Page 105 of The Bound Blood
“What if you reached the Veil? What if Nolan hadn’t stopped you or Dorian or Auron hadn’t shown up? You could have died.”
“But I didn’t,” she counters gently. “I wasn’t even in real danger.”
“I’m sure if you’d reached the Veil, something would have happened.”
She reaches across the table and curls her fingers around mine, warm and grounding. “Hey,” she murmurs, a smile pulling at her mouth, “I promise if I ever decide to go on a romantic stroll into certain death, you’ll be the first person I invite.”
I huff a laugh—barely—because she’s trying to lighten it, and it’s adorable, and it kills me.
“That’s not funny,” I say, but my voice is softer.
“It was a little funny.”
“Absolutely not,” I insist, and I don’t let my fingers tighten around hers even though I want to, because if I do, I might not let go.
The humor fades from her eyes, replaced by quiet understanding.
She sighs gently. “You were on the other side of campus, Raiden. There is no way you could have heard whatever that thing was.”
“I should’ve known,” I say, the guilt spilling out anyway. “I should’ve sensed something. Felt something. Anything.” My throat tightens. “Our bond didn’t tell me anything.”
Lindsay’s expression shifts—as though she’s piecing something together.
She squeezes my hand. “Raiden,” she murmurs, “look at me.”
I met her pretty blue eyes. How did she become the center of my universe?
The noise of the dining hall fades. Her fingers slide from mine and lift between us instead, brushing lightly over the air.
“Do you feel that?” she whispers.
At first, I feel nothing, then I do. A faint warmth—the same feeling as sunlight warming your face, followed by a pull in my chest.
Her breath catches softly. As the thread between us glimmers. It’s not bright. But unmistakably gold. A small, steady heartbeat of light connecting her to me.
My lungs forget how to work.
“It’s still there,” she says, voice barely above a breath. “Nothing broke. Nothing disappeared. You didn’t lose anything.”
She says it simply, almost casually, but something inside me unravels at the edges. Relief crashes through me so suddenly it makes me dizzy. After losing my link to my clan, an irrational fear follows me around at the idea that our bond could just disappear. And I will be left alone.
“You don’t have to worry,” she adds gently. “You’re still connected to me.”
For a moment, I can’t speak.
Then—a book slams onto the table.
Both of us jump.
Nolan drops onto the bench beside Lindsay, hair sticking up in five directions, dark circles under his eyes, and the oldest-looking tome I’ve ever seen in his hands.
“I found nothing,” he announces, voice hoarse with sleep-deprivation and frustration.
Lindsay blinks. “Good morning to you too.”
He pushes up his glasses. “Is it? Because I spent the night researching creatures that whisper through the Veil, and now I’m convinced we’re either dealing with something undocumented, something extinct, or something that never should’ve existed.”
I raise a brow. “You okay there, buddy?”
