic Elias’s Irish lilt and a little boy named Dillon who seemed oddly formal for a ten-year-old. From her story, I suspected he was very much in love with one Bethany Jackson.

She mimicked the women’s complaints and I couldn’t stop the laughter from coming. Soon, tears leaked from my eyes. I wanted Bethany to keep making me laugh and telling me stories, but we both knew that wasn’t why we were in here.

“I appreciate the distraction, B, and I needed to laugh more than I even realized, but this doesn’t change anything,” I said as I met her eyes, keeping my tone level. “I’m a danger to these people. Even without the Keeper, I don’t know what I’m capable of. I can’t be out there among them. It’s reckless. And the women with babies…what if I hurt their kids? I’d never forgive myself.” I was shaking my head as the “what if” thoughts swirled around and the worst of the worst ended up planted in my mind.

When I looked up at Bethany, I expected her to be nodding and giving me the appropriate amount of sympathy. Instead, I met one sculpted eyebrow and a scowl.

“What?” I asked, my tone a little more screechy than it should have been. I reached for Cole’s power. It had become instinct over the past day to call on the pilfered magic now floating in my veins alongside my own.

“You actually believe what you’re saying, don’t you?” she asked as she shook her head.

“Yes, B, I do believe it,” I said. I could see she didn’t understand, so I continued, allowing the calm inside to stretch into my tone. “Okay, let’s play this out. I go out there and start interacting with people. Someone touches me, or we’re attacked, or I just get scared…I have never had my own power without the Keeper being a part of me. I don’t know how I will react to any of those situations. I could hurt someone, don’t you understand?” I paused, and added quietly, “I stole my brother’s power. I changed him forever.”

I was shocked when she leaned in and in the most patronizing tone, said, “No, you didn’t. He gave it to you. He told you to take it. He told you it was yours and you needed it and it was the reason your mamma gave him all that power anyway.”

My head shot up as she continued. “Do you know how I know that? I know because
he told me so
. And do you know what that means, Miss ‘nobody likes me, I should go eat worms’? That means he doesn’t hold this against you. And if he doesn’t hold it against you, you
damn well can’t hold it against yourself
.” With each of those last words, she tapped me in the middle of my chest and then sat back, crossed her arms, and silently dared me to argue.

I stared at her, opening and closing my mouth as I tried to find the right words, but nothing came. Finally, I snapped my mouth shut and Charlie snorted, an amused little grunt that came with a wave of emotion that said
I told you so
.

“Oh, shut up, dog. I don’t need to be tag-teamed.” I threw the words over my shoulder as I crossed my own arms and scowled at Bethany’s growing grin.

“Just because Cole doesn’t hate me doesn’t invalidate the rest. I could hurt people. Those women and their babies. I still don’t know what’s inside me.” My head bounced back and forth in time with my quiet retort, but she just rolled her eyes.

“You don’t even understand what’s out there, Ame. All those Mages and AniMages have crazy special abilities and
he
has been out there cataloging them all,” she said, absently waving her hand toward the door Micah stood behind.

“We’ve also got Baleon here, and Elias, and even Aidan. Who knows what’s locked up inside Mr. AniMage King out there? Everybody here is in the same boat. Nobody knows who’s got what, what they are entirely capable of, or what’s going to happen to them, but you know what they all do know?”

She waited for me to respond, her smug smirk making her impatience clear. “What?” I finally asked with a sigh.

“They know they’ve been hearing ‘bout this ‘prophecy’ their whole lives and now the two people clearly called out in it are within fifty feet of them and
nothing is happening
because one of them is too chicken shit to do anything about it.” I hadn’t seen Bethany like this. Normally, she was so supportive, but right now, she was ripping me a new one. I didn’t really know how to take it.

This time, I didn’t attempt to calm myself down. “Where do you get off—”

“Oh, honey,” she cut in, “you do
not
even wanna go there with me. This friendship is about truth, even when it’s ugly, and right now, it’s really freaking ugly. But nothing —
nothing, Ame
— can move forward for these poor people without you. They took on a crazy Queen and her passel of Hunters
for you
. They risked their lives and the lives of whatever family they have left because they believe
in you
. And do you know what they are? They’re
freaking grateful
. So, why don’t you just get over your damn self, go out there, and at least meet them? See if they can help you the way they hope you can help them. Give them a chance. Like it or not, these are your people.”

My people.
Damn it if she wasn’t right. They were my people and right now, they were sitting ducks while I hid in here, afraid to face the unknown when the unknown was all they’d had for years.

“When did you get so smart about all this?” I asked, disbelief clouding what I thought was crystal clear vision.

She shrugged, her lips twisting into a facetious smirk. “I pay attention.”

Charlie snorted again, and I had to laugh. “Well, I can see it’s useless to argue anymore, but the first place I want to go is to see my brother.”

She stood up and smacked her hands together. “I knew you’d listen to me eventually. And Cole needs you. Let’s go.”

Bethany flung open the door and both Micah and Aidan jumped. “Time to get this party started, boys. One kickass Elder reporting for duty.”

Aidan grinned at me over her shoulder and I couldn’t stop myself from doing the same.

C
ole’s room
wasn’t far from mine, maybe twenty feet. I was torn between wanting to hole myself in my room so I could read the journal Micah had given me and facing Cole, but my mother was still dead and I had to be certain my brother didn’t hold my heinous act of magic thievery against me. So, I followed Bethany down the hall, my hand locked tightly in Aidan’s. Micah gave me an encouraging smile as he stepped aside, falling in behind us.

