Iced Fated Mate

28. No Question

Chapter Twenty-Eight

No Question

MILES

I flipped my hand over and pressed on the clasp that held the bracelet together. It clicked open. I took it off. Dylan cocked his head, looking curiously between the gold in my palm and the questions in my eyes.

I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with air.

With Dylan’s scent—intoxicating, unraveling, addictive.

A whole swirl of colors and emotions exploded inside me.

I gazed into Dylan’s eyes and felt a piece of me float upward.

Like my soul was trying to reach out to his.

I’d never felt this type of attraction and bond before.

As if we’d known each other in fifteen different past lives, all of them having us tied together.

The relief of meeting him again in this one and recognizing our connection was enough to drop me to my knees.

Dylan’s eyebrows scrunched together. He appeared worried.

I grabbed at his hands and locked eyes with my fated mate.

It was as if an emotional tidal wave had been frozen directly above me and came crashing down the second the bracelet was off.

I felt swept away in the waters of Dylan’s love.

It was a validating and indescribable feeling.

Like the universe couldn’t have been more correct in putting us together.

Him and I against the world. It was a feeling I had been building up naturally for him but now that process was expedited by the supernatural connection that bonded us and wasn’t being blocked by dark magic.

Like dumping fertilizer on a planter full of the most vibrant and fragrant red roses known to mankind.

“There’s no question,” I said, bowing my head.

“You are my fated mate. I feel it now. Same as I did under the full moon. There’s no one else but you.

” I got back onto my feet and pulled him back against me.

“I feel what you felt that first night. Like lightning just hit me. My entire body is on fire, and it burns just for you.”

“That’s how I felt the night we first met.

” Dylan’s smile grew. I could instantly tell this was what he needed to hear in order to vanquish any doubt that lingered inside him.

It made me even happier, knowing that I’d said and done the right thing.

All I wanted was to see Dylan smile, and to know that it was because of me only made that smile infinitely sweeter.

“I understand now, what you were talking about. It’s visceral. It’s undeniable and powerful.”

“But why… the bracelet?” Dylan began to put two and two together.

I nodded. I looked down at the seemingly benign piece of jewelry in my hand.

I examined it a little closer and noticed there was an inscription on the inside of it.

It was in a language I didn’t understand, but I knew it wasn’t anything to do with the original design of the bracelet. This was put on there after the fact.

“This is what was blocking this connection,” I said, the elation at feeling my fated pull becoming overshadowed by a toxic dread at the realization.

I almost didn’t want it to be true. I wanted there to be another reason for this.

Some kind of excuse that could explain away why I didn’t feel this connection when Dylan did.

It was difficult to reconcile the truth with what I didn’t want to admit to myself.

Because if my guess was right, then that would mean someone I loved and trusted for a large part of my life had a secretly sinister side that no one expected.

A chill crawled down my spine. I glanced over my shoulder, suddenly wondering if there was a chance we’d been followed.

All it would take was a silver bullet to the chest…

“Who gave this to you?” Dylan asked.

“Emmy.”

“But there’s no way—”

“No, there isn’t. But Emmy wasn’t the one who originally bought it. His sister got it for him. And she got herself a matching one.”

Dylan’s eyebrows inched together. He arched the one with the birthmark. “I don’t get it. Why would that matter?”

It was difficult for me to even say it out loud.

“Unless there’s some big misunderstanding—and fuck, I really hope there is—then I think Macie gave it to me because she’s had feelings for me for a while now, and I think those feelings got turned into something poisonous.

I think she’s behind those texts, the threat. I think she might be the stalker.”

Dylan’s jaw dropped. He shook his head and covered his mouth. “No, no way. Emmy’s sister?”

I looked at the bracelet in my hand. I didn’t want to believe it either. Maybe I was wrong? Could this be a misdirect? Some kind of trick by the person who was really behind it all?

“Maybe the stalker gave her the bracelet to give to you?” Dylan suggested. Clearly he wanted to presume her innocence as badly as I did.

