Page 38 of Worse Fates (Soulmates Suck #1)

Mickey shoves Kai into the same sad gray little room I’m in, filled with a teetering stack of sagging filing cabinets.

“Oi, be careful you fucking bellend!”

I shout at the idiot, helping Kai up.

Jace steps forward.

“You’ve always been so loud.”

“Where the hell is Ramy?”

Kai barks at the two blood mages blocking our exit, trying to see over them.

The air is thick with the smell of rats, rusted metal, and sweat, like old coins fished from a stagnant pond. Around twenty people move about the space, packing tools, clothes and other supplies. I have no idea for what and I don’t plan on sticking around to ask.

“Go tell Emma we’re back,”

Jace orders Mickey. His focus clinging to me like slick oil I want to scrub off with a wire sponge.

With one final withering glare, Mickey stomps down a gangway and disappears through a side door, which has ‘Office’ printed on the white paint. But in that direction I find Ramy, tied up in thick rope, hanging upside down with a gag stuffed in his mouth.

I rush forward to help, but Jace slams the barred door shut.

“Dickhead,”

Kai bites out.

Jace’s forearms lean on the rusted bars, his face twisting into an ugly sneer.

“You should really thank me, Kai, for keeping you alive.”

I shift so my body shields Kai’s, and aim a death glare at Jace.

Jace chuckles.

“And then I’m going to take over the world, with Golden by my side.”

For a beat I’m certain I’ve misheard. Then shock throws my head back, and startled laughter bursts free.

“Did I scramble your brains that bad when I broke your nose? Because you sound insane, dude. This has been your goal this whole time?”

Jace’s hand shoots out and grabs my neck, pulling me against the rough bars.

“Let him go!”

Kai shouts, rushing over.

“Why—”

Jace grits out, then shoves me into Kai who catches me in his arms.

“—must you always be this way, Golden. Do you know how badly I wanted you to be a blood mage? But even when I found out you wasn’t—”

“You drugged me?”

Jace’s fist slams into the bars causing them to rattle.

“I had to see! You’re mine, Golden! Always have been and always will be. Even when you rejected me and ran away, you’re still mine!”

Something inside me snaps.

“I. Never. Wanted. You!”

Jace’s mouth becomes a thin, angry line, the dark bruises splattered across the bridge of his nose making him more threatening, not less, ike a feral dog waiting to attack.

My fists shake with unspent rage for the one person I once depended on—once loved more than anyone.

“Were we even a family?”

The question is pathetic and I already know the answer. So when Jace stays silent, his anger slipping away to reveal something like guilt, I’m not surprised.

“Of course we were,”

Jace replies, his old self coming through. “But…”

After running away a miniscule voice whispered I could have my big brother back. Then I’d introduce him to Lucero, maybe we’d all go for a fancy dinner at Nandos. Jace would do the whole If-You-Hurt-My-Little-Brother thing and I’d get annoyed, but secretly, love it.

It’s when he says ‘but’ that I know that we had two different realities. Kai takes my hand and squeezes, pushing out that voice once and for all.

“Golden…”

Jace’s voice is softer, more tender, than I’ve ever heard it, almost like.

“I’ve always loved you.”

Like a lover.

I recoil like I’m about to step into dog shit.

“Toss your fucking ‘love’. It makes me sick.”

An anger rises in Jace's cheek, melting away any trace of guilt or regret.

Footsteps tap against the floor, pulling Jace’s attention away and his shoulders instantly relax when a woman with brown hair, a shock of white running through, approaches.

“Jace.”

Her voice is raspy, infused with confidence and demanding of respect.

“Mickey told me you finally had your precious Golden, why the fighting?”

“Emma.”

Jace looks down at her with a mix of awe and gratitude, a little boy staring up at his mother.

“He’s being…difficult.”

Then his hand rests on the gross spellbook strapped at his side, visibly taking comfort.

“He did destroy our way of finding new mages, so I suspected he might,”

she smiles sickly sweet.

“But don’t worry, when you're on the blood mage throne he’ll behave himself, and willingly stand by your side.”

“I really fucking doubt that,” I snort.

“A throne?”

Kai raises a mocking eyebrow.

