Bound by Duty

Chapter Twenty-Four

I crashed into the apartment, hollering for Cole. Bethany came out from the spare bedroom instead. "Where's the fire, Ame? Cole isn't here. He told me to tell you he was going to Derreck's to get Onyx and see if there were any clues. He'll be back tomorrow and we're supposed to stay close to the apartment."

I hadn't put Charlie back on his leash, so he ambled off into the other room. I was standing in the middle of the entry way, getting sand everywhere, trying to process all of that at once. With a shake, I realized that I didn't care about any of it.

"B, do you want to help me get my happy-ever-after, and yours, too?" I was wearing an ear-to-ear grin and I couldn't stop it.

With a cock of her hip and a raise of her eyebrow, Bethany replied, "Oh, honey, I'm from the south. Every girl grows up knowing about Prince Charming. You just tell me what I can do to get you and Mr. Beautiful Smoky Eyes back together so I can get back to my own prince." I swept her up in a huge hug and then pulled her to the counter. She had no idea how true her words were. I was still holding her hand as I started in on what was going to be difficult information for her to understand, but a plan that could give us both what we wanted.

"Okay, B, I'm just going to lay it all out there," I said. "You wanted full disclosure. Well, last night I learned something I hadn't known before and I wasn't sure how to tell you. The night I was born, which I told you about, the only way my father was able to stop the Hunter from killing me was to betroth me to the queen's son."

"The bitchy queen? The one we don't like? I can't believe your dad was such a moron. How could he possibly—"

"B. Stay focused," I interrupted as her face took on the exasperated look that meant she was building up to a full-on tirade. "The guy was going to kill me."

She nodded and shrugged, acquiescing to the logic. "Okay, so the agreement was that I would have until I was twenty-one and then I would have to move to the palace and marry the prince. By marrying him, the queen hoped to use my power to solidify her family's ability to hold the throne and continue to terrorize my people. But, here's the tricky part, I need you to stay calm and remember when I tell you this part that I have a plan. Okay?"

Again, she nodded, looking a little less enthusiastic.

"No, B. Out loud," I said. "Pinky swear you're going to hear me out, okay?" I held up my pinky and though it was obvious she didn't like the blind agreement, she did the same. We linked up and I spoke, hoping she wasn't going to completely lose it.

"So, what I found out from Elias last night is that the Hunter who killed my mother and betrothed me to the prince works for Micah. Micah is the prince. Micah is the one I'm betrothed to."

"YOU'RE WHAT?" The stool toppled as Bethany jumped to her feet, shrieking at the top of her lungs. I quickly started doing damage control.

"B. Calm down. Pinky swear, right? Just listen." I couldn't talk fast enough. "I didn't know. I had no idea who Micah was. I told you how he was helping me with my abilities, but I didn't know. What matters is that I have a plan for you to keep your guy and me to keep mine. Are you in?" I had to keep yelling over her as she let out a very un-southernly string of curse words.

Finally, she stopped pacing and was standing in the kitchen looking shell-shocked. I couldn't blame her, but I wasn't sure really how much time we were going to have.

"B? If we're going to do this, we need to move. This is in no way a Cole-approved exercise." I was impatient myself and afraid I would lose the gumption if this didn't happen soon.

She sighed, clenching and unclenching her fists at her sides. "Let me get this straight. You're almost-kinda-sorta in love with Aidan but are currently betrothed to my magical actual prince of a boyfriend that I might also almost-kinda-sorta love, and you have a plan that's going to get his wretched queen mother to let us all have what we want?" I nodded enthusiastically, still smiling.