Broken Bonds (Valerian's Cove Book 2) Read online

  “Are you seeing Tony soon?” Rissa inquired.

  Lia nodded. “We’re having dinner at Ben Ma’s on Friday.”

  “Good. I’m glad.”

  Lia looked at her twin. “Have you seen Theo recently?”

  Rissa winced, then shook her head. “If I don’t see him, it’s like it’s not real,” she told her twin. Lia hugged her again.

  “You can’t pretend it’s not real forever, Riss. He isn’t going anywhere. He wants to be a part of the twins’ lives. You’re going to have to deal with him eventually.”

  “I know. It just still really hurts, you know?”

  “I know,” Lia, a powerful Empath like her sister, replied.

  2

  Saturday morning the children were bouncing with excitement about getting their school supplies. Celine kicked them out of the house, telling them to go outside and run off some steam until it was time to go. The store opened at ten on Saturdays, and the children were up before eight. By nine thirty they had driven everyone crazy, so Malia suggested they all ride their bikes into town. The adult’s bikes had panniers on them, which made carrying all the supplies home easier.

  They parked their bicycles outside the Market, at the bike rack that Mr. Cooke had had installed. Shari-Beth stood by shyly as Lia and Rissa waved to the old Bear, and both sets of children ran up to him for hugs. He patted their shoulders and gave them pieces of honey candy from his apron pocket. They hugged him again in thanks, then ran across the street to Curiosity.

  Mariellen’s cat, Freya, was curled up on a cushion in the front window. Crystals on long beaded strings hung over her, casting rainbows when the sun struck them. Other, larger chunks of amethyst, citrine and aventurine surrounded the cat on the window ledge. There were also candles, a small cauldron and a pile of books. It created a homey feel and invited customers in.

  “Those stones are so pretty,” Allie sighed wistfully to Malia. Lia smiled. “They all have a purpose,” she explained. “Amethyst is calming, and enhanced intuition and psychic abilities. Citrine and aventurine are both good for prosperity and success. Mariellen planned this one out well.”

  “Did you learn about this stuff at the Academy?” Ian asked.

  “Yes, as an Earth Witch, working with crystals was a part of my training. They can be used to focus energy, even hold it for you for certain things if you need it to. Crystals are one of Nature’s magnificent gifts to us. And they are really beautiful, too.”

  A bell rang over the door as the group entered the store. Mariellen was helping another family picking out supplies for the new school year. She smiled over at them as she finished ringing the family up. Coming around the counter, she hugged Marissa and ruffled the kids’ hair. She smiled at Malia. “I suppose this lot are starting school Monday and need supplies, yeah?” She teased the children and Shari-Beth. They all nodded. Allie and Lena were bouncing on their toes. Ian had wandered over to a display of athames enclosed in a glass display case. Mikey was looking at a bolline, a small scythe used to gather herbs. Shari-Beth stood near the counter, unsure where to go. Mariellen lead the family over to the counter.

  “We have beginning potions kits for you, twin-sets, as well as your theory books. You won’t really need much more than that until your Gifts come in completely and you are sorted into your specialties. That said, if you already know or suspect what your specialty may be, you are welcome to look at what we have for that to start getting familiarized with it. The school will provide all of your regular mundane course books, of course.” She took out four potions kits from behind the counter. Marissa and Malia had talked about getting the children personalized kits, and Marissa had called in the order to Mariellen. There was a blue one for Ian, a green one for Mikey, a red one for Allie and a yellow one for Lena. Each was a wooden chest covered in leather, embossed with each child’s initials. The children’s eyes grew wide as they eagerly opened their kits. There were phials, eye droppers, measuring spoons and cups, stirring straws made of glass, and a small cauldron in each kit.

  “You will get your ingredients in class, or your teacher will give you a list to bring back to me for various projects. For the herbs you will require, just ask your Grandfather. He has everything that you will need,” Mariellen informed the children. They nodded, thanking her.

