There is no sound, just the anger on my brothers’ faces, and the horror that follows.
Every head snaps in my direction.
London’s hand lifts to her mouth, her eyes going wide.
The wind’s whistle disappears with the clear sheen that covered my family.
“You’re lying,” Knight growls, eyes on me.
“I’m not lying.” Creed’s voice is silk over steel. “I am trying to save him. You saw what she did back there. She is getting stronger while he gets weaker!”
“Really?” I cough a laugh. “She saved our asses and you’re blaming her for that?”
Creed crouches before me. “How?” he prompts. “How did she save us? As far as we know, she’s not supposed to have any true powers, remember? So if she does, if they manifested or werethere from the beginning, she is hiding them. Why would she do that, Legend? Yet you’re the one who couldn’t even use the ones you were born with the other day. You can’t portal. You can hardly fucking stand. Why is that?”
I glare and he comes closer.
“When you brought her back here, how did you do it, Legend?”
“Hitched a ride on good old Benny boy,” I mention London’s best friend. “Dragons guard that place, you know.”
“A place where no one is allowed in or out. Yetshecan. Think. How else did those soul-eating fucking flowers get here? She brought them. And who knows where else she put them? She was born to exile and when the island lost its anchor, it needed a new one…and then a royal walked its soil for the first time.”
“I went to claim what was given to me by the gods.”
“No. You took something that was never supposed to leave that place, and it took from you in return. Now we are dealing with the consequences of that. She is playing us. That Isle’s Kiss? How else would it have gotten here? Why are these deaths all related to the island…to her?”
“I don’t care.”
“I do!” Creed rages. “She has found some sort of workaround. I know it. And when I figure out how, I will prove it and I will cut that fake bond from your chest before I let it claim you.”
“Watch it.”
“You’re not yourself, Legend. Just fucking think.”
“Stop.”
He grips my head. “Dig deeper!”
“I said stop.”
He presses tight. “Break past that fucking treachery in your mind!”
“Creed.”
“The bond is not real!”
My hands are on Creed’s throat before I even know I’ve movedthem, fingers closing like iron traps, nails digging in where the skin is soft under his jaw. He makes a sound halfway between a curse and a laugh, shock sliding off his face, then pain when I clamp down harder.
Creed’s eyes flash white for a second, then red with effort. His hands slam at my wrists but they’re useless, blunted by a panic I can’t deny. Behind me, Knight’s voice is a strangled roar; Sinner curses and lunges; and I feel them like weights trying to drag me back from the ledge I’m teetering on. Knight’s forearms wrap around my shoulders as Sinner’s grip catches at my belt.
“Let him go!” Knight snaps, but my fingers only close tighter, a promise of breaking.
Creed’s face goes pale, eyes searching mine for the flicker of the brother he’s always known.
“Legend,” he starts, but I don’t want his words.
I snarl at Creed, struggling, every muscle trembling but refusing to give. “You don’t get to stand there with your dead eyes and tell me she isn’t mine. I—Ifeelher.”Don’t I?“I taste her in my fucking blood.”Can’t I?“Every moment I’m with her, the bond grows stronger.”
