North finds the caretaker in the crowd and demands that I stay in the car while he figures out how to get Sage out of there without any of us getting hurt. I take the opportunity to call Sage again and check that she’s not actually in the path of the fire right now.
She sounds miserable when she answers, “I waited until the floor was evacuated and then I holed up in Felix’s bathroom. I’m keeping the fire away from here but I can’t get rid of the rest of it, there’s too much!”
“Okay, it’s fine, don’t panic! North owns the building, he’s not going to give a shit about you damaging it a bit. Where’s Felix? If you tell me he nutted and ran off on you, I’ll kill him.”
She huffs but it’s more of a sob. “I’m so scared and embarrassed, Oli! He tried to get me out of here but when the fire warden came in, he was forced to leave. I told him I called you. Oli… I can hear him in my head. He’s been talking to me this whole time, telling me that it’s all going to be okay. He said he was only backing down from coming back in after me because he knows you’re on your way.”
Icy fingers of dread work their way through my belly.
North had said it himself, the Resistance would try and split up the strongest Bonded groups and families. The Bensons are up there with the Dravens. The Davenports are too.
How the fuck have they messed with the Bonds?
Is that even possible or am I just thinking crazy right now? I feel like we’re on the edge of blowing up something big and life-changing, the air catching in my lungs as my rib cage squeezes in fear of the fall.
I clear my throat. “Sage, listen to me. I’m coming up to get you. Tell Felix to just comply with everything that the fire department asks him to do and then to come back to North’s place as soon as he can. There’s a lot we need to talk about, but let’s get you out of there first, okay? I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I get out of the car and make my way over to North, trying not to burst into highly inappropriate giggles at how wrong he looks standing there in casual clothing that he’s had to find out of my closet from the other Bonds. His face is still full of authoritarian sternness and I have to wipe the grin from mine as I sidle up to him.
The caretaker moves away from us both with barely a glance my way, and I set my eyes on the crowd as I murmur, “I’m going in to grab Sage, so if you can keep the crowd distracted, that would be very helpful.”
His answer is immediate and icy. “There’s no way I’m letting you go into the burning building alone, Oleander. Find a new plan right now.”
I huff at him and point out the crowds of students and firefighters everywhere. “You’re not going to be able to get in and out of here discreetly. We’re aiming for discretion right now, North, not a councilman wandering around looking for a naked girl in a bathroom. Can you imagine the rumor mill? No fucking thank you!”
He stares at me for a second and then he glances around at the people closest to us, still just outside of earshot. The one advantage to this school being full of preppy, rich Gifted is that no one bats an eyelid at the Bentley, and without the suit on, North is a little less noticeable, but that won’t last forever.
Someone, other than the caretaker, is going to work out that he’s here.
I huff at him and whisper urgently, “Gimme August, then. Get him to come with me so that you can tell I’m safe and, you know, not running off, if that’s what you’re so worried about.”
He snaps, “Are you insane? I can’t just give you one of my nightmare creatures, it doesn’t work like that.”
I point at my hair where Brutus is hiding. “Don’t try that bullshit with me right now, just give me the puppy and let me go get my girl before the building collapses around her and we have to explain to her parents why she was holed up in there naked and freaking the hell out.”
He stares at me and I decide that enough is enough, I’m done talking about pointless shit. I take off towards the building and ignore his furious whisper at me to get my ass back over to him. I’m not sure what he’s expecting, I walked into the Resistance’s arms for this girl, a burning building is nothing to me.
I have to be careful, skirting my way around the crowd and all of the officials standing around the perimeter. Sage had been detailed in the best path to her, so I just duck and make a run for it, hoping North has gotten on board and is running a diversion for me.
The fire is on the east side of the building and even though Sage is also there, she’d told me to take the long route through the west wing so I don’t inhale smoke the whole way. I shove my sweater over my nose, just in case, and then silently send up a thank you to Gryphon for all the damned cardio he’s had me doing because I’m barely panting when I make it to the third floor.
