t Sky… she matters and I won’t mess this up.” He gives a short pause, collecting himself, then calmly says, “I can do this.”
Max and him exchange a silent, intense look.
“For the love of all hell, will one of you please explain who the hell Abigail is?” Easton breaks the silent tension, throwing his hands in the air in frustration.
“I agree with East,” I say. “One of you needs to explain what you’re talking about before I flip out.”
Max and Porter stare at each other for a beat longer, and then Max gives a slight nod of his head and steps back from Porter
“If you say you’ve got this then I believe you.” He gestures at Sky. “Go ahead. Get it done. But do it carefully.”
I step forward, preparing to block Porter from Sky. Not that I don’t want him to help her, but I need to find out what happened with Abigail before he delves into Sky’s mind.
But Holden captures me by the arm and pulls me back.
“If Max trusts Porter, then we should too,” he utters, pulling me beside him. “You know Max can read him better than anyone else can.”
He’s right. Max can delve into the thoughts of others when he needs to, but still…
I wiggle my arm from Holden’s grip. “They can at least explain who the heck Abigail is first.”
Holden shakes his head. “As much as I’d like to know too, it might be better if we wait to find out. Not when he’s about to enter Sky’s mind. We need a calm environment around her if we want this to be able to work properly.”
Glancing at Sky, I realize he’s right. But that doesn’t make it any easier to watch Porter lie down beside her, shut his eyes, and drift off to sleep as he slips into her mind, his body fading as his spirit enters her thoughts.
I feel sick to my stomach and my body heats up as my powers threaten to emerge. But I turn them off, knowing Holden is right and that I need to keep calm while Porter is in Sky’s mind.
Releasing a loud exhale, Max steps back and rolls up his sleeves. “Now that Porter’s good, I suggest we try to contact mom and dad and let them know what’s going on.” He glances at East and Holden. “You two want to work on that?”
“Sure,” Holden says but East appears a bit reluctant, his gaze straying to Sky in a way that makes my jaw tick.
“I guess so.” East tears his gaze off of Sky and steps toward Holden.
Max turns to me. “How about you and I start working on some charms to put up around Sky to protect her why she’s here? And we should probably put some up around you to protect you too.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I tell him distractedly, my attention half on Sky. “I’m not a huge fan of Sky and I being in the fey world, especially since one of their kind know what we are.” The faerie that my mom had to lock up in her bedroom.
“Not all of the fey are untrustworthy,” Max points out. “But yeah, some of them are so I think we need to do some pretty powerful binding charms that are woven between all of us.”
I resist a frown, but fail. Charming us together means deepening the link, and considering how deep the link is between all of us and Sky now…
“It’s just a temporary thing,” Max adds when he notes my frown.
“Whatever. It probably doesn’t even matter at this point.” I sigh, massaging my temples with my fingertips.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Max asks as he stretches out his fingers in preparation to do the charm.
I let my hands fall to my sides and shrug. “It means the link has already been messing with Sky’s emotions and all of yours’. And now Porter’s going to be tethering his soul to her’s…” I shrug again, feeling utterly miserable at the moment, which kind of makes me feel selfish when I really think about it. I mean, here Sky is trapped in darkness and guilt and I’m sulking because I have to link her to my brothers more, something that’s going to protect her. I’m a selfish bastard. I really am. “It’s just that she’s getting so tied to us at this point that I’m not sure if things will ever return back to normal. Although, I’m not sure anything was normal when it came to Sky but still… There was a point where all of you guys weren’t so tied to her and vice versa.”
Sunlight flickers across Max’s face as the clouds above us part. “Hunter can fix the altered link, Fost. And the soul tethering and temporary charms will eventually fade. None of this will be permanent.”
“I’m not just talking about the magic part of it,” I mutter, scuffing the tip of my boot against the dirt
Max’s brows knit. “Then what’re you talking about?”
I glance at East, who’s talking to Holden just a ways away from us, then I look back at Max, muttering, “I’m talking about Sky and East and some of the stuff they’ve been feeling…” As my powers start to spark underneath my flesh, I trail off, trying to get control over my emotions again.
Max glances down at the lightning blue glow illuminating from underneath my flesh. “East and Sky are probably only feeling that way because the link has been messing with their heads.”