EVERYTHING IS BURNING.
The smoke and ash in my nose burns all the way down my throat, and my skin is hot and tight like it’s melting straight off of my bones. My chest feels as though I’ve swallowed hot coals, and everything is burning.
Everything is burning.
“Open your eyes, Bonded. You’re really starting to freak us out here,” Gryphon murmurs, and there are hands against my throat.
I want to open my eyes, but they feel sealed shut, as though maybe my skin really is melting and it’s melted right off of my face. What if it slipped away so that I couldn’t open my eyes even if I tried?
“Don’t be so dramatic. I can see your face right now, and it’s as beautiful as ever. Just open your eyes, Bonded. I need to see them, just to be sure.”
“If you can hear her, then she’s clearly fine,” Nox drawls, and though North snaps back at him, the hands slowly stroking my hair stay gentle and soft.
“Will you ever take anything seriously? How are you not fucking terrified?”
I hear footsteps, and then more hands are on me, these ones on my wrist as though Nox is taking my pulse. They already know that I’m alive, clearly.
“Just because devotion looks like two different things doesn’t mean they’re any different. You covet her power and want to protect her so much that she never has to use it. I enjoy watching her eat god-bonds alive.”
Gryphon scoffs at them both, leaning forward to press our foreheads together as we have on the battlefield before. His breath fans over my skin, and even with how much pain is coursing through my body, I can still feel the sensation and enjoy it.
It must not be so bad.
“Open your eyes, Bonded,” he murmurs again, and this time, I finally find the strength to let them flutter open.
Everything hurts.
I can’t say it out loud; my mouth won’t work. My throat is too dry to even consider speaking, but Gryphon nods, rubbing our noses together as he does.
“I know. I’ll get you home, Bonded, the second the Draconis and the Cleaver are finished hacking everyone to pieces out there.”
My eyes flare open a little wider, the closest I can get to startling in my current state, and a lazy grin slides over Gryphon’s face. “You dealt with the god-bond, and its grand plan of murdering us all and consuming our Gifts has thoroughly gone to shit. It had the last of the big Resistance camps here, bursting full of soldiers ready to back it up and start a new blood-soaked revolution. I don’t think any of them were truly prepared to face the Draconis and the Cleaver. They’re both making a real mess.”
I blink again and swallow, wincing at the dryness of my mouth, but Gryphon only nods again, reading every last one of my questions and concerns about his words. “The Draconis went out there first, and the Cleaver eventually followed. We have the shadows out there helping as well, but we’re getting ready to move you home. You did what you needed to do.”
I don’t remember doing it.
Not the ripping the soul out part, and certainly not the consuming it, which I guess is a blessing in disguise considering how much I hate it. I feel as though my entire body has been flayed open, so there’s no doubt that I consumed the soul. Being knocked out never felt like this.
I feel as though there’s nothing good left inside of me.
There’s a screeching noise, and North curses under his breath, his hands soft as they stroke my hair one last time before he gets up and checks the flaps of the tent again.
Nox stays with me, but his eyes flash, so I know that he’s checking in with his shadows as he keeps an eye on what’s happening out there.
Gryphon helps me sit up, his fingers stroking over my neck as he checks in with me again. “We had to take out the Shields ourselves to let the rest of our personnel in, but I’m pretty sure Gabe just ate them. Quick, effective—”
“Disgusting,” Nox interrupts with a scrunch of his nose. “He’s going to be a mess once we get him home after all of this.”
I want to shrug, because I’m also going to be a mess. No matter how much power I had saved for this moment, it had still come close to taking me out, I think. I can feel that they’re sharing power with me, but still… it’s not enough.
Gryphon scowls at me, pressing a hand on my forehead, and his eyes flash to black again. “Don’t say stuff like that. You were nowhere near death’s door. If you were, one of us would have chased after you by now to pull you back. Do you need Felix? I will go and pry him from Kieran’s side if you feel that it’s necessary, or should I let the Soothsayer back out instead?”
I do love the Soothsayer dearly, but right now, feeling as exposed and in pain as I do, I just want the comfort of my Bonded. All of them together with me in a giant bed, naked bodies driving into mine as we share power. I want soft stroking hands, quiet murmurs, and no one leaving to go and do a million important things because nothing is more important than that for a little while.
Gryphon’s eyes flash again and he nods slightly. “The moment I can get that dragon back here, we’ll go home and do exactly that.”
Nox, whose eyes have been slowly drifting between the two of us, takes a moment to point out the obvious. “We can’t just leave the Tac operatives here to be slaughtered without us. The Draconis and the Cleaver are doing well out there, but we’re nowhere near ready to leave yet. It would be going quicker if we were willing to go out there and help, but… we needed you awake first.”
Gryphon curses under his breath again, pulling away from me as he points to the doorway. “Then you’d better get your shadows to work a bit faster, because she needs to go home and heal up from all of this. I am done denying my Bonded what she wants and needs because of Resistance bullshit. That part of my life is over with now.”
