The Brothers and I - Book 1

Chapter 49

I stared at Aurora in a mix of horror and dread, wishing she had not spoken those words out loud. As much as I had chastised myself for not learning about this world, I now wanted every detail erased from my mind. Especially the part about the damned bond! It...was alive?

My head spun in circles with all the information I had gained in the last few minutes, none of which seemed to play in my favour by the sounds of it.

"H-h...how do I get rid of it?" My voice sounded breathless, almost wheezy, as I tried hard not to have another meltdown in front of her. The prospect of being at the mercy of the bond and therein tied to the brothers for eternity, left me feeling panicked and defenceless. A feeling that I was very familiar with, ever since I was a little girl.

Not there...don't go there...not now..

Aurora, for her part, appeared guarded, her expression neither surprised nor concerned. But her voice, spoken soft and low, gave away the pity that her expression failed to convey in the moment. "You can't..."

The words slammed into my chest like a bludgeon swung hard, the pain crushing, as I felt my world crash down for the umpteenth time this evening. The light at the end of the tunnel seemed to gradually fade and move out of my reach. And the harder I raced towards it, the further it appeared to move.

Forcing back the nausea that rose at her words, I struggled to ask the next question, mainly out of fear for her answer but also instinctively knowing what that answer was going to be.

"T-there's... nothing that can be done?"

Her brilliant blue eyes turned in my direction, almost glowing under the light cast by the moon. "The bond is divine magic. It cannot be broken or undone... nor can it be replicated. Trust me, witches have tried that for centuries and failed..."

Heart pounding with dread, I sat motionless and still, failing to breathe as I desperately searched for something...anything in her words that could save me from this.

"...Shifters believe that the bond can be muted over time when a pair rejects each other. Not a solid plan in my opinion..."

Uncrossing her legs, she adjusted her robe, fussing over the way it draped down her lithe body before continuing. "...not only do they have to part ways after meeting each other but they would also have to constantly fight their primal urges until the bond fades with time. But even then, it never truly dies...like a stubborn stain on your soul... personally, I think it's a curse rather than a blessing... I mean who would want to be tied mind, body and soul to another... sounds like torture..."

A flash of memory filtered through as I recalled sitting in a room with Alex and being offered a large sum of money in exchange for leaving Thomas and never seeing him again.

That memory felt like a long time ago. A time where I had stubbornly stood beside Thomas to face it all but now... I wanted nothing to do with him... with all of them.

What an ugly twist of fate it had turned out to be...

"...It can however, be corrupted..."

My attention snapped back to her eagerly, hoping that the next piece of information would prove to be my salvation.

"..with the help of some unconventional magic of course...But shifters who have tried that in the past were driven insane and ended up dead. Obviously, this was a long time ago when witches did help shifters-"

As desperate as I was, my mind latched onto the one loophole that it could find in her theory, leaving me momentarily giddy with hope. "But they were shifters! I'm human.... It could-"