“Who the hell is putting this psycho on a throne?”

Jace glares, a sheen of delusion coating his deep brown eyes.

“Emma told me who I really am, who I was always meant to be.”

“So not an orphan without a pot to piss in?”

I ask sarcastically.

“Emma was on a mission to find me!”

Jace snaps.

“And when she did I learnt who my real family is. Who my real father was and how I was the rightful heir to a powerful blood mage family.”

Emma nods along to Jace’s ramblings.

“But like everything else he was taken from me, too!”

Jace fist hits the bar so hard, blood drips from his open knuckles.

“He was murdered by cowards wanting to take his place.”

Emma carefully takes Jace’s fist and slips a handkerchief from her pocket to pat his knuckles, cooing ridiculously, like he’s a baby bird fallen from his nest.

Jace halts his raving to offer Emma a look of adoring affection.

“Thank you.”

Then he returns his glare to me.

“When my father died he passed his spellbook to his sister—to Emma—and she promised to give it to his rightful heir.”

My arms cross.

“So some weirdo waltzes in, tells you you’re some long-lost prince, and you just eat it up? You need your bloody head checked.”

Jace’s sneer is molten.

“She didn’t just tell me—she proved it!”

With a flick of his hand, his spellbook unclasps itself, rising to hover in front of him.

“Come here!”

Jace barks at a young boy who yelps like a kicked puppy, then scurries over.

“Touch my book,”

Jace orders.

The boy hesitates, expression pained, but slowly he does as Jace ordered and brushes his fingers across the horrible dull-grey leather of the spellbook. Immediately he cries out, snapping back to cradle smoking and blistered fingers.

I grab hold of Kai and we both take a stumbling step back.

“Still too timid to be a real mage, boy. Give me your spellbook, and go to the healer. You’ll get it back when I think you deserve it.”

Jace holds out an expecting hand.

Shaking, eyes wet, the boy unclasps his white spellbook with odd pink undertones, and hands it over before running away.

Jace scoffs at the poor kid and clasps the creepy, leather-bound tome to his leg. Then he lifts his own spellbook proudly, as if it were something to be worshipped.

“Only someone gifted this book by the rightful owner can take it,”

he gloats.

“It’s different from the others…ancient. Powerful. Maybe even the very first. One of the blood mages’ most powerful heirlooms and my father gave Emma strict instructions to pass it to me.”

Pride coats every word.

From the corner of my eye, I catch Emma’s beaming expression crack—just for a split second. Too quick to read, but before that mask is safely back in place, I see something green slither underneath.

“And Emma never asked for you to give it to her?”

Kai asks, unbelieving.

“I don't need to,”

Emma bites out, then clears her throat, that sickly sweet smile back in place.

“Jace will restore our family.”

There is no way I believe Emma. However, one look at Jace and I can see he’s hooked.

“Rest up, Golden, and keep on my good side.”

Jace lifts his chin, smirking down at me like he’s already on the blood mage throne.

“We’re going to be moving soon, and the only reason your little friends aren’t dead is because of my good will. Remember that.”

“What about Ramy?”

I demand.

“Don’t hurt him.”

Neither say anything as they turn and walk away, vanishing into the room marked ‘Office’.

I slam my fist against the cell doors. “Damnit.”

“Yeah, they’re assholes.”

We both jump at the voice way back in the cell behind a stack of boxes, where a small figure sits against the wall—casual, like he’s in a café sipping tea.

“You alright, lads?”

“Holy shit, Apollo!”

I dash over.

“Mate, we’ve been bloody worried about you.”

Kai runs over and drops next to the little tattoo artist.

“Did they hurt you?”

“I’m all good. I just had to get here before you two,”

he says as if it were a house party, instead of a hostage situation.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Kai demands.

“Also, do they know that you’re, ya know…”

I put two fingers in front of my mouth to mimic fangs.

Apollo snicker behind a dirty hand and shakes his head.

“Good. And erm…”

Kai clears his throat.

“Rurik’s been looking for you, mate.”

Knowing that Kai slept with Rurik I’m not surprised he’s nervous.

“Who’s Rurik?”

Apollo tilts his head to the side.

“I have no idea who you're chatting about.”

