Cora's Kismet (The Twin Destinies Saga Book 1) Read online

  There were still roses lying around, and he picked one up as he sat down on the grassy shore. He raised the white rose to his nose and could think of nothing but her beautiful hazel eyes, with warm chocolate flecks that matched the color of her hair and sparkled when she laughed, or her musical laughter that lifted his heart into the clouds.

  Sighing, he dropped the rose back to the ground. He wanted to believe her that it wasn’t serious between her and this guy, Charlie, but the way she’d pulled away from his touch told him something else. He knew she felt the bond between them every time she responded to his touch or kiss. He saw her feelings growing for him every time he looked into her soulful eyes. He was so confused at the moment. His biggest question was did he fight for her or just let her go, so she could be happy if she chose the other guy over him?

  Liam felt in his soul he couldn’t just let her go. He wanted her happiness above everything else, even his own, but it would shred his heart to let her go. Thinking about that, he knew he wouldn’t just let her go, he would fight for her to the death, or until she made it clear she didn’t want him. She was his mate, his love, his life. With those thoughts in his head, he stood and headed back to the house ready to do battle.

  *****

  Cora and Viola took off running from the study to find Thomas and Angelica after ironing out the details of their plan. They knew they had to work fast because Cora was not willing to let Liam go and judging from the pain in Liam’s eyes, she may have already lost him.

  They found their parents in the kitchen, sitting at the island on stools, talking. They looked up, startled, when the twins came bounding into the room unable to breathe.

  Viola held up her hand, silently asking for a moment to catch her breath before they explained their hurry.

  Cora caught her breath first and started to explain, “We, well I, have a favor to ask of you.”

  Thomas’ eyebrows rose in surprise. “What favor is that?”

  “We know Cora can’t go speak to Charlie out in public, because it’s too dangerous. Anna knows about him and will be having him watched. She needs to speak with him, like years ago, so we were wondering if you could have him picked up and a secure meeting arranged for us,” Viola finished for Cora.

  “Is this something you absolutely have to do?” Thomas asked, irritated. They didn’t have time for teenage drama, this was life or death they were dealing with.

  “Yes, it is necessary if you want us to help you,” Cora responded with a defiant edge to her voice. She didn’t know Liam was right around the corner, listening to their exchange after having come back in from the lake.

  “I will see what I can do. How soon does this meeting need to take place? We only have a few hours until the unbinding ceremony is to begin, and we need to finish preparing you both,” Thomas responded.

  “Like I said, years ago, but since it didn’t happen then, now would be wonderful,” Viola said, the urgency in her voice obvious.

  Liam pushed away from the wall unable to hear anymore. She wanted him brought to her. He saw now he didn’t have a chance of winning this fight. As much as it pained him, he would walk away, and he’d do it now. He went to his room and began packing his things.

  “Trust me, what I need to talk to him about will not take long at all. If I could just go to him, it would be quicker, and a lot simpler, but it’s not worth the risk if it will give Anna more leverage to accomplish her goal,” Cora rushed out, wanting to show Thomas they were willing to help fulfill the prophecy, if he’d help them out too.

  Thomas nodded. “Let me she what I can arrange. I’m sure you want it before the unbinding ceremony, correct?”

  “That would be best. Viola’s right, he’s a jerk, and if I’m unstable for any reason it could end very badly,” Cora told him relieved that he was willing to help. Thomas nodded his head and headed out of the room to make some calls. Viola followed to give him any information he needed to bring the scum bag to them so Cora could end it.

  Cora turned to Angelica who gave her a small smile. “So, what are you up to my dear?” Angelica asked, with her eyebrows raised and a smile playing on her lips.

  “Charlie needs to know he doesn’t have a chance with me and that’s something I need to make clear to him, face to face. The sooner, the better.” She knew without a doubt, she was meant to be with Liam, even if it scared the hell out of her. She’d never had feelings like this for anyone, didn’t even know she could feel this way before she’d met him. “Have you seen Liam? I need to talk to him now, before I see Charlie. I need him to be there when I break it off.”

