Novel Square
85
Rain pov. "She's staring to spiral." I tell Benjamin as I watch my mate and Xavier hover over her computer. "I can feel it inside of me. She doesn't trust me, not completely and it's your fault." The anger and the resentment building up in my mate is worrying. I've stopped Remi from reaching out to Casey more than once now, leaving us both miserable as we argue, and it makes our bond and the bond between our mates even more fragile.
"Just give it a little more time.” He nods. "It's his turn now." I look over at Xavier who's busy telling Morgan that the safeguarding she did on the robots has been wiped. She stares at him for a few seconds, runs her hand through her hair that's hovering between turning silver and staying brown and the storm of emotions coming from her side of the bond nearly takes all the breath from my lungs and then as if nothing happens it all settles. Goes deathly calm as she pulls up some files and eventually runs a programme.
"She's fixing it." I tell Benjamin who looks almost disappointed. As if he expected this to be her breaking point and I think it damn nearly was. When Torren told her to leave there was something that settled in my mate that left me feeling unsettled. It's something she hid from me, and I have a feeling it's only because she knows I'm hiding something from her. Calling her out on it would start something ugly and as much as I want to have her break, I won't have it be at the cost of our bond.
"We need to get Magnus in here." I huff a laugh, knowing they must be desperate if they're willing to call him in. Morgan will lose it if she sees him. "Will she be able to handle it?" I shake my head. "I'm sorry, Pup." I hate the nickname but he's not going to stop using it and it kind of helps that my dad develops a twitch in his eye every time he hears the vampire use it.
"It's not your fault. It's not like I told you what was happening." I can still see the confliction on his face. "Are you seriously going to make this about you? Do you need comfort because of what happened to me?" It's a baffling thought. "I don't need comfort, but it doesn't mean I'm not sad that you had to go through that. I'm also not sure I understand it. Is that the reason Morgan came back sooner?" I nod my head.
"I was dying without her. The bond isn't made to be stretched that thin. So, she didn't feel safe, and her body couldn't keep the pregnancy when it's feeling threatened. It happens to self-preserve. She didn't have Casey with her in the prism but when she was busy losing the baby, her body locked herself in her mind to keep her from having to go through that fully aware and it woke Casey up. She could escape through that." A part of me wishes it didn't have to happen that way. That she figured out how to get out of there and I could have held out until she did. Morgan looks over at me, my feelings loud even when I try for them not to be.
She makes a move to get up from her desk, but I shake my head, giving her a bit of a smile. We stare at each other, long enough for her to understand that her coming over here is not going to stop these feelings from surfacing again. That we still have a long way to go to heal and we'd probably not get the change anytime soon. We have a war to prepare for, there is no time and then there's this thing that I'm keeping from her. She blinks once, twice and a third time before she turns back to the monitor in front of her and her fingers fly over the keyboard again.
"Magnus sent her there to prove that her magic was unstable." I turn my gaze to Benjamin, eyes raised. "The parameters were that she was supposed to do it without relying on her magic, but she still found a way to escape using Casey. She essentially found a loophole out of her prism through you and her magic." There's a tint of proudness in his tone that makes me smile.
"She means a lot to you." It's not a question. Benjamin gets this fond look in his eyes, and he nods.
"As do you. As long as I've lived, I've never sired an heir. When I met the two of you, did what I did. I promised to keep you safe. I failed in that but I'm hoping to redeem myself... somehow." He looks pained, really pained and I realize this is the reaction I wanted from my father. True, honest emotion and not some fake bullshit that plays on my emotions and his need for me to be mature.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.
"You're more of a father than mine ever was." I mutter, leaning against the wall.
"You should talk to him." I open my mouth to protest but he holds up a finger that silences me. "I'm not saying you have to forgive him. What I'm saying is that you should have a conversation with him that doesn't lead to you blowing up at him, or your mother." I stare ahead of me for a while, watching Morgan and Xavier work, focusing on soothing her burst of frustration through our bond.
"I'm going to ask you something, Benjamin, and I need you to be honest with me. Does whatever threat they have on their lives justify leaving us behind?" For a moment I think he's not going to answer me but then he shakes his head. "Then I have nothing to say to him. Danger I can excuse, but pure selfishness? No, you're going to have to put up with me ignoring them." He sighs and we both know this conversation is done.
"Yes!" Xavier suddenly shouts at the same moment I feel Morgan's excitement fill our bond, overwhelming every negative feeling that lingers.
"They're online." The woman herself announces as she leaves her chair and bounces over to me, throwing her arms around my shoulder and placing a kiss on my lips. I try not to think about how it's the first kiss we shared since she came back from the prism.
"What does this mean?" Benjamin asks.
"It means, we can win this war." Morgan grins and the look I share with the vampire lets me know that we need to get Morgan to fall apart, and it needs to happen soon. I give him a slight nod when she lets me go and goes back to her computer. As much as I hate to admit it, we need Magnus.