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“Nox, come here. We’ll speak to these men in the parlor for a few minutes, and then they can leave.” For the very first time, Nox moves, but only his lips as he murmurs with a robotic monotone voice two simple words that fracture my world in half, a break that will never repair. “Yes, Bonded.”
My father’s last words to my mother before his creatures devoured her whole. You knew.
My bond cuts me off, I’m not calling the man a vessel. I'm calling his body that. Our Bonded— both of them— are right here. Fix the vessel, girl.
Would you stop with your useless human panicking and do as I say? Girl, I have been around this earth for more than a million years, you think I don't know what to do when something like this happens?
Nox’s mother doesn’t even notice the state her son is in. And just when I think it couldn’t possibly get worse, she speaks. “Come here, Bonded. It’s time for bed.” Bonded
Oleander’s bond manifesting and tearing the souls out of everyone within a ten-mile radius is. Her entire family included.
I need my own bedroom and my own space. And I need her there too. I’m not going to question it any longer.
I brought him back from the dead, dammit. I’m allowed to feel like shit after that amount of work!
“Not even then. He just sunk deeper into his loathing for his aunt… my mother.” Ah.
“It was aiming for North. It didn't give a shit about me or Gryphon. It only cared about killing him.”
I also haven’t told her that Kyrie is the only person in my family who I can speak to without wanting to stab myself directly in my eyeball just to get away from.
I glance at Nox, and a smirk stretches over his lips as our eyes meet. “The General said that Gabe should have been locked up for attacking Gryphon the first time that he Shifted. He also suggested that he should potentially be put down, like a rabid dog. He had a lot of opinions on what should happen in our Bonded Group.” Nope, not going to let that sort of shit fly. Maybe I will tear the soul out of this man. “For fuck’s sake, Draven!” Atlas snaps
Gryphon pulls back to stare down at me and scoffs a little. “You won't be fine. I'm not fine. North isn't fine, and in a shocking turn of events, Nox is not fine, though I think he enjoys finding ways to horrify and enrage my father more than the last time that he had to be around him.”
“It's not you, it's the fucking Resistance. Do none of them have shit going on besides ruining our lives? Can they not take a fucking nap instead of sending people over to us? At some point, I would like to see my Bonded’s face again.”
“I don't know how anyone is supposed to get used to being Transported. It's unnatural,” I croak, and Kieran rolls his eyes at me. “It's about as unnatural as ripping souls out, Fallows, so pot, meet kettle.”
My Dark Bonded looks down at it with critical eyes and then back up at me, quirking an eyebrow and gesturing down to it. “Is this a declaration of love? Am I watching the gods court one another right now?”
“I think you'll find that I can, and I will. It’s a hard lesson to learn for a man like you, I'm sure, but you're not in charge here.”
“You are both a nightmare, perfectly paired to ruin everyone’s peace of mind,” Kieran says, and he slings an arm around Sage’s waist as he tugs her closer, attempting to get her back on his side. “I’m pretty sure the two of you gave North stress ulcers, and half of the TacTeams still have nightmares about the training sessions Gryphon put them through as his own stress relief.”
“I don't think Oleander’s bond made Gabe’s bond into a god. I don't think that's possible. I think it woke it up.”
Sawyer cuts in before we can continue. “It's all the locations, the planned locations, where people are allocated, what security they have; it's everything. It's every goddamn thing. It's the key to taking out the Resistance, and Atlas’ mom has just handed it over to us, purely to keep her son alive.”
The god that lives inside him woke up. Seeing what the Resistance did to his parents, no matter how he felt about them, triggered it. Then finding them all standing there so close to his Bonded after what they had just done, it woke it up.
