His sleeves were pushed up to show his five darkened Death Bonds, and the others — the lighter ones — for other lives he’d pledged. I’d double-checked and confirmed what Jaxan said was true, that Unselected witches really couldn’t offer their own life as collateral. But Leland also had magic a fourth year shouldn’t. I didn’t know what that made him, if he’d ever technically been Unselected.
He caught me staring. “Did you want to ask me a question about them?”
“I — yes. I’ve wanted to know what you’re bound for,” I told him. “But you don’t have to answer, if you even can.”
“I can,” he said calmly. “I didn’t want to, but I think we’re pastthat now. Remember when you said you didn’t go home because you didn’t want to kill someone I cared about? You wouldn’t have. It’s me you would’ve killed.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, my mind leaping to when he’d knocked on my door at the Creation Academy the day after my trial. When he’d sat in a chair by my bed, and told me not to make decisions because of him. He’d thought the right thing for me to do was to go home to the human realm, but that . . . would’vekilled him?
I shuddered at how close of a call it had been.
“It’s okay,” he said, making comforting eye contact. “It wouldn’t have been your fault.”
Leland pointed his Death Bonds out one-by-one, working his way up from the underside of his wrist to the bend at his elbow. One to protect me, whatever it took to keep me alive. One to ensure I was Selected. One to answer Jaxan’s requests for information. One to obey his orders. All four were tied to the single Dark Deal he’d made with Jaxan. Not just one Death Bond to secure it, but four.
“The last one’s the only one I made wittingly,” he said, “with a different Dark Witch I work with sometimes.” He didn’t say what it was, or who it was with. I figured this was on purpose, so I didn’t press him on it.
“Which one’s the worst?” I asked.
“All of them.” He’d said it like a joke, but his features were tight and serious. “I die if I violate the terms of my Death Bonds. If that happensandwe’re bonded, both of us will. Once our bond seals, every magical consequence that happens to me will also happen to you. It’s the reason I don’t want to bond to you.”
“You don’t?” I joked, because it couldn’t be more clear to me that he didn’t. In addition to him flat out telling me as much, there were very obvious shifts in his moods. The day we’d had calzones, the way he’d sprinted off after my trial, his recentbreakdown with Rayne in the cafeteria. I looked at his arm again, and, figuring I needed a reason better than that I just liked looking at him, I asked, “There really isn’t one you hate the most?”
Leland bit his lip, taking a moment. “Maybe this one.” He tapped the rose closest to his wrist. “The one that says I have to protect you.” I was about to say something in protest, thinking he was trying to tease me about it, but then he continued on in a serious tone. “Every time I look at it, I remember you calling me your babysitter.”
He exhaled a sigh, and it sounded so heavy I wanted to place my hand on his chest, right over the spot that looked the tightest, resting it there until he breathed more easily. But I wasn’t a Healer, or anyone he wanted touching him, so I stacked my hands and sat on them to prevent me from acting on my impulses.
Quietly, I said, “I won’t say that anymore.”
“It would be nice if . . . if you bel — ”
The wind kicked up, howling, and I had to draw my arm over my nose and mouth to keep flying grains of dust out.
With a sudden jerk, Leland stood and pulled me off the daybed.It’s not the wind, he said into my head by way of mental magic as he dragged me around the corner.
The patio door banged open.
“Emberrrrr?” Belinda called over the tempest. “You’ve been gone over an hour.”
A Shadowcurrent lunged. I recognized it — the same one from the Blacklight, the same cadence of footsteps driving the swirling shadows forward and spurring them on. I tried to yank free of Leland’s grip, but his hands were tight around my waist. Then his fingertips flared with blue light, Teleporting us away from the tavern before Jaxan’s Shadowrealm could swallow us.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
EMBER
The Familiar will compensate for what the Allwitch lacks.
— Charley Starvos, Echelon to the
School of Creation Magic
We landed directly on the portstop, and Leland quickly hauled us off. This strategy — I assumed — was to prevent anyone passing by from seeing us suddenly appear out of thin air, or by Teleportation, a quantum magic spell that Leland shouldn’t have. He walked me to the hatch at the end of the pedestal, opening it for me before leaving to report to Jaxan. I went straight to my room and sent Skye a message.
Belinda’s gone, she said.Another Shadowrealm attack.
Skye returned an hour later, and an hour after that, Rayne knocked on our door, bouncing Pepper on her hip to soothe her crying.
