Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) (25 page)

“I didn’t want things to go this far,” he said suddenly. His
voice was barely above a whisper, but it bounced off the walls of the small
room enough for me to hear. “First of all, you weren’t supposed to become
tethered, that was never in the plan, at least not my plan anyway. I’m just now
finding out though that my plan wasn’t the only one made.”

I took in a shaky breath. “What are you talking about?”

He brought his eyes to mine. “All I ever wanted was to have
the thing that was supposed to be mine since birth.”

I waited for him to continue, to explain further, but he
didn’t.

“And what’s that?” I asked. My voice was small and weak
sounding.

“Magick.” His eyes flashed with a strange sense of
power-hungry eagerness that shocked me.

I forced myself to relax my legs away from my chin and sit
cross-legged, deciding that I would eventually maneuver myself into sitting
with them dangling off the cot. My strategy was to get into a position where I
could easily stand and bolt past him for the door…even if I had to freaking bum-rush
him along the way.

I was getting out of this room one way or another.

“When Admer came to me and asked if I wanted to help him set
the balance of Soul Harbor right, to get my family and friends out from beneath
the thumb of the Van Rooyens by helping to bring you here, I knew I had to
agree,” he said. His eyes blazed with an intensity I’d never seen in them
before. It was jarring. This was not the same Kace I’d met and had grown to
care deeply for. “It was an easy choice, really.”

He dropped his stare to the ground again, a twisted smile
playing on his face, and I glanced around the room, recalculating the distance
between where I sat and the metal door.

Where the hell was I, somebody’s secret bunker?

“Admer had already done all of the hard work, you know. He’d
found out the details on your grandmother’s house, changed a few things around
with the help of some powerful Hoodoo magick. He even found your mother. All he
had to do was wait until you were eighteen and could legally inherit the house
without having it go into the hands of a property guardian until then.” Kace
paused and shifted his gaze to me. “Once your mother passed—which I still think
Admer had a hand in—you came to town with your adoptive parents. I was told to
bump into you somehow in order to awaken your magick as well as my own, but you
were in town for too short of a time and always with your parents. Before you
left though, I bought a Call to Me spell from the Van Rooyens and released it
on you. After that, well, you know the rest of the story.”

A conceited smile twisted his lips, and smugness lit his
eyes. I felt sick to my stomach. How had I fallen for him? How could I have
been so freaking blind? He seemed like such an ass now.

“So it was all an act?” I asked. “Perfect, good to know.”
Sarcasm dripped from my words, but I didn’t care. It was my way of covering how
incredibly hurt and humiliated I was.

Kace shook his head. “No. It wasn’t all an act. I really
fell for you. There was something between us—
is
something between
us—something that isn’t just the spell I used to help things along. At least, I
like to think there is.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he playing with me or was he
being genuine? I couldn’t tell. My heart palpitated in my neck, and I swallowed
hard.

“Then why are you helping keep me here?” I asked. “What’s
going on?”

Kace walked closer to the cot and sat beside me. My
mind—still stuck in that fight or flight decision-making process—only noticed
how there was no longer an obstacle standing between the partially opened door
and me.

I could make a run for it, if I timed it right.

He held up his hands. “Hold on. Let me give you the details,
okay, before you let the jury cast its final ruling on me and send me packing.”

“All right, I’ll hear you out,” I said.

In all the movies I’d watched and the books I’d read
involving situations where people were held captive, the one thing they all
agreed on when it came to escaping their captor was this: You had to keep them
talking while you waited for your moment to flee.

This was my chance to get him talking.

“Thanks,” Kace said. His voice was low, sweet even, and that
damn dimple I’d grown to adore on his right cheek became visible when he
flashed me a small smile. “I really appreciate you taking the time to hear me
out.”

He placed a hand on my thigh, and I grew sick from the sight
of him touching me and the muted sensation of magick that coursed beneath my
skin due to the contact. He didn’t deserve to feel that from me now. That
sensation was sacred.

I pulled my leg away, praying it seemed like a nonchalant
move when it was anything but. He didn’t even seem to notice. His face was
contorted in thought. I figured it was because he was trying to pinpoint where
to start.

“I tried to tell you what I knew early on…that Admer was
your dad, but I couldn’t. If I had, you’d have wanted to know
how
I
knew, and if I’d been put on the spot, I wouldn’t have been able to come up
with a quick-thinking lie to cover.”

I thought back, trying to figure out when he’d attempted to
tell me anything. A memory of him mentioning that he thought Admer was playing
some sort of a game flashed through my mind. It was followed by a moment right
after when he had mentioned he thought Admer was my father.

The sharp pounding in my head returned with a vengeance
while I tried to wrap my mind around all of this. I decided I needed to just
stop—stop thinking about the
whys
and
hows
of what I was doing
here and focus on how I was going to get out.

“Honestly, I thought he’d fess up when you asked how
Elementals' elements were chosen. I mean, that would have been the perfect
moment.” Kace chuckled. “Everyone knew then…or at least they all suspected,
because I don’t think anyone had ever thought of that before you’d said
something.”

