Page 40 of Wicked Ties
“I signed over blood of my blood, and for better or worse, Mazerial is blood of my blood.” My father ran his hands through his hair. It was a nervous gesture. “I tried to get her to take just me . . . she said I wasn’t worth the paper my name was written on, but Maze was worth so much more.”
I sat there for long moments, letting it all sink in. My parents’ contract, the Crone, the Keres, and Tilly’s spirit. “This changes nothing. We have to go as planned.”
“Maze, no. Not if it means you losing your life.” Tilly shook her head. “I can’t let you.”
“She’s right, my son.” My mother hopped off the table and began to pace. “You can’t throw your life away.”
“She deserves to have her soul. No matter the cost.” And that was the end of that.
Ophelia pulled a long knife from her boot and stabbed it into the tabletop. “Sweet! Let’s go kill some things.”
I pointed at her. “Not you.”
Ophelia hunched over, deflated. “Why?”
I rolled my eyes. “Because she will see you coming from a mile away. Your power—it’s too much to be stealthy.”
Ophelia pulled the knife from the table and threw it at the wall. “Fine.”
She hopped off the table and stormed out of the room. Cross, who’d been lying on the table in silence, rolled off to his feet. “You couldn’t just let her break or maim something?”
“She’s too obvious.” I shrugged. “Next time.”
The door flew open, and she stormed back in and yanked the knife from the wall. She pointed it at me. “Good luck. I hope you don’t die and take my new best friend with you.”
“New best what . . .” She was gone, back out the door.
“No, I can’t let you do this.” Tilly hurried out the door behind Ophelia.
Astrid moved to follow her, but I held my hand out to stop her. “I got this.”
I followed her out into the hall, but she was already halfway down it. I jogged to catch up to her. “Tilly!” She didn’t stop. “Til!”
She froze midstep, but didn’t turn around. I hurried to get in front of her. When the students in the hall stopped to stare at us, I lost my patience. “Leave. Now.”
They scurried from the hall, slamming doors as fast as they all could. When it was finally clear, I lowered my gaze to meet hers. “Where are you going?”
“I can’t let you do this. I can’t let you endanger you or your family.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I may not feel much, but I feel it’s not right.”
“How about you let me decide what’s right for me?” I pressed my hands to my chest.
She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at me. “Like you did for me?”
Here we were, back to the root of the problem. I didn’t give her a choice to be a demon or turn into this unfeeling person, or even to be my soulmate. I was never good at emotions, never wanted to be. Burying things deep down was the way I handled my life. But with her, she had to know how I felt. I wanted to let her know it all, so I shoved through the walls inside.
“Look, you were going to die and nothing was going to bring you back. There was no magic. Niche, our healer, was there doing everything she could. Zinnia was filtering all of our magic into you just to give you the energy you needed to live, and it still wasn’t enough. You don’t remember what happened, but I do. We are the most powerful witches and warlocks alive. We are the strongest you’re going to get. We beat Alataris, and we could not save you.” I shifted from one foot to the other. I wasn’t good with emotions, but for her I had to be. “And this one-eyed demon said we could save you . . . so, yeah, I did it. But I didn’t realize how bad it was going to be.” I pressed my hands to the sides of my head. “I’m psychic and I couldn’t see this shit coming. And when it comes to you . . . I’m blind.”
“Maze, I—”
“—Just hear me out for a second. It needs to be said. We all risked a lot to save you. And I thought as long as you were alive, we could fix whatever problems came up. Together. And I know we can fix this. That’s where we are right now. It could be a mess, but I know we can do it.”
She shook her head, sending those wild blonde waves all around her face. “You want to do this because I’m your soulmate, and I don’t even know what that means to me or for us.”
“I didn’t tell you that you were my soulmate because I didn’t want you to feel some kind of obligation to me. There are no obligations here. You can walk away from me, and we can never speak again once we get you healed and fixed. You can go your way. I’ll understand . . .” I shoved my hands into my hair. “You’re my soulmate and you were dying. We were going to end before we even started. What would you have done?” I shook my head. “You know what? Don’t answer that. Your best friend almost got killed and you jumped in front of a knife for her, so I know what you would’ve done. You can be mad at me, I can handle that, but let me help you. Let me be there. Let me give you what you need most: your life back.”
She sucked in a deep breath and pressed her lips into a tight line. She gave me a small nod. “Okay. On one condition.”
“What?”
