Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

mother going to the best enchanters of her time and using their hatred against the Queen to help her create a piece to keep me safe. I had to trust her. There was no one I truly trusted anymore, not even Micah, even after all he’d done for me these last few days, but I had to trust her. She put this inside me and I had to believe she had taken precautions. I was her daughter, after all. So, I tucked the cuff high on my forearm, clasped the two ends together tightly, and pulled my long sleeves down to hide it, thankful for the cooler weather we were heading toward. When I wore the cuff once before, nothing felt different until I had asked it for my power back. So, as I walked with Micah and Baleon toward our gate, I muttered to myself, asking the Keeper to stay quiet and calm during the flight.
    I’m not sure what I had been expecting, but flying coach with Micah and Baleon hadn’t been it. Apparently, his mother flew in a private jet. I was more than happy to sit in a back row seat to avoid spending hours with her. Micah wouldn’t tell me how he had gotten her to agree to the plan, but I was actually worried about him. Lines of exhaustion were etched deep in his face and hints of bluish purple sat beneath his eyes. Not for the first time, I wondered how he was protecting me. He tried to sound like his normal pretentious self, but something was missing.
    I was shocked to find Baleon didn’t speak unless Micah directly addressed him. While it had been amusing to watch him coax the human TSA agents into letting him through without using the metal detectors, and the “What the hell is wrong with that guy?” looks from the other passengers had me smirking, I didn’t want to spend the whole flight sitting next to a mute. I tried to engage him in conversation once we were in our seats, but he stared ahead, not acknowledging I was mere centimeters from him. Micah actually chuckled. A sound I hadn’t realized I missed. Laughter seemed like a foreign concept.
    “He won’t speak to you, Amelia. Bale has been with me since I was born and he is my sworn protector. He is not here for conversation and especially not with you,” Micah explained. I turned to look at Bale, as Micah had called him, and studied his features. Not as tall as Rhi, but still a large, looming man who was easily six-foot-four. His head was shaved and he wore the silver collar around his neck, as all Hunters did. He also wore the same long, black trench coat, making him look like he’d walked straight off the Matrix set. His skin was like milk chocolate, and I saw hints of tribal-looking tattoos peeking out below the cuffs of his jacket and on his neck. He looked a little older, but it was all in his eyes. His eyes had seen things.
    I leaned forward, making my study of Baleon obvious. He stared directly into the back of the seat in front of him while I stared at him. The longer I looked into his eyes, the more I felt like I was falling off a cliff. There were things there I didn't want to see; I could feel it in the bottom of my stomach and in the reaction from the Keeper in the back of my mind. She went on high alert and the responsive protection she always provided flooded my veins in an instant. I looked away quickly, trying to rein her back, but not before I saw his eyes dart toward me, questioning. Wondering if he could somehow feel what I did, I silently pled for her to go back to her corner and sat back, fixing my eyes on the seat in front of me. I smiled a little to myself, realizing I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t so great at doing what I was told.
    From the Olympia airport, Bale drove us out of the city and toward the coast. As we drove through the Olympic Mountains, I couldn’t pull my face away from the car window. I thought Northern California was beautiful, but I’d never seen trees so green. Green was all you could see until you got to the snow-capped mountains standing out against the horizon. Micah allowed me to take it all in for