The Bound Read online

Then, Avoca’s magic disappeared. It happened so suddenly. The connection fizzled out.

  Cyrene’s mouth dropped open. That couldn’t mean something had happened to her. She would know. She had to know if that’d happened. It felt more like when she walked out of a dark room and into the light. Her system was shocked, and she couldn’t see properly.

  She had been so in tune with what was happening internally that she hadn’t even been paying attention to where Robard was taking her.

  “Hey, where are we?” she asked, trying to break away from him.

  “I think they went in there,” Robard said. He pointed at an open door.

  “No, I don’t think—ooph!”

  Robard had shoved her through the door. She turned to run out of it, but he slammed it in her face. She tried the handle, but it was locked.

  “What are you doing?” she screamed.

  A face appeared at a slit opening in the face of the door.

  Alise stared back at her with a conceited grin. “Hello, Cyrene.”

  “Alise…let me go.”

  “Have a nice night,” Alise said cheerfully.

  Cyrene let loose a bloodcurdling scream, but wherever they had led her was far enough removed from the party that no one could hear her scream.

  Avoca didn’t regret her decision.

  She ground her teeth together and wove through the pressing crowd of strangers in the Eleysian ballroom. The smell of so many bodies together in one enclosed space was almost suffocating. She was sure, to normal humans, it didn’t smell bad at all. They wouldn’t be able to sense what she did, but it was perfectly clear to her. And it was giving her a splitting headache. Not to mention, the two glasses of icy liquid she’d had earlier and Cyrene’s behavior.

  Ugh, Cyrene!

  Avoca owed her a blood debt. Cyrene had saved her life during battle, and for that, Avoca would always be eternally grateful…and eternally trying to make up for the shame of it. But Cyrene did not make it easy on her to do any of those things. Cyrene’s unconventional ways had gotten them this far, but it always felt like she was diving into the unknown. And then she had just blown her off when Avoca was only doing her duty.

  She marched out of a pocket of overly perfumed women in deep purple dyed Eleysian dresses and continued toward the open air.

  She needed air. She needed earth. She needed to feel her magic and connection to the ground.

  This island with so many inhabitants was almost worse than Aurum had been. Every inch of land outside the palace was either water or a building. It drove her earth powers mad.

  An unmeasurable feeling of homesickness took her over. She missed the trees and canopies of Eldora along with her mother.

  Avoca swallowed back her emotions and forced the mask of indifference back on her face. Her greatest weapon was keeping herself in check and dousing her emotions. She was a trained Leif fighter, a powerful magical user, and the heir to the throne of Eldora. She damn well had to act like it.

  “Ava,” Ceis’f said.

  He appeared like a wraith out of nowhere. If she hadn’t had the two glasses of whatever that liquor was, she would have seen him coming. She should have felt him coming.

  “What is it, Roran?” she said, using the fake name Ceis’f had taken since being on the road.

  “You didn’t even see me coming,” he accused.

  “I don’t want or need your company tonight. Leave me be.”

  “I don’t trust you on your own in your…condition.”

  “My condition?” she spat at him. “I’ve had two drinks. Do you know how many you used to imbibe when you first came to Eldora?”

  Ceis’f froze and glared at her. She was being purposely hurtful, but she didn’t care. The way Ceis’f had been acting since they reached Eleysia had pushed her over the edge. She could hardly even look at him, and he was her only string tethering her to home.

  “I had reason,” he snapped.

  “Of course you did.”

  She turned her back to him and pushed down another corridor. This time, she could tell he was following her.

  She stopped in the middle of the hallway and whirled on him. “Stop following me!”

  “I will not let you go wandering off onto the palace grounds on a holy night with a temper while you’re full of drink,” Ceis’f said calmly.

  There was fire under his words, and she could practically see the flames licking at his fingertips. She had upset him enough to draw out his magic.