Nox rolls his eyes back and snaps, “Until the next god-bond wakes up and we have to hunt it down. This is only over for now, but we’ll be hunting again until there are none of them left.”
It sounds a bit like a dream. No more Resistance, no more gods, no more anything getting in the way of our lives. That sounds like literal heaven, so my brain has trouble processing if it is even a remote possibility.
As they argue, I keep my eyes on North while he watches the area outside of the tent flap, his body tense and his eyes voided out as he directs the shadows around us. My hands shake a little as I try to rationalize the emptiness inside of me, but there’s no denying the weakness that I’m filled with. It isn’t just tearing out the soul of the god that has done this, letting it into my mind to knock me out for our plan has also taken its toll.
I’m facing the prospect of a long recovery back at the Sanctuary, and I find myself frustrated before that even starts. I don’t want to have to lie around in bed. I don’t want to have to miss out on anything else, and I certainly don’t want to worry my Bonded the way that I know they will.
I cast out my net of power.
They all feel it and the bickering stops, their eyes all shifting to me. I feel the Cleaver and the Draconis where they’re working. I feel all of the Resistance who are still alive and fighting, as well as our own TacTeam personnel, who are outnumbered in a big way. None of my Bonded had pointed this out to me yet, secure in the fact that the Cleaver and the Draconis are a thousand times more powerful than any of those Resistance grunts, but Nox wasn’t wrong.
We’ll be here for hours if it’s just the two of them fighting.
I already know that the others joining in isn’t a possibility. None of them are going to let their god-bonds take over and do what needs to be done, not with how weak I’m feeling.
I turn my head to face North, meeting his eyes, and I find myself asking him the same moral question that I have asked him before, the one that nags at me the most.
“There’s no saving them, is there?”
He stares back at me without having to ask for clarification, and he slowly shakes his head. “I’ve been doing this a long time, Bonded. Once they take in the Resistance propaganda, they’re poisoned by it. We’ve poured resources into trying to rehabilitate, but so far we have only had three separate cases of people being able to get away from the Resistance, and the fact of the matter is… none of them chose the Resistance in the first place.”
My eyebrows creep up my forehead, and a lopsided smile stretches across his face. “Atlas, Aurelia, and Jericho. All three of them were born into the Resistance; all three of them saw no other options. The moment they were given some, they walked away. These people chose to be here. These people are beyond saving.”
I nod my head slightly and then for what I hope is the last time it will ever be required, I pull the souls out of hundreds of Resistance soldiers all at once, pulling their power into me and filling my energy reserves back up.
I take it into myself, and I let it restore me. The light and the energy buzzes down my limbs, filling my lungs like a gasp, my blood coursing through my body as my heart races.
It fills me up so quickly that I begin to push the power out to my Bonded as well, but each of them stops me.
“We don’t need it, Bonded. Take it for yourself,” Gryphon murmurs to me quietly, and I let my eyes drift shut as the power settles within me.
There is a whooshing sound of wings beating against the air and then a thump as a body lands. The doorway of the tent comes open, and North is forced backwards as the Draconis’ head pushes through, filling up the space with the sheer size of him.
I smile and reach out a hand to pat his velvety soft nose, my skin coming away with blood from his battles, and Nox makes a sound of disgust in the back of his throat.
I ignore it and instead murmur to my beloved Bonded, “Thank you. I’m feeling a lot better now. You can let Gabe come back, if you want to. It might be easier to get him home if he’s a bit smaller.”
It snorts and snuffles under its breath as though it is unhappy at the idea, but with a simple shake of its head, it slowly retreats. Then we hear the telltale snapping and crunching sounds of Gabe shifting back.
There’s footsteps around us and North meets my eye for a moment longer, nodding before he steps back out to start directing the Tac personnel, surveying the hundreds of dead bodies left behind.
Gabe stumbles into the tent, naked, sweaty,
and blood-soaked. His skin has turned an ashy-green color as his stomach protests the feasting of his god-bond.
Gryphon takes one look at him, shrugging off his jacket to hand over, and says, “Try not to vomit in here. If you’re going to puke, head back out.”
Gabe shrugs the jacket on, checking that it covers him all the way down to the knees before he clamps a hand across his mouth and mumbles from behind it, “Half of the Tac personnel are women, and I thought Oli would lose it if I was out there naked. I’ll try and keep it down.”
Instantly, I want to fuss after him, but he shakes his head at me. “It’s getting easier. Don’t worry about me, Bonded. Let’s just get you home safely.”
There’s more sounds of boots outside crunching as though someone is running, and then the flap of the tent opens again, revealing Atlas. He looks as though he’s about to pass out from fear until he sees me, relief sweeping over his features as he stumbles towards me.
“You took way too long to wake up that time, Bonded. Let’s not do that again.”
I shake my head at them all, reaching my arms up so that Atlas can help me to my feet, and then I get one around him and the other around Gabe, holding them both close to me. My bond tugs in my chest, chiming in on how it feels about all of this, and I let my eyes slip shut to hear it out.
