Zodiac Aligned

33

The sun's warmth soaked into my bones as Brea's chanting grew louder and her eyes glowed with bright light. When her hands began to glow too, the sun seemed to get brighter, and I squinted my eyes against it. Sweat dripped down my back and beaded on my forehead as the heat intensified. Sun magic hummed in the air all around us, flowing through Brea toward me, and fear made me sweat even more. It took everything in my power to stand there doing nothing as a Sun Witch cast a spell over me.

As the heat became almost overwhelming, Brea started moving her hands in slow, purposeful movements. Trails of sun magic followed her, hanging in the air for a few seconds after her hands left the spot. She continued chanting, walking around me as she weaved the magic like a net. I felt it on me, sinking into my skin, but I forced myself to not fight it.

She’s helping, I told myself over and over again as she continued. The magic wrapped itself around me and started tugging, like barbs stuck in my skin, trying to pull something out that refused to budge. Each tug sent pain coursing through me, and I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. The pain would only be temporary, and well worth it if this worked.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a gasp as the torture continued, turning my vision red, making my limbs tremble. Hold on, I told myself. Surely it will be over soon. But the pain kept growing, and an anguished cry escaped my lips as I fell to my knees.

"Stop!" Kaden yelled. "You'll kill her!"

My face hit the dirt moments later, and then the pain stopped. Kaden gathered me in his arms as I floated back to reality, and I blinked away the stars in my eyes.

"Ayla," Kaden said. "Ayla!"

I sucked in a long breath. The pain was completely gone, and I felt fine again. Just a little shaken. "I'm okay."

"You're not," Kaden growled. Jordan looked concerned too from where he stood behind Kaden, but he knew better than to get in the middle of this.

"I'm not injured. It was just...a lot." I was able to stand, and I brushed myself off. "Let's try again."

"No way," Kaden said. "You're done."

I growled back at him. "I'm done when I say I'm done. If you can't handle it, then leave."

He looked surprised by that and wisely kept his mouth shut. He didn't know what it was like, being bound to my own brother, forced to desire him even though the thought made me sick. Besides, I was stronger than he knew, and I was tired of him underestimating me. Kaden needed to learn to trust me too, if he wanted our relationship to work.

"I'm sorry," Brea said, her voice sincere. "I’ll give you a moment, and then I'll try something else.”

“We don’t have time to waste,” I said. “Do it now. I’ll survive."

Brea looked skeptical but turned to Debra, who shrugged. "Very well. I'm going to adjust the spell slightly and see if it works better."

She cast the spell again, but this time she gathered the sun's energy within herself first, until she was practically bursting with it. She didn’t do any hand movements, and when she was ready, she held her palms out toward me and released the magic in one blast. It hit me hard, sending me flying back, and for a moment all I saw was bright white light as pain took over my world.

When I came back, I was lying on the grass, staring up at the sky. I reached for the mate bond and felt Jordan there, worried, anxious, stressed. Lust flared across me at the connection, intensified by the impending the full moon, and I quickly tamped it down, locking the mate bond behind walls once more. I sighed, knowing the spell had failed again.

The two men helped me to my feet but didn't comment, though they both looked miserable for different reasons. I nodded for Brea to try again.

Brea consulted one of the books she'd brought, and then chanted something different, moving her hands in a new pattern like a dance. This time, the magic sparked all around me like little fireflies flitting across my skin. While the first spell had pulled hard on the blessing, and the second one had tried to push against it, this felt more like it was trying to coax the magic from my skin, slowly unraveling it piece by piece. It took the longest and hurt the least, and I grew hopeful that it was working finally.

When the spell was completed, Brea scanned me with weary eyes. “Do you feel any different?”

As the magic faded, that sick, powerful pull toward Jordan slammed into me, along with the itch of my upcoming heat already taking root under my skin. If anything, the spells had only made the mate bond stronger, like it was fighting against the magic, trying to wrap tighter around our souls.

I shook my head, as all my hope slipped away, and defeat dragged me down.

"That should have worked," Brea said, her brows furrowed. "I'm sorry. That was my last idea."

"f**k," Jordan yelled, turning away like he couldn't stand to look at me anymore. I knew he was doing it to stop himself from running to me like the mate bond wanted. A lesser man wouldn't have been able to fight it, that was how strong it had become.

I pressed my hands to my eyes, feeling that same burn inside me, and the same agony knowing we'd failed. We'd come so far, and after all this time, there was still nothing we could do to break the mate bond. Kaden reached for me, but I shoved him away, unable to accept his comfort when need pulsed inside me for the wrong man.

"Please," I begged Brea, as tears slipped down my cheeks. "There must be something else we can try."

She sighed and began looking through her books again, but I could see in her eyes that she didn't think she would find anything. We were out of options.

Debra glanced between me and Jordan, her lips set in a thin line. I knew she didn’t want this mate bond any more than we did. "Do you think it could be her moon magic preventing the spell from working?"