Forgotten Fates

PART III - Chapter Twenty-Seven

Athens, Greece 616 BC 

"Welcome!" my father's voice bellows out. "Today we celebrate that my lovey daughter is soon to be wed."

The crowd cheers and while Tristan and Father bask in the applause, to me the sound is deafening.

I spend most of the night shuffled between the two. Just like is expected of me. I smile, I make small talk, I do everything I am supposed to do. So, when Father is caught up in drink with other members of the council, and Tristan excuses himself to bid farewell to some of our guests who departing, I make my escape.

And by escape, I mean I wander on my own and hope to the Gods that it take either of them some time to find me.

I journey to the outskirts of all the festivities where I hope nobody will notice me and carry me off into conversation, and only there do I feel like I take my first real breath of the night.

"Is it tradition for the bride to run away from her own engagement party?" A low voice says from behind me. I spin around afraid that I was somehow in trouble, but then sigh in relief when I see Elijah watching me with an amused grin.

"You nearly gave me a fright," I scold.

"Pardon me, I would never mean you any harm." He walks closer and takes my hand in his, causing shivers through my body, and gently places his lips to my hand. "You look so beautiful tonight."

"Don't be fooled, it's only the ten tons of jewels I was made to wear that gives me the appearance of something grander. Underneath I am just the same old me in the same old clothes."

"I beg to differ," he says and I can feel myself blush.

Eli lifts his hand in greeting to his brother, who was spinning around in a dance with Paige. "My brother seems to be quite smitten with your friend," he teases.

"Hmm, perhaps we should play match maker then," I suggests. "Plan something to help bring them together."

"How about a picnic?" he asks and I become delighted with the idea.

"It's perfect. Paige loves picnics."

"Of course we will have to go to, or else they might feel too shy," he smiles and peeks over to gauge my reaction while pretending like he is still watching the dancers.

"Meet us by the spring tomorrow afternoon?" 

ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ

Tristan

I promise to take them to the witch's house tomorrow before Alice's dad arrives back home. I know I have to take her there, but I also know that it will change her life forever once I do. And she will hate me for it.

As she heads for the kitchen to wash the dishes, I quickly pull her aside to warn her against letting Finn tag along. I may let my jealousy of the guy get the better of me sometimes, but I don't actually hate him. I know how much it can hurt to watch Alice love someone else and he shouldn't have to witness what will happen when the spell is broken.

"It's better that Finn not come with you guys tomorrow. He's mortal and witches are dangerous," I whisper so only she can hear.

"Is that the real reason, or is this because of the bind?" she asks, seeing straight through me. Like she always has.

"It will hurt him to see you and Eli get closer."

"Is that why you were interested in me and Finn sleeping together?" she asks, and the reminder that she was able to be with someone else makes me outwardly flinch. Thankfully she doesn't notice. "Because it makes things more complicated?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I was interested in it," I mumble.

"You said that this was the first time one of us was with someone else," She says. "What does that mean?"

"It means that I probably just weakened the familiar bond, enough for you to be with Finn, but now your feelings for him will be gone once we break the spell," I tell her bluntly.

"So, it is just the magic keeping Eli and me together?"

Instead of thinking about magic being the only reason she is able to have feelings for Finn, it makes her think that it's the only reason she has feelings for Elijah. Which is not something I was expecting. Three thousand years and this girl still knew how to keep me guessing.

"No," I assure her, "Because you fell for him now, while the bind still holds. Didn't you?"

"I have one more question," Alice says, "About witches."

I hesitate, not sure if this will be something I can answer or not. Having to tip-toe around the truth so much was getting exhausting. And I never was very good at lying to Alice. "What's the question?"

"You said it was this witch that helped you with the binding spell," she says and I gulp, "Is that because only witches are able to cast spells? Or was it just that that you didn't know how?"

Again, not where I expected things to go. "Only witches can cast spells," I tell her. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you said specifically that I was the one who did the reincarnation spell."

"You always were a clever thing," I smile. Then I walk away before she can ask me anymore questions that I know I'm not ready to answer.

I knew agreeing to do the spell was a bad idea in the first place. Yes, I let my desperate need to finally stop the nightmare of watching Eli and Alice find each other and fall in love over and over again, lead me to alter the original plan. But finding the witch still wasn't my idea in the first place. And I never would have considered making the stupid binding spell in the first place if it the idea to change things wasn't brought to me. But I did choose to bind them and now Alice's life was in danger because of my actions. Even if I wasn't fully to blame, I had to live with what part I did play.

Plus, the stupid bind didn't even work anyway. I knew when Alice's father decided to move here that it meant the pesky fates were leading her to Paige. And that it would only be a matter of time until she found Elijah. I spent so much time watching them both. Following Eli around campus. Spying on Alice at our school. I wasn't even surprised when they both decided to go to Seattle on the same day. I'm pretty sure I could here the powers that be laughing at me when it happened. I held out a little bit of hope that if they didn't get close enough then maybe the bind would be enough to still keep them from getting together. I even remember flinging a luggage cart into the wall of their hotel to stop them from kissing. But in the end, their stubborn familiar bond won out even over some of the most powerful magics.

The same way it always has, for the past three thousand years.