A slow smile spread across his face. He was back to being my
sexy-sweet Kace, and I hated it.

“You haven’t really answered my question. Why am I here?” I
asked as nicely as I could manage. He was focusing on me too much, and I needed
to keep him talking.

Kace placed his hands on his knees as though he were bracing
himself to say something horrible.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. His eyes met with mine, and I
knew in an instant that he was telling the truth. “I was never filled in on
that part. I got the phone call from Admer to come help him. I went to the
shop, and then he came up from behind you with a rag soaked in chloroform like
something from TV. End of story.”

End of story, my ass.

“So, you did what? Help him carry me out the back door to
his car without any questions?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” he replied. His eyes dropped back to
the dirt floor as guilt seemed to consume him.

My body went numb with his admittance. I stared at him,
unbelieving he had taken part in something so horrible as kidnapping me. His
body slouched forward, and his hands clasped together tightly in his lap. He
was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t seem to notice me shifting my legs
free from the cross-legged position I’d been sitting in.

I took that as my moment and sprang into action without
hesitation.

Jolting from where I sat, I sprinted across the tiny room in
a matter of seconds. I knew Kace was taller than me, which meant his legs would
be longer and therefore his stride longer, but I didn’t care.

Maybe the element of surprise would be used to my advantage.

My hands brushed the cool metal that made up the door, and I
felt a sense of exhilaration surge through me at the touch. I’d made it across
the room. Now all I had to do was make it
out
.

Warm arms locked around my waist and pulled me back into the
room as soon as I pulled the door open in front of me. I screamed and thrashed
about as hard as I could, but it did me no good.

Kace was stronger.

Then something happened—something that I’d forgotten about,
something that could potentially hold the power to save me.

I caught on fire.

Kace released me instantly. I could hear him freaking out
behind me, but I just kept going without knowing where I was headed. The flames
that licked at my skin and clothes lit my way up an unsteady-looking set of
stairs and through another solid metal door, which stood partway open.

I was in a house. That much I was sure of. But whose house?
Admer’s?

When I cleared the door at the top of the stairs, I found
myself standing in a dark kitchen. Jesus, did these people not know how to use
a freaking light switch? The sound of Kace barreling up the rickety stairs
behind me unglued my feet from the kitchen floor. My eyes darted around,
searching for an exit, but all I saw was an extra-large kitchen with every
upgrade imaginable.

A door made up of tiny square, stained-glass windows caught
my attention to my right. I bolted for it. Using both hands, I twisted the cold
metal knob and pulled. It was locked. I realized this after several attempts.
Turning the lock just above the knob at the exact second Kace made it into the
kitchen made my heart leap into my throat.

“Holy shit,” Kace gasped from behind me. “How are you able
to do that?”

I didn’t answer him. Instead, I tugged the door open and
plowed right into Admer, who was waiting on the other side.

“Going somewhere?” he asked, gripping my elbows.

I flailed around in an ill-fated attempt to free myself from
his firm grasp, but it was useless. His grip only tightened, causing me to cry
out from the pain of it. The flames shooting across my body dulled, until finally
disappearing altogether.

“There, that’s better,” Admer said. He pushed me backward
and into the house.

“How did I not burn you?” I asked. My voice sounded breathy
and exhausted.

Admer smiled at me as he kicked the door closed behind him.
His green eyes were wild and frightening.

“Don’t you remember my element?” he asked in a condescending
tone. “Water smothers Fire. Nothing you attempt to do to me physically with
your fire will work.”

My heart shrunk, and my chest tightened as a heavy sensation
weighed down my limbs. Any hope I’d had of escaping withered away to nothing
with his words.

“That was badass,” Kace gushed. “How can you do that?”

Admer spun me around and guided me back toward the creepy
cellar. Kace gripped my other arm as I passed him.

“The tether,” Admer said. There was an excitement embedded
within his voice I’d never heard him possess. It sent a shiver along my spine.
“She’s part Conjurer now.”

How did he know that? Had he known that was what would
happen after the initiation all along?

“Is that why you pushed the initiation as a way to break the
tether so hard, because you knew that would be the outcome?” I asked weakly as
I was forced down the stairs and back to the confinement of my room.

I was drained—both emotionally and physically.

We’d reached the small room. Admer forced me through the
doorway and shoved me in the direction of the cot with a laugh. It was a dark,
wicked laugh, which made the fine hairs along the back of my neck stand on end.

“That, my dear, was just an added bonus that played out
greatly in my favor,” he said.

“I don’t understand how.” Kace said exactly what I’d been
thinking. “What
is
your plan anyway? Think you can at least fill me in
now?”

I glanced at him from where I sat on the edge of the cot.
His eyebrows were drawn together in a straight line; he was as lost in all of
this as I was.

“In due time.” Admer smiled. “No need to get hasty.”

Admer turned and left the room, Kace followed behind him
like a lost puppy, and then I heard the click of a few locks. I sunk down into
the cot, my head resting against the grimy wall.

How in the hell was I going to get out of here now?