  “On a holy night in Eldora, I would have my hands in the earth, and my body would be full of energy. I wouldn’t need a drink because there would be enough power within me to satiate my thirst. But we’re not in Eldora, and right now, I’m not a princess for you to look after. So, leave me alone tonight,” she commanded. She tilted her chin up, like the princess she was.

  “Like it or not, Ava, you’re stuck with me.”

  “Ugh!”

  That was the last thing she’d wanted to hear.

  Avoca took off down the hallway. She could hear voices coming from an adjacent lot and saw the Queen and her daughter, Brigette, facing off with each other.

  “But I love him, Mother!” the Princess yelled. “You cannot do this!”

  “I am still Queen, Brigette. And so long as you are heir to the throne and live in my palace, you will do as I say until I draw my last breath, so help me Creator!” the Queen said.

  Avoca shook her head and kept running. That felt all too familiar. And though she had never loved another man while in Eldora, she could feel the weight of the one who had been forced upon her, chasing after her down the hallway.

  Avoca nearly ran headfirst into a large man blocking the hallway.

  “Ooph,” she said, stopping short. He looked like a guard, but he was in party attire. “Excuse me.”

  Ceis’f caught up to her then, and the man looked them both over and then stepped aside.

  Avoca took another turn, opening herself up to her magic and finding the source of the earth. It led her out a back exit of the palace. She was facing a large lake and could see the beautiful palace grounds stretch before her. She took a healing breath and held on to it. Her magic listened to her call, and she dropped to the ground to soak up the energy from the earth, as if satiating the hunger of a starving man.

  “Creator,” she breathed. “Thank you.”

  “Ava,” Ceis’f called. “You’re practically blinding with power. Cut it loose.”

  She shook her head and drank more in. “It’s amazing, Ceis’f.”

  “You need to stop,” he demanded. “There’s water everywhere. You don’t need so much earth.”

  She rounded on him. “That’s easy for you to say. Your main element is everywhere,” she said, gesturing toward the sky.

  “And it all smells wrong, Ava! I’m used to the forest air…the mountain air,” he said softer. “This is city air. It hardly calls to me the same. Now, get up, and let it go. If you want to feel in your element, then we should get off this island with hundreds of filthy humans and go home!”

  “Leave her alone,” a voice sounded behind them.

  Avoca lifted her head at the sound and smiled. Ahlvie. “You’re here.”

  “Stay out of this,” Ceis’f growled. His voice was low and dangerous.

  He had unconsciously shifted into a fighting stance. Avoca could see his flames licking at the palms of his hands.

  Orden grabbed onto Ahlvie and tried to haul him back. “Come on, Ahlvie. This isn’t your fight.”

  “Yeah, listen to the old man,” Ceis’f taunted.

  Orden glared at him. “I’ve stuck up for you through all of this. Tried to stay out of your business. Tried to keep all of you together. But you’re all determined to kill each other, aren’t you?”

  “If that’s what it takes,” Ceis’f growled low. The flames traveled up his arms, igniting with his rage.

  “Then so be it,” Orden said, releasing Ahlvie and crossing his arms.

  Ahlvie cocked a
smile and took light, easy steps, as if he didn’t’ see Ceis’f’s flames. “Nice trick,” he teased.

  “There’s more where this came from.”

  “Ceis’f, stop it,” Avoca said. She glared at him. “You’re acting like a child.”

  “This is a long time coming, Ava,” Ceis’f spat. “We’re going to have to settle this here and now.”

  “There is nothing to settle!” Avoca cried.

  “She’s right. When are you going to get it through your head?” Ahlvie said. He actually smiled.

  That was the thing about Ahlvie. Everything was a joke and carefree. But she knew, underneath that facade, he was very serious about his friends and extremely loyal, not to mention a skilled fighter.

  “She doesn’t want to go home. She doesn’t want you to try to control her. She just doesn’t want you.”

  Ceis’f glared, and without a second thought, he shot a fireball toward Ahlvie. Ahlvie’s eyes grew, but he threw himself out of the way. He rolled into a ball and then landed back on his feet.

