Page 57 of Twisted Bonds
His voice is flat, tinged with worry. No hint of deception or amusement. No games. My anxious heartbeat spikes at his words. All I can do is stare, unable to pull away from his intense gaze. My mind whirls with what he’s telling me, but my body can’t catch up.
The Great River is a new concept to me, but I know it’s a deeply ingrained part of their fae society. I don’t fully understand the consequences or what it means, but from the gravity in his voice, I know this is very serious. When I don’t respond, he lets out a long, tired sigh as he rubs his hands across his face. “I know this is a lot to take in,” he notes, his voice heavy with a weight I haven’t heard from him before.
“How do you even know this?” It comes out sharper than I intend.
“I have sources.”
He lingers on the last word, like a bitter taste coats his tongue. Something inside me shatters. All the secrets. All the games. Everything is one step forward, two steps back with him. Being separated from Sunder and Bobble.
Having my Chroma back floods me with an itch to burn off that power. To hold it.
Suddenly, the room is too small, the air too thin. I bolt up from my seat, unable to stay still. Restlessness buzzes under my skin in a way that’s simultaneously grounding and unsettling. Pulling my hair out of its messy bun, I pace the length of the room. Heat prickles up and down my spine at the thought of Yurghen, of what he could potentially do. Of what it means for me, for Sunder and Bobble. Callum.
My gaze drifts to Tairyn for some reason, my stomach turning on itself as I tear my attention away from the concerned expression on his face.
“Just breathe.” His voice breaks through the tension that seems to grip me. It’s gentle, a stark contrast to his smug arrogance from earlier. My heart twists in my chest as he stands, approaching me with hands in front of him like you might approach a wild horse you want to tame.
“Back off.” The words snap out of me before I can stop them. Tension still buzzing under my skin, threatening to explode.
He stops, his hands dropping to his sides. “Mira, I-”
“No!” Bitterness laces my words, scorching them. “Just… no.” I whip around and begin to pace again, the room suddenly too small. “You bring me here against my will, take me from my mates, and now you tell me I have to master the impossible or else.” I spin on him. “Tell me, Tairyn. The truth. Why did you bring me here?”
The room grows quiet, save for the crackling fire in the hearth and my own ragged breathing. His eyes look pained and for a moment, I see a flicker of something more human in them. “It wasn’t out of malice. I brought you here because I had to,” he says softly, and I can see in his gaze that he won’t say more.
I turn away from him, rubbing my forehead with the back of my hand, trying to fend off the angry tears pushing at my eyelids. “That’s not an explanation.” My voice shakes, but I force it steady again. “You know what? Forget it. You brought me here because you ‘had’ to. Got it.” Sarcasm drips from my words.
Silence stretches between us like an icy river, and for once Tairyn has nothing to say. My heart clenches with a mix of frustration and a strange kind of disappointment.
I inhale deeply a few times, trying to steady my nerves and slow my racing heart. With determination, I tell myself to remain calm and push forward. I plop back into my chair, arms crossed to fend off any attempts at his charm.
“Well, start teaching me then.”
twenty-seven
Sunder
Bobble is a statue beside me, his usually cheerful expression replaced by a grim determination. Through the magic of my blue Chroma, I sense him pulsing with anticipation and fear. He’s not used to pre-battle nerves. I grip his shoulder to reassure him as we stand at the base of a mountain, and a flutter of adoring butterflies pepper his anxiety.
Averting my gaze at the sudden burst of feeling, my teeth find the inside of my lip and begin to chew there. It’s not that I feel nothing for him. I’ve never felt like this for another male before. It’s… foreign. The last few days of traveling, we’ve kept things light. We haven’t spoken of what transpired between us, instead choosing to pretend it didn’t happen.
At least that’s what I’ve done. I can’t give him more right now. I can only focus on one thing at a time, and right now it’s finding Mira.
But it doesn’t stop those swells of emotions bubbling up inside him so high that I can feel them whether I want to or not. It also doesn’t stop my thoughts from drifting back to him. To watching the way he licks the back of a spoon after every bite or brushes hair out of his eyes. The way he always seems to know exactly what to say or do when I need it most.
Focus.
“Everything will be okay,” I say to the rocky ground beneath my feet. He nods, but my words do nothing to settle him. We’ve tracked the Second’s emotions to this mountain, nestled deep into the Western Slopes. Now, we stand in the middle of what was once a prominent mining town, Zinyth City, abandoned long ago.
I can feel him. Pulling me closer. Not just the oily ball of energy and emotions that belongs to him. It’s the pull of our Shards. Like calls to like.
Behind a dilapidated home, a discreet door is set directly into the mountainside. I know they’re inside. Our breaths puff out in small clouds of mist as we steel ourselves. Mira lays just beyond.
“Once I get my hands on the Second, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop from killing him. I’m going to rely on you to keep him alive. We’ll need him, eventually.”
Bobble nods but doesn’t seem entirely convinced. His massive hand reaches up to touch a pendant that hangs around his neck–a gift from Mira from one of the many towns we wandered through in the early days after the tower. He takes a deep breath and looks at me with fierce determination. “Let’s go then.”
We take our first steps towards Tairyn’s hideout, a foreboding mountainside shrouded in darkness and shadows. The sight of it sends an involuntary shiver down my spine, and I can’t help but think of all the horrors that likely await us within its caverns.