Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One)

  After waking up enough to realize she wasn’t dreaming, Addy reached over for her cell phone that was buzzing like crazy. It was 2am and she’d been asleep for a couple of hours. Since Tanner’s show was out of the question, she’d opted to just go back to her villa after dinner and play one of her new video games.

  There were four missed calls in the last two minutes from Matt’s sister Renee. She hit the button to call her back and tried to remember the last time Renee called her—especially in the middle of the night.

  “You need to come down to the beach,” Renee said instead of hello when she answered the phone. “I’m not sure where my brother is—he’s not answering his phone. Kim’s down here arguing with some girls about him.”

  “I’m on my way.” Addy ended the call and ran out the door, dialing Gage as she walked.

  “Hey,” Gage said. “It’s late. Is everything—”

  “Where’s Matt?”

  “He’s right here, why?”

  “Tell him to get his ass down to the beach.” She ended the call without waiting for a response.

  Addy could hear the girls yelling as soon as she got to the end of the path connecting the beach to the estate. A few of the Akori from the estate were there, along with Tweedledee and Tweedledum, standing near a roaring bonfire.

  It was obvious Kim was pretty drunk by the way she was swearing like a sailor. Addy was jogging, but broke into a sprint when she saw Tweedledee reach back and smack her across the face. Kim lunged at the girl just as she reached them. Addy shoved the girl aside and grabbed Kim, pulling her back.

  Tweedledum—the friend of the girl Kim was fighting with, grabbed a fistful of Addy’s hair. The sudden pain caused her to lose the hold she had on Kim, who landed in the sand on top of Tweedledee.

  “Let go!” Addy screamed at her.

  Tweedledum released Addy’s hair and began yelling at her about pushing her friend. She was either oblivious to the fact that Addy only shove the girl to try to get her out of Kim’s way, or she really just wanted to pick a fight. Either way, the girl suddenly decided it was a good idea to take a swing at Addy.

  Renee knocked Tweedledum to the ground before her hand made contact with Addy’s face and pointed to the other girls. “Just get Kim!”

  Addy’s head was throbbing where her hair had been pulled and she really wanted to punch the chick right in the face. Instead, she glared at her and once again grabbed Kim, pulling her away from Tweedledee.

  “Get off me, Addy!” Kim fought, trying to get away from her grasp.

  “Stop then!” Addy was shaking her to get her attention. “He’s not worth it. Matt is definitely not worth this.”

  Kim quit fighting Addy. She began crying and sat in the sand burying her face in her hands. Renee was yelling at Tweedledee to stay away from Kim as Matt came running up. Gage was right behind him.

  Matt looked at the five girls and held his hands out at his sides. “What the hell’s going on?”

  Renee whipped around to face her brother. “That’s a stupid question!”

  “See what you do!” Addy got on her feet and began shouting at him. “You rub girl after girl right in her face until she can’t take it anymore.” She turned to Kim and tried to speak in a softer voice. “And you—you just keep going back for more. It’s like both of you enjoy hurting each other.”

  Matt tried to speak, but Gage gave him a look that said he should probably keep his mouth shut, which unfortunately for Gage, drew Addy’s attention to him.

  Addy shifted her gaze to Gage, who immediately looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “You just stand by and let him do it right in front of her.” She took a step toward him—the vision of how he completely ditched her when the other girls walked up with Matt popped into her head, making her even angrier. “You may be free to do whatever or whoever you want, but he’s not!”

  Gage took his own advice and didn’t respond, but she could tell he was stunned at her outburst.

  Addy turned around and ran her eyes across the group as lightning began streaking the sky. “Meanwhile, I’m out here in my pajamas getting my hair pulled out by these—bitches!” She again rubbed the sore spot on her head where her hair was pulled. As the rage was building up, she looked directly at Tweedledum, taking a quick step toward her. “I should wreck you!”

  The two girls looked around Addy, toward Matt and Gage as if they expected help.

  Gage walked past Addy, brushing his fingers lightly along her arm. His touch mixed with the adrenaline pumping through her body felt like needles piercing her skin and she pulled her arm away.

  “Leaving now would be a good idea,” he said to Tweedledee and Tweedledum when he was between them and Addy.

  They protested and Gage said a few more quiet words. Addy could hear one, or maybe both of them crying as they started walking away.

