Bound (21 page)

“Why?” Lydia asked, her face stained with
fresh tears.

“I didn’t know. Do you think I hurt you on
purpose?” Kira wished it was her wrist bleeding. She was the one
that had made yet another stupid mistake. “I just feel so out of
place here. Octavion says he wants to take me away from here. I
thought you
wanted
me to leave. You’ve been so mad at me and
wouldn’t talk about the pictures and—I’m in the way.”

Lydia looked up at Octavion, who stood next
to them now. “You should have told her everything.”

A flicker of anger seeped under Kira’s skin
as she stood and turned to face Octavion. “What
didn’t
you
tell me?”

The muscles tensed across his shoulders, as
if he were preparing for a fight. “The charm I placed on the
Crystor does not allow you to change your mind. It is permanent . .
. except in death. Removing it prematurely could cause both your
deaths.”

“What? Don’t you think that was an important
little detail? I could’ve just killed us.”

“If I thought you might go back on your word,
I would have told you,” he snapped.

“Go back on my word? You mean the part where
I said I would die for her? What’s wrong, Octavion? Did I mess up
your little plan when I
lived?
”

“No. That is not what I am saying. You are
not listening.” Octavion stepped closer and threaded his fingers
through her hair. He took her other hand and placed it on his
chest, making her heart slow a little. “Kira.” His voice seemed
softer, with more emotion. “You are a part of us now. Lydia was all
too eager to point that out to me. If you want to stay, we will
teach you of our ways, but even if you choose to go, you will
remain bound. There’s no going back.” He lowered his voice to
almost a whisper. “I’m sorry. You are right. I should have told you
the truth.”

His hand seemed so warm against her cheek,
and she felt his heart beating beneath her fingers—his wild heart.
She looked into his eyes for the longest time, searching for some
kind of truth, some reason for her being there. Could she ever
truly be a part of their world? Or would she continue to be a
burden they simply tolerated? But the answer wasn’t in his eyes; it
was in the constant rhythm of her heart, now beating in perfect
harmony with his. She couldn’t leave. And it wasn’t just because
she was bound to Lydia, either. Something she saw in Octavion’s
eyes made her feel like she was home. Not that rental house where
she’d lived with her mother, but someplace deep inside her heart
that she’d never allowed herself to explore—and never allowed
anyone else to enter. A feeling of belonging. And she liked that
feeling very much.

“I’ll stay on one condition,” Kira said,
trying to get her way without letting Octavion know she’d let him
into her heart. “You have to teach me to fight.”

Octavion grimaced. “You will not give up,
will you?”

Kira stepped back and folded her arms. “If
you really want me to stay, you’ll teach me.”

He threw his hands up in the air and let a
low rumbling growl escape from his chest.

Kira didn’t say anything, but shifted her
weight to one foot and stood her ground.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Lydia cut in. “Will
you two knock it off.
I’ll
teach her how to fight.”

Octavion glared at Lydia.

Kira smiled, thinking her way to get to
Octavion was through his sister. Maybe she’d found his soft spot.
“Good, then I’ll stay.”

Lydia still held her bleeding wrist where a
two-inch cut mimicked where the Crystor had pulled against Kira’s
skin. “Would it be too much trouble to have you heal this now? I
could bleed to death waiting for you two to stop bickering.”

Kira wrapped her hand around Lydia’s wound
and visualized the skin fusing together. The wound healed quickly,
but instead of the usual burning sensation, it shocked her. “Ouch.”
She quickly rubbed the sting away. “Why did it do that?”

“Here, let me see it.” Octavion offered Kira
his hand and pulled her from the dirt floor. He ran a finger along
the Crystor, causing a warm sensation to run up Kira’s arm, and the
tiny strand of silver to burn cold.

“What did you do?” Kira asked.

He glanced at his sister with a questioning
expression.

“Tell her,” Lydia said. “You agreed to
include her in
everything
.”

