Blood Tied by Jacob Z. Flores Page B

opened my mouth to deny it, to tell him his fairy senses were on the fritz, but I couldn’t speak. I could only stand there and watch as Aiden shed tears for the pain that twisted my soul. It was odd to have such a big man so freely express emotions, especially since I did everything in my power to avoid just that.
    He rose from the floor. He placed his massive hands on my shoulders and rubbed them. “Don’t live in the pain of loss. Your mother wouldn’t have wanted that.”
    I recoiled from him, and my response startled him. “Stop right there,” I said through gritted teeth. “My mother is off-limits.”
    “Your mother should never be off-limits,” he replied. “You should talk about her with everybody. Every day if you have to. You should visit her grave, sit on the grass next to her and carry on conversations. Tell her what you’re feeling or what happened during your day. She’s not with you physically, but she hasn’t completely vanished.” He closed the distance I’d created between us and placed his hand on my chest. “She lives inside you, and she always will.”
    “Stop it.”
    “Why?” he asked.
    “Because I don’t talk about my mother.” I brushed his hand away, and he made no move to put it back.
    “Why does talking about her scare you?”
    I clenched my jaw until it popped. My anger threatened to boil over and spill out. “I’m not afraid of a damn thing.” My voice was low but stern. He was pushing the wrong buttons. “And you’re a fae, not a psychologist, so back off.”
    “I will respect your wishes,” he said with a sigh. “But I have one more thing to say.”
    I eyed him with one cocked eyebrow. “And what is that?”
    “This half-naked fairy likes you too.”
     
     
    I FOLLOWED Aiden back to the library. I couldn’t just let him drop that bombshell and walk away. After the way I’d treated him, how could he possibly like me?
    I didn’t like me right now.
    Drake ran in with the book in his hand. “I’ve figured it out.” A triumphant grin snaked across his face as he sneered at Mrs. Proctor and Mrs. Stonewall, who were obviously not members of the Drake Carpenter Fan Club.
    My conversation with Aiden was going to have to wait.
    “What did the shadow weaver’s words mean?” Mason asked.
    Drake turned to the pages of the dictionary he bookmarked with his fingers. “It took me a while to figure out. I had to familiarize myself with the Greek alphabet and then try to match up their symbols to what the words sounded like to us. It wasn’t easy.”
    “And?” Mr. Stonewall asked, tapping his foot.
    “Well, if I’m right, what it said was somethin’ like ‘you belong to me.’”
    That sounded vaguely familiar but also not quite right.
    “But after checkin’ online,” he continued, “I realized that was a literal translation. I think what it was trying to say was—”
    “You will be mine?” I asked.
    Drake’s stitched eyebrows told me I was right. “How’d you know?”
    “Because I’ve heard that before.”
    Everyone’s eyes were suddenly glued to me. Ben and Aiden stepped forward but when each witnessed the other make the same move, they stopped.
    “When?” Mason asked. “Because I’ve heard those words too. In my dreams a few days after Mabon.”
    After I told everyone about the nightmares I’d been having, the room grew deadly quiet. The Proctors and the Stonewalls exchanged glances with each other that accused me of once again withholding information. My brothers glanced at each other before gazing into the storm that silently raged in my father’s blue eyes.
    “And you didn’t think to tell us this before?” he asked.
    “It was a dream,” I answered with a shrug. “How often do you share your dreams with me? Or anyone?”
    “Considering all we’ve gone through, and the fact that Mason had a similar dream over a month ago, I would think you’d recognize a warning that obvious.” Although he didn’t say the words outright, his tone