IT ONLY TAKES three steps outside of our house and into the Sanctuary to know that things have changed.
For one, Kieran is waiting for us, and my cheeks heat the second I see him, North’s words from last night still echoing in my mind. I step in closer to Atlas’ side unconsciously, enjoying that he tucks me in without a word. I have no reason to worry though, Kieran meets my eyes with a ‘no bullshit’ look on his face and the same nod of respect he always does. There’s no sign of a smile or sarcastic comment out of him this time, and he holds his arm out for us to take for Transport.
I’m a little surprised that we’re traveling like this within the Sanctuary. It seems like a waste of resources, but I take his arm without question. He takes us directly to North’s offices.
Gabe and Atlas are crushing me between their hulking sizes as though they’re expecting us to appear in the center of a Wasteland. I want to roll my eyes at their dramatics, but the second my feet hit the ground, my stomach roils with motion sickness and Atlas has to catch me as my knees buckle. There’s cursing and then Gryphon’s hands slide onto my neck, easing away the sickness. Before I get the chance to straighten and thank him, he stalks back over to the far side of the room.
For a moment, my heart sinks and I feel as though maybe I’ve done something wrong and pissed him off. Then I glance up and see the screens that the rest of my Bonded Group are staring at along with Vivian and Unser. There, on the three large monitors, is the footage of the Transport Zone from the Sanctuary. They’re watching as groups of families leave in a mass exodus. The entire area is surrounded by the General and his TacTeams, all of them with guns in their hands as they stare out at the crowd forming to watch the people leaving, but none of them attempt to approach.
“What the fuck is going on?” Atlas asks, his arm still around my waist as we both move towards them, and North answers without turning around.
“They’ve decided that the Sanctuary is more dangerous than dealing with the Resistance. They all got a taste of what Nox and I can do if pushed, and it reminded them of the Draven curse.”
I don’t like that at all.
“Fuck the Draven curse! They’re all idiots if they think they can survive out there with everything heating up. Can’t you call a meeting or something?”
Nox turns to stare at Gabe for a moment, surprised at his vehemence. When he speaks, his own words are chosen very carefully, his control over his temper impressive considering his history. “I’m not calling a meeting and telling any of those people that I will react in any other way if they wish death upon Oleander. I draw the line at that. I’ve had to make nice with these people for decades knowing that they are selfish cancers on the backs of this community, riding on North’s coattails while he bore the brunt of the real work. I will do it no longer.”
I glance between him and Gryphon before I say, very carefully because the tension is suddenly so thick in the room that I’m choking on it, “Did someone actually threaten me? Or was it more of an indirect sort of thing?”
Gryphon answers me, his face stern and unreadable. “The General threatened you while you were sleeping… twice. The first time to North and I, the second time to Nox when he arrived to try to defuse the situation.”
North shakes his head, a scowl on his face and a ring of smoke around his wrist that shows just how tenuous his grasp on his temper is. “Nox is right. I’m not going down there and telling these people not to leave. The General isn’t welcome here anymore, and I think we were far too generous in giving him twenty-four hours to get out of here before we let the shadows out to hunt him down.”
I swallow against the lump in my throat. I know how badly Nox and North hate the General, but I’m also aware that Gryphon has a complicated relationship with his father.
I don’t need to say any of this for him to know exactly how I’m feeling about it. He reads me like an open book.
“You come first to me, Oli. The moment he opened his mouth and dared to say a word about you was the moment I cut ties with him for good. I might not wish a violent and bloody death upon him, but I’ve accepted that it’s what’s likely about to happen to him, running off half-cocked and with nothing but his ego out there. We didn’t even get the chance to warn him about the god-bonds.”
“Fuck warning him,” Nox snarls. “He doesn’t give a shit about anything other than the fact that your eyes turned a different color, and they weren’t a color he wanted for his kid.”
“It’s not about the well-being of his child, it’s about how it reflects on him. It always has been,” North says, and I shift on my feet, so uncomfortable with having this conversation in these circumstances. Out in the open with Kieran, Vivian, and Unser listening in. Gryphon doesn’t seem to care, and I’d hazard a guess that this isn’t the first time they’ve heard all of this information, but I’m still prickling with discomfort.
“Does Kyrie know?” I ask, and Gryphon turns back to me with a wry smile.
“We told her. The General also showed up to where she’s staying and tried to drag her out with him, but she held a loaded gun to his head to let him know exactly how she felt about leaving. She was pretty pissed off when we told her what he’d said about you. She now thinks she wasted the opportunity to finally just pull the trigger.”
Jesus Christ.
“I always did like Kyrie,” Atlas says as he crosses his arms and nods his head, but Vivian shoots him a look.
“What the hell are we going to do about all of these innocent people being led out of here with nothing but fear mongering? I agree that the General has to go, no man should be able to speak about Bonds like that, and certainly not about Fallows, but these people have no idea about any of that. They’re all just terrified and trying to make the best call for their families.”
