6. Fate & Mates
SIX
fate & mates
“Who is she?” I hear someone ask around me.
My lashes flutter, but I’m too tired to fully open them yet, curling into the soft blanket that’s wrapped snugly around me. The material feels like the softest threads I’ve ever touched. They smell warm and woodsy. They smell like . . . Arcane.
“I dunno.”
At the sound of his careless lie, I can’t help but crack my lashes open just slightly, taking in the sight of the two brothers standing over me once more. This morning, it seems they don’t want to kill each other. Yet.
Aelix’s hair is combed, but the dark locks don’t fully lie out of his glaring eyes. And Arcane’s hair . . . I don’t know if he’s ever brushed the messy tresses that lash out from his obnoxious head a single day in his life.
“Why do you lie so fucking freely? There’s a girl in your bed, and you could just tell me if you fu—”
“You can see me?” I ask hesitantly, sitting up fully and noticing immediately how the navy-blue comforter slips down around my waist . . . like I’m a living, breathing being . . . Like the space I take up actually matters.
I matter!
The two men turn to me simultaneously, and a burst of happiness soars through me, pushing me to my feet. The smile that pulls across my lips almost hurts from how large and uncontrollable it is. I just can’t help it: I fling my arms around the closest person, quietly thanking the Fates that it’s Aelix and not Arcane.
“Oh—okay.” I hear him whisper. His palm pats against my spine rather tensely, but I love the feel of his warmth pressing into mine.
I settle my head against his heart, and I think I’m becoming addicted to the sensation of the thudding pulse beneath my cheek. Are all boys this warm and soft? They’re like fresh-baked cookies. Yeah, sure, they have some hard, burnt edges here and there, but Fates, they smell so good.
“Oh shit,” I hear him add. Then two strong hands are wrapping around my shoulders as he gently pulls me off of him like a tacky piece of gum that’s too stubborn to remove from his boot.
When I look up at him, shining white light illuminates his features. It’s him. His hands and arms are aglow. White light radiates like glistening water in sunlight in veering lines all up his fingers, hands, and arms. The button-down shirt hints at more, but I don’t understand any of it.
“What is that?” I ask hesitantly, stepping back from him while suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable in my new skin.
He doesn’t answer for a long moment as his gaze trails up my legs and stomach, taking in my full height before his attention locks on mine like it’s the first time he’s really seen me this morning.
“It’s his mark,” Arcane finally says on a gravelly tone. “It only seals itself when it comes in contact with his Marked One.”
“Marked . . . one?” I ask with dread dragging through my chest as something new and unknown shoves into my life once more before I’ve even had time to catch up to the last big change.
What the hell is a marked one?
“His soulmate,” Arcane whispers.
The most uncomfortable silence hangs over the headmaster’s office. Aelix sits in the chair Arcane sat in just yesterday. This time, I stay seated in one at his side, only shifting slightly in the rigid seat. This time, it really does feel like we’re in trouble in this office. I accidentally set off a boy’s Fated mate mark prematurely. I didn’t mean to. If there’s a reset button, I’m happy to try to flip things back to how they were.
The glossy wooden chair is too properly angled now that my body is made of bone and flesh.
Is being alive just endlessly being uncomfortable? Everyday? Forever?
I sigh rather heavily at that thought. The two of us wait without any words accompanying our awkwardness for the headmaster to join us in this completely bizarre meeting regarding my soul . . .
Or possibly lack thereof.
What if I don’t have one? What if I just set off guys’ soulmate marks at random because I’m this dead thing that shouldn’t exist in their world?
Yeah . . . that explains it. That’s much more comforting than believing I’m meant to spend the rest of my life with a strange boy I don’t even know just because I got a little too excited when I found out I wasn’t dead and gave him a hug. A hug: that’s what threw me into the mess I’m in.
I’m never hugging anyone ever again.
“So—do you know my brother well? Are you guys friends? How’d you meet?” He fires off those rapid questions without giving a single second for me to process any of them. Then it all slams into me with too much realization all at once: he thinks his soulmate slept with his brother.
“Oh. No. We are not friends.” I shake my head hard as I cross my arms over my chest in defiance at the mere suggestion. I mean, I offered friendship to the jerk once upon a lifetime ago, and he . . . he doesn’t know how to have friends, I don’t think.
“You’re not friends?” he asks with an arch of his dark, defined brow.
He’s handsome like his brother. His jaw is squarer, and his features are less cruel. He’s entirely the man I should have been haunting from the beginning. Would he have cared about my murder mystery?
Or is he secretly just as selfish as his brother?
“No. More like unfortunate acquaintances.” I nod my head, pleased with that explanation.
“Good morning, lovebirds,” a much too cheery voice calls as heavy footfalls stride through the room. “I hear Aelix and Arcane discovered a soulmate this morning.” The headmaster looks from Aelix to me. His attention lingers for a long moment. “I’m sorry, where are you from, young lady?”
Beyond the grave, a little annoying voice at the back of my mind answers.