There’s the pattering sounds of more footsteps behind me and I almost squeal with joy at the sight of August bounding up behind me. He’s only a little smaller than the last time I’d seen him, not at all inconspicuous, but he nudges my thigh with his big head in greeting, giving me a good sniff as though he’s working out what’s changed.
“I’ve missed you, pretty baby! I’ll give you all of the belly scratches and lovies the moment we find Sage and get her out of here. You can watch my back for me. Can you do that? Yes, you can, beautiful boy.”
I’m hoping that this means North is on my side now, or at the very least, not feeling murderous about me just taking off, and I break into a jog the rest of the way to the infamous bathroom of panic.
I barely knock twice before Sage rips the door open and flies at me, a sheet wrapped around her body in a very deja vu sort of way, it seems she’s also a fan of the burrito escape route.
“I think I’m losing my mind, Oli! I can’t stop crying and my bond is going insane about Felix not being here and I just— I’m losing my fucking mind!”
Right, now is not the time to compare burrito techniques. “Everything is going to be okay, Sage. We’re going to get you dressed and out of here, like, right the fuck now. Then we can talk about the nesting.”
She pulls away from me, the sheet slipping a little and showing me all of the love bites on her shoulder which make me feel weirdly proud of her.
I’m apparently also losing my mind.
“Nesting? Oli, I’m not Felix’s Bond, it can’t be nesting! I’ve just gone off of the fucking deep end and now I’m in hell! This is all my own stupid fault for trying to be with someone who wasn’t my Central.”
I start looking for some clothes to shove on her but there’s nothing in this bathroom except for a ridiculously overstocked first aid kit. “We can talk about that when we get back to the manor, there’s definitely something going on here. Let’s just get some clothes on you and get out of this tiny-ass bathroom for now.”
August takes this as a good time to start sniffing around at the tiles, as though he’s worried there’s danger hiding in the grout or something. I have to maneuver my way around him to keep searching for something, anything, to throw on Sage.
“What the fuck is that?” Sage croaks, and I grumble under my breath at her shrill tone.
Why do they all hate him so much?
“His name is August. He’s here to keep us protected while North distracts the fire wardens and the caretaker to get you out of here. Felix has been lying out of his ass for you, no one is ever going to know there was a Flame in this building. Shit, why is Felix so fucking neat? We need a shirt.”
Sage blinks at me right as I find a tank top behind the wastebasket, obviously missed there from Felix’s cleaning, and then she bursts into tears again. “North?! You brought the Bond that my mom works for here? That’s it, I’m jumping out of the window. I’m not doing this.”
I grab her arm and shove the tank top at her. “He’s going to be cool about this. I’ve told him… nothing but also just enough that he’s definitely working with us here. It’s going to be fine.”
I have to help her get the tank top on and I try to remember how delicate I had felt literally last night when I was also in the nesting phase. Soft, kind words. Slow movements and gentle hands. I got her calm again and the top half of her covered.
I already know that North is going to be royally pissed about it, but I give Sage my yoga pants to cover her a little more. I have underwear on and Nox’s sweater is long enough to hit me mid-thigh, so it’s not as though I’m walking out of here naked. Though I’m sure it’ll still be embarrassing for him to have his Bond walking around with no pants on .
I lean down to August and scratch him behind his ears, murmuring, “Do you think you could warn him about this so he’s not blindsided? Can you do that, or are you more of a guard pup and not a spy?”
His void-like eyes stare at me, unblinking, and Sage whispers, “Is he about to bite you? He looks… hungry.”
I huff and give him a kiss on the head. “August would never. Are you ready? We’re getting out of here before the party really starts up.”
She takes a deep breath, her hands shaking terribly, and nods at me. I offer her my arm, more as comfort than support, and she takes it, eyeing August distrustfully as we follow him out.
The smoke is thicker out here now.
Sage coughs once and then lifts a hand, her eyes flashing as she clears the smoke away from us both with a simple flick of her fingers.
