Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) (30 page)

Elias,
Derreck, Nathaniel, Bethany, Will, Rynna, Charlie, and I had been in what we deemed “the war room” for hours. Charlie hadn’t left Bethany’s side and more than once, I found him looking up at me expectantly. We had been having the same conversation, over and over. The AniMages had been running from the Hunters for years. They had scattered across the globe in small packs, or alone, to evade the Hunters. Lately, the Hunters weren’t as focused on them and no one knew why, but they wanted to attack. They wanted their vengeance and they wanted the Queen taken out.

Rynna, Nathaniel, and I had been making the same counterpoints, over and over. “We need to get Amelia out of there. She needs to fully mate with Aidan so she can access her power.” Rynna’s voice was becoming clipped and I could sense her frustration. I felt the same way, even though it was extremely uncomfortable to have people talking so blatantly about you “mating” with someone. Especially when that someone’s father was standing three feet from you, nodding like it was the most normal conversation in the world.

“She is the one who can end Julia’s reign,” Rynna continued. “It was foretold and that is how it will be. We cannot enter Cresthaven without the purest of intentions. We can only go in to get her out.”

Voices raised over each other and the room was suddenly too small and too loud. “Enough.” I didn’t yell or pound my fist on the table like I wanted to, but I put the alpha power I’d found into it, shutting the AniMages in the room up and allowing the Mages to feel the maddening frustration inside me.

Bethany stood across from me with a quirked brow and a small smile. She crossed her arms and gave me a short nod. At least someone aside from me was impressed that it had worked.

“We’re wasting time,” I said, looking around the table at each person. “We are leaving tonight and we’re going to get Amelia. We are not going after Julia
yet
.” I looked at Will and Elias. Will glared while Elias nodded. “I understand what you’ve told and shown me, but we have to be smart about this. We will go back, but right now, we have one objective and it is to get Amelia out. Now, can someone explain to me the best way to accomplish our objective?”

Derreck stepped up to the table and the large map laid across it. “We’re here,” he said as he pointed toward our location in Northern California, “and Cresthaven is here, in Washington.” Hundreds of miles stretched between our two locations and the distance only served to make me more anxious. “Rynna, Nathaniel, Bethany, and I will leave tonight and drive through the night. We’ll take all the supplies we can in my truck and we’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.”

Charlie started barking low, quick yips until Derreck muttered something about damned dogs and turned to him. “And yes, Charlie, we will stop by my place, pick up Onyx, and the two of you will come with us.” Charlie sat back on his hind legs, his ears standing straight up. If Great Danes could smile, I would say he was.

“Rynna?” Derreck gave her the floor and Rynna laid a different map over the first. This one was of a giant home on a huge acreage.

“My sister surrounds herself with only Hunters. Both male and female, though, typically, the Huntresses are inside the home cooking and cleaning. They act as her servants. The men patrol both the building and the grounds. They are all controlled by the collars they wear. The collars only activate when Julia wishes them to, but she has the ability to control their actions and see through their eyes at any time. It’s a drain on her to do so, but she can and will.

“We aren’t going to have a lot of time to get in and get Amelia out, but as a direct family member, I have the ability to get in the house without it setting off alarms and alerting the Hunters.”

I kept leaning down toward the map, squinting as I tried to figure out what exactly I was looking at. “What is this? What’s behind the house? Is something wrong with this map?”

“Good gravy, Aidan. Haven’t you ever seen
The Labyrinth
?" Bethany had stayed fairly quiet during the discussion, and her voice coming from the corner of the room surprised me. “You know,” she continued, “David Bowie? Hoggle? The babe? The babe with the power?”

I just kept staring at her, having no clue what she was talking about. Her eyebrows rose and she threw a hand in the air, saying, “Oh, you are hopeless. It’s a maze, Aidan.”

I caught Will, of all people, humming. “Is that from the movie?” I asked, clearly judging him.

