Broken Bonds (The Bonds that Tie, #1)

by J. Bree

He blinks at me like he’s never been told to shush before. Fucking idiots.

I find Gryphon. I feel him startle when my Gift hits him. I feel his disbelief and then the surge of adrenaline, relief that I’m alive and here.

Okay, I’m less happy about that one, especially when his Gift reaches out for mine. He’s trying to figure out what the fuck I can do, how I’m mapping them all out, and every other secret I’ve ever kept from them. I pull away from them.

My bond is thrumming in my blood, a constant stream of protect them all that I have no control over.

Thick, black fog covers the entire field except it’s… sentient. Sentient and filled with barely formed creatures that look more like nightmare demons than anything that exists in nature. My feet stumble and Gabe grunts as he catches me, muttering back to me, “It’s Nox, they won’t touch us.”

I feel like Nox would definitely let his Gift take a chunk or two out of me and when Kieran shifts to secure his mask back over his face like he’s also concerned about wading in there, I decide I don’t freaking wanna.

If the Dravens are monsters, then what does that make me?

I’ve gone too long without using my Gift that it’s exhausting to use it now, like taking months away from the gym and then dying after your first session back.

It seems obvious now that Gryphon has said it, he just took on dozens of Resistance and dealt with them himself. Gifted aren’t usually limitless. Not even Top Tier Gifted.

Those two mean something to me, they're worth protecting, no matter the cost. Gryphon... I can't let him die, there's something there. The potential for something maybe.

I roll my shoulders back and let my power out, gently and carefully, the tendrils of it spanning out like a net casting out into the ocean. It touches every last one of the Resistance, all of them unaware of my touch. All three of my Bonds here can feel it though, no hiding this shit from them, and know what I'm doing. I turn to stare Nox in the eye, a challenge and a show of exactly how badly he's underestimated me, his Bond, the one he's supposed to adore and protect. Then, all at once, I trigger the terrors and nightmares within them. Ninety-two men and women writhing in agony in the blink of an eye. And I feel nothing.

Fucking useless.” My Gift explodes out of me. I can’t stop it or contain it, the wave of it hitting everyone around us, and the entire group scrambles away from me, leaving only Gryphon there with me.

every fiber of my being is honed in on where Nox is holding Gabe’s arm and berating him. I don’t like that. “Nox… let him go,” Gryphon says, pulling the attention away from me as everyone looks over to what has set me off.

How do I tell him that the nightmares are horrible but the least of our problems? If only they were the worst thing I can do.