Binds Read online

  There’s a loud cracking sound at the door. For the first time, Elias appears worried. He marches over to the phone, picks up the receiver, and hits a button. “What’s the status?”

  As he waits for an update, I focus all of my hate on him. All of this is his fault. Reece carried the murder out, and I will hate him forever, but if it weren’t for this creature in front of me, I think it never would have happened. He’s also responsible for the reformatories, the destruction of our society, everything the Mages have gone through over the past few years. I now believe that Oberon was more of a sock puppet than the mastermind behind it all. Hate builds inside of me, swirling around in my body until it feels like the tempest is about to break free. I think about all that I’ve been through, how helpless I’ve felt my entire life, and a word makes its way up my throat, sliding on my tongue until it reaches the very tip.

  As Elias slams the phone down, looking more agitated than I’ve ever seen him, I feel slightly remorseful that he won’t be able to watch as Allie’s army comes through and destroys this entire house. I open my mouth and with a smile on my face and a gleam in my eye, I say, “FREEZE.”

  The look of alarmed surprise on his face is followed by haughty disbelief, until little by little, a frost takes hold of his body. He attempts to struggle towards me, but his legs have already been frozen to the floor. In a matter of seconds, Elias, supposed emissary of the Queen of the Fae, has been frozen into a statue of ice, suspended for the time being with a look of horrific incomprehension on his face.

  Before a stitch of regret or compassion has time to be sown in my mind, I feel another Bind creep its way up and with a laugh that doesn’t sound connected to me in any way, I open my mouth to spit it out. “Shards!” I scream it and at the intensity of my voice, his body breaks apart like a fragile crystal statue hit by just the right high chord and destroyed. Pieces of the man, Fae, or whatever the abusive bastard was, fall and slide around like ice on the polished marble floor. It makes me laugh out loud. I laugh until I am bent over clutching my stomach. I laugh as the door is broken down and the Skulls start filing into the room. I continue to laugh as Allie helps me up from the floor and starts to guide me from the room.

  I’m halfway out the door when some semblance of sanity creeps back into my body and I turn back to Reece, still hunched in the chair but looking after my departing figure as if wishing he were going with me. Cass is still kneeling at his side and stroking his arm in a tender, consolatory way. “This is your one reprieve. Come near me again and you’ll suffer a much worse fate than my late husband … Donovan Brand.” I speak the name, his real name with such malice that it causes him to shirk back in the chair.

  Without another word and grinning maliciously, I follow Allie from the room. She is questioning her people about what has transpired while we were in the office, but I don’t pay attention to any of it. There is a thrill of power shooting through my body, the likes of which I have never felt. I wish I would have known that it would feel this good to get revenge. I would have started sooner. Never again am I going to let anyone have any power over me. I feel reborn, revitalized, and energized for anything that may come my way. As I head down the stairway and turn into the main foyer, the first test of my new life is there, propped lazily against the front door, waiting for my arrival.

  The SSA and Allie are rapidly hurrying from the house. Allie is sure that reinforcements are on the way. This Army has proven its power against a small contingent of soldiers. It’s impressive given the rag-tag nature of their arrangement. As triumphant as they are and should be over taking down the Brand estate, we all know there isn’t much chance of escaping if more power makes an appearance.

  Spencer is checking his wristwatch breezily as I walk past him and out the front door. Without a word, he follows me. I feel his breath at my neck and hear his footfalls behind, but I say nothing, just keep walking. As I am about to pass the front gate, I notice something and stop. The Brand family crest is affixed to the gates of the house and centered on each panel of fence the entire length around the property. It was there in my face, the entire time I was married to “Donovan” and yet I never noticed it. It’s a shield with a griffin on one side, a crown and blazing sun on the other. The name Brand is blazoned above and at the bottom, scrolled across a tiny banner, is the word Potestas. My mother’s warning was right under my nose all along and I never took the time to notice it.

  With a resigned sigh, I turn around and face him. We just stand there, staring at each other for a couple of minutes. I search his eyes for a reason. I know somewhere in there he’s holding on to excuses for keeping everything from me. I wish I could jump into his mind like he can and find out everything he knows.

  I point at the crest on the gate, shake my head, and glare at him. “You knew. “

  He just stares at me, not saying a word. I can’t even decipher his thoughts; he is such a blank page.

  “You could have prevented a lot of what just happened by being honest, but you’re not an honest man, are you, Spencer?”

  “I might have, yes,” he says. His façade drops momentarily and I catch a hint of regret in his face. “You could have prevented some of it, too.” He points at the fresh bruises on my face with a look of consternation. “If only you’d listened to me about staying at my side the other night, it wouldn’t have happened.”

  “I’m happy it happened! I would rather have been beaten for a thousand days and get the truth, than to be sheltered by you and kept in the dark for one more day!” I yell at him as I feel the presence of Allie slipping in next to me again. It’s strange, the connections that can form between people who have suffered the same cruelties. I’ve known her for mere days and already, she is someone I can count on to be at my side in times like this. Having her there now, I feel that bond growing stronger and I know what I’m meant to do, where I’m meant to be. Allie reaches out and grasps my hand for strength, cementing the conviction of my decision even more.