A very handy little skill to have in an emergency.
There are fire fighters everywhere, and we spend twice as long getting out of there than I had jogging up here, dodging them as best we can. August seems intent on eating someone tonight and I spend half my time calling him away from people. When we finally walked out of the same side entrance I’d come in, Sage gasps at the thick black smoke everywhere, clutching at my hand. The smoke leads all the way to the Bentley and, after I call on my gift to see clearly, I usher her along until we’re both safe and secure in the car together.
“EXPLAIN it to me again and this time, don’t leave out all of the parts you think aren’t important.”
I groan and Sage glances at me, her cheeks on fire. The drive-through line for coffee and ice cream is ridiculous for this time in the morning but apparently we’ve hit the post-party rush hour. North is using the opportunity to grill Sage in a very not-cool way.
She looks like she’s planning out her suicide, and I don’t blame her one bit.
“We had sex and then my gift just… got stronger. I thought I was imagining it. I had to be, but then Felix got a call to go into one of the labs because he’s just started his Healer rounds there, and my gift just— it freaked out that he was leaving me, and then suddenly the building was on fire. I had no control over it, I haven’t lost my control like that for more than a decade.”
North nods and drums his fingers over the steering wheel again, his brows pulled down tight as he’s lost in his own head, processing all of this. I try not to obsessively watch him, but this is the most human I’ve seen him before, besides the tiny moments of him climbing in and out of my bed.
I don’t know if it was him telling me he actually wants to be able to get over me leaving, but it feels like maybe something has shifted between us again.
I clear my throat, trying to get my head back to the crisis at hand. “She can also now hear Felix in her head. That’s a Bonded thing, right? That’s why I can hear Gryphon.”
North scowls and glances back at Sage again. “That’s a very rare occurrence for Bond groups, only a very small percentage of Top Tier Bonded share that sort of connection.”
Sage nods and mumbles, “That’s when I decided to call Oli and get help. God, my dad is going to murder me when he finds out.”
I glare at North but he doesn’t even bother looking my way before he answers, “He won’t find out. I’ll clean this all up and have it passed off as an electrical fault. I’ll make sure Maria is kept out of it. We have more important things to focus on, like how the hell you’ve Bonded with someone who isn’t your Central.”
I almost forgive him for putting August away now. The moment he sat in the car, he’d held out his hand, black-stained palm up, and called my precious pup back into himself. I’d refused to talk to him for a full ten minutes in a pout over it, holding in all of the snark I wanted to throw at him for how long his eyes had gotten stuck on the long lines of my bare legs.
I don’t get their fascination with them, Gryphon is the same way.
Get your mind off of your drop-dead gorgeous, controlling asshole Bond, Oleander!
I clear my throat again, subtle as fuck, trying not to blush when North pulls a bottle of water out of the center console for me. “Bonds don’t nest, only Centrals do. Sage was definitely having some very strong reactions to this whole mess. She was acting the same way I was. There’s no way for a Bond to just… switch to a Central, is there?”
North frowns and pulls the car forward, rolling down the window to order for us all. The fact that he had asked Sage for what she wanted but already knew what I would order is bossy, controlling, and, curse my soul, a tiny bit hot.
He’s converting me to his bullshit, but I’m not going down without a fight.
It’s also sneaky as hell because I’ve never drunk a coffee around him before, how the hell does he know my exact, over-the-top, frilly sort of drink order? He gets me the exact drink that I’m too embarrassed to tell Atlas or Gabe that I want whenever they order me a coffee.
Even Sage’s eyebrows shoot up as he rattles off the list of ingredients and extra shots.
She leans forward and murmurs to me, “What the hell kind of coffee is that?”
I side-eye him and scoff, “North is very secure in his masculinity, he doesn’t mind us both knowing that he prefers a venti shaken quad espresso with five pumps of brown sugar syrup, two pumps strawberry syrup, dash of heavy cream, with caramel drizzle and extra whipped topping.”
