Broken: Bound by Magic, #2

By Rowena Aiello

They were fated to be together…

 

…but she wanted out, and did anything she could to be free.

 

Now we're all paying the price.

 

Their broken bond is still hurting him, even though they're no longer together. What's even scarier is that none of the doctors in town can help us. Nothing like this has ever happened before in Atlantis.

 

The best way to figure out how to help him, they say, is to go back to the source of the magic that broke Matt and Sarah apart.

 

If only it was that easy.

 

No one's seen Sarah in a while. Matt is too heartbroken to even think about her.

 

But he's also getting worse.

 

She's all we've got. We'll have to get past what happened before in order to find her.

 

Then, to save someone from magic no one's ever seen before, I'll have to do something no one's ever done before: split my soul.

 

Let's just pray it's not too late to save Matt from dying.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M Publishing
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223359401

Rowena Aiello

Rowena Aiello's love of fantasy and romance stories began when she was reading Twilight fanfiction in high school—because where else was she going to find anyone who would make sure Bella/Jacob would be endgame? After years of fruitless searches in mossy woods, snowy mountaintops, and gorgeous mansions revealed no trace of hidden vampires, werewolves, or any other such creatures, she took to creating her own versions. She now lives in a definitely-haunted house with her wonderful but sparkle-free family.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

I hold Matt’s hand on our way to visit the Coats, the people who work to keep us Atlantians healthy as they study and preserve the magic of our town. Matt’s parents speak to each other quietly in the front seat of their Ford Fairmont Squire.

It’s such a radical change from our ice cream date yesterday that I can hardly believe the date even happened. The only way I know for sure that it has is the fact that he leans into me in the car, opting for the middle hump just so we can be next to each other.

In no time, the hospital rises up in front of us, three stories tall. It’s a large building, made mostly of cement, but with the number of plants and vines pouring out of the windows, it looks more like a radical greenhouse than a research facility for the town’s magic.

Still, Matt’s hand shakes in mine. I’m not sure how much of that is his fear of finding out the worst about himself, and how much of that is the poisonous Perfect Couple drink that’s been coursing through him for weeks. For all the heat and humidity rising up around us, his skin is cool to the touch.

It’s been like that ever since his ex-fiance, Sarah, turned eighteen. She found out that she was Matt’s Swan—his literal soul mate, chosen to be together by the magic of our town—and then poisoned him so that the connection between their souls was severed.

Then she and my cousin, Ty, officially ran away together as much as they could, anyway, without crossing the wall that keeps Atlantian magic inside the town. But no one’s heard from the checkpoint guards, so they haven’t gone that route yet. And it’s only been two days since they disappeared, but even that feels like a lifetime, given how Sarah’s the only one we know of with an antidote.

How much worse is he gonna get?

I can’t help wondering. It’s the question we’ve all been asking ourselves.

Inside, the lobby looks like what I imagine you might find at therapy: the place is white and mint green, with just a single hallway to the left and right. The corners are full of flowers, and there’s a skylight at the top. They even have doors on the other end of the lobby that go to a garden. The whole place smells fresh, only slightly like cleaner, and cool air tickles us from every side.

Matt’s parents check him in at a desk that looks more comfortable in a business lobby area than a waiting room, and then motions him to the left-side hallway, which I’ve never been down before. When my Aunt Jo, who I live with, brings me and Ty in for checkups, we visit the hallway to the right. It’s a place I privately call the land of specialized medicine, but no one tells me what they actually do in there, besides Read your soul to see if you Swanned yet, and found your soul mate.

If not, you have to keep looking for them. The trip alone makes all eighteen-year-olds hold their breaths. It makes me almost grateful that I’m only fifteen.

I stay seated when Matt stands, but then he nudges me.

Please? he whispers, unable to hide the fear in his voice. I’d feel better if you were there.

I gape, looking at his parents. The confusion on their faces is almost palpable. But since he asked... Okay, I whisper, taking his hand.

His parents share a wondering look, but otherwise say nothing.

The left hallway bustles with twice as many Coats as the one I’m used to. A woman even walks past with a tray of bubbling beakers filled with vibrant colors. It’s the first time I’ve seen anyone carrying anything other than a clipboard.

Where are we? I whisper to Matt.

General Inquiries, he whispers back, staring at the beakers with just as much fascination.