Aidan squeezed my hand and the little jolt that came with it was filled with reassurance and positivity. I looked up at him and he was smiling down at me. “What?” I asked, unsure of how to take the blatant joy on his face.

“You’re here, doll. For a while, I wasn’t sure you ever would be, but you are. And we’re doing this,” he said as he held up our joined hands. “We’ll deal with the rest of it, Ame, just always fall back on the fact that we are in this together.”

His eyes were storm clouds at dusk, depths of unending gray. I wanted to fall into him. Thankfully, he was watching what was in front of us, and quickly yanked me into his chest before I walked right into Bethany’s back.

“Sheesh, you two. We’re on official business here. Wait until later to do all your lovey making up.” Her sarcasm was light and her smile was big. B threw me a wink before rapping on Cole’s door.

“Special delivery!” she called out.

“I don’t want any of your damn cookies, Princess, how many times do I have to tell you—” Cole was scolding Bethany before he even opened the door. His voice dropped away when he saw me.

We stood there for a moment, just staring at each other. I still felt nothing from him. I had held out hope this was a short-term issue, but clearly, it wasn’t.

I had no idea what my brother was thinking, which meant he could have lunged for my throat when he took a step toward me, but he didn’t. In two steps, I was engulfed in Cole’s arms and he was murmuring into my hair, “It worked. Oh, thank God, it worked.”

He still felt like Cole. I still fit inside his giant bear hug like I always had. He was a little smaller than I remembered, but outside of the void where his power had been, everything else about him was the same.

I let the comfort of this familiar space settle in, but soon, the realities did as well. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened, Cole. I’m just so sorry.” My shame choked me and I didn’t allow myself to reach for his power. I had to deal with these emotions. They lodged in my throat and hollowed out my chest. I clung to Cole and the words were an incoherent stream.

“It just hurt so much,” I whispered. “And he was just there and I couldn’t do it. And everything he did to her, he did to me. Every bind, it was like he was ripping me apart. I just couldn’t. I wouldn’t have survived. But, I didn’t realize. I didn’t know. Why did you let me do this?” I asked.

I felt Aidan behind me, restraining himself.

Cole had been rubbing my back, letting me go on, but as I quieted down, he pulled back from me. He looked down at me with deep brown eyes that held no anger or hostility.

“It was the only way, Ame,” he said. “Mom gave me that power for one reason, to help you when you needed it most. We always assumed it was your outbursts, but I think what we did was exactly what we had to do. And, yes, it hurt me, too. And yes, I miss my power, but I’m okay. Actually, I’m better than okay. I don’t feel
everything
. My mind isn’t a mess of everyone else’s emotions and I don’t have to build wall after wall to keep them out. My mind is quiet for the first time in more than twenty-five years, and that is okay with me.”

“Really?” I squeaked out the question, hardly able to believe he was telling the truth.

“What do you feel?” he asked.

I stopped pushing his power away, stopped forcing it to the outskirts of my system, and focused on how I felt. I felt calm and for once, my thoughts weren’t moving a hundred miles an hour. The hysteria that sat on the edge of my mind for months was finally a memory. His power layered over mine and I didn’t stop it. It created a film, a barrier of sorts, as it encased the violet smoke that made me who I was. I watched it fade, watched the neon green light I had forever associated with my brother absorb into me, and I knew he was right.

This was how it was meant to go. I didn’t feel everyone’s emotions like he did. I didn’t feel overwhelmed or even an intensified reaction to those around me. That power was never meant for him and his body knew it. It was meant for me.

I opened my eyes and looked up at him. “I feel right,” I said.

Cole wore his big brother
I told you so
look and it was just as irritating as it had always been. I loved that I was irritated and that he was here. We had both made it.

“Good, that’s how you should feel,” he confirmed, but then he looked away, his eyes lingering over my shoulder. I turned to look at Aidan and felt a twinge of suspicion.

“What aren’t you saying, Cole?” I asked.

“Aidan saw me after Cresthaven, and, Ame, I’ll be honest, it was bad,” he started, finally meeting my eyes again. “I don’t know what we did or what we unlocked during that first run with the Keeper, but it left me pretty screwed up. I thought I was losing my mind.

“You were able to take some of my power that first time, but it was like my system was fried. My power fluctuated in spikes I couldn’t control. I felt every emotion from every person here. I felt their deepest fears and their nightmares invaded my dreams. I didn’t sleep for days. I…I just wasn’t myself and I blamed you. But Bethany wouldn’t let me run away like I wanted to, and Aidan helped me see that you needed me. Then it was all happening again, but this time, I knew exactly what needed to be done. I don’t know how to explain it except to say something, or someone maybe, told me to just give it all to you, and that I would be okay. I heard it, as clear as you’re talking to me now, so I did it. And they were right, I am really okay.”

I pulled Cole in for another hug. I hated what he’d been through and what being there for me had done to him, but I was so glad to have my brother back.

I turned to face Aidan and Bethany. B fidgeted a little, giving away the awkwardness she felt at Cole’s admission. “I couldn’t very well let him just run off. I mean, really, Ame, you would have killed me,” she said as she flipped her hair back over her shoulder and failed miserably at making light of things. I stepped forward and yanked her into a hug.