He doesn’t say a word as we both cackle like children, enjoying the hell out of each other’s company on such a shitty night.
Sage obviously relaxes about having North hearing our conversations and leans back in the back seat to groan, “Sawyer is going to be so pissed that I called you before him. Fuck, he’s going to be a nightmare. He’s been texting me about cornering you all damn day, the gossip whore.”
I huff and rub my hands over my bare legs, watching as North starts fussing with the car’s heating for me. “I have no doubt he’s going to be a nightmare for us both. Atlas will definitely murder him if he asks me anything with him around.”
My stomach drops at the thought of Atlas, his disappearance at dinner last night is still at the forefront of my mind. I don’t know if I’m upset that he’s upset, or pissed off that he’s acting out like this over something I had no control over.
Then I feel guilty because he literally destroyed Gloria’s cafe for her daring to comment about my morality, so he’s not at all a bad guy.
It’s a mess.
Sage hums under her breath, huffing a little at how damn slow the line is. “Felix is back at North’s place. Everyone is awake there, by the way. He called Sawyer and told him that we’re both safe, and now he’s heading over there too. I guess this mind communication stuff is handy.”
I groan at her, “Yeah, until you’re stuck in front of your ex-workplace while your Bonds are going freaking mental on it for your honor and when you call in for backup, your Bonded just joins in.”
North edges the car forward so we’re only one car away from caffeine and sugar, and Sage bounces against the seat due to the momentum and her shock. “What do you mean, ex-workplace? You quit? Jesus, did Atlas finally kill some frat boys for stalking you?”
North’s head snaps over to stare at me and I wave him off. “They’re not stalking me. They’ve just made a game out of coming in to whisper about me, thanks to Nox making that idiot Branson shit himself publicly. I think they’re all trying to psych themselves up to try again but they’re too freaking soft.”
Then I turn in my seat and give Sage a very serious look. “So Gloria? She’s an Empath. No one told me, and when I went in there for my shift, apparently she saw who I really am now that I Bonded to Gryphon and got a little kick of power. You should be warned that your bestie is evil. Her words, I’m seeped in evil apparently. The Dravens aren’t though, so there’s some great news. We should really spread that around campus; Gloria gives her seal of approval, so stop with the monster bullshit. But, yeah, maybe you should rethink your friendship with me.”
Sage blinks at me and then turns on North. “And what are you Bonds doing about this? I hope she’s dead now. I hope you killed the old prejudiced bitch, because if Oli is evil, then I am too. Fuck, I just burned down a million-year-old building. I’m like demon-levels of evil, clearly.”
I scoff at her, but North is looking right at me, his eyes too dark in the car for me to get a read on what he’s thinking. Shit. “Gryphon’s debrief was missing some of the finer details of the situation, but I’ll be taking care of it. She’s not dead, but she’s about to find things a lot harder for her around here.”
Sage doesn’t look satisfied by that but when he finally gets our drinks and hands her an extra-large cup, she murmurs a thank you and calms down a little.
Only until he hands me the ultimate girly drink, then she bursts out laughing at my expense, curling in half and not stopping until there’s tears in her eyes.
The rest of the drive back to the manor is quiet, all of us sucking down the caffeine like our lives depend on it, and when North pulls into the garage, I’m ready to just lay down and die for a few hours.
Sage takes a second to pull herself together, staring North dead in the eye through the rearview mirror as she says, “Thank you for coming to get me, the coffee, and for— the clean up. I am in your debt.”
Over my dead body.
I open my mouth but North cuts me off before I can say a thing. “No debt. I owed you for taking care of Oleander when we didn’t. Gryphon, Nox, and I will be gone for a week. When we get back, we’re going to get to the bottom of your Bonding. Discreetly. I mean it, neither of you two or Felix should speak to anyone about it until we can get a handle on this.”
Sage nods and then we follow him back into the house, ready to face the chaos waiting for us here.
