Twenty-Five

Vali

I walked into the library, turning to look at Mircea as he followed me in and closed the door behind us. We were the only ones in the room, which was what I wanted. It was hard to talk about what I wanted to talk about in front of others.

“What do you want to talk about?” Mircea asked, and I shook my head. How could he not know? How could he not look at the context and put two and two together?

“First, we both made promises for the next time we saw each other. Motivations for why we’re making certain choices. You can go first.” I told him, he nodded as he leaned on a table and watched my eyes.

I had already made a guess to what his motivation was.

“You wanted to know why I’m helping the wolves.” He said, just to clarify what I wanted to hear. When I didn’t respond he continued speaking. “I found out my mate was a wolf.”

“How?” I asked, he smiled.

“A few years ago I was at the last masquerade ball that my mother held before she was killed. In the middle of it, I start seeing these flashes of someone’s bathroom and all this blood. Afterwards, I told my mother about it and she explained that it meant my mate had come into their power.” He said.

The flashes I had seen when I was bitten were flashes of that masquerade. It was flashes through his eyes.

“From that night, I had this semi-regular dream. I would see the silhouette of my mate, that was pretty much it. Just her silhouette. Then a few nights before we left for the Summit I saw her eyes. Her supernatural ones, and they were gold which meant she was a wolf.” He explained. Dreams? I never had any of those. Or maybe I had. I used to see a shadowy shape in my dreams, one only lit by the moon. It didn’t give me any distinguished shape, but now I was thinking about it…

“When did you know it was me?” I asked, he bit his lip, the tip of his canine visible against the pink.

“Not until the last time I saw you, when you gave me your scarf. When you walked out of the wine cellar, the light caught behind you and showed your silhouette through that damned sheer dress.” He said, his eyes roaming my body for a second as he spoke. As if he could see that silhouette right now even though I was wearing an oversized jumper and a pair of leggings. “I realised then but I didn’t know what to say, because it was just a guess based on your body and I didn’t want to make an assumption.”

“When did you know for sure?”

“I realised our scents were similar, and I then went to talk to Nari and see if she could confirm that fact. While I was talking to her, I started smelling things I wouldn’t normally smell like her anxiety over lying. Even more than that, I heard her thoughts, saw a memory. It’s how I know she can’t be trusted, that she works for my father and isn’t my childhood friend.” He said. Shit.

“So now you know what my power is…” I trailed off, he nodded.

“Telepathy, just as rare as telekinesis.” He replied and I bit my bottom lip. “I’m going to guess that your motivation was the prophecy.” Right, he had come all this way with Dallas who had likely caught him up on everything.

“Yes.” I answered, still trying to come to terms with the fact that Dallas was still alive. “What else did Dallas tell you?”

“Not much, just bits and pieces that were of importance. You two were close before he was taken…” Mircea trailed off, and my thoughts went back to the courtyard. Back to when I had tackled Dallas to the ground in pure joy and had immediately caught the scent of jealousy emanating from Mircea.

“Yes, we thought we were mates. Went as far as to try and lock the bond in, but it never did. I know why now, at least.” I explained, letting out a sigh. “After that we just stayed friends, we wanted each other to find our other halves. We’re family.” I kept explaining, for some reason I felt the need to. Especially when I caught that same scent of jealousy coming from him.

“So you’re not…” He trailed off again, which made me smirk.

“No, we haven’t been together for three years now. Why are you so concerned?” I asked, watching his eyes as they looked to his hands.

“We’re mates, Vali. My scent is already changing and we haven’t so much as touched yet aside from maybe a brush of fingers.” He explained, his eyes meeting mine once more with a heaviness in his irises. His irises that were glowing red as he looked at me. “I’m not trying to push you into anything, if you don’t want this then that’s okay. There’s always a choice, and you don’t owe me anything.”

“I know how this works, Mir.” I said, using the nickname that Antanasia had used for him. His red eyes flashed before he forced them shut. “I appreciate you not wanting to push me into anything. Personally I think it’s best that we move forward slowly, get to know each other before we even think about locking in the bond.” When he opened his eyes again they were locked on the floor. “You don’t want to look at me?” I hated when people couldn’t hold eye contact, when they couldn’t look at me.

“If I look at you, I don’t know what I’m going to do. You talk about locking in the bond so nonchalantly, use my nickname…” He trailed off, and I heard his slow calming breath. Heard his heart hammering in his chest. “I haven’t felt bloodlust like this before. Even what I felt when I came of age was nothing like this.” Maybe I needed to change the subject, because this conversation wasn’t done yet and I didn’t know when we would get time to ourselves again.

“How long ago was that? Your coming of age?” Supernaturals were terrible at keeping birth records, or maybe we were good at keeping them to our own kinds. We hadn’t been able to find when Mircea was born, but that could be because it was on a parchment or in a book kept within Bran Castle.

“Not as long ago as you might think.”