Bound By The Goddess – Chapter 1

Rhydian

Edinburgh, Earth…

“I’m telling you, I have a good feeling about this one,” Finlay said, barely contained excitement leaking from him.

He strode down Rose Street, a bounce in his step that I couldn’t quite master. No, I trudged through the shadows, wary of being seen by the Friday night revellers spilling out of the pubs. I might have also been a little reluctant to watch my friend get his hopes up again.

“And I’m telling you to rein in the hope a little,” Knox muttered next to him.

“Or you could be brave and face the woman.” Finlay grinned, a knowing glint in his brown eyes.

Knox didn’t bother to respond. He didn’t need to — women fell over themselves for him. With his unscarred, pretty-boy face, short blond hair, and baby blue eyes, they couldn’t help themselves. 

No, it was after they met the rest of us that things usually went south.

Finlay’s lankiness hardly registered next to Knox’s swimmer’s build. Even so, both were approachable, even charming in their own ways. But then there was me — a hulking mass of muscle and shadow, radiating danger from every pore.

Our lack of female company had nothing to do with Knox or Finlay. Alone, women approached them eagerly, starry-eyed. Even Finlay’s awkward charm drew them in.

Add me to the mix, though, and they invariably begged off. I tried not to let it get to me. I had enough demons clamouring to consume me without adding a stranger’s rejection to the mix. 

But sometimes, watching Knox and Finlay’s easy interactions only highlighted how much of an outsider I was — even among my own friends.

“It’s not me I’m worried about.” Knox smirked, a teasing note weaving through his Scottish brogue.

Finlay side-eyed him but kept moving, weaving through the crowd like a pro. A lifetime spent in Edinburgh could do that to anyone. Bloke pulls out a bagpipe on Princes Street, and no one bats an eye. One o’clock guns go off, and only the out-of-towners react.

“Do I ask you guys for anything?” Finlay asked with a tone that set me on edge. 

It’s a trap, an alarm blared in my head.

Knox groaned. “Here we go again.”

I shook my head at the idiot. We’d dragged ourselves out every Friday night for the last year to meet Finlay’s latest catch.

Finlay spun around, catching Knox’s arm to stop him. He speared us both with a serious look. “I haven’t asked you for anything but this.”

I shifted uneasily beneath that stare. He rarely got that serious, only when it came to us and the bond we imagined between us. The first day we met at university, we each felt this uncanny certainty that we belonged together. We’d never been able to figure out why, but we’d stuck together for ten years. 

“I don’t know why you’re lumping me in with the problem.” Knox shot me a frustrated look. “Some of us actually try, you know.”

I glared at him. Just because I agreed it felt right to stay together didn’t mean I had to get behind inviting a stranger in. Knox bared his teeth at me in response, their tips morphed into the fangs of a wolf. 

“Put those away.” I clenched my fists, barely controlling the urge to pull him into the shadows with me.

He shut his mouth but didn’t look cowed. No, the little shit arched a brow, determination blazing in his eyes.

Finlay shot me a hard look over his shoulder. “Drop the dark and brooding act, Rhydian.”

“Fine,” I ground out. “Can we get off the street now?”

Just because I agreed did not mean I’d invest any emotion into the encounter. We’d met hundreds of women at this point. It never ended well for us.

Finlay grinned before he spun around. He led the way, merging back into the crowd. 

I returned my focus to our surroundings and the many hiding places for my enemies to ambush me. If they ever figured out who I was.

We hadn’t taken more than ten steps before my attention snagged on a fiery-haired woman rushing towards us with her head down. A fitted black skirt hugged her hips and legs, while a deep navy blue — my favourite colour — blouse draped her, hiding what instinct screamed would be a delectable body. 

She tried to slip between Finlay and Knox but must have misjudged the space. Their shoulders touched, forcing Knox and Finlay to turn. She glanced up sharply, her beautiful green eyes clashing with mine for the briefest of seconds. I knew her. Her lips parted in surprise as she took the guys in, something heated flashing across her pale freckled face and then vanished. 

“I’m so sorry,” she said, forcing a grin. She gestured at herself. “In my own world.”

She waited for the guys to laugh, tension radiating through her. Neither of them could do more than blink at her.

When they didn’t respond in any way, she backed away, a crease forming between her brows. “Well, sorry again,” she muttered.

“Did any of you feel...” Knox glanced down, his lips flatlining. He rubbed his chest with a puzzled look.

“Like she was familiar?” Finlay finished for him. “Yes, but from where?” He glanced between us.

“I feel funny,” Knox whispered, his expression pinched.

Finlay paled and rubbed his chest too. With his dark red hair, his appearance quickly turned sickly.

“If you’re both done with the weird, shall we get off the street?” I eyed every corner and vantage point, my entire body on edge, searching for an unseen enemy.

It paid to be on guard at all times. Especially when my two idiot best friends were making a target of themselves in the middle of a busy narrow, cobblestoned street while the light faded and faux gas lamps flickered to life. 

Knox and Finlay doubled over, clutching their hearts, hissing in pain as they crumbled to their knees. People dodged them, openly gawking but not helping. 

“What’s wrong with you two?” I asked, exasperated.

Pain flared in my chest, so intense it ripped me from the shadows. Startled gasps rose around me, people reacting to my sudden appearance no doubt. I couldn’t focus on them. The burning on my chest took every ounce of attention I had.

It seared through me, making my eyes water worse than any gunshot or knife wound I’d experienced. It cut so deep I could imagine it touching my soul.

I tugged my t-shirt away from my chest and peered down the neck. A glowing purple mark had appeared like a tattoo. Curved tips intersecting a central circle. 

Beyond the simple mark, something shifted inside of me. My shadows glamoured around my fingertips, desperate for something… someone. I frowned at the unbalancing ache in my chest.

As the pain lessened and the mark stopped burning, the glow settled into a black ink… or as ink-like as a supernatural mark could become. 

“What the fuck is that?” Knox asked, his voice shaking.

He stared down his shirt too, a deep furrow between his brows. Both he and Finlay glanced up at me, their eyes wide, both of them unmistakably shaken. One look and I snapped out of the shock.

“We’ll discuss it when we get home.” I stood, straightening to my full six-foot-five height. 

My gaze roamed the street, searching for signs of danger, a witch who might have cursed us. 

No one appeared to pay us any mind. That did nothing to soothe my raging shadows. 

“But what if—” Knox’s mouth snapped shut at my sharp glare.

“Not until we get home,” I bit out through a clenched jaw.

He started walking again, but Finlay continued to stare down the street with a familiar glint of fascination in his brown eyes.

“What is it, Fin?”

He pursed his lips and I could almost see the cogs turning in his mind. “I don’t know… yet.”

But he would.

Although soft in all the ways I couldn’t be, Finlay could be just as dangerous. His abilities gave him just as much reach as my shadows, but his brain would always trump my strength. If anyone would figure out our sudden predicament, he would. 

At least one good thing came of it. We didn’t have to suffer through another rejection.

“Don’t look so relieved, Rhydian.” Finlay’s eyes narrowed on me, almost like he’d heard me. “This only delays our date. It’ll still happen.”

Knox chortled at him while I settled for a silent glare. We’ll see about that.