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“I think you'll love every second of it, Bonded. I think we’ll have one and you’ll see how much the entire Bonded Group loves that child, how much we all will love and nurture and cherish a child born here with us, and you'll want even more. I also think that North is going to lock you in a tower the moment you say that you want kids to demand that you pass on the Draven name first. I can already imagine him and Nox battling it out over this since technically either of them can father a Draven child.”
“A Draven baby,” I murmur, and Gabe grins at me, pure sunshine and happiness. “I don't care who goes first, Bonded. I know that I'll be able to convince you to have just one more with me.”
It's probably stupid and naive of me, but I feel as though I can face the god-bonds far easier than I could ever face that maniac. I don't have trauma when it comes to them.
“The god-bond killed Vivian. The moment he entered the basement, he took him over and killed him, then it killed itself.”
I have to clear my throat and step away from them both so that I don't do something mortifying like burst into tears here in public over a man I barely knew. Seeing their pain so clearly reflected is heartbreaking, to say the least, and the weird mix of guilt still bubbling around in me rears its head again. Vivian deserved better.
The gods have access to these things now, a growing arsenal of weapons, and if the Pain god is able to take over the body of another Top Tier Gifted, it could kill the soul within and take control of the vessel. It could slowly start to collect whatever powers it desired, and it might just start with Oleander and work its way through our Bonded Group.
“Why would I want to be more if I don't have her?”
She is awake, she is mine, and she is hungry. She devours the god-bond’s soul before her eyes even flutter open, tearing it out as though it’s nothing more than a small, fragile being, ridding our world once more of this vengeful god. Only this time, it's for good. The Pain god is no more.
“Thank you. I'm feeling a lot better now. You can let Gabe come back, if you want to. It might be easier to get him home if he's a bit smaller.”
They did well. Take us home to rest, girl, my bond whispers to me. You fought bravely. They all did. Rest so we can wake up in the new world, a world built just for us that no one can take away this time.
As he walks me down the hallway, the chorus of voices behind us is loud as the rest of our Bonded Group finishes eating, getting ready to follow us to bed. There’s no rush in any of them, no urgency, and it finally hits me that this moment is real. We did it. The god-bonds are gone, the Resistance is dealt with for now, and there’s no one left to chase after us. Sure, there’s probably some left that we’ll need to deal with, and our Bonded Group is always going to attract negative attention, but we achieved the impossible; and now, we’re free.
He punctuates this demand with two fingers plunging straight into my pussy, so I have zero options except to give him my full attention. I hope his obsession with me never ends.
The person responsible for my parents’ deaths is gone. The permanent sort of gone, I know that my bond will never have to deal with it again. I suppose I could pretend that they are happy tears, but really, they're just the first tears I have let myself cry for my parents without feeling any guilt attached to them at all.
“There's nothing you need to be doing anymore, Bonded. Anything else that comes up, we will deal with. Your job now is to be happy. That's it.” I nod slightly and look down at my plate of eggs, getting a few spoonfuls in as I think his words through. “And what if I don't know how to be happy? What if it's not that simple?”
“Then you need to figure that out, Oleander. That's your job from now on, figuring out exactly what you want to do. Something that will make you happy.”
North was sick of being interrupted all day long and the hours that he was still being forced to work even after the new council had been elected, so getting away for a while was really our only option. Gryphon continued to run the TacTeams, mobilizing and coordinating the cleanups to get rid of the last of the Resistance.
Nox went back to teaching the moment the new university had been built. I’m pretty sure he just missed telling students how dumb they were and scaring them with his creatures, but he loved putting together the new units for Gifted 101 now that we’re written into history.
Gabe took over his father’s position at their family’s construction company and used it to continue expanding the Sanctuary.
Atlas is where the biggest change can be seen in my Bonded Group. After he came home to me with a change on his birth certificate proudly proclaiming that he’s a Fallows now too,
he works with Gryphon, teaching the TacTeams about the Resistance and their propaganda.
how brainwashing works and how these people act. There’s even been some talk about him teaching classes at the new university, teaching how to spot sympathizers and de-escalation.
I decided to go back to my classes and graduate. Sage came too, both of us studying insanely long hours for degrees we’re not really sure what we’re going to do with. I suppose that’s a normal part of being a college student too, right?
