Chapter 45
forty-five
Soulbinding with Brothers
The misty portal opens to a rocky floor, and a thick glowing crystal suspended in a beam of purple light. I stagger forward as the moisture hits my skin and the heat fills my bones.
It’s.
So.
Perfect!
I haven’t even seen the whole springs but just the vibes of this room is incredible.
It’s spacious, with romantic lighting, and plants.
So many plants! I don’t have a green thumb—I wish I did—but Sylvia has made this place a paradise of green.
Maybe I’ll ask her to help me spruce up the library like I wanted those months ago.
Beyond the thrumming purple geode is a pool that’s just for two. It’s definitely their private spot, but it’s so enchanting I can’t help but squeal.
I turn to her with a bright smile. “This is so amazing!”
She beams. “Thank you. I’m sure your bookshop is incredible too.”
“I mean, you can’t soak in my books,” I say.
“Hmm, but you can enjoy them again and again, anywhere,” Jade says.
“That’s true…”
“See? Stop comparing,” Sylvia says with a compassionate hand on my shoulder.
Bastian pulls me away and I tsk at him.
“Really?”
He frowns. “I wouldn’t if you weren’t upset.”
I shouldn’t be upset. Sylvia has a very different business. It’s thriving, but because she’s been working at it for years.
“I’m not upset,” I say. “Just a little envious.”
Sylvia approaches again, giving Bastian a placating stare. “You’ve just started. There’s so much to come.”
She grabs my hand and leads me out of the room into a reception hall. “You boys do your thing; I’m giving her a tour.”
Bastian looks like he’d rather peel his own skin off than let me go without him. Rhazan grabs his shoulder as Jade leaves them behind.
“Let the women do what women do,” he grumbles in his low baritone.
A hot retort is on my tongue but Apollo closes the door behind Jade before I can get it out.
“You haven’t lived until you’ve been submerged in 111 degrees of mineral rich healing water,” Sylvia says, looping her arm in mine.
“Seriously,” Jade says. “I’m twenty-five going on fifteen because of these waters.”
We all laugh and it’s so natural. It feels strange to suddenly have two friends that I know nothing about but feel so inexplicably connected to. Is it Bastian and his brothers that knit us together, or something else?
We pass by a station full of merchandise and my brain is sparked with ideas. There are so many cool designs, mostly puns about ghosts and hauntings, and everything looks comfortable.
“Want a hoodie?” Sylvia asks.
“I am pretty lacking in winter attire,” I say. “My own fault for living in California for so long and just not being prepared for what sub zero plus humidity feels like.”
She sucks air through her teeth. “Yikes.”
She helps me find a 3XL of the “Guaranteed to Raise Your Spirits” hoodie with little ghosties coming out of the hot spring steam. It’s spacious, fluffy, and so comfortable I think I want to live inside it.
Sylvia tells me about how she came to own the hot spring, and her first experience with Apollo, as she gives me a tour of her business.
There are several private indoor pools, but the real magic is the snowy patio pool on the third floor.
The steam is so thick on the glass we have to open the door to enjoy it. And enjoy it we do.
Sylvia throws her arms forward and a huge gust of wind sweeps the snow off the patio, sending it flying on little whirlwinds through the trees.
“You’re like, an airbender?” I ask.
Jade grins. “Yes! Another Avatar fan!”
Sylvia rolls her eyes as she walks toward the spring. “It’s not going to make me want to watch a cartoon just because you outnumber me.”
“Oh, come on,” Jade pleads. “Plus, your little tyke needs wholesome shows to watch that will help explain her powers!”
I look at Sylvia curiously. “You guys…have a kid?”
“And one more on the way.” She smiles brightly as she touches her stomach.
“Really! Did you just find out?” Jade asks as she yanks off her boots.
Sylvia nods, beaming as she slips her feet into the water.
They leave a space between them for me to sit, and as I go to take off my shoes, I realize they aren’t mine.
I glare at the bland white hospital slippers.
I must’ve lost my pumps sometime in the fight.
Probably when I blasted the waitress with lightning.
I strip off my ripped stockings and sit at the edge of the pool with the others.
The water sears my toes and I jerk them back with a hiss.
Slowly, I lower them again. When the warmth fully surrounds my calves, I moan in relief.
I hadn’t realized how much tension was in my legs until the water helped me relax.
“Good, right?” Jade asks.
“So good,” I groan as I lean back on my hands.
“Just wait until you try Jade’s coffee. She enchants it with stamina, creativity, and all kinds of great things,” Sylvia says.
“I’ve never been much of a coffee person,” I say with a grimace.
“Nai Nai makes a mean pot of tea, too, if that’s your thing,” Jade says.
“Nigh…nigh?”
Jade chuckles. “Sorry, my grandma Feng. I’ve got a little brother who lives with me too, though he’s graduating in just a few months!”
“That’s right!” Sylvia gasps. “Is he excited to go to college?”
“So excited. He got into MIT!”
Sylvia screams and leans into me to hug Jade. I get caught in their embrace and find myself laughing with them.
Jade sighs. “He can’t wait to get out of our tiny town and back to a big city. My parents almost bought a house in Cambridge but he strictly forbade them from stalking him, so they’re paying half the rent on a two-bedroom apartment for visiting rights.”
