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“Keep you away? Kailar, why would he want to do that?”
“We heard them fighting. Yelling. We think he’s mad at her and punishing her. He knows how much she loves us.” He glanced up again and held out a hand in supplication, his eyes suspiciously wet and sparkling. “We just want to see her. We love her.”
Looking back on that now, I wish I hadn’t been so young and ill-prepared to talk to him. I wish I’d shown him more compassion. Instead, he caused a strange little pain to start up in the area of my heart, and I was not prepared for that in any kind of way. When a tear slid down his cheek, all I could think about was getting out of there.
“All right. Run along and play with your brother then. Stay out of trouble, Kailar and I mean it.”
The next week, my brother Keion solved his problem with the brother, Adan, by quickly hiring a live-in nursemaid to watch him and then sending them across the city to live. And me? I did my brother one better. I sent mine to the mortal realm with one of my best lieutenants, Mabus Theos, to raise him and watch over him. I thought a strong man to guard him until his twenty-first birthday would solve my problem nicely.
My servant, Theos, had posed as his father, and I had used my magic to wipe Kailar’s memory and make the boy forget his family so he could bond with his new “dad.” I didn’t love him, so I could use my magic on him. One caveat of our magic was that it didn’t work on our significant other. It would be too easy to control and compel them, so it was strictly forbidden. It was why I’d had to get Keion to compel Kailar to not be afraid of the pool when he arrived at my house.
As I look back on it now, using magic on him was a terrible thing to do to Kailar. Spelling him to forget his family that way—so he’d go along quietly with Theos—had been unjust and cruel. He’d already lost his mother and father and his sister. I took his twin brother away too, and even all his memories of his family.
There was really no excuse for what I did, and I’d understand if he could never forgive me. I couldn’t even forgive myself.
But as I stood there, gazing at him, I hoped he eventually could find a way. He was far more beautiful even than I had imagined, even though he was so frail and ill looking. And when I looked at him, I felt the pull of a soulmate, just like King Cleotus had told us we would one day, all those years ago.
I had made all the necessary preparations to get everything ready for Kailar’s arrival—I knew about Theos’s death, of course, and I knew the mortal who had become Kailar’s stepmother had been caring for him. When I found out, I’d kept a watch on her. As soon as I realized how rapidly Kailar’s health was failing and how badly they needed money, I’d come right away, but they had moved and left no forwarding address. It took a long time to find him again, and I felt angry about that but guilty, too. I should have kept him in Atlantis. And as soon as I saw him, I wished I had come to find him much sooner.
Two years ago, I’d felt the first tug of our connection, but I had ignored it, telling myself it couldn’t be true. To be honest, real life got in the way. I had been badly injured in a fight with Beathag and her creatures, and I still walked with a limp. Our mage physicians said I’d heal in time, but it was taking too long, and I was restless. But that tug had kept on increasing until it finally brought me and the soldiers under my command here to this town in Tennessee to be near him. I had uprooted us all in my quest to find him and make amends. True soulmates were rare in our kind, although the gods occasionally blessed us with one. Still, I couldn’t dismiss the idea. I owed it to him to at least see him and find out.
Now that I had seen him, the death of my soulmate before I ever had a chance to make him mine had suddenly become a real possibility. I still felt a weak tug, but it was—so damn weak. I was scared, though I didn’t like to admit it.
When we found the stepmother, she made excuses and said she had been planning on letting us know where she was, but she’d been struggling with Kailar’s health. She told us where he was trying to find a job and Keion had tracked him down to an unemployment office in Knoxville. I had stayed behind on that occasion because Keion didn’t trust me not to react emotionally when I saw him. He said Kailar looked that bad.
He’d asked one of the employment counselors there to send me his file, pretending to have a job for him. The counselor was confused but sent his file, along with a dozen others she thought might be more “suitable.” Those went in the trash right away. Keion arranged for an interview and walked in just as the counselor who had been interviewing Kailar was insulting him, even taunting him.
