Page 14 of Traveler (Soulbound #1)

Jared

Frostfire Parlor isn’ t just an ice cream shop—it’s a shrine to chaos. The walls are painted in spirals of neon frosting, and the ceiling drips with enchanted icicles that never melt, refracting rainbows over the marble countertops. The air smells like burnt sugar and for some reason. I love it, which is why I come here twice a week. Today, though my pretty girl is coming with me. I hadn’t really had time to think through the fact that I have a mate now, I needed some time with her.

Aly stares at the menu board, her nose scrunched in a way that makes my ribs ache. “ Chili Chocolate ? Fog Berry ? Is this place trying to kill people?”

I lean against the counter, smirking. “Only the boring ones. C’mon, pretty girl. Live a little.”

She glares at the nickname but doesn’t argue, which is progress. “Why is the mint chip glowing ?”

“Magic stabilizer. Keeps it from melting.” I tap the glass case where a scoop of Starlight Vanilla levitates lazily, sprinkling edible glitter onto a cone below. “Don’t worry, it won’t turn your tongue green.”

“Pass.” She squints at the Midnight Espresso swirl. “What’s your usual?”

“ Caramel Inferno .” I nod at the server, a wiry guy with blue flames tattooed up his arms. “Two cones. One Inferno, one… let’s surprise her. Something that’ll make her swear at me.”

The server grins. “Got just the thing.”

Aly kicks my shin under the counter. “I hate you.”

“You’ll love this.”

We take the cones to the rooftop terrace, where iron-wrought tables hover on patches of grass. Aly licks her Fog Berry —a violent shade of purple that does turn her tongue glittery—and freezes. “Oh, my gods. This tastes like… summer?”

“Told you.” I bite into my Caramel Inferno , the heat of it blooming across my tongue. “Frostfire’s taste is cold and maybe spicy is the best way to put it. Yours must be nice.”

She hesitates, staring at the cone. “I can’t believe my mom grew up here.”

Her voice cracks.

“What do you mean? You grew up in Ender, right? How different can it be?” that seems to shock her out of her thoughts, her eyes going wide a moment before she gives me a pained smile.

“Not very, it's just less volcanic here. So much prettier.” she says quickly…

I swipe her cone, take a bite, and nearly choke. “ So sweet. ” I spit it out onto my napkin. Gods that tasted like diabetes in a cone.

She snorts, snatching it back. “You’re a disaster.”

“But you’re smiling.”

She kicks me again.

The tavern is buried in the roots of an ancient oak tree, its gnarled doorway framed by bioluminescent mushrooms. Not a lot of people come here, but the food is amazing. It's one of the oldest businesses in Stonebrooke, hence the whole building it into a tree thing. We claim a booth carved into the trunk itself.

“Tell me something about your childhood,” I say, stealing a fry from her plate. Her burger looks good but based on the look on her face I shouldn't take a bite of that.

Aly stabs a fork at me trying to shoo my hand. “What do you mean?”

“Not the polished academy crap. Something messy.” I pop the fry into my mouth. “I’ll go first. When I was fourteen, I stole my sister's Jessa and Juliet’s clothes and returned them for clothes 3 sizes too big. So, me and Alex could show her what real fashion looked like.

Her eyes widen. “You're only three sizes bigger than your sisters?” She looks me up and down. “Gods she must be tiny. Your parents like J’s “She laughs

“She is... Tiny. Also, I was fourteen so I'm much bigger than her now.” I lean back, flexing my muscles a little. “And yeah, she unfortunately didn't make that choice when she had me and Xan apparently that was an afterthought and there aren't many girl names with an X”

Laughing, she shakes her head at me. “Much?” she sasses

“Your turn.”

She swirls her iced tea and whispers, “when I was 10 my mom had these earrings that my dad got her, she loved them. So naturally I loved them. Well... one day I put them on not realizing that my ears were too small, and I ripped my earlobe and dropped the earring in the toilet.” She trails off, cheeks pink.

“Shit, how mad was she?” I laugh

“She wasn't. I never told her. I found a band aid and wore my hair down for like 2 months. She tore apart the house looking for the other earring, but she never found out.”

I double over laughing. “Gods is your ear, okay? Like did it heal fully?”

She turns her head and lets me see and low and behold there is a scar... “At least it's not like split permanently.”

“Yeah... Only part that sucked was getting it repierced. Apparently getting scar tissue repierced is not a pleasant experience.” I grimace. Ouch.

The server saves me, dropping off two steaming mugs of hot chocolate . Aly sips hers and coughs. “This is just hot chocolate with… peppers ?”

“ Yeah ,” I chuckle. “Makes your breath smoke for an hour.” I blow a plume of silver vapor at her, grinning.

She blows smoke back. It’s pink.

“Show-off,” I mutter.

“I don't do coffee. Tastes like mud.”

Her offended gasp makes me smile. “How dare you, Coffee is delicious.”

“Yeah, no. no it's not.”

“I’m sorry to bring this up, but- could we talk about what happened yesterday?”

I take a deep breath. “Yeah, I had a girlfriend a few years ago. She- she was great. To Xan, was always so sweet to him and Kale. But I guess that wasn’t what was actually happening. Xan hated her and I couldn’t figure out why. We were fighting all the time because in my eyes, he was being a dick to someone who just wanted to be his friend.” I pick at my food. This is harder for me to talk about. It’s one of the things I’m the least proud of.

