The Soul's Mark: FOUND (25 page)

“Millie,” Angelle called after her.

Amelia looked back, a quick glance over her
shoulder.
 
“Take care of him for
me.”
 
Angelle nodded and then Amelia slid
into her room, shutting and locking the door behind her.

“This is a waste of time,” Amelia said
crabbily and tossed another journal to the floor.
 
Two dreadful days had passed since she almost
accidentally (she thought) tried to kill Mitchell.
 
He hadn’t come to see her and she couldn’t
blame him.

Somehow, she had managed to lock herself in
her room—literally.
 
It was some kind of
magic, that much they had figured out but what kind no one knew.
 
The doors opened, the windows opened but no
matter what they tried, Amelia couldn’t get out and no one could get in.
 
It was like there was an invisible dividing
wall of thick plastic enveloping the room.
 
Anywhere she
pushed,
it would sag, then spring
back into place.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Angelle said.
 
She was standing at the door patting down the
wall, determination plastered on her face, as she tried to find a weak
point.
 
“We’ll figure this out.”

“Hey, Angelle,” Eric called from the
terrace, pretending to help, but in truth he really wasn’t doing much.
 
Amelia didn’t care because she swore his
laughter was the only thing keeping her remotely sane.
 
“You’re getting good at that mime impersonation.
 
I bet I could rent you out for parties.”

Angelle shot him a look.
 
“You’re such a dumb-ass.”

Amelia glanced over at Angelle and she
burst into a sidesplitting laugh.
 
Angelle really did look like a mime, especially with all the drywall
powder caked on her face—her thought that taking out a wall might work proved
incorrect.
 
The laugh earned her a nasty
look from Angelle, and a skin-tingling chuckle from Eric.
 
“Will you guys shut up?” Amelia said, trying
her best to sound annoyed and cover-up how ridiculously funny her friend
looked.
 
“Trying to
focus here.”
 
She snagged another
one of the journals from Madame Crystal and pretended to read.

“Don’t be such a killjoy
,” Eric said.
 
“You’ve gotta
admit she’s gifted.” Amelia giggled again and he winked.
 
“You could be part of the act too,
Millie.
 
You could use your witchy
talents and put her in an invisible box.
 
Then all we’d have to do is sit back and watch her try and get out.
 
Easy
peasy
.
 
The cash will just roll in.”

“Totally throwing a wrench into your
plans,” Angelle said.
 
“You’re so not
renting us out.”
 
Musical laughter
floated from her lips.
 
She grabbed a
wrench from the stack of tools she had used to knock out the wall and she
chucked it through the room, straight at Eric.
 
It connected, smacking him in the chest and Amelia was certain she heard
the dry crack of bones breaking.

“Ouch!”
 
Eric rubbed at his chest.
 
He
pushed on a rib that was sticking out, making his black t-shirt look like a
mini tent, and it crunched back into place.
 
“Hey cupcake, it’s an expression.”
 
He was laughing, a huge grin on his face and Amelia was sure she would
never get used to that.
 
Her chest hurt
just thinking about it.
 
“Doesn’t mean
you literally need to throw a wrench, and you called me the dumb-ass.”

“You guys are both dumb-asses,” Amelia shot
back.
 
“How did you do that?”
 
They looked at her blankly for a second.
 
She jumped up and rushed over to the door
putting her hands up feeling along the blasted wall.
 
“The wrench!
 
You tossed the wrench and it went through the
room.”

Angelle’s
eyes went cartoon-wide and she squealed in delight.
 
“This is awesome.”
 
She snatched up a hammer from the pile and
slowly, she inched it into the room, holding the end tightly.
 
The wall shimmered around the wooden handle
and as Angelle’s hand reached the edge of the force field, it snapped shut,
chopping the handle in half.
 
She
snatched her hand back, the wood clattered to the floor, and she huffed,
looking fiercely at the invisible wall as if trying to burn a hole in it.
 
“That sucks.”

“Mitch’s
gonna
be
super stoked.
 
I never thought about
trying to just pass something in,” Eric said.
 
He was standing on the terrace looking at the broken hammer, utterly
baffled.
 
After a moment, he gave his
head a shake and grinned at Amelia, eyes twinkling with mischief.
 
“Bet you’re starving.
 
I’m gonna make you something awesome.
 
Be right back.”

Amelia tried to object.
 
Eric didn’t have a great track record when it
came to the kitchen, and the last thing they needed was another disaster.
 
But it was no use, Eric had already
vanished.
 
“Millie, I should go tell
Mitch,” Angelle said, shuffling her feet back and forth.
 
“See if he has any ideas.”

“Why bother?
 
He won’t care.”
 
Amelia knew it sounded like she was
pouting.
 
She’d never admit it, but she
missed him like crazy.
 
Tuning into his
thoughts didn’t seem to cut it.
 
More
than anything, she wanted to see him, touch him, or just be close to him.
 
Staying away was a deliberate attempt on his
part, Amelia was sure of it, and it was like a kick in the teeth.
 
The chain around her heart that tethered them
together was pulled tight, inducing a constant, relentless tugging.
 
She was glad that she was used to it enough now
that it didn’t pull her off balance anymore, but it was still maddening.
 
The worst part was she knew without a doubt
that it wouldn’t stop until they were together.
 