  Renee broke up the rest of the group that was standing around gawking, warning them to keep what they saw to themselves. If Fate found out, he’d send Kim home. They were never supposed to draw unnecessary attention to the estate or the people who lived there.

  Only Matt, Addy, Gage, Kim, and Renee were left.

  “This is ridiculous,” Addy said when the girls were out of earshot. “First Matt’s beating up some poor guy just for dating Kim, and now she’s fighting over him.” She threw her hands up and then swept them through the air, just as a huge crackle of thunder crashed around them. She moved closer to Gage at the sound, but quickly backed away after getting her bearings. “We’re not dealing with it anymore.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kim said, without lifting her head up.

  Addy sighed and dropped her shoulders. “It’s not just you, Kimmy.”

  “Matt, are you listening?” Gage asked him.

  He didn’t answer. Matt was staring at Kim with so much intensity it creeped Addy out. Kim suddenly picked her head up, looking curiously at him.

  “Matt!” Renee shook his arm, snapping him out of it.

  He glared at Renee. “I know,” he said through clenched teeth.

  Kim, Matt, and Renee were glancing between each other without saying anything for several seconds. Addy peeked at Gage who appeared as confused as she was. Apparently he felt left out of whatever was going on too.

  Renee nodded her head suddenly and focused on her brother. “If you can’t get a handle this, then you need to stay away from her.”

  Matt gave her a pointed look and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Hey,” Gage said, reaching over and nudging Matt’s shoulder. “Renee’s right, if Fate finds out what’s been going on he’ll send Kim home.”

  Matt nodded at Gage and let his arms fall to his sides. Addy could tell by his face he didn’t like the thought of Kim leaving. He kneeled down in the sand and began whispering something to her. She nodded her head a few times and tears trickled down her cheeks. Matt finally just sat down and wrapped his arms around her.

  Addy rolled her eyes. “Unbelievable.”

  Gage looked over at her and shook his head.

  She turned and began heading for the estate. “I’m going back to bed.” She was extremely frustrated and irritated at the entire scene. The worst part was that she knew nothing would change.

  “Addy,” Gage said, walking up next to her. “Is your head alright?”

  “Its fine,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the path ahead of her. She was super pissed at him over his mixed signals and the girls.

  He slipped his fingers through hers and squeezed her hand. “I’ll walk you—”

  “No!” Addy pulled her hand away and stopped. There was absolutely no way he was going to play with her emotions the way Matt did to Kim. “Didn’t you even hear anything I said back there?”

  Gage seemed startled by her response as he looked down at her. “Of course I did, but—”

  “Don’t follow me.” She began walking again, but looked back over her shoulder. “Actually, until you decide what you really want, just s
tay away.”

  The next day, Addy made a conscious effort to avoid all of her friends. She was still so angry about the entire situation that she didn’t even go to dinner. After she finished up her day in the library with Fate, she went straight down to the beach and found a spot up near the tall grass. She spread out a small blanket and laid down on her stomach with a graphic novel she’d been dying to read.

  It was almost funny that after all the reading she was forced to do every day, she’d still choose to spend her free time with her nose between the pages. It was relaxing, and escaping into someone else’s problems was so much better than dealing with her issues.

  “What are you reading, girlie?”

  Addy looked up as Tanner dropped down onto her blanket beside her. She was a little surprised by how glad she was to see him. He was wearing a red t-shirt with a cartoon logo on the front from a show she watched all the time and a backwards baseball cap.

  She held the cover up for him to see and smiled. “For a guy who doesn’t like the beach, you sure turn up here a lot.”

  “Yeah, it’s strange how that’s working out,” he said, flicking the cover of her book with his index finger. “I read that book. I didn’t know there was a graphic novel.”

  “It came out a few weeks ago,” she said, scooting up to a sitting position. “How’d it go last night?”

  “You mean the show? It rocked,” he said, leaning back on his hands. “You didn’t come…”

  Addy instantly felt bad, but there was no way his show was an option after discovering Matt and Gage were going. “I couldn’t make it.”

  He nodded and looked out at the water as several large waves crashed against the shore. “The ocean’s crazy loud. I think that’s why I can’t sleep here.”

  “I’m the opposite,” she said, dropping her book on the blanket and wrapping her arms around her knees. “The white noise drowns out everything else—I sleep way better since we came here.”

