“What the—!” He immediately released me and staggered back.
Well, fuck.
This was going to complicate things.
BAYN
Oh hell,no!
She did NOT just put a binding on me.
The fuck?
I tried to slap her, like she’d done to me, but my arm only got so far, frozen in the air. I pushed harder, muscles bunching so hard they’d hurt tomorrow.
I roared my fury in her face… or I would have, but nothing came out. In fact, my rage was slowly draining out of me, despite that I should feel evenmoreenraged at this violation.
“What… did… you… do?” I forced those words out, inwardly irate at how calm I sounded.
“Fuck,” she hissed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. It just happened. I’m not trying to control you, but you were a smidge terrifying there, so forgive me if I acted on instinct. Still, I was wrong to bind you, let me undo it.”
No!
I wanted to recoil. I would not let her touch me again. But my body didn’t get the message. My head nodded as Iknelt to her level, tilting up my face for her to touch as she had before.
This binding forced me to obey her.
It galled me to no end, how easily she’d subdued me. I was nothing to her, a pawn, a toy. And thatshouldhave infuriated me, but it didn’t, because she’d even somehow mastered my emotions.
I’d been more than a little distracted by my rage at the time, but I tried to recall what she’d said when I’d felt her power take me.
Listen to me. Calm. The fuck. Down!
The command implicit in both phrases had been imprinted on my soul. I would listen to her, do whatever she asked, and I would do it all like a passive little baby. She hadn’t even left me my own feelings!
This was outrageous!
But also, acceptable.
No!It wasn’t acceptable at all! But I couldn’t stay mad at her for any length of timebecauseof the binding!
She placed her hands on my face as she’d done before and closed her eyes.
Nothing happened. Her power flowed into me… but my fury didn’t return.
She grimaced, face tightening. “Ah… I know how to break a binding,” she mumbled. “And I should be able to break my own, but… nothing’s happening.”
Fucking hell!
Or rather, this was fine, I was sure she was trying really hard.
No! Fuck! Stop that!
“Izzy? You okay?” the dragon asked. “What’s wrong?”
She released me with a huff.
“Sorry,” she whispered intently at me, then turned tohim. “I don’t know. I put a binding on him, but now I can’t remove it, and I really should. No one should be forced to serve another like this. It’s wrong.”
