Strings of Fate

Strings of Fate 183- Pacing and preparing Even though he’s just left, Bellamy calls Alex. | feel kind of bad about it, he’s been here for hours and just when we finally let him go home, we call him with more work.

“Hey Alex. | need you to track down Tristain’s mother. | need to know where she is, any properties she has and also anyone she might be close with, particularly magic users.” Bellamy pauses listening to Alex’s response.

Man, it must be nice to be able to hear the other side of the conversation like all the Shifters In the room can.

“Yes, she was here the day his mother cto see me, Ryann intervened when she becemotional. It's possible that she might have interpr things to believe that Ryann is responsible.” He glances down atand hurriedly adds.

“She isn’t of course. It’s ridiculous. But | don’t expect someone who thinks killing people to make a point is a good plan, to be reasonable.” He finishes. | smile at him, it was unnecessary, but | do appreciate his efforts to make sure | don’t feel bad about things. Bellamy hangs up and we all stand there, not sure what to do next.

“We can go pick up Tristain’s mother as soon as we know where she is, but Alex needs a little tto track her down first. We should all rest for a couple hours. We can get a team together. We've been working all day.

Everyone needs to at least relax a while, shower, read a book, take a nap, whatever.” Bellamy insists. We all reluctantly agree, but | can tell that no one is particularly happy about it. Now that we have a lead, we all want to chase it down immediately. But Bellamy IS right. It’s better to be smart about this. As much as | want to go get Kiara right now, it's been weeks since she was taken. It's not likely that any further harm will cto her in the next couple hours, and it would be awful if something bad happened to her because we rushed in without thinking things through.

Bellamy and | head upstairs. | collapse into the bed to relax but it lasts about five seconds before I'm back on my feet pacing the room. Bellamy is sending out a bunch of messages making sure there is a team ready to go after Tristain’s mother. In theory, it shouldn't be that hard for only a couple Shifters to take her in easily. But since we don’t know who is with her or what weird magic has been used to kill the victims, not to mention what other magic she might have access to and the fact that they have a child as a hostage. Then there's the fact that all of this is working from the assumption that I'm right about Tristain’s mother being the one who wants to hurtin the first place. Is it strange that | don’t even know her name? How can it be that someone hatesenough to commit multiple murders and a kidnapping, but | don’t even know her name. To do all this, she would have had to dedicate all her tto her hatred, to focussing on her anger. Meanwhile, she was such a small part of my life, of my day, that | didn’t even think of her as a potential threat until now, and only because Darrien’s phone call with his mother triggered the memory. This is ridiculous. | think back to the day | met her. What did | say to her? What exactly caused her to direct all her anger and pain at me? Was there something | could have done differently? | know | wasn’t super nice to her, but Bellamy thought | did okay. He was super grateful for my help, but now I'm thinking | just made everything worse. | just jumped into the conversation without thinking. What could I have said differently? | mean, she was already very angry and upset. All | really did was take her attention from Bellamy and drag it to myself instead. Maybe | should have just let her yell at us. At the t| thought she needed stto cool off, but maybe if we gave her a chance to express her angry to get it all out, we could have helped her. Or maybe there was nothing | could have done, nothing either of us could have done. | mean, she raised the kind of man who would marry a girl while in love with someone else, just to try and get more power.

I'm pulled from my thoughts by Bellamy catching my hand, apparently done with his phone. He Pullstowards him and wraps his arms around my waist. | lean into him and he buries his face in my hair.

“You're supposed to be relaxing, trying to take a break before we go try and find Kiara. I'm fairly sure you're just wearing yourself out and working yourself up into a frenzy.” He chastisesgently. | shrug.

1/2 183- Pacing and preparing | can’t help it. | can’t just MAKE myself relax.” | object.

“You could try meditating?” Bellamy suggests helpfully.

“Nah, I'm too antsy. Too much nervous energy. | don’t think | could sit still long enough to clear my mind.” | explain. Even now, Bellamy’s arms aroundare the only thing stoppingfrom bouncing from foot to foot.

“I understand.” Bellamy responds, and he does. | can feel how tense he is. Ready for action, to push forwards and face everything head on, as he does. This waiting is as difficult for him as it is for me, maybe more so.

“We're going to find her, aren't we?” | ask quietly. Bellamy pulls back to lookin the eye.

“We will find her. I'm going to find her. | won't rest until | can put that little girl in your arms. Until you can be sure that she’s okay.” He promises. | slide my hands up his ch*st to his shoulders, then lean up on my tip toes and press a light k*ss to his lips.

“I love you.” | tell him shyly and Bellamy’s serious expression breaks into a smile.

“I love you too.” He responds, the smile still on his face. | move to go sit on the bed, knowing that if | start pacing again, he’s just going to catch me. | do my best not to think, but it isn’t working. My thoughts return to my earlier rumination.

“Bellamy? What is Tristain’s mother’s name?” | ask quietly. Bellamy, who was approaching the bed to join me, freezes in place. His brow furrows as he thinks.

“L... I don’t know.” He sounds as horrified as | feel. He pulls his phone out and sends off another message before coming to collapse on the bed next to me. He pullsto his side and | curl up against him with a deep sigh.

“I wish | had spoken to Megan earlier. Had told her the truth about Tristain when | first suspected it. Things might have ended differently.” Bellamy admits, his tone vulnerable and quiet. | stroke a hand down his ch*st in a way | hope is reassuring.

“You couldn't have known, and | had plenty of chances to tell her too. We both kind of messed up. We shouldn't have waited until her actual wedding day to speak up. We were both a little caught up in our own issues at that point.” | respond. | don’t think my words actually make him feel better, they don’t makefeel better either. | continue.

“But neither of us could have seen this coming, and we aren't responsible for the bad things that other people do..” | remind him. He nods and k*sses my head. His phone chimes and he checks it.

“Tristain’s mother... Her nis Cheryl.” Chapter Comments v8 POST COMMENT NOW < SHARE 2/2 Strings of Fate