Fate

33: By Force

Valentine's POV

She knows.

Fuck.

She knows.

"Not again. Please, not again!"

Her thoughts echo through my head like whispers in the night. So obvious but only to those who are searching for it. Only like stars, so close yet so far. Absolutely minuscule, but only to the naked eye. In this instance, my supernaturality is the telescope, and she the beaming ball of light. Only I can see the star's true potential.

"She-she knows," I utter into the mind link, out of the silence my friends jump and all heads flick to me. At the sudden motion, Maddox glances from the floor. At my panicked expression, he slowly rises from his position, leaving Gloria and Anna to themselves where they cuddle and cry happy tears. Maddox mutters something to Koda and he gently grips Gloria's arm and indicates that Anna should be moved elsewhere. Gloria nods, lifting her fragile mate, and makes a move to the stairs. With a final grateful glance towards us, or more specifically the doctors in the room, the couple moves up the stairs murmuring poems of love and peace.

"I'm going to assume it's Astraea," Maddox says, solemnly.

"What?" Caspen stares, though we all know from the look of his face he understands.

"Whatever's got your panties in a twist." Koda groans, "What is it? You can't keep yourself from her anymore? You just have to have her?" His tone is protective. I sigh deeply.

"She knows. About us. And her. And our...bond." I state, panic within me. But I keep it down. I watch as Maddox and Koda's eyes widen, their contact from me breaking and meeting each other.

"What do we do? She'll run! What will she do?" A few perks of being able to read minds: I can also read links.

"It's okay, she'll be okay. We can't scare her or she will do something stupid." Maddox replies.

"God! Maddox, how do we do this?" The anxiety is overwhelming, I pull from their conversation.

"We can't be there," I state my own thoughts out loud. No matter how I want to be with her right now, no matter how much I want her in my arms, I can't. My love was never supposed to be easy, it couldn't have ever been. I'm a King. I am a King. My Fated wouldn't have come into my life smoothly. So why does this come as a surprise to me?

"Hell no, we have to be there!" Caspen retaliates to no surprise.

"No, damn you! We can't be there. Do you not learn? Every fucking time we're near her everything goes wrong. It's not meant to be easy, not for us. We have to-" I sigh, collecting my thoughts, "We have to let her be."

"He's right, Cas," Floren whispers gently, Caspen's face is screwed up tightly with annoyance.

"He's always fucking right." He growls before glancing my way, a cocktail of emotions in his fiery eyes.

"Caspen, we all want to be with her. I know how you feel." Luther looks at me, "But Valentine is correct, if we come to her now it'll end even worse than we would've thought." With what seems like great reluctance, Caspen sighs and bows his head slightly.

"Stop bowing, Fyre." I laugh, clutching his shoulder.

"Last names?" He guffaws. Referring to each other with our latter reminds us of teenagehood, days of fighting, and hormonal anger.

"We're not just peers, we're brothers, idiot," I say, sincerely, looking into his eyes.

"Right." He exhales, rubbing his forehead.