Still…

I wasn’t sure. But I had an idea on who we might be able to go to for help. “Do you think Hunter’s awake? We might need his help on this one.”

Dylan had his phone in his hands in seconds. “Let me call him this time.”

“Yes,” I said, returning to holding Dylan as he made the call. His shirt and sweats were damp from the rain, just like my clothes. It didn’t matter, though. I didn’t want to let him go. “Please give him a heads up. But don’t deactivate those watcher vines.”

Dylan arched a skeptical brow. I leaned in and kissed his neck, inhaling his scent and feeling, for once, complete.

He was mine and I was his, no matter how hard anyone else worked to keep us apart.

I pulled up to Hunter’s driveway with a cloud of dust and rocks kicking up behind the tires.

Admittedly I had been pressing down hard on the gas pedal once we called Hunter and asked if we could come over.

It was late into the night but apparently, he’d been up working on a project and was happy to help us.

He stood on the porch, arms crossed over his chest. He wore a thick gray jacket with the hood thrown over his head.

The watcher vines hung limply from the roof.

We got out of the car, gravel crunching under our sneakers.

Dylan and I both waved but I held an arm out for Dylan to slow down as we approached.

“I want to test something,” I said. I grabbed the bracelet out of my pocket—felt like touching poison ivy—and tossed it at the vines.

They instantly snatched it out of the air. More vines started to come down from the porch, wrapping around the bracelet, pulling it up.

“So that’s what triggered them,” Dylan said. He shook his head. He looked slightly uncomfortable with hands stuffed into the pocket of his pants, his shoulders stiff and rigid. I didn’t blame him after he saw what those things did to me.

Hunter disabled the watcher vines which had them go limp and drop the bracelet. He picked it up as if he were grabbing a venomous snake. “I take it this is what you want to talk about?” He looked between Dyl and me.

“It is.”

He nodded and turned to enter his house, muttering, “Follow me,” over his shoulder, a whiff of garlic trailing behind him. I reached for Dylan’s hand. He took it, fingers locking with mine.

We walked through the hanging vines and entered Hunter’s home. “Sit, sit.” Hunter shrugged his jacket off and hung it on an already full rack next to the door. It smelled like moss and freshly turned soil inside. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t exactly inviting either.

We went to his couch, pretty much in the exact same spots as last time.

Hunter offered us some wine, but we declined.

I had to stay sharp tonight. He excused himself, but instead of coming back with a drink, he returned with a stone bowl overflowing with water.

He gently placed the bowl down on the center of the coffee table and then sat across from us.

The water inside the bowl was almost fluorescent blue.

I wasn’t sure if it was how the inside of the bowl had been painted or if the water was really that blue.

“Tell me, what’s going on?”

And so Dylan and I worked together to tell the story of what had happened since the last time we’d been here.

About the dove, and the bracelet, and the suspicions about Macie.

I pulled out the threatening letter that had been left with the dove.

Hunter took it and read it, his face remaining stern and stoic.

He didn’t seem like a man who was often shaken.

He also looked like he had been letting his beard and hair grow since the last time I’d seen him.

He placed the letter on his lap and reached up, unpinning the loose bun and letting his long brown hair fall down near his shoulders.

“So,” I asked, exhausted but hopeful. “Can you help us figure this out?”

He stroked his beard, thinking, before the corner of his lip twitched into a smile. “Yes, I think I can. I think you’ve given me enough to scry and see if Macie really is linked to all of this.”

“Scrying?” Dylan asked.

Hunter nodded. He ran his finger around the stone bowl.

“Matter, energy, water, it’s all recycled.

This water here has touched corners of the world we’d never see in our lifetimes.

With a little bit of mana manipulation—the energy druids can naturally tap into—we can get a reflection to show an image of who or what it is that we seek.

” Hunter dipped his fingers into the unnaturally blue water.

Ripples slowly rolled away from his touch, bouncing off the smooth gray stone bowl.

