Kindred Souls Complete Series: Books 1-4

Chapter Twelve

I read through thebook, my eyes growing bigger and bigger with each page, knowledge never before unfolding out in my hands.

“Find something?” Bastian asked.

“I’m not sure yet.” It was certainly something, but I wasn’t sure if it was relevant to our problems.

“What is it?”

“The journal of Faligrey’s king centuries ago.” I sucked in a breath as I read the next page, my pulse thudding.

“What’s it say?”

“It’s a little... well, insane.” I didn’t know another way to put it.

“In what way?”

I quoted the passage that caught my eye. “The sweet and powerful hand of fate weighs upon me, showing me my wrongs, telling me I must fix them. She whispers to me, her words growing clearer with each day. I refused to wait for my kindred soul because I needed heirs. And because of that, fate has shown me my children can never take the throne born outside of the kindred bond. My queen is no true queen.

“So I must cast them out and wait for fate to reward me with my true queen and heirs. I must wait. I will wait. I will not disobey fate for her sweetness can end and bring a bitter draught to my life, a bitterness I truly fear. I must let her guide me and I must follow her ways, doing all she says. Kindred soul bonds were a gift she granted us and we have squandered it, ignored it. We have spat in her face instead of accepting her ways and following the righteous path she’s so graciously laid out for us. I must change things. We all must change things if Faligrey wants to continue with her blessing.

“I will make it law that no bonds other than the bonds of kindreds may be legal in the eyes of the throne or of fate. I will lead the way by casting out my wife and children, since they were a mistake of hubris and lack of faith. This is righteousness and all will follow my law. It may take a generation or two, but Faligrey will soon be free of our wicked ways.” It went on like that for pages.

“Interesting.”

I gaped at him. “Interesting? It’s horrifying. All because this insane king believed fate herself was whispering in his ear, he severed his family and all the others out there and took away our free will when it came to who we could love. This is where it began. How did none of the following royals read this and decide it was ridiculous to make laws based on fate’s supposed whispers and fix it? It makes no sense. It’s not like kindred bonds do anything for the country or crown. It’s just a way to control us.”

Bastian tapped his bottom lip in thought. “Leaders enjoy using control like that to keep their people meek. It’s a common choice made in every country by many rulers.”

“It’s bullshit.”

“It is.” His agreement was solemn.

“He’s also the one who closed the borders between all of our surrounding lands. So many years have gone by and we’re still following the laws of a madman.” It disgusted and infuriated me.

“Did he say why he closed the borders?” Bastian asked.

“Yeah. A few years after he cast out his first queen and children, he found his kindred. She was already bound and had children of her own, but he forced her to leave them behind and marry him and bear him children. When she had a daughter, she tried to lead a coup against him with help from your people and Havisam. She failed and he had her executed and he raised their daughter to obey the whispers of fate. After the attempted coup, he closed the borders since other countries tried to help the queen.”

“That’s heartbreaking.”

“I know. And infuriating.” I scowled at the book in my hands. As time went on, he grew increasingly paranoid, sending his royal guards to imprison those who refused to obey the kindred laws.

His daughter followed in his footsteps once he grew too weak to continue ruling, but she was even worse. She had them executed instead of imprisoned. And in his raving rambles, he was proud. He believed her even stronger than him, that fate had finally blessed him after so long.

I dropped the journal on the table, wiping my hands on my trousers like it had infected me somehow.

“Well, we know of one coup now that failed. Even with help from borderlands.”

I sighed, frustrated and tired and heartsick. There was something rotten at the core of Faligrey and it had been festering for longer than I knew. “We don’t have help from borderlands anyway.”

“She really should have one of your kindreds kill him.”

I slapped my hand over his mouth. “Shh. I know we’re alone, but you can’t say that shit here. There’s always someone listening. And the king wants any excuse to get you and Darius out of Faligrey. We have to find something somewhere that will back up Darius’s right to be here and complete the bond with Indigo. Or a law that gives Indigo even more of a right to unseat him.”

There had to be something we could use.

Bastian’s eyes flared, and he sucked in a sharp breath through his nose. I realized I still had my palm over his lips and I was almost in his lap. I hadn’t paid attention, so desperate to shut up his treasonous and dangerous words. I stiffened and yanked my hand away.

“Sorry.”

He cleared his throat. “It’s all right. But she has as much as she’s going to get, legally speaking. She has proof of how often he’s ignored the laws of Faligrey between you and Darius. If she can get the majority of the nobles to agree he no longer is what’s best for Faligrey, she has a chance. It’s legal. It’s honorable. And she can lead the first bloodless coup in Faligrean history. Even better if she can get the common masses on her side.”