She isn’t gone for two seconds before a kid—and he is a kid—around Matt’s age walks up to us, hands deep in his Coat pockets. His spiky black hair and tawny skin reminds me so much of Ty, I have to blink twice to make sure I’m seeing him correctly.

But no, it’s not Ty, though he looks to be the same age. This guy has a hound dog’s face, long around the eyes, and touched with a hint of sadness. It doesn’t take much for that all to lighten when he gifts us a tiny smile, though.

He nods to us both, and reaches a hand out for Matt’s. You must be Matthew Michaels. I’m Sid, I’ll be working with you on your case, he says. The depth of his voice vibrates down my spine in a way that excites and worries me. It’s both brand new, and yet totally familiar. I grip Matt’s hand tighter.

Matt, on the other hand, stiffens. How’d you—?

Sid holds up a pager. They alerted me, and I read your file. You’re my first solo case as a Coat-in-training. His grin widens, and he points to a door. Shall we?

Matt nods and heads in. For the first time since meeting him, Sid looks at me, straight in the eye, and a second, bigger vibration shoots down my back.

For a second, I can’t breathe. I feel like I know him, and that I can pull these details from a place somewhere in the back of my head, if only I could find them. Even he pauses, staring at me like he’s seeing me all the way down to my core. Then I force myself to pull my gaze away, and head into the room.

It’s like any doctor’s office, with the padded bed set beside the wall, a sink in the opposite corner, and almost no space to move around in. There are plants, though, and it doesn’t smell quite as strongly like cleaner here.

Matt jumps onto the bed immediately, but there’s not much space left for three people. Hanging back, I wait in the hall with his dad, letting his mom enter the room, while Sid busies himself with a pair of rubber gloves. Once he’s settled, I catch Matt’s hand disappearing into his pocket, returning with a guitar pick that he flips between his fingers.

From the corner of my eye, I find Sid nodding to it. You play?

Both of us startle, but then Matt nods. I’ve got a Gibson Showcase right now.

Sid grins again. Nice! I’m a bass. Working for a Yamaha Pulser.

Matt’s whole face lights up, and I can’t help smiling with him. No shit! he says, turning to face Sid more fully.

His mom rubs his shoulder, and his dad barks a surprised laugh. For a moment, my heart pangs to see them operating as a family. The last time I had that, I was just a baby, taken out of Atlantis by parents who would separate after my eighth birthday. Only days later, Mom brought me right back here, and left me with her older sister, Jo, and my cousin, Ty. Mom died shortly after. Seeing almost all of the Michaels family together makes me long for the same.

Before anyone can do anything, though, my friend Erin’s mom, Guide Morgan, walks up to us. She’s just as plump, and pale, and wild-haired as her daughter. Unlike Sid, she’s dressed in a comfortable, stretchy violet-colored shirt and pants with deep, obvious pockets, and a clear quartz necklace around her throat. At the sight of us, she breaks into a smile, sliding gloves over her hands and clenching a clipboard under her arm.

We have quite a crowd today, don’t we? she says, and narrows in on me.

Her eyes widen for a second, and her gaze dips down to my heart, before coming back up again, and peering into the room at Sid. She presses her lips closed, a slight smile on her face, and then straightens up, sighing. There’s a heaviness in her eyes, a sadness that I think I understand.

How are you, Kat? she asks. My mind immediately goes to Erin, and our friend Rey, and the rift between all of us.

Now Mr. Michaels is looking at me, too, and the chatter in the room quiets down. I’ve been better, I say.

Have you spoken to Rey at all? she asks, the way mothers check in with one another about ailing children.

I shake my head, and she sighs.

If you do, could you tell her Erin misses her? My daughter’s too proud to make the first move right now, but I know she’d like you both to come over again. She’s been miserable since she and Rey broke up.

Despite the fact that I’m the reason Rey is mad at anyone, I nod. Erin clearly didn’t tell her mom that she took my side in the argument, leading to Rey cutting us both off at the end of the school year, and I don’t want to be the one to say it. Especially since Matt’s the reason Rey and I were fighting in the first place.

Rey had thought I’d been obsessively worrying about him for nothing. Of course, she was wrong, but I haven’t seen her to tell her that.

Mrs. Michaels pokes her head out of the room.

Hello, Susan! Guide Morgan says, allaying any reprimands the woman might make. She heads inside, saying, How are we all today? As she does, she hands Sid a clipboard. Forget this? she asks.

