Keeran swallowed heavily, still staring unseeingly at the blankets beneath them.
“Keeran,” she said more loudly, snapping his eyes back to hers.
He sighed, the worry in her gut snarling more with each passing second. How bad was this going to be?
“It’s not something one does to another person,” Keeran started, reluctantly.
“What is it then?” Aelia pushed, growing impatient.
Keeran opened and shut his mouth a few times, looking for words that wouldn’t come.
“Spit it out, Keeran,” she snapped, her fear getting the better of her. What was happening to her?
“Have you ever heard of a pair bond?” he said, pressing his lips into a hard line the moment the words had left him, as if regretting ever letting them out in the first place.
Aelia frowned, the words seeming familiar, but she couldn’t remember why.
“I don’t think so?” she said, uncertainly.
Keeran nodded, unsurprised. “It’s a bond that forms between two individuals. No one really understands the magic behind it, but each pairing is unique to the couple, connecting them in ways specific only to them.”
“And that’s happened? To us?” Aelia stared up at him, her fear easing slightly. It was something Keeran seemed to understand, and just putting a name to what she was feeling made her feel better about it. At least she wasn’t losing her mind.
“It would appear so.”
“Why?”
“No one knows,” Keeran said.
“No one knows,” Aelia repeated, sceptically. “Who are these people who don’t know? Because I’ve never heard of any pair bond forming between artemians before. And that’s what you told me you were.”
“I am,” Keeran insisted, so quietly she almost missed it.
Aelia blinked as she remembered where she’d heard of pair bonds before, the blood draining from her face as realisation hit, and hit hard.
“A mating bond,” she whispered, thoughts whirring. Her eyes flicked to his, looking for the darkness in them with renewed fear. She tried to pull away from him, but his arms tightened around her.
“Aelia, please,” Keeran said, imploringly.
“Let me go,” she made her voice go cold, not letting it tremble with the fear that pulsed through her veins.
His arms loosened enough for her to stand, but his fingers clung to her wrist.
“You need to let me explain.” He looked up at her, the anguish in his face tearing at her heart, quietening her terror.She gulped, trying to control the panic, the emotional turmoil of the day leaving her wired and volatile.
The wind tickled past her bare legs, reminding her how little she was wearing, and how close she was standing to him.
“I need to have clothes on for this conversation.”
He released her wrist, watching her closely as she rifled through her pack and threw on a pair of trousers, as though worried she’d make a break for it. She hopped gracelessly into her boots, nearly falling backwards in her rush to pull them on.
“I’ll answer anything you ask,” he said, when she was done. “Just let me explain.”
Aelia stood facing him, legs planted hip-width apart, heart still racing.
“You know what I am?” he asked, barely audible from across the clearing. He sat with one leg bent high, his elbow resting on his knee, yet he seemed coiled and ready to spring. She could feel the tension radiating off him.
“I think so.” It made perfect sense; it explained why he hadn’t Shifted in the days she’d known him, why he was so fast, so strong. It explained the scars, and the evil she saw in him. She felt so stupid for not seeing it earlier. “You’re a Dragon.”