  “Your grandparents gave us kits like these when we started at the Academy,” Lia told the kids. “We thought you should have something similar. A lot of the other kids will have their kits personalized as well. It’s handy to prevent mix-ups, and we hope that it will remind you how special they are, and the responsibility you have to take care of them and use them with honor and respect.” The children all nodded, thanking their mother and their aunt.

  “For Shari-Beth, the school will provide most of your reading materials for Shifter history and theory. Do you have any Witch relatives that you know of?” Mariellen asked. Shari-Beth shook her head.

  “Ok. Then you should be fine with regular school supplies, I think. Feel free to look around and see if there is anything here that you like or feel drawn to, just in case.”

  Shari-Beth thanked Mariellen and wandered off into the stacks of books.

  “Why don’t you look around some more, while I talk to your moms,” Mariellen suggested to the children. The kids immediately dispersed, eager to explore.

  “How’s it going, having Theo around?” Mariellen asked her friend.

  “It’s hard. I don’t really know what to think anymore. The kids have allowed him to be a part of their lives, and I am okay with that. But we have barely spoken about anything other than the children. I don’t know what to expect from him, and it’s kind of driving me crazy.”

  “What do you want from him?”

  “I don’t know. I want to know how he could have just walked away like that, and not tried harder to reconnect, or to get me a message. It just doesn’t seem real, you know? I totally thought we were mated for life. Bonded. All the signs were there. We even communicated mind to mind. That’s gone. I don’t know how. I thought that once the bond was there, it couldn’t be broken.”

  “It can’t, unless one of the bonded pair dies. Bonds can be suppressed, though. That takes a powerful mind mage to do it. And it’s usually only done to preserve the sanity of a partner in a bonded pair when the other has gone insane for some reason. It’s not taken lightly, and the Council has to approve it.”

  “So Council witches could have made him forget me?”

  “In theory, but why would they? I mean, he was going undercover, but having something to go back to would have made him work harder to get his job done. I think that if anyone did mess with your Bond, it was for a reason or reasons that we don’t know yet. And really, we don’t know if they did. Maybe Theo cast a love spell on you, to make you think you were Bonded when you really weren’t,” Lia chipped in.

  “I don’t believe that. I don’t think the Theo I knew would do that. And remember, we could communicate in our minds. You can’t fake that with a love spell.”

  “No, but he could be a Telepath. It’s uncommon, like our Empathy, but it does happen.”

  Marissa was quiet. As she took a moment to think about what they had talked about, the bell over the shop door chimed again. The three witches looked around to see the object of their discussion step into the store. They watched in silence as he approached them.

  “Malia,” Theo nodded in Malia’s direction. He nodded to Mariellen as well, before turning to Marissa. “Rhi, the children told me they were starting at the Academy on Monday. I would like to help pay for their supplies, and to go with you when you take them in for their first day, if that is okay with you.”

  Marissa stood for a moment in silence, then nodded.

  “Thank you.” Theo half-turned to leave, then turned back. “Would you get a coffee with me? Please? I would really like to talk to you. I feel like I am in a dream, and I am so confused. I don’t know what to think or what to feel. Please?”

  Marissa
looked at Malia and Mariellen. They looked at each other, then nodded to Marissa. She took a step forward, towards Theo.

  “You can have one coffee of my time. Then I am meeting this lot back at Ben Ma’s for lunch. We are celebrating the kids starting at the Academy this year today.”

  “Thank you.” Theo held out his hand to her. Marissa ignored it and made for the door. A shadow of hurt passed over Theo’s face, so fleetingly Malia almost missed it. She turned to Mariellen after the two had left.

  “Did you see that?” she asked. Mariellen nodded.

  “You know, we may be on to something with the idea that Theo’s end of the Bond was suppressed. I know for Marissa, it felt like her Bonded had died. The only reason she held on was for the children. He really seems confused. If he was away from the mind mage who performed the suppression for a long time, it might begin to wear off.”

  “Couldn’t they redo it using sympathetic magic, just by scrying him, or with a piece of hair or nail or something?”