Kai's gaze shifts to me, before looking back.

“Err…your soulmate?”

Apollo blows out a raspberry and waves Kai off.

“Not me. Must be another Apollo Rao.”

I open my mouth and stutter, lost on what to say next.

“Listen, lads, that ain’t important right now. Do you know what is important?”

Apollo glances over our shoulders, then moves boxes out the way to grab an old bottle of vodka.

“Lookie what I found.”

Kai rolls his eyes.

“Mate, now is not the time to get drunk.”

At the same time I say.

“Alright, gimme a sip.”

Kai elbows me. “Ow,”

I grumble.

“Not to drink you idiots,”

Apollo snickers.

“In about…hmm… yeah, eight minutes your soulmate is gonna burst through that door.”

“Lucero.”

My heart beats faster.

“He’s close?”

Apollo nods wisely.

“And we gotta help cause some chaos, lads.”

Apollo shakes the bottle, the vodka sloshing inside and wiggles his eyebrows.

“Molotov cocktail.”

“What about Ramy?”

Kai leans forward.

“We gotta get him out.”

“Golden needs to get our locked door opened for me to chuck this little firestarter, so when Jace is distracted Kai can tackle the fucker. Then Golden gets Ramy and I’ll murder Jace in cold blood.”

Apollo claps his hands once.

“Good plan, right? I’ve been thinkin’ it up the whole time I’ve been here.”

“Sounds messy,”

I say.

“I’m down. But how am I getting the door open? Also, we need fire and I don't see any open flames anywhere.”

Apollo leans back.

“You guys aren’t going to be happy with this. But, Golden, you gotta seduce Jace.”

“Ew, fuck off.”

“I second that ew,”

Kai adds.

“Besides, Golden just told him where to go. Not even Jace is that crazy, he’s not gonna believe it.”

Apollo levels me with a hard look.

“Jace wants power, but more than anything he wants Golden.”

“Again, ew,”

I grumble, disgust coiling in my gut.

“But…choices aren’t raining down. So, fine, I’ll try it.”

Apollo claps my shoulder.

“You got this. Now, Kai—make fire.”

I’m about to laugh, but when Kai squirms I gasp, and point an accusing finger at him.

“You said you weren’t magical!”

Kai shoves me.

“Mate, shut up and technically I never actually answered that question.”

“And here I thought I was never anywhere near the supernatural. So what the hell are you, dude?”

“I…have no idea, okay? How did you even know, Apollo?”

Kai nervously touches his hair covering his scarred side.

Apollo shrugs, looking confused by the question.

“You're so bloody annoying.”

Kai huffs.

“I don’t know how to actually make fire, it’s completely random. Apollo, do you know how I do it?”

He raises an eyebrow.

“Why would I know?”

Kai throws his hands up.

“Because you’ve gotta be something, right?”

“Lad, the only thing I am is an anarchist.”

Then Apollo throws up the devil horns.

“Un-fucking-believable,”

Kai grumbles.

“Sorry,”

Apollo replies, sounding not sorry at all.

“When this is all over,”

I say to Kai.

“wanna swap secrets?”

The corners of Kai’s lips tug up.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Then he pulls his hand away from his hair.

“Time to focus on…creating magical fire. Or not focus, I should say. It kinda only happens when I’m doodling and zoning out.”

Kai chews on his lower lip, then cautiously tucks into a corner as he mutters to himself.

After a pause, where he stares at the dirty floor as if it's going to bite, Kai slowly begins to draw. First it’s things like frowny faces and broken hearts. Houses and little flames, which soon morph into symbols, like an octopus’s take on the English Alphabet, but oddly familiar and I slowly realise I have seen what he’s drawing.

They’re the purple symbols he’s painted on his leather jacket.

I want to ask him about it, but my friend appears to be in a trance, and we’ve got a rescue mission on our hands, so I leave him be and turn to Apollo. He juts his chin in the direction of the door.

“Go on then, be sexy.”

Groaning, I stand, my lip curling as I dust my ass off and drag my feet towards the door. I look at Ramy, whose face is slowly turning purple and my back straightens, promising to do my best and to apologise to Lucero when we’re finally reunited.

