Page 10 of Soulmates

Something slammed below. If he had to guess, which he should stop doing based on his fail rate, it was the front door banging open. He rushed to the emergency exit and threw it open, wishing, but not hopeful, for the alarm to go off. It didn’t. He paused just through the threshold, peeking back in the window at the opposite end of the hallway. Jake appeared, looking calm and still casually swinging that fucking sword. Where had Jake even gotten that in the middle of the night? He took another second to study Jake, the light from the wall sconces bending toward him like broken spotlights. Before Jake could focus on him, he took off.

Maddox rushed down the stairs and out the back into the woods. He had no chance of outrunning Jake. His only hope was to hide and come up with a plan.

Unfortunately, that plan only involved running and hiding, begging, and having a sword swung at him.

“Jake, just stop. Please. We can fix this. We can make a plan. Just please, let’s get to Dean Forrester or a healer. Something is wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect.” Jake reached down with shocking speed and grabbed Maddox by the arms, yanking him to his feet.

In Maddox’s effort to shake Jake off, Jake’s hand slipped inside the sleeve of the hoodie, and the warmth of Jake’s skin seeped into his own. Maddox had time to think that if this was the last thing he felt in life, at least it was something pure and right. Jake’s hand, holding him up.

But Jake had stopped moving. And the fireflies were lazily circling the area, no longer hovering around him.

Chapter 9

Jake had loved many things in his life, a lot of them belonging to Maddox. The beauty of Maddox. Maddox’s heart. Maddox’s brain. He inspired and infiltrated Jake’s every moment. And then it was all gone. He was empty of every loving, positive, or happy thought of Maddox. And it was such a relief. Stark nothingness. Not even pain. And Jake remembered the pain. Heartache. Yearning. The way one remembers a long-healed broken bone. The sharpness existing only in memory.

What. A. Relief. Jake would do anything to maintain that quiet emptiness. He’d always liked quiet places, a quiet mind. But that spot, just inside his chest, had never felt quiet. Nor had the one inside his head. Not when it came to Maddox.

With all of that gone, the only thing he could focus on was ensuring the quiet stayed. And that had led him, driven him, after Maddox.

But now, with his hand wrapped firmly around Maddox’s forearm, thoughts stuttered and crashed together. He hated those feelings, right? Hell, he’d been chasing Maddox through the woods to make sure he’d never feel them again. And then his blade had missed, which was impossible. Not only was he three feet from Maddy, but he had excellent aim. And now he couldn’t escape the warmth of Maddy’s skin. He couldn’t look away from Maddox’s tear-soaked face. He’d done that. He’d swung a Godsdamned blade at the love of his life. What the hell was going on?

“Maddy.” Jake’s voice trembled. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

Maddox stared back at him. Uncomprehending. He looked…scared. And why wouldn’t he be?

“Maddy, I’m sorry! I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t feel anything, but I knew I had to k—” He paused. “Um, kill you. I had to kill you. And I would never. Never. I love you so much, and I could never hurt you. I… It was like it was all gone. Nothing was there. No love. No connection.” Each sentence jerked out of Jake in halting bursts.

“Jake, it has to be a spell,” Maddox said through tears. “A c-casting. I don’t know what kind, but we have to get you to a healer.” Maddox jerked his arm back. This time, Jake let him go.

And there. There was that blankness. Distantly, Jake noticed his hand was cold. Lights danced in his periphery. Fireflies again. But that was okay. His mind was floating, his heart was floating. And nothing mattered. Nothing except chasing the wonderful emptiness.

He turned his eyes on Maddox, who seemed to realize the shift. Maddox took a couple of steps back, and Jake tried smiling at him, hoping to ease him into not running again. But Maddox must’ve seen something on his face.

“Jake, no,” he begged. “Can you just trust me? Just once more?”

“I could, yes. But I don’t want to.” And with quicker moves than Jake remembered having before, he swung his sword straight at Maddox’s neck. The blade didn’t make contact. It jerked up and over Maddox and hit a low-hanging branch, nearly getting stuck and covering them both with bark and leaves.

Maddox yelped and fell to the ground, crouching with his hands over his head, no longer begging for his life but sobbing out gasping breaths that filled the cold air with steam.

Jake swung again, this time directly toward the top of Maddox’s head, but once more, the blade missed and hit the ground, sending him off-balance and to one knee next to Maddox’s crouched form.

“Okay, so that isn’t working.” He jumped at Maddox, knocking Maddox onto his back, and shoved his bare forearm against Maddox’s throat.

Chapter 10

Maddox lay on the ground, his breath knocked out of him, Jake’s arm pressed to his throat, and prepared to die. The fight had gone out of him. He had no chance of overpowering Jake, a warrior in every sense, and no chance of talking his way out of this, whatever this was.

Over the course of a few minutes—a few seconds? A few lifetimes?—they struggled against one another, Maddox fighting for breath, trapped beneath Jake. But Jake wasn’t choking him, only squirming slightly, confusion and fear chasing across his features. Maddox still panted for breath, but not because of Jake. He’d simply worn himself out with the run, then the wind was knocked out of him when Jake crashed into him.

The skin of Jake’s forearm pressed against Maddox’s neck. Not choking him but resting there in a way that might’ve been very welcome in other circumstances. Gods, why was he thinking about that now? He needed to focus. What changed again? Jake was trying to kill him, then he wasn’t, then he was, then he wasn’t. What changed?

Maddox looked up, and once again, the fireflies were dissipating. Jake stared at him, chest heaving, muscles strained, but Maddox couldn’t name the emotion in Jake’s eyes.

“Okay. Can you just not…like, move for a few minutes?” Maddox said. “Just…stay like that. Please.”

Jake held still, and Maddox began to talk through it.

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