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“Mr. Radford, if you’d please pick up the knife.” My hand plucks a knife I hadn’t noticed before off the table without my permission. My body is still not moving at my command, and my jaw aches from how tightly clenched it is. All my muscles are tense, bunched and flexed. I’m a coiled power, ready to unleash a tsunami of pain on Anthony. It pisses me off that I can’t react the way I want to.
“Slice Miriam’s palm and then your own.” Miri’s eyes narrow at his continued use of her full name. Dickbag.
“Take her hand.” We clasp hands and the heat of magic wraps around our joined grasp, an invisible cord tying us together.
“Repeat these words. I am winter born, of element and alchemy. My blood will bind, body and soul, I tie myself to you.”
We speak the words, our voices quiet, whispering over one another as the magic grows between us. There’s a rush, as if a dam has cracked and water trickles out until an explosion of power unleashes. It starts in the center of my chest and pulses out around me until Miri and I are the center of a storm. I gasp as the wind pushes us closer together. Rain mists over our faces, the ground shakes beneath our feet, and heat flames up inside my body to an almost intolerable temperature. If I tried, I’m sure I could burn this entire place down with a thought. This is my magic. The elements. I’ve always known that’s where my affinity lies, just as Miri’s strength is in her potions. The alchemist. Her magic isn’t as visible as mine, but I sense it growing to impossible strength. I can feel it in the beat of my heart. There’s a connection between us that was always there in some form but now it’s open, strong, unbreakable. We are bonded and I’ve never felt something this right in my entire life.
“Perfect. It looks like the bond took perfectly.” Anthony claps slowly from the other side of the room. I turn and glare at him, quickly realizing that whatever else this bond has done, it’s freed me from Anthony’s magic. Miri’s fingers tighten around mine, letting me know that she’s able to move again as well.
I fly across the room, slamming my fist into Anthony’s jaw and sending him sprawling over the back of the chair and tumbling onto the floor before he knows I’m there. With a kick, I send the chair soaring across the room where it shatters when it hits a wall. Stupid fucking dainty chair.
Anthony shuffles away from me on his ass, holding up a hand to stop me, but he’s loosed my rage and I want nothing except to beat him to a bloody pulp.
“Wait, you need me.”
“Bullshit.” I grab his shirt, lifting him off the ground with my hand tangled in his shirt.
“You’ll kill the rest of them. If you don’t know what you’re doing.”
My arm freezes, swung back and ready to smash into his face. Blood drips from his nose, drops soaking into his white shirt, but he’s still grinning. I want to beat the smirk off his face.
“More bullshit.”
“It’s true. You don’t know what you’re playing at. The others will have to bond as well but if you don’t do it the right way all of you will suffer for it.”
My chest heaves as anger takes away my breath. I’m desperate to suck in great lungful’s of oxygen, but it’s not working. I don’t trust this piece of shit at all, but what if he’s telling the truth? Can I really put the lives of my friends in jeopardy?
I let my arm snap forward, throwing my weight behind the punch to his temple. Anthony crumbles at my feet, and I kick him away, disgusted by the sight of him. I want to throw his body in the ocean and let nature claim him or bury him in the ground so the worms can burrow deep and slowly rip him to pieces. Instead, I leave him on the floor like the piece of garbage he is and move back to Miri’s side.
She’s standing, but that’s as far as she’s gotten. I pull her into my arms, the bond tugging between us like a lifeline. It’s incredible and alien and yet also familiar somehow. It makes my chest ache in a way I instantly recognize. I’ve rubbed that ache away a hundred times over the years when thinking about Miri. Only this time I feel complete.
Miri’s arms grip my sides, and I lower my forehead to hers. “Are you alright?”
“I’m exhausted.” She sighs and sags into me.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here. I wish we could go home, but we should check on your store and we need to talk to the others.” Either they never got my message, or they’re all on their way to storm Anthony’s house as we speak.
“I know,” she murmurs, already sounding half asleep.
“I’ll send out the word.”
“What happened tonight? When you went running from the store?”
“I’m pretty sure Anthony cast some magic that made me need to find out what was going on. In that moment I had this pressing instinct to go find out, but it wasn’t natural.”
“What did you find?”
“My father. He was killed.”
Miri’s silent and I can tell she’s not sure if I want any condolences or what the right words are to say. There really aren’t any.
“He was a horrible man, Miri. Regardless of how he became that person. He murdered my mom and beat me for years. I’m not sad about his death and I refuse to live in a place of regret, that I didn’t get the father I should have.”
I guide Miri out the door, barely sparing a glance at Anthony’s sprawled out form. Miri’s arm is around my waist, and she’s tucked into my side. She squeezes me, her head resting against my chest as we walk.
“I’m still sorry. I don’t know for what exactly, maybe that James was what you got for a dad.” She shrugs, “Or because you deserved better and didn’t get it, or even that your mom was stolen away from you.”
