ANEW ||

Curses and Veils

It took Mari a moment to react, but a moment too long. She whirled and faced Clair motionless on the ground. "Get her back to the island, get Petina and Matzu and have her on constant supervision. I want her monitored around the clock."

Alaric didn't look at Mari. He simply pulled Clair into his arms as tears poured down his cheeks. 

"Lex," Mari said here eyes trained on the empty space her mate had left. "go with them. I need you to find a way to put the barrier back up." Lexi let out a noise in her throat, laboured and confused. "I will help as soon as I get back."

"And what if I can't get it back up?" Lexi asked softly.

"Station every available guard. Have Vesta set up a schedule."

"Not Ranger?" April asked. Mari could hear the strange timber in her tone. The nervous she asked the question. They were all walking on eggshells around her. She supposed that was a good thing.

Mari turned her attention to April and Lexi, she expression filled with deadly fury. "I have other plans for my brother."

Lexi moved, her arm looping through Alaric's. He didn't notice. His full attention was on the woman in his arms. One minute he was there, cradling her, and the next he vanished - Lexi along with him. 

Mari turned to April, her gaze lingering on the sand. "I need you to do damage control. I need every one of our kind who wants to go home to the island on a boat. I don't care how many boats you need, just bring everyone who is willing home. I will have Belark and Jass waiting for them."

April nodded and began walking up the sand without another word. 

Mari looked at Rayne still kneeling in the sand and tears fell over her cheeks. She pulled her mask down away from her face, air pulling in through her teeth. Rayne was crying too, water leaking from the eye that wasn't bleeding. 

She moved towards her, falling to her knees before her little sister. Her hands came up, her fingers grazing her sister's pale and blood-streaked cheeks. "I am so sorry-" Mari said the words jutting out of her mouth painfully. 

This was her fault. She should have been here, not them. Not Rayne. She should have been here to stop it, she should have-

Rayne's hands came up, her fingers curling around Mari's wrists. "No," Rayne said pushing a small smile out at her sister. "This isn't your fault. This was my choice. You didn't do this Mare." 

"But Clair-" Mari said, her voice sounding coarse and empty.

"That's not your fault either." 

Mari stared into her sister's face for a long while, stared into the ruined parts of her eye. "She could die," Mari said. "I won't lose any more of my family."

Mari stood, taking her sister's hands in her own and dragging her to her feet. Mari looked up at her little sister. The blood was beginning to dry. In all of this, Rayne didn't look broken. There was an overwhelming emotion on her face - freedom. Her mate bond was broken, the one thing she hated was now gone from her soul. 

Then she dropped Rayne's hands and turned to the only other person left on the beach. "And you," Mari snapped, all sadness and grief gone from her tone. Hellion was smart enough to flinch away from her, away from the black wings littered with sand, away from the scars marring her face. She could feel them burning. 

Hellion's eyes closed for half a second, then opened to reveal surprised panic. Mari had already cast the shell of a pulse around him, encasing him in clear steal. She had used it before to stop Alaric from disappearing when she wasn't done arguing with him yet. She had done it now too. Mari had lost the other one of The Merge's children, she wouldn't let this one slip through her fingers as well. 

"Don't bother," Mari growled. "Where would she have gone?" 

Hellion didn't answer for a long moment and then, "I have no idea." 

Mari's nose twitched in irritation and something else. "Fine. Ranger will know what to do." Mari ran a hand over her face, thinking. How the hell was she going to fix this? Schemes, different scenarios, patterns - they all flashed through her mind. Angry tears poured over her cheeks. 

Mari met his gaze. "Your twin will die for what she's done and you as well if you don't prove useful. You sister has sentenced my second to death and if you don't fix it, you'll be going with her." 

Hellion's eyes widened, his sense of self-preservation kicking in. "I can't," he stammered. "She's older and stronger. She's different. I don't-"

Something clicked on inside Mari's head like a switch and the expression on her face made Hellion's words die in his throat. "You have no idea," Mari said, her eyes squinted.

"What?" he asked glancing between Mari and Rayne standing behind her. 

"How close are you and your sister?" Mari asked, eyeing the piece of blue in his brown eyes. 

He blinked. "I have no idea,' he said. "She is busy!" 

"And what of the rest of your family? Your parents?" 

Hellion let out a sigh. "My mother died in my forty-sixth year and I can't remember my father. He spent most of his time with Hella when we were babies." 

Mari glanced at Rayne and her expression revealed what she already knew. Hellion had no fucking clue who he was. 

A flash of light appeared to her left and Mari looked to see Alaric. His eyes were red. She'd never seen him look worse. "She's with Matzu," he murmured. "He's taking as much pain as he can from her but I don't know how much longer he can hold her. Her powers are volatile, lashing out." 

Mari looped her hand in his. "Mare," Alaric said turning to face her. "You should know," Alaric started, "with the mate bond gone completely - the curse-" He couldn't seem to finish. His grey eyes swam with an emotion Mari hadn't seen on him in many moons. Pity. Guilt. "It happened minutes after I got back to the island. If I can feel the veil go back over, then so can-" 

Elijah. 

He didn't need to finish. Mari closed her eyes. No. No. No. 

Of course, this would happen. The three fates, each cursed for eternity by their father, each set to face the consequences for their childhood accident. Elijah's curse had been the worst. He was cursed to roam the earth alone with a monster under his skin. He was cursed to feel the death of every living creature as if it were his own. He was cursed to be unmated, alone, for all eternity. 

Of course, when Mari was born and the thread between them was first formed, things had started to change. Elijah could finally control the monster under his skin, the pain had started to ebb away and when she came of age, he was given the Dividend as a mate. For over a century he had been free. Mari knew the beast that shared her partners subconscious was settled by her. She knew he hadn't felt pain of others either. 

But with the bond broken... 

No. No. No. 

"Where is he?" Mari said swallowing down the panic. 

"I don't know," Alaric said. 

Mari turned her gaze to Hellion. "You know the three fates of the island. The Taken, The Given and The Merge. The Merge died in the war. -"

"You mean you killed him," Hellion snapped. 

Mari pressed her face into a hard line, her irritation, her anger pooling in her heart. She wanted to strangle this male, she wanted to send flames to thunder down his throat. 

"The Taken," Mari said gesturing to Alaric. "Your father's eldest brother."