Page 65 of Forging Bonds: Part One

Fuck me, that was some insane mental circling even for me, and I still don’t have any idea of what I’m supposed to do with the necklace. I do know that I currently look incredibly strange, bent down on all fours and staring at a spot on the carpet, that the guys are most likely waiting for me now, and that I’m probably missing out on the conversation with Ty.

Suddenly, the fox jumps off the bed and trots over to me. I don’t know what it is about the spirit guide, but he seems a lot wilder than the others. He yips at me and then ducks down, nudging the necklace toward me with his nose.

“It’s safe?” I ask. It yips again and nods once, so I decide to try my luck and ask it another question, “I should wear it, and take it with me?”

The fox immediately yips again, nodding once more, and then picks the necklace up and drops it on my lap.

“I’m going to take that as a yes,” I say, and the fox rolls his eyes at me before he hops back up onto the bed and settles down again.

Well, it’s nice to know the majority of my spirit guides appear to be sassy fuckers. I stand up, pulling the necklace on and doing it up as I head toward the door, grabbing the bags, I put one on my back, one on my shoulder, and then pick up Asael and Betty too. Awkwardly opening the door, I nearly walk straight into Van.

He immediately grabs the bag off my shoulder and smiles as we head toward the stairs.

“Sorry, I was trying to make sure that I had everything I needed, and the fox was in there and stuff,” I explain on the way down the stairs.

Van smiles as we get to the bottom of the stairs where the other guys have all gathered and are placing their bags down. At least I didn’t take as long as I thought I did.

“Did something happen?” Van asks, but before I can answer, he frowns and fishes around in his pocket. “It’s Ty.”

“Put it on speaker,” River says as we stay where we are, our bags at our feet.

“Hey guys, sorry I missed your calls. I must have had my phone on silent,” Ty greets us happily, and I frown. Something is definitely not right. “What’s up?”

“Why did you make the announcement that we were going to be in the Choosing already?” Evander asks bluntly, his displeasure evident in his voice.

“You were supposed to wait until a couple of days before it began,” River reminds him.

Doc narrows his eyes as something seems to occur to him, and he asks, “Unless it’s starting in the next few days?”

Ty’s voice is confused as he replies, “The Choosing isn’t starting for at least another thirteen days. As I said before, I’m not going to announce it until the last possible minute.”

We all share a look.

“You already announced it, Ty,” Reed tells him.

There’s silence on the other end of the phone for a moment.

“No, I didn’t,” Ty replies.

“Look it up,” Griff practically orders, and it surprises me the way that they are all talking to Ty.

It just goes to show that what they said back at the Training Academy about them only taking orders from Ty because they wanted to was true.

There’s silence as we hear the telltale sounds of tapping computer keys. Ty starts tapping on the computer, and then a very loud and very creative string of curses leaves his mouth. My eyebrows rise, and my expression becomes impressed by the sheer number of curse words that come from him.

“I’m guessing that it wasn’t you?” Evander asks, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

“That’s the thing. It is me, it can only have been me that announced it, no one else is able to,” Ty explains. “Shit, I’m so fucking sorry, guys. I have absolutely no idea how it fucking happened. I don’t know how I could have announced the Choosing and not remember doing it. We’re going to have to put some more things in place to keep Neith safe and out of HID’s reach until the Choosing. Fuck.”

Ty carries on apologizing and making plans to keep me safe, but I stop listening as I look at Ransom.

“Do you feel that?” I ask quietly.

Ransom nods as he looks around, his expression becoming concerned, “Yeah. It’s magic, and it’s not coming from us.”

“How is that possible?” Griff asks as his own magic starts to build, and he readies himself to fight.

“It feels almost familiar?” I say, sounding as confused as I feel.

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