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The pain subsided, but I couldn't tear my gaze away from him or take my hand out of his.

He did.

Disappointment spread through my chest.

Come on, Julie. These feelings aren't helping you here.

While Quentin got up and went to wash his hands, I just sat there and carefully opened my blood-smeared hand. Immediately, liquid blood ran down my wrists and into my white coat.

Damn. Whatever had just happened had enlarged the wound on my hand.

I looked at the book, at the writing.

“What is the meaning of these words?”

Quentin came back, his hands clean. No more blood was coming from his wound.

“It binds our blood,” he explained, but wrinkled his nose as if the mere thought caused him pain. “Temporarily,” he quickly added. “That means I can't harm you if you don't want me to, and vice versa.”

He looked at me with a serious expression.

I nodded slowly.

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“The pact doesn't just lose its effect even if we both fulfill our part of the agreement. It only loses its effect when we end it with a reversal ritual.”

“What happens if one of us breaks the pact?”

Quentin's gaze darkened.

“Umbra will consume that person from within. It will feel like a growing internal burn until the nervous system gives up.”

I nodded again, this time with respect for the dark practices, and looked down at my hand.

A throbbing pain shot through my fingertips. I felt... lightheaded, as if I needed to lie down.

“Satisfied now?”

I couldn't bring myself to look up at him. My eyelids fluttered.

“What is it?”

His masculine hand appeared in my field of vision and reached for my bleeding one. The warmth of his careful hand was so... pleasant.

“Damn. That's way too much blood.”

I quickly pulled my hand away.

“It's okay.”

“Definitely not,” Quentin replied and walked back to the faucet, only to return with a bowl of water. “I don't want to be the reason the Councils become aware of me just because I accidentally let one of their slaves bleed to death.”

Confused, I looked up, trying to think clearly through my daze.

“Why don't they know about you?”

I scrutinized him, but he wasn't looking at me, only at the bowl of water, before placing it on the table next to me and lowering the tabletop by pressing a button.