I wasn’t the only one in the room holding my breath waiting to hear Leif’s condition. Otho’s jaw shifted, he was gritting his teeth as Askel’s eyes darted between all of us, obviously trying to figure out what he was missing.
I could barely breathe. Had I just found my true weighted, only to lose him so soon?
“I will leave peacefully, as long as Runa agrees to bind herself to me.”
“Or . . . ?” Otho pressed.
“I kill her, and the battle continues. May the best man win.”
The hope flickering in my chest snuffed out. Bindings were just as sacred as marriages to the Seid. I hadn’t thought to ask how bindings affected weighted couples, but I knew from watching my own parent’s relationship that this was serious. If Ibound myself to Leif, there was a possibility I would never be able to escape.
I swallowed, but kept my gaze on Otho, waiting for him to indicate what I should do. Askel bit his lip, the nervousness rolling off him piqued.
“It’s her decision.” The words broke in the middle, betraying Otho’s attempt at a neutral position.
“Well?” Leif hissed in my ear.
I couldn’t believe this was the man I had once thought was mine. The first man to make my heart flutter, the one who had made me realize there was more to the world than waiting for someone to rescue me.
Things had changed.
Irrevocably.
While I may have once been willing to forgive Leif, I knew now that I never would.
Regardless, I knew what I had to do—what would save both Otho and Collum, if she was even still alive.
“I’ll do it; I’ll bind myself to you.” The knife at my neck loosened a hair. “But I have a condition too.” I willed my heart to calm itself.
“Go on,” Leif urged.
“I want Friar, the healer, to come with me.” I hoped that Leif, like me, was in the dark on who she really was to Otho.
“How much for the healer?” Leif asked Otho, and I watched his eyes flicker, as he aligned himself with my plan.
“I’ll need coin to replace her.”
“Name your price.” Leif’s voice was confident, likely from the fact he had been the son of a viscount this entire time. A fact that still made me feel like an idiot.
They tossed numbers back and forth across the room over my head, but Otho’s gaze didn’t stray from mine, he was communicating with me silently, but the message was clear.
He would come for me.
I bobbed my head slightly, hopefully indicating to him that it was exactly what I wanted.
A number was decided, and the air in the room shifted.
“Now, fetch a binder.”
I nearly choked with the realization that he planned to bind us right here, right now.
Otho was visibly pale. “There is no known Seid binder in Ralheim.”
“Wrong.” I could almost hear the smirk in his words. “Fetch Signa.”
My heart chilled at the name of the Seid matron, both because of her eerie energy and because she called it like it was. Meaning there would be no hiding from her. Askel ducked through the door, disappearing from sight.
I was regretting agreeing to Leif’s demands already. Maybe death would be kinder.