  “Can’t take the truth?” Ahlvie taunted.

  “That’s not the truth.”

  Ceis’f pushed a burst of air right at Ahlvie. He couldn’t dodge that blast quickly enough and ended up getting knocked backward ten feet, landing on his ass.

  “If it’s not the truth,” Ahlvie said, staggering back to his feet, “then why are you fighting me?”

  “Because you’re a lying, manipulative, wretched human, just like the rest of them!” Ceis’f yelled, losing it.

  He pushed another blast of air toward Ahlvie, but Avoca had had enough.

  She drank in the magic that the fresh earth had given her and rocked the ground at Ceis’f’s feet. He tried to stand against the onslaught, but even he couldn’t avoid the effects of her magic. She was stronger than him. Only barely.

  “No more, Ceis’f,” she commanded. “It’s over.”

  She reached for more and more. She took water from the lake, swirled it around his body, and then threw him backward. He landed several feet away from her. She could see the anger clearly written on his face, but he would never come after her.

  “Ava…”

  “Ahlvie is not like the people who killed your family!” she yelled. “Not Ahlvie. Not Cyrene. Not Orden. Not Maelia. They are good and kind and flawed. Flawed like everyone is! If you cannot see that and accept that, then you are worse than the people who took your village from you. The loss of Aonia was horrible. So many Leifs were lost at one time due to savagery and the unknown, but holding on to the hatred and letting it be the fuel for your every action has poisoned you! And I could never be with someone who hates so fiercely.” Avoca turned from Ceis’f and looked at Ahlvie. He was staring at her, wide-eyed but unafraid. “I want someone who loves.”

  Their eyes met, and her heart leaped at the possibilities in that one gaze. She had no idea what she was doing. Getting involved with a human was…a terrible idea. She would live for hundreds, likely even thousands, of years, and he would have such a short life in comparison. The notion of loving someone she would lose was terrifying and horrifying, but she couldn’t let that fear rule her life the way hatred ruled Ceis’f’s.

  Avoca could feel the wrath coming off of Ceis’f, but she just didn’t care. She was tired of the control and the tiptoeing around Ceis’f. She wanted this. What else matters?

  She cleared the distance between she and Ahlvie, put her hand on the back of his neck, and pulled his lips down on top of hers. Her magic fled her body so suddenly at his touch that it left her body numb. In that moment, all she could feel was Ahlvie’s lips on her mouth, the hungry way he seemed to devour her, and the need rolling off of him. It had been growing for months. She had been an idiot for ignoring it.

  She would rather live, truly live, with him for even a short life than live without him for eternity.

  And then she heard a scream, as if it were ricocheting throughout her skull, and the bond that tethered her to Cyrene exploded. Avoca broke from Ahlvie’s lips and nearly fell over as she gasped for breath.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Ahlvie asked, reaching for her.

  “Cyrene,” she whispered.

  Cyrene grabbed at the door handle and pulled with all her might. She rattled it, using her weight to try to wrench it open, but it was no good. She couldn’t open the door. Alise and Robard had locked her inside a dark room in the middle of who-knows-where in the palace.

  “Help!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  She screamed and screamed for someone to find her until her entire body ached, and her voice was hoarse. If she kept this up, she would lose her voice, and then no one would ever find her.

  This couldn’t be happening. She had been so tuned in to what was happening to Avoca that she wasn’t even paying attention to Robard.

  Creator! I am such an idiot.

  She hadn’t felt comfortable with Robard, yet she had allowed him to lead her. Of course, Alise was in league with him all along. She had thought that Alise was angry and bitter, but she had thought that it was over. Cyrene should have known that Alise was plotting while she was silent. She didn’t even know why Alise hated her so much!

  Is it simply because I am an Affiliate? Or is it something more…something to do with Dean? It couldn’t just be that she was overprotective. There was protective, and then there was locking your brother’s girlfriend in a dark room, away from the rest of the palace.

