Tethered 02 - Conjure Read Online Free PDF Page B

I squealed with surprise and delight at his motion. At the feel of his teeth carefully grazing over my shoulder, I closed my eyes and gave in to everything I was feeling. This shower was bound to be spectacular.
     

 

    It was seven o’clock and my living room felt crammed with people. Kace sat beside me, his hand resting on my knee. If it hadn’t been for his touch and the effect it had on me, I would have been a nervous wreck. Instead, I was soothed and collected. My eyes darted around the room, taking in everyone’s parents again. Kace’s resemblance to his father was almost uncanny. They shared the same dirty blond hair and chiseled features, but his mother had given him his icy blue eyes. Although Kace’s were a little more masculine than hers, they each held within them that seemingly cold glare that melted away once they smiled.
    It was Adam’s parents that I couldn’t decide on. He was the perfect mixture of them both. When he was beside one, I thought he was the spitting image of him or her, then he would move beside the other and I’d think the same. I’d never seen someone before with so much resemblance to both parents.
    Callie’s mother sat down beside me on the couch, startling me slightly by placing a hand on my arm. “I’m sure this must be a lot for you to take in,” she said with a forced smile.
    I managed a polite smile of my own, but was sure it looked strained. At the moment I wasn’t thinking of anything magickal or even about the initiation. Instead, I was thinking of the simple fact that I was sitting in my grandmother’s house with all my birth mother’s best friends from growing up and neither my grandmother nor my mother were here with me.
    Then, I thought of how I didn’t even know what my mother looked like—what attributes of hers I’d been given due to genetics. This thought had never bothered me more than right now, in this moment.
    “I’m fine, really,” I lied.
    Callie’s mother squeezed my arm as though she hadn’t believed a single word I’d just said. “You look just like her, you know?” she whispered to me in a sympathetic tone.
    “Admer said the same thing, but I don’t know if I believe it. I’ve never seen a picture of her.”
    Mrs. Yates eyes narrowed. “Never? I’ll have to fix that. I’ll dig through my old photo albums when I get home and send Callie by tomorrow with some pictures for you.”
    “Thank you, I’d like that.” My nerves lessened some.
    Knowing I would soon be able to compare myself to old pictures of my mother seemed to dull the adoption weeping I’d been doing internally while sitting in everyone’s presence tonight.
    Charles, Kace’s father, sipped his coffee as he cast his greenish-blue eyes directly on me. “So, Addison, what questions do you have for us? Any?”
    Everyone’s eyes seemed to shift to me then. I didn’t enjoy being the center of attention, especially not in a room full of near strangers. I’d made a list earlier, after Kace and I had finished cleaning the house—and doing other things—but I couldn’t remember the questions I’d wanted to ask now that I’d been put on the spot.
    “Umm.” I thought for a moment. “How are we created? Does it take two Elementals?”
    My face flushed as I realized I’d practically asked them all to have an Elemental sex ed moment with me. Why had that been the question I chose at ask first?
    “Well, Addison,” Adam started, and I instantly wished I could slap him just from the tone of his voice. “When two Elementals love one another—”
    He didn’t get to finish. His mother smacked him square on the back on the head. “Don’t you start your condescending bullshit, Adam. I thought I taught you better than that.”
    I couldn’t contain my laughter when I heard his tiny-framed mother cuss. She just didn’t seem like the type. She appeared to be so sweet—the type you’d imagine to use made-up words for curse words, even when in the presence of adults, like