Free The Soul's Mark: CHANGED by Ashley Stoyanoff Page B

called upon the spirits for strength.  Do you really want to argue about this now?”
    “Um … no?” she asked, utterly confused , and she felt her jaw start to flap again.  What the hell is happening?
    “Good,” he said with a small nod.  “ Now, since I’m here, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”
    “Okay …” she sa id, hugging herself tightly, as she tried to tame her magic that was whirling and flaring all around her.  She had an overwhelming urge to flee, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from him.
    “ You have three days,” he said, and she swore she heard laughter in his voice.
    “ What?” she asked, as her brow knitted together.  “What happens in three days?”
    He shrugged, as if to say he didn’t know , which was retarded, in Amelia’s opinion, because he obviously did.  “You’ll find out in three days.  But I’ll give you a hint.  Listen to your lover, girl.  He knows what must be done.”
    “ What does Mitchell know about anything?” she asked, as dread seeped into her bones.  The last thing Amelia wanted to think about was Mitchell getting involved with the spirits.  He could barely handle being human as it was.
    The water spirit didn’t answer.  Instead, he let out a full-bellied laugh.  Amelia glared at him, watching the water jiggle around as his body shook with laughter.  She huffed in frustration, but it only made him laugh harder.
    He sobered after a few moments, and gave her a stern look.  “Do not come to me, or the other spirits seeking answers.  We will no longer help you, and neither will Mother Nature.  You asked for the power and now you must decide how much you want it and what you will give up for it.”
    Right then, s omeone screamed.  It was a loud shrill and Amelia startled, vaulting a good foot off the ground.  She landed on the balls of her feet, swiveling around, and threw open the bathroom door.  Her muscles tensed, tight as a corkscrew, ready to attack, but she saw nothing.  She scanned her bedroom again, searching for Mitchell, or anyone, but she was alone.
    She threw a quick look over her shoulder, glancing back at the water spirit.  He smiled, a cruel kind of smile, and then , as if he was a water balloon falling to the ground, he popped, splattering all over the walls of the shower stall.

CHAPTER 11
     
     
    “Are you kidding me?” Eric asked, dumbfounded.  “This is what you’re going to fight me on?”
    Megan fell to her knees and let out a bloodcurdling scream, and Eric just stood there, watching her.  He wasn’t sure if he was more hurt or angry, but either way, he couldn’t make himself pull it back.  Maybe that’s a good thing , he thought.  Megan needed to feel the pain of the bond in order to test her magic against it, but knowing that didn’t make the betrayal he felt at that moment any easier to handle.
    They’d been at it for hours now, trying to find something, anything , that they could disagree on enough to trigger the pain from the soulmate bond.  As it turned out, most of Eric’s worries had been completely uncalled for.  He saw eye to eye with Megan on pretty much everything.  Well, everything except the one thing that, in the last twenty-four hours, had become most important to him.
    They were gathered in the dungeon; Mitchell, Luke , Lola, Erin, even Lucy was down here with them, all waiting and watching to see if Megan would be able to use her magic to fight the pain.  The harsh florescent lights were unforgiving, showing the year’s worth of grime and blood that stained the stone walls.  Eric and Megan’s cleaning had only begun to erase the signs of death from the space. Why Mitchell had picked the dungeon to experiment with the bond was beyond him, but Eric also thought the place was fitting.  A cruel spot to inflict the cruel torture.  But now that they had found something that would actually cause the pain, Eric wished they had never tried.  Sure, being able to change the bond was