  “Let’s go,” he says, reaching out for my other hand. “More NWO are on the way, this isn’t over … not by a long shot. We need to get back to the apartment and come up with our next plan of attack. We can discuss the rest of your issues there.” He looks to Allie as if including her in this plan for us. The way he talks sometimes, as if his word is naturally right and anyone would be a fool not to follow, well … it would normally piss me off. Today, it just makes me want to laugh again.

  Although I am in agreement that we need to leave the premises and quickly, I dismiss his commands. It might leave us with mere moments to retreat safely, but I have to ask him. I’m done waiting for the other shoe to drop with this man. If I’m going to have anything to do with him now or in the future, he will be honest with me. Spencer knows now that I am aware of the truth about Reece. I’m not so sure if he realizes that I’ve also learned other things. Things such as my supposed parentage and the real reason he refers to me as princess. I give him one last chance to come clean with everything he knows.

  “Reece, Donovan, whoever he really is, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is a murderer and you harbored him in your building, protected him from justice, and shielded the truth from me, the remaining victim of his crime.” Spencer looks to be preparing a retort to my statement, but I cut him off before he can even get in a word. “You said it wasn’t your secret to tell. That’s complete and utter bullshit and you know it. I won’t act like it’s going to be all right, because it’s not, however, I will continue to be a part of the resistance with you … but first, you have to tell me right now, any other secrets you might be carrying that have anything to do with me. I want to know everything. It’s now or never, Spencer.”

  Spencer studies me thoroughly, searching my face for what I assume is a giveaway to everything that I already know. I don’t let him look me in the eye, although I’m pretty positive I now have the ability to keep him out, I’m not going to take the chance right now. This is about more than learning what he knows;
this is about whether or not I can trust him in the future. Something inside me wants to, but I won’t make the same mistake I did with Reece again. Even though I feel that connection with Allie, I probably won’t even be able to trust her completely for a long time … if ever.

  A minute passes and Spencer smirks, it’s the know-it-all expression that he displays when he finally answers me. “Ophelia, I see that after everything, you still believe that the world revolves around you. You want a hero, right? Someone who will come around and give you everything you’ve dreamt of, take you and show you the way so you don’t have to find it on your own, a hero to worship at your feet and blow smoke up your ass? You’re looking for those things in the wrong person. I’m neither and don’t ever wish to be. What I can offer you is a place to call home, a confidant who doesn’t turn out to be an enemy, and a place in history that shows you we’re on the right side of the fight. I am not offering you equal standing. We aren’t co-captains of this team, and therefore, if I have confidences of others, it’s not your place to go around demanding to know them too. But, as to your question, I have nothing more to tell you, nothing I can tell, anyway. You say now or never, I say take it or leave it. That’s your answer.”

  “Well,” I say, feigning disappointment and hurt. Then I smile and look up into his deep blue eyes. I take a minute to remember this moment, the first of many where I’ll hold my own destiny in my hand. “I guess I’ll just have to leave it.” Allie squeezes my hand and I look at her, hoping my last line to Spencer wasn’t for naught. “Gotta place I can stay?” I ask her hopefully.

  She squeezes my hand again and looks back at Spencer with a grin, sharing in this moment with me. “Of course, Ophelia. I wouldn’t want you to go anywhere else.”

  We turn in unison and start walking down the street where a couple of cars are waiting with the remnants of the SSA that haven’t already made their departure.

  “You’re telling me that you’re going to give up fighting with your own people to be with these humans? You want a protector? They can’t protect you. You might have eliminated one obstacle, but Oberon is still out there and there will be others. But, you’re going to chuck away everything we could work together to achieve and become one of these Skulls?”

  I stop walking, a little stunned that Spencer doesn’t sound mad and only somewhat surprised. There is a strangely proud current in his voice, as if I’ve surpassed an expectation. He’s almost like a proud father, watching his child leave home for the first time. It pisses me off. Of course he will contribute whatever strength I’ve taken away from the ordeal as his doing. I hate this egotistical, pigheaded man. And yet … why am I finding myself not wanting to walk away from him? Why do I wish so badly that I could just turn around and run back to him and wish even more that he might be willing to open his arms to me if I did? We shared a kiss, the best kiss of my life, but that’s all it was. He said it himself, if I want more, I’m looking at the wrong man.

  Before I give him an answer, I look to Allie again to make sure I am giving an appropriate one. She nods at me encouragingly. I stop and turn around to face him. Spencer is still standing in the same spot, fifteen feet away where we left him. “Me, become a Skull? You bet your sweet ass I am,” I exclaim triumphantly, if not a tad bit dramatically. It would feel a lot more satisfying if Spencer didn’t burst out laughing hysterically at that moment, but I take what I can get.

  We get into a big luxury car and I give Allie a quizzical look. This isn’t the kind of getaway car I was imagining. I was picturing the SSA riding around in dilapidated kidnapper vans. “Why must you always underestimate me, grasshopper?” Allie asks. “We have a major backer. But more about that later, let’s just get out of here and go home.”

  Home. Sounds like heaven to me.

