Page 67 of The Bound Blood
Iwantto stay like this.
I breathe him in. Let myself feel safe for one perfect second.
But then—something shifts.
A ripple tears through the bond tethered inside me like lightning through silk. Hot, jagged,wrong. Not just a flare—this is deeper. A violent unrooting. Like something sacred was just ripped out of the earth and left exposed.
I jolt upright. My breath catches. Nolan’s arms loosen instinctively. “Linds?”
I press a palm to my chest, trying to breathe around the sudden hollow there. “He’s—” I shake my head. “Something’swrong.”
Nolan tenses immediately. “What is it?”
I press a hand to my sternum, trying to steady the way my body suddenlyaches.Not physically. Not completely. This pain is something else. A psychic tear down the middle of me.
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “Something just…snapped.I felt it.”
His brows draw in. “Felt what?”
I shake my head, already swinging my legs over the bench.
“Raiden. He’s in pain. I need to find him,” I say softly.
Nolan is up beside me in an instant, tugging on his pants as I get my clothes back on. “Do you know where he is?”
I shake my head again, heart pounding, the echo of Raiden’s pain still clawing at the inside of my chest. “No. But I canfeelhim. It’s like—something inside him just got torn apart.”
Nolan’s jaw tightens, worry flickering behind his eyes. “Should I come with you?”
The question is gentle. He doesn’t try to stop me or get defensive and jealous. How did I get so lucky?
“I… think I need to go alone,” I say, my voice barely above a breath. “He won’t want to be seen like this. Not by anyone.”
Nolan nods slowly. “Okay.”
He stoops to grab my shoes, placing them at my feet, then shrugs into his own jacket. “At least let me walk you out. I’ll stay close, just in case.”
My throat tightens. “Thank you.”
He presses a kiss to my temple—soft and lingering. “Let’s go. Before you explode.”
I flash him a watery smile, then bolt for the door, and he’s right behind me.
My magic is still scrambled from before—too new, too raw—but the thread between me and Raiden pulses faintly under my skin. It’s not a training bond, not anymore. Not officially. But it’s something. And whatever it is—it’s bleeding.
I follow it.
Through the darkened halls of the Academy, past shuttered windows and empty classrooms, past wards that hum with warning but part just enough to let me through. It pulls me likea compass, like a second heartbeat, straight to the temple at the edge of the stone gardens.
And I know—before I see him—he’s inside.
Alone.
“He’s in there,” I say, coming to a stop and glancing at Nolan.
He nods and pushes his hands into his jean pockets. “I’ll be out here if you need me.”
I let out a breath and press a quick kiss to his lips and then slip inside the temple. The moment I step past the threshold, the air shifts.