  “Where’d you live before?”

  “Somewhere cold and quiet,” she said, shivering slightly at the memory, “just outside of Barrow, Alaska.”

  “Seriously?” He glanced back at the wall surrounding the estate. “I should’ve known by the snow on the roof of your house when it sprang up the other night.”

  “Yeah, it’s so strange seeing it without the white stuff everywhere.”

  “Is that where you’re from—Alaska?”

  “We’re not from there, that’s just where we were before coming here.” Addy took a deep breath, trying to figure out how much to tell him. “We move every year.”

  “I’m glad your house came to me—getting pulled to the Arctic Circle would’ve sucked.”

  The estate came to him. Addy studied Tanner and then glanced back at Tremain. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that he just happened to feel like he needed to be close to them at the exact time they came back to the place she’d been born. Something was definitely off about the situation—she just didn’t have any idea what it was

  “So in a year you’ll be gone, huh?” Tanner picked up her book and started flipping through the pages.

  “I’m not sure,” she said, lowering her head and closing her eyes. “Things are changing.” If her grandfather died and she didn’t get his position as Overseer, the estate would stay right where it was. “There’s just a lot going on—a lot to my life. I can’t explain it.”

  Tanner bumped her shoulder, making her open her eyes and look at him. “Here’s what I think,” he said, smiling at her. “I think your mothership is stranded here and you can’t get to the next planet you planned on conquering.”

  Addy laughed and leaned back on her elbows next to him. “I can’t get anything past you.”

  The time ticked away as they sat together chatting. They watched as the beach slowly cleared out and the silvery moon replaced the fading sun.

  It was unbelievably nice having someone outside of the estate as a friend. She remembered when Kim was that person. Now that she was a part of everything that went on at the estate, Addy missed having just one person—another human, who had nothing to do with the Akori. She knew Tanner was somehow connected to it all, but until he had to be told about it all, she liked having him just the way he was.

  Addy glanced up just in time to spot Kim, Matt, Renee, and Gage walking down the beach in her direction. It didn’t look like they’d noticed her yet so she quickly dropped onto her back and turned on her side toward Tanner. She wiggled over closer to him so he was blocking her from their view.

  “I have a ton of burning questions about what you’re doing,” he said, craning his neck so he could see her face.

  “My friends are here,” she whispered. “I’m not really into seeing them right now.”

  Tanner laughed and leaned over her as they passed. “So I’m a human shield?”

  “Pretty much,” she said, looking up at him. His eyelashes were the thickest she’d ever seen on a guy and she was totally jealous. She caught a glimpse of Kim and grabbed Tanner’s shirt, pulling him farther over her.

  “I’ve gotta be honest,” he whispered, looking back to see if they were gone. “Hiding out in the most likely place they’d look for you was an absolutely terrible plan.”

  “There was no actual plan—it was more like panic when I saw them.”

  Tanner glanced back again and then sat up. “It’s all clear.” He offered Addy his hand to pull her up and started laughing. “Even if—damn…” His phone was ringing and he got to his feet as he answered it, walking a little ways away from her.

  It was dark outside, so reading anymore was pretty much out of the question. Sitting and talking with Tanner was definitely something she could do though. She’d be perfectly fine spending a lot of time doing it actually.

  Tanner came back over to where Addy was sitting. “I’ve gotta take off.” He crouched down in front of her with an apologetic expression. “Apparently when I was drinking last night, I invited a friend over to hang out tonight. That was the front desk of the resort saying she’s waiting in the lobby for me.”

  “Oh.” Her grand plan to make Tanner her one and only non-Akori related human friend failed to take into account that he had a life. “I’m going back up to my place anyway—it’s way too dark to read out here.”

  “So seeing in the dark isn’t one of your alien powers,” he said, looking at her closely.

  “I got gypped out of that one.” Addy couldn’t help smiling. “Remember,” she said, pointing at him, “If you get better and decide to leave, make sure you say good-bye first.”

  “You got it, girlie.” He stood up and took a few steps away before turning back to her. “Tomorrow night—about this time, will you be here?”

  Addy nodded before even thinking about her answer.

  “Then I will be too,” Tanner said, turning his back and walking quickly toward the path leading to the resort.

  Chapter 11