A crack ripped through my chest, as if a hammer had driven a nail through the thin layer of ice freezing over my soul, cooling it from the simmering darkness beneath.
Why would he do this?
Nerissa voiced the question aloud.
“Bayne wed the queen to keep the people of Lotrennia from choosing between the two of them, to prevent a civil war. He would do anything for his kingdom,” Vulcan murmured, his hazel eyes focused on the dagger in his lap. “And there is only one reason to soulbind with someone who’s not a love match.”
“Power,” Nerissa breathed. “That was the trade. An oath, only breakable upon death… His soul for more power.”
Power. Had he done this because of his vision in the Waters of Ascendiel?
Drystan’s blue eyes caught mine, his knowing, sympathetic gaze fueling the growing beast of fury soon to slip its leash. Nerissa shifted, and a sliver of rage pulsed through the cracks in her bond’s barrier.
Breakable upon death…I mused to Tiberius.When you created the whip in Lotrennia during your training with the queen… When the Obscura and Transcindiel powers merged, you created a weapon of death. That blast, when you cut the air between you and Antares… You severed the air oath, didn’t you?
Tiberius’s affirming stomp banged from above. The eyes in the room looked up at the sound before landing on me. The scar on Astraeus’s lower lip whitened as his lips drew a thin line.
If you were able to cut the air oath, we might be able to sever a soulbinding.
Yes, but does he even want it broken?Ti challenged.And at what cost? Soulbinding bonds are the strongest of all magical bonds. If cutting a mere air oath left a mark on all of us…
My hand drifted to the straight, fresh scar running down the center of my chest. A perfect match to Tiberius’s.
Antares has a matching injury?I asked.
Yes.
Mumbled talking continued in the room below deck, and my mind slowed as my thoughts narrowed to a focused sort of precision.
It could kill them,my mind’s voice shook. Breaking their bond could kill Bayne. Antares knows we’d figure that out. And she thinks because of the risk, we wouldn’t try to break it.
She could be baiting us with their bond. She wants your powers. She wants me, Ti’s words rang with finality.
She will not have you.
A drip of sweat slid down my neck and between my breasts, following the long scar, where it stopped. Distantly, the conversation in the room grew. The little bead of sweat tickled my chest, and the air below deck stuck to my throat, thick and stifling as I focused on filling and emptying my lungs.
My world had become a treacherous sea I struggled to stay afloat in. Every moment I broke through the surface, a storm crashed against my face and a hand shoved me back down. Yet each time, I dared another breath, another surge through the waves for one thing. The ones I loved. I loved Tiberius. And Bayne… Could he have really done this for power? I still loved him, despite the growing cracks in our relationship, didn’t I? Shedaredtake them from me?
You need to get above deck, Lyvia. You need an outlet.
Darkness and golden light joined hands in dance beneath my skin. Winding and twirling together, as if in some strange, foreign waltz, my human mind couldn’t understand.
Get above deck. NOW!
Somewhere, people argued. There was panic. And shouting. A rough hand gripped my forearm, tugging me up. I didn’t see them. I only sensed that growing waltz of death and darkness, transformation and rebirth, swarming inside.
Another hand on my shoulder, shaking it…
The Obscura and Transcindiel paused briefly in their dance, as if noticing a stranger walk through the door. I blinked as Astraeus’s dark eyes flashed before my own.
“You need to get the hell off my ship,” he breathed, his face inches from my own. “Up. Now.”
My powers ignored his command, returning to their frenzy, and then, I felt it. A building pressure, bigger than anything I’d ever experienced. Bile rose to my throat as I realized I was about to explode.
Calloused fingers, covered in thick rings laced through mine, pressing a scarred palm to the eight-pointed star on my own. A spark, and that pressure eased enough for Astraeus to haul me up the stairs, clearing the way and ordering his men below deck. Tiberius stomped toward me, and Astraeus gripped me behind the thigh and below the knee, hoisting me onto Ti’s back.
We launched into the night sky, suddenly blanketed with thick, dark clouds. Tiberius pumped his massive wings, soaring higher and higher as the air around us thinned. I threw my hands above my head and erupted.
