Page 4 of Eight Embers

“Tell me you didn’t bond with that horrible person.”

“Can we just, drop the dramatics for a moment please? There’s nobody here to watch you put on a show.”

She nods her head towards me. “Who’s that, then?”

“Somebody I’d steer clear of, if I were you,” he responds.

“So she gets everything, and I get nothing? Is that how this is going to go down?”

“What was your goal here tonight?” I step in and ask. “I could find out what spell you were about to throw at my mate, but it might not be too comfortable for you. I think asking nicely might get me a little bit farther.”

She huffs like a damn toddler. “That’s not even possible. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“Shelly, you tried to attack somebody. I can’t be your brother and the law if you’re just going to keep doing things you’re not supposed to do. I’ve warned you so many times your temper was going to get the best of you.” He takes a step back from the cell, and then another, keeping his hands in his pockets and looking quite sad.

“Where are you going? Get back here now and let me out.”

“I can’t do that, Shells. I wish I could, but this is bigger than just you and me now.”

“Because ofher,”she spits with so much venom in her tongue I’m surprised it doesn’t burn her mouth.

Zac is ready to jump in and defend our mate, though. “She’s really nice, you know. She doesn’t deserve what you’ve been doing to her. I don’t want to take sides in this Shelly, but when you’re so flagrantly harming other students, you’re making me.”

“I’ll do it, you know. I’ve always threatened it, but I really will this time. Unlock this door, or…” she looks at me nervously, letting her sentence taper off.

He takes his phone out of his pocket, presses some buttons, and then it’s ringing on speaker. “Zac? You guys okay? Where’d you go?”

“I have something I need to tell you, Delaney.”

The girl behind the bars starts shrieking again, enough so that she drowns out my mate. And things seem like they’re about to get interesting, so we can’t have that. With a thought, she’s silent.Godsit’s so much fun to be powerful.

Now she's just an animated clay figure silently yelling at us. Perfect. Such an improvement.

“A truth,” Zac starts, “that I’ve tried to keep covered up for years. Some of the guys have wondered why I let Shelly get away with so much. Aside from just being her guardian all these years, there’s more.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Delaney promises, nearly pleading, but Zac cuts her off.

“I want to. I need to. This… it’s been a weight on my chest for too long, and it’s already held me back enough. I meant it when I said you were everything to me now. I won’t let secrets get in the way of what we could be.”

“Whatever it is, it’s not going to change anything,” Delaney promises. “But I’m listening.”

He exhales heavily, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “When Shelly and I were younger, our parents were pretty great. Sure, my father was a terrifying naga and my mom a witch, but they were good parents.”

I think I know where this is going, but I do think he needs to say this. Somebody needs to pop the bubble of blame he’s clearly been existing in.

“My father spent a lot of time helping me to keep control of my temper; he always said nagas had a bad enough rep as it was, so it was important for us to be more than our peers. I always had to study harder, be better, do more, so that people wouldn’t be scared of me. Didn’t matter in the long run, people are still scared of me, but I guess it got me this job and found me you. So, there’s that.

“Anyway, my father had been bragging to my mom about how well I was progressing in my control. One day she came out to watch. We had this huge backyard then with this incredible forest, a little meadow, and a pond back full of koi fish that my mom loved.

“I was practicing shifting different parts of me independently and learning to bite without the venom. At the time I didn’t understand why I would need to bite somebody, but my dad always assured me it was just another thing I needed to practice controlling. He made sure I knew that we needed to have ultimate control over our venom since it’s so potent. He wanted to get me to a point that I had to really try if I wanted to inject venom in somebody. I don’t know what kind of scuffles he thought I’d get into, but I never questioned his ways, not really.

“So anyway, Mom was there watching—"

Delaney gasps. “Oh my gods…. did you accidentally kill her?”

Both of the siblings stare at the phone in horror as Zac starts back peddling. “What? No!... no! I would never…no.”

“Sorry, I got caught up in the drama of it. Proceed.” Delaney says calmly.

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