Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) Read online

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  Confined

  A Tethered Novel

  Book Three

  Copyright © 2013 by Jennifer Snyder

  Cover design by © Stephanie Nelson of Once Upon A Time Covers

  Editing by H. Danielle Crabtree

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the above author of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One – Hoodoo Boy

  Chapter Two – Unpredictable

  Chapter Three – Delicate and Fragile

  Chapter Four – Designated Kissing Zone

  Chapter Five – Wine and Cotton Candy

  Chapter Six – A Little Intense

  Chapter Seven – No Rush

  Chapter Eight – Deflated

  Chapter Nine – Guilty Conscience

  Chapter Ten – Deafening Silence

  Chapter Eleven – Something Is Brewing

  Chapter Twelve – Initiation

  Chapter Thirteen – To Draw Wealth from the Elements

  Chapter Fourteen – Dark Eyes

  Chapter Fifteen – Blackness

  Chapter Sixteen – Magnet

  Chapter Seventeen – Fire Starter

  Chapter Eighteen – Fire Elemental 101

  Chapter Nineteen – Tension

  Chapter Twenty – Surprise

  Chapter Twenty-One – A Curse to Him

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Bad Things Often Come in Threes

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Advice

  Chapter Twenty-Four – Black Out

  Chapter Twenty-Five – Save Me

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Dark Moon

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Drugged

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Mind Over Matter

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Harvesting

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For YOU reading this book right now. Thank you.

  The water was surprisingly warm as it lapped against my ankles. I was mesmerized by the deep midnight blue of it as it mirrored the low-hanging, murky clouds above. It seemed endless, to the point of touching the sky. I stared, struggling to differentiate where one ended and the other began. The wind picked up as the ocean air dampened a little more, holding the promise of rain. Pausing in my walk, I turned to face the ocean directly. Inhaling the salty breeze, I allowed the dampness of the warm air to touch my face and seep through my skin.

  Strands of my dark hair blew across my face in individual wisps as I turned to watch the others gather. Adrenaline pumped through my veins at a nearly nauseating pace, and my heart pounded out a nervous rhythm in my chest as I thought of what I was about to do.

  My eyes shifted from Callie to Adam and then lastly to Kace. After tonight, they would all finally be initiated. After tonight, I would be initiated as well, and the tether between Theo and me would be broken.

  How to Keep A Major Secret 101. I could teach this class, because apparently, I seemed to know an awful lot about the subject matter lately. In fact, it was all I felt like I’d been doing since the night on the cliff, when Theo had saved me. Now, nearly two weeks after our near kiss at the apartment party near Craven College, my secrets continued to pile up. I still had yet to mention anything regarding my sudden decision to become initiated to anyone.

  Adjusting the little triangles of my bikini top, I straightened my limbs and wondered why I’d decided to keep that last piece of knowledge to myself for so long. Eventually, I would have to tell them all anyway.

  A nice breeze caressed my skin, and I thought of the only person I knew who could make his own gust of wind like that—Theo. He’d consumed my mind since the night of the party. I’d thought about him every time the wind blew, every time Kace touched me, and every time Kace and I kissed.

  I hated it, the way my mind seemed to work lately. If the initiation didn’t break the tether between us, then I was certain I’d die from guilt.

  “Can you spray a little more sunblock on my back, please?” Callie asked, pulling me from my thoughts. “I always get burned there.”

  “Sure,” I said as I moved for the bottle.

  I used this moment as an opportunity to search for Theo, knowing good and well if he’d been close by, making the breeze I currently felt, I would have felt the warm sensation that always seemed to course beneath my skin whenever he was near.

  Theo was nowhere to be seen. Not a surprise, but still a swift pang of disappointment shot through me. I was bordering on pathetic and nearly crossing the line at cheating.

  All something I was not proud of at the moment.

  Lately it seemed as though my body craved to be near Theo, as if I missed him—mind, body, and soul. It was ridiculous, frustrating, and heartbreaking all at the same time. I’d managed to occupy myself by either busting my ass at Spellbinding Reads or spending loads of quality time with either Callie or Kace. I made sure I was never alone, because I knew the moment that I was, Theo would visit me. And if he did, I wasn’t sure what might happen between the two of us.

  The sensation to seek him out on my own was something that had been building inside of me, growing with every breath I took.

  “Oh, I meant to tell you, I picked up some of those giant sparklers for tomorrow night,” Callie said as she lay down again on her stomach. She stretched her arms out at her sides, palms facing upward.

  “I love those things,” I admitted, situating myself to soak up more rays.

  I was slowly, but surely, gaining a decent tan, which meant I was finally looking more like a local and less like a tourist.

  “Me too,” Callie said. “It doesn’t feel like the Fourth of July to me without them.”

  “I know,” I agreed, glad we were striking up a conversation once more. Theo always seemed to invade my mind when I was in silence.

