It feels like bonding her harmed her in some way. I didn’t want to harm her. I just wanted to own her. It sounds insane, as I think it. She’s shaking her head too, like she doesn’t understand what happened.
That’s when it hits me, the importance of what I’ve done.
The disastrous importance.
I’ve lived my whole life with a secret no other blessed can discover. It’s always been my primary directive, to keep anyone from uncovering the truth that I am both Azar and Axel. Earth and flame blessed. Among the blessed, you can’t have two affinities. It’s just not possible. As her hair shifts color from the top of her head downward, from a deep, dark brown to a shining golden color, just like my scales, I breathe a small sigh of relief. Rufus and Gordon just saw me bond her, so she has to be bonded to an earth blessed. . .who otherwise are unable to bond humans.
I can’t allow anyone to discover that I could bond her because I’m also flame blessed, and by some miracle, her hair turned golden, not red. Perhaps, as the prince of the earth blessed, people will believe I managed to do what the other earth blessed couldn’t?
“Whoa, how did you do that?” Gordon’s eyes are wide, and his mouth’s dangling open. “I thought earth blessed couldn’t ensnare humans.”
“That, apparently, was not correct information,” I say, trying to sound as disbelieving as I should be. “Because I just did.”
But what if the others don’t believe me? What if bonding this stupid, brave, glowing golden human is the first step down the path to my doom? I have to figure out how to undo this double quick.
Chapter 13
Liz
The second I wake, I worry that Azar saw my dream, too.
That would mean that he felt what I felt.
He’s the future I worried about as Gullveig. He’s the child of an ice vanir and a fire æsir. I reach for his face, but he shifts away.
“You’re in your human form,” I say.
He blinks. “You—something strange just happened.”
“I was Gullveig in that dream.” I let my hand fall to my side. “I didn’t know what I was thinking. Freya and Odin—they were right to try and heal the anger between the two groups of sky children. They were right to try and unite the dragons with the humans. It’s the legacy that we’re trying to carry on, really, and you’re clearly the key to the success of the whole thing.”
“I’ve—” Axel blinks again. “I’ve recovered a memory, I think.”
“A memory?” I straighten, pulling the sheets up around my chest. “What do you mean, a memory?” I can’t stand how pathetic I sound. “You remembered something about me?” I’m such a stupid little girl. There are so many important things he could remember, but I’m only worried about him remembering me.
He nods. “I think it was the first time we met. Did I bond you at a playground?”
I can’t help my smile. “With a big blue slide?”
“And a red swingset? At the time, I believed it was akin to your churches.” He frowns, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. “You hit me in the face with a rock.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. I press a hand to his cheek. “You did remember. How?”
He shrugs. “I wish I knew. I was there with you, dreaming of my parents’ disastrous wedding, and then. . .” His brow furrows. “I was in my Axel form, beside you there.” He points at the ground. “And then I was remembering when I bonded you, and now I’m here.”
I slide my arm across his chest slowly, my fingers curling around every single ridge of muscle. I can’t help my smile this time. “You’re in my favorite place, you know.”
He bites his lip. “You were so golden and so light.”
“And you just had to bond me,” I say, to test him. I know it was a mistake, and that he regretted it immediately.
“I did,” he whispers. “You were so. . .tempting. I had to bond you, but I realized afterward that your very existence might out my secret.”
I blink. “You—why didn’t I ever think of that? Of course you wanted to dissolve the bond. . .because it put your secret in jeopardy.”
Axel takes my hand with his. “Why else would I have wanted to get rid of you?”
I shrug. “I didn’t know—I didn’t know you at all then, remember?”