“It takes coaxing to get the image clear, and with your suspicions, we can direct the mana toward a certain person. If it’s a link, then we’ll see their reflection in here, showing us where they currently are. ”

I held my breath as I watched Hunter work. He removed his dripping fingers and grabbed the bracelet off the table. He said something under his breath and for the quickest of moments there was a bright green light shining underneath his palm, flashing upward.

He placed the bracelet in the bowl. The water fizzed and bubbled as if we’d dropped some kind of chemical solvent to cause the reaction.

“And now the letter.”

He picked it up from his lap and held a corner of it over a burning candle.

It caught and started to burn. He placed the letter on the surface of the water.

The fire briefly spread outward, as if the water had been oil this entire time.

It vanished once it reached the edges of the bowl.

The letter sank to the bottom, the ink swirling off. There was a figure forming.

“Look inside. Who do you see?”

Dyl placed a reassuring hand on my leg. I put my hand over his. I didn’t want to be right. I couldn’t imagine being right. I braced myself.

Leaned forward. Looked in the bowl.

Saw eyes I recognized.

Sucked in a sharp breath. I closed my eyes and shook my head, unable to rationalize this. All this time. It had been her?

Dylan knew just by my reaction alone. He dropped his head and cursed under his breath. He rubbed my leg, trying to reassure me. But this—fucking hell. It broke me. My best friend’s sister was threatening to kill my fated mate. How could I reconcile that with who I knew her to be?

“And this is certain? She’s the one who wrote this letter?” I asked.

Hunter nodded his head solemnly. “And who cursed the bracelet. It appears she’s a druid who’s working with black magic. A defiler. That’s grounds for imprisonment, or worse.”

“Worse?” Dylan asked.

“The Druidic Council doesn’t take kindly to people working with death energies.

It can corrupt not just the user but the people around them, if they do it for long enough.

It’s like a poison that spreads. So if there’s a druid that’s found to be using it, depending on what they’ve done and for how long, they can either be jailed on Razor Island or they can be numbed.

” Hunter’s skin blanched at that last one.

“No druid ever wants their connection to mana severed. It turns them into lifeless husks. I don’t know which fate is worse. ”

It was as if I’d been dunked into an ice bath.

Shock and fear chilled my bones. As horrible as she had made my life these past few years, I still felt a need to try and figure out a way to fix this before she was sentenced to a life of misery.

Not only had I known her since she was a kid, but I also didn’t want to do anything that would inflict more pain and trauma on Emmy’s life.

He’d suffered so much loss already. Could I talk to her?

Make her admit to it all and just stop? Promise that she’d stopped working with black magic as well?

The idea of her even dabbling in that dark side of magic made my skin crawl.

I looked into the reflecting surface again. “All I see is my best friend’s sister.” She was lying down on Emmy’s couch, reading… no, wait, that wasn’t Emmy’s couch.

It was mine. And that book she read, it was the one I left on the side table.

Holy shit. She was in my house.

I stood up. Dylan rose to his feet. I steadied myself and said, “Don’t tell anyone about this, Hunter. Let me speak to her first. I’m going to surprise her and I’m going to make her admit it all. I’ll get her to stop.”

Dylan placed a hand at the small of my back. “This could be dangerous.” He spoke out of clear and logical concern.

I shook my head even though I wasn’t as confident as I portrayed myself to be. “I don’t think she’ll truly hurt me. I think maybe she lost her way somewhere and needs a harsh reality check.”

Dylan searched my eyes. He’d find nothing but a resolve to fix this before the sun came up.

I had to hurry. I needed to catch her at my house before she left, so there’d be no denying what was happening.

“All right,” Dylan said. His hand fell back to mine.

How quickly holding each other’s hands felt like the most natural thing in the world. “Let’s go then.”

This would likely be the hardest part of the evening.

I gently squeezed his hand. “No, Dylan.” I kept my voice low.

Serious. He had to see the gravity of this.

She may not be a danger to me, but I wasn’t certain about how she’d react if Dylan showed up at my side.

I wanted to talk her down, get her to see sense, not enrage her even further.

But denying Dylan was never an easy thing, and judging by his determined expression, tonight it’d be no easier.

“You can’t come with me.”