Page 26 of Magic Hunted
An overwhelming gratitude held me hostage. The elves hadn’t killed them. They were here and I could see them. Touch them. I reached out and his hand found mine as air punched from my lungs. “You’re safe.”
Safe? I would never be safe. Not in this life or the next, but Ashir smiled, relief shining in his eyes. “Yes. We’re safe.”
My heart raced in my chest. “The elves! They attacked us, and…gods. Savvas!”
“They brought me here too.” Savvas leaned next to Ashir where I could see him. He scowled, brows drawing low, and all I could do was stare at him while my mind stuttered in relief. “I’m so sorry, my heart. I couldn’t fight them off. There were too many.”
He was apologizing to me? I didn’t care about any of that. I wiped his words away. They really didn’t matter becausehe was alive. And Ashir was here and… my heart skipped and dread wove tendrils of cold through me. “Where’s Dias?”
Chapter Fourteen
“They have all of us.” Dias moved into my field of vision and stood behind Ashir and Savvas. He plowed his fingers through his hair, his muscles undulating beneath smooth skin. I cast my eyes around to take my focus off his bulging biceps and the surge of relief I felt that they were alive. Iwasrelieved, I had a heart, but it was the way the breath punched out of my lungs and the urge to lunge into their arms and their pulsing soul-light banging against the bond barrier that concerned me. Savvas’ essence drifted through, a mere wisp compared to everything battering against the barrier, but that was enough.
That and the fact my first instinct was to smash the barrier to pieces and let them through so I forced my focus off them to the domed ceiling above my head made from thick, threaded vines woven together in a circular design. Vertical lengths of the same vines made up the walls. There were no windows, and the one door was closed. I recognized when a room was created to lock people in, and this was it. I wondered why the alphas hadn’t broken out. There didn’t appear to be a lock on the door, and they were shifters. Powerful predators who could match the strength of any elf.
I lay on a cot, a blanket covering me. I fisted the black cotton sheath I wore, better than being naked, but how the hells was I wearing it? “We dressed you. The elves at least gave us clothing,” Savvas said, recognizing my unspoken question. He lifted our threaded fingers and kissed my knuckles with the light touch of his lips, making my stomach flutter then lurch because it was so easy to get used to the way he touched me.
Ashir touched my temple and his brows lowered over the storm in his eyes. I winced at the slight throb where the rock had struck me. “We did what we could, but you’re bruised. Badly.”
I touched the throbbing wound on my temple. It hurt, but no more than I could tolerate. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about me.”
Ashir held my gaze. “We’ve been going out of our minds with worry, first of all wondering where you were when you were swept under the water and didn’t return, and then after Dias as I were brought here when they couldn’t find you. We thought we’d lost not only our bond-brother, but our newly found mate.
“Then they brought Savvas and you, limp and unconscious. We were going out of our minds with worry. We couldn’t ask you about any of it because you’ve been sleeping for a day. An entire day, Haera! Don’t tell us not to worry about you, because I can no more do that than cut off my arm and say it doesn’t hurt.”
Ashir’s face was haggard, as though he hadn’t been sleeping. Or eating. And I hated to think it was because of me. “I…I don’t…”
“If you tell us we can’t bond, then don’t. We both feel you through Savvas now, little mate. We’ve been feeling it for days. The barrier cracked and his soul-light merged with yours. It’s faint, but it’s there,” Dias said, kneeling at my other side, and why did I feel so safe when they caged me between them? If it was a tactic, it was a good one. Bond-brothers formed a soul connection from the moment they met. Ashir and Dias would feel what Savvas felt. Now they’d felt my soul it would be a drug to them. They wouldn’t understand why it was so necessary for me to deny them. Nothing would be more important to them than bonding me. Not even their lives.
“This has nothing to do with your magic and everything to do with us,” Ashir said.
My gaze flew to Savvas. “I told them the magic you used to save me wasn’t Titan’s. It couldn’t have been. I’ve felt his magic and this was something else altogether.”
I swung my legs over the cot, ignoring the dizziness. They felt me through Savvas. The fracture buzzed with their soul-light, Ashir’s orange and Dias’ yellow merging with Savvas’ red as it seeped through.
Savvas brought my knuckles to his lips. My heart grew wings that fluttered in my chest and I knew the worst had already happened. I cared for him, and what’s worse, he cared for me in return. “There are no secrets between mates. It was a betrayal of your trust, but when you were lying there so cold, so limp, and I…I had to share with them what you’d told me. They deserved to know as your mates. I told them so they can help you. To understand you if you never woke up again. Can you forgive me?”
“You told them…everything?” I said, my voice thin.
Savvas brushed the hair that had fallen over my face behind my ear as though he had every right to do it and I took the kindness as though I had every right to receive it. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to.
My throat constricted with invisible fingers. “Then they know…”
“We know Titan used you as his spy. We also know you didn’t have a choice, and we know…” Dias swallowed. “We also know how he would have treated you.”
I clenched the frame of the cot, fighting for composure. Savvas might have told them I was Titan’s spy but it didn’t take the sting—theshame—away. My stomach turned knowing what I’d done for him.
“Then you understand the things I’ve had to do. How I’ve had to live. Why his magic is in me and why we can’t bond,” I said.
Savvas took my chin between his thumb and knuckle, holding me in a gentle, iron grip. “It’s not his magic. Something that strong and pure didn’t come from him. When you saved me, it came from you. It had nothing to do with him. I’m sure of it because it came to me through my soul-light, touching every part of my body. I’ve felt his magic, Haera. He’s used it on us and it wasn’t that.”
My gaze trailed to the scars on Ashir’s chest. They were raised and puckered, seared into his skin before he had a chance to Change and heal himself. Titan would have done that to him. He would have done that to all of them. Savvas and Dias weren’t physically scarred but the deepest wounds weren’t visible. They were buried deep so that they never found the light of day again.
“Do you have natural magic? Is that why you’re afraid to bond? Because you think we’d reject you?” Ashir said.
Those born with natural magic were as doomed as shifters. The Six weeded them out and killed them. Whole families had been wiped out when they’d hidden their children with any magical ability that The Six hadn’t given. But I didn’t have natural magic. What I had was much worse than that.
“You don’t understand…” I gasped, my hand flying to my abdomen when the grimoire rocked in its tether.