Octavion sighed. “It had a kink in it and I
merely mended it. I created the charm that binds you to Lydia. The
gift I possess was almost lost when we came here, but there was
enough left to do this one thing.” He lowered her hand and found
Kira’s eyes again. “Being its keeper is not to be taken lightly,
Kira. I should have told you that. It is far more powerful than I
imagined or hoped. You must treat it with respect.”

“I don’t understand. What gift? And why was
it almost lost?”

“Remember I told you I am a hybrid?” Octavion
asked.

Kira nodded.

“Most Royals only possess one or two gifts. I
am much stronger as I have inherited gifts from both my parents.
From my mother I inherited vision and the ability to know how to
combine herbs and metals for healing. But because my father’s blood
was pure, it held a portion of the magic passed down from the king
of Panthera. All four of his daughters were filled with enchantment
and were very powerful Jaydes. It is through that lineage I possess
the ability to cast charms on objects.”

Kira swallowed hard as she looked down at the
Crystor.
Magic.
“You mean like . . . a witch or wizard?”

Octavion smiled. “I suppose in your world I
would be considered a wizard, yes. But I have read some of your
fairy tales, and know many of your superstitions. This is nothing
like that. I haven’t the power to manipulate a person’s mind and I
cannot change people into creatures or produce something from
nothing. The gift of a Jayde comes from the heart and cannot be
used on anything living. At least the powers
I
possess. It
is simple and pure. Even my gift as an alchemist is limited to
dried
plants and herbs. If I snatched a butterfly from the
meadow, I would have no power over it.”

Kira brought her hand up and touched the
Crystor, warming it. “But you said it was almost lost. So you don’t
have it anymore?”

This time, Lydia spoke. “Your world has put
limitations on our gifts. Some are weaker, but others . . . are
gone.”

Kira didn’t know what to say. Each piece of
information they revealed about their way of life, made her feel
more and more inadequate. If it weren’t for the Crystor, she’d have
nothing to offer—not one thing was special about her—unless she
counted her overactive imagination. “Thank you for telling me. I
will be more careful.”

Octavion brushed his fingers through his hair
and stepped away from the girls. “I will leave you to talk. There’s
the matter of a little story that still needs to be told.”

“Um . . . about that.” Lydia blurted. “I’m
not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“I thought we talked about this,” Octavion
said.

Lydia stood and fiddled with some of the
bottles on the shelf, clearly trying to avoid making eye contact
with her brother. “No.
You
talked about it, I listened and
didn’t agree.”

“Lydia?” Octavion scolded.

“What story?” Kira asked. “You mean about
Serena? If she doesn’t want to talk about it . . .”

“There is more to it than that.” Octavion cut
her off. “She has refused to speak of that night, even with me. She
has nightmares and . . .”

“Stop it!” Lydia spun around and dropped the
bottle she’d been holding. It bounced on the hard packed dirt and
rolled under the table. “You didn’t have to watch your mother bleed
to death or have your best friend die
just
to save your
life. You also didn’t have to watch the person you love hold a
knife to your throat and try to kill you.”

“You are wrong,” Octavion said. “Esteria was
the only mother I knew and it was my
best friend
that
betrayed me, not just the man you had a childish crush on. Must I
remind you what else I lost in all this?”

The color faded from Lydia’s face as she
leaned back against the table, grasping it for support. “It wasn’t
a
childish crush
,” she whispered, her bottom lip quivering
as moisture returned to her eyes.

“Leave her alone.” Kira brushed Octavion
aside and went to Lydia. “You don’t have to tell me anything,
okay?” Kira glared at Octavion for being so heartless.

A tiny tear streaked down Lydia’s cheek. “I
want to, it’s just . . . I can’t.”

Kira took both of Lydia’s hands to comfort
her, but when she gave them a squeeze her fingers began to tingle
and it felt as though their hands had been fused together. Images
played in Kira’s mind, bits and pieces—not quite enough to really
tell what was happening, but scattered chaotic flashes of people
Kira didn’t recognize. The images kept coming, one after another
until the feelings that accompanied them filled her heart with so
much grief and sorrow she began to tremble.

