Bronc’s voice was calm, but I could see the line of tension at his jaw. “He’s telling the truth. I saw it with my own eyes. If you want, you can interview my Luna. She was there for most of it.”
Verna glanced at Juliet, who nodded once, sharp as a blade.
“Very well.” She reached into a drawer and withdrew a velvet-lined tray. On it sat two glass vials, one empty, one filled with a viscous blue liquid that shimmered in the overhead lights. “The process is simple. Blood from both parties is mixed with a reagent. If the bond is true, it turns gold. If not, it goes black.” She said it with a small shrug, as if centuries of heartbreak were none of her business.
I held out my arm before she even asked. She swabbed the crook of my elbow, drew a syringe of blood with clinical speed, and sealed it in a vial. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“Now, Savannah,” I said, voice gone hoarse.
“Not yet. There are two more tests,” she said. “First, the resonance artifact.” She set a crystal sphere the size of a billiard ball on the table. “Your mate will hold a matching sphere. If your bond is genuine, they will react.”
“What if she’s too weak?” I asked. “She was in silver for days. You know what that does.”
Verna smiled, but it was sad. “If the bond is real, she could be dead and it would still work.”
I believed her. I gripped the sphere. It was cool and rough, but nothing happened.
“We must wait until Savannah is holding the other,” Verna said, and wrote something else on her pad.
I barely heard her. My focus was down the corridor, through the walls, hunting for any hint of my mate. Nothing yet.
“What’s the third test?” Bronc asked.
Verna looked at him, then at me. “You are both shifters. When together, your auras should synchronize—your heartbeats, your pheromones, even your biochemistry. We have tools to measure this. If the readings do not match, the Council will know.”
I bristled, feeling the wolf surge. “I’m ready. Just get her in here.”
She made a small note, then stood. “It will take thirty minutes to process your blood. I will fetch your mate then. Please wait.”
I couldn’t stand it. “Wait? I’ve waited days. I want to see her now.”
She shrugged. “You are welcome to try the door, but the guards are not as polite as I am.”
For a second, I weighed the odds. But Bronc’s hand closed around my shoulder, an anchor that kept me from doing something stupid.
“It’ll be all right,” he murmured, low and meant only for me. “You’ll see her soon.”
I nodded, but it was all I could do not to rip the table in half.
Verna left. The guard with the runes never moved, but I could feel her watching, her power crawling along the baseboards like frost.
Juliet leaned in, her tone urgent. “You have to keep it together, Menace. They want to see if you’ll lose control. Don’t give them the satisfaction.”
“Why do they care?” I snarled. “It’s not like I’m going to turn this into a bloodbath.”
“They need to know you can control yourself around her,” she said. “Otherwise, they’ll say the bond is a liability.”
I shook my head, furious. “Every bond is a liability. That’s the whole point.”
Bronc gave a dry laugh. “Council logic, Menace. Just play along for now.”
I did, but it nearly broke me.
When Verna returned, she was carrying a new tray—this one with two spheres. She set them on the table, then nodded to the guard in the corner.
“Bring her,” she said.
My heart stuttered in my chest. My wolf reared up, ears forward, hackles high.
