Soul Bound Read Online Free PDF Page A

goddess, although mortals didn’t document which gods and goddesses Druid priestesses truly worshipped.  They were known to worship natural elements, such as the earth, the sun, the moon… but other than that, their religion was not a written one.  So, modern mortals truly didn’t know what had gone on here. 
    My mother was the goddess of witchcraft. So any magic that was channeled here must be from my mother. 
    My mother was who they referred to as the goddess herself.
    Suddenly, I felt closer to my mother than I had in awhile, as though her very presence was here.  The wind picked up and lifted the hair from my face and it felt as though my mother was actually speaking to me, letting me know of her unseen presence.  I knew it was silly, if she was here she would simply materialize and show herself to me.  But it still felt true.
    “It’s not silly,” Branwyn murmured as she stretched her arms out wide and lifted her face to the muted evening sunlight that filtered through the trees.  “Your mother is here.  You can feel her.”
    A thought occurred to me and I turned to her.  “Have you ever actually seen my mother?  In person?”
    Her eyes popped open and she stared at me in surprise. 
    “Of course not.  I have not acquired that much value to the goddess yet.  But she speaks to me here.  I channel her strength.  It is through her that I am able to sift through the thoughts of others.”
    “My mother grants you the power to read minds?” I raised an eyebrow. 
    “I do not do it alone,” she answered in wry amusement.  “I am but a mere mortal.”
    “Somehow, I doubt you are a mere mortal,” I told her.  “Especially since I know that you have seen my future somehow.  Can you tell me now?  What is my purpose?  What have you seen?”
    “Come,” she nodded and gestured toward stone altar.  “Both of you are part of this, both of you are more important than you know.  Lie down here.”
    I glanced up at her sharply and she smiled.  “You’ll have to trust me, Empusa.  I mean you no harm.”
    “You’ll have to excuse me,” I answered slowly.  “It is hard for me to trust.”
    “I know,” she answered solemnly.  “Please, lie down. I give you my word that I will not harm you.  Join hands.”
    “You couldn’t harm me,” I shook my head as I did what she asked.  Climbing onto the stone, it was cool and smooth beneath my hands.  Brennan leaped up next to me and we both settled onto our backs, staring up at the sky above us as our fingers joined together.
    Tingling electricity fingers caressed my arm as our palms drew together.  Brennan turned to me and smiled.
    “I doubt I’ll ever get used to that,” he admitted softly, leaning in quickly to brush his lips against mine.  The electricity spread to my lips.
    “Me either,” I told him. 
    “Focus,” Branwayn admonished us as she stood on the edge of the stone.  “I need you to clear your thoughts.  The images that come into your mind here today will be your answers.  You will trust what you see far more than you would trust what I say.”
    She began murmuring an incoherent chant in the same tone I’d heard my mother use a thousand times over.  I watched her lips move, forming the soft words, before I shifted my gaze to the sky above me.  The trees practically met in a canopy above us, their long boughs stretching and reaching as the wind moved them. 
    The warmth of Brennan’s body next to me lulled and comforted me as the clouds above swirled and melted into the treetops.  I became aware of a crackling, heavy presence in the meadow, something that lifted above us and hovered.  Yet when I opened my eyes, there was nothing there.  Branwyn’s eyes were squeezed tightly closed as she chanted and Brennan was staring at the sky.
    The heaviness clung to my arms and legs, creeping upward over my body until it felt as though it was holding me down, tying me to the altar.  It should have been unnerving or