Page 35 of Forging Bonds: Part Two

I’m now thinking that it was because he wanted to keep Neith and most likely Dimitri to himself, even back then Dimitri was making a name for himself although it was more as a vigilante rather than the incrediblydangerous criminal that has no moral compass whatsoever, and doesn’t discriminate against who he’s willing to harm and kill in order to get what he wants. I can’t say that he was the only one back then keeping things to himself, I think we all were.

“Why don’t we try to find Mabel?” Reed suggests his power is starting to build with his growing worry about Neith’s whereabouts.

I wouldn’t say that we’re in complete panic mode yet, I mean it’s getting close, but we’re no good to Neith if we’re panicking, and there’s a good chance that she’s napping somewhere or exploring the castle more because she got bored or something.

“Good idea,” Van agrees. “Let’s go and find Mabel and see if she knows anything.”

“And if she doesn’t?” I ask.

“Then I guess we go and find the Draconian team and see if they know anything. I would say that I don’t think that Coen would do anything to hurt her, but we have no idea what kind of control Kylen has over him. We already know that he tried to make Coen fight her, and although Coen warned her, I don’t want to risk it,” Van replies.

“I agree,” Reed replies firmly as we all head back down the stairs.

Raiden

As we get closer to the bottom of the stairs and the doors that will take us out onto the floor above Neith’s, I glance back up when movement catches my eye from behind us, only to frown when there’s no one there. I could have sworn that there was someone there, butthere’s definitely not now. I’m about to tap into my magic to see if there are any souls nearby when a different idea flashes through my mind, and I immediately forget about the movement.

Neith said that she could still feel my magic, which means that the tether that I put in place is, for some reason, still working and still holding her soul to this plane. I don’t know why. It really shouldn’t be, and I don’t know whether it’s going to cause any problems, or even if it’s something that we should worry about. Right now, it doesn’t seem to be causing any issues, and Neith doesn’t mind, which makes me incredibly happy and means more to me than she will ever realize. It is on my list to look into when we get back to the house, and things settle down a bit after the Choosing, although I am not sure that they will settle down for a while.

I don’t bother telling the guys what I’m up to, one because it will just waste time, and two because I’m not entirely sure that it will work. Calling on the part of my magic that I have only just begun to use again, I ask it to check the tether that I made to tether Neith’s soul to her body. It was made necessary because she couldn’t cross back over to the spirit after being there so recently and Wallace, one of Neith’s spirit guides, told me that the only way that I would be able to save her was if I tapped into the other side of my magic, my stronger side, and the side that I shut down when I was just a child. So that’s what I did.

The magic responds to my request with ease, and I smile. “Guys,” I call out as I jog to catch up to them.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize that you had fallen behind,” Van says distractedly as he assumes that was why I was calling him.

“No, I just checked on the tether, since Neith said that she could still feel it,” I explain.

Everyone stops walking and turns back to look at me expectantly.

“Well?” Reed asks, his voice gruff.

“I couldn’t get much information at all, but her heart is still beating, and she is still tethered to this plane,” I explain, frowning when I realize that it’s actually not that much information. “That’s not really much more information than we had a moment ago, is it?”

“It’s something,” Ransom says. “Good thinking.”

“Ransom’s right. We now know that she’s alive, and that’s more information than we had a moment ago,” Griff adds.

“Yeah, good point,” I agree, although I can’t help but wish that I could find out more information from the tether. “Let’s go and find Mabel and see if she knows where Neith is.”

The guys all nod in agreement, and we carry on walking through the castle. Thankfully, it doesn’t take us long until we spot her coming out of one of the rooms on the ground floor.

I have to admit that I haven’t done any exploring of the castle, so I have no idea what room she’s coming out of, and quite frankly, I don’t care. Not right now, at least.

“Mabel,” Doc calls, and she turns to look at us, smiling happily.

“Good evening, boys,” she greets us, and then frowns when she sees our expressions. “Is everything okay?”

Doc doesn’t even hesitate or try to play it down as he immediately asks, “Do you know where Neith is?”

Mabel’s frown tells us all we need to know as she replies, “No, I’m afraid I don’t. I didn’t even see her after she got back from her task.”

“So she isn’t still in a Choosing trial then?” I ask, just to make sure.

Mabel shakes her head, “No, there are no more trials scheduled for today, and Neith has already done one for today anyway. There are never two for the same person on the same day. The toll on the person would be too great.”

“Shit,” Van curses.

Ransom interrupts the conversation, “Do you know where the Draconian team is?”

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