Page 10 of The Bound Blood
I spin slowly.
Am I dreaming of the past?
Or the future?
Is this all just a really fucked up dream?
A whisper of laughter skates along the corridor, high and familiar andmine—but not how I laugh now. It’s lighter. Unburdened. It chills me more than the silence did. I spin, catching sight of me with a tall man I don’t recognize. His head leans toward mine in a flirty tilt as he props a hand above my head, leaning in like he might kiss me. It feels like something I shouldn’t be seeing.
I turn away and walk.
I don’t know where I’m going, only that something is pulling me again. Not the bond this time. Not the magic. Somethingdeeper.
I step into the courtyard, but it isn’t the courtyard. It has singed grass and cracked cobblestone.
The sky is fractured into sharp panes, like broken glass held together with shadow. Trees bloom and wither all at once. A fountain runs red instead of water. The stone benches are carved with words and runes in my handwriting—things I’ve never written.
And sitting on one of them—isme.Almost. She looks like me, but paler. Eyes darker. Lips curved into a half-smile that knows too much.
She swings one leg over the other and tilts her head. “Took you long enough to get here. I don't remember it taking this long last time.”
My breath catches. “You’re not real. This is a dream.”
“I’m notlyingto myself, if that helps,” she replies easily. “That makes one of us, but I know this is all new, you're just beginning. Sit.” She pats the bench next to her.
I don’t move. “What are you?”
“I’m the part you don’t want to look at. The one screaming at you to stop pretending this isn’t real. Thatthey’renot real. The future won't wait for you to catch up.”
My voice is barely above a whisper. “I don’t know what you mean.”
She rises, dusting off her skirt. “You do. You just don’t want tochoose.Because choosing means giving something up, doesn’t it? It means facing the fact that you’re somethingmore. That our Gran lied to us. That all those years of not fitting in…were because we actually were different. And maybe the stories we were told about our mom, were just that, stories.”
“I didn’t ask for any of this. I was content in my life.”
She laughs. “And yet here you are. Bonded. Wanted.Loved, maybe. You think the Veil doesn’t notice?” Her eyes flash gold. “You’re not just a girl anymore, Lindsay. You’re a fault line, and you’re going to crack everything wide open with your head in the sand. So stop lying to yourself.”
“I didn’t?—”
She steps closer. “Youneedto choose before someone else does it for you. Because trust me—if you don’t, you’re going to loseeverything.Because the people that make those decisions for you…they don't care about us. They don’t care about Nolan or Raiden or Kael or…” she trails off stopping herself. “Only power. Only what they can take from you.”
My heart pounds.
“Choosewhat?”
Her smile widens, and the ground cracks beneath our feet.
“That’s the fun part. I would tell you, but you already know.”
FIVE
PROFESSOR SELENE MARRIS
The Council chamber is cold.Whether it’s the stone, the air wards, or the mood in the room, Selene isn’t sure.
What sheissure of is that none of them understand what they’re talking about.
“She isdangerous,” Councilor Rennic says, his voice clipped and cold as the gleaming chain of silver across his robe. “The Veil is still unstable. We need to bind her the moment she wakes—before she tears a hole through this world like she nearly did at the dance.”