North shrugs. “What else can we do? Some of them have been here for months and have seen the way that we run things here—they’ve still chosen to leave. If we take away free will, we are nothing more than the monsters in the Resistance. All we can do now is open up and let more Gifted in, those who have been on the waiting list due to the limited space. It’s not an easy decision to make, but it’s the only one we’ve got.”
I’m not sure any of us are going to sleep well with that thought, but as I look up at the screen where dozens of bodies are disappearing with Transporters, there’s not much else I can do.
NORTH CHANGES his rules for how we’re all allowed to act in public dramatically as a response to the General’s defection.
We go from trying to stay in smaller numbers and putting on a peaceful and friendly face to living however the hell we want. By nightfall the same night, word has gotten around of what had really happened in North’s office between my Bonded Group and Gryphon’s dad, and though no one else chooses to leave, there is a dramatic change on the streets.
They’re empty now.
It makes my skin crawl.
“They’re acting as though we’re hunting them down,” I say as I walk hand-in-hand with Gryphon to the dining hall.
Gabe and Atlas had gone to some of the newer houses to help Gabe’s uncle with a problem that he had down there. North and Nox are busy working through the information that we recovered from Atlas’ parents’ house, so Gryphon and I had offered to pick up dinner for everyone.
When he’d moved to grab the keys for one of our ATVs, I simply shook my head and pulled on my sneakers instead, happy to spend a little extra time with him on the way. I feel like we’ve only seen each other in our Tac gear or naked lately. I miss just being around him, speaking to him about anything other than work or the delicious things he’s doing to my body.
The problem is that we haven’t spoken about his father, other than Gryphon apologizing for what he’d said, but I hated to hear that out of him. It’s not his fault the General is a dick, and I’m quick to make sure he knows it.
All the guilt he feels right now is about the innocent people who just left the safety of the Sanctuary because of the fear-mongering campaign that his father started.
“They’re scared. I know it. North knows it. And even though he’s ready to send his shadow creatures through the entire place to wipe them all out, Nox knows it too.”
He stops speaking as he looks out over the rows of eerily quiet houses in front of us before he continues, “I think they’re all assuming that we’re about to go rogue and turn into something worse than the Resistance. They don’t understand what’s really happening here. You’ve got to remember that they’ve all heard stories of the Dravens as though they were the Boogeyman. For years, they’ve been waiting for North and Nox to blow up someday like Nolan did.”
That doesn’t make me feel any better. “And what about me? Do you think they’re all waiting for that from me as well with my void eyes? Because the only thing that’s going to push me there is everyone acting like this.”
Gryphon shrugs and hugs me closer to his side, slinging an arm around me as his hand stretches out over my bare stomach where my sweater has crept up. I feel his power heat his skin where it touches mine, and the ache across my shoulders eases off. I hadn’t complained to him about it, the result of being twisted up into fifty different positions by each of them, and he chuckles under his breath at the color that stains my cheeks.
“Thanks,” I murmur quietly, and instead of acknowledging that, he gives me something far more powerful.
“Know that if any of them ever attempt to call you anything, it’ll be the last words they say, Bonded. I’m done playing around with this, and if they think that they’re going to find a stake to burn you on, they’ve got another thing coming.”
A memory flickers in my mind, one of my bond’s, at that exact fate happening to me, and Gryphon nods his head as the shiver runs through me. “I remember it as well. The Soothsayer was there. It saw the whole thing. If I shut my eyes, I can see it as clearly as if it was my own memory. Never again, Bonded.”
The dining hall is full of people, though it’s quieter than any other time I’ve been here. Gryphon greets the Tac operatives who are standing watch at the door. Each of them nod respectfully back to him, then me, without a word, completely obedient to their leader. I sigh in relief.
Any of the operatives who are still here that have questioned us in the past have been put on leave, effective immediately. I told you that we’re not messing around here, Gryphon sends through to me, and I nod back.
I move to the buffet-like station and begin filling up containers for each of my Bonded. It’s a surprise to me when I realize I know exactly what each of them will eat, little bits of information I seem to have picked up without really trying, and when I hand Gryphon his, he smirks at me.
“I thought this was a North Draven trait? If you start taking on his personality as well, I’m out.”
I laugh at him and grab a bag to start stashing away the food. “Liar. You love me too much to give up on me so quickly, and North is definitely not your least favorite Bond.”
He laughs at me and grabs the back of my neck to smack a kiss on my lips. “You’ve got it all wrong, Bonded. I don’t play favorites unless we’re talking about you.”
“Can you two keep that gross shit out of my kitchen, please? I don’t need to see it. I already know what’s happening, and that’s disgusting enough,” Kyrie drawls as she places another tray of roast beef on the buffet.
I move away from Gryphon’s arms to start filling up more containers with the fresh meat, knowing that Atlas and Gabe will devour a full container between the two of them alone.
“I’m pretty sure this isn’t your kitchen, Kyrie. Plus, I’ve seen enough of you sucking face with my operatives for a lifetime, so you don’t have a leg to stand on here.”
She shrugs and sends me a grin. “Alex is pretty hot though, am I right?”
