Page 24 of Traps and Gretchen

Trapped

“Breathe, Bee-shjoo!” Neelo ordered at seeing her frozen, his fury spinning him to Handy. “What did you do to her!”

“It wasn’t me,” he swore.

He watched his wife slowly bend down to pick up the mess. She stared at a piece of glass in her hand then slid it right over her wrist.

Fetch’s speed caught her before the full cut was made as Traps grabbed hold of her hands, staring into his wife’s wide eyes, brimming with tears.

Terror pummeled his heart as he held her gaze. “Bee-shjoo!” he barely whispered. “Talk to me.”

Something slipped away in her gaze, pulling her into a place he couldn’t follow, the light in her sweet spirit dimming as shadows sucked her in with his every breath.

“She’s slipping away,” Handy whispered, his worry not helping. “It’s too fucking much!”

“What’s happening to her?” Rowan demanded now. “Kaphas, talk to us!”

“Celeste,” he said quietly. “She just… wanted to help her.”

“She’s bloody not here!” Rowan yelled.

“She can feel things through us,” Handy said. “And distance is apparently no problem for her!”

“Brother, you’re the only anchor strong enough to hold on to her,” Fetch whispered to Traps. “Bring her to the place where you consummated your marriage, immediately. Handy, come with us.”

Traps snatched her up in his arms and raced to his room but the minute he set her on the bed, she became a wild banshee, nails tearing whatever flesh she could reach, and when she couldn’t reach them, she tore at her own face, her screams cutting through him as he tackled her to the bed.

“Hold her while I get my ropes!” he said, staring into her screaming face while Fetch grabbed her arms and Handy her legs.

“She’s fighting,” Fetch said. “That’s a good thing.”

Traps speed wrapped her legs together then did the same to her wrists before climbing off the bed, looking at Fetch. “What’s wrong with her?” he demanded quietly, fighting his own helpless panic as she thrashed.

“Celeste wants to help free her.”

Traps spun to Handy, realizing it wasn’t him who’d spoke. “Kaphas?”

He nodded. “It’s instinctive to her nature,” he said. “Her greatest power is love. She saved me with that power.”

Traps shook his head, his heart in a vice of sick fear at seeing his wife in that state. He secured her bindings to the bed when she tossed herself violently about all while craving to rip apart the man calmly explaining behind him.

“I don’t think she realizes what she’s doing,” Kaphas said in awe as Gretchen began to sob.

The pain in the wrenched cries shredded him. “What do I do?” he breathed, needing to fucking do something.

“You’ll need another rope to connect yourself to the ties binding her.”

Neelo immediately grabbed one from the foot of the bed and created a bowline knot around his waist and attached the end to the binding at her wrist.

Fetch held another rope and attached it to himself then handed his end to Traps. “Bind us.” He looked at Handy. “You hold on to the rope around me and ready your backlash power.”

“Got it, boss,” he muttered.

“I’m going toFetchher pain through Neelo and give it to you to read. You send it back to me and I’ll carefully feed it to Neelo.”

“You sure about that, brother?” Handy said. “She may not be able to control it.”

“I can manage it. So can he.”

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