Page 31 of Tethered Fates

Kai doesn’t say anything else, just keeps nervously tugging his hair. He hates the white swirling scars crisscrossing from his forehead down to his chin. When we were kids, I once told him they were pretty. The devastated look he gave me ensured I never told him again.

“What happened with Summer?” Kai asks when I stay silent.

Breathing out a long breath, my gaze drops down to the arm Summer cut. Someone—probably Kai—changed my bloodied clothes for sweats and a T-shirt that’s too big, causing the neck to hang awkwardly, and I’m surprised to find only smooth skin. Somehow, I’m fully healed. There isn’t even a scar.

“Would you believe me if I told you?” My voice might be quiet, but it shakes with simmering rage. My friend took control of my body, and I don’t even get the evidence that it happened. It’s bullshit. “I hardly believe it myself.”

“I’m a vampire.”

I wait a beat, then my gaze drifts up to stare into Kai’s jade-green eyes.

Kai was the first person I came out to, the first person to understand without explanation that words aren’t always my language. He said there was nothing wrong with my silence. He gave me paint and showed me that art could be a way to communicate. To express myself.

The only thing I’ve ever lied to him about is why I left uni, because if Kai knew, it’d make that shitshow too real. Too shameful.

So, for the first time since Mum and Dad brought Kai home and told me I had a big brother, who I loved completely in the wholehearted way only a three-year-old could—and that has never really changed—I stare at Kai and don’t know the person looking back at me.

“Vampires are real?” I whisper, small and fragile.

“Yeah. They are.”

“How long…” I swallow. “How long have you been one?”

He sighs. “Not long.”

“And is Sen…?”

“Yeah, Teagan,” he murmurs, laying a gentle hand on my cheek. “Him, too.”

I drop my head, and for once, my silence isn’t where I find comfort or fun. It isn’t meant to annoy or be full of sarcasm. The world is simply too loud, and if I add more noise, I’m scared I’ll implode.

But then a greater urge takes over—Sen. For some reason, a guy I’ve barely spent an hour with is all that’s keeping my head above water, and isn’t that the strangest fucking thing?

“Sen saved me from Summer. Where…where is he?”

“He’s fine,” Kai assures, and the muscles I didn’t know were tense relax.

“Teagan, what happened with Summer?” Kai asks, soft but insistent. “Please, you’ve gotta tell me, little bro.”

“Are you still my brother?”

“Teagan.” He flinches. “Of course. Always. You know that.”

“Do I?” His teeth are blunt now, but if I wait long enough, will I see Kai’s fangs again? Vidar’s blood on his chin? Just like Kai’s blood smeared across Vidar’s serious mouth? “I thought I did.”

“You’re upset, I get that, mate. But c’mon…” Kai lets out an exasperated breath. “You do realise I’m trying to protect you, right?”

“By lying to me?”

“Fucking hell, I’m not—…okay fine, I lied. Or didn’t share the truth, whatever. I can also admit maybe I didn’t do the best bloody job. But what was I supposed to do? There ain’t a fucking manual on how to handle when your kid brother learns about the supernatural, because if I lay it all out, it sounds like utter madness.”

“I already feel like I’ve lost my mind.”

I should focus on Kai, vampires, Summer controlling my body—Sen, Sen, Sen. His name quiets the confused screaming rushing between my ears.

Before, I thought we just had an instant connection, a crush that would become more if I poked for long enough. But now there is something that scares me about this urgent need. Why, if I concentrate hard enough, can I feel a…thing? An arrow, a rope, a connection that leads directly to Sen. Deliciously dark and all mine, but he isn’t.

But he is.