Page 131 of Forged Bonds

Shan?

Caspian?

My parents?

I couldn’t lose them all.

I was hyperventilating but couldn’t speak, my entire being focused on that damn string. My hand gripped the keychain so tightly it made my hands cramp. My other pressed to Grey’s temple, damn near pushing him sideways from the force.

“Freya.”Emmett’s voice permeated the panic.

My first instinct was to push him away and fix this on my own. His presence in my head persisted, and seconds later my other two mates joined him.

“Come back to us, little fin,” Oswald said.

“We need you. Remember? You told us what we were without you,” Nolan said.

They whispered to me, and I stopped trying to sever the bond with Grey. My mental hands grabbed onto my mate bonds again, tugging Caspian and Shan closer to me. I let Nolan, Oswald, and Emmett crowd my head.

By holding onto what grounded me in reality, I was brought out of Grey’s head. The connection dissipated on its own, and I breathed a sigh of relief at what I had left.

One single memory of Maisie. Her face on Mom’s phone screen as we chatted with her on the beach. I remembered how I’d thought her smile wasn’t quite right, but I didn’t know what it looked like ‘right’ anymore. Those memories were gone.

But I had her, and if I had to give up most of our times together to save my mates, so be it.

I’d save her next, and we could make new memories together.

Realizing I’d gone from hyperventilating to holding my breath, I shakily exhaled and gulped more air into my lungs. My eyes snapped open and I was met with the sight of Grey slumped in front of me, none of my men needing to hold him for the moment. All three were touching me instead, affection in their gazes. “You’re back?” Nolan asked in a whisper.

“Yes,” I said, my voice creaky. “And the plan… didn’t quite go according to plan, but we should be good enough. I hope. Gods, I fucking hope.”

“You’ve got about three minutes before this whole illusion comes tumbling the fuck down!” Amabella shouted over at us, breaking apart the moment.

We were on our feet in seconds, me more determined than anyone. Losing most of my sister wouldn’t be pointless. I’d get Grey back to his fucking post, and all these assholes would come out of their trance none-the-wiser.

My legs threatened to give out when I used my wand to draw the portal runes, but Oswald held me up. Emmett and Nolan carried our captive, going through the portal first. Amabella was letting out grunts of effort every few seconds, and I kept the portal open for them to come back, praying.

Thirty seconds passed.

The haze over the warehouse flickered. I stepped forward to go through the portal, but Oswald held me back. “Trust them.”

Every second that ticked by my magic wavered, the portal open for too long on my limited reserves. I was fatiguing as fast as Ama, but I couldn’t let it close. When I saw a hand reaching through the portal I grabbed it, relieved to catch Emmett’s familiar, comforting scent. He came through to pull me into his arms, Nolan steps behind him.

My portal snapped shut, barely any magic left in its wake, and Amabella let out a soft grunt as her magic vanished, only seconds later.

“We did it,” I breathed.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for the moment one of the guards realized they’d been conned. We waited long enough that if anyone was going to swarm up to this roof to attack us, they would have done it already. Then I spoke again.

“We actually did it. I’m going to get them back.”

The grins we wore were so wide our faces almost split in half. For the first time, we were a step ahead of Kylan. We had our inside man who was going to unwittingly help us kill him.

THIRTY-NINE

Freya

After the tentative success of part one of the plan, we’d gone back to Club Chaos to regroup. Ama had gone back to Mabel’s side, where she belonged, and Sky had left back to Zemterra so he could continue helping Altair wrangle our group of violent, temporary employees.

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