  “No, I haven’t seen him. Didn’t he stay in the study and talk with you and Viola after we left?” Angelica looked worried.

  “He left only a minute or two after you and Thomas, I thought maybe he came to talk to you,” Cora said, and her mind started spinning. “I’ve got to find him!”

  Cora turned on her heel and sped out of the room. She looked in every room she passed heading straight for the room he was staying in. She prayed she wasn’t too late and could talk to him before Thomas had the meeting arranged. When she reached his door, she paused to catch her breath before banging loud enough to wake the dead.

  She waited, tapping her foot with impatience, for a couple of minutes before banging on the door again. She wished she knew how the whole mind connection thing worked so she could call out to him that way, but she was so new at all of this, she had no clue as to what to do.

  When he didn’t answer after the second knock, she reached out and turned the doorknob, pushing the door open. The room was empty. She looked around for any personal effects and found nothing, not even a piece of dirty clothing.

  “Oh God, I’m too late!” she moaned and dropped onto the bed sobbing.

  Angelica found her like that ten minutes later. “What’s wrong?” she asked in a soothing voice, pulling Cora into her arms and wrapping her up tight in a loving hug.

  “He’s gone,” Cora choked out between sobs. “I’ve screwed everything up.”

  The tears poured harder as she admitted her failure to her mother.

  “No darling you haven’t. We will find him and bring him back to you. He is your mate, you can always find him,” Angelica soothed.

  “I don’t know how. He could reach out to me with his mind, but I don’t even know where to begin,” Cora sobbed louder. She felt her heart shattering at the thought of never seeing Liam again.

  “Honey, it’s natural between mates. The first thing you need to do is to calm down,” Angelica coaxed. Cora started choking on her sobs trying to hold them back. She wanted to reach out to Liam and call him back to her, or at least find out where he went, so she could go to him. It took a few minutes, but she got her sobbing under control.

  “Good. Now close your eyes and try to relax while picturing him in your mind,” Angelica instructed. She smiled when Cora did as she said. “Can you see him?”

  “Yes, he is so beautiful,” Cora sighed. “How do I talk to him through my mind?”

  “You just do it. It’s as easy as breathing. Think what you want to say, or ask, and project it to his image in your mind,” Angelica said, praying that it worked.

  “Liam? Liam, can you hear me?” Cora did as her mother instructed and projected with everything she had. She worried it wasn’t working when she got no response.

  “Please Liam, we need to talk. I need you. Please answer me,” Cora pleaded in desperation.

  Tears started rolling down her face, again, when he still didn’t answer her. She turned to look at her mother when she heard a faint voice in her head calling to her.

  “Cora? Can you hear me? Please, I need help. Send help.” Liam’s faint voice faded and then she couldn’t hear it anymore. She jumped up from the bed, horror on her face.

  “NO!” she screamed.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” Angelica asked, frantic at Cora’s terror.

  “Liam’s in trouble, he needs help. God, what did I do?” Cora
screamed, fear and pain lacing her words. Viola and Thomas came running through the door.

  “No, no, no, no, no…” Was all Cora could get out, with her arms wrapped around her middle, she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Please don’t let anything happen to him.”

  “Thomas, Liam’s in trouble, we need to send search teams out right now. I have a feeling Anna’s people managed to pick him up.” Angelica added the last part as a whisper only meant for Thomas, but heard also by Viola, who turned her head with a snap that hurt her neck. Cora was beyond reach with her grief.

  “Talk to me Liam. Where are you? We need your help to find you. Please help me find you. I need you.” Cora kept pleading but got no response. Tears started flowing faster down her cheeks.

  “He won’t answer me now. Why won’t he answer me?” she whimpered.

  “It’s ok. We’ll get to him in time. Did you catch any images with his message?” Thomas asked her in a gentle voice, concern etched all over his face. Liam was the son he never had. He’d move heaven and earth to find him and bring him home to his daughter, alive and safe.