I shrug back. “I have no idea who that is.”
I see Gryphon’s shit-eating grin from the corner of my eye, the pure male satisfaction at the complete honesty of my words. His reaction is so instant, it’s as though I’ve started talking dirty to him here in the middle of the room.
Kyrie sighs as though we’re killing her. “Of course you don’t. You’re in the ‘Bonded Group bubble’ where you don’t give a fuck about what anyone else looks like. Again, it’s disgusting!”
I can’t argue with her there. I haven’t looked at any person, male or female, in months and had their looks factor into any part of my stance on them. I couldn’t even tell you if there was someone attractive in the room right now. Except that Gryphon is here, and of course, he is one of the five hottest men that ever walked the earth.
I’m dumb enough to say this to Kyrie, and she makes a gagging noise as Gryphon smirks smugly back at her. His arms cross over his chest as he turns to beam down at me for a second before he looks back at her.
The smile slides off of Kyrie’s face for a second. “Did Mom call you? She tried to call me, but I was too busy ignoring everything from the General to pick up.”
I try not to flinch, knowing how much Gryphon adores his mom. The thought of him being separated from her again, and my part in it, kills me.
He just shrugs back at her. “She did. I think we are no longer on speaking terms.”
My eyebrows shoot up my forehead, and I’m sure I look like an idiot right now. “You didn’t tell me that.”
He shakes his head at me, his eyes soft. “I knew that you’d blame yourself, and there’s no need for it. She was very concerned about the god-bonds, and that’s not anyone’s fault. I’m not going to be upset or ashamed about any of it either. My bond is what brought me to you, so I will be happy and grateful for it for the rest of my existence. Nothing about any of this bullshit is going to change that.”
Some of the fight leaves me, but I still just want to curl up in a ball and cry for having any part in this.
Kyrie shakes her head and taps one of the large serving spoons on the tray in frustration. “This is why I don’t want to find my Central. I can’t imagine just blindly following some man away from my kids and my family and friends just because his ego gets in the way of things. It’s disgusting.”
Gryphon shrugs again and then holds out his arms, beckoning towards her until she darts around the table to hug him back. I can’t think of anything to say to her. There isn’t much that any of my Bonded could ask of me that I wouldn’t do, but I suppose that’s got more to do with trust than anything else.
I trust them all.
I trust them to make decisions for our entire group and not to act irrationally or in a selfish way without fully considering how it will affect the rest of us. I know it’s something that North struggles with a lot, thinking through every one of his moves, all day, a thousand times over until he’s sure that it’s the best one for us all. Though it’s taken me a long time to see it, I know that Gryphon holds his temper more often than not. Atlas gave up everything to be with us. I know that while it ended up being the best decision for him overall, it still was something huge to undertake at such a young age. Especially without ever having the promise of a good life or a good Bonded Group. Still, he had faith and was a good person despite everything.
Nox died for our Bonded Group.
He died for North and for us all to have the chance at a good, long life. He had no idea that my bond could bring him back like that. I will never take that sacrifice for granted.
“Give me a call if they try to contact you or if you need anything, Kyrie. Promise me. You’re too secretive about things these days. I don’t like it.”
She scoffs and pats him on the back, pulling away to nudge him with her elbow. “I’m secretive about things because I don’t need my brother sticking his nose into my business just for the sake of it. You do the same; please call me if they get their heads out of their asses or if something happens.”
My blood chills at the thought of something happening, but Gryphon simply nods and reaches out to grab the bags of food that I’ve put together. “Prepare yourself, Kyrie. I already know that this mass exodus from the Sanctuary is bound to hit the Resistance’s radar, and I have no doubt that there are going to be casualties. Before I told Mom that I was done with them, I made my peace with her too. If they don’t come back… that has to be enough for me.”
She clears her throat and nods, heading back to the kitchen after a quick detour to hug me too.
I follow Gryphon out the door without another look at any of the dining hall occupants. We walk in silence, and it’s not until their mansion comes into view for us both that I find the words to speak, my mind a whirling mess. “Do you really think something’s gonna happen to them?”
Gryphon sighs and nods, squeezing my hand a little. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. My dad is the leader of some of the most wanted TacTeam operatives, and the Resistance will attack them the moment they find a weakness. I just hope my parents are strong enough to make it through, not that they deserve it after what they said about you.”
I shake my head. “I don’t wish them dead just because they don’t like me. That really would make me a monster.”
He smirks at me again, lifting our linked hands to kiss the back of my hand sweetly. “That’s all right, the rest of us will be the monster for you. Fuck, I thought Nox was going to tear the General apart with his bare hands. Who would have thought that he would love you so hard once you got under his skin, Bonded.”
I blush and duck my face into his chest, happy when the contact is met with quiet, satisfied noises. That he loves the contact just as much as I do fills me with a deep satisfaction.
“I don’t deserve him or his love, but I’ll do my best to take care of it.”
He shakes his head back at me. “Nobody deserves it more than you, Bonded. We are the ones who aren’t worthy.”