Keion had been trying to use his magic to heal him since he’d found him. So far, he still looked terribly ill, but Keion thought it was working a bit. We needed to get him back in the water though. His stepmother had told Keion that Theos hadn’t told her much, but he said that Kailar was special and needed to swim daily. He told her Kailar’s health suffered when he didn’t, but she didn’t know the full extent. Since Tybee, Kailar had refused to go in the water, and his aura, which should have been a bright beautiful blue or green, had been weakened, and barely held any color at all. Keion called me as soon as he’d seen him and told me his hair was solid white, and his skin looked gray. Death would soon be a visitor to my mate if I didn’t get him under my protection and try to understand what was happening to him. If it took all my magic, every last ounce of it, I wouldn’t lose Kailar. I couldn’t.
Chapter Four
Kailar
The alarm on Alexa went off at precisely nine o’clock in the morning. I didn’t need it. I’d been awake all damn night, trying to understand what was really going on. The story Alyx had fed me the night before, the one where everything would be just fine in my new world, had faded in my mind from reality to complete and utter bullshit as each hour ticked away through the long, dark night. By the time three o’clock in the morning rolled around, I was fully realizing what Alyx and Keion had done to me was exactly like I thought. It was all some sort of mind persuasion, or hypnosis and I’d fallen for it.
But why?
What the fuck was their end game? I had nothing to offer, yet they acted like I was a prize—both Alyx and Keion. To sum it up, I was clueless. And sleepy. And feeling weak…as usual.
I slid my thin legs over the edge of the bed and waited for enough strength to return so I could stand. Alyx had said breakfast would be served at 9:30 sharp. Hell, maybe I was the breakfast. How could I have so stupidly fallen for their lies? Yep, they were definitely serial killers, and I was at the top of the list. That had to be it.
Then my brain kicked back in, and I thought,No, they weren’t serial killers. That was stupid.Wasn’t it?
That only left what? Magic? They called this place Magick Hill. Could they be using magic on me? But again, to what purpose? I was a nobody.
As soon as my feet hit the floor, though, the strength was there. Not all the way, but definitely stronger. Weird. It felt like all my nerves were buzzing—maybe not in a good way but not in a bad way either. I checked my hands. They didn’t look nearly as old and weak as usual. Glancing down, I saw strands of my long hair. It was no longer a stark white but more of a mixture of pale colors like pink and blue and green. What the fuck? My fingers traced the edges of the new strands and the hair felt…healthy, at least. Even the still-white hair felt different than before. With an excitement that I hadn’t felt in years, I eased off the bed and made my way toward the bathroom…toward a mirror. I usually tried the avoid them—had even requested my stepmother to remove all of them from our small apartment except for the ones in her room.
Don’t get excited. Don’t get excited. Don’t get excited,I warned myself.
I kept repeating the chant over and over in my mind. My head remained bowed downward, unwilling to look up for fear that my hopes of appearing normal again would be dashed and smashed. Nope. I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t going to look. The last thing I needed was a reminder of how monstrous I looked compared to Alyx…on whom I already had a huge crush.
I hurried through my shower, put on the tiny swimsuit they’d left for me before bedtime, and then quickly covered my sickly body with a huge robe. I yanked my hair into a messy bun and went in search of the kitchen. I supposed that’s where the help ate. At least they did on television. Halfway down the stairs, I remembered that I’d forgotten to put on the flip-flops they had provided but knew I wouldn’t have enough time to go back for them and still make the 9:30 deadline. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice.
As I made my way down the magnificent staircase, I tried my best not to notice the glass wall on one side. It was a huge aquarium, which terrified me. Or should terrify me. Instead, my eyes were continuously drawn toward the small colorful fish inside—some swimming darting playfully around the tank. Others moving more slowly and majestically. Some even appeared to be playing with one another, which I wasn’t sure was an actual fish thing. For some unexplainable reason, my hands itched to touch the glass. Would it be cold? Warm?
By the time I’d reached the bottom of the stairs, I couldn’t stand it any longer. With the very tips of my finger, I touched the aquarium’s glass. My finger sizzled in the most delightful way, and I felt a tickle on each side of my lower stomach. It made me giggle. I tapped the glass with my fingers and watched in amazement as the fish closest to me all started swimming in my direction. Within seconds, more joined them and the beautiful creatures covered the part of the glass in front of me. Just like years ago when I’d watched the dolphins frolic and play, I felt like this performance was all for me.
“Kailar?”
