“Really? Even with you worrying that Ruxnoth—”
“Like he said, you need to be ready.”
With that, he turned from me.
“Sylas,” Mom called after him.
He held up his hand. “I’ve said all that can be said at this time. I have research to do in my lab.”
Pops shot to his feet. “You can’t just—”
Father shook his head at him, some sort of look I couldn’t decipher passing between them. Were they mind-linking? They rarely did that, but it was still possible between all four of them. Pops was particularly good at it, because he did it a lot with Grandpa.
Dad stopped at the door. I tensed, worry and hope sparking in equal measure that he wasn’t just walking off.
But then he looked at Vax instead. “Don’t break that tether. Are we clear?”
Vax nodded.
My dad lifted his chin, then strode out of the room.
In the next second, Pops was darting out after him.
I turned to Vax. “Tether?”
He fiddled with his crown, then told me, “Magical and scent tracking were not possible, but we were able to find you because I’d previously tagged you with a tether.”
“Basilisk vibrational tracking?”
“Yes.”
Well…that was… a lot.
Zayn nudged me. “I told him you’d get it, because of howyoucan be when you’re really into someone. Or someones.”
I grunted.
Vax winced. “I apologize,little death.I know how it seems. I did it shortly after you disappeared that awfully long night when you blocked my ability to track you.”
“It’s not that. Zayn’s right. I can be obsessive and territorial too. It’s that you risked so much by doing it. Risked yourself, Vax. That’s a guarded ability.”
“It will be kept among your family here and those involved in finding you,” Evira assured me.
That was the hope.
But lately so many secrets had come to light. This could be yet another one of them.
She grasped my arm, insisting, “We’ll protect him.” Her sparkling smile radiated. “We’ll protect each other.”
Translation:don’t lone-wolf it.
I’d made them a promise concerning that.
But I’d also made a promise to myself that being what I was wouldn’t actively harm them. And with what I’d come to know in the last few hours, I couldn’t just pretend that didn’t alter things. I couldn’t pretend that things stood where they had before Ruxnoth had snatched me away.
They’d shifted.
The stakes had shifted.
