Our choices will shape the outcome.
Sometimes, in order to fix what has been broken,
one must make the greatest sacrifice and shatter it all.
Safe travels.
Love,
Adera
I read the words over and over again trying to understand the meaning behind them. How could my Aunt possibly know that I found love in the first place? She died before I even traveled the first time and found Sebastian, Cade, Finn, and Luca. Luca! SNAP, SNAP…SNAP. It’s kind of creepy how she seems to be speaking to me beyond the grave and I wonder if she visited the future and saw all that would happen to me. Shaking my head, I set the note aside and lift the box from my lap, nervously chewing on my bottom lip. Flicking the small metal latch, I open the lid and my eyebrows shoot up in awe. Sitting inside on a bed of royal blue velvet is what looks like a blinged-out compass. Just like the frame surrounding the mirror, the device has an assortment of small jewels that create a pattern of runes around the outside edge of it. At the top is what I think is a diamond, in the shape of a triangle that points down. The inside has three different rings with numbers and a small nudge shows me that they all will spin. The very center has a moonstone that clicks when I push it. I lift the compass from its bed and pull up the velvet hoping to find a fucking user manual but find nothing.
I set the compass back into the box and put the box on the table and then lean back. This is how I can control the mirror but I’ll need to figure it out. I rub my head and wish that I could think clearly. My brain is so foggy and it’s hard to think past the urgent need I have to get back to them, to Luca. I make it halfway up the stairs to the mirror, stumbling on the steps before I realize what I’m doing and snap the hell out of my wrist to stop myself from going any further. I turn and sit on the step and drop my face into my hands. Why? Why is this happening to me? I feel like I’m losing my mind and I’m terrified that it might be a side effect of using the mirror or time traveling. Maybe this is the cost of it. Maybe Adera died from going insane and I will too. I push to my feet and slowly walk back down the stairs to put the food away. If madness is the cost of going back to my loves, to Luca (SNAP) then it’s a price I’m willing to pay.
Sebastian
Luca’s mind is gone. I lean against the door of the room I compelled him to stay in and listen to his ranting and raving for her. He screams her name over and over and begs her to come back and forgive him. In his anger at me for keeping Eden away from him, he pushed her to get at me and unwittingly caused her death. He begs for her forgiveness in his madness when I’m the one to blame. I did this in my quest to protect him.
“Come away and leave him be. We need ta hear from you on how this transpired, Sebastian.” Finn tells me in a cold voice.
I turn and meet his gaze and then Cades and see nothing but cold contempt and it makes me wish for the heated rage they showed me the night before just after she left us again. I took every hit they all threw at me as we fought and destroyed much of the upper level where I had been keeping Eden. I only compelled them all to stop when Luca lost control of his monster and went for their throats. We managed to get him out and back here so he would not be a danger to the innocents in the town in his madness and thirst to destroy and consume. The coldness I now see in their expressions tells me that no amount of explaining or justifying I do will ever be able to repair our relationship. I have lost them all. I follow them down the hall to the study and reach for the brandy but Cade swipes it from my hand and tips the bottle back, drinking half of it before passing it to Finn. His eyes glow briefly as he looks at me but when he clenches his hands his eyes settle back to the blue-green of his human form.
“Tell us…from the start.”
I scrub at my face and then nod. “I found her surrounded by rough men taunting her. She came back in her modern clothing and it was clear that she was sick. She was gaunt, unkempt - I knew right away something was wrong. You know how much Eden values being clean. She clearly had not washed or eaten in days, maybe longer. I got her into the room but she was inconsolable, manic to get to you and Luca. I have never seen her in such a state. When I removed her clothing to bathe her I saw just how much her health had suffered. I could count her ribs and her hip bones jutted out. All her curves were gone and I feared that she was wasting away from some disease so I gave her my blood to try and heal her.”
“That’s when you decided ta fuck her for two days instead of bringing her home?” Cade asks harshly. “Do not deny it! We felt her pleasure through the bond.”
I glare right back at him. “You know firsthand what effect my blood has! You have both experienced it yourselves as you took from me to prolong your existence. You also enjoyed the pleasures of her body when Luca fed her his blood to save her in France!”
Finn steps between us with a jerk of his head for Cade to back off. “Enough! Aye, we know what it does ta her but after she was healed, why did you not bring her back then?”
My shoulders slump and I back into a chair and settle heavily on it. “Luca. I have already outlined my concerns about what would happen to his state of mind if we continued this circle of love and death with her. Judging by his current condition, I was correct but it is not just him. There is something wrong with Eden. As soon as my blood began to wear off her mind began to fracture into madness again. When I returned to her next, she had destroyed her fingers scratching at the door! Her sanity was gone. I suspect that the time-traveling she has done has broken her mind. It would have destroyed Luca even more to see her that way.” I sigh heavily. “I had hoped you both would take her away from here. Keep Luca from ever seeing that she had returned in the hopes that he would heal over more time. You left to get her before I could tell you where she was.”
Cade snarls at me, “I want your word that you will never compel her again. Under no circumstances will you ever put her through that…control again.”
I nod my agreement. “I give you my word. I will never compel her again.”
They share a look of silent communication and Finn turns to speak to me but before the words can leave him they are both gasping, making choking noises, and clutching at their chests in shock. I surge to my feet and reach for them.
“What is it? What has happened?”
Finn turns wide eyes my way. “It’s back. The bond is back! Eden is back!”
Cade clutches his head. “How the bloody hell is this possible? It’s always been decades between her coming back! How has the lass managed to come back the day after she left?”
Luca’s screaming gets louder and echoes through the house causing us all to flinch. It is as if he knows she is back somehow. I shove a hand through my hair and pull until I feel the pain in my scalp.
“What…what do you want to do?” I ask them hesitantly.
Finn snarls and throws the empty bottle of brandy at the wall, shattering it, and then spears me with a look. “We go and fucking get her! What else can we do? She’s our mate!”
My eyes dart from one to the other. “And Luca? What of him?”
Cade throws up his hands in frustration. “Fuck! Maybe he needs ta see her ta settle down? Just…just let us go and find her and we will speak ta her about what’s happening with all of this first.” He gives me another dark look. “She can fucking talk ta us, right? She couldn’t speak when we saw her yesterday!”
I wave his words away. “Yes, of course, I released her from the command. I only did that so in her madness, she didn’t attract attention in that place. Can you imagine what might have happened if any of those men had found her in that state? I was trying to protect her!”
