Chapter 6: Page 6

Toff and Ruby appeared in his stable together, but Toff pulled away, his hands gripping handfuls of dark hair. He had gotten Neak killed. And his mother, he had no idea the current fate of Virgo, only that Lady Arbor hadn’t killed her.

“She won’t let Neak die.” Ruby took a step towards her lover.

“I don’t see how she can save her. It’s against our laws.”

“And you would’ve broken them were you strong enough.”

“It was my fault!” He turned towards her, his face flush with anger. “It was my fault. Had I…”

“Then you regret being with me?” Ruby retreated, her heart hurting that he could possibly regret their relationship.

“Don’t you understand?” He punched himself in the chest with his fist. “It’s my fault. Neak was interfering on my behalf and my mother blasted her for it. I just wanted to be with you, to have a mate. I…”

“So you do regret us.” Ruby turned away and started towards the door.

“No. Never.” Toff went after her, not wishing her to leave. She was his mate. “I just don’t understand why she hates you. It can’t be because you’re an author; I refuse to believe such a thing. Plenty of Divinities have similar careers and she’s friends with them.”

Feeling his hand on her croup, she stopped attempting to leave. “It’s because I’m like you.”

“What?”

Ruby kept her back to Toff as she bit on her thumbnail. She hadn’t meant to keep something so important from him, but she hadn’t been sure how to tell him. When they met…it had been so wonderful that what they were was rendered insignificant.

“I’m like you, my symbiont isn’t of my parents’ issue.”

“But… How?”

“I was born in a small village at the base of the Blue Tower Ridges.”

“The Blue Tower Ridges, the magick there…”

“The magick is cross wired somehow, but it wasn’t realized until after several of us were all born with the wrong sex symbionts. There were six of us total that year, all mismatched. When Sagittarius learned of what had happened, he came and did what he did with you, he attempted to match each of us up with a symbiont. Only three of us survived.

“My mother left not long after I connected. She couldn’t handle it, that my symbiont wasn’t from hers. I have a brother…sort of. The boy who received the symbiont born to my parents, his father left. My father took him and his mother in, protected them, and they soon became family. She’s my mother as far as I’m concerned and he’s my brother.”

“So that’s why you didn’t care I wasn’t a born match?”

She turned around. “That’s not what defines you. You’re a good man, a wonderful man. A glorious Centaur.”

“Is that why you wanted to meet me, because we’re alike?”

“No one had ever thought of matching mismatched Centaur children before. What your father did with you made history. Your case was famous.”

His face darkened. “You haven’t answered me.”

“Yes, that’s why I wanted to meet you. I wanted to reach out to another mismatch. You’re the only other mismatched Centaur outside us Blue Tower three, the very first.”

“So then what was this last week, playing with the celebrity?”

“No, how can you ask that? Yes, I wanted to meet you, but I wasn’t expecting…” She backed away from him, stepping on her tail as she did so, but never felt the hair pulling out. She could see him distancing himself from her as if she’d betrayed him. “It’s not your fault what happened with Neak. Your mother told me to stay away from you when I first tried to contact you, but I went ahead and met you anyway. I don’t regret meeting you. I never thought I would feel this way about you. I had grown up thinking of you as an older brother. I wanted to meet you to let you to know you weren’t alone, that there were others.”

“But you didn’t tell me.”

“Because I didn’t expect to fall in love with you. I didn’t expect this to happen. I’m sorry.” She spun around and fled, but ran into the large body of Sagittarius entering the stable. Her momentum sent her tumbling over backwards, causing her to hit her head on a support beam.

“Ruby!” Toff, who had once more chased after her, slid to a stop and separated from his symbiont only to fall. He dragged himself over to Ruby and cradled her head in his lap. He hadn’t meant for her to leave. He didn’t want her to leave. He was upset and had taken it out on her when he should have embraced her. He wasn’t the only mismatch; he was no longer alone.

“What’s going on, Toff?”

He looked up at his father who was dressed in his usual long, leather jerkin. “How do I get her to separate?”

“First, send your symbiont outside. I need to separate to help you and he will fight with my symbiont trying to protect his mare.”

Toff blinked, but he could see his father spoke the truth. His horse was already lunging at his father, teeth bared, wanting to keep him from Ruby. “Easy, Father only wishes to help.”

Sagittarius snorted when the horse didn’t listen. He wasn’t surprised. Were the symbiont his issue, this would be much easier—he would sense the blood bond. Gathering his power, he forced the stallion back; he was getting too close for comfort.

“Don’t hurt him.” Toff then made his voice deeper, more forceful as he once more spoke to his symbiont. “Go outside, your mare will be with you soon. Father won’t hurt her. We only wish to help Ruby disconnect, she is the one hurt, not your mare.” He stared at his symbiont, willing him to listen.

He released his held breath when his horse finally moved back, but he didn’t dare relax—the stallion was still inside, refusing to leave without his mare. If he relaxed, he feared the horse might once more attack.

“Very good, my son.” Sagittarius disconnected from his horse, his jerkin reaching his knees and covering his genitals. He ordered his horse to stay back and stay away from the other stallion. He thought Centaurs were lucky to have such a bond with their symbionts. Were the horses wild, this would get ugly, bloody.

He approached his son and Ruby, never taking his eyes off his son’s symbiont. He touched Ruby’s forehead and forced her and her symbiont apart. The mare stood and shook her head, uncertain what was going on. It was then that Toff’s horse trotted forward and herded her outside, baring his teeth at the other male symbiont in warning before joining her.

“It’s time you started strengthening your legs, my son.” Sagittarius stood and backed away from the couple towards his symbiont. “You have a mate to protect, how can you do that with weak legs.”

“Mother…”

“Your mother knows jack shit about Centaurs and I would have thought you realized that by now.” Sagittarius swung on to his symbiont’s back and a glow surrounded them as they reconnected. He shook his head. “I never should have allowed her back into your life after she nearly killed you, never allowed her primary care.”

“What?”

“I had to force her to hand you over so that I might attempt to match you with your symbiont. She wasn’t going to do it, refusing to believe that you were Centaur.” Sagittarius shook his head. “I’m not certain how mentally fit your mother was before that incident, but afterwards… That she nearly killed one of Lady Arbor’s immediate bloodline only proves her weak mental state.”

“Neak was going to blackmail her.” Toff didn’t want to tell his father just how unbalanced Virgo had gotten, what would he think of him for keeping it hidden for so long?

“Your mother has plenty of secrets. One of which is how she tricked me into breeding with her. She’s not my mate, never was, I didn’t even like her, but she wouldn’t listen to me and did something to cause her cycle to mimic that of a Centaur season. I was helpless against it and horrified when she told me she carried you. Don’t look like that. I feared you would be born Centaur.”

“And I was.”

“Yes, you were, but that doesn’t mean I regret you or never wanted you, because I did want you. My son… to watch a child, my child, any child, slowly fade away and be unable to stop it… I’m just thankful that we were able to find a symbiont for you. We were damn lucky.” Sagittarius rubbed his hands over his face, hating to think about that time. There was silver in his hair from the stress and worry. “Is Ruby bleeding?”

Toff understood his father needed to change the subject and checked where Ruby hit her head. He found only a good-size lump. “No.”

“Good. Head wounds are beyond messy and I hate blood. Can you get her to a bed?”

“I can travel there with my magick.”

“Be careful not to jostle her too much on the landing.”

Toff nodded and disappeared, reappearing on his bed seconds later.

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