Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls by Jessica Sorensen (motivational books for students TXT) 📕

clears. The air smells intoxicatingly of cinnamon and spices, and the velvet couch looks very welcoming. So does the person on it.

Alex is staring at a book that’s open on his lap, but when my feet hit the floor his head whips up. A blistering flame of need combines with desire and I start to run to him, but my knees give out on me and I slow down, bracing onto the armrest of the sofa.

“Where the hell have you been?” He takes in the traumatized state of me as he rises to his feet, dropping the book on the cushion. “And what the hell happened to you?”

I collapse onto the nearest couch and lie down on my side, cuddling the Ira to my chest. “Nicholas.”

Alex shakes his head and then storms over to the wall, slamming his fist through the drywall. “I’m going to kill him,” he growls with so much fury in him it vibrates across the room and into me, stealing some of my already fading energy.

I struggle to keep my eyes open. “I’m so tired.” I raise my arm in the air and hold up the Ira. “I got this from him.”

His green eyes widen as he strides across the room and kneels down beside the couch. “You have the Ira?”

I nod, gazing off into empty space as I remember the hell I’ve been through the last few days. My ankles and wrists are ripped apart from the cuffs while my legs and arms feel stretched. “Yeah, I stole it from him.”

“What happened? One minute I left you with Laylen so you could… so he could… and then Laylen said you just vanished. At first I thought he did something to you, but then I realized that he…” he summons a deep breath and shuts his eyes. “That he cares for you. So we searched the forest, however we couldn’t find you anywhere, so we came back here.” He opens his eyes and sadness abounds within each of them. He hitches his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the book. “I’ve been reading and reading on why the hell someone would just disappear, but I was starting to arrive to the conclusion that… that you ran away.” He pauses, waiting for an answer.

I shake my head. “Nicholas was playing fucking mind games with me.” I drape my arm over my head to block out the sting from the bright light. What’s been done to me… what I did continues to possess my fractured soul. “He took me to his illusion house and tied me to the bed. At first he said it was because of your father, but as the days kept passing and passing, I really started to believe it was for his own benefit.”

Alex remains silent for a while, deeply breathing in and out. Finally, the silence becomes maddening and I peer out from under my arm. His gaze penetrates me; my filthy clothes, the warm blood on my hands, along with the purplish blue bruises and deep red scratches covering my body. “Gemma, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I mean I can tell by the way that you look that you obvious went through something really bad, but…” He struggles, leaning in over me and sweeping my hair out of my face. “But you’ve only been gone for a few hours.”

I swiftly shake my head. “No… no there’s no way. I was gone for days. I know it.”

His eyebrows furrow as I wince from a sore area on the center of my forehead. “Gemma, I promise you that’s not true. I can even get Laylen in here to back me up.”

My head pounds as I rack my mind for what the hell could be happening. “But it felt like days. There’s no way it could have been only a few hours.”

He draws a line back and forth below each of my violet eyes. “Maybe he was messing with you... maybe he was making it seem like days had gone by. He could easily do that, Gemma.”

I sigh, thinking of how my sanity bolt had unscrewed. “Maybe…”I shake my head and sit up as he slants back to give me room. “I hate him. I really do.”

Alex slides up on the couch and turns to face me. His fingers find my hips and he carefully lifts me onto his lap so I’m straddling him. “Tell me what he did to you.” He scans over my clothes, my wounds, stealing my breath away the longer he stays focused on me. Electricity within me stirs and arouses, along with my emotions that I turned off.

I take a deep breath and tell him what happened, minus the making out details because I’d vomit if I had to say them aloud. There are some things that are better left unsaid and forgotten. The person I became is someone I want to forget.

It takes Alex about a minute before he speaks again. “I’d like to say that I’m surprised,” he says, slouching back in the sofa with his hands still on my hips. “But I’m not.”

“So you’ve heard of this Malefiscus?”

He wavers and then hesitantly nods. “When I was little, my father would tell me stories of him.”

“So you knew?” Stunned, I slide back to leave his lap, but his fingers press downward, securing me in place.

“Just stories,” he insists. “He didn’t tell me he was a descendant, only the story of who Malefiscus was and what became of him.”

“But you knew about the mark?”

He shakes his head, his pupils like black marbles as he begins to panic. “No, I really didn’t. I just knew who he was and what he did… my father started telling me stories of him right after my mother left and they kind of became like bedtime stories.”

“He told you of evil as a way to get you to go to sleep.” I’m stunned. Shocked. And kind of disgusted. All this time I’d felt pity for myself for everything I’d went through