He shrugged. “I’m an AniMage, not an animal. I’ve had a TV.”

I shook my head. “Let’s get back on track. There’s a maze. Can we use it?” I turned to Rynna for answers.

She nodded. “We won’t just use it. The maze is our lifeline. Julia and the Hunters refuse to enter the maze. The Elders enchanted it and it has the ability to sense the intentions of those inside of it. It will give you what you need, if your intentions are pure. We are on a rescue mission and it will know. But it also means we have to be very selective with who we take.” Rynna paused for a moment and looked around the table. “As we just saw, there are AniMages who question Aidan and will likely have more than just the rescue on their minds. Those people cannot come inside with us. The maze will never allow them to leave.”

“Cheese and rice, you Immortals like to make things uber-complicated,” Bethany muttered from her end of the table and I caught a snort from Charlie, his form of agreement. I nodded in solidarity.

“So, we’re going to use the maze to get in, be selective about the people who come with us—maybe Elias can do his ‘invade your brain’ thing to vet them—and then how are we going to find her? Or figure out whether Cole is there, too? And how in the hell are we going to get them out before the Hunters kill us all?” There were seven or eight more questions rolling around in my head, but those were the most relevant.

It felt overwhelming. There were so many angles to consider and situations that could arise. And while my brain was supposed to be focused on being a leader and making a battle plan, it was bouncing between the conversation at hand and Amelia. I’d had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach all day. I hadn’t had time to shift since the situation with Braxton and I wanted to find her in the dream place I knew existed. I wanted to hold her, reassure her we were on our way, tell her she didn't have to worry. Instead, I stood around a table, wondering if I was about to get myself, and all of the people who were now my responsibility, killed.

“Mikail will help us. He knows we are coming eventually and he will make sure we have a direct path to get to Amelia and, hopefully, Cole. We don’t even know that he’s there, but right now, we have to go with the assumption. Since we’ve decided on the plan, I will use Tragar to get him the message and he’ll be ready. He’s been working with Amelia to help her prepare for what’s coming, and I know he’s taken care of her.” Rynna kept talking, but those last words sent jealousy roaring through me. My wolf howled and the rumbling mix of emotions, frustrations, and fear had me close to shifting.

A hand clamped down on my shoulder and I whipped around, ready to take someone’s head off.

“Hey!” Elias put both hands up as he pulled away. “Bring it down a notch, eh? You aren’t listening because you’re too busy worrying about the Prince hanging out with your girl, and you need to hear what she just said.”

“Stay out of my head, Elias.” The words were close to a growl as I said them. He laughed and it only shot my rage higher.

“I wasn’t in your head. All anyone has to do is look at you to see the green-eyed-monster rearing his ugly head. Well, technically, yours are blue right now, but you get the drift.”

I gazed around the room and everyone looked away awkwardly, focusing on anything but me. Charlie let out a snort. Bethany was rolling her eyes, but I also saw the flicker of pain she was trying to suppress as we talked about Micah.

“Oh, don’t you look at me like that, Aidan! I don’t need your pity. He’s not even worth the energy of a kick in the bits, which is exactly what he deserves.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared. Not at me, but I was sure there was a continued rant going on inside her head. I’d had one too many of those lately and could relate.

“It wasn’t pity for you, B. It was pity for him. The poor guy probably has more to be worried about when the two of you see each other again than anyone in there.” I gave her a smile, trying to diffuse the hostility I could feel growing in the room. I was rewarded with a laugh and her posture relaxing.

“Okay," I said. “Rynna, give us the run down. I want to understand, step by step, how you see us getting in and out. I’d like to know when and how we’re contacting Micah, we need to decide who’s coming with us, and then I want to get on the road. We’re walking into a complete shit show and we all know it.” I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “We have no idea where Amelia or Cole could be inside this place, or what kind of condition they are in. We hope we can fend off the Hunters, but we can’t be sure. This whole thing is a crap shoot.”