They did well. Take us home to rest, girl, my bond whispers to me. You fought bravely. They all did. Rest so we can wake up in the new world, a world built just for us that no one can take away this time.
I WAKE up naked from the waist up, lying on North’s bare chest, and I have a déjà vu moment, one where my heart stops and I think that maybe the last few months have been a dream.
The last time I woke up like this, his arms banded around me and my legs wrapped around his waist even in sleep, I found myself in his office back at the Draven mansion with the councilors in the room with us. North was snarling viciously that they dared to question him while I was hurt in such a way. I was taking the power that I needed directly from him, that healing energy seeping through his skin and into mine.
It was an exhausting and terrifying moment for me. I didn’t remember how I had gotten there or what could possibly have transpired between when my bond had taken over and when I was woke up that would make North hold me in such a way. I remember the intimate way his hands cradled my thighs protectively, every inch of him curved towards me as though he was sheltering me.
I desperately wanted it.
I was so sure that it was some cruel trick to break me open just a little more, to dangle something I wanted over my head just to rip it away again. I feel that same echo now. I remember the Pain god’s death and the destruction of the Resistance camp. If those moments were just a dream… I think I’ll break right open.
“You’re awake, Bonded,” North murmurs quietly in my ear, and I nod, but I keep my eyes shut, leaning further into him to press my nose against his neck.
His skin burns against mine, and his hands pull me in closer until I struggle to breathe under the pressure, but it is so perfect that I would happily suffocate here.
“That’s a little bit dramatic. Ease up, North,” Gryphon drawls, and I finally open an eye to look around the room at them.
We’re home, in the Sanctuary, in the kitchen of our perfect house, for some reason, but it is just my Bonded Group. I find them all in some state of undress as they peel their Tac uniforms away from themselves. They inhale the food that’s in front of us as though they’re starving to death. The only one not doing so is Gabe, who looks as though he is trying not to vomit all over himself.
I scowl at him, but Gryphon shrugs at me. “He won’t go to bed. We got a gallon of antacid into him, but he said he’s not going to bed until you are, so he’s just going to have to wait until North is ready to give you up.”
North cuts in, “Which is never. The power transfer is still happening, so he can either give up and go to bed, or he can wait.”
The scowl stays on my face, but I lean forward to press my nose back into North’s neck, sighing happily under my breath as I soak in not only his power but his calmness, his soothing energy, and the way that he is completely calm and confident.
A phone rings, and when I wince and bury myself a little closer, North snaps, “Turn it off. We already told them they can wait until Oleander is feeling better.”
Footsteps approach and then Nox drawls, “Give it to me. I’ll answer it.”
I almost feel sorry for whoever is on the other end of the line, but I’m wiped out. This feels different to the Wasteland though, a different sort of tired. I feel like a nap will fix this, just a regular one.
“Are you hungry, my Bonded? I have plain food if your stomach isn’t feeling up to much, or there’s a salmon risotto if you want some comfort food instead.”
I’m hungry but definitely not for that, so instead of answering, I wriggle in his arms a little, pressing myself into him and lengthening my spine, almost purring when his hands trace down my back exactly how I hoped they would.
“You know the best way to power up, right?” I murmur to him quietly under my breath, and his answering chuckle sends goosebumps bursting over my skin.
“I would never say no to my Bonded. I’ll never have to now, either,” North says with a low drawl, his hands cupping my ass as he stands up, taking me with him as easily. “Whatever my Bonded wants.”
As he walks me down the hallway, the chorus of voices behind us is loud as the rest of our Bonded Group finishes eating, getting ready to follow us to bed. There’s no rush in any of them, no urgency, and it finally hits me that this moment is real.
We did it.
The god-bonds are gone, the Resistance is dealt with for now, and there’s no one left to chase after us. Sure, there’s probably some left that we’ll need to deal with, and our Bonded Group is always going to attract negative attention, but we achieved the impossible; and now, we’re free.
I press my face back into North’s shoulder, rubbing myself against him instinctively as he kicks open the door to my bedroom and nudges it shut behind him. I’m sure if there were a lock on it, he’d be barricading us in right now, and I want to laugh at his possessive nature but instead, I press a kiss against his lips.
He hums appreciatively under his breath, deepening it the moment he can as his hands peel away my clothes. He maps out all of the little bumps and bruises on my skin, most of them from my own clumsy nature, and I shudder as his lips touch them all.
I shouldn’t be distracted so easily. I should ask more questions, hear more about what is going on in the Sanctuary. I should ask about Kieran and Sage; did Felix get him healed up? How are Adella and Unser doing—
“I will put you over my knee and have you screaming if you can’t switch that brain off yourself, Bonded. Everyone is fine. Everything is fine. The only thing we have left to worry about now is how many times I can make you come tonight before I have to share you, so focus on me.”
He punctuates this demand with two fingers plunging straight into my pussy, so I have zero options except to give him my full attention.
I hope his obsession with me never ends.
