Page 28 of Tangled Fates

My eyesight wasn’t as good since I had been hit with that fucking potion. I had gone almost a hundred years without ever encountering one and here I was getting my power zapped twice in less than a month. A nagging feeling entered my mind, thinking that it wasn’t coincidental. The person who owned the magic shop we were going to steal items from all those weeks ago had to be connected to this place.

I looked down at the Oria wondering if the person who made the Oria was also the person who owned the shop. So many questions were going through my mind when I slowly made my way around the perimeter to the piece of rock that would lead me outside.

“That was fast,” Ryder said, coming into view when his face fell.

My mind was so preoccupied that I didn’t say anything for a second.

“Shit,” he said, turning away from me.

“No!” I yelled. “He is fine, I felt him as soon as I entered, but I think I found what we were looking for and not just the Oria.”

“Goddess, Soren, I thought Gray was dead,” he growled at me. “You could have led with saying he was alright.”

I pulled the vials from my pocket, showing Ryder.

“This is what I could get before someone found me, but Ryder, I think we found the place where they make it,” I said. “We just stumbled upon the biggest secret and I think if we play our cards right, this could be ours.”

“Who makes it?” He grabbed one of the vials.

“I don’t know but from the looks of it, it’s not very well protected,” I said, thinking of the one person I ran into. “Not like I thought it would be. I think they are relying on this gorge to do most of the protecting.”

“Why did you come back without Gray?” He held the vial up.

“My gems got knocked out and I didn’t feel comfortable going for him when I didn’t have the element of surprise and they hit me with one of those magic canceling potions,” I said looking around. “I think you should take this to Serena, while I figure out a way to get Gray out and a way for us to take over this tower.”

“I can’t leave you,” he said quickly.

“We’ve been gone for so long you need to go to her,” I said, wanting to tell him that I thought Serena might be our mate, but deciding against it. “They are probably freaking out.”

“What if those people come back? I?—”

“Ryder!” I interrupted him. “You’ll be back in a day or two, I’ll be fine and once I have Gray it will be even easier. Worst case, I take the enormous batch of Oria and we make a run for it.”

Ryder looked at me like he was running all the complications in his head that I might run into. Being the leader of our operation, I knew he felt responsible for us.

“Fine, I’ll be back in a day, but if you get into trouble, you run,” he growled at me. “Here, take everything I have.”

“I will, and tell Serena, I said ‘Hi’.”

I wondered if she might really be ours.

12

ORIA

My ribs were on fire after the intruder punched me a few times and bolted out of here. I was doing just fine until I got a good look at him. He looked exactly like Gray. I was expecting maybe an older brother who kind of looked like him, but he was a replica of Gray. The same feeling I had with Gray was happening with this person and I didn’t know how to process that.

I expected him to run to Gray but he ran down the stairs and when I heard the door slam, I sagged against the wall trying to breathe through the pain. Every breath felt like a thousand stabs into my ribs. As much as I wanted to stay sitting, I needed to reset my traps and make sure the other twin had left.

My body shook as I tried to heal myself, but no matter how much I was concentrating, the need to throw up overruled my ability to cast my magic. My stomach soured giving me just a moment before as it emptied its contents. It wasn’t much, the bile burned my throat as I wiped my sleeve against my mouth. Guess I was going to have to wait to heal myself.

Going down the steps was the worst feeling, each step down rattled me and I was on the verge of passing out when I reached the bottom. My vision was going in and out, my heartbeat was in my ears as I tried to breathe through the nausea. I peeked out of the door searching for the man.

He was nowhere in sight and as much as I wanted to go after him, I knew I would be no match for him like this. I set my trap, resting a moment as I set my trusty frying pan down because I could no longer hold it. I dragged myself upstairs feeling clammy and on the verge of passing out.

My body gave out the moment I got to the top of the stairs as I leaned against a wall. I immediately took off my mask, flinching at how aggressively I had removed it. It was too constricting, it made me feel like I had to work hard to breathe. I slid down the wall, relieved that I could just sit still and not have to move.

If his brother brought any more people, I was screwed. He would have me overrun with just one more person. I needed to make more supplies, restock and I needed to heal myself, but my eyes were already drooping by the time I could muster up the words to try and heal myself again.

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