  Cyrene’s frustration built. She could not stop here and let herself waste away in this stupid room until someone stumbled upon her. Alise didn’t know whom she was messing with, and Cyrene had every intention of proving it to her.

  Her magic tingled under her skin. Fear pricked at her. Without Dean, there was no way she was going to be able to control this. Her whole body quaked as she opened herself up to the infinite power. It was too much. She knew already that she couldn’t do anything in small doses. The energy swelled in her. With this much, she could destroy this whole room. With much more…the whole palace could come crumbling down on top of her head. She wasn’t focused on an enemy, as she had been in the past.

  She steeled herself and bit back a sob. She was going to hurt someone. But she didn’t know if she would ever find a teacher to tell her how to control her magic. She would just have to figure it out on her own. If she didn’t use her magic now, she would never get out of here.

  Cyrene took a few steadying breaths, trying to remember Avoca’s meditation practices in the woods. But she couldn’t sense anything around her. Just stone and more stone. Nothing to grasp on to. Nothing to tether her to the world, except the pulse of her magic within her and the bond she shared with Avoca.

  Reaching for the bond, she stretched her hands out toward the door. Through the pain of the energy filling her up to the brim, she released her hold on everything but the bond.

  The wall in front of her exploded with such force that Cyrene was knocked off her feet and whooshed back against the far wall. Her head cracked against the sandstone wall, and she slumped on the ground. Dust was everywhere, and she ached all over.

  She held strong and fast to the bond with Avoca as dizziness crashed over her, and she felt herself slipping toward unconsciousness.

  Her fingers went to her head. A huge knot was already forming where she had crashed against the wall. No wonder she was almost losing consciousness.

  Avoca.

  She called to Avoca through their bond but had no response. She had no idea if it was even possible for Avoca to hear her. Still, Cyrene tugged on the bond and hoped Avoca would hear her.

  Cyrene pushed up onto her feet and stared down at her ice-blue dress in dismay. It was covered in dust and torn at the bottom. Nothing she could do about it now.

  Cyrene lurched out of the room and stared at her handiwork. A giant crater was carved through the wall of the room and barreled through other rooms as far as Cyrene could see. She shuddered at the full weight of her power and continued down the hall. She
put her hand on the wall for support, trying not to lose consciousness.

  Cyrene turned the corner and saw two women striding toward her. “Help me!” she called to them in a hoarse whisper.

  They looked at each other and then curiously back at Cyrene. One of them nodded to the other.

  “Yes, I see her,” the other woman said.

  “Please help,” Cyrene said again.

  “Serafina, what are you doing, roaming the castle grounds?” the woman asked. She was about medium height with brown skin and long spiral, curly black hair.

  Cyrene startled. “What?”

  She turned to the woman standing next to her, who looked very similar to the other woman. A little bit taller perhaps but with the same dark skin and black hair in slightly looser waves with so much body and volume that it almost looked out of control.

  “What have we told you a hundred times over? You can’t just wander around the grounds at night. You’re more closely connected to the elements on holidays, and it’s even worse for someone like you.”

  Cyrene stumbled forward. “What…what did you call me?”

  “Serafina, you need to be careful,” the first woman said with a shake of her head. “You can’t use yourself up. We heard the commotion. We know you’re struggling again.”

  “I’m not Serafina,” Cyrene said, latching on to the wall.

  The women looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

  “You mean…this isn’t a dream?” the second woman asked. “I could have sworn we were sleeping again.”

  “Sera only shows up in dreams. That was a long time ago.”

  “Did you…know Serafina?” Cyrene asked carefully. A splitting headache was ripping through her, but she felt more alert with the strangeness that was happening before her. “Domina Serafina?”

  “Well, she was just a Doma when we knew her,” the first woman continued. “She didn’t become Domina and rule the council until a few years later,” she rambled.

  The second woman jabbed her in the side.

  “Oh!” the first woman squeaked.

  “What is going on?” Cyrene asked.

  Both women closely studied her.