Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) (10 page)

I showed Callie my work room—as Theo had once called it—in
the attic once we got back to my place. She said she needed just a few things
in order to be able to do the spell she’d bought.

“What will it do to her?” I asked, trying to ease the
awkward tension that had filled the small room.

“It’s just a simple spell to make her not want to interfere
with something of importance about to happen to me. In this case, that’s the
initiation. I need a piece of white paper and a red pen so I can write that
word down and give the spell direction,” she said as she glanced around the
room, searching for the things she’d asked for.

Her face had taken on an ashen tone. This was not something
she wanted to do at all. Instantly, I felt bad for her.

“I think I have some paper in the kitchen and a red marker
in my room. Will that work?” I asked, figuring I’d try to help her through this
as best I could.

Callie nodded, but didn’t look at me. She was busy
concentrating on gathering the other ingredients and rereading the small scrap
of paper Twila had given her. I jogged down the narrow stairs from the attic
and headed into my room first to see if I could find my red marker. Binks was
stretched out on my bed. His head lifted when I entered the room, and he gave
me a sleepy-eyed glare, as though I’d disturbed his nap, and then he lay back
down to sleep.

I found the marker on my dresser and headed down to the
first floor for a piece of paper, before making my way back up to the attic,
where Callie was waiting. She’d gathered all the ingredients and had already
begun to fill the copper pot with them. I watched as she wrote the word
“Initiation” in bold capital letters across the scrap of paper I’d handed her,
and then folded it neatly. She tossed the paper into the pot, and then popped
the cork on a bottle of water that had been set to the side. As she drowned the
paper along with the ingredients, she blew in the pot, and a swirling white
smoke floated to the ceiling.

Whatever she’d done had worked. At least I assumed it had.

“There, she won’t be able to interfere tonight now,” Callie
whispered, dropping her chin to her chest. Her hair had come free from behind
her ear again. I wondered if it was on purpose this time, because it seemed as
though she were hiding her face from me behind it.

She lifted up a ladle and a tiny glass bottle. I watched her
fill the bottle to the rim without losing a single drop.

“Hello?” Kace’s voice called from downstairs. “Where are you
two at?”

“Up here,” I yelled from the top of the attic stairs,
grateful for the distraction.

I wondered if Kace would agree with what Callie had just
done. If he didn’t, I hoped he wouldn’t beat her up about her decision to do
the spell, because she looked like she was beating herself up enough. The sound
of Kace bounding up the narrow stairs to the attic met my ears, and in no time,
he had me firmly in his arms.

“Hey, sexy.” He smiled as he nearly knocked me over. “What
are you guys doing up here?”

“Hi,” I said, kissing him chastely on the lips. I waited a
minute for Callie to tell Kace what we’d been doing. When she didn’t, I told
him myself. “Completing a spell Callie bought from Twila Van Rooyen to use on
her mom. It’s supposed to keep her from interfering with the initiation
tonight.”

I swallowed hard while I waited for his reaction, wondering
if he was going to fly off the handle at the thought of Callie using Hoodoo on
her own mother.

“Definitely wasn’t what I thought I’d find when I came up
the stairs,” he said, his voice sounding playful and not at all shocked like
I’d imagined. “I think it’s probably a good idea actually.”

Callie started past us toward the stairs, her head still
down. “I’m gonna get something to drink.”

We stepped aside, letting her pass. I waited until she was
out of earshot before I spoke.

“I’m not gonna lie, I can’t believe Callie would put a spell
on her own mother,” I muttered.

Kace grinned. “Well, she does have a good reason. I mean,
her mom tried to get you to leave before the initiation. She more than likely
would have attempted to interfere with us tonight in some way. Callie was just
thinking ahead.”

A sudden coldness slithered through me in place of the
normal warmth I felt when Kace touched me. I couldn’t believe he was agreeing
so easily with what she had just done. Was the initiation all they cared about?

Kace must have seen my shocked expression for what it was,
because he softened his features some.

“All I’m saying is, who knows what Susan would have done
tonight in your mother’s honor to sabotage the initiation. This way at least we
know there’s no need to be on our toes about anything, and we can all enjoy the
night and the rite like we should be able to,” he said, his hands coming up to
cup the sides of my face.

