Page 50 of Brandy Snap: Part Two
But we had made sure she had enough blockers to keep her aura subdued, and she wore the bracelet the Hiscoxes had created for her, which was meant to dampen the effect should it flare up.
“Sin, I have to go,” she croaked. Her distress seeped out of her, even though she had become an expert at maintaining herself, far better than me.
“The Hiscoxes could use the mating bond to keep me subdued, but what else will they do to me? Mother is so happy they run a pharmaceutical company, but how am I going to survive being injected with who knows what?” she asked as her head dropped, her hair sweeping to cover her face as tears fell to her bedsheets with small stains. “All the treatments, all the plans… I’m just so tired of hoping I’ll get better…”
But all I could see was Michael’s simple smile as he dragged her away to do God knows what to her.
“Please,” I rasped, my elbows on her mattress, my head in my hands. “Please, just not him.”
I gasped as pain suddenly snapped through me as her palm descended on my head. My body jolted, cracks storming my flesh, dancing along my spine like lightning.
I spasmed as the pain slashed through my chest, following the lines of my veins as blood was crushed from them.
I tried to breathe, tried to speak, but her power fed into my heart, tightening it, along with every other organ in my body. Agony screamed through me as I froze there, trapped until she freed me.
“If I had more control over this, what could I do to you?” she asked, her words faint beyond the static in my ears as my lungs desperately fought to move. “It’s easy enough to manipulate people’s auras, but what do I do if I’m next to Caspian and I lose control? What if Mother is hugging me and someone hits me with their aura? Sin”—Her voice tremored as she released me—“what if I end up killing you?”
A long, heaving death rattle escaped me as I collapsed onto her bed, my knees striking the hard floor. I slammed my fist against my chest to keep my heartbeat stable. Everything was a blur as my instincts blared, warning me of danger.
“I just don’t want to hurt anyone again,” she whimpered, extending her hand as another shot of pure power surged, invisible as it flew straight into the carpet that hid the metal floor, and boomed.
The entire room shook, and I clung to her bedsheets so I wasn’t thrown away along with the furniture around us.
My chair was flung across the room and splintered against the wall as her bed creaked and moaned like an old battleship.
I twisted my head to meet her with one eye, and the sadness etched into her face tore through me.
She wasn’t even touching anything…
“I had no idea it was this bad,” I choked out.
“And Michael doesn’t call it bad. You all treat me like I’m a bomb.Itreat myself like I’m going to explode any second and I hate it.” Her brow furrowed as I lifted myself upright. “I want to be free, Sin. You get to live a life with your pack and youromegas, and I can’t even bond with Flint because a bite might kill him.” She shivered as she shifted away from me, tears filling her eyes. “I just want to be normal. Aren’t I allowed to do that?”
“Michaelwillharm you. He’ll trap you there and we may lose you forever.”
“Isn’t that better than dying when I lose control because you all think locking me in a bomb proof room is better than learning about what this power is?”
She wasn’t wrong. But Michael could harm her in any way possible while she was under his care and we wouldn’t be able to stop him. It was a mistake to trust him, especially with my sister’s life.
“Do you think I couldn’t escape if I really tried? If I learn how to control this, I can find a way to come home.”
“Camille, I still don’t—”
“He said it was a year. Only one year, and I’ll stay in touch as much as I can. He didn’t say I couldn’t contact anyone. Just that I’m not allowed to reveal what he teaches me.”
My muscles spasmed to the beat of my heart. I didn’t know if I could stand up when sparks of her power still fired through my body.
If she turned this on Caspian or hurt Kai all because I refused her the treatment which might help her the most, I would never forgive myself. Just as she would never forgive me.
“You said you’ve already told Caspian you’re leaving?” I finally asked.
“He understands, yes. I hope we can have a clean break so you all have a chance to be with your new omega.”
I didn’t miss the way her throat bobbed as she said it, and the tremble in her fist as she pushed it under the duvet to hide from me.
Maybe it really was for the best. Caspian had never been away from her for more than six months when he went to train inJapan. And when he returned, he visited her almost every day for a further six months to make up for the lost time.
That was before we’d met Kai. Neither of us would stand for that behaviour now.
