I bristled and took a step forward, maintaining my grip on Devil. “He has done nothing wrong! While the two of you squabbled and allowed the Rot to close in, he has kept me safe, and shown me what I am capable of, and—”
“And tricked you into a blood bond?” Oberon interjected, raising an eyebrow.
I faltered and glanced up at Devil, whose jaw was set, a muscle twitching at the corner.
“Gods, I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance, imp,” Titania scoffed. “Deranged, unfit for life, and somehow a liar to boot. Outrageous!”
“Enough!” I cried, anger welling back up inside me. “He did not trick me! I agreed to the blood bond, and look what it has done. His Lightweaving helped free you from the Rot, and this is how you treat him? The bond was a small price to pay for that, and one I am not unhappy about.” My heart hammered inexplicably, and I thought I might be sick. I wanted to run, to fly, to pull myself away. The Unseelie monster of guilt from my dream flashed before my eyes again, but I shook it off. Oberon’s dark eyes fixed on Devil, and shadows began to swirl furiously at his feet as he took a step closer to us. Something in his expression, and how still Devil was, sent a chill down my spine. But it was the faerie king’s words, spoken in a deadly-soft tone, that stopped the breath in my chest.
“You lied to her…didn’t you?”
Chapter fifty-one
Tether & Trust
“You did not stitchme a liar’s tongue, my lord,” Devil said through gritted teeth. His expression had not changed, but he also would not look at me.
“But you didnotgive her the full truth,” Oberon continued. “You told her of the blood bond, clearly, and she agreed to that, but you did not tell her what might happen if…”
“If…what?” I repeated breathlessly. “I don’t understand…”
Titania stepped forward and held her hand between Devil and I, palm up. A shimmering thread appeared in the air, linking our two bodies. One strand was deep crimson, the other, gold. They wove themselves together, sparking and flowing—his light into my body; my blood, my life force, into his.
“Thisis your blood bond,” Titania murmured. “It allows you to share magyk, and to sense when the other is hurt, or in danger.” She moved her hand up and the first thread vanished, but another appeared. “This…is called a Tether…”
It was pale and luminescent, like the moon itself had been unraveled and strung between us. Loose tendrils of silvery light danced up and down its length as it flowed lazily back and forth, an undulating tide of magyk.
I angled my body to see it better and asked, “What is it?”
“A Tether can sometimes be created alongside a blood bond,” Oberon said, “when there are…strong,mutualfeelings of devotion…” He swallowed and shook his head, apparently unwilling to continue, so Titania spoke instead.
“When a blood bond is made, you share everything for a moment. Your magyk, your life, your heart, everything. And so, if two souls are already bound through choice…throughlove, a Tether will form too. A blood bond affects magyk giftsonly, but a Tether…binds those two souls. You feeleverythingthe other feels. Every emotion, every spark, every joy, but also every sorrow. And physical separation, distance between you, becomes painful…even agonizing.”
Oberon sighed. “Blood bonds are rare. Tethers, even more so, but when theyarecreated, it is usually in place of…wedding vows.”
My heart crawled up into my throat as I remembered the threaded-together sensation, and the terrible, unspooling ache I’d felt upon arriving at the Bower earlier. I could hardly even lift my gaze to Devil’s face again, because I did not want to see what was there. I did not want to see that he had known and not told me, did not want to bear the terrible truth that I might have given myself,boundmyself, to someone who so easily fed me mistruths. When I finally gathered the courage to look up, he was watching me carefully, eyes flickering around my face as if waiting to see my reaction.
“Tell me…you didn’t know,” I whispered. “Please, Devil…” He grimaced and dropped his gaze, but I felt the shredding, rending pain in my own heart, and I could not stand it. This time, I screamed, “Tell me you did not know!”
A shield of shadows, studded with his light, flew from my hands and struck him hard in the chest. He staggered backwards into the trunk of the weeping willow and slid to the ground with a groan. Fueled by the anger in my new power, and the disbelief of his betrayal, I stalked forward, black flames licking around my hands and arms. Devil put a hand to his head, then looked up at me with wide eyes.
“May, stop!” he cried, scrambling to his feet and reaching out, hands alight with his own magyk. “Of course, I knew about the Tether! I did not want you to find out this way!”
I backed him up against the tree and let my flames scorch the ground at his feet. “Please…please lie to me…” I begged. “Pleasetell me you didn’t do this...”
Slowly, gently, he took my face between his hands. “I cannot lie to you…”
“But youdid!” I slammed him against the willow again, hot, shameful, tears now seeping from my eyes. He struggled as I called up a tangle of shadows to pin him in place. “You did lie! You did not tell me what a Tether was, nor that one could form from our blood bond. That is a lie, by omission if nothing else. You tricked me!”
He looked horrified, and fought against the shadows, trying to reach for me again. “No! May, I wouldn’t, please! I did not think I needed to tell you!”
I gaped at him in shock and my magyk faltered. “You did notthink…that I deserved a choice? In my own fucking life? My own gods-damnedsoul?”
“No! No!” Devil pleaded. “May, listen, please! If you did not feel anything for me, then the Tether would never have even formed. But it is only a manifestationof shared devotion! Of love! I thought, surely, if we did become Tethered, it would not matter, because we had already chosen each other! Youchoseme!”
“Would notmatter…” I stopped mid-sentence to take a deep breath, for I was walking a razor’s edge between murder and insanity. “Chosen or not, Devil…if you truly thought that beingboundto you for all eternity, unable to leave your side without agonizing pain, would notmatterto me, then you must be fucking mad…”
“Is that not what love is?!” he cried, desperation breaking his voice. “Madness and agony? The torment of being away from each other?Please, May…tell me you feel the same…tell me I am not alone in this madness…” He looked almost close to tears, and I suddenly wondered if hecouldcry—if he could truly feel guilt, or the weight of his actions…if he could even understand what he had taken from me.
