Marabella
“This may,” I tell him, running my fingers through my dark locks.
“Well, if you are going to make me and Kaif feel guilty, I would feel better knowing what for. You forget I can feel everything, Ella.” His patience is wearing thin and not wanting him to get pissed off, I give in.
“Fine, If I tell you; you have to tell me something,” I ask him.
“What do you want to know?”
“I want to know why we have a bond when you haven’t marked me yet?”
Kyan sighs and glances at Jonah, who I know is listening. Jonah shrugs, and Kyan looks back at me. He knows the answer to this, and so does Jonah.
“When you were a kid, you were chasing your kite, and you fell in the river near your Uncle and Aunt’s house. Jonah went in to get you.”
“I fell in?” I ask, and Kyan nods.
“Jonah dived in. He was thirteen, he got to you and then he also started drowning. So I shifted, and Kaif pulled you both out. Except when we dragged you onto the bank, you were already dead,” Kyan mutters.
His words echo in my mind as I stare at him, trying to comprehend what he had just said. I can hear my heart thumping, the loudness of it seems to fill the air. I died…?
“I died?” I manage to murmur, my head still spinning. Kyan nods again, and no matter what I wished, I know he isn’t lying; this is not a joke.
“It’s how I am linked to both of you. Kaif nearly killed Jonah, so I tied my life to his, making Jonah Kaif’s guardian. Every time Kaif hurts Jonah, it weakens Kaif. If Kaif kills Jonah, it will kill both of us. You were different, though.” He shoves his hands into his pockets, his eyes meeting mine once more.
“How am I different?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Because you were completely dead, your soul became trapped in the underworld. Kaif used the shadows to pull you back. He used black magic, which bound you to not only him but his magic. I thought that it was how you had my family’s magic running through you until I visited the shadows myself and realized not only were you bound to Kaif’s, but my father gave you his,” Kyan tells me, and I swallow.
I take a few moments, trying to make sense of it all, and then a sudden thought hits me. I look up at him sharply, my chest heaving. “So you have been able to feel me all that time, all that time, and you still didn’t want me?” I ask, suddenly angry and tears burn the back of my eyes, they sting as I fight the urge to cry. How many times is one person expected to handle being rejected? He felt all my pain, yet still treated me like he never wanted me.
“I have always wanted you, Ella. I just didn’t think I could have you,” Kyan answers quietly.
“And now?” I ask, needing some promise and hope, anything other than this torment of not knowing what I am to him.
“We’ll see what happens,” Kyan answers, and I hear Jonah curse under his breath. I chew the inside of my lip. His words sting, but I say nothing. “I answered your question. Now answer mine. Why do you feel guilty?” Kyan adds, looking away from me.
I try to squash the pain in my chest and focus on reality. “I feel guilty because I can speak to your father, and you can’t,” I tell him quietly, and his head whips toward me.
“What?” He can’t mask the look of shock on his face as he stares at me.
I sigh, wiping a stray tear that decided to betray me and escape. “Your father, I can speak directly to him. He said when they were also sacrificed to try to break the curse on Celeste’s trapped soul,” I answer. Kyan tilts his head to the side.
“You can talk to my father?” I nod, looking at Jonah.
“Can he hear me?” Kyan asks, frowning slightly.
“Always, Kye, I’m always watching, listening. You just need to listen harder,” Dominic says to me, as Kyan studies me.
“He said. Always Kye, that he is always watching and listening. You just need to listen harder,” I tell him. Though hearing Dominic call him Kye makes me wonder if that’s why he got upset when I said it that time. Yet when I did, I felt like I have always called him that, which makes me wonder if I ever have. Only he took those memories, too.
Kyan’s lip quivers, and he nods before clearing his throat and walking back to Jonah. I quickly follow him, and Kyan walks ahead up the trail.
“I upset him,” I tell Jonah, sighing.
“And he upset you,” Jonah answers, and I nod. He reaches over, brushing a strand of my hair back. “And he is not upset. He just always assumed his fathers was trapped in the shadows, tortured by them. I think he’s just feeling relieved, although it’s a lot to take in.”
“Why would he think that?” I ask in surprise.
“Because that’s where he is supposed to be, my bloodline doesn’t get a happy ending, Ella, we all end up the same, trapped by Kaif’s curse to wander the shadows, only allowed to the underworld when Hades calls on us,” Kyan answers, he doesn’t seem bothered by Jonah telling me.
“I’m not mad; I knew you had a connection with my father, but I didn’t think you could actually talk to him. Though it may have been an involuntary urge or flashes of memory he held, not actually him. I was not expecting that to be your answer,” Kyan explains seriously.
“Are you upset I can talk to him?” I ask the question that is responsible for my guilt. Kyan shakes his head.
“No, at least he still has a friend; the shadows are lonely, Ella, hopeless, though I would like to know how it is possible,” Kyan tells me when we suddenly come to a clearing with huge giant rocks in a circle. I stop feeling the charged energy ripple around them. I know this had to be the place he spoke of.