Chapter Nine #3
“What, messing around? Sorry, I don’t think fucking each other is going to magically fix our marriage.” I tried to move around him, but he blocked me again.
You had the chance to stop yourselves, and you didn’t. What do you think that means?
“Do you know how hard it was to tell myself no in the moment, when she’s all I’ve wanted for weeks now?” I demanded. “Her speaking to me is enough to bring me to my knees these days, so sorry if I didn’t have any self-control when she’s asking me to make her feel better in the one way I know how!”
You’re acting like you made a mistake, and you didn’t. This is a good sign. If you can’t connect over words, at least you can connect over something. You have to find common ground somewhere.
“It was a mistake, because it shouldn’t have happened. Now it just hurts more, because all I can think about is what happened between us. I could’ve used your help! You’re the one who ran out when things started happening. You could’ve stopped us!”
But I wanted things to happen. If you’re still sleeping together, that means there’s some kind of connection left, no matter how small. It shows neither of you really want to give this up. It means there’s hope.
I scoffed. “I don’t want to hope. That just means I’ll be more disappointed when this blows up in my face.”
Ava proved to you there’s a chance of mending your marriage. She gave you a peace offering by sharing her body. Why not take that chance and see where it leads?
“Why? So I can fuck up and ruin her life, like I have been doing for years now? Not a chance. I won’t do anything to hurt her ever again.”
Then decide not to, and make this right, Oberi demanded. She’s showing you she isn’t ready to leave. Give her a reason to stay.
I didn’t allow myself to believe Oberi was right— because if I did, and Ava still chose to divorce me, I wouldn’t want to go on.
I had to tell myself she was gone forever.
If I allowed myself to keep hoping we could work things out, it would destroy me.
That wonderful night had been a momentary lapse of judgement, nothing more.
I wouldn’t survive if we tried to make this work, then she decided in the end she still didn’t want me. Best to just let it die.
I made my way through the secret passage in the library and entered the Hidden Legends Archives, where Ez was reading aloud from one of the records.
I didn’t finish the thought before passion built inside of me. My breath caught as I reached my peak. My fingers tightened in her hair as I emptied into her. She noticed me tense, and she increased her speed, using her hand to pleasure me further.
Kallie and Danny burst into fits of laughter, while Marcus blabbered gibberish loudly to drown out Ez’s voice. “LA LA LA LA LA!!!” Marcus sang.
“What’s wrong?” Ez teased. “I’m just reading what’s written. It’s right here on page 276 of The Cauldron’s Curse.”
I plopped onto one of the couches to listen. I nearly squashed Rishi, and he hissed as he jumped out of the way. Oberi hopped onto the couch beside me, and Alette fluttered onto his back.
Ez went on, sounding delighted as he narrated the book he was reading aloud from.
I sagged against the rock, and my head spun so much that I saw stars where the trees should be. When my head finally cleared, Nadine was kneeling beneath me, beaming. She swallowed, and I smiled wide.
I realized then what was going on. Ez was reading from Marcus’ parents’ records and taunting him with the explicit details. It sounded like Lucas and Nadine had gotten a little crazy in the woods back in the day. Ez lowered his voice to mimic Lucas’ as he went on.
“If you were trying to convince me we shouldn’t be together, you’re kind of doing a shitty job of it,” I teased as I buttoned my pants.
“Let’s not question my motives,” she joked back.
“Motives?” I smirked. “What motives—?”
Footsteps rustled in the distance. I jumped to my feet and grabbed Nadine’s hand.
Her features paled. “No one knows we’re out here.”
“It might just be hikers,” I said, hoping that’s all it was, but dread twisted in my gut. “Stay behind me.”
We walked toward the footsteps, my heart hammering.
As we stepped out from behind the bushes, my pulse came to a full stop.
A group of eight people stood before us—four boys and four girls around our age.
A frizzy-haired girl walked beside a nervous-looking boy, and a blonde with huge glasses clung to the arm of a tall man with pale hair.
At the head of the group was a redhead. She looked completely panicked, as if she was in a great hurry to save someone’s life.