Kira yanked her hands away and stumbled back.
She felt the blood rushing through her veins as the walls of the
cave began to move in waves. She blinked her eyes in a frail
attempt to clear her vision and frantically shook her hands to get
her fingers to come back to life.

“Kira, what’s wrong?” Octavion asked, turning
an accusing eye to Lydia. “What did you do to her?”

“She didn’t
do
anything.” Kira wasn’t
sure exactly what had happened. She felt as if it were
her
mother and friend who died. Kira even felt for a brief moment, the
betrayal of someone she loved. She’d seen Lydia’s worst nightmare,
the images permanently etched in Kira’s mind and all the emotions
that came with them. The grief weighed heavy on her heart.

“Didn’t you feel it?” she asked Lydia.

Lydia shook her head, before looking down at
her hands. “My fingers felt numb, but I think that’s because you
were squeezing them so tight. What happened? Did it shock you
again?”

“No.”

Octavion reached for Kira’s hands. “You are
trembling.”

Kira pulled them away. Was she reacting to
those feelings of betrayal? She wasn’t sure. “I don’t know what
happened,” she finally said. “When I took Lydia’s hands I . .
.”

The curious look on Octavion’s face made her
reconsider her words. If she’d seen Lydia’s memories and felt her
emotions, Kira didn’t want him to know. He’d pressure his sister
even more to talk about it.

“I . . . I’m not sure. My fingers tingled and
I heard her thoughts. It just felt weird. Maybe I’m hungry or it’s
left over from the leap. I’m not used to that yet.” They all seemed
like perfectly logical explanations to her. “I’m fine now.”

“Why do I get the feeling you are hiding
something from me?” Octavion asked.

“Leave her alone.” Lydia stepped between
them, taking a protective stance. “Why don’t you go do . . .
whatever it was you were going to do?” She waved her hand toward
the cave opening.

His eyes narrowed as he looked them both up
and down with suspicion. “Very well, then.” He turned and took a
few steps, mumbling something Kira couldn’t understand.

“I heard that,” Lydia called after him.

“Mind telling me what just happened?” Lydia
asked. “I didn’t send you my thoughts. Even I could tell you were
lying.”

Kira’s fingers had finally stopped tingling,
but the emotions she’d experienced still lingered. “I’m not sure. I
think I saw your memories. It was like I had a stack of photographs
and flipped through them really fast, catching glimpses of people
and places I didn’t recognize. And it wasn’t only what I saw, I
felt things too.”

“You
saw
my memories?”

Kira shrugged. “I guess. What were you
thinking about?

Lydia plopped onto the small bench. “I wasn’t
thinking about anything, I was arguing with Octavion,
remember?”

Kira knelt in front of her, being careful not
to touch her this time. “But you were arguing about whether or not
you were going to tell me about the night your mom died. Isn’t it
possible those thoughts were in your head?”

Lydia was quiet for a long moment, first
rubbing the spot on her wrist where her injury had been, then
glancing at the Crystor. “I guess it could happen, I mean . . . we
really don’t know what that thing can do. Serena was bound to me
only a couple weeks before . . . you know.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,”
Kira extended her hands, palms up.

Lydia took a deep breath and bit down on her
bottom lip. “Where do you want me to start?”

“That’s up to you. Before, I saw women in
long flowing gowns dancing around the room. Was that the same night
you were hurt?”

Lydia nodded.

“Well, start there, when you felt everything
was okay. Before any of the bad stuff happened. Maybe you can ease
into it.”

Lydia rubbed her sweaty palms on the legs of
her jeans and closed her eyes, but instead of taking Kira’s hands,
she inched forward, wrapping her fingers around her wrists, making
for a firmer hold. Kira did the same.

Instantly, images splashed across Kira’s
mind. At first, she felt confused because she didn’t recognize
anyone, but as the seconds passed, it wasn’t only their hands that
fused, but their minds and bodies as well. She felt as if she’d
actually become Lydia. She smelled the overwhelming fragrance of
flowers, felt a slight breeze on her face when a woman in a
lavender gown danced past her. Kira even experienced every emotion
that played with Lydia’s heart—she was happy—happier than Kira had
ever been in
her
life.