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Mackenzie’s body clattered to the ground as the magic holding her to the tree disappeared. Her knees buckled as she tried to catch herself, falling forward onto her stomach and hands.
She pushed up slowly, worried that the frat-boys would be upon her again in an instant, but they were not concerned with her, they were too busy with the animal that had claimed their friend in its teeth.
The black furry mass shook his head vigorously, throwing Matt’s body around until finally, it released its teeth, flinging him across the park. Some of the boys screamed, one running in an attempt to escape, and the others to check on their friend. The beast growled at them, prowling toward them. Matt – miraculously alive but injured – struggled to his feet as his friends reached them. They all backed away from the creature, hauling their friend alongside them, moving off. The beast only followed them for a short time, ensuring they disappeared.
When the men had gone far enough to be sure they were leaving, the creature padded back towards Mackenzie. He looked proud of himself as he moved over towards her, but even the sight of him had her retreating in a crawl until she was backed against the tree, her heart hammering in her ribs as she held her breath.
He slowed, moving tentatively, keeping contact with her eyes as he drew close.
A rush of wind blew her hair as a flash of light blinded her, and when her sight returned, Kai was crouched down in front of her.
The fear and hesitancy in her that had been brought on by his beast form was replaced quickly with fiery hot rage, her heart hammering for a different reason now as she let her breath loose in an almighty command.
“Leave me the fuck alone!”
He moved to check her injured ankle.
“I don’t need your help!”
He looked up at her, his eyebrows raising so much she thought they’d leave his forehead. Abruptly, they settled into a scowl as his eyes iced over with a hardness she’d never seen in him before.
“Clearly you fucking do! What the hell were you thinking going up against them, you were probably going to end up dead!” His hands moving away from her ankle as all care for her injuries disappeared.
“That’s none of your business!” she said, pushing her wrists underneath her butt as she tried to pull herself up onto her feet. Her ankle complained but as she worked her way slowly, he stood up beside her, watching curiously.
She crossed her arms, determined to be free of him as soon as possible and prove she was fine. She stood tall on her ankle, holding her face as still as possible through the twinges of pain—
And Kai caught sight of the gold bracelets around her wrists. “Tell me you did not steal those for the Arcana.” He said it so quietly, his voice breaking as his anger dropped and his eyes widened with fear.
“What does it matter if I did?” Mackenzie said, not denying it but not confirming his theory either as she crossed her arms tighter, hiding the cuffs from view.
“Because that would be the stupidest thing you’ll ever do,” he said, his eyes meeting hers, pleading silently for her to heed his words.
“And why would I trust a word you say?” she countered. She could barely stand to look at him, but she was even more stubborn about not wanting to back down. “Your family murdered mine.”
“What?
“You heard me,” she spat, holding her ground as confusion twisted his face.
His eyes didn’t leave hers.
“Why would you think that?” he questioned.
She blinked a couple of times, reeling. Her frown turned up in disgust as she prepared to watch him try to fake his way out of it. “Because you told me that.”
“Hate to break it to you, Kenzie,” Kai said, his face slowly falling into an amused smile, making her body radiate with raging heat. “I didn’t tell you that.”
“I was in hiding from your father after he killed mine and you just happen to find me? Not to mention the fact that you were in my hometown the day my mother disappeared too!” she said, her voice growing in volume as the venom of her anger dripped into her voice, aimed at him. She kept her arms crossed, worried she’d fry him with purple lightning again.
“I was there to protect you,” he yelled back as though it were the most obvious fact in the world.
She froze, her heart stopping as her breath caught in her throat. “What?” she breathed, barely a whisper.
“Ask me what you want direct,” he told her. “Be specific. I can’t lie and you know it.”
“Did anyone in your family murder my father?” she asked, her chest tightening as though everything rode on this one answer.
“Absolutely not,” he said confidently, releasing all the tension in her, and with it, her anger. “I thought you were pissed at me for lying to you about knowing who you were, but fuck... Kenz... My family would never have murdered yours!” he said, running a hand through his hair.
“I don’t understand...” she said, unable to make sense of all the information being thrown at her.
“My family and I were there, yes. We were supposed to protect and we failed. My dad failed. I didn’t tell you that I knew who you were, but I’d never hurt you or your family, and neither would my parents!”
Mackenzie stood still, watching him, meeting his eyes, seeing his truth.
A wave of relief washed over her.