  “Not if it was a true Bond, a strong one. They would have to be near him to cast it. And it would have to be renewed fairly frequently. At least once a week, or once a month. He could fight it, too. It would depend on how strong the caster was, and what other stresses were going on in his life, like if they gave him something else strong to care about.”

  “Another woman?”

  “I’m not sure that would work. He would always feel there was something wrong with that. It would make it easier to fight. But someone else, another family member, or someone else close to him in some way, maybe.”

  “But Theo was adopted, and his adoptive parents are dead. He never knew his birth family.”

  “Maybe they found him? I don’t know why they would want to keep him from his Bonded, though. That doesn’t make sense.” The two women were quiet.

  “Mom, look at this!” Allie ran up to Malia, holding a crystal that seemed to have fire inside, flickering with a sparkling red, yellow, blue and purple light.

  “That’s a beautiful fire crystal,” Malia told her.

  “Keep it,” Mariellen told the astonished young girl.

  “That’s too much, Mari,” Lia protested.

  “Consider it a welcome home present,” Mariellen told her. “Having you back has made Marissa thrilled and having you here to help her handle Theo turning up is probably saving her sanity. So please, accept it as a gift from a grateful friend.”

  Malia thanked her and gave her a hug. She turned to Allie. “You take extremely good care of that, my girl,” she told her daughter. “Those are very rare, and very special. That stays in your room at home, do you understand?”

  “Yes, Mamma! Thank You! Thank You, Mariellen!” Allie gushed, before running off to show Lena her present.

  “You know they are all going to want something now, right?” Lia checked in.

  “I know. It’s ok. I think they can all do with a gift. Shari-Beth, too, as a welcome-to-the-family present. This has been a full summer for all of them. Don’t worry about it. I’m happy to do it.”

  “Thank you,” Malia told her twin’s best friend, hugging her again. Mariellen smiled.

  “It’s good to have you home, Lia. Remember, we all take care of each other here. And we all love your family. Thank you for coming home.”

  Theo held the door to The Baker’s Delight open for Marissa, and for the woman who passed them on the way out. The pair was silent as they ordered, tea and an eclair for Marissa, coffee and a scone with strawberry jam and cream for Theo. Marissa led the way to a table in the back corner, flanked by two large wooden book cases. Rissa sat with her back to the wall, and a clear path to the door. Theo faced her, the counter and door behind him. Cupping her hands around her mug of peppermint tea, Marissa waited for Theo to speak.

  Theo stared down at his scone, worrying about what to say. “What do you want, Theo?” Marissa asked after a few moments of waiting.

  “I don’t know, Rhi. I’m so confused. It’s like, it devastated me when I was pulled away from you, crazy when they wouldn’t let me see you, explain that I had to leave, tell you I would be coming back. Then, everything sort of seemed to fade, and it got easier. I wondered if I had imagined what I thought we had between us, if it was real. At the same time, it was like there was a part of me, deep down, that was screaming. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. Eventually, it became easy to think you must have moved on, it had been so long. There was a sort of hollow feeling, a numbness. I felt… grey. Like there was a fog over a part of my mind. I’m not making excuses… I know I should have tried harder to get back to you. I know that, Rhi. I just, I don’t know, I don’t know, Rhi! I am so sorry!”

  Marissa felt her entire body tremble. Heat blossomed all over as she began to shake. “You were numb, were you? You have no idea of the amount of pain I was in. I Bonded with you, dipshit! I felt like I was dying! Finding out about the twins is the only thing that kept me alive. That, and my parents. They wouldn’t let me go. My soul felt like it was on fire and being ripped to shreds!” Other customers in the cafe looked up at Marissa’s raised voice. As a group, they all left their tables and filed out of the shop. Mrs. Murphy, the owner, put up the closed sign, then motioned to her staff to join her in the kitchen. Marissa and Theo, caught up in their own drama, were oblivious to what was going on around them. Theo’s eyes burned as hot drops started flowing down his cheeks.