Sid gives her a sheepish smile back, and mutters his thanks.

Not too great, Matt says to her first question. My former fiancee, Sarah Harris, poisoned me, and then took off with my best friend.

Guide Morgan turns to him. She blanches just as quickly, turning almost as pale as he is. My god. Are you sure that’s all she did? she asks, ducking her head and examining his chest.

Matt meets my gaze, almost pleading for me to make it better, and then cowers in his seat. Why— do you ask?

I’ve never seen a soul so—pale before, she whispers, stepping up to him and touching a place over his heart.

Matt and I share a confused look, and I lean closer. Wait, you can see it? I thought you were just a spiritual guide?

That’s the general term for it. The technical term is Singer. I can see, communicate, and work with souls, she says, bending and pressing her ear to the place where her fingers had been.

As soon as she says that, I’m reminded of my conversation with Sarah on the bleachers, before she took off. It hits me now that this is what she is, too. That she’d have to be, to have seen her soul mate, and know that Matt, specifically, was her Swan. And that means Ty must’ve known, too. Mentally, I curse them all over again.

But the faraway, confused look on Guide Morgan’s face sends a new thrill of worry through me.

And you can’t? Matt asks, turning to Sid.

He shakes his head. No Coats can.

But I’ve never heard of anyone working with souls before, Matt said.

Guide Morgan gives him a small smile as she works. Most of the time, my job is very simple: I meet with you all once a year to guide you along your way to adulthood. I typically don’t need to do anything with souls. Only people whose souls are hurt need the more strenuous help of a Singer.

She makes a face. Make no mistake, Matt, that includes you right now. I've just never seen anything like this, she says, moving her ear. "It reminds me of something else, though. There are two people who haven’t Swanned at all in the sixty-something years they’ve been living in Atlantis. They started ingesting magic to push their souls to find their soul mates.

Their souls are wounded now because of it, but those wounds are different from this, she says, pointing to his chest. This looks like a knife-wound. There are so many ragged edges. It looks like your soul found its connection, and then that connection broke. It’s searching for the connection you made, but there’s nothing rising up to meet it, the way there was previously. Which makes sense, if Sarah is a Singer, too. She knew what she was looking for, and she found it.

She straightens, and then motions to Sid. Check his vitals.

But you can fix it, right? Whatever it is? Mrs. Michaels asks. Matt cringes away once Sid starts shining lights in his eyes.

Not until we know what happened, Erin’s mom says, and then crowds closer when Sid sighs, and makes a final mark on his clipboard.

I told you, I got poisoned. She gave me a drink she called the Perfect Couple, and it poisoned me, Matt says, squeezing his eyes closed.

Do you know what was in it? Guide Morgan asks. She closes her eyes, too, like she’s listening to a song no one else can hear.

No, Matt says, the defeat evident in his voice. He finally opens his eyes, and his desperate gaze meets mine. I try to give him an encouraging look.

How long were you drinking it?

He shrugs. A while? Maybe a few months?

And did you feel fine after you drank it? Sid asks, standing back and studying him.

Matt waves a hand at himself. I did, until this.

No, you were hospitalized, his mom whispers.

For depression and suicidal tendencies, Matt says, the bitterness hard on his voice. I itch to take his hand, and give him some form of comfort.

Maybe that was a side effect, Guide Morgan says.

Matt snorts. Yeah, of her being an ass.

If Guide Morgan takes offense to that, she doesn’t show it. Instead, she nods at Sid. Anything?

He blows out a long breath. Looks like pretty standard magic work from a non-magic user, he says.

How’s that possible? I ask. Aren’t our soul mates connected by magic?

He nods. You have magic in you if you were born here, but you can’t use it unless you’re called to it. You’ll feel buoyant when you meet your Swan, but only because the magic put in you at birth recognizes a similar magic in your soul mate. But unless you’re a Coat, you can’t do much more with it than that.

He turns back to Matt. Did Sarah make the magic by herself, or did someone give it to her?

Matt looks sheepish for a moment, shrugging. I don’t—

She made it herself, I say, burning at the ears. Everyone turns to me, baffled by my knowledge, so I hold Sid’s gaze. It was a potion.

Matt’s dad straightens up beside me, leaning towards Sid. But wait a second, how d’you know it’s magic? Aren’t witches the only ones who can tell that?

