Bound Book 2

Chapter 43 - The Wedding Dress

Skylar

I'm looking at my reflection in the mirror, my eyes nearly returning to their original hazel color as the blood I had ingested from the hunter slowly works its way out of my system. Most of it had landed in the toilet, thankfully, speeding up the process. Not nearly quick enough as it had been two days since then. The nausea persisted, culminating in more than one trip to the bathroom as I hurled the contents of my stomach up.

My head shakes of its own volition as I search for the beginning of this journey I am on amongst the memories I have lost. The effort makes my head ache, but I cannot return to that time twenty months ago when Dmitri walked into my life. The moment my life changed. Though it was not his fault that all of this was happening, I wonder if my life would have continued peacefully as it had been or if I would have found myself in the same situation, just at a different time. And with other people. Perhaps not as supporting. I count my blessings.

Useless thoughts, really, as nothing would change the past. If you had asked me seven months ago if I would have changed meeting Dmitri, my answer would probably have been yes. Now, my future seemed to only include him in it. Even now, I can feel his presence behind me as he quietly enters the room. His large frame fills the mirror as he stands behind me, his arms snaking around my waist while he buries his face in my neck. The way he gently moves my hair to kiss my clavicle makes my eyes close in bliss. It was amazing how his touch could make me almost instantly feel better, the headache that was in its infancy fading away like a bad memory.

"Mmmm, so beautiful," his quiet, husky voice ignites the goosebumps that spread over my skin.

"So, you ready?" he asks, stepping back as I turn around in his arms.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I plant a quick kiss on his lips before I teleport us downstairs, dead center in the middle of the lounge.

Over the last two days, I had spent most waking hours learning how to control all these new abilities I have acquired since breaking the curse. Teleportation was now as simple as a quick thought, and I could move up to four people. Something no witch or warlock in history was able to do. Blaise seemed particularly excited about all of these powers, while Raina and Ally remained more reserved.

I could tell they were worried. Raina especially. She kept looking at me as if there was something she wanted to say that she couldn't. After snacking on the hunter's neck, Raina took some vials of my blood, which she sent to a lab for testing. Precautionary was how she phrased it, an undertone of something I couldn't decipher lacing the words as she looked from Mira to Ally. Perhaps they would pick up if my thyroid was underactive. Bizarrely, considering all the vomiting I had been doing, I seemed to be putting on some weight. I was already small, so while it wasn't perhaps as noticeable to others, I could definitely tell.

Shaking those thoughts, I walk from the center of the lounge to the table that has finally been cleared of Elsabeth's book and all the written pages of translation it housed for the last couple of weeks. Ally and Raina had shipped everything to their coven. With all that had happened since the trip to Maine, I hadn't yet had a chance to open the rest of the items my parents had left me. Today, momentarily, would be that day.

On the table now lie the two items that have remained unopened, the little handcrafted box and the beautifully wrapped fabric bundle. We sit down, Dmitri giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Okay, I say we start with the one wrapped in cloth. It feels more like a present." The smile on my face is more for the benefit of Dmitri. Internally, anxiety has tiny butterflies unfurling in my stomach.

I pull the material-covered item towards me, tugging on the two ends of the hessian rope tied in a bow. Once it comes undone, I gently lift the colorful piece of material used to wrap the item inside. I was expecting anything but what lay on the table in front of me. It is a beautiful white dress. I stand up, lifting the dress up and off the table as it unfurls, fully opening to reveal its beauty. It is a wedding dress. I know without a doubt that this is my mother's wedding dress. I have seen this dress in photos my aunt and uncle have hanging on their wall.

From when I was little, I can remember thinking that if I ever got married, I would get married in a dress like the one my mother wore. I never would have imagined that it might be the exact one she wore. Pulling it close, I inhale, surprised when a faint smell of vanilla and jasmine gently fan out of the dress, their colors almost completely faded. The dress felt magical, not just to touch, as it certainly was the softest white lace and satin material I had felt in my life. No, it was more than that. There is a feeling coming from it. A gentle breeze runs along my arm when I hold it. Without my heightened senses, I doubt I would feel it as it's almost indistinct.

"Wow, that's odd," Dmitri says as he pushes his chair back, giving him more room as he stares at the dress in my hands. "It's a stunning dress. A wedding dress?"

"My mother's wedding dress," I say, my eyes still glued to the dress in my hands.

"It's enchanted, literally." Dmitri reaches a hand out to touch it, his fingers lifting the material gently.

"You can tell?" My eyes dart to his as the expression on his face changes from a frown to a smile, his eyes meeting mine.

"I've seen this before. The dress will fit you perfectly. The enchantment ensures that. It's coded to you now." He shifts the dress to his nose before inhaling deeply.

Holding the dress back up, I now see that instead of the nearly faded vanilla and jasmine scents that were there previously, my unique smell seeps out of the dress. It wraps around Dmitri's hand where he still grasps the hem edge, his eyes opening to reveal black orbs before changing to green, his hand suddenly dropping the material. The same strange scent I saw when I shifted the other day appears and then fades, so quickly I wonder if I imagined it.

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