One of the guys looked like he’d been beaten. A hugely muscular man dragged him along the ground. His face was covered in bruises, and his body appeared starving. The guy looked to be withering away against some kind of magical bonds he was bound by.
I didn’t know how I knew what they were, but I could sense it immediately.
It must’ve been something magical inside of me that I didn’t even know was there.
I could practically smell the wet dog on the wolven shifter and the reptilian scent of the dragon.
Something rebelled inside of me, like I knew these individuals were my worst enemy.
A battle orb formed in my hand. “Get back, Nad! It’s a group of fucking fae!”
“Wait!” Kallie stopped him abruptly. “I know that line. It’s in The Alicorn Court.”
“What are you suggesting?” Danny asked. “That Nadine and Lucas copied from Emma and Ethan’s records?”
“No, but it seems weird they use the same quote. Hold on.”
Kallie plopped a book on the table and flipped through the pages. “I was right! It’s on page 259 of The Alicorn Court, written from my father’s perspective.”
Kallie began reading the passage out loud.
Two figures stepped out of the bushes, a boy and a girl. They looked to be around our age— probably students at the nearby college. Definitely a warlock and a witch.
The girl stared at us, but the boy jumped into action. Some sort of spell swelled at his command, and whatever it was, it didn’t look pleasant to be at the other end of.
“Get back, Nad,” the boy warned. “It’s a group of fucking fae!”
The girl’s brow furrowed in confusion, yet she didn’t make a move to attack. The shifters bristled, but seeing as there wasn’t much they could do, held back. Kiara put her hands up, and the other girls followed her lead.
“We’re not here to harm you,” Kiara pleaded. “We need help.”
“Yeah? Then what’d you do to that guy?” The boy gestured to my body, which was convulsing as the leshane struggled to break free.
“He’s been possessed,” Kiara went on. “We’ve been told there’s a witch who can save him.”
“Why should we believe you’re not invading?” the boy snarled. “There’s eight of you!”
Stefan sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, we might’ve been able to do this without everyone coming along.”
Emma took the lead. She stepped in front of Kiara and asked, “What are your names?”
The boy went to object, but the girl replied, “Nadine and Lucas.”
Emma took a breath. “Nadine. Lucas. My name is Emma. This is my mate, Ethan.” She gestured to my body.
“It’s the same event from two different perspectives,” Marcus noted, stating the obvious.
“This explains how our parents knew each other before that meeting in Hemlock’s secret illusion room,” Kallie said.
“My parents went to Octavia Falls while they were in university, and Marcus’ parents helped them get past the town’s shield.
They needed to get in to find help for a spell from a specific witch.
It also explains why my father owes Lucas a life debt. ”
“Why not my mom?” Marcus asked. “She helped them too, didn’t she? Why doesn’t Ethan owe her a life debt?”
“Lucas was going to attack, but he chose mercy instead. He’s the one who made the choice to help, and it was my father who was vulnerable,” Kallie noted. “Lucas’ decision saved my father’s life.”
“That’s cool and all, but did my parents have to get so explicit about their escapades in the woods?” Marcus complained. “Your mom and dad basically walked in on mine!”
“It’s a very important part of the story!” Danny argued, clearly trying to get a rise out of Marcus. It sure sounded like Marcus’ parents hadn’t left out a thing in their personal books. “The intimacy, the lust—”
“Ugh,” Marcus cut him off. “Can you stop?”
“I agree with Marcus,” Ez said. “I’ve read most of my parents’ records, and they are way too comfortable with sharing their sex lives with the world.”
“Exactly! I don’t want to hear about my dad getting a BJ in the woods,” Marcus whined.
I shrugged. “I don’t think it’s unnecessary. These relationships— and all their details— are an integral part of a chosen one’s calling. The reader is going to miss important things if that stuff is erased. When it’s mine and Ava’s turn to add to the records, we aren’t leaving anything out.”
I nearly winced as I heard the words come out of my mouth.
I hadn’t thought about what adding to these records would be like now that Ava and I weren’t together, or how our current relationship status might taint our stories.
I knew Takahashi expected us to write down everything we’d been through, but I didn’t know if I had it in me to revisit our past. Not now— and probably not ever.