Heads turned as I slapped a palm to my chest.
“Gods, what the fuck.” I scrambled to snatch the book up, its rough leather still vibrating like it had shared in his laughter.
Just testing this bond thing out,Ronan said, smug, deep, and far too close inside my skull.
I hadn’t realized that a blood oath apparently came with the added bonus of twenty-four seven intrusion rights. Lovely.
Gods, your head is a noisy place. I’m starting to understand why you’re always so on edge.
Oh good,I grumbled.I was worried you couldn’t possibly get any more irritating.
Ah. Straight for the throat, then. And before you panic, no, I can’t heareverything. Just the interesting parts.
My fingers continued skimming the brittle pages. None of it made sense. The ancient script, the Verathi, I couldn’t make sense of any of it. I shoved it aside for Callum or Nezra, forcing my mind to steady, and lifting another.
Luckily for you, the interesting parts are usually also the dangerous ones,I shot back, words sharp as I could make them.
He didn’t miss a beat.How’s reading going?
Unproductive.
No need to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d already seen me fail at translating from the tome. Or to admit that my shields were more sieve than stone.
If reading’s failing you, it’s because you’re thinking too loudly. I’ve felt the tension rolling off you since I left,he murmured, the tone so smooth it could have been pity, if not for the hint of amusement underneath.
Aren’t you rescuing a damsel in distress?
The tome crackled as I turned the page to where a strange diagram stretched to all four corners. A circle split into six pieces, marked with words neither the curse nor I recognized. My stomach tightened still.
Your pulse is spiking.
I’m fine. Did you find her?
She’s clinging to Elysian’s back, shaking like a reed.
Poor thing. I’d sooner fling myself off a cliff than be stuck on top of Elysian.
I pictured the hulking hound and fought the urge to grin. Although that exact comparison of flinging myself off a cliff might have been ill-timed. The wave of fleeting grief through the bond confirmed Ronan thought the same.
Also,getting into your mind was like walking through an open door. Fix that.
As if the Viper and my interior monologue weren’t already a crowded room, adding Ronan’s voice felt completely maddening.
Let me check my to-do list.A sharptskcut from my tongue. Booked today. Maybe tomorrow.
We’ll be back by tomorrow night,he said.That will do.
Pest.
The candle beside me sputtered as I squinted at the script. Elva’s undone braid spilled across the cushion, and half my lap, as she slept beside me, one hand still clutching an upside-down book.
You’re sure she’ll be safe in Ryuu?I asked, because prudence still lived in me somewhere.
No safer place.The certainty in him landed through the bond before anything else.
Ford mumbled across the caravan in his sleep, his foot twitching like he was kicking at invisible enemies. My eyes moved to Wells, who was slumped sideways above him where he sat with Nezra on a cot as she pretended to read. Her eyes were distant, lost to something.
“No safer place,” I repeated to myself. Low enough that even Ronan couldn’t hear. It was funny, a few days ago I would have thought there was no safer place than this pixie camp. And look at it now.
