Chapter 13
Alaric
The goddess-cursed cuffs were making my life hell. Being unable to release magic was like being burned alive. Constantly. I’d tried explaining to my father in words of one syllable just how inhumane such cuffs were on a storm mage, and he’d expressed zero concern.
Anyone would think he didn’t give a fuck about his only son. Oh wait…
Following his revelation that he expected me to have sex with Raven, he’d sent me back to this sad room.
His words pounded inside my head on an endless loop. “…you need to fuck the little bitch and seal the bond.”
Not fucking happening.
If we had sex, it would be because we both wanted it, not because of a twisted scientific experiment conducted by my father. Unsurprisingly, the thought of lab-coat-wearing nerds watching me get my dick wet with my fated mate was not on this year’s bingo card.
Worse still, Rink would probably expect a ringside seat to the spectacle. I’d rather stuff a Carolina Reaper chili up my ass than have any kind of erotic moment in front of that twisted fuck.
Though if my father had brought a siren here, we might have no choice. Siren magic was impossible to resist at the best of times, and without access to my magic, I had no chance of fighting it.
I lay back on the rock-hard cot and closed my eyes, but sleep refused to come.
There had to be a way out of this place.
My father couldn’t lock me up for long; people would start asking questions. Petronella especially. She’d sent me a link to her Pinterest wedding board just the other day. That was hardly the behavior of a disengaged bride-to-be.
A sudden shift in the room’s atmosphere startled me, and my eyes snapped open.
I nearly fell off the bed when I saw my little witch standing there with a confused expression on her face.
“Raven? How the fuck did you escape?”
“Err, so, um, it’s complicated?”
I stared at her. Like me, she wore magic-blocking cuffs, which meant she had no way of passing through the warded door of her room. Unless…
“Is your familiar here?” I looked but saw no sign of the furry little bastard.
“What? No!”
Losing patience, I jumped up from the cot, ignoring the painful twinge in my back from the awful mattress. She took a giant step back when I stalked toward her.
“Tell me now so I can get the fuck out of here!”
“I’m still in my room!” she hissed, eyes wide. I stopped dead, unable to make sense of what she was saying.
“What?”
“I don’t know why I ended up in your room. It happens sometimes…I go places when I sleep.”
She chewed her lip as I stared at her, hurriedly processing her words.
“You can dream-walk?” I’d read about it but never met a magical who could do it.
“So Zane says.” She huffed out a sigh. “It’s how I found Rasmus.” I’d always wondered how she connected with him. “And also how I knew Kai was in danger from his bitch mother.”
This could be our way out. “Can you reach your other mates?”
“Other mates? Oh, my goddess, Alaric, have you finally accepted what we are to each other?” Her faint smirk irritated me. I’d told her how I felt. Didn’t she believe me?
“Look, just answer the question!” As much as I hated to admit it, we needed outside help to escape this place if I couldn’t remove these cuffs.
Raven sighed. “It’s not an exact science…”
“So what you’re saying is you have no control over your dream-walking, much like you can’t control your magic.” I rolled my eyes. How was such a powerful witch so fucking useless?
She threw me a mutinous look. “Given a choice, I wouldn’t be here with you, so yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying!”
“Really? You enjoyed being with me in the library that one time.” Now it was me smirking as I took pleasure from the way her face turned a delightful shade of red. I stepped closer, reaching for her wrist, but I felt nothing but a faint static sensation as my hand passed right through.
I had no clue what to make of it. Did my father know she could dream-walk?
“Can you get out of here?” I gestured at the door behind her.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Whenever it’s happened before, I haven’t tried leaving the place where I ended up. It’s weird. You can’t actually touch me, but Rasmus could.” Her cheeks flushed again, which made me wonder exactly how the vampire had touched her.
“It could be an effect of the magic-blocking cuffs,” I pointed out, irritated as all hell that she couldn’t touch me. Not that I wanted her to right now. Not in this context anyway. Under different circumstances, I very much did want her hands on me. And vice versa.
“Try walking through the door.” It was hard not to let frustration bleed into my voice, but the clock was ticking, and if I couldn’t find a key to unlock my cuffs, we were fucked.
Raven spun on her heels and did as I asked. I held my breath as her hand went straight through it, and before I could say a word, she’d disappeared.
Several minutes passed before she reappeared with a huge grin on her face.
“It worked!”
I exhaled in relief. If she could search this place undetected, we might have a fighting chance of escaping.
“You need to look for a key to unlock our cuffs. We don’t have long.”
She nodded without hesitation. “Your father told me he wants my magic, although he didn’t explain how he planned to get it.”
I shook my head dismissively. “That’s not important.” It was better if she didn’t know about his sick scheme. While I knew the soul-bond heightened the attraction between us, I doubted she’d be on board with being forced to have sex for science. No sane person would be.
“What’s important is that I release my magic as quickly as possible.” The pressure keg building inside my chest was close to exploding. If I didn’t expel some energy soon, I might end up burned to a crisp.
“I’ll go see what I can find,” she said, but before I could suggest the best place to search, she’d vanished, leaving me alone once again.
I sat back on the cot and waited impatiently for her return, but it never came.