  “Wait, let me think,” Cora said, and tried to relax her mind to see if there was something she missed in his message to her. An image started to flicker in her mind almost as if Liam was concentrating all of his energy on sending it to her right now.

  “I know where he is. Anna has him. Oh no, I don’t ever want to go there again. Please, don’t make me go back there again,” Cora muttered out loud, confusing Thomas and Angelica, but causing Viola to turn a horrified look at them all.

  “Oh no, if she took him there we may already be too late,” Viola whispered, just loud enough for everyone to hear, even Cora.

  “Don’t say that Vi! We are going to go get him and bring him home now.” Cora stood with tears still streaming down her face, but her love for Liam was making her back straighter and motivating her into action.

  “Where are we going?” Thomas asked the girls.

  “The fishing cabin, but we prefer to call it what it actually is, Anna’s House of Horrors.” Viola and Cora said the last part at the same time, turning horrified looks toward each other before turning and walking out of the room together, leaving their parents looking worried and baffled.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  As much as Thomas and Angelica tried to talk Cora and Viola into staying behind, neither girl would have it. They would not tell them anything about the location of the fishing shack, preferring to give out information one step at a time to ensure their inclusion in the rescue mission.

  “You are falling right into her trap, you do realize that right?” Thomas asked for the millionth time.

  “Let her try. We both, at least, have our Solarian powers, and together we’ve got to be stronger than she is,” Cora responded, setting her jaw and crossing her arms. There was no way on earth she wasn’t going to be there to bring Liam home. She would kill Anna if she’d laid a finger on him.

  “Cora! Please make it stop. Please no more. Please. Help. Help me please. Help me.” Liam’s frantic pain filled screams echoed in Cora’s head making her eyes water.

  “We’re coming Liam. I promise you we’re coming. It won’t be long. Hold on, I’m on my way. You are my everything. Just hold on,” Cora begged him.

  “We need to hurry. She’s already started on him.” Cora lifted her eyes to look into Viola’s, and both shuddered.

  “She’ll pay Cora, I promise you that,” Viola vowed, fury weighing down her words and making them hang thick in the air.

  “Oh, I have no doubt about that,” Cora growled out. Liam’s screams had not subsided in her head, and she continued to plead with him to hold on.

  Cora said no more while Viola gave turn by turn directions to make sure they couldn’t pull any stunts to keep them out of the fight. Angelica seemed to accept how stubborn their daughters were, but Thomas kept grumbling under his breath.

  After a twenty minute drive, they arrived at their destination. Parking the vehicles much further back, the soldiers that were brought unloaded and began taking positions. Thomas held Cora back from leaping blind from the vehicle.

  “Let go of me,” Cora said, in a dark and dangerous voice, she didn’t even recognize.

  “They’ve got to get into position to protect our backs before we go storming in. Use your head and stop thinking with your emotions,” Thomas warned, danger in his tone.

  “The longer he’s in there, the worse it will be,” Cora growled. “You don’t know what she does to people in there. There is a reason that we call it the House of Horrors, it is not an exaggeration.”

  “She’s right. Anna has a talent for torturing people. She freaking enjoys it. We need to get in there now,” Viola insisted, backing her sister up. If anything happened to Liam, she’d never forgive herself. As it was, she was already blaming herself for him being there in the first place. If she hadn’t run her big mouth in front of him about Charlie, he’d still be back at their parents’ house safe with Cora.

  “Liam will be fine, he is trained for this sort of thing. If we don’t want to join him, we need to be smart,” Thomas insisted.

  “I guarantee you there is no training in the world that could prepare you for the sickness that is in her mind,” Cora warned, trying to loosen her father’s grip on her arm and slip out of the SUV.

  “Give them two more minutes, they know what they’re doing. I need you to trust us,” Thomas bit out, losing patience with his daughter.

