Page 13 of The Bound Blood
My stomach turns. I feel sick. Shadowy figures gather around her, their features obscure, as she crumbles in their arms.
Azrael’s voice lowers for the last one.
“And the fourth…is balance. A path not written yet. One she can only find if she stops trying to carry it alone. If the ties that bind her set her free.”
I stare at him as the wall slowly releases the vision of her.
“That one sounds like the lie. How can she not carry it alone if the ties are set free?”
He almost smiles. Almost. “It’s the one I used to believe in. The one that has the most hope for the future. And not all ties are good ties, you know that, some bind a person tighter than they can handle. If she’s set free, it will free all of us from a very painful future.”
I let the silence drag between us. “You’re forgetting something.”
He looks up.
“Me,” I say.
Azrael nods slowly, like he was waiting for that.
“You were never meant to save her, Kael,” he says. “You were trained toendher, before any of the prophecies had a chance to form. Now that you haven’t, you will end her when she fails.”
The words slide like a knife between my ribs.
“No.” I shake my head, refusing his words.
“Yes,” he says simply. “Because you didn't do what you should have…in every version of the prophecy, there is a blade. A shadow tethered to the girl. That blade only wakes if she starts to fall. A protection for us all.”
I step back, breath catching. “You trained me to kill her either way.”
“I trained you tostopwhat she could become. If the wrong path begins to take hold—you are the failsafe. Prophecy’s lie and twist and ruin with their riddles.”
My hands curl into fists. “You should have told me.”
“You were told. I have always told you they lie.”
“I’m not ready to lose her.” The words fall from my lips before I can stop them. My heart clenches at the idea of losing her.
His gaze softens—barely a flicker. “Then pray she never makes the wrong choice.”
I look down at my palm, where her mark still pulses a quiet reminder that we are connected. Azrael watches me too closely now, as if he can see every crack forming beneath my skin.
“You are the failsafe, you always have been,” he says again, quieter this time.
I exhale through my teeth, trying to lock everything down—every thought, every feeling threatening to fracture through my voice. But he doesn’t look away.
“If you want to protect her, Kael…” he pauses. “You need to keep your distance.”
I freeze. Then shake my head to clear it.
“What?”
“You’re already bound to her. Marked by her. You’re inside the storm whether you want to be or not. But if you getcloser—if you fall into her the way I see you wanting to—thenyoubecome part of the problem. The prophecy stops being about her. It becomes aboutbothof you. And that ends badly. Every time.”
His words ice over in my chest.
I want to deny it. To shove the warning back down his throat.
But I can’t. Because somewhere inside me…Iknowhe’s right.