  “The show they do on the beach every year is pretty cool. You’ll like it,” Callie muttered from beside me.

  “Kace said something about a carnival too,” I said. “When does that start?”

  “It started on Monday. It’s down on South Beach. They have it every year.”

  “You don’t sound too thrilled. Are carnivals not your thing?”

  “Eh, they’re fun. It’s just that it’s the same rides and stuff from when I was a little kid,” she said.

  I sat up and reached for the bottle of water I’d brought. “That sucks.”

  “Yeah, every year I go, expecting to see something new. But nope, it’s always the same.”

  “Are you going this year?” I asked, only because I wanted to go. It had been a long time since I’d been to a carnival.

  Callie sat up and pulled her hair free from the elastic band holding it up. It fell in a stringy, wet mess past her shoulders. I watched as she twisted it all back up into a high bun on top of her head.

  “Probably, Adam loves it.” She smiled.

  I chuckled. “O
f course he does.”

  How could Adam not enjoy a carnival? He was practically a big kid.

  “I mean, I do too, but I also like a little variety,” she said. She lay back down and turned her head to face me.

  “So, does that mean we’re all going tonight?” I asked with a little smirk.

  “Absolutely.” She grinned.

  I chuckled. “What time?”

  “Adam wanted to go around nine. Is that all right with you guys?”

  I shifted to look at her better. “I don’t think Kace gets off until around then, but it should be fine.”

  “Cool.”

  I lightly sprayed another thin layer of sunblock across the tops of my legs and stomach. Closing my eyes, I hung my head back to enjoy the sunshine a little more. That was when I felt a familiar warmth stirring within me. The blood in my veins heated, and I knew exactly why. It was the sensation I’d been pathetically waiting on for a while now—the feel of Theo’s nearness.

  Sitting up straighter, I glanced around, hoping Callie wouldn’t notice and ask what I was searching for. The warmth vibrated beneath my skin, and the awareness of Theo’s emotions filtered through my mind. He was just as desire-filled and blissful as I was to have finally felt what we’d been yearning to for almost two weeks now.

  It didn’t take long before I found him in the crowd.

  He stood off to my right, with a group of three other guys, wearing a pair of solid sage green swimming trunks and nothing more. I zeroed in on him, taking in the dark curves and ridges that made up his sculpted frame. When my eyes finally traveled higher than his shoulders, they locked with his—even through the lenses of my sunglasses.

  Theo stared directly at me as though we were inches apart instead of a few feet. The intensity of his gaze made my stomach flutter. His lips pressed together firmly as his eyes narrowed in my direction. My muscles tensed, and my heartbeat quickened from the sudden burst of irritation coming from him.

  It became clear then that Theo hated what the tether made him feel for me.

  It took everything in me, but I ripped my gaze from him and lay flat on my towel. His apparent irritation with everything about me was just more confirmation of my decision to get this initiation over with.

  “Are you getting hungry at all?” Callie asked in a muffled voice. The side of her face was now pressed firmly against her towel.

  I wasn’t starved, but I could eat. Bonus—getting something to eat would get me away from irritable Theo too.

  “Yeah, a little,” I said.

  Callie pressed up onto her elbows. “Can we head back to your place and get something? I’m starved.”

  “Sure,” I said, thinking that sounded perfect. “I’m not sure what I have, but I’m sure we could find something.”

  Sitting up, I tossed the sunblock I’d been using back into my beach bag, and then stood to shake out my towel. Heat slithered across my skin, trailing from my exposed cleavage, down my stomach, and along the length of my legs. I knew whose eyes the heat belonged to without having to glance in his direction—but the fact of the matter was, I wanted to.

  So I did.

  Theo and his buddies were standing just a little closer to me than they had been the last time I’d looked his way. They were laughing and cutting up as they scoped out the surrounding females. Theo’s eyes were directly on me though, just like I knew they would be. I folded my towel and draped it over my arm. After wiping my fingertips on the bottoms of my bikini, I slid my sunglasses down to the tip of my nose so I could glare at him, all menacing like, over the rims. I was positive he could feel my annoyance at him for staring—for being here at all. Little trickles of amusement darted from him to me, cooling the heat of my annoyance instantly.

  This pissed me off. Why did he think it was so funny whenever I was angry?

  “Geez, Hoodoo boy is staring at you hardcore,” Callie said. She tossed her wadded-up towel into her bag without shaking it out, and bent down for her water bottle.

  “I know,” I said, still glaring at him.

  “What’s that all about?”

  I shook my head and feigned ignorance. “I have no clue, but I’m ready to get out of here.”

  “Seriously,” she agreed.

