Bound by Blood (Bound by Desire #3)

Chapter 63: Regents of Death

I laugh then, but it's a sad sound. One tinged with regret, loss and worry. "You and I both know there's nothing fragile about your cousin Dana, whatever's happened in the past." Dana also smiles then but, like mine, her expression is one of sadness. "And I know you mean well but if we're to defeat Amber, at least temporarily, we need to stick together. Meaning you need all the help you can get. So I need you to let me pass. Ok?" Dana still looks unconvinced but I know I'm right in what I was saying to her before. We did all need to help.

"Ok, but please, please be careful. I don't think any of us can deal with losing someone else right now," Dana relents and I can hear the resignation in her tone, deciding then and there that I wouldn't tell her about how I couldn't wake Livy. Deciding not to add to the anxiety currently makes the room stifling and airless. But I forced that feeling back and stood on Dana's other side, noticing how Amber used Kalli to assess me from where she was controlling her.

Tilting her head Amber snorts with laughter. "And what do you think you can do to hurt me, little witch? You who isn't even of one of the more powerful families, unlike the girl I was forced to take out, Murdock's daughter." Her mention of what she made Kalli do to Livy enraged me but I don't act on that feeling, sure that's what she's after with how she's speaking to me. "What, cat got your tongue? Nothing to say? My, my and here I thought you were of the generation not afraid to stand up for what's wrong in the world. Guess I was wrong and my plan will be easier to enact than you think,"

"Get away from her, we aren't afraid of you, not anymore." Dana tries to sound confident but on the last word her tone falters and I see Amber's feral smile when she notices. "GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER! I NEED HER YOU SELFISH BITCH!" Screaming the words Dana lets loose a ball of controlled moonstone fire but it just bounces off Kalli - Amber - and the other figure gives a low laugh of mockery.

"You can't think that could hurt me when I'm inhabiting a body that also controls it do you?" The other three's power dims slightly in the face of what Amber had just said and I see a satisfied smirk across her face. "Oh dear, you did harbour the naive hope that you could banish me by turning the power back on me didn't you?" She scoffs a laugh but says nothing for a few seconds before she speaks again. "Shame you can't see the bigger picture. No matter, even if I didn't use your darling cousin it could be any one of you Bound into this. Meaning can you trust any of each other? Or am I using you all?"

She smiles again and I feel a stone sink in my chest but I breathe around it, despite that action feeling like I'm being suffocated from the inside out at her words. Could we ever know without a doubt that she wasn't using one of us? I want to say yes but this recent episode of possession only said otherwise. We hadn't known that she was using Kalli until Dana suggested it a few minutes prior and her angry rant came before that. So could we?

But I refuse to let Amber see that she'd intimidated us. "Stop with the games, Amber. We all know why you're using us to eliminate each other and it won't work since we see what you're doing." Around me the others nod but I can see that Amber's getting madder the longer we stall her from doing whatever she'd no doubt been intending to use Kalli to do. "You might as well give up for now and accept that we have you cornered. At least for now."

I hadn't meant to add the last bit in but I also couldn't hide that we may not walk out of this alive. Not when our friendship group was founded on the idea of putting honesty before almost anything else. And certainly not when so much was riding on us finishing what our parents started. Before it was too late.

Amber snarls at me, her power engulfing the room for a split second before she separates from Kalli, the other girl's eyes rolling back towards her head as she collapsed much as Livy had done before. Seconds after I see Kessal hesitate enough that Amber catches it, but a simple muttering under my breath saves him before she can strike.