Chapter 5 The Mate In Question

"Don't touch the water!"

I jumped to my feet at the order. "Christ!" I hollered, nearly stumbling as I turned back to find Keel standing at the entrance, arms crossed. "Jesus, you scared me!" I added before looking at the pool.

"He's trying to lure you," Keel warned, her tone stern.

"Who?" I asked.

She nodded towards the pool. "The person inside that box."

"But I..."

"I know. He got into your head. Whatever he told you isn't real. That's his thing."

I sensed that something happened to me; something that wasn't right. Seconds ago, it felt like my body belonged to someone else, and there was this darkness. A shadow that loomed. I didn't know what it was but it made my stomach churn with unease.

Sighing, I approached the woman as I tried to get far from the pool. "You know what, maybe you can help me return to the room. I didn't even intend to come here. I missed my way after speaking to you so..."

"You don't see the difference?" Keel snapped, and I frowned at her.

"Why are you being rude?"

She was looking at me like I was a dump of shite she just stepped on. It reminded me of the look Terin used to give me. "I'm not the person you spoke to," she retorted without changing her expression.

I only now noticed that she was indeed different from Keel. While the latter revealed so much of her body, this stranger had tight-fitted leather outfits covering most of her skin. And her eyes did look bold and beautiful, but not as uncanny as Keel's.

"Who are you?" I asked as I stepped back, my hands curling to fists.

"Don't give me that look. It's pathetic." I huffed. Is everyone in this place allergic to being nice? "The woman in question is a Kyriar. She happens to be my twin. And no need to feel threatened, I'm not really here. You just triggered the alarm." She jerked her head to the floor where some candles had fallen.

I didn't care if she was here or not, as I figured it'd be best if I got far from her. Nobody wanted to be with someone hanging around weird caskets after all.

"Forget it!" I mumbled. Maybe I'll just find the room myself.

As I walked past her, her hand held me by my elbow, stopping me from moving further. I shot her a glare. Then I noticed that the look she had earlier was gone, yet an expressionless face was even more annoying now.

"Leave this place. And when you do, do not return to Suvan," She warned, which sounded quite funny.

"I have a thing against people who look at me like trash," I seethed through clenched teeth, forcefully getting her hands off me.

Who the hell did she think she was giving me a fucking advice after staring at me dirty like that! I didn't know her either. And look at all those leather sheaths around her waist and legs. Who knew what lethal blades they carried? I made to walk away.

"You don't see how much she's risked your life, placing you in a cavern next to the one where the most dangerous man on earth is being held? And you wonder why they gather in your pool. They're watching this box while spying on you, but it doesn't mean they'll stop you if you're walking into danger."

I turned to her. For some reason, it felt like she had more to say to me so I decided to, at least, hear her out. After all, I'd spent days in this cave with no one speaking to me. And if I didn't come out like I did, I probably wouldn't have met Keel.

"I've had my eyes on you since you arrived here," she continued. "I believe you're just looking for answers. But these people you see, they're exploiting you. There's nothing like Amperes will find your mate, Hun. They have more vanities troubling their minds for them to go off on a mate search. So, you should trust no one here."

I wondered why she told me this. I mean, she was a Firne and this was equally her home, so either one of them was lying or I was just caught up in some rivalry where they were using me to sabotage each other. However, I couldn't tell how important I was seeing that I'd been ignored for days.

"Then are you the truthful one?" I asked. "For all I know, they all made their words believable just the way you are doing now. How are you any different?"

The stranger shook her head. "I'm not. I am merely trying to rid this cave of you because I don't want you wandering into it. I have enough problems to deal with, you know. Now, I'd help you if I could. But there's nothing I can do since I'm not here. So, you'll need to contact your mate."

"Well, I can't do that! And how do I know that you're not the one spying on me? Obviously, you came out of nowhere."

Keel's twin curled her lips down as she unfolded her arms. She covered the space between us, standing about as tall as Cleopatra. "Look, you can walk away if you have your doubts. I'm not trying to convince you. But know that I left Amperes for a reason, which is not so good."

As I regarded her, I noticed that she still had no expression, and her eyes never shifted from mine. It made her all the more suspicious.

Still, I couldn't ignore that she was the only one who seemed to be showing me the way forward. The others just questioned me and told me dumb stories about people I didn't care about.

"H-how do I... contact my mate?" I asked as my tense stance eased.

Zeel's twin made some demonstration with her hands as she explained. "The bond stands as an intermediary between you and your mate, for early stages anyway. It's like Wi-Fi that connects you two no matter the distance. If you can reach the bond, you can reach your mate. But you must know that it won't be easy because they're like untamed beasts until they can learn to listen to you. We'll start with the water, try not to touch or dive into it though."

I walked to the pool while avoiding the candles. Then I crouched down beside it. I found the casket quite upsetting, but I knew I had no choice. I needed to find my mate and end these worries. That's if this woman was trustworthy.