“You shouldn’t be going with us.” I was surprised to hear Amelia’s father finally speak. He’d watched and listened, but he had yet to voice an opinion.

“I’m sorry?” I had much less pleasant responses on the tip of my tongue, but this was Amelia’s dad.

Nathaniel took a step forward and leaned his hip on the edge of the table. “You shouldn’t be going. You’re the King of the AniMages and her mate, she is going to need you. You can’t die trying to get her out or all of this is for nothing. Without you, she can’t fulfill her destiny or the prophecy. And from what I understand, my daughter cares for you. The last thing she needs is to lose another person she cares about.”

Not once had I stopped to think about the danger to myself. Even now, as I understood what he was saying to me and knew it made sense, it didn’t matter. I straightened and looked Nathaniel in the eyes, trying to make my intentions as clear as possible. “No disrespect, sir, but I’m going in there. She needs me and we have no clue what our connection means or what it can provide her. Me being there could be essential in getting her out alive. There’s no prophecy without both of us, so I will either bring your daughter home, or I will die trying.”

I
was shoving clothes into a bag, my mind in a hundred places at once, when Bethany came into the room we had shared. She leaned against the doorframe, trying to look casual, but she was fidgeting.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?" She spoke softly, nothing about her question threatening or judgmental.

I stopped what I was doing and laid my palms flat on the bed, my head dropping. “No. I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing.” I turned my head and met her eyes. “But I have to. I have to get to her. The feeling that she’s in trouble keeps getting stronger. I can’t leave her there.”

It felt good to say it out loud. To drop the bravado of being a leader and acknowledged that I was scared shitless.

Bethany came over and sat on the bed, patting the blanket beside her. I sat down.

“Did you ever imagine, in the furthest, remote corners of your mind, that this is where we would be today?” She laughed, a dry, brittle laugh, making me wonder whether she was also close to breaking.

“You know you don’t have to stay here, or even come with us. You can go home to Mississippi. You can disappear. I’ll help you.” The last thing I wanted was for her to get hurt. Amelia would never forgive me, and we had become friends.

In true Bethany fashion, she punched me in the shoulder. “Shut your mouth. I’m staying. Amelia is the closest thing I’ve had to what family is supposed to be in my life.”

“I guess I don’t know much about you. What’s your story?” I asked.

She shrugged, but looked away from me. “Not much to tell really.”

I flashed a sarcastic smile. “Not possible. We all have a screwed up story to tell.”

“I’m southern. We don’t air our dirty laundry.” She smiled as she allowed a little more of her accent to show through.

“I’m a guy. You can tell me or not. I’m just saying, if you want to, I’m sitting here.” I sat silent and waited, giving her time to decide. I’d never had friends who were girls. Girls wanted to date me, girls wanted to hook up, but I hadn’t had girls who were just friends. It was easier to let my charm do the work than building relationships I knew would end as soon as I was relocated to another family in a different city.

“I am the stereotypical southern girl,” she said. “I was raised on the pageant circuit with a mom who wanted me to live out the dreams she never got to. When I was finally able to convince her I really wanted to spend my time on a horse instead of a stage, she pushed me into barrel racing, so I could still be the beauty queen in sparkles and rhinestones, while I won bigger trophies and more money. My dad loved coming on rodeo trips with us, but only so he could disappear into the stables and play back room poker games with the cowboys. I can’t tell you how many nights I ended up dragging Daddy, drunk and broke, out of a barn and back to the hotel, while Momma got schnaukered with the other moms.”

“Is that what you meant when you told me you’d dealt with worse guys than me?” I’d been curious about her comment since she’d made it, but it had never felt like it was the right time to ask.

She snorted an indignant huff of air, telling me memories she likely didn’t want were racing around her head.

“Imagine being a pretty seventeen-year-old girl, surrounded by cowboys telling you your daddy owes them money. How exactly do you think they imagined getting their payment?”