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Iris stuck her hand to her chest. "George and I were supposed to meet with them tomorrow."
My body went stiff. My vision had shown them dying. I didn't realize it would be the next day.
I was so relieved that I had told them the truth, and sick at how close death was. "That is what prompted me to tell you tonight. I had a vision of them—" I stopped when tears stormed my face.
Tallis walked up and put his arms around me, now understanding why I had been so shaken up when I woke up.
Then Ash spoke in a quizzically. "Didn't Amelia see Taryn and McKee in school? Why didn't she get a read on them then?"
Desmond answered that question for everyone. "She can only feel mortal feelings. At least until she transforms. She was blinded to their true intentions until she bonded with Aria. She still can't see problems into the magical realm, but after she bonded with Aria, she could see them more clearly. She could feel their desire to do harm. It was just lucky for them that they weren't around her after that."
Amelia spoke up this time. "I felt the attraction from McKee to Aria, because it was his strongest feeling. I didn't see him much again after Aria and I became friends. He kept his distance because he was jealous of Tallis. I felt the mutual attraction between Aria and Tallis. I felt Taryn was fake, but I thought it was high school stuff. The day at the pool, I felt the desire she had to kill Aria. I saw pure hatred in her heart."
Jaslene groaned as she clutched her head. "This whole time I thought McKee was heartbroken because of you wanting Tallis. I trusted him, and I even felt sorry for him."
Dad walked up and put his arms around his wife in a consoling manner as he addressed me. I could hear him fighting back tears as he spoke. "I don't know how he went from caring about you to trying to kill you."
Tallis flinched again in hearing the words kill you. His jaw clenched audibly, and I struggled with what to do. I knew this was going to make the situation even worse, but I felt it necessary to explain everything.
So I did. I told them all about McKee's plan for me and him to be together, and I was fairly positive that Tallis could have blown up half the world in that moment.
Selesha walked up with her head bowed in shame, speaking before Tallis could react. "I'm so sorry, Aria. Had I known… I should've known."
She flinched when Jay spoke to her. "Selesha, you can't blame yourself for this. None of us knew, and we all trusted them. So many times we should've caught on. The day Aria was saved by Tallis, we should've known. McKee and Taryn shouldn't have even been rattled by that wreck. Aria was out there for a while without any kind of protection. They weren't expecting her to survive."
"I wasn't supposed to be killed," I added. "All of them had orders to take me back to their lair. The plan was always to let McKee try to force me into becoming his soul mate."
Tallis cracked his fingers and neck as he fought back the urge to blow something up. Then Aster spoke up. "How are they choosing their own soul mates?"
I shrugged my shoulders as I answered. "They didn't go into details. At the time I didn't think of asking either."
Surviving was my main prerogative at that point.
Allaysia chimed in. "I wish I could say I was surprised."
Anesta approached. "What does that mean? You knew that they could do such a thing?"
Her tone was more worried than accusatory; however, Edmond walked up to stand beside his wife protectively.
Allaysia shook her head. "I didn't know that my brother had succeeded. I didn't think that it would ever actually be possible. My father had worked on it for centuries. He never succeeded though. He wanted to choose someone more powerful than my mother to be his ideal soul mate. He never knew of her true power of course. He found blinding to be beneath him, and he wanted someone with a more coveted power—ironically enough, considering the power my mother actually had. Magic had forced him to be with Allora, so he was trying to circumvent magic. I never dreamt Graven would succeed where my father had failed. However, as I mentioned earlier, he is smarter than Dramus was."
Everyone began speaking in hushed tones. Now everyone worried even more.
Feeling brave, I added, "I think Graven knows the strength of a bodyguard with a witch. In my vision, he allowed Yastine and McKee to join together as soul mates."
Allaysia shook her head in disbelief. "He must know. He has always believed that strength was derived from purity. Witches with witches, bodyguards with bodyguards, and changers with changers. He has never accepted the cross-breeding of the different magical beings. He must know of the power that it holds now—even if we're just learning.
"It will take him a while to build an army from that. We need to find a way to destroy him while we have the upper hand. He may have figured out a way to control soul mate selection, but that has left him weaker than us for the moment. We have allowed magic to continue on in its natural selection. It has rewarded us for our trust by giving us such gifts as my children who can't be seen or smelled, as well as Henry, and now Aster's unborn seer."
Aster rubbed her stomach in a motherly and affectionate manner. I worried that if we didn't do something soon, my niece and nephew wouldn't have a c
hance to be properly introduced into the magical world. I felt myself growing stronger out of necessity.
"What do we do?" I asked softly.
Allaysia bowed her head, letting her breath out in a harsh exhale. "We kill my brother. We find his weaknesses, and we take him down by any means necessary. The natural selection of soul mates makes us different in another way, too. It strengthens our powers in a more magnified way than his people choosing as they wish. They're not as connected with each other as we are. I had felt tension and mistrust between the dark soul mates that we've fought before in the past. Now I know why."
Iris stepped up with George. George was holding her hand as he spoke. "We will have to find what he seeks before he finds it, while also training Aria in her new powers. We'll have to take shifts, and each person will have set tasks and goals to reach daily. We'll defeat him to ensure the sanctity of magic."
