Page 89 of Forging Bonds: Part One

“I could probably find him by scent, but his scent is a bit weird, and sometimes, even when he’s standing right in front of me, I can’t smell him,” River suggests with a frown.

“Wait, really?” Raiden asks.

River nods, “Yeah, I kept meaning to mention it, but everyone gets so upset when I bring Coen up, at least until Neith confirmed our suspicion, and things kept coming up with the hybrid case too and it just kept slipping my mind.” He frowns, “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be, man. You’re right, and we have been really busy. You’ve mentioned it now, and now it’s actually useful information to us, whereas before, it most likely would have been just forgotten,” Doc reassures him, and the rest of us nod in agreement.

River is still frowning slightly but replies, “Thanks man.” He turns to me, wanting to change the subject, “I think we saw everything that happened. You were fucking awesome, by the way.”

I grin, “Thank you. I think Kylen’s a fucking idiot. Everyone knows that people take sides in the Choosing and start to root for their favorite team, he’s not playing the game very well. If he were, then he would make sure that I was the one that was looking bad, not him and his whole team.”

Reed nods, “Yeah, you’re right. There is absolutely no way that any supernatural watching that is not rooting for you and hating them. Except for Coen, he saved your life, and I bet that everyone is absolutely loving him for it.”

I pull a face, “I’m really glad that this doesn’t work how human shows work. I mean, if the supernaturals got to vote and shit, it would be absolute carnage.”

River chuckles, “Oh yeah, it absolutely would be.”

My eyes widen as I sit up straight suddenly, “Oh shit, Doc’s magic distracted me. I know what is controlling Coen, or at least a part of it. When Kylen was chewing Coen out for saving my life, he held on to a necklace around his neck, and Coen glanced at it too. I know it’s not much, but it’s the closest that we’ve got to figuring it out.”

Evander smiles, “Well done, Nene. That’s awesome, it can’t hurt, and we have somewhere to start.”

“I say we cut off his head,” River says calmly, a dark smile on his face that excites me in a way that it really shouldn’t.

“I think that’s against the rules of the Choosing,” Raiden points out, looking disappointed. “In fact, I know that it is. We also can’t get rid of him after the Choosing.”

“If he carries on the way that he is, we aren’t going to have to. Someone else will do it for us,” Griff smirks, seeming pleased by the idea.

My smile becomes sharp, “If we manage to free Coen, he will kill him.”

The guys don’t look surprised by my words at all. Instead, they nod in agreement.

“That will cause issues with the dragons,” Ransom frowns. “It shouldn’t, but from what I can remember, any conflict has to go through Draith.”

I nod, “Yeah. Ideally, they bring all conflicts to Draith, and he either sorts it out or they fight to the death. Kind of like the shifters, except it has to go to Draith first. I don’t imagine that Coen is going to wait for that and give Kylen a chance to escape, but that means that Draith will call on him, and he will have to explain his actions and potentially be punished for them. Coen could also then call the other dragon in the Draconian Team to pay for his part in it if he hasn’t already killed him.”

“I don’t imagine that Draith will punish Coen after he hears what Kylen did,” Raiden says.

I pull a face, “The dragons follow a harsher system than most other supernaturals. I honestly don’t know how it will go. I’m not letting him face it alone though.”

Doc immediately shakes his head, “None of us will. We’ll go with him and defend his case to Draith if we have to. It’s the least that we can fucking do.”

“Doc’s right. We should have tried harder. We all knew that there was something wrong,” River’s frown is deep, and it’s obvious that he’s struggling with this latest development.

I shake my head, “I’ve seen the control that Kylen has over Coen. If Kylen had given the order for Coen to say it’s what he wanted and to ignore or even be a dick to you guys, then there is no way that he would have been able to go against that.”

“After a while we did genuinely think that he was happy where he was,” Griff says. “It’s only more recently that we started to question it again, andthat’s only because he was talking to us again, and we could tell that there was a difference.”

“Knowing Coen, he won’t hold it against any of us,” River adds with a soft smile.

“No, he won’t,” I reply with surety. Once Coen considers you a friend, he will do anything for you.

“We need to figure out how we’re going to get the necklace off Kylen if we can’t take his head,” Raiden says, still sounding disappointed that we can’t do it that way.

“I know you guys aren’t going to like it, but I’m obviously the best person for the job. None of you can get close to him without it being suspicious,” I reply.

The guys are silent, all of them frowning unhappily, but they know I’m right.

“Agreed,” Evander says. “Be fucking careful though.”

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