Unable to keep up her stubborn pose anymore, adrenaline wearing from her body, she sunk to the ground.
He moved to her quickly, and she couldn’t help curling into the warmth of his chest.
She hadn’t realized how tight her body had been wound by the hatred she had tried to feel for him or by the rage of betrayal she had felt. Now it was gone she sucked in air, finally escaping from the depths of the ocean of negativity she had kept herself in the past several weeks. Tears escaped her as she breathed deeply, his arms around her, the tightness in her body gone.
“Hey, it’s okay...” he whispered, his hand stroking her hair. “We need to get you out of the open though, in case they come back.”
She didn’t move, couldn’t move. All efforts to leave his arms had evaporated the second the truth had slipped from his lips.
He didn’t try to ask her again. Instead, he pulled her closer into his chest, hooked one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, scooping her up and walking in the direction of her home. As they walked, he glanced back and forth, side to side, checking to make sure no one was following.
At the house, Kai paused at the front door, looking at her expectantly.
She pulled away from his chest just enough to reach into her bra and pull out a key.
His eyes followed the plunging neckline of her dress, eyebrows raised before his gaze followed her hand to the front door, a smirk pulling his mouth up.
She chuckled as she slotted the key in the door, turning it easily and opening it for them.
Kai maneuvered them through the threshold before placing her on the couch in the living room, leaving her for a moment so he could close the door, then returning to sit by her feet.
They kept each other gazes in the silence, drinking the other in, nothing but the sound of their breathing filling the dark room.
She wanted him on her.
I’m being selfish, right? After everything I’ve been through tonight, a bit of emotion running this show is allowed, right?
Only the need for answers held her back.
The silence filled the space between them, her heart beating rapidly as her cheek heated. As the quiet continued, she had to fill it, sure if it strung on too long he would hear how her heart raced.
“What’s the truth?” she asked, seeing his questioning eyebrows and tight lips in response.
“About which part?” he asked quietly, keeping her gaze.
“All of it. What’s your involvement with me, the Arcana, my family... All of it,” she responded. She wouldn’t make her decisions with only half the answers ever again.
“Okay... My parents were close to yours. They got in trouble and my parents were in it too. Your father was the one who got the worst of it, and when he died, your mother fled with you. With me in tow, my parents found her to warn her that it wasn’t over and that they were all in trouble, but they didn’t know they were being followed. Your mother left you with a friend and tried to flee, but... I don’t think she made it.”
“Why didn’t she just leave me with your parents if they were so close?”
“Because there was a target on my parents’ back too, and when they realized what had happened to Anne, they returned me to Salem. I grew up with family friends while my parents disappeared.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She responded, her heated cheeks and racing heart going still and cold at his story.
“Like you, I’ve learned to live with it.”
“Then why come back to the place I lived?”
“I saw you when we were children. I knew who you were from a distance and as you got closer to being eighteen, I heard whispers that the Arcana had found you. I appeared that day to find you and see that you were okay. And then... I’ll admit, I was fascinated. I watched you day after day, still searching for your mother, and I tried to be careful. I made sure you couldn’t find me, that I was just a protector from afar...”
“And then I saw you.”
He nodded carefully, watching her reactions.
Her heart sped, thumping in her chest as he continued.
“I caught your eye and my beast form... craved you. I shifted out of it but it was no use, I wanted to get to know you. I didn’t want to rock up at your house and frighten you, but I had to know you. You didn’t exactly socialize with the outside world much though. I had a stroke of luck that day when you went to the diner and I knew that was my only chance to be closer to you in person. To be around you in more than just beast form. And you came up to me and as soon as we talked, I knew I wanted you in more than just some physical sense.”
She didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what she could say. All she knew was that her heart, as it tried to beat sporadically, was going to burst as her breath kept catching in her throat.
“I’d been watching you for so long and then finally there you were, learning about me. The girl I’d seen with a fire only for finding her mother came alive for me. Your eyes met mine and they weren’t filled with tears or pain, your steps were joyous when you walked through the forest with me. You enjoyed me as much as I did you, and I knew I couldn’t let you go. I wasn’t going to stay long –the longer I stayed, the more you were at risk of the Arcana finding you.”
“So why not tell me?” she asked, interrupting, desperate to know the answer, to find out why they couldn’t have just continued from where they’d left off and never had the break between them.
“Because if you had a tie to your parents, you would have run towards it, not away. The moment we kissed, it was too late to tell you the truth. If I said the words about my past and your family’s after that, I knew I’d lose you and... I’m selfish. I know that.”
