Delusions & Desires (Tethered by Temptation #1)

Chapter 1

Alexander

A mythical dragon that shouldn’t exist dropped my applicant three stories, shattering her legs.

I was already up and running.

My bare feet pounded through the tunnels beneath my coliseum, and my breath scraped my ribs raw.

The gasps and scattered applause of the confused crowd still thundered overhead.

The test to join my family shouldn’t have created something capable of causing physical harm.

But it had, and now her magic hummed beneath my skin, weaving memories into my mind that weren’t my own.

She wasn’t supposed to be here. And if she was dying, I knew what it would cost to save her.

I rushed through the dark arches, exhaustion weighing heavily on my shoulders. For three relentless days, I alone had powered the trials; every breath was a battle threatening to shatter me.

Despite everything, my mental magic sang in my blood; it was so rare I allowed myself to use it.

I virtually flew into the small cellar we used as a medic room. Bright light assaulted my eyes, forcing me to slow and squint. On the medical bed, a salvaged relic from centuries past, lay a woman swaddled in filthy, rotting layers. Deep red hair spilled across our cream sheet.

The love of my life stood a foot from the bed with his hand resting on his sword hilt.

His dark skin and long, plum-purple hair, currently in a ponytail, were opposite my short baby blue mane and typical pale, Scottish complexion.

For once, I was the shirtless one in our duo, but I couldn’t take the time to appreciate the role reversal.

My partner in all things, and yet this… this was my decision.

I stepped closer. Her eyelids fluttered, revealing a dull green gaze that froze my heart. In twenty-eight years, I’d never seen eyes without the glow of magic.

“Are you real?” she croaked.

I wanted to ask her the same, but the pain in her voice cut off my banter. “Yes.”

I peeled back the layers hiding her. The stench of rot, sweat, and blood burned my nose. Bug bites and infected cuts marred her skin under a black synthetic bra and a crude plastic suit. Plastic. A material the world hadn’t made in over a century.

I trembled and once again forced my questions down.

Her legs were swelling fast, the left one bent at impossible angles. She seized violently, and I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt.

I could save her. But to do it, I’d have to tether her to me.

“You can’t,” my lover warned, standing just behind me.

But I could. I had to.

“Her raw power could repel an army from my walls,” I said.

My lover grunted.

“The world’s broken,” I continued, needing to hear my rationale out loud. “We made this family to fix what part of it we could, for her, and every lost soul needing a home. Saving her life is the right thing to do.”

My lover grunted again. He’d already expressed his opinion. He wouldn’t do it again.

Foam spilled from her mouth. My pulse hammered in my ears.

My gaze locked onto the man who was the center of my world. The word tether hovered between us, a fault line ready to break. We both understood it. The connection would bond this stranger and me together for life, something my lover and I could never have.

“I want…”

Her magic tugged at my soul.

“I need to understand. Her eyes are dull, like humans of the past.” I swallowed. “Her magic calls to mine in a way nothing ever has before.”

I turned to my lover once more, desperate for him to understand.

His impassive face didn’t shift. But the weight of his next breath told me everything I needed to know. With a resigned nod, he slid behind me. Always ready to support my worst of decisions.

Chancellor Morgen walked in, shutting the door firmly behind her, her bright pink hair a jarring contrast to her stern, wrinkled face. Rage, or possibly fear, radiated off her in waves. I didn’t look at the ancient monster posing as an administrator within my castle.

“She’s to be trained,” I said, lacing the words with my will.

Morgen’s gaze swept over the woman’s broken body, calculating.

“She’s to be trained, no matter her circumstances,” I repeated, sharper.

My chancellor narrowed her eyes. “Yes, Architect.”

I didn’t let my relief show. This was my family, my castle, but without their support, I was nothing.

The dying woman’s back arched, and her thrashing stopped.

Now or never.

Ezra wrapped his arms around my waist, and I gripped both her bare ankles.

Her pain surged into me, locking my hands to her like shackles. My magic poured through the connection, seeking out the source of her ruin.

Three tethers of foreign power clung to her, ugly and incomplete dark cords stretching north. They weren’t strong enough to fully control her, but they bound her all the same. Death, hers or the men who had placed them, was the only way to break them.

My heart splintered, but if I wanted any chance to destroy them, she had to live.

I was a skilled healer. My talent for weaving flesh back together was second to none, but this would need more. Closing my eyes, I formed a cord of my very essence and slid into her. Her agony became mine. My body spasmed, and only Ezra’s grip kept me upright.

I pushed deeper. My magic wrapped her closer than any lover, stitching months of damage into wholeness. I wept, though I couldn’t feel the tears. There was no room for me, only her pain and the work of mending it.

One injury at a time, I knit this stranger back together, my soul taking its place beside hers.

The tether solidified. Her emotions should have flooded me, but her unconscious mind was silent.

I gave her everything I had until the world went black.