"Okay, so do I just stare at myself?" I asked before craning my neck towards her.

She shrugged. "What do you see?"

"Please do not start the Cleopatra lessons now because I see my FUCKING EYES! Y'all need to stop making me look at it. It's bloody creepy."

"I'm just trying to confirm that he isn't manipulating what you see." The stranger nodded at the pool when she said that, making me regard the casket once more. Who on earth was in there anyway and how come his story was never known?

Keel's twin snapped her fingers close to my ears. "Now clear your head of every thought and think only of the bond. They can appear as you or your mate so don't freak out if you see an image that's not yours."

I didn't know how to 'think only about the bond', and I couldn't bring myself to ask either. I just spaced out while watching the steam that came out of the pool. I saw my reflection in the water; my eyes especially. I'd usually tried to avoid looking at them but they always managed to stand out.

The reflection grinned, but I sure as hell wasn't grinning. My brows creased as I drew my face closer to look at it. It didn't follow my movement. "Okay, what the heck is going on?" I chuckled awkwardly as I turned to Keel's twin.

She was standing behind me and mouthed something like 'The bond'.

I let out a silly gasp. Only it was just my voice and not literally me. "Oh look, a loose wraith! Girl, when was the last time you washed your hair?" The bond razzed before their giggle resonated in my mind.

I shook my head while protesting, "No, I'm not doing this! It's spooky. How can my own damn reflection speak to me?"

"What's spooky is someone digging around in your head and that someone is Keel," The stranger said as she thrust her face towards me. She emphasized every word as if engraving it in my mind. "It's either you face this and ask your mate to block your thoughts from her or watch as she freezes your brain."

Now that's petrifying.

But looking at this reflection, it felt like I was facing another part of myself; the part I showed to the people who antagonized me. And it wouldn't be as easy as breaking some nose or giving black eyes because it was in my fucking head and could probably hurt me more than I could do to it.

The bond let out a long, annoying groan before grumbling, "This is why I don't deal very kindly with strangers."

I frowned. "Well, correct me if I'm wrong but I think you're the fucking stranger here. This is my body, remember?"

"Whoa! Language, kid."

"Talk to them, not exchange words with them," Keel's twin cut in, but I figured she hadn't found herself in a situation where she had to face the side of herself that she might not like to meet.

"It's fucking foul-mouthed!" I yelled. She just shrugged.

"Technically, you are," I heard the bond mumbling as I released a frustrating sigh.

I bit my nail, trying to calculate my next action while my reflection stared back at me with that wicked grin lingering on its lips.

"Well, who's my mate?" I asked after failing to think.

The bond cackled. "You don't expect me to simply tell you, do ya?"

"What?"

"Tsk tsk, you really are dumb, aren't you? He's been closer to you than you think and you still bother to ask me?"

My brows furrowed, confusion setting in. "He?"

"What, you thought pussy fanaticism wouldn't be over?"

The hell??

"That's fucking Terin's line! Shut up!"

"You crossed the liiine."

I gave Keel's twin a quizzical gaze. There could have been some kind of mistake somewhere. Maybe I wasn't what they thought I could have been because I'd definitely not heard anything about a male Firne.

However, I noticed her face had turned pale as she gaped across me to the pool.

When I traced her sight, I saw that my reflection was gone. Another had replaced it; the eyes from earlier. I moved my head further to see if I could spot the rest of the face but there was nothing-just the eyes and this darkness hovering about it.

The pool darkened, and so did the cavern. I kept drawing my face closer to the water, my eyes squinting. All I thought of were the eyes...

The eyes.

It enthralled me, and I didn't know when I started reaching for the water again.

"Keep your hands off it, girl!" I could hear Keel's twin yelling but that wasn't important anymore. She kept ranting. "Hey! Hey! Don't touch the wa..." The rest of her words were muted when I dived in.

It happened like some split-second traveling. One moment I was diving into the pool and the next I was gasping as I opened my eyes to a metal space.

It looked like the Aultik building. Surely, there was no way I'd be able to forget the nauseating memory of this metallic smell in just a week. Or was it the bright white lights, the glass training boxes, or the continuous beeping sound from the machines?

Looking around the hall, at the other glass boxes identical to the one I was in, it was so easy to spot the person in the next box-persons rather.

One was sitting on the training bed-a man. The other stood in front of him, back facing me. I could recognize that slender backside and curvy waists anywhere. It was like the pages of the book you read as a kid that stick to your head as you grow.

Terin with the slender back had herself positioned in between the man's long legs, her hands caressing his broad shoulders. She seemed to be talking. I could tell from the way her head moved slowly.

She suddenly stumbled back and could have fallen if she didn't hold the glass wall for support. It was then I saw the other one.

Tousled, chin-length hair streaked over his face, the obsidian strands covering most of his eyes, but the magnetic look of the latter didn't just pass by me.

For the first time, Terin didn't stand out. I was more invested in the person behind her. The one whom I now noticed was LOOKING AT ME!