  “Thomas, I know you understand where she is coming from on this, he is her mate after all. You would be the same way if it were me and vice versa,” Angelica spoke, reading her husband loud and clear. He was close to having Cora restrained in the vehicle.

  “I can hear his screams for help and mercy in my head non-stop. She is working on destroying everything he is. I cannot let that happen, so please let go of me and help me get him back,” Cora said, ice dripping from her words.

  “There is no way she could do that much damage that fast.” The driver of the SUV contradicted Cora, turning around to look at her in disbelief.

  “Want to find out for yourself? I will be happy to trade you for Liam any day.” The coldness slipping off Cora’s tongue was freezing the air around her. The others in the car felt the chill and shivered in response.

  “Cora, you need to calm down before you hurt someone,” Angelica said with a twinge of fear in her voice.

  “Let me go and I will calm down,” she said, uncompromising.

  Thomas let go of her arm, having received the signal for them to enter via his earpiece, at the same time as her threat. He had to admit, he was a bit unnerved at her ability to access her Lunarian powers while bound, which should never happen.

  “Let’s go, the men are in position. Stay behind me Cora. Viola, you stay behind Sage on team two,” Thomas ordered, as they filed out of the vehicle. Sage, who’d sat in the front passenger seat the entire drive without saying a word, nodded his head at Thomas.

  “I am so sorry Sage. I never meant to put Liam in danger,” Cora said, warmer than she’d talked to her parents, but the stress was making her voice heavy.

  “I don’t blame you Cora. Liam is hotheaded and does things without thinking. We will get him back, and he will be fine,” Sage said, hoping his words were true.

  She nodded without saying another word and took her position behind Thomas, as they moved toward the shack. It was closer to the size of a boat house with several entrances and windows Anna had blackened out so no one could see inside. She knew from personal experience that the ragged outside did not match the sound-proofed torture chamber that lay within those tattered walls.

  They reached the front entrance without any mishaps, and Cora looked around worried. This was way too easy. She watched until Sage and Viola disappeared around the side of the house heading to the rear entrance.

  “Something’s wrong,” Cora whispered to Thomas.

  He turned a questioning look in
her direction.

  “She has traps set up all around this place. There’s no way we haven’t set one off by now,” she continued to whisper.

  “Our team deactivated fifteen traps before we got out of the vehicle. That was what we were waiting on,” Thomas informed her on a breath.

  “Still, something feels wrong,” she said with a shiver.

  “It will be alright Cora. Let’s go,” Thomas said, and motioned the rest of their team forward toward the door. Having coordinated their attack in the SUV, their team and Sage’s team were breaking down the doors simultaneously to prevent anyone escaping. Thomas wanted to bring Anna in alive.

  As the front and rear doors crashed down, they all heard an agonizing scream from the center of the house. Cora didn’t wait a second longer and took off at a flat run to get to her mate. Thomas tried to stop her, but missed grabbing her arm by inches, swore and took off after her with his gun at the ready.

  Cora raced to the room she knew, without a doubt, Liam was being tortured in and stopped right outside of the door. Raising her hand, she went to place it on the door as she reached for the handle to push the door open. She was grabbed from behind and placed behind Thomas as four guards put themselves between them and the door.

  “Don’t you ever run ahead like that again, or I will have you locked up until your birthday,” Thomas growled in her ear. His fear for her safety had taken him off guard, and he’d reacted to it with no regard as to who was watching.

  “Ready sir?” one of the guards asked.

  “Yes, go,” he replied not waiting to coordinate. He was having enough problems controlling his daughter as it was, he didn’t need any delays making it harder.

  They demolished the door as if it wasn’t there, and Cora could hear their horrified yells as they entered the room and were confronted with the horror inside. They were all being attacked with electricity, water and Anna’s fire all at the same time.

  Cora saw glimpses of Liam strapped down to a chair with metal clamps, his head held in place by a steel band across his forehead and mounted to the chair Cora knew with far more intimacy than she cared to remember.