Entangled (Entangled Trilogy #1) (26 page)

I slowly got up and into a sitting
position. I looked up at James in adoration and he looks down at me
with a triumphant expression.

“I . . . I lo . . . Maddi . . .
Adr . . . I hate Ad . . . I hate Adrian and I love you. I love you,
James,” I cried out as another surge of painful emotion flooded me.
“Only you.”

“
Excellent. Now come over to me
and I’ll hand over Maddie,” James beckoned. I swallowed before
getting up and taking slow steps towards him.

“
NO! Roza! Don’t listen to him.
He’s an empath,” Adrian yells out and I stop dead in my tracks.
What’s an empath?

An empath is an angel, any kind,
who can influence or read others’ emotions. He’s influencing your
emotions. Roza, please, try to fight it off.
Please
, Adrian’s voice begged in my mind
and I clutched my head. How is he doing that?

Any angel can communicate through
mind-link. Especially if they’re soul mates
, Adrian’s voice spoke in my mind again.

I couldn’t listen to Adrian as I
started to walk towards James again. James smiled and released an
unconscious Maddie before catching me when I started swaying a
little. Maddie slumped to the ground and whimpered, clutching her
throat. I gulped once again, looking in Maddie’s direction once,
before stepping into the circle of James’ arms.

“
Excellent,” James smiles before
wrapping a strong arm around my waist.

“
I’ll go with you . . . just let
them go, James. Please,” I look up at him, placing my hands on his
chest while he presses his lips into a thin line. “James,” I
whine.

“
Alright,” James smiles bitterly
before ordering for the fallen angels to let go of Adrian and
Elliot. Adrian started running towards me and James, but before he
could reach us, a little force field surrounded both James and me,
blocking out Adrian. Poor Adrian pounded his fists on the force
field, but it was no use.

“
Let. Me. In. Right. Now,” Adrian
snarled through gritted teeth, but I paid no attention to him. I
was lost in the blueness of James’ eyes. They were so
mesmerizing.

I’m glad you feel that way about
my eyes
, James chuckled into my mind and I
gasped again.

How did he do that?

Uh, by doing it? How else?
He chuckled again.
You
know, you can do it too. Just think of something and direct at
someone specifically. Try it out on me first.

Okay. Can you hear me? I did just
as he told me to.

Loud and clear, Angel,
James sent me a mental smile and a hug. It was
weird; it felt as if your mind was being cocooned in
warmth.

“
James! Let me in, you as—,”
Adrian started, but I quickly cut him off with a mental
reminder.

Adrian! Language!

Oh, right. Sorry. Roza, are you
okay?

Yeah, I’m fine. I should be the
least of your worries.

No, you’re on the top of my list
of worries. We shouldn’t be mind-linking; it’s too dangerous. James
could be listening in on us. Listen to me, Roza. Just do as I say.
You have to—

She has to what, Adrian? C’mon,
tell her what she has to do to escape from me
, James’ voice joined in and I quickly pulled away from the
mind-linking thing. So . . . James caught us. No biggy.

“
You think it is that easy to
defeat me? Of all people?” James growled before creating a strong
gust of wind that sent Adrian flying at least twenty feet away from
us.

“
Adrian!” I yelled, running over
to the end of the force field, pounding my fists on it, but it
wouldn’t budge. “Let me out, James!” I yelled at him, my face
streaked with tears.

“
No can’t do, Angel,” James smiled
bitterly and I shuddered at the word Angel. That word literally
applies to me now. I kept pounding my fists on the force field and
eventually got tired, sliding down to the ground, my hands flat on
the pavement. I kept crying and crying while kneeling on both
knees, but it was no use. Adrian didn’t have enough strength to get
up and I couldn’t escape either.

Abruptly, the air around me and
James grew thicker, hotter, foggier. . . stronger. I looked up and
saw that a little ring of fire surrounded only me and James and the
force field was gone. Confused by this gesture, I looked up at him
and he smiled bitterly. I tried to get up and succeeded, despite
the constant pain, both physical and emotional, coursing through my
fragile body.

As soon as I thought of stepping
over the fire and outside of this circle, the speed of the wind
picked up, knocking me down to my feet. As I fell with a thump on
the pavement, the fire morphed into a wall . . . made of fire. The
wall was about twenty to thirty feet in height, completely
blanketing the sight of my loved ones.

“
What did you do?” I asked James
and he made his way over to me, gently standing me up and holding
onto my arm so that I wouldn’t fall over.

“
This is much stronger than the
force field. Don’t worry; no one can get to us now. No one,” James
laughed cynically and more tears streamed down my face
now.

“
Let. Me. Go,” I yelled,
struggling to break free from his strong hold, but he persisted,
holding onto me even tighter than before. In an instant, James’
wings shot out and through the ring of fire, almost burning his
majestic wings and I screamed out, feeling the pain that he felt
when his wings came in contact with the fire.

“
It’s okay. I’m not hurt,” he told
me reassuringly, inching closer to me to touch my face, but I
whimpered away. His eyes were clouded with rage as I moved further
away from him. Instead of making the ring of fire bigger, he
marched up to me and slipped an arm around my waist to pull me
closer to him. I tried to break free, but it was no use.

“
Listen to me, Rosemarie. You are
mine, now. No one else can ever touch, kiss, look, converse or take
you away from me. You are mine and I am yours,” James growled. “You
will come with me willingly and you will do it now.”

Those hurtfully beautiful blue
eyes danced in front of me, taunting me in every way possible, but
I didn’t give in. I couldn’t give in now. I came this far to
finding out the truth about him. About me.

