I’m not ashamed of any of it. Not anymore.
The compulsion squeezed. Vaeris’s command echoed through the space, poisonous and wrong.Break the mating bond.
No,I sobbed.No, I can’t.
You have to.His voice gentled.Find a thread that won’t kill us.
I don’t want to hurt you.
You won’t. You could never.
I moved deeper into the bond, searching. The threads here were thicker—love, trust, the things that made us. I couldn’t touch those. I wouldn’t survive it. There. A thinner thread, pulsing faintly, that carried his words into my mind.
This one?
Yes.He sounded wrecked.That one.
I won’t be able to hear you.
His presence pressed closer.You’ll just have to find me the old-fashioned way.
I laughed through my tears.I love you.
I love you too. Now do it. Before he realizes what you’re doing.
I gripped the thread, and the light flickered. Somewhere far away, I heard myself scream.
And I pulled.
