Beast, Blood, & Soul

* 58 *

I sit here on the bathroom floor with tears falling freely down my face. Sobs wrack my body as I once again deal with an onslaught of new information I'm not ready for. Every time I turn around, this mystery gets sicker. How deep does this rabbit hole go?

I toss the child's coat across the bathroom. I can't look at it anymore, but my eyes keep straying over to it. As if it'll give me some sort of answer to the nightmare that keeps revealing itself. Answers I didn't know I never wanted to know.

I feel caresses twinge the strands as my mates pick up on my feelings and try to send comfort. I know it won't be long before they find me to see what is wrong. I probably have five minutes at most. I try to get my sobs under control but I know it's no use. I need to let these feelings out before they consume me. But even as I sob my heart out, my mind is busy pulling all the clues together.

My heart breaks at the idea that I might not be the real child of my parents. Great gulping sobs shake my body as I remember that dad said he and mom got pregnant in the backseat of the car in their driveway. The witch said I was conceived in the woods. Who is right? Or are they both right?

Mom said I was struggling to live that first day. Would I have been an easy replacement if their real baby was dying? Or did I tap into the nearby magic to save myself? Gosh, I hope it's the latter, but somehow I don't think I'm that lucky.

Keep the blood safe.

I stare at the infinity symbol glowing on my hand and shake my head. The magic talked to me, I must be going crazy. I concentrate on the strands again and I feel the magic that slides along them, holding the bond. The bonds are strong now. Tight and strong as steel. There is the feel of eternal love that moves along them. It's in the feeling of love that the magic rests, waiting for me to call it. If nothing else, I can now access this magic.

"Y/N?" My head raises as I hear someone calling my name. I fist my hand, hiding the evidence that magic runs through me. "Oh my gosh, what a mess." I hear the speaker talk to themselves. I recognize the voice as Ceren, but before I call out to her, I feel the magic caution me.

Keep the blood safe.

"I'm in here, Ceren," I call. My voice is tired and husky after all my crying. Ceren appears in the doorway and looks down at me.

"What happened to you?" She bends down on her knees to look me over.

I gesture out the bathroom door at the destroyed apartment. "Somebody hates me,"

"Apparently," she nods. "That doesn't explain you sitting in the middle of this destruction."

"Have you seen my bedroom?" I ask her.

"Let me look," she gets up and turns the corner and I hear a "holy shit!" exclamation. I roll my eyes a bit, holy shit, indeed. She returns to my side.

"Who would do such a thing?" she asks me.

I look at her with a droll expression, "oh, I don't know. The witch?" I reply sarcastically. Did I really need to state the obvious? I see her eyebrows raise and she looks like she's thinking.

"Is this because you married Bangtan?" I look at Ceren a little closer. Usually, she's quicker on the uptake than this.

"Gee, you think? You and Brendan must not have gotten much sleep after the wedding." I tell her.

She smiled, "Yes, I was rather busy." But she looks at me again. "Shouldn't you also be busy with your new husbands?"

"Mindy's mom came to offer her congratulations so we were up early." She nods at my explanation. "After I dropped her off with Mindy, I decided to see how bad the damage was. There is nothing left. That bitch destroyed everything." My eyes look at the child's coat across the bathroom but I don't stare at it long. I feel my mates sending love and comfort along the strands to soothe me and I know they'll be here soon.