Entangled (Entangled Trilogy #1) (25 page)

James stood by his lockers,
examining his fingernails and frowning at them as if he desperately
needed a manicure. His frown deepens when he senses Adrian’s
presence behind him, which kind of scares me.

I can sense both Adrian and James’
emotions and presence. To be honest, I was always able to tell how
James and Adrian felt, but I thought I knew how Adrian felt because
of our soul mate bond. How can this be happening again?

“Ah, you’re finally here,” James
smiles broadly. Adrian looks pretty pissed, but he tries to control
his anger.

“Why are you moving in on my
girl?” Adrian demands, gripping James’ collar while James’ smile
expanded.

“She’s not your anything. I have a
say in this, too, remember? Should I remind you” James grinned
again, raising an eyebrow suggestively. Adrian scowled once before
pushing James onto the locker, hard. James didn’t flinch once, not
even once. Instead, he went back to examining his
fingernails.

“She’s mine,” Adrian growled
before smacking James twice. This time, James winced, but I doubt
it was from pain. He never gets hurt, ever.

“No, she’s OURS,” James said,
stating the word ‘OURS’ pretty loud and clearly.

“NO, she chose me a long time
ago,” Adrian scowled again.

“Actually, she didn’t choose yet.
You see, she has three soul—,” James started, but something back in
reality started waking me up. If I woke up now, there was no
guarantee that I will be stuck in this vision again. I need to know
what he was about to say.

I slowly opened my eyes, trying to
get used to the light after I blacked out about two hours ago. I
slowly, but carefully, sat up and blinked a few times to get used
to my surroundings now. Great, I was still on my bed, in my bedroom
with Adrian sitting in front of me while Elliot sat on a chair next
to him.

“What the hell, Adrian?” I asked,
wanting to know why he woke me up. “I was in the middle of a dream,
you know.”

“No, you weren’t. You were having
another one of those visions. I know for sure that wasn’t a dream,”
Adrian tells me, giving me a look that said, really, that’s the
best lie you could come up with?

“Well, why did you wake me up?” I
asked, crossing my arms over my chest. He frowned a little, looking
over at Elliot for help. Elliot did open his mouth to answer, but I
held up my hand and shook my head at him. “I asked Adrian, not you,
Elliot.” Elliot had about a second to look surprised before closing
his mouth.

“You—I—I just—Roza,—I couldn’t
really let you see that vision,” Adrian said in between sighs,
running his hand through his already higgledy-piggledy hair. I
frowned at the thought of Adrian going through my head to spy on
me. Could he do that?

“You spied on me?” I asked,
disbelieve lacing my voice.

“It’s not really called spying. I
knew what you were seeing because of the soul mate bond,” Adrian
mumbled, denying to meet my cantankerous eyes.

“Of course, it’s always the ‘soul
mate’ thing that has to ruin everything,” I mutter incoherently
under my breath and Adrian’s eyes snap up instantly, meeting mine.
Mine were filled with sadness, longing and anger while his were
filled with hurt, betrayal and well, sadness.

“Do you really mean that, Roza?”
he asks me in a small voice, his eyes already tearing up because of
my big mouth. I just had to state the truth in front of him. I roll
my eyes and scoot closer to him so that I can hug him and I did. He
hugs me back after a moment’s hesitation. After about a millisecond
after Adrian begins to hug me, I pull away, trying not to look into
his hurtful eyes. I completely forgot that Elliot was sitting
there, next to us, awkwardly looking around the room, anywhere and
everywhere. I also forgot about James’ letter. That is
important.

If you don’t understand anything
about the whole angel thing, feel free to ask you soul mate,
Adrian.

“
Adrian, what am I?” I ask
unexpectedly, making his eyes go wide. I’m surprised that they
didn’t just pop out.

“
You-you’re human,” Adrian
stutters and I smile a bitter smile. I can tell he’s lying because
a) he stuttered. B) He looks away and his eyes go wide. C) I could
feel it through our soul mate bond.