It went quiet between them. He looked at her expectantly and she was unsure how to tell him that this was a better reunion between them than she could ever have imagined. That every word he said was an uplifting bounce to her heart, and she feared the moment it might all come clattering down.
“But I ended up in Salem anyway.”
“You did, and if I’d known you were going to come running for the bear’s den, I would’ve stayed in contact. Instead, you arrived here and by the time I realized, you were already with him.” Kai’s voice turned gruff as his eyes glazed over with the memory.
Mackenzie cringed, her lips tight as she also remembered, the spin of guilt in her stomach. She knew she’d let herself ‘move on quickly’, but she also hadn’t been sure she’d ever seen Kai again and she had just been trying to live more openly, the way Lucy had invited her to.
She remembered the looks on both of the boy’s faces, the hatred between them, and how vicious Kai had been at the party, trying to separate Teo and her because of his jealousy. It both excited and terrified her.
She’d never been the kind of girl who appreciated jealousy in a man, but how could she not be a little turned on that he was fighting to remove his competition and be with her... Was that not biological animal instinct?
Kai glanced at Mackenzie’s face, seeing the way her eyes dropped to her fidgeting hands and her lips grew tight, the guilt written on her face. Reaching out, he laced his fingers with hers and waited for her eyes to return to his.
“I don’t blame you. I know that you didn’t think you would see me again either. I’m just annoyed that it happened the way that it did,” he said softly, his voice sincere and silky, low and caring.
She nodded, not trusting her voice as he continued carefully.
“By that time though, they’d realized who you were and clearly awakened you. And now... from what I can gather... they’ve got their claws in you.”
His eyes glanced down at the gold bracelets that still hugged her wrists, the cold metal thrumming with a power she’d never felt before. She sensed she could reach out with her awareness and focus and use them, but she wasn’t sure what that would do.
She’d been ignoring them in the hopes she’d never find out. If they were as dangerous as the Major Arcana claimed, surely she shouldn’t dare use them? No matter how tempting the power was.
She gave her head a shake. “They didn’t get their claws in me. I heard what they had to say and being an organization that claimed to do good... I believed them,” she said quietly. She could recognize the lies the second they spilled from her mouth.
Kai looked at her for a moment, probably tasting the lie of omission in the air before continuing with the conversation as though his magical power hadn’t just told him the answer.
“You could’ve heard my side out,” he said simply, referring to when he’d rocked up at her door and she’d tossed him away with her magic.
She cowered into the couch, embarrassed by her actions. If she’d listened to his answers, things might have turned out differently. “I could’ve, but I was so mad and I believed what I’d been told. I saw you at the party, so different from how you were when we met, and I... just realized that I didn’t know you... I didn’t know you well enough to tell what your everyday personality was and I couldn’t make truth from lies. When they told me the story and I heard your initial answers to my questions, it just... fit.”
“That my family killed yours?” he said incredulously.
“Well... Yes. My mom’s friend said my father got in with the wrong people, and then Teo told me the same but claimed that the wrong people were your parents. I didn’t have any other answers to go on and clearly when I interrogated you about it...” she tried to explain, fighting shakily to find words to make him forgive her naivety.
“You slotted my answers into what you already had,” he finished for her, nodding as his eyes glazed over with a faraway look.
“I did,” Mackenzie confirmed, picking at her fingernail cuticles as guilt chewed through her stomach. She could feel that pull of her bed, how easy it would be just to climb under her covers upstairs and never emerge. If she did that, maybe she wouldn’t continue the mistakes she seemed to be making at a near-constant rate.
She didn’t know what was right, wrong, truth, lie, or a mistake anymore. And in the rush of chaotic confusion, it seemed less troublesome to just do nothing.
Like a shock jolting through her, she remembered the obligations she’d been tasked with that would chase her even into her desired nothingness. The Major Arcana. She glanced from her cuticles to the gold bracelets, glinting in the dim light as she rocked her wrists back and forth.
“You know you can’t give them over, right?” Kai said clearly, watching her fascination.
She looked up at him, seeing the seriousness in his eyes. It solidified the initial fear she’d held about the organization early on.
Lucy’s mistrust had been right the first time. Mackenzie had lost sight of that.
“How bad is it?” she found herself asking as she sank back on the couch, bracing herself for what was to come.
“Are you sure you want to know?”