Page 166 of Infernal Bonds

“As you complete your tethers with the others, I expect your awareness of each of them will strengthen as well.”

“Well, that’s what happens with all Nyriths.”

“Yes, but it will be much stronger in your pentad.”

“Pentad?”

“Group of five.”

“So we’ll feel everything each other feels?” I wasn’t sure I was on board with being so exposed that they knew my every waking emotion or thought.

“Not everything. A tether does not place another person’s thoughts inside your mind. Think of it as an awareness. Strong emotions will be more difficult to conceal. Right now, only the strongest are detected, but expect that to grow exponentially.”

I sat back, rubbing my hands over my thighs. “That’s… gonna be a lot.”

Quinfina laughed softly. “I imagine there will be an adjustment period.”

The idea that the four of them could sense almost everything I felt sounded convenient—for them.

“I also believe your completed tethers may eventually allow them to sense one another.”

“You believe?” I frowned. “They aren’t mates.”

“No. Their connection would be through you. And I can’t say for certain. There has never been a bonded group like yours for me to observe. Never more than two Nyrith mates have existed in one joining. I can only interpret what I’ve been shown through visions.”

Quinfina knew more than we did about what to expect, but it seemed even she remained in the dark about what the future might hold for us.

“The prophecy tells us their mate—you—will make them the strongest council that has ever existed. I do not believe it speaks only of physical strength, though.”

“No?”

“Mental fortitude, for one. Resistance.”

My brows bunched.

“Magic intended to alter the mind. Glamors. Illusions. Certain curses. Dark magic.”

My thoughts went straight to Cyn. If Quinfina were right, Cyn would never have to fear that someone he trusted or cared about wasn’t who they appeared to be. And then there was Feranzis. The curse that almost took both his and Zeke’s minds. That might never have happened.

I took a deep breath. “So what does all this mean for me if it makes them stronger? I mean, I’m not a powerful Shyrlivi who can transform like they do. And am I only there to make them stronger? That’s it?”

She looked at the melon ball resting on the marble floor. “You assume the tether only strengthens them, but it doesn’t. You also gain the benefits they do.”

“But I don’t even know if I’m really a Shyrlivi. Yes, I’m able to live here, but I’ve never transformed. In fact, nothing has happened since that day in Cholian. No magic. No transformation. Not a single thing that hints at me being more than human.”

I wouldn’t tell her that when I couldn’t sleep at night because I was thinking about the things stalking just outside the walls of Elyrdin, I’d go out onto my balcony and try to force the magic out. If I could concentrate hard enough, maybe I’d transform my hand or something like the guys could do with a partial shift. But nothing. It never worked.

Maybe exposure to the magic of Cholian and the lost souls had affected me because I wasn’t like the others, and what happened there was a one-time event rather than my lasting reality.

What if whatever happened to me that day wasn’t something I could do again even if I was almost full-blooded Shyrlivi? Or what if my species was entirely different from what everyone believed? Maybe I wasn’t human after all, but what if I was something else and we were all wrong?

“There’s so much more to you than you realize, Raelynn. With time, you’ll see how much your presence here matters to all of us.”

“Why can’t you tell me now?”

“There are many…” She glanced toward the door when it opened and Ash strode into the room to take me home.

“Ready?”