The betrayal of being lied to stung—I had been old enough to know the truth long before now. I gave myself several minutes to digest the information, the hum of the jet’s engine filling the cockpit.
“We are on our way to where your parents lay at rest,” Priscilla said after some time, giving me my much-needed moment.She turned back toward the front and hit the autopilot switch, turning it off. “They are in Singapore. It’s heavily populated, and there’s a rare chance the dark mage who’s after Selene will suspect we are going there.”
I nodded, though she wasn’t looking at me. She was giving me closure, and I wondered how much she’d had to push the headmaster to approve the detour. The entire situation infuriated me—not at Selene’s mom or the small amount of betrayal I felt toward Priscilla, but toward the dark mage for destroying so many lives and taking my parents from me.
“Why hadn’t you told me the truth?” A small amount of disappointment seeped through my words. I needed to know why she hadn’t told me if she thought I had deserved the truth.
“We didn’t want you to go digging into your past and be found.” She glanced at me. “Dark mages have become resourceful.”
Which meant they could find us wherever we went—which also meant it did not matter if we went to Singapore. They had already attacked Fives Academy.
The thought of Selene and the urge to be next to her and keep her safe tugged me to leave the cockpit and head back into the main cabin, which led me to my next question.
“What do you know of the elemental bond?” I casually asked, as if my gut hadn’t clenched at the words. Priscilla sharply glanced my way and then back out the windshield.
“It’s rare and is formed between two mages with the same element. It’s a strong emotional and physical connection.” She stared straight ahead, and I could feel her wanting to ask more.
“Do they have to share the same birthdate and year too?” I had done research while in the airport before Selene and I had left. It was hard to find information regarding soul-bound.
“From what I know, not always, though it is believed to be more powerful if they do.” She glanced my way again.“Some strengths of certain elements are rumored to not emerge until the mage meets their soul-bound. It might even be powerful enough to break a strong elemental magic dampening enchantment.”
I rolled that thought around in my head. I had felt something different with my magic during the demon rat attack when Selene and I made contact. It could be why my other elements had emerged if my parents had put a dampener spell on me. Selene and I shared the same birthday, but we were a year apart.
“What does the bond feel like?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t know, but I heard it’s like you are one with the other person. Your souls are aligned. It’s also the reason that soul-bounds are not able to create a familiar. There is no part of their soul left to give; it would cause the mage to die or become dark.”
Priscilla eyed my bouncing knee. What I felt for Selene wasn’t quitealigned, but it was close. During our kiss at the Winter Ball, it felt as though my soul wanted to merge with hers, but it hadn’t and was being kept at bay. I had never wanted to give part of my soul to a familiar. Maybe the bond was why? Regardless, there was no doubt what Selene was to me—what we were to each other. She hadn’t just become a part of my life.
“Selene is my soul-bound.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ender
TheheadmasterandPriscillahad decided a night in an actual bed instead of the plane chairs would do everyone some good before we left Singapore. I had been sure we would be headed back to Fives Academy, but I imagined that was a conversation Priscilla and the headmaster would have had—and then they’d had to persuade Selene.
The four-star hotel’s floor gleamed of marble, but I wondered if it was real. Wood panels lined the walls from the floor to the vaulted white ceiling. We were quiet as we headed to the front desk with our bags. Headmaster John spoke to the concierge—in Mandarin. Turning to us, he explained that I would be staying in a room with him, and Selene would stay with Priscilla—undoubtedly because Selene would be uncomfortable with her newfound father.
Glancing at Selene next to me, I tried to read her expression. Her lips were pressed together as she watched her father face the reception desk. I leaned over her shoulder.
“You know,” I whispered, “we just traveled alone. You’d think he wouldn’t be so concerned about splitting us up.”
A hint of a smile formed on her lips and she blushed, sending my heart into a frenzy. I wished we weren’t in separate rooms.
“We have our keys.” The headmaster turned around and held up two matte grey rectangular cards.
While everyone’s backs were turned, I took a deep breath. Prior to arriving at the hotel, I had visited my parents’ grave and Selene had made her dreaded phone call to her sister, filling her in on everything. The image of the smooth headstone of my parents’ shared monument had imbedded itself in my brain. Someone had been taking care of the grounds, and the grass had been cut around their stone.Daniel GalangandMaria Galangwere each engraved in cursive writing with a knot underneath, along with their birthdates and day they died.
Priscilla had shown me a picture of my parents—the only one she could find—but it didn’t feel real until we were standing in front of their grave. Growing up, I had been told my parents were not into photography and hadn’t kept photos, even their own. At the time, I thought I understood. I was a child who didn’t care much for his picture being taken, but now, I realized it had been suspicious. There might have been a subconscious part of me that didn’t want to ask questions that had answers I didn’t want to know.
After a quiet ride in the elevator, we found our connecting rooms. I tossed my bag onto the queen bed closest to the window, and it landed softly on the comforter. The headmaster’s familiar had already claimed the bed closest to the hallway. I frowned at the locked latch on the adjoining door to Selene’s room.
“The lock will be unlocked, but the door will remain shut at night.” The headmaster didn’t look up as he glared out the window, the setting sun turning his hair a slight orange. He didn’t need to explain the reasoning—if his daughter was attacked, he needed to be able to get to her.
“Sir,” I said out of respect, “I still don’t understand. Why did you let her leave the academy if it’s the safest place for her?”
“Have you ever had a dog?” He faced me, closing the curtains as he turned.
