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I clenched my jaw. “No, it’s not. It can’t be—I don’t create bonds with the enemy.”
“I’m not the enemy,” Oaklee said, but I wouldn’t hear it. “I didn’t know what my dad did to you until you told me. I didn’t know—”
“Then why would you think I’d kill you, rather than protect you if you told me?” I demanded.
“Please, stop,” Carletta said. She clutched her head like she was trying to keep it balanced on her neck, like it was loose and threatening to fall off.
She was going to faint or have a meltdown. Her magic was loose, skittering around the room, and it amplified the more Oaklee and I fought.
“You have one more chance to get the fuck out of here, or I’ll kill you myself,” I growled, and my bear rose to the surface.
Oaklee backed away. “Jameson, no.”
“Don’t, Jameson,” Carletta pleaded. “It’s not right. This doesn’t feel right.”
“Stay out of it,” I snapped at my sister, but Carletta threw herself toward Oaklee. She pressed her body right up against Oaklee, shielding her from me.
I took a step forward, and the office pulsed with my magic as it rocked outward in a wave. I took another step, more magic spilling out of me. It was Carletta, looking out for Oaklee, but when I looked at them, all I saw was Delaney, her fear, the fact that she wasn’t here anymore because I hadn’t been there to look after her.
I wasn’t going to do that again.
“Move, Carletta,” I commanded.
Carletta spun around to face Oaklee.
“Run, little fox,” she hissed and yanked the door open.
Oaklee fell backward into the hallway, and as she fell, she shifted. Her red fox wriggled free from the clothes she’d worn, and she ran.
I let out a roar so loud, the whole building trembled. My bear was ready to rip free, but Carletta put her hands on my chest and pushed against me. Her power pulsed into me, unstable, uncomfortable.
It made me stop dead in my tracks, and I bounced back, staying in human form.
“What the fuck?!” I cried out. “She’s getting away!”
“The only thing getting away right now is your temper getting away from you,” Carletta said. “This is wrong.”
“What is that supposed to mean? What about Delaney? I won’t let her death go unavenged.”
“You’re not Dad, Jameson,” Carletta wailed, and those words sliced through me like a hot knife. “You don’t kill.”
I glared at her. “I’ll kill every last one of them for what they did to Delaney.”
“You’re bound to her.”
“It’s fake!”
“It can’t be fake!” Carletta yelled. “Not even the fae can forge bonds between shifters, no matter how fucked up their magic can be. You know that. You’re fated, and that counts for something.”
“Iwon’tbe fated to the daughter of a killer.”
“You’re the son of one,” Carletta snapped, and her power was so thick around me, I struggled to keep my bear under control. Her words hit me like physical punches, but she was right. My dad had fucked up badly, he’d done a lot I didn’t agree with, but did that mean I would be defined by who he was?
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
The power in the room grew, buzzing around me like a power surge, and my sister swayed on her feet.