  I sit alone at one of the bar stools in the kitchen and I can picture her here. She’d be making pancakes, enormous saucer-like things that she could flip through the air with one quick flick of the wrist. It used to make Samantha squeal with laughter. I always pretended that the squeals annoyed me, while secretly cherishing every one. If I close my eyes, I can make the memory feel so real, smell the batter, hear Melody’s off tune humming of one of her favorite songs as she cooks, and the laughter … it’s an almost palpable thing. In my memory, I can feel it swirling around the room. A tiny bit of life escapes us, taking some of our remaining time on earth with it, but leaving an irremovable impression in our mind. It’s a tradeoff, you know. Every moment you live for every memory you make.

  Back then the trade was a great deal. I can’t say the same for today, unfortunately.

  An image of Ophelia invades my memory. She’s leaning against the counter, bowl of cereal in her hand and staring out the window with a look of contented freedom in her eyes. I take another glance at the memory before expunging her back to the recesses of my mind where she belongs. The feeling of disloyalty for my family bubbles up in my stomach, like a traitorous cancer that has been spreading too rapidly since I first met the maddening woman.

  “Empty chairs at empty tables, Spencer?”

  I know that voice and don’t even have to turn my head to acknowledge him.

  “I seem to have lost most of my followers of late, Aslem … I mean, Your Majesty.” I put as much sarcastic reverence into the title as I can.

  “I can see that, you dickhead,” he replies. “What happened to them all?”

  I turn to him. Unsurprisingly, he looks exactly the same as he did the last time I saw him. The only difference is his clothing. He’s wearing a button down plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of carpenter jeans, and boots. He looks better suited as a lumberjack than King of the Fae, but I’d rather be sporting that get up than the hoity-toity robes and crap I’ve seen him wearing at court. Court. I shudder thinking about the place with its backstabbing assholes that get enjoyment from others’ misfortunes. Can’t say I miss it.

  I give him a mirthless laugh and nod my head to the bar stool next to me in invitation. He grabs a beer out of the fridge first then sits. We both look forward in silence, but I know that he is still waiting for an explanation.

  I open my mouth to give him one but close it before uttering a word. I don’t know how to vocalize the truth without sounding like the dumbass failure that I am. When you leave headquarters with twenty and come back with only eleven, for some reason, people take it as a bad sign and head to higher ground. There used to be eighty-seven people that lived here, eighty-seven who trusted me to do something to help them. Only twenty-two either still have the trust or just feel they have nowhere else to go and so they remain with me.

  “Most of them felt they had to go someplace safer. War is coming. They took what they could and left the country. It doesn’t matter, though. I don’t think anyone will be able to outrun this war. Jinx has uncovered some of the Queen’s plans, it’s pretty much the only thing we have going for us. Her new emissary is so used to the old ways of our world; he doesn’t understand how vital it is to protect the flow of electronic information in this one.”

  “And what about Phee?” Aslem changes the subject. I can tell that, much like most of our kind, any talk of technology puts him off. The Fae may have their own powers, but they are oblivious to the ones that the humans have invented. Some might argue that invention is where the human’s magic lies. “Your mission hasn’t changed, even though you lost some of your focus when Melody and Samantha came around. I allowed it because you told me you were still doing your job. Now, I find out that my daughter was in the hands of Annora’s lap dog for years and you did nothing about it. Why, Spencer?” His voice has taken on a hard tone, one that another subject would know not to mess around with, but not me.

  “I’m sorry that my life got in the way of babysitting duties. If you knew her like I do, you’d know that Ophelia isn’t in need of a babysitter, although a spanking might do her some good. “

  He stands abruptly, towering over my seated frame, and yet, I still feel no fear of him
. “Spencer, don’t speak about my daughter that way. I don’t care if your father is my best friend. You’re like family to me, but I won’t allow it.” He runs a hand across his face and breathes a weary sigh as he sits back down.

  “Calm down, Aslem,” I say in a more respectful tone. I know that he will let me push him, and I do. I hate that I put most of the blame of my losses on his shoulders. Had he never sent me to earth to look after his daughter, I never would have met Melody and lost her along with my own. As much as it pains me, I know that I would go through the pain a million times just for that one brief life I had with them. The real culprit of all of this is Annora and Oberon for so easily betraying his own kind. I want to crush them both, but with the way things are going, it isn’t looking like revenge is coming any time soon.

  “When you came to me four years ago asking for my help to get your daughter back,” Aslem says, “I told you I couldn’t do it. Although motivated by Annora’s jealousy, war on earth had nothing to do with our people. We’ve been out of this world for untold centuries and had no reason to interfere with their politics. I fall for one Mage woman and Annora changed all of that. I have just received word that she plans on using some of her Fae guard to secure this world. Once she has, she plans on continuing with her Mage soldiers along with the Fae of her Kingdom to take over mine as well. She’s gone too far with her revenge this time and I can’t allow it.” He looks at me, his eyes full of solemnity.

  “In honesty and because you are like a nephew to me, I can say that I’m relieved that the bitch has forced my hand. It was wrong to deny you that day. You and your family have been in service of me for so long. Your line has kept mine safe, even here on earth, watching over my daughter. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to do the same for yours.”