“Most of the nobles want her on the throne, but they’re terrified of the king. I was hoping something here would be enough to get them to take the leap.” I scowled at the piles of books.

“How known is this mad king’s rule?” Bastian asked.

“I’d never heard of it, and it doesn’t look like this book has been touched in decades. But I’m not sure.” I was the farthest thing from an expert on Faligrean history there was.

“There’s enough there to prove the king who made the laws wasn’t in his right mind. It very well may help if it isn’t common knowledge.”

“I’ll bring it to Aster then. I doubt the librarians will miss a book they haven’t bothered dusting in years. But most of the nobles don’t give a shit about the kindred laws. They care more about open borders.”

Bastian tapped the journal. “Which this also has. His paranoia and madness caused the rifts between the lands. It proves it can and should be mended.”

I pursed my lips. “What we need is the history of the ruler before him. Maybe if Faligrey was prosperous and happy before the new laws, we can prove even more how those laws have hurt our country.”

“I will look for it.” He sorted through the piles on the table. “It may already be here.”

“Thank you. You definitely have a gift for this.”

He shrugged. “I enjoy it, so it makes it easier. I’ve enjoyed the nights spent here, learning things I didn’t have knowledge of before.”

“It is rather exciting.” I’d enjoyed our time here too.

He smiled at me, the first one that wasn’t tense in a long time. “I’m glad you think so.”

“Why? You could find all of it without me.”

He shrugged. “It’s always more enjoyable when you have someone with you who holds a similar fascination with the past.”

“Have you ever found any information on where the kindred soul bond comes from?” There were so many myths and legends about it, but I’d never heard anything concrete. Everyone had their own beliefs on the subject.

“It has always been around according to all the research I’ve done on the subject. Some cultures believe it’s fate like your old king, some believe it’s a god, some believe it’s just magic.”

“What do you believe?” I asked, curious over this thoughts.

He stared off into the dim corner of the library. “I’m not sure anymore. When I was younger, I believed at birth we were born without our complete souls and until we found our kindreds, we wouldn’t be whole. But when I met my wife, I realized it was a foolish and romantic notion. We can only be whole on our own. We can’t expect others to complete us. Compliment us, certainly. But not complete.”

“How do you know when you’re a whole person?” I was confident I was not yet a whole person, but I wasn’t sure how to become one.

“In my experience, it’s a lifelong journey.” His lips quirked.

“Do you feel like a whole person?”

He sighed and turned back to face me. “I did for a time. But while my wife didn’t complete me, losing her broke me. This is another reason I can’t be your kindred, Rhapsody. You need someone who isn’t haunted and shattered by their pasts. Someone who is already whole or close to it. I’m not that man.”

I took a moment to gather my thoughts, my heart breaking for him, but I wanted to be honest and open with him. “I agree with you that kindred souls or other romantic types of partners don’t make you whole. I’m not looking for anyone to complete me. And I’m far from whole. I have my own pain and heartbreak that’s splintered through me and broken off pieces. You think my other kindreds aren’t haunted and broken too? Have you met Aster’s father? We’re a group of broken souls who have been brought together by fate or magic or a god and no, we don’t complete each other. But somehow, we compliment each other and are healing each other and bringing out the best in each other. To me, that’s what the kindred soul bond is. I used to think it was some sort of force that brought us together whether we wanted it to or not.”

“And what do you believe now?” Bastian asked.

It was something I’d never put into words before, but apparently I’d thought about it more than I realized. “Now I believe something a little similar to what you used to. I believe kindreds are those whose souls are friends with yours. Souls who knew each other before we were plucked from the stars and born to this wretched earth. And maybe those bonds never go farther than friendship. Or maybe the connection is changed after the things we go through before we find each other again and the bond is warped and broken. Or maybe if you’re lucky, you can find something more than friendship, more than love. Two souls reunited after being separated by the universe and cursed to walk alone until you’re reunited. So, no. Kindreds don’t complete you. But they can make you better, stronger, happier, wiser. They can help smooth your jagged edges because they recognize you, they see you, they understand you.”

It was what I’d been building with my prince and my assassins. So far, we’d mostly been lost in a fog of lust and friendship, but it grew into something more every day. Maybe it was too soon to feel love, but even without the connection, I’d want to be with those men. Even if our souls didn’t know each other.

And Bastian had become a part of that.

He stared at me, his eyes dark, his expression closed for several long moments. And then he moved.