Page 53 of Forging Bonds: Part Two

So I get up and stretch, and then walk behind the couch. Kylen doesn’t like people behind him, and he predictably tilts his head up. Once I’ve got his attention, I walk around the room, seemingly pointlessly. I can feel his gaze stay glued to me, and it means that Ribit can get a really good look at the necklace from all angles as his head moves to follow me.

The whole time that I’m moving around the room my eyes drift back to Ribit every now and then, although since she is obviously near Kylen, I’m trying not to make it obvious that I’m looking at him or even in his direction which since he’s looking at me, is quite difficult and requires a lot of side eye. His gaze moves away from me, and my own eyes widen as I see Ribit reach for the necklace around his throat, a determined look in her eyes.

I want to warn her. I have no idea what will happen if she touches it, but I do know that if it were as simple as just removing the necklace, then I would have done it years ago or somehow got someone else to do it for me, since one of the first long standing commands that Kylen gave me was that I couldn’t touch the necklace. It simply can’t be that easy to remove though, Kylen would be an absolute moron to leave something so powerful unprotected.

Of course, I can’t tell Ribit that because that would announce her presence to Kylen, and that definitely wouldn’t be a good idea. Plus, Ribit is already dead, so it’s not like it can kill her twice. I still frown though. I really don’t like the idea, and although she can’t die again, she could get hurt, and I really don’t want that to happen.

There is fuck all that I can do about it though, as her hand gets within centimeters of it, but before she can make contact with it, she gets thrown backward across the room.

Shit.

I want to run over to her to make sure she’s okay, but I don’t want to give her away. That would be even more dangerous for her

“I’m alright, I’m okay.” She says quickly, looking at me, and I let out the breath I had been holding.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Kylen barks angrily.

I shrug, and don’t bother replying because anything that I do say will just piss him off anyway. Me breathing pisses him off.

“Get the fuck out of here before I decide that the torture I inflicted earlier was not enough and we go for another round,” Kylen threatens, his eyes filling with a dark and twisted joy.

The temperature drops, Ribit’s eyes flare with such anger that I am truly surprised when Kylen doesn’t seem to notice.

My eyes connect with hers.

“Go to your room, Coen, I don’t want you to get blamed for this,” she says through clenched teeth.

Maybe I should argue, maybe I should insist that she doesn’t do whatever she’s planning, for her sake, not his, but why? I don’t care what happens to Kylen, and he’s already told me to leave.

So I do. I walk down the hallway, walk into my bedroom, and close the door behind me. The only reason why I even have a room here is because it would look strange if I didn’t. It’s been a long time since I have had a room and I’m going to miss this one.

As soon as the door closes behind me, a blood-curdling scream ricochets around the rooms, easily piercing the thick castle walls. You would think that, having heard their leader scream in obvious pain, the next sound that I would hear would be doors opening as my teammates go and check on him, but Kylen isn’t liked by anyone on the team. Even those that share the same ideals and viewpoints that he does, don’t actually fucking like him, so everything remains silent.

I must admit that there is a part of me that wants to go and see what she’s done to him, and there’s a bigger part that hopes that he’s dead, but if I go out there now and he’s just injured, I’ll be on the receiving end of his wrath and if he’s dead, I’ll get blamed. So, I stay where I am and busy myself thinking about what the guys could have planned to free me.

Neith

Ribit suddenly appears in the middle of the room, making me jump.

“Hey, you were gone for a while. Is everything okay?” River asks.

Ribit’s smile is wicked, and her eyes sparkle, and before she can reply, I ask, “What did you do?”

She chuckles, “You’ll see. Sorry, it took a while. I wanted to make sure that I got a really good look at it so I could describe it to you properly, and not miss anything vital.”

I smile, “While I want to push you to tell me what you did, I get the feeling that you won’t tell me.” She shakes her head, her smile huge and confirming my suspicions. I chuckle, “Thought so.”

“You managed to see it then?” Doc asks curiously.

“I’m offended by the surprise in your voice,” she retorts and then smiles before Doc can get out his apology. “Yeah, I did. It wasn’t too hard. Even though most supernaturals can’t see me, their instincts do tend to flare up to let them know that there is something other nearby. Kylen didn’t notice at all. Coen though, he saw me like you guys do and very nearly gave it away.”

“Wait, he did?” Raiden asks. “Coen has no affinity with the dead.”

“And he hasn’t got access to his magic right now, or at least he has very limited access, he can’t shift or anything like that,” Reed adds.

“He can partially shift, though,” Ransom reminds us.

“True, but he has never had any gift with death,” Raiden repeats.

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