down at the table, promising myself that once this Awakening was over and I was sure Ryland was OK, I would go looking for Alex, and not come back until I’d found him.
After seven rounds of checkers, only one of which I won – which I was certain was only because Mr Anderson let me – Min returned to the lounge.
“We’re done,” she said. “Everything went just as it should have.”
“He’s OK? Is he normal?”
“He’s just fine. Cormac will need to confirm it, but as far as I can see his power level is completely normal. No stronger than, say, Anderson or Reid. He will be able to read minds and do some compulsion, but I doubt he will have anything beyond that.”
“So, no erasing minds like Jocelyn, or hearing dead people or anything like that? He’s just a normal mind-reader?” I asked, ignoring the oxymoron.
“Yes. Perfectly normal.”
“Where is he?” I asked, having assumed Ryland would come back with her.
“Still in the Chamber with Jocelyn. I told him he wasn’t allowed out until he finished every drop of the elixir I gave him. You can go in and see him if you want.”
I hurried down to the Chamber where Ryland was sitting on a long table, drinking out of one of the jars I recognized from Min’s office. Jocelyn looked up and gave me a stiff nod before stepping through the back door to his office.
Nice to see you, too.
“How’d it go?” I asked walking over to Ry, relieved that he seemed to be fine.
“OK,” he said, peering down into the jar. “This is gross.”
“Just drink it. Trust me, if it’s from Min, it’s good stuff.” I leaned against the table next to him, noticing the new necklace he had around his neck. It was a lot like Alex’s only his cord was brown leather and the stone in the center was red. “So it wasn’t scary?”
“Nah,” he said downing the rest of the drink. “Plus Alex was with me.”
My head snapped up, “Alex was here?”
“Yeah, he said you didn’t want me to be alone.”
“He held his hand the whole time,” came Min’s voice from the door.
“He didn’t need to,” Ryland said, not about to let us think he’d been scared.
“No, of course not,” Min said, smiling at him. “You were one of the bravest I’ve seen.”
Ry looked at me proudly as if to make sure I’d heard, but I was looking at Min. “He was here?” I whispered. “I thought you said…”
“That it would be very difficult, yes. And it was. I told him as much before we began, but he would have it no other way.” She turned to Ryland as I stared off, completely overwhelmed. “Now then, let’s go and get you something to eat.” She took the jar from him, and helped him down off the table. When they passed by me, Ryland poked my arm.
“You coming?”
“Becca has something she has to take care of up on the covered balcony first, I think,” Min said, urging him on. “Maybe she’ll come and join us later.”
“OK, bye Becca,” he said, following Min out of the Chamber, as I stared after them in a daze.
Alex had sat with Ryland so he wouldn’t be scared. Despite all the strangeness between us he’d been there to take care of him when I couldn’t. The swelling of emotion that fact caused in me was so strong that it was hard to breathe.
And, not just of nameless emotion… of love.
I loved him.
Yes, I was bonded to him, but that wasn’t the same thing. Maybe to some people it would have been but as far as I was concerned the ideas were separate. My bond to him as my Anam had made it so my life would no longer be complete without him. It had rearranged my world, placing him in the center, fulfilling me in ways I hadn’t realized I was empty. And yes, it had caused me to fall in love with him, and maybe that’s where a large part of my love had stemmed from, but I also know it was much more than that. If I was being honest, my feelings for Alex had started long before the Anam bond had, even if I hadn’t been ready to acknowledge them at the time. I didn’t love Alex only because some supernatural connection told me I had to. I loved him because I knew him. Because I’d seen the man he truly was inside, and it never failed to amaze