I grab hold of the bars to stop my trembling hands. How the hell do you seduce someone?

My mind goes back to the times me and Lucero have been together, but I quickly end that train of thought. Our moments are too important and I won’t let them be tainted.

“Golden, c’mon!”

Apollo whisper-shouts.

I guess it's now or never.

“JACE! Jace, come here!”

I keep screaming his name until he’s stomping out the office, face angry.

“Do you want to be gagged like your vampire friend?” he snaps.

My foot bounces. “I…”

I wrack my brain for something to say and come up empty.

“I don’t have time for this,”

he says, turning to leave.

“I wanted to talk about something that’s been on my mind.”

Jace stops—waiting.

“I…well, always thought it was you and me against the world, forever having your back even when no one else did.”

Instead of trying to seduce I aim for something closer to honesty, hoping that’ll work.

Jace exhales and turns back. His eyes are soft when they land on me, and I have to work not to scowl.

“I know, and I appreciated it even if I never said. Why do you think I’ve been after you this whole time? Because you’re important to me, Golden. I made mistakes. I can admit that. But suddenly having all this power…”

He trails off, looking away briefly and I realise in that moment, when his features drop, that Jace has probably been lonely.

He was the person I shared everything with and for him, I was that person for him, too.

“I hated myself for hurting you. Then the mess of the night you ran away…”

Whatever niggles of sympathy I had for him shatters.

I want to punch him and scream, ‘You mean when you sexually assaulted me?’ But I hold back, exhaling a shuddering breath, and think about Lucero so hard that, for a second, I almost see his face in the window.

“Why did you hurt me? If you’d just… said what you wanted…”

My gaze drops, my voice barely a whisper. I can use his loneliness, but it causes bile to rise from my churning stomach so fast acid burns my throat. The awful lies I need to tell taste like poison, but I spew them out anyway.

“I didn’t know you wanted… i-intimacy. You could’ve asked, Jace. I would’ve given you anything.”

Deathly silence meets me, so when my gaze flutters up, I find a severe stare stamped onto his face and I have to look away again.

“And suddenly you want me?”

he asks, voice rough with distrust and something else. Maybe hope.

In the movies when they show women seducing men, it’s in sexy clothes or with a come hither attitude. I don’t have any of that, all I have is my memories of the man who wanted to be my hero.

“I’m scared…”

My voice is so quiet I’m worried Jace doesn’t hear. But I see his shoes come closer.

“I hate all of this, Jace…”

gulping, I continue.

“I just want things to be like they used to.”

After a breath, where the only noise is my racing blood, Jace hand cups my cheek and I hold back a shiver of disgust.

“I never wanted just intimacy from you, goofball. I wanted your heart.”

I nearly vomit at the nickname.

Jace is lying. I can tell from his breathless voice, from his sour sweat soaking into my cheek.

He’s excited.

At my back, Apollo and Kai’s rushed whispers reach me, as does the subtle hint of smoke. When Jace frowns, moving as if to look behind me, I know I have to act now.

Quickly I say.

“I love you, I always have.”

This grabs the full suffocating weight of his gaze.

“And I just wanna feel safe…with you again.”

Jace audibly swallows.

“Not in front of people,”

I add quickly.

“C’mon.”

The slide of a key clicking open a lock has never sounded more like being trapped, than freed. So when the gate clangs open, and the uncomfortable weight of Jace’s paw lands on my shoulder, everything in me screams to run.

“Let’s talk more privately, goofball.”

I tense, not caring if the molotov cocktail is ready or not and about to reintroduce my knee to Jace’s balls. So when Jace’s hand drops and he shouts out, “Fire!”

Relief floods my system.

Apollo charges forward, half his shirt ripped and a flaming bottle in his hand.

“That’s right, motherfucker!”

Apollo then chucks the flaming bottle over his head, and it soars like a shooting star.

“What the fuck!”

Jace shouts as Kai tackles him to the ground.

Several things then happen between one second, and the next.

The wide front doors are kicked open as fire explodes across the floor, causing the blood mages packing up to scream. Then, standing silhouetted by the weak sunlight like an avenging angel, Summer tosses two swirling balls of darkness towards the bright orange blaze.

And then…chaos.