“Xan and I got into it one day, and he called her a homophobic cunt. I lost it. I mean like really fucking lost it. We ended up in a fist fight and when kale walked in, he grabbed me and chucked my ass into the nearest wall.” She gasps.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but I definitely deserved that. Turns out the whole time Maddie was making shit comments when I wasn’t there. Calling him horrible names. And made it very clear that if Xan said anything to me that she would out him to our parents. He hadn’t told them yet. “

“Why?”

“It wasn’t really a big deal; it wasn’t that my parents would have or did care they just want their kids happy it was more of the principal. Xan wasn’t ready to tell anyone and also wanted to be the one to tell our parents. When I asked him about it later, he just said that he could take it and could deal until he was ready to tell them. He didn’t want to tell me either because he didn’t want to break my heart.” Rubbing my forehead, I think back to that time. My twin brother is my best friend next to Alex. This part of my life hurts.

“I obviously dumped her ass the second I found out. But just remembering the look on his face when he told me, the pain…it broke my heart. So, when I saw you staring.”

“You thought it was going to be the same thing all over.” She answers for me. I not.

“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, I just wanted to protect my brother. He’s too kind for this world.”

“I can understand where you were coming from. I was just shocked because I didn’t realize I was really staring. When we first met, I was kind of teasing him since he was so shy. When I introduced myself, he bit my head off saying he wasn’t you. I was just trying to figure out what happened.”

“People have tried to use Xander to get to me. It- just isn’t- fun for him.” We sit in silence for a moment before I throw some money on the table and grab her hand.

“Common we are going dancing.”

The dance hall is one of my favorite places. I usually come with my family; they live around the corner. Unfortunately, momma makes me dance with Jessa and Juillet. But tonight, I get to dance with Aly. Tonight, a fiddle band plays a reel so fast it’s like trying to dance during an earthquake.

Aly freezes at the edge of the floor. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“What, follow my genius?” I grab her hand, tugging her into the whirl of bodies. Her palms sweaty. Cute . “Just mirror me. And try not to step on my boots.”

“You’re wearing steel toed boots!”

“Exactly. You’ll break your toes.”

She laughs, and the sound cuts through the noise like a knife. We spin, stumble, and crash into a group of people, they laugh at us before joining in on the dance. By the third song, she’s got the rhythm—hips swaying, hair wild, her cheeks flushed under the lights.

I pull her close, my mouth at her ear. “You look beautiful.”

“You’re terrible at leading,” she lies, her breath hitching as I dip her low.

The music slows, the fiddle melting into a haunting waltz... Aly’s hands slide up my arms, tentative, like she’s afraid I’ll bolt.

Joke’s on her. I’m already rooted here.

“How have you been with the whole 7 mates thing?” she Mumbles, her forehead brushing my collarbone.

“It's been great. The guys are amazing. I do wish I had more time with you. But I don't mind sharing. Knowing you're loved is enough reassurance for me. All I want is for you to be happy. And as long as we are all doing that. I'm happy.”

“But I want you happy.” She wines. Shaking her head

I spin her out, then reel her back. Her chest collides with mine. “I am happy, I've been looking forward to meeting my mate for as long as I can remember. Watching my dad’s love my mom was one of the most beautiful things I've seen. I wanted that. And I have it” I drop a kiss to her forehead and look into her eyes.

She studies me, her eyes reflecting the wisps’ glow. “You're sure? If you need something from me, I just need you guys to ask. I'm neck deep in mates and I just don't want anyone feeling neglected.”

“We are all big boys. We will let you know if there is something we need.”

We take the long way back, cutting through the market where vendors are packing up stalls. Aly stops next to a jewelry stand.

I turn to look at the options. Before I know what is happening, I feel something slam against my head. I have one last thought before everything goes black.

Aly .

***

Things come back to me before I even open my eyes. I know two things. 1. My head is pounding. 2 I am going to kill someone if Aly is hurt in any way. I jump up looking around. I see Aly being dragged backwards by a man. Fuck no.

“Jared!” she screams, her voice cracking with terror. The sound makes my anger flare.

My magic flares to life. Fire slams out of me so violently I almost knock myself over. “Let her go!” I shout. The flames fly across the ground moving around Aly. I snake the flames around her and up the man's leg. He lets her go long enough to douse the flames in water.

Aly takes this chance to run Slamming into my chest as I push her to get behind me. I pull water around him trying to trap him in the orb, but he slams up walls of mud so high, the water doesn't even touch him.

The next second Aly is standing in front of me. I try to yank her back. But before I can I see a dark look on her face before she whispers one word holding her hand out. “Pain.”

The man drops screaming in pain. She allows him to keep going until she uses her air magic to silence him. Walking closer to the man she drops to the ground “You touched my mate.” she growls. “Heal” she commands. The man stops writhing. Long enough to catch his breath. Before starting again. “Pain.”

The look on her face is nothing but the pure rage I still feel. “Aly.” I place my hand on her arm.

“We need to know if he's the one stalking you.” I murmur, running my hand down her arm. She twitches briefly before dropping her hand and sitting crisscross applesauce on the floor. A small smile on her face.

“I’m so sorry about that, I let my anger get ahead of me. Now what I should have done was use the last two to get my answers. Now I'm going to have to do it again so we can get some answers.” gods this woman... Perfection.

“Now, be a good bad guy and tell me what I need to know.” she stares at him and when he says nothing, I almost think she is going to do whatever the fuck she did earlier again. Seconds later she nods. Standing. Swaying a little on her feet.

“He doesn't know anything, he was hired. To kidnap me that's all.” she huffs, turning and stomping away.

I have so many questions about how she knows that. But the only thing I can really think about is how hot this woman is.