Page 7 of Burdened Bonds
“There is nothing for that kind of pain,” Winnie says. “The only way to release the bond is through … you know …” she trails off, her cheeks glowing a bright red.
“And here I was singing your praises, Miss Wence,” Phoenix says. “Where on earth did you get such inaccurate information?”
“Erm,” she chews her cheek, “the internet.”
Phoenix sighs with exasperation. “How many times have I told you students in class? The internet is not a reliable source of information.” Winnie’s entire face flushes red. “You have triggerwot in the house?” he asks Ellie. She points to one of the vials in my aunt’s box. “Then we’ll be ready to help him.”
The Moreau boy shuffles on his feet beside me. Someone has wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and he clutches it with both hands, eyes locked towards his friend. I blink, scratching my head. Only now contemplating the strangeness of his appearance among us. I left him at the border days ago. How the hell is he here? How the hell did he get here?
I go to ask him. And then I stop, remembering his secrets, remembering all his secrets. He loves Rhianna too. Loves my mate. Or is it more than that? Is this strange fucked-up tangle of fate more twisted, more perverted, more damn complicated than any of us ever contemplated?
More pain spirals through my chest. I think of Rhi, how new all this has been for her, how confusing. How often I’ve seen her lift her chin in defiance, square her shoulders when really she’s scared and frightened. Did she knowabout Tristan? Has she felt the pull of the bond towards him? And how the hell did that make her feel?
There are so many things I still don’t know about her and so many things she has yet to discover about me, so many secrets we’ve been keeping from one another. Guilt swirls with the pain in my chest. She never told me about the bond with him. Never asked me about it. Was she scared of me? Of my reaction? Fuck! Fuck!!
There’s a moan from the table and I snap my eyes back that way. My cousin looks as much like a corpse as he did moments ago, but the noise came from his mouth, his eyelids flickering ever so softly. My aunt holds his hands in hers, muttering words I’ve never heard before, and the tang of dangerous magic tarnishes the air.
I dart forward and grab Ellie by the wrist, yanking her away.
“Get back,” I shout at her.
“Wh-wh-what?” she says, gaze fixed on our aunt and our cousin.
“Ellie get away!” I pull her right back against the wall, shielding her body with mine. The curse is dangerous and dark and I can feel it hissing in the air like a live snake, angry and vengeful and ready to strike. “It could latch on to you!” I yell. “Phoenix, Winnie, get the hell away.”
The two of them jolt at my words and hurry back, as the ground beneath our feet shakes, the air vibrating with violence as if a wind has broken through the windows and sweeps through the room. The magic hisses more loudly, our hair beginning to flap around our faces, the lights flickering on and off.
My aunt grunts, her face purple with concentration, her hands clutching at her son. He jerks, jolts, his body lifting and then slamming down on the table. She sings the spell,bellowing it, and yet the wind that whips around the rooms is so strong, I hardly catch the words. I cling to Ellie, push my own magic forward, creating a shield I hope will protect us both.
Tristan’s eyelids snap open and his eyes roll around in their sockets. His body convulses and judders. But my aunt holds him tight, refusing to let go, battling with the magic that’s singeing her hands a deathly black, forcing the curse from his body.
“Is it working?” Ellie whispers from behind me, clinging to my hand as Stone swears and Winnie buries her face in her boyfriend’s chest.
My aunt’s voice becomes high pitched, louder still, sparks flicker from her fingertips and her eyes glow an icy blue, her hair dancing around her head.
The hiss of the curse winds higher and higher and the magic in the air turns so electric I feel it crackle painfully against my skin. The wind whips and snaps, the entire room shakes and I dive to the ground, taking Ellie with me, covering her head with my arms. The pressure is so fierce I think my skull might crack, and I yell at my aunt to stop.
But then there’s a flash of light, so blinding, so white, it wipes away all other colors. I close my eyes, shield my face and Ellie’s.
And then quickly as it came, it’s gone. The wind drops. The room still. The light hazy with dawn.
A scream of agony rips from Tristan’s throat and before I can stop her, Ellie’s darting from my hands and forcing the triggerwot between his lips. The scream morphs to a long drawn-out moan, that withers away to nothing as his rigid body softens.
Tristan pulls himself up to sitting, blinking rapidly, peering through the smoke that lingers in the air. He’s weak,his arms trembling. His eyes swim in and out of focus until finally his gaze alights on his mother and he’s on his knees on top of the table, reaching for her in the next moment.
“Mom?” he cries, the pain in his voice more unbearable to my ears than that scream.
She’s slumped in a chair, her breath feeble and rattling in her chest, a dark shadow crawling across her skin.
“Mom!” he shouts, skidding off the table and landing beside her, taking her bony shoulders in his hands. “What’s wrong? Mom?”
He shakes her, but she simply gasps for breath, her own gaze not leaving his face.
He swings his head around, noticing the rest of us for the first time, all of us but Ellie hovering on the floor, knocked off our feet by that blast of magic as the curse left his body and entered my aunt’s.
His eyes land on Stone. “Professor! Professor! Help me! My mom … help me!” Stone’s own gaze drops to the floor. And Tristan, wild, desperate, hunts for someone who can aid him. His eyes connect with mine.
“Az–”
