Chapter 26 #2
There was a brief knock on the door before Finn barreled in and stopped dead. My hair fell in a sheet to my waist, still loose from my bath.
“I like the look, Lexie. Like wavy silk.” He slid into his usual chair opposite me, unpacking the feast that the staff had left.
The door slammed open. “Did you hear?” Freya rushed in, waving a letter. “Laoise found her mate!” She squealed and did a little dance. “She’s mated!”
“Who?” Finn asked.
“Laoise! You remember!”
He scratched his chin. “Scrawny brunette? Big eyes?”
Freya smacked him on the arm as she sat down. “She’s not scrawny!” She rested her chin in her hands. “Isn’t it so romantic?” she asked me.
“Is it?”
Freya looked at me quizzically. “Do they not have mates where you’re from?”
I shrugged. “People get married.”
“This is different!” she cried.
I looked at Finn for help. He had stuffed bread in his mouth and swallowed heavily before answering. “People do get married here without mating bonds. But if you are lucky enough to find your mate…” He trailed off, shrugging.
Freya, nodding along, picked up where he left off. “It’s like there’s a rightness in the world. I’ve been told it’s the most overwhelming feeling. A fizzle of power spreading within you when your souls recognize each other. You know you’re where you belong. You’ve found your purpose for being.”
I had been skeptical the first time Finn had explained this and nothing about this conversation was convincing me otherwise.
This sounded a lot like an arranged marriage but with divine intervention.
“I don’t think I need to find my mate to know my purpose for being.
Although I guess I have a prophecy that defines it,” I added ruefully.
“But isn’t choosing to be with someone because you love them more important than just bowing to the whims of the gods and being with someone because they say so? ”
She threw a roll at me and I ducked. “You’re as bad as Griff!
” She pitched her voice low. “There’s a choice to accept a mating bond.
And the choice is more important.” I laughed at her poor imitation of him as she sighed and said in her normal voice, “I want to find my mate. How wonderful would that be?”
Finn slung an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. “You will, Tagalong.”
I looked at Finn. “What do you think about them?”
“I think they exist.” His eyes were down on his plate, and as he raised his head slowly, I caught something in his eyes before his face settled into a neutral expression.
“And I think Griff has a point about choice. But I know that bad things have happened if people try to reject their bond. The gods want it to happen. And if you go against that, there’s going to have to be a balance somehow. ”
I absentmindedly pulled my hair over my shoulder and twirled it into a rope while picking at my food.
“Nana and Zachariah were mates but they seem to hate each other. And Zachariah is obviously with Andrei now, and in a very strange way seems to love him. And even stranger is that Andrei seems to love him back.”
Finn chuckled as Freya laughed outright. “That is one of the odder pairings I’ve seen,” Freya agreed.
Finn entered full teaching mode and began to gesture with a drumstick.
“In my readings of it, mating bonds don’t require love.
My understanding is that the gods need balance or need to accomplish something, so they send two souls, or two parts of the same soul, into existence at the same time to do whatever that thing is. ”
So far, this tracked with the little I had heard. But I wanted more. And I very much wanted to know about my grandparents.
“So if the universe does it for a reason, why would Nana and Zachariah have been mated?”
“Well…” He drew the word out before pausing. “Probably to create you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you.” He pointed the drumstick at me.
“Little Miss All Powerful Savior of the Known World.” I kicked him under the table, and he let out a grunt before continuing.
“And from what I understand, your parents were also mated. But don’t worry, also very much in love.
” Freya sighed again as Finn cleared his throat.
“That’s really the only way they were able to do what they did. ”
I looked at him, raising my brows.
“If I had to guess, Rose and Zachariah were mated to bring Thom and Violet into the world. Thom and Mira were mated to bring you into existence. But Thom and Mira had one main thing that Rose and Zachariah didn’t have—love.
Love was what made their bond powerful enough to bind their souls together to heal the Veil.
Mating bonds are powerful things that you don’t want to mess with.
They can cause all manner of things to happen.
When you throw love into a mating bond, the magic that comes out of it can become incredible.
The gods seem to really like it when their fated souls also fall in love.
And so it’s well rewarded, the only way they can—with power. ”
Freya added, “And when mating bonds are ignored, horrible things can happen. Especially for the two people involved. I’ve been told the pain can become unbearable.”
Finn nodded. “Which is probably why Rose and Zachariah accepted theirs. Although I think Rose was in love with Zachariah, at least in the beginning.”
“So are Andrei and Zachariah now mated?”
Both of them looked at me like I was an idiot.
“Oh no,” Freya explained slowly. “It’s one mate per person. Because it’s the other half of a soul. And a soul can only be split in two.” She sliced her hand down, as if she was splitting an imaginary soul into two parts.
“Nana seemed to have rejected the bond though.”
Finn looked at me sadly. “I don’t think so.”
“But she left him. I think it was years before I was born, and it’s been fifty years here—”
“And twenty-two for her. If I had to guess, there’s a part of her, and a part of him, that’s drawn together even to this day.
They may be choosing to not physically be together and may have chosen to part ways, but there is always going to be a connection between them.
And some pain that comes with ignoring that connection. ”
“And what happens if you do reject the bond?” I asked.
Finn’s mouth opened and then shut as he stared at me.
“I know people who have delayed the bond,” Freya mused, “but to reject it outright… especially if the other person has accepted it? I can’t imagine the pain that would cause.”
“But what about death?” I asked. “If one mate dies, what happens?”
“Well, the other survives, of course,” Finn answered. “But to live without the other half of your soul… always reaching for something that isn’t there? I imagine most people just wouldn’t want that.”
“So Zachariah is with Andrei—”
“While still mated to Rose,” he finished simply.
“This mates thing seems like a pain in the ass,” I grumbled as the door opened.