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“You are upset about the titan.”He sighed as though I were a child having a tantrum over something silly, and it enraged me.
“Upset isn’t even close to describing how I feel,”I hissed and hoped he could feel it. The fury. The indignation. The despair. I hoped he knew that although saving his realm cost him nothing but power, it cost me everything. I was being sacrificed. The worst of it was I would have helped willingly if he’d only allowed me and my soul mates more time.
“We’d all do terrible things to save the ones we love, Baelen. It doesn’t make me a villain.”
“It does in this story.”
We were silent as he walked back to the window in the kitchen area and looked out, his—no, my eyes, following the roll of leaves being swept away by the wind.
“It’s an interesting place, this human realm. So green. I’d forgotten what that looked like. I look forward to seeing my homeland flourishing again once more.”I did the bodiless equivalent of crossing my arms and turning around. I didn’t want to listen to him anymore. It only gave him more power.“Ignoring me won’t work. I am in your mind and body. You are stuck with me.”
I had to wonder why his plan wasn’t to portal them and force them to heal the portal instead of using me. Asking the question could have given him ideas, though, so I refrained but thought maybe he didn’t have the strength to use my power to portal all of us.
I also could have told him that he didn’t need to consummate the bond to use their powers. It would spare Clawdia, but it would mean he could simply steal her away the next time she was alone with him. The portal was so broken that I worried attempting to heal it would kill whoever attempted it. Kaatu wouldn’t allow for failure. He’d push until either it worked, or we were dead.
“Your soul mate offered anything to save his pair from pain. It was interesting.”
Kaatu’s words seemed innocuous, but I heard the deeper meaning and had I a spine, shivers would have been sent down it. It was clear he could hear some of my inner thoughts; the way he replied to me earlier proved that. But other thoughts, I believed I’d guarded.
Yet Kaatu responded with a parallel line of thought. Zaide offering anything to save Clawdia told me he knew something was wrong with me and told Kaatu he would be a good secondary plan if Clawdia didn’t fall into his arms.
A knock of the door jolted us both out of our minds, and Kaatu turned us to see Savida’s flame-red hair poke through the crack. “Baelen?”
“Demon,” Kaatu replied.
“You aren’t even trying to disguise it,”I thought with disgust.
Savida walked into the cabin, his wings jostling past the door frame. He was followed by a faei with green hair and eyes I wasn’t familiar with.
“Savida.” The grinning demon tilted his head to examine us and then waved his hand at the other male. “And this is my soul mate, Daithi.”
“Soul mate,” Kaatu repeated.
“Yes.” Savida nodded happily and settled on the edge of the sofa so his wings weren’t squashed.
Kaatu’s chuckle sounds strange from my mouth. “Forgive me. I’ve never met soul mates.”
“Are your parents not such?” Daithi asked with suspicious eyes. I wanted to laugh.
“Oh. Yes, of course. I meant outside of the family,” Kaatu tried to explain. It wasn’t clear whether Savida and Daithi fell for the excuse, because their expressions didn’t change, but Kaatu blundered on, “I confess I don’t know much about soul mate lore. I didn’t expect to find a soul mate, and my parents did not provide details. Could I ask you questions?”
Daithi raised a brow but said, “Of course.”
“Using each other’s powers. How could one achieve that unbonded?”
“So you do have a conscience,”I said but cursed internally. He would find out what I’d been hiding from him, and then it would be anyone’s guess what he would do. I just prayed they found out he was possessing me before he could do anything.
“You need only touch each other. Although it would take a very strong and compatible pair to do that. Savida and I have been bonded for many years and do not use each other’s power.” Daithi’s words made me want to sigh. I saw how still my body went as Kaatu absorbed that information. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but knew it was bad.
Savida frowned at his soul mate. “You don’t know how to use your visions, and you’ve never taught me how I might use your illusions. And until Alcor helped me learn my name, I haven’t been able to use my gift. So, we have never tried. But maybe we will now. More power can’t hurt when we are in such dangerous situations.”
“The dragon?” Kaatu asked, boredom in his tone now.
“The dragon.” Savida nodded, but he looked at us with more suspicion than previously.
Clawdia interrupted any further questioning as she opened the door and came in looking drawn and tired. Just the sight of her drew me closer. She smelled like Zaide, sweat, magic, and plants. But there was something else. A tinge to her scent that made me want to be near her. The effect of which was Kaatu shoving me back. I hadn’t even realized he’d allowed me to regain some of my senses until they were gone again and the scent of her was a memory.
Surely this meant he was weakening. Hope bloomed within me even as I lost all feeling and returned to the ghost-like state and watched.
