Marked by Blood: Book 2 of The Marked Series Ford, Rinna (books to read fiction .TXT) 📖

the solarium and nowhere else in the house, so the fact I could do magic elsewhere was major. But whenever I tried to make something happen in the room, half the time it would either be a dud and nothing would happen, or start off strong but fizzle out. The other half of the time it would work perfectly. I couldn’t predict which spells would work out right and which ones were bad.

I was getting discouraged and I decided I needed to take a step back. Besides, I needed to move my laundry to the dryers so I said my goodbyes and went to do just that. I didn’t think I could mess up the laundry at least.

Because of the backpack incident and what happened with the casting circle, I decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing. I finished my laundry, went for a swim, and read in my room, all non-caster related stuff. I just knew it was stress making my casting go screwy, so I told myself I’d try again the next day.

As it turned out, it didn’t get better the next day. If anything, it got worse day after day for the next several weeks. I was not just creating non-magic when I tried to cast spells, but they were beginning to backfire. I had become unpredictable at my best and destructive at my worst.

If I got a boost from another caster I was able to do things correctly, but on my own it was chaos. I didn’t know what to do and I was becoming desperate for answers. What had I done wrong? What could I be doing differently?

The one good thing that happened over those few weeks was my relationship with the guys. At first, they remained separate from each other as much as they could and respectful about the other’s time with me. I was okay with that because, even though I hoped they would become friends, I didn’t expect it. I mean, how could a person be friends with the other person your mate was fucking regularly? But then, they surprised me.

Over time they didn’t become friends, per se, but they became friendly. They laughed and joked with one another and made time to get to know each other. I didn’t know how to take it and I actually got a little jealous when I realized their relationship was changing. But then I told myself I was stupid and got over it. It was the dream! I had two gorgeous, strong, kind, sexy as hell men who loved me and they got along pretty well. What did I have to complain about? Not a damn thing. At least not about the state of my relationship.

My mates were concerned about my crazy casting and one day, a little after three weeks since my magic started messing up, they brought me to Amos’ office for an intervention of sorts. It seemed they were getting along better than I thought, because they worked together effortlessly to trick me into going to the meeting with my grandfather.

“What? What’s going on?” I asked. Matias, Camille, and Amos were all there looking serious, standing in different places around the room. Xander brought me to Amos’ office under the guise he wanted to show me some stuff about my dad. I knew it was a hoax when I saw their somber faces.

No one spoke up right away. Camille must have expected my mates to tell me what the deal was, or even my grandfather because she grunted and rolled her eyes at their cowardice.

“Emelia, your caster side is fucked up,” she blurted out. “We want to help you fix it.”

“Sounds great,” I deadpanned and flopped into a nearby chair. “Don’t you think I’ve tried?”

“We know you have, little one, but we have a theory as to why it’s happening now.” Matias looked at Xan then to Amos and back to me. I opened my eyes wide, silently encouraging him to continue, because I was out of ideas as to what was going on.

It wasn’t Matias who continued though, it was Xander. “When you mated with Matias, your vampire side calmed down, didn’t it?” I nodded my head. “You have impeccable control over your shifter side too, right?”

Soleil didn’t exactly like the way he said it, but she didn’t deny it either.

“Yeah, I guess. What are you trying to say?”

“Baby, you and I are bonded mates and you have control over your shifter side. You are also bonded with Matias and you can control your vampire.”

Xan clenched his jaw and looked out the window, refusing to say the rest and I understood why. They believed because I wasn’t bonded with Ronan, my caster side was rebelling in a sense. I had considered it once after I mated with Matias, but the thought hadn’t crossed my mind since then.

Could it be true? After I was turned, I thought I had trouble with all of my supernatural parts, not just my vampire. But the more I thought about it, I realized I never had issues with my dragon side. That was because I was already bonded with Xan. He grounded me. The other two parts of me were wild, frantic as they looked for their other half.

I took a deep breath in and exhaled, then looked at Xander. He was taking this the hardest, I knew. He hated Ronan and for good reason. They had a past and it wasn’t a good one. Xan’s opinion of Ronan was that he was entitled and selfish, a social climber only interested in bettering himself in the eyes of his superiors. I saw a bit of it in the few interactions I had with my fated mate, but I didn’t believe he was as awful as Xander did.

However, I wasn’t sure being with Ronan was ever a real option. He was a part of the Council and worked directly under the same man who was after my head. Right there was a conflict