  “I know, Rhi! That’s how I felt before I went numb. Then, a few months ago, when the old Council was overthrown and the current one took over, the pain started coming back. I was undercover still-I hadn’t been given any orders to come in, I hadn’t even heard from my handler in several months. It’s been getting worse and worse, and I was determined to find you. Then we found Shari-Beth, and ended up here. When I saw your parents, and they said you were here, I didn’t know what to do! I wanted to find you right away, I was terrified that you might have moved on, I didn’t know what I would find. Then finding out about Mikey and Milena like that…. Rhi, what do we do? I don’t know what happened, why I was numb, why the pain came back. Seeing you, meeting the kids-Rhi, I only want to be with you. I want to be our children’s Dad. I want our family to be together. Do I even have the right to ask that? Could you ever forgive me? Could you ever trust me again? I don’t know if I could ever trust me again. I don’t know, Rhi, but all I want is you.”

  Marissa’s body was shaking was by now shaking so hard she was having a hard time sitting upright. Her heart felt again as if it were being ripped in two. She hunched over, as if protecting it. She started sobbing, deep, racking sobs that tore her apart.

  Mrs. and Mr. Murphy came out from the kitchen. Mrs. Murphy helped Marissa from her seat, as Mr. Murphy assisted Theo. The Brownies lead the agonized pair through the back and up the stairs to their apartment, then got them settled in the living room on the blue velvet couch. Each was tucked in under one of Mrs. Murphy’s homemade blankets, while Mr. Murphy went into the kitchen to brew a pot of chamomile tea. Mrs. Murphy sat with the distraught pair as their sobs gradually quieted.

  “Now, listen to me, the pair of you,” she admonished. “We couldn’t help overhearing what the two of ye were saying. It sounds to me like someone messed with Theo’s mind and did their best to suppress the Bond between you. It would have taken a powerful Mind Mage to do that. It also sounds as if they haven’t renewed their control recently. They would have to be nearby to do that. So whoever it was, Theo hasn’t been around them for several months, at least. The longer he’s away from them, the less control they will have. Your Bond is already trying to reassert itself. You two will be miserable if you try to listen to pride and keep yourselves apart. You may even be in constant pain. You need to get over yourselves and make this work. And while you are doing that, those of us with clearer heads will get to work. We have a Mind Mage to hunt. No one messes with one of our girls and gets away with it. And no one has the right to mess with a Bond once it’s been made. The two of
you are lucky you didn’t die, or go insane. You probably didn’t die because you both stayed alive. If one of you had died, the other would have soon followed. That’s the price of being Bonded.” She paused, then “When you are ready, Theo, we have some questions for you. We will need to know who around you was close enough to you to keep this kind of suppression spell going for so long. Come back tomorrow-no, we will have a council meeting of our own. I will call Celine. This involves all of us. Someone is going to pay dearly for messing with our kinfolk.”

  Theo looked up at the coldly furious Brownie. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I didn’t know what was happening. It never occurred to me that someone was spelling me. Thank you for believing me.”

  “Hush now. We have been around a long time, Mr. Murphy and I, and we have seen this before. A long time ago. We heard what you said, and we recognized the signs. You are Bonded to our Marissa, and that makes you family. And we protect our family.” She put her hand on Theo’s arm. He reached up his other hand and grasped hers in gratitude. A fierce hope had arisen in his heart and shone from deep within his eyes. He looked over at Marissa. Her sobs had quieted, and she had been able to listen to at least a part of what Mrs. Murphy had said, enough to begin to accept that maybe Theo had really not meant to leave, or to stay away for so long. Her heart was still a heavy, aching mess in her chest, yet there was a flicker of hope there as well. Her head rested on the pillow against the arm of the couch as she looked at Theo. He gazed back, desperate for some sign from her. Untucking her hand from under the soft teal blanket, she reached out to him. Theo sobbed again and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards him. He met her in the middle of the couch as the two hung on to each other as if their very lives depended on it, both of them crying again.