She had never really believed the old saying,
absence makes the heart grow fonder
, but to her dismay, it was
another ludicrous saying that was dead on.

“Jeez, Amelia.
 
You really need to figure
out what you want from him.
 
You told
Mitch you needed time and obviously…” Angelle rapped her fist against the
barrier so hard it trembled, shimmering like disturbed water.
 
“You need it.
 
He’s really trying to give you what you want.
 
You made your bed, now you’re gonna have to
lie in it.”

Amelia watched, speechless, as her friend
disappeared.
 
Since talking to the stupid
psychic, she had been trying to find any possible reason she could to blame
Mitchell for everything that had happened to her.
 
Especially since he refused to come and see
her.
 
Could he really be staying away
because she had asked for time?

Amelia didn’t know how long she had been
dazed when a metallic clank brought her back.
 
She glanced at the door and saw Lola, kicking a tray of food over the
threshold.
 
“So you’re a witch.”
 
She leaned against the doorframe watching
Amelia.

“Screw off, Lola.” Amelia huffed and
crossed her arms.
 
“I can’t deal with
your crap right now.”

Lola rolled her eyes.
 
“Stop moping around and feeling sorry for
yourself
,” she said dryly.
 
“This poor-little-me act is pathetic.
 
Life could be a lot worse.”

Worse?
 
How could it get worse?
 
“Easy for
you to say.
 
Just leave me
alone.
 
You don’t understand.”
 
Amelia shuffled over to her bed and plopped
down.
 
She snatched up a journal and
started reading, hoping Lola would take the hint.

She didn’t.
 
“Clearly I understand.”
 
Lola
pointed at her mark.
 
“I just chose to
make the best of it.
 
Most people would
kill to find their soulmate.”

“Guess I’m not most people,” Amelia said
haughtily and shot Lola a
screw off
kind
of look.
 
Amelia didn’t really mean
it.
 
In all honestly it wasn’t the
soulmate part that was the issue.
 
It was
his irrepressible possessiveness.

“You’re tearing apart my family,” Lola
shouted and slammed her fist against the wall. “I’m not going to let you keep
doing it.
 
I’ve never seen them so taken
with anyone.”

“Not my fault,” Amelia retorted.
 
“I tried to leave but he won’t let me.”

“You’re acting like a spoiled brat.
 
You’re lucky to have someone like Mitch.
 
He loves you.
 
All of this is for you.”
 
She
waved around gesturing to the house.
 
“This is the stupid castle from your dreams.
 
You loved it so much that he bought it.
 
You need to get over yourself.”

Amelia swallowed hard, fighting back the
tears that were prickling her eyes.
 
“He
doesn’t love me.
 
I’m just a vessel to
him.
 
He needs me but he doesn’t love
me.”
 
Amelia glanced at Lola, face closed
and cold.
 
“Just leave me alone.”

Lola threw up her hands, exasperated.
 
“I really don’t get why you hate me so
much.”
 
She paused and gave Amelia a hard
stare, and then she huffed.
 
“Not that I
care ‘cause you definitely are not number one on my must-be-friends list, but
I’m just trying to help you.
 
And if you
think Mitch has a temper, you haven’t seen anything yet.
 
If you keep this crap up you’ll be sorry.”

Amelia drew in a deep breath and puffed out
her chest.
 
“Are you threatening me?” she
asked in a lethal tone.

“No, not a threat—a
promise.”
 
A wicked smile stretched out on Lola’s lips.
 
“You can’t pick your family, Amelia, remember
that.”
 
Lola glared at her for a long,
hard second.
 
“You need to figure out how
to let down whatever wall you’ve put up because if you keep making Mitchell
think you hate him, he might actually let you go.
 
Is that really what you want?”

Amelia couldn’t answer.
 
She wanted to yell,
no, that’s not what I want,
but she just wasn`t ready to admit it.
 
Not yet.
 
Maybe
never.
 

Lola huffed when
Amelia stayed silent and then finally stalked away.
 
With her gone, Amelia shut the door to her
room and then curled up in bed, burying
herself
in the
mounds of pillows.

She couldn’t help but wonder if she would
ever be able to really love Mitchell again, love him like she did in the
dreams.
 
She wanted to love him.
 
Everything in her yearned
for him.
 
But he was a different
person now.
 
And so was she.
 
Back when it had all been just a dream, when
the unstable emotions of the bond hadn’t been affecting them, it had been
perfect.
 
Well, almost perfect,
Amelia thought.
 
Aside for the
just a dream part
.

Amelia let her mind drift, recalling her
favorite dream with Mitchell, the dream when she realized how much she loved
him.
   

Something
covered her eyes, soft and silky.
 
Her
heart pounded in her chest painfully fast with a mix of excitement and
fear.
 
Had she fallen asleep? She wasn’t
sure.
 
The last thing she remembered, she
had been sitting on her new bed, in her new foster home reading a book.

If
she had fallen asleep then maybe…“Mitchell,” Amelia called.
  
 
  

“I’m
right here,
love
,” he whispered in her ear, his warm
breath sending shivers down her spine.
 
Amelia sucked in a breath, filling her lungs with his sweet, tangy
scent.
 
Her heartbeat became erratic and
butterflies filled her stomach.