Page 102 of The Bound Blood
“I like being on patrol with you,” I say quietly. “No offense to Raiden or… Kael, but you don’t make me feel like I’m going to accidentally mess up and awaken a cursed artifact with my breathing.”
She laughs. “You’re the least likely person here to awaken cursed anything.”
“That is statistically inaccurate,” I say. “I’ve awakened at least three cursed books. And one mildly haunted candlestick.”
“Haunted?”
“It jingled at me.”
She laughs again—this light, musical sound that hits me right in the sternum.
We keep walking. The night stays gentle and calm, the wards humming in steady pulses. For a moment, I let myself believethis is how it could always be: peaceful, safe, Lindsay leaning just a little closer to me every time the path narrows.
“You’re easy to be around,” she says suddenly.
I blink. “Me?”
“Yes, you.” She nudges me with her elbow. “You make everything feel… less heavy.”
There goes my heart again.
“I, uh—” I push my glasses up, because my face is definitely warm. “You do that for me too.”
She smiles. A slow, warm curl of her lips that makes me want to memorize her all over again. It makes me want to whisk her away, back to my secret tower and kiss every inch of her body until she’s trembling in my arms. I don’t even know if it was a one time thing, but my body doesn’t care if it was, it wants more as much as my heart does.
We walk another stretch in silence, but it’s comfortable. The kind that feels like a blanket rather than a barrier.
Then—she stops.
I freeze beside her. “Lindsay?”
Her head tilts, expression shifting—confusion first, then tension.
“You okay?” I whisper.
“Shh.”
I fall silent instantly.
She turns toward the line of trees near the ward’s edge. Her eyes unfocus, like she’s listening to something far away.
“Linds?”
Her breath hitches.
“Nolan,” she whispers, voice thin. “I… I heard something.”
My grip tightens on the lantern. “What did you hear?”
She swallows, throat tight, eyes fixed on the tree line.
“It said my name.”
Every drop of blood in my body seems to evacuate at once.
“What said your name?” My voice is low, shaking at the edges despite my best effort to steady it. “Lindsay—what said your name?”
She doesn’t look at me.
