Twenty Five

Luke left reluctantly after about half an hour, when my shaking became too much and my temperature had plummeted and the machines were going off left, right and centre. He promised he will try everything to get us back together. I waited to hear the sound of the security guards leaving, and the sound of the key in the lock, before using my rudimentary telekinesis to undo the harnesses that were on me. No one had thought I would do that – mainly because my telekinesis skills were crap. I could just about move a cup of tea from the table to my hand. No one would have expected me to be able to take off reinforced restraints.

I finally undid the last one, sighing dramatically and kicking my legs of the bed before wrapping a blanket around my shoulders. Vick came in, opening the door and closing it without making eye contact before realising I was sitting up.

'How the bloody hell did you get the restraints off,'

'My mind, Vick, how else would I have done it?' I sighed, bringing my knees to my chest. He looked at me warily, his normal iron-like composure cracking under seeing me so stressed and devastated. He could deal with people he didn't know in times of crisis, but the second his own family was at risk he started to break. He was human after all.

'King Edward wouldn't be happy if he knew you could have done that all along,' He sighed.

'He's not happy with my existence full stop,'

'You've woken up on the pessimistic side, haven't you?' He sighed.

'Right, so, I've been abducted for three weeks, in hospital for nearly one and been locked in my own room for nearly one, I want to attack my Soulfinder, everyone is treating me like a prisoner and yes, that includes you and the King of England would prefer if I was not alive in his personal space,' I listed. 'I'm not entirely sure what you think there is to be cheerful about,' I mumbled.

'We think we're ready to wipe your mind tonight,' Vick said and I gasped.

'What?'

'Well, not wipe your mind. Kinda is. We're going to repair your bond at the same time as Uriel lifts the false images and Marcus wipes your mind, so you won't remember anything that's happened since your dinner at Jack's a few weeks back. You'll be extremely confused, so we want you to write a letter to yourself explaining everything you've seen over the last four and a bit weeks, no one will read it apart from you,' Victor explained to me.

'You think it's that easy?'

'The memories never stuck to your mind, it's like peeling off a face mask, once it starts to lift you can get the whole lot off in one go. In a way, it's already lifting because you've been talking to Luke fine, your brain understands he's no threat, it is your body having that effect,' Victor explained to me sitting on the edge of my bed.

'Do it,' I whispered and he smiled at me.

'We're doing it tonight so you'll fall straight asleep after, we can't change the timings off it,' He told me softly but pulled out a blue a5 notebook from his pocket, a pen attached to the spiral bounding. 'It needs to be decent enough for yourself to believe it. You have a few hours to write it,' He said before hugging me awkwardly. 'You're nearly there now, keep holding on,'

He got up, leaving the room and I looked at the book in front of me before the clock on the wall; it was half five now and curfew within the Palace wasn't until eleven, and that was when they would try it. Six hours seemed years away, but I had felt like half of my soul was missing for the last few weeks – what more damage could six hours do?

I opened up the notepad, spinning the pen around in my hand trying to think o the best way to word it before realising that was stupid. I had to be myself, fumbling with words. I knew what I was like and the levels of detail I would have to go into for myself to even fathom what happened. I put the pen to the paper, inhaling sharply before letting my brain write freely.

By the time I was finished, I may as well have written a dissertation on the past month I had. A few times, I found myself crying. I realise how webbed my mind had become, with myself remembering some odd memories like learning how to box and lying on the floor in a gym covered in sweat in weird grey tight clothing but none of which had context. I left the notepad to one side, as everyone had promised not to read it and watched the clock.

They had mentioned waiting until curfew to try and fix me, and now it was around half an hour from the curfew and I sighed. I could hear people moving around outside where I knew there was a constant guard waiting for me if I was to escape and from the three cameras I could see around the room, there must be some form of observation bay. I was confused why they weren't using the room behind my small apartment and were just waiting out in the hallway for me.

Fed up waiting, I lay down and closed my eyes, not sleeping but not quite conscious. I knew how desperately I wanted Luke. I missed spending all day and all night together. I would do anything to get that back.

Anything.

I resurfaced to someone gently shaking my shoulder. I jumped back.

'Hey, Grace, it's us, don't panic, it's just us,' Markie said to me and I frowned. He was sitting on the edge of my bed, frowning at me and I tried my slow down my beating heart. 'It's alright,' He muttered softly. I nodded, showing him I was fine. Crystal came into the room with a bottle of water and chucked it to me and I caught it on reflex. Uriel followed, closing the door behind him.

'What time is it?' I asked. They flicked on a small lamp in the corner of the room.

'One in the morning, you were sound out, we had to leave it.' Crystal said.

'Shit, sorry,' I said, before looking back to Markie. 'You have work tomorrow?'

'Nope, it's almost like the Palace called my unit telling them I was slightly preoccupied at the moment,' He said with a slight smile.

'Oh,' I mumbled and he nodded. 'Take a drink, it contains a mild sedative so you won't get distressed if you relive anything and it'll help you sleep after. They believe you'll be asleep until just after midday.' Markie said as Crystal and Uriel kept talking in the corner. I looked at the unlabelled bottle of water for a moment.

'How much do I need to drink for it to be effective?'

'Over 400ml, Xav checked it after us to make sure it was suitable and won't affect you with your other meds or something,' Markie said shrugging. 'Could have got Jack to do it but, nope, your god damn brother was wandering around as usual,'

'You're engaged to him, he's your issue now,' I joke him and he shrugged.

'He was your brother first,' Markie told me as I opened the bottle, before downing the entire thing in one go. He raised his eyebrows. 'Ah, forget you're good at downing drinks, should have remembered that from the pub days, we need to go pubbing soon, I'm sure Luke's good with his drinks,'

I made a committal noise in the back of my throat amazed that somehow he didn't know about the pregnancy yet but I was not going to be the one to tell him. Or at least not yet. Twelve-week rule or something, right?

Crystal looked over at me.

'Ready to go ten, Grace?' She asked me and I nodded.

'What do you want me to do?'

'Sit up in the middle of the bed, and hold my hand, and Markies,' She said and I did what she said. Uriel filled the circle and nodded at me with a sad smile.

'Let's go,'

I could tell the three of them were communicating without me, bringing me to a black space, and there were about ten minutes where nothing happened.

'Okay, we're going to go now,' Crystal told me in my head and I nodded.

Once again nothing happened and I was getting on edge.

'Right, we've decided to do it all in one go. This will hurt like a bitch, but you'll be unconscious after and then you won't remember anything that has happened since you came to mine for dinner with Luke, that will be your last memory, do you understand and do you consent to that?' Markie said to me and I nodded.

'Yeah, of course,'

'Okay,' Crystal said. 'We're going to go in,' She said and I took a breath in.

There was a pain in my head, like a dull throb of a headache and I felt Crystal searching through my mind trying to find my bond. She found it, gesturing in a unique way to the others. There was a moment of silence before the pain from Hell hit me.

It felt like my head was split in half with a blunt spoon and my brain was in a blender. My mouth was full of copper pennies and I saw awful, awful things in my mind. I saw myself lying limp in a dark, damp hallway. I saw myself being forced into the wall, and creepy hands on my waist and some boy training me hard in the gym to the point of my light grey shirt was dark grey in sweat. I saw some creepy middle age man tell me how he would impregnate me and destroy the people I love. I then saw the same man change all my memories of my kidnapping to blame Luke for burning my leg and pouring metal onto it and then shooting me so I didn't move.

Then I blacked out.