“Remember, once you’re mine, there
is no going back,” he said, taunting me again. If I gave in now, I
could never go back. I could never save those I love.
Should I give in? Should I give him the
satisfaction of my failure?
I can always
save the others by giving my life up. It had no real meaning,
ever.

“C’mon, it’s not that hard to make
the decision,” he said again, trying to hug me, but I stepped back
and away from his cold grasp.

“There is not a single place in
this world where you can hide from me
.
Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo
,” he said once again, disappearing completely out of my
sight. With him went my hopes of ever freeing those I loved. I
thought that I loved them until now.
What
is love?
There truly isn’t an answer for
it. He came over to me and took my face in his hands very roughly.
He forced my gaze upon him and I obeyed. Then he told me something
that would be glued to my brain forever.

“Remember this: Everyone has a
little bit of God in them. The part that allows them to love
unconditionally. If you can see God in anyone in the world, then
you truly love them from the bottom of your heart. Do you see your
God in me? Am I the kind of person who has God in him? Is it
possible to love someone like me?”

“
Fine, I will, but you have to let
me say my goodbyes,” I whimpered and he let go of me, breaking the
ring of fire so that I could see Adrian, Elliot and Maddie
clearly.

“
NO, Roza, don’t leave me. We can
figure something out, together,” Adrian cried out as I moved back
and into James’ arms.

“
Sometimes, you have to sacrifice
the one thing you love the most for something even more
significant,” I told Adrian, breaking eye contact with him so that
I could turn and face James. I looked up into his eyes and added,
“Just for the greater good. Don’t worry; I’ll learn to love
him.”

“
Ready, love?” James told me,
stretching his wings and sliding an arm around my waist to pull me
closer to him and I willingly let him take me away.

With a final glance at Adrian,
James took off, flying up into the air with me in his arms. I
looked down and I almost fainted so I looked back up into James’
amusing eyes.

“
What?” I ask and he shakes his
head. I guess this is my new beginning. My new life. This is only
the beginning; not the end. I promise that I will find a way out of
this no matter what.

EPILOGUE:

ME AND MY BROKEN HEART

April 25, 2013:

I tried not to look down as we
flew away. Instead, I put my hands on James’ chest and looked up at
him, only to see him already looking down at me with an intense
gaze. I squirmed in his hold uncomfortably and he wrapped his
massive black wings around me—around us— afraid that I’ll grow
wings and fly away from him.

Yeah, not happening.

The everlasting silence seemed to
grow even more uncomfortable and to pass time—and make matters
worse—James started humming the tune to Row, Row, Row Your
Boat.

I sighed loudly in frustration and
he immediately stopped humming and looked down at me, quirking an
eyebrow. I sighed again before wrapping my tiny arms around his
neck and placed my head gingerly on his muscular chest. He
immediately wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer
to him so that there was no more space left between us.

He pulled me closer to him even
more, trying to get me to snuggle into him, but I just squirmed in
his hold. Hugging him, holding him, showing him affection and
cuddling with him just felt so . . . wrong.

“
You’ll get used to it, love,”
James told me, tucking a piece of stray hair behind my ear and for
some reason, I just felt more comfortable, more . . . relaxed. I
looked up at him when he called me love and tried not to flinch in
disgust.

“
James, why do you even love me? I
don’t love you,” I told him and his eyes hardened. The beautiful
blue eyes were replaced by a cold blue and I gulped, cursing myself
and my big mouth.

“
I. Know. You’ll. Learn. To. Love.
Me,” James told me through gritted teeth and I recoiled. Seeing
that, his eyes softened a little, but not completely. I thought I
saw remorse in his alluring eyes, but I thought better of myself.
There is no way he’s going to regret anything that just
happened.

“
You know, all this time, you were
running around freely with Adrian, loving him, letting him feel
love, while I just looked at you, wishing you were all mine.
Wishing that I could touch you. Wishing I could hold you. Wishing
you could love me. But no; it was just me and my broken heart,
sitting all alone, looking at you, wishing you were mine,” James
told me as tears slowly fell down his cheeks and I wiped them away,
like I would have to do from now on.

“
I’m sorry,” I told him and I
meant it. I really am, I added through our mind-link.

I’m sorry; too,
he told me through our mind-link and
smiled.

“
Let’s stop the pity party so that
you could tell me all about what we’ll be doing in the future,” I
told him rather sadly and he grinned even more before he added,
“Our future.”

“
We’re going to live like a normal
couple. You little Choosing ceremony will come, we’ll be bonded,
we’ll get married, have kids, love each other, live forever, travel
the world and we’ll die together and have a happy ending,” James
grinned from ear to ear as my heart clenched tightly at his
words.

Get married? Have kids? Isn’t that
a little too much planning? Why don’t we take it one step at a
time
, I told him nervously through our
mind-link.

Nonsense. We’re not taking this
too fast
, James tsk-ed.

“
James, you know I can’t—you
know—marry you or-or have . . .ummm . . . you know—,” I stuttered
nervously.

“
Have kids with me? Nonsense.
You’ll love it. I’ll be very gentle and during our first time, I’ll
even—,” James started and I put a finger to his lips, silencing
him.

“
I can’t do that,” I gently shook
my head, removing my finger from his lips.

“
Of course you can. It’s very
easy. You see, our first time will be . . . magical, but you can’t
expect to see unicorns pooping rainbows kind of magical. I’ll even
use—,” James started bluntly and I’m pretty sure I looked like a
ripe tomato.