We laugh, and Jade prompts Sylvia about the baby on the way. Sylvia gushes to me about her first child with Apollo and then with Jade about the eight-week bun in the oven. A sense of hope swells in me as she talks a hundred miles a second.
I’ve known since my diagnosis that my chances of conception are low, but at least they’re not zero. And this news makes it seem like I can have a family with Bastian. We’re not too different to make it work.
But would he want to?
I sigh, realizing I’ve been putting off that conversation with him for a long time.
“What’s up?” Jade prods.
I shake my head. “Just things left undone.”
There’s a deep tremble below us and the water splashes against the sides of the pool. I grab onto the rocks for support.
“What the hell?”
Sylvia smiles. “Seems Apollo is making you guys your own room.”
“Can he manipulate matter too?” I ask.
“They all can,” Jade says. “Lucky bastards. I just get astral projection…”
“And literal fireballs that come out of your hands and feet,” Sylvia adds.
I gasp. “You’re a firebender?”
“Yeah…” She shrugs, then her face goes deathly still, her eyes expressionless as she leers. “There is no war in Ba Sing Se.”
I burst out laughing, and so does Jade.
“Come on, let’s go set up at the café,” Sylvia says as she rolls her eyes and gets out of the water. “I have a private wedding party coming in a few hours and my team needs time to set up.”
I use my stockings to wipe my feet dry and slide back into the hospital slippers.
She shows me around a little more on the way down, revealing stylized nooks and crannies everywhere.
A pair of chairs and a beverage station tucked between fresh towel shelves.
A hammock with a heated massage pad next to a set of French doors.
“You have a really amazing business, Sylvia,” I say when we get back to the main floor.
She blushes, pushing some of her curly hair behind her ear. “It’s been a long time in the making, but we’re really proud of it.”
“I would be, too.”
Mist materializes behind Sylvia and then Apollo is scooping her off the ground into a bridal hold. She wraps her arms around him without so much as a yelp. He must do it to her often. That makes my heart happy for her.
“Did you have fun?” he asks after planting a brief kiss on her cheek.
“Always,” she says.
“Good, because we have work to do for Mark’s wedding party,” he says as he plops her back on her feet.
“I know,” she says with sing-song annoyance. “He only texted me twenty-four times today.”
She nods for me to follow and we walk back to the room with the floating purple crystal. There’s a new doorway open to the right. Inky black runes that glitter with gold wrap around the archway of the entrance.
Bastian and Rhazan emerge from the room, speaking a language I can’t place but sounds familiar. His secretive smile lights my body like warming in the sun on a cold day. He extends his hand to me and I go to him, happy to be back at his side.
“You need to thread some of your magic into this spell,” he says, placing my palm against the wall with his markings.
“Wait,” Jade says, scowling at me. “You guys haven’t—”
“Jade,” Rhazan interrupts her. “It is not our business.”
She pouts, mumbling something I don’t catch.
“Haven’t what?” I ask, looking at Bastian for some context.
His expression gives nothing away and he ignores my question.
“Infuse this with your magic so you can come here when you want,” he says.
I huff, doing as he says. The spell takes and takes until I’m feeling lightheaded.
Bastian pulls me up into his arms just as Apollo had done to Sylvia, though I am much less graceful.
I yelp and reach for my skirt to hide my panties instead of clinging to him.
My other arm goes wide from the weight of my bag and I wobble in his hold.
“Stop squirming, pink flesh,” Bastian growls at me.
“My modesty!” I complain weakly and everyone laughs.
Bastian’s tail smooths over my ass and then squeezes between my legs, pinning my skirt closed. I scream at the intrusion and hide my face in the crook of his neck as I hug my bag to my chest.
Rhazan clears his throat. “We’ll make you some fortifying tea so you can soulbind at our location.”
Jade steps up to the doorway and runs her fingers along the runic symbols. They light up with hot pink, then orange-like molten gold like Rhazan’s skin ornaments. Threads of light stitch across the arch until the entire thing is glowing with the combination of their magic.
“See you guys next weekend for dinner?” Jade asks Sylvia.
“Only if Nai Nai makes the cookies,” she says.
Jade scowls. “My cookies are nah wo swan shen-muh ah?”
Sylvia shakes her head. “I don’t know what that means, but they’re always burned.”
“Crispy is not burned!”
“It resembled a lump of coal.”
Jade gasps, her hands gesticulating wildly. “Ni shi bu shi zai xiao wo de gao-dian?”
Rhazan grabs one of those wild arms and drags her into the portal. They disappear through the veil of light, Jade continuing her rant as we laugh.
Bastian turns us to face Sylvia and Apollo. “I will install your sigil in the hoard so you may travel to us.”
“Oh perfect,” Sylvia says, clapping. “I have a ton of Christmas shopping to do and many book nerds to buy for!”
“If you see anything you like on the website, just ask me and I’ll hold it,” I say, my voice a little stronger than it was moments ago.
It seems as if being so close to Bastian is refueling my low energy. Could that be possible?
Bastian dips his head to the pair and takes a step back toward the glimmering portal.
“I look forward to our next encounter, no sooner than many weeks from now,” he says, making his hermit nature clear.
“It’s not all work, you know,” Apollo says with a grin. “Don’t forget to have fun with your mate, brother.”
Bastian whirls us around and marches through the doorway without another word. Before I can ask him what the heck was up with the word mate appearing once again, we’re enveloped in blazing hot light.