“Um . . .” I start off real strong with that introduction, but it just lingers there alone before I finally find a single shred of real information Arcane gave me during our time together. “Dragon’s Lair,” I say with an accomplished smile.
“Dragon’s Lair? You live on the Kingdom of Attika’s most uninhabitable island?”
Uninhabitable? Perfect. Great. Dammit, Arcane!
I nod, still clinging to that fading smile.
“I wasn’t aware anyone could survive in the temperatures of the night. And the volcanoes are deadly. Not to mention it’s all but been a war zone. The Kingdom of Minden’s raiders continue to steal eggs and hatchlings despite our King declaring them endangered just earlier this year.”
“My family feels the same way. For generations, we’ve kept to ourselves out of defense for the—” I search for a word to best describe the terrorizing creature that is Arcane Deces “— beloved —dragons. We simply can’t leave the ugly little beasts out there alone.”
His mouth has fallen open sometime during my babbling explanation. Headmaster Reign finds his composure and nods with an uncertain hum of consideration as he takes me in.
“What’s your name, girl?”
Haunting, that little unhelpful voice answers, and I absolutely can’t let that be my new identifier, so I say the first thing that comes to mind instead.
“Hau—Hollie.” My lips purse shut, but he’s clearly waiting for a surname or for me to drop dead of apparent stupidity. “Hollie Haunting.”
Wow. The academy better not be handing out gold stars for creativity, because I’ll clearly win them all.
“That’s . . . an . . . interesting name,” Aelix says sweetly, and I physically grimace at the idea of my soulmate calling me Hollie Haunting for the rest of my miserable life.
Just let me die again because I’m starting off with this living stuff doing a bang-up job.
“When you saw the mating mark light, Miss Haunting,” the headmaster says, and I flinch once more when he says my name, “you’re sure it was coming from Aelix?”
I blink a few times.
“Yeah, she hugged me, and it sealed my mark.” Aelix lifts his hand toward the inky lines of runes running a path up his shirt sleeve and forearm. The black has settled back into place, and I can’t help but wonder if I flick his nose if it’ll make the light pop back on.
“But was it just yours, Aelix? Or was Arcane’s also aglow?” He swings his impatient attention back to me for confirmation.
“Arcane can’t—” Aelix stops speaking abruptly and looks quickly away, his sharp jawline pulsing with clenching teeth that are clearly biting back words he doesn’t wish to say.
“Arcane what?” Headmaster Reign asks stiffly.
“I didn’t touch Arcane,” I add to fill the silence. “I had only touched Aelix when the light stuff happened.”
“Could you have brushed against the other brother as well without noticing?” I can physically feel the weight of the headmaster’s stare on me.
“I—”
“Possibly activated both boys’ marks at the same time?” he aids, filling in the blanks for me and making me question what actually happened.
“Is that possible?” I ask, getting more and more confused with each passing second.
“That’s not possible.” Aelix sighs.
“It’s entirely possible,” the headmaster clips. “You of all lucky people should know that nothing is impossible, Mr. Deces.”
“It’s not! It’s not possible because Arcane had his mating rune burned from his body years ago by mage magic!”
Burned?
I look up at the severe grimace that’s lining the headmaster’s face as he stares daggers at Aelix like he himself ruined his brother’s extra fancy tattoo or something.
“I’d like to speak with Arcane before we begin arrangements for Miss . . . Haunting.” He says my name as uncomfortably as I introduced it.
“Why?” I ask carefully, and it occurs to me then and there that the little fun fact of me being deceased yesterday and alive today doesn’t even make the cut of being a serious issue right now to these people.
More important matters are at hand: like Arcane’s tattoo.
“Because if you’re Arcane’s mate, rather than mine, you’ll benefit the Death Riders more. Isn’t that right, Mr. Reign?”
“ Headmaster Reign,” he corrects. “And that’s not at all true. The bond of a Fated mate would strengthen any of our Protectors. We’d be lucky to have them against the Raiders.”
“How . . .” I don’t get to finish my question because Aelix has shoved from his seat and is storming across the room before another word can be spoken. He slams the door shut behind him, and I’m getting really sick of getting ghosted by these two men, to be completely honest.
“Miss Haunting, I do apologize for these confusing circumstances, but I do hope you’ll choose to stay with us and to support your mate no matter who he may be.” The headmaster’s bright eyes beam at me like he’s pleading, and I suddenly realize I have more say in this matter than I thought.
He needs me, and this weird bond to make Arcane or Aelix more powerful in some way.
“I—” I pause and consider what I can leverage in this moment. “I’ll stay on one condition.” I finally say.
The headmaster searches my eyes before saying, “Name your price.”
A little smile of achievement pulls at the corners of my lips.
“Remove the grounding from Aelix and allow him to prepare for his trials without restraint.”
A deep line forms between the headmaster’s brows as he nods in agreement, and I know he’s wondering how much I truly know about the two men who may or may not be my soulmates. Just yesterday, I wasn’t entirely sure if one of them wasn’t a murderer. My murderer, to be exact.
To be honest, I don’t know nearly enough about either of them. But that little deal I just made with the devil is about to earn me some real answers with at least one of them.