  I pushed my glasses up and slung my bag over my shoulder before starting toward my house with Callie at my side. My eyes never moved from Theo for more than a second during my walk across the sandy beach to the bridge that led over the prickly grass and onto the sidewalk. He folded his arms across his perfectly sculpted chest, and I felt double-edged daggers of relief and resentment pierce at me. I continued walking with my eyes glued to him, and tripped over a pile of some kid’s abandoned sand toys just before the bridge. Theo’s lips had twisted into a small grin when I glanced back in his direction. Either he’d thought something one of his friends had said was funny, or else he really enjoyed seeing me nearly fall flat on my face.

  From the emotions I felt stemming from him, it seemed more like the latter. Asshole.

  Callie poured herself another glass of the sweet tea I’d made the other night, and leaned against the counter. We’d already changed out of our bathing suits and eaten a small lunch, because I didn’t have much in my pantry. It was definitely time to go shopping again and soon. Mom would be upset if she saw the bareness that graced the shelves of both my pantry and fridge at the moment.

  “I haven’t asked you in a while—I guess seeing Theo staring at you earlier jogged my memory about it—but has anyone tried any more Hoodoo spells on you lately?” she asked while sloshing the ice around in her cup.

  I rubbed the end of my nose, and I dropped my eyes to stare at the condensation forming around the outside of my glass. “No, I haven’t noticed anything lately.”

  “That’s a little bit odd, don’t you think?” She crossed the room to sit at the table in the corner with me. “I mean, whoever it was seemed so adamant to get you to leave, and then all of a sudden they just stopped? Why?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek as I contemplated the two reasons why—one, Callie’s mother had given up on trying, and two, because of the tether and that whole no Hoodoo against one another thing.

  My heart rate quickened when my eyes met hers from across the table, and I noticed the questions swirling in the bright blue of them. I swallowed hard, wondering if this was the right moment to confess that her mother had been the one attempting to get me to leave.

  It was either that or else I tell her about the tether.

  “Well…I actually do know why they stopped,” I admitted. I took in a small breath, and then released it slowly.

  Callie tucked a stray strand of her dark hair behind her ear, and drew her eyebrows together. “You do?” she asked.

  “Please don’t hate me for not telling you right away.” I fidgeted in my seat and took a sip of my sweet tea to wet my suddenly dry mouth and stall for time. “But, I know who was paying the Van Rooyens for the spells against me.”

  I had her on the edge of her seat now and I hated it, because I knew what I was about to reveal would no doubt break her heart.

  “I won’t. Who is it?” she asked.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see her reaction. “Your mom.”

  Silence filled my ears. When I opened my eyes, Callie was frozen. There was a dumbfounded, heartbroken gleam in her eyes that I instantly regretted putting there. “I’m so sorry. In hindsight, I probably should have come out and said something to you the moment your mom left my house. I mean, she never said not to say anything to you about her visit or about all the spells she’d been using against me. I honestly don’t know what made me keep it a secret.” The words flew from my lips in a jumble of words.

  The whole “don’t kill the messenger” saying crept into my mind. I didn’t want her to be angry or upset with me, but I didn’t want her to remain mute either. I sat back in my chair as a slight heaviness entered my stomach, and wondered if I’d just made a huge mistake in telling her. I’d never
been one to stir up trouble—never the drama queen, or the type who enjoyed confrontation—so this moment was as nerve-racking as could be for me.

  “I’ll be the first to admit that she’s been acting strange lately, but I don’t understand.” She slumped down in her chair a little more, and dropped her eyes to the tabletop. “Why would she do that?”

  I thought for a moment about what more I should tell her regarding her mother’s visit, if anything.

  “She said she did it all because of my mother,” I finally said, filtering through everything I knew from what her mother had actually said to me and not what I’d witnessed with Theo in the vision. “When they were younger, they did a spell that allowed them to see the future. For whatever reason, it showed them that something horrible was going to happen to me. Add that to some odd feeling my mom had regarding Talan’s death and Admer, and you have a brief reason for why she decided to leave town and give me up. She wanted to keep me safe.” I paused, allowing her time to gather her thoughts and speak if she wanted. When she didn’t, I continued. “Your mom was just trying to get me to leave because she knew my mom wouldn’t want me here. She knew what my mom sacrificed in order to keep me away…and yet, here I am.” I sighed.

  “I can’t believe my mom would do something like that. I mean, I believe you. It’s just I can’t believe she’d do that,” Callie said, her words muddled together and infused with shock. “She knows how close we’ve grown since you first came here. She knows what you being here means for us all. I just don’t get it. I understand how she might have been trying to keep your birth mother’s dying wish or something, but still…to use Hoodoo against you?”

  The guilt I’d felt before was nothing in comparison to what I felt now. I’d changed Callie’s viewpoint of her mother; she’d never look at her the same after this.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. Absently, I traced my index finger along the condensation that had built up along the outside of my glass.

  “No, don’t be,” she said. I lifted my eyes to meet hers. They were dark and intense from her emotions. “I’m sorry my mother would do such a thing to you.”