I took in a deep breath and forced myself to relax. He was
right. Callie had actually just done me an incredible favor without even
realizing it. By placing that spell on her mother, she’d indirectly made it
possible to go through with the initiation without any hitches. Which meant,
after midnight tonight, I would no longer be tethered to Theo. I’d also be free
from guilt and then some. I should be thanking her, not talking bad about her
behind her back and being judgmental.

“You’re right,” I said. Then I remembered what other things
Callie and I had done today, like shopping and a certain dress I’d bought. “Did
you manage to get your robe thingy for tonight yet?”

Kace slipped his hands down the sides of my neck and let
them rest against the tops of my shoulders. “I did, the question is…did you?”
His icy eyes flashed, and his lips twisted at the corners.

I pursed my lips together and attempted to stifle a grin.
“Sure did.”

“Can I see it?”

“Nope, not until later, but let me just say, I look smoking
hot in red.”

His eyes darkened. “I have no doubt.”

Kace’s lips brushed against mine, this time in the form of a
real kiss. I locked my fingers behind his neck. With all of the stress from
telling everyone my decision, picking out a dress, and dealing with everything
that had suddenly become amped up the last few days between Theo and me, this
kiss was a welcomed and wanted escape. Until I began comparing it to another.
That was when the guilt hit me full force again, and I had to pull away from
Kace.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I whispered.

My stomach rolled and my heart raced as that loaded
statement spilled from my mouth. The time to come clean was finally upon me.
Kace deserved to know.

“What?” he asked in a hushed whisper, his eyes never seeming
to leave my mouth.

“A lot of somethings actually, and I’m not sure where to
start,” I admitted, sucking in a deep breath as Kace leaned toward me and
brushed his warm lips against the sensitive area along my throat.

His hand slipped beneath my shirt and met with the bare skin
of my lower back. “Start from the beginning.”

Kace tangled his other hand in my hair and gently pulled my
head back farther, exposing my throat for easier access. His lips kissed along
the side of my neck lightly as his tongue darted out every other kiss to lick a
little. I couldn’t think straight. The words I wanted to say jumbled together
in my mind, and what came out was nothing like what I’d intended. At least not
right away.

“I’m tethered to Theo,” I managed to choke out in a small,
breathy voice.

Kace drew back a little and paused in his slow kisses,
licking, and overall sexiness. Damn, I couldn’t have picked a more
inappropriate time to confess such a thing. Why had my guilty conscience chosen
that moment to explode into a million pieces and reveal all of the secrets I’d
been harboring?

“Tethered? You’re tethered to Theo?” Kace repeated, his
eyebrows drawn together in utter confusion.

One of his hands was tangled in my hair while the other
pressed against the small of my back, sending tiny sparks of my magick dancing
along the surface of my skin from the contact. My head was still tipped back
slightly, and my lips were swollen and parted, eagerly waiting for me to fix
the mess I’d created so Kace’s lips would be warming them again.

“Yes,” I breathed.

Kace unraveled himself from me and took a small step back.
His icy eyes swirled with conflicting emotions, both of which I could clearly
label—hurt and anger. He ran his hands over his face, and then met my stare
once more.

“Theo Van Rooyen?” he asked.

I nodded, unable to trust my voice. It might crack because
of what I was feeling. There was so much more to say besides just admitting the
tether. I needed to tell him about the kiss too, but also about my reasons for
agreeing to the initiation. He needed to know that
he
was my main reason
for agreeing. How I wanted to see where this thing between us would go once
Theo was out of my mind for good.

Jesus. How had I let myself get this deep in shit?

“How did it happen?” he asked. His hands fell limply at his
sides. “Does being tethered to him mean what I think it does…that you’re tied
to him in some way or connected or something?”

“It happened the night the Boo Hag attacked me,” I said,
unsure how to answer the last question.

Being tethered to Theo meant being connected to him in many
ways, and I wasn’t sure Kace was ready to hear that yet, or that he truly
wanted to.

“Wait a minute, does that mean you’re part Hoodoo Conjurer
now?”

I shook my head. “No.”

At least that was an easy answer.

“Since the Boo Hag? That was practically forever ago,
Addison,” he muttered. His jaw tensed, and I noticed how his teeth gritted
together.

I kept waiting for him to yell at me, but he never did.
Instead, he began pacing.

“I know,” I said, dropping my gaze to the hardwood floor
beneath my feet. “I thought we would have broken it by now or reversed it or
something. Nothing we’ve done has worked though. It’s only made it stronger.”