Page 16 of Forging Bonds: Part Two

Van nods in agreement and then frowns again, “Wait, what about Coen?”

“What about him?” Griff asks curiously so that I don’t have to.

“Well, what if he comes to find Neith again and she’s not here?” Van asks.

I shrug, “He’s not stupid. He’ll assume I’m with you guys and if he still wants to find me then he’ll ask castle to help him do it, in fact,” I look around the room, “Castle, if Coen turns up to look for me can you please direct him to the guy’s rooms?”

The fireplace flares to life in agreement and I smile.

“That’s a yes,” Raiden points out.

“So, it’s settled then,” Van says.

I nod, “Sure. I have no desire to be myself after all of that anyway, so I most likely would have ended up in your rooms.”

“We’ll move your stuff over after we’ve eaten,” Griff says.

“Okay. Don’t let me forget the stuff out of the bathroom, it smells amazing, and I want to bring it with me,” I grin, and the guys all smile and nod.

After that the conversation moves on to other things, although there is an underlying tension throughout all of the conversations, since we know that any second now we could get pulled into another trial.

“Do you think that the Choosing is giving you some time this morning to recover?” River asks curiously.

I shrug, “I suppose it’s possible.”

There’s a knock at the door and I reluctantly get up from the pile of men on my bed. That sounds way dirtier than it actually is and if I’m being honest I would have preferred it if it was the dirty version.

Unfortunately, we’re all dressed.

“Be careful,” Raiden frowns.

I look back over my shoulder, “Don’t worry Castle would warn me if it was someone unpleasant,” I reply with confidence because I know that he would.

“You mean, Kylen,” Van says.

“Well yeah,” I reply. Pulling open the door I smile in greeting when I see Mabel standing outside, wringing her hands and studying me worriedly. I ask as I usher her into the room, “Is everything okay?”

She smiles, “Yes, I was worried about you.”

I glance away feeling slightly embarrassed, “Yeah, I really wish that wasn’t shown to every supernatural in all the realms.”

“Hey now,” she says firmly, and my gaze snaps back to her. “I will have absolutely none of that. All I saw, all anyone saw, was an incredibly strong woman, who despite the distress she was put under still managed to pass the task that the Choosing had given her. I have watched many Choosing’s and many have not survived the second level in that particular task, and as far as I have seen no one has had a final level quite as traumatic as that one.”

“Really?” I ask. “You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”

“No. I don’t do that sort of thing,” Mabel replies in a very matter of fact kind of way that makes me like her even more.

I glance over at the guys, and find them all nodding in agreement with her sentiment. As much as I still hate that a weakness, and actually more than that, a deeply traumatic piece of my past was exposed to possibly millions of supernaturals, I have to admit that there is fuck all that I can do about it and instead of worrying about it, or carrying it with me, I’m going to let it go.

Chapter Six

Neith

Iforce myself to think back about what they actually saw, and I realize that it didn’t really expose much. My secret Darkness Friend is still a secret, and nothing else was seen. From an outside perspective, it just shows that at some point, I was imprisoned and that the guy was a psycho. My memories try to push forward, and instead of allowing them to do so, I pull the memory of Coen and Dimitri pulling him apart, and killing him slowly and painfully.

That makes me smile.

“Thank you, Mabel,” I say sincerely.

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