“
You’re lying,” I smile again and
Elliot sighs. I look over at him and he looks over at
Adrian.

“
Just tell her, man. It’s no use.
She already knows too much,” Elliot sighs again and Adrian gives
him a tight-lipped smile. I could practically feel the nervous
waves rolling off him and I didn’t need the bond to know
that.

“
Let’s start with Elliot. You see,
Rose, Elliot is a—,” Adrian starts, but I cut him off, trying to
ignore the fact that now I’m Rose again, not Roza.

“
He’s human, I get it,” I tell
him, but he shakes his head and Elliot laughs. “What?”

“
Sis, I’m not human. Just 50%
human,” he states.

“
I don’t understand,” I say
nervously and Adrian senses that, scooting closer to me and placing
a hand on my back, rubbing comforting patterns onto my back. I
relax physically, but not mentally.

“
You see, Rose, once upon a time,
there used to be a time when Heavenly Angels could roam around
freely on Earth with humans without getting in trouble. One angel
decided to take advantage of that and ‘do the deed’ with a human,
who later conceived a half angel half human baby,” Elliot
enlightened, trying to keep a straight face throughout the whole
‘story time’. So angels and humans “mingling” create
disasters?

“
No, Roza, they create Nephilims,”
Adrian smiles, looking down at me with an amusing
expression.

“
So . . . Elliot’s a
Nepha-whatever you just said,” I tell them and they both burst out
laughing.

“
Yes, I’m a Nepha-whatever,”
Elliot repeats, looking a bit offended.

“
So . . . am I one too? Was my dad
or mom an angel?” I ask, kind of frightened and enthusiastic at the
same time.

“
No, unfortunately, you’re not a
Nephilim,” Adrian frowns and I can sense that he desperately wished
that I was one.

“
Okay. Before you continue, I need
to know how I’m related to you, Adrian. Who are you?” I ask
cautiously, slipping out of his hold and he gulps
audibly.

“
I-I’m Adrian, you soul mate,” he
stutters again and sighs, knowing he’s been caught red-handed. “I’m
just—I’m your—,” Adrian starts, but Elliot helps him out by
finishing for him.

“
You see, Rose, before your
accident, you were married to someone. He loved you, a lot. After
the accident, you two were separated,” Elliot starts and I nod,
completely oblivious to what he’s about to say. “That is why your
last name is Ross, not Hathaway. Adrian’s last name is also Ross,”
Elliot tells me, wanting me to be the one to figure it out.
Realization dawned me haphazardly.

“
You mean, Adrian’s my hu—,” I
started, but I cut myself off. Oh my god, He’s the one I was
married to. He’s the one who almost died with me on the night of
the accident. Elliot told me that he wanted to leave me and Adrian
alone and he left. I didn’t notice that Adrian went to stand by the
balcony and I quickly ran over to him, standing next to him, facing
him. He turned to look at me slowly and I instantly hugged him, not
wanting to let go, ever.

This is why he never wanted to be
away from me.

“
Adrian, why didn’t you tell me?”
I sobbed and he just ran a hand through my hair.

“
I didn’t know how to. Plus, the
right time never came,” he told me and kissed my tears away. I
smiled and looked up at him.

“
So since we’re married, if we
ever have kids, are they going to be Nephilims, too?” I ask, my
cheeks turning red.

“
No, they won’t be Nephilims or
human. They’ll be angels, like you and me,” Adrian smiles at me
expectantly. I completely blank out.

“
I don’t understand. I’m human,
not an angel, like you,” I tell him, smiling slightly.

“
Rose, you’re not human, you’re an
Eart—,” Adrian starts, but is cut off by the sound of a text
message on my phone. I run over to my phone and check who sent it.
It was James.

Rosemarie,

Why would you spend your time with
your soul mate when you can come and save your friend? You have
exactly one hour to come to Riverside Park before I decide to
finish Maddie off for good. Next person on the list, Savvy. Come
on, Rose. The clock is ticking. Tick Tock! Tick Tock! I have quite
a few tricks up my sleeve.

