Page 38 of Soulmates

“I don’t know. Not exactly. I have some theories and ideas. A lot is going to depend on Maddox. The Soul Exchange is, from all my studies, all about intention. We have to focus on Maddox’s intention. And I need to do some more research.”

“My intention,” Maddox said.

“Yes. Want to do it. Trust yourself and Jake. And trust yourselves as a unit. That is the only way you can complete the bond.”

Chapter 25

Cricket had shown them to their rooms. The swamp house, as Maddox mentally named it, had bedrooms on the second floor and an office that looked like it didn’t get much use, especially considering the desk and mass of books scattered across the downstairs. The rooms were neat and homey-looking, which was a surprise, though Cricket kept surprising him. After his insistence on seeing their magic to enter the house, Maddox had expected more paranoia. And more eccentricity. Who voluntarily lived in a swamp? But Cricket was welcoming and informative, if gruff.

As the hours passed, exhaustion pulled at Maddox. When he laid his head on Jake’s shoulder while Cricket showed them another depiction of a Soul Exchange ceremony, Cricket had stopped the conversation to send Maddox, and therefore Jake, to bed. The guest rooms were next to each other, with a shared bathroom across the hall. Santiago put her bag away and then went downstairs to raid Cricket’s fridge. Maddox wondered idly if Cricket knew what was coming, feeding his two warrior friends.

Cricket left them at the doorway to their room and handed Jake the half-empty bottle of potion, instructing him to make Maddox drink it first thing in the morning. He assured them he had more setting overnight. He’d need two to three doses per day until they figured out what to do.

Maddox tried to pay attention, but he couldn’t focus. He leaned on Jake, and Cricket told Jake to get Maddox comfortable and be intimate, which Jake jerked back at with a horrified look. “Young mage, honestly. Can you think of no other intimacy than sex? Take care of him, talk to him, hold him. Bond. No one said you had to have sex. Gods.” And Cricket turned and left.

Young mage. How long had it been since someone had called either of them that? It was something his grandparents used to say to him, an endearment meant for someone you cared about and wanted to nurture in their magic. How strange to hear that from a virtual stranger.

Jake laughed as Cricket walked away. “I guess I have a lot to learn, huh?” he said.

Maddox nodded with a smile, and whatever Jake saw on his face made him pull Maddox to the bathroom to get as ready for bed as quickly as they could.

Back in the room, they took off their traveled-in sweatpants, and Jake got all their dirty clothes into a pile to deal with in the morning. In underwear and a T-shirt, Jake got them into bed under the worn, soft quilt. It had a homemade feel to it. It felt to Maddox like family. Was he getting loopy?

“Maddy, come here,” Jake said, and Maddox scooted himself over until he could rest his head on Jake’s chest. “How are you feeling?”

“So tired,” Maddox said. “I want to complete the bond.”

“Honestly, I do too. I don’t want to take it back even if I could. I just wanted you to have the option.”

“I don’t want the option.”

“Okay, then we’ll complete it.”

“I wish I could just give it to you. That thinking it was enough. That my intention was enough. I want to. But I’m so tired and I don’t know how to do it.”

“Shh, don’t.” Jake put his finger over Maddox’s lips. “Don’t think about it tonight. We’re on information overload. Let’s just lie here together and enjoy the lack of human noise.” Jake slid his bare feet along Maddox’s. “Did you notice how devoid of humanity it is here? I’ve never heard anything quite like it. It’s just nature. Insects and animals all calling to each other. And did you know that your eyes”—Jake brushed his hand right over Maddox’s eyebrows— “are glowing? They’re shining at me like little lights. I love it. I love your eyes as they normally are, all glimmering amber. But now they look like gold, but as if the sun is shining off them and onto me. And it’s so beautiful, Maddox. And I love you and I love that I can say that I love you.”

Jake kissed Maddox so gently on the lips that Maddox’s breath caught. Jake wasn’t done. “You know when we were younger, anytime we fell asleep in the same room, I would wait until I was sure you were out and think I love you at you over and over. It was like a mantra. When we were even younger than that, I used to wonder if I thought it hard enough that nothing bad could ever happen to you. That I would love you so much it would coat you with armor. Maybe that was our souls? If we complete the exchange, we’ll share magic somehow. Maybe I was trying all that time to give you a warrior’s armor.”

“I don’t think you have ever in your life said that much at one time,” Maddox said.

“Hush, I’m being intimate.”

Maddox laughed into Jake’s shoulder. “I never let myself get that far, you know? I never thought you would love me like that. You never looked at me like you did.”

“Not according to Santiago. She says the love basically oozes out of my eyeballs.”

“Maybe it’s like my glowing eyes. I can’t see it because it’s already part of me,” Maddox said.

“I…”

“Hey!” Santiago shouted through the door while pounding on it.

“Gods, Santiago, what?” Jake said.

“Can I come in?”

“Yes.”

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