Coats are witches who actually had proper, professional training. We don’t use the term witch around here, nor do we talk about them, Guide Morgan says, and reaches for the clipboard. Then she turns to Matt.

The key thing to know is that we might be able to help you, but your soul is blocked. It’s trying to make connections, but the magic you were given, which is what likely separated you from your Swan, is also trapping you. Once the magic is removed, we might be able to help the soul. But I’m only a Singer, and I can’t do magic.

You’re a Coat. Can you remove it? I ask Sid.

He gives me the saddest look. I don’t know. I haven’t done much magic like that before—and typically, that magic can only be done by the person who cast the spell. But I can look into it, he adds fast, like he doesn’t want to disappoint me.

So then, what does that mean for Matt? Mrs. Michaels asks. She looks at each of us like we’re missing the most obvious question. He’s been like this for at least a month, and by all accounts, he’s not getting better. Is he just going to get worse, or is there a way to help him?

Erin’s mom gives us all grim smiles. Unfortunately, I really can’t say without knowing what ingredients went into that potion. It might’ve been magic, but the soul-work connected to it is unmistakable. You’ll need a Coat, and a Singer, in order to fully recover from it.

So what can you tell us? I whisper, not sure I want to know. Even Matt goes a little green.

Guide Morgan heaves a sigh, studying Matt again with the most apologetic look on her face. Given the state of his soul now, and the condition his body’s in with all that magic coursing through it, I’d say he has until this time next week before he becomes incurable.

CHAPTER TWO

Matt’s mom and dad both gasp. Sid won’t look at anyone. And Matt, my poor, dear friend, looks like he’s about to fall off the bed. We both know what this means:

Only Sarah, his ex-Swan and ex-fiance, might be able to heal him. Sarah, who’s been missing for the last three days, may be his only hope.

That’s when an unbidden thought rises to the back of my mind: his deadline falls at the same time that I have to go to Mandatory Summer Camp. If we don’t heal him in time, I’ll be carted off to some stupid, out-of-the-way lake with every other kid looking for their Swan, and then Matt will be gone, and I won’t even be able to say goodbye to him.

What happens if that happens? I ask, the words coming out of me before I can stop them. Again, everyone gasps, but I can’t help it. I need to know. To his soul, I mean?

Guide Morgan pales even more than she already is. There are very few records that we have about this situation because it’s so rare for souls to sever, but in cases where they do…

She takes a bracing breath, meeting each pair of eyes now laser-focused on her. He’ll become a ghost. His soul will leave his body, and become trapped in a ‘second world’ that only us Singers can see. Think of it like a film covering Atlantis. It’s not corporeal, or tangible, to a normal person, but it’s still there. It’s a place where the town’s magic sends the things it creates when they die, or become broken somehow.

But you can see it, I say, leaning in more. Can you get souls back out once they’re in?

She lets out a long breath. Yes, but it takes time. The town’s magic is a sentient thing. It’ll take a lot of convincing for it not to pull something away, or let it go once it’s contained in the second world. And in the meantime...you become a husk of a person. Functioning, but otherwise lifeless.

I drop my gaze. Matt does, too. The implications of this are overwhelming enough. I can only imagine how scared he is, but I can’t think of anything that would comfort him.

Guide Morgan touches his arm so gently, it’s like she’s touching porcelain. We’ll do all we can to stop it from happening. The Harris family has a search team out looking for her every day. We have Coats on call day and night. No matter what, we’ll do what we can to fix this. I promise you.

She doesn’t say what’ll happen to him in the meantime, but as soon as I notice that omission, I’m not sure I want to know the answer.

Come back very soon, she says. Tomorrow, even, if you can. Set up an appointment, and we’ll run some tests. If nothing else, we can try to stave off some of the worst of what this magic’s been doing.

She takes a deep breath, and then looks each Michael in the eye. I just ask that you don’t go running to any charlatans out of desperation. We can fix this, here, but we need your trust in order to do that, she says, making her way to the door, and leaving us to our shock and fear. With a tiny wave to Sid, she heads into the hallway, squeezing my arm and disappearing into another room.

On his way out, Sid puts a heavy hand on Matt’s arm. If you need anything, man, just call and ask for me, he whispers.

Matt nods, his gaze distant and hollow.

I hate the zinging, thrilling tingle I get around Sid as he passes me again, his gaze meeting mine for the briefest second. And there’s this warm feeling filling me that reminds