—
James.

I looked up from my phone to see
Adrian looking at me, his jaws tightened.

“
Adrian, we have to—,” I
start.

“
I know. Let’s get Elliot,” he
states, taking me by the hand so we can get Elliot who was already
at the door. I try not to let it get to me, but I can’t help but
think about what kind of an angel I am. Adrian was about to tell me
but he couldn’t . I hope I’m a Heavenly Angel, not an Abaddon
Angel. I don’t want to be like James or Lucifer.

We arrive at the Riverside Park,
only to see James and Maddie already there. James had a knife at
Maddie’s throat while she struggled to break free from his hold.
She was turning purple from the lack of oxygen. I tried not to
think about what he would do to me if I was his.

“
Well, well, well, look who
decided to show up finally. Are you two finally done with your
romance,” James smirks, tightening his hold on Maddie, who was
vulnerably clawing at his arms and that was no use.

“
Maddie,” I breathe as Maddie
croaks out my name helplessly. I tried to ignore her, but it was
pretty hard to ignore someone with a purple face. Oh, Maddie. Why
her?

“
So, Rosemarie, who is going to be
your true soul mate? Adrian? Or me?” James smirks.

CHAPTER 26

ENTANGLED

“
Shut. The. Hell. Up. James,”
Adrian snarled through gritted teeth and I wanted to recoil, but I
was glued to where I was. I couldn’t move a single
muscle.

“So, Rosemarie, who is going to be
your true soul mate? Adrian? Or me?”

What is that supposed to
mean?

“Wait, what? Adrian’s my real soul
mate, not you. What the hell are you talking about?” I ask, taking
a step forward as James loosened his grip on Maddie.

“You see, you really have—,” James
started, but he was cut off by the sound of Adrian’s wings bursting
out of his back and they were majestic.

Adrian’s wings were pure white
while the tips were a light silver color. His wings were four times
his size and they looked so velvety and silky and . . . beautiful.
I wanted to run up to him and just snuggle into his wings, but
something held me back. At that moment, I felt a surge of hatred
towards him for some reason. To top it all off, I felt utterly
attracted to James and that’s when I knew it wasn’t me.

“Adrian!” I yelled out, trying to
get his attention, but my voice was cut off by the sound of a whole
group of fallen angels running into the scene, holding down both
Elliot and Adrian. I tried to get to them, but I couldn’t. I
literally couldn’t move now. I looked over my shoulders at James,
who was smirking away, and looked back at Adrian who was struggling
to break free.

I turned around to face the devil,
whose smirk grew wider and his grip on Maddie tightened
further.

“James, please let her go. I’ll do
anything. Just let them go,” I said, pointing at Maddie, Adrian and
Elliot one at a time.

“Hmmm . . .”James made his
thinking face and then scrunched up his nose before replying a
simple no.

“Why? What do you want?” I asked,
begged even. James’ hold on Maddie loosened a bit, looking at my
tear-streaked face. I thought I saw a different version of James
I’ve never seen, but he changed into that devil once
again.

“You wanted to know what I want,
right?” he asks me and I eagerly nod, wanting to know what he
really wanted.

“I want . . . you,” James smiled
genuinely and I believed him. I don’t know why, but I believed him
and gulped audibly. He wanted me to go with him, live with him in
exchange for my loved ones’ lives. I don’t know why, but I didn’t
even hesitate to answer. But even before I could, another surge of
emotion flooded me, making my breath come out in short
gasps.

“Roza!” Adrian yelled and fought
harder, trying to break free, but it was no use.

“Angel, how do you feel about me?”
James smirked and beckoned for me to look up at him and I did. For
a few moments, I just stared at him, breathing in his features.
Then, a voice in the back of my voice just whispered
something.

He’s yours and you’re his. You two
belong together. He’s you real soul mate. He’s the one you really
love with all your heart. Go to him. He’ll guide you to
safety.