Page 16 of The Bound Blood
They’re holding something out.
The mark on my arm is higher now wrapping around my bicep like a growing vine. It glows blue now. The dress is still the same—the one Kael left for me before everything unraveled. Torn at the hem. Wrinkled. Cold.
I wrap my arms around myself and slowly rise to my feet, knees shaky. The air bites against my skin, dry and too clean. There’s no warmth in this room. No comfort. Only magic buzzing like static against my senses.
The door clicks.
It opens—but only partway—before a figure steps in, tall and broad-shouldered, shadowed by the light behind him.
Raiden.
He stops just outside the glowing circle, his jaw tight, eyes scanning me like he’s checking for damage.
“Lindsay,” he breathes. “You’re awake.”
My throat tightens at the sound of my name.
I don’t move. “Where am I?”
His gaze drops to the runes between us. “Safe. For now.”
“For now?” I echo.
He doesn’t answer right away. Just takes a breath like he’s bracing for a hit. “The Council voted. You were unconscious for three days. They—” He swallows hard. “They want a magical evaluation and possibly want to bind your powers. They believe that the reason the Veil is breaking is because of you.”
The words slice through the air, colder than the stone at my feet.
“What?” I whisper. “Why would they think that? I was dancing with Kael when it happened.”
He presses his lips together and swallows roughly. “They think it’ll keep you stable. Keep the Veil from reacting again. Headmaster Veyne thinks it’s the only way to keep you alive.”
I shake my head. “So they put me in a stone room, while I'm unconscious? No blanket, no bed, no comfort at all, like I'm a wild animal. Surrounded me with magic to keep me in. And no one stopped them?” My voice rises with the question, hysteria trying to take over. I feel betrayed.
“They didn't give us a choice.”
“That doesn’t mean they get to decide.”
He flinches.
I step forward—just to the edge of the circle. The magic buzzes under my toes, warning me back, but I don’t care.
Raiden doesn’t move. He stays just outside reach, tension etched into every line of his body. Like if he takes one step closer, he’ll break something.
Or I will.
My voice is rough when I ask, “Do you agree with them?”
His silence answers for him, and I want to punch him. How can he turn on me like this? After the weeks of training, of bonding with each other to the point that the actual tether didn’t seem that bad, I thought…I really thought?—
I feel the tears prick at the back of my eyes and blink them away. He doesn’t deserve my tears. Not if he’s just another vote against me.
When he finally speaks, it’s clipped. Controlled. “The Veilbind between us has to be severed first.”
I stare at him, throat closing. “What?”
He doesn’t flinch. “They’re not going to bind you while it’s still in place. It’s too unstable. It could amplify the wrong magic.”
“You meanyou. It could hurt you.”
