I WASN’T EXPECTING that the shift into the dragon and allowing the god-bond to take control would sap so much of my energy and leave me feeling so fucking awful. Even after a full eighteen hours of sleep, my stomach is still tender and my head feels as though it’s full of sand, slowing down my brain and making me feel like death itself. If we’re attacked right now, I’m going to struggle to be of any help to my Bonded, and that’s not fucking good enough.
I need to pull it together.
The streets of the Sanctuary are busy with bodies, dozens of workmen carting supplies to and from the loading zones. Now that my uncle and my cousins have taken over the everyday projects, I can see progress on the streets around us, and our time away has made the changes dramatic. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were able to start offering single homes to Bonded Groups in the coming weeks.
I wave and greet as many of the workers as I can as I make my way down to the dining hall. A few of my cousins give me a curious look at the state I’m in. I don’t exactly want to tell any of them that I’m having indigestion problems from devouring Resistance soldiers whole. There’s a few TacTeam personnel who duck away so that they don’t have to meet my eye, so there’s a good chance that word has already spread.
I don’t care about any of that shit.
The only people I care about are the ones that I was protecting that day. As I round the corner, the dining hall coming into view, I find my Bonded standing outside of it, laughing with Sage. Her head is thrown back, and the silver glory of her hair is shining in the morning sun. It’s brighter now than it’s ever been before, something I know she is super self-conscious about, but it’s like a beacon calling out to me. I can’t help but break into a jog to get over to her as quickly as possible. The grin she’s giving Sage is a sight for the weariest of eyes—stunning—but the way that her eyes light up and her entire body turns towards me as she spots me making my way over to her has my heart thumping in my chest.
It’s still a miracle to me that she loves me as much as I love her, that we both see something in one another that is so unique and precious that it’s worth fighting for no matter how many sore stomachs and days I might have to sleep away to get us there.
“I’m surprised you’re up. I was expecting you to laze the entire day away,” Atlas says with a slap on my shoulder as I walk straight past him to my Bonded.
She giggles as I lift her up into my arms, spinning her around a little even as she thumps a fist onto my chest in pretend outrage.
“We’re in public. North will have a cow!” she mutters under her breath, but I kiss her all the same, answering her in our mind connection.
What do I care if everyone here knows how much I love my Bonded?
Oli melts into the kiss, into my arms, and into me in that same addictive way she always does. I forget about the pounding in my head and the way that my stomach is still churning, the burn of the bile up my throat that I woke up with that still hasn’t quite eased away. Every last one of the physical complaints I have just disappear. I don’t care how sappy it sounds, I could take on all of the Resistance single-handedly as long as I come back to my Bonded like this every time.
This invincible feeling is how Atlas must feel with his Gift.
The dragon wakes from where it’s been slumbering inside my chest to make its own opinions clear to me at having her back again, everything boiling down to a single word.
Mine.
“We’re just going to grab lunch for everyone,” Oli says as she finally wiggles out of my arms and back onto her feet.
I scowl, a little unhappy at even the slightest of distances between us, but she tucks herself into my side and sighs happily when I sling my arm over her shoulder to keep her there.
I don’t feel like sharing nicely today.
Atlas gives me a knowing look, but I must look just about as shitty as I feel because he doesn’t say a word about it. He barely looks bothered by it all as he opens the dining hall’s door and ushers us in.
It’s busy in here today, but with the Sanctuary growing in numbers by the day, I’m not surprised to see it. Every table is occupied, most to capacity, and I’m glad to see there’s a lot of laughing and general happiness in the room. It’s a relief, after months of tension and unease, that families and friends are together here in safety.
It’s the whole damn point of the place.
Oli is tense under my arm, enough so that I have to fight my urges to curl around her and snarl at everyone, as well as the dragon’s urges within me to shift and consume them all for upsetting her like this. I’m not usually hot-tempered, but it takes three deep breaths before I feel like myself again. No one attempts to speak to us or approach us in any way. Aside from a few curious looks, the room mostly just acts as though they haven’t noticed that we’ve walked in.
I know damn well they all know we’re here, but I’ll take it.
Atlas forms a human wall between the tables and our Bonded, his shoulders wide enough to mostly cover us both, and Felix does the same with Sage, who stays close to Oli’s side.
“We should have called ahead and gotten something put aside for us,” Sage mutters, and Oli shrugs back.
“We shouldn’t have to. We should be able to come down and eat, just the same as everyone else, without having to worry about all of this.”
I glance around again and then murmur back to them both quietly, “Nobody’s really… doing much though, are they? We might be overreacting here.”
Oli shoots me a look and then flicks a hand in the direction of the tables a little too aggressively, and some of the Gifted there take notice, packing away their plates and fleeing.
“They’re all staring at you. You do realize that, right? I don’t give a shit what they think about me, but they’re all staring at the guy who can turn into a dragon and eat people. I think they’re used to me and the Dravens by now, but you walking in here looking a little green around the edges has them all believing that the rumors are true.”
“Which they are,” Sage pipes in helpfully, glaring at one of the council members who dares to get a little too close to her.
She’s being protective of Oli because we all know how much the council has rallied against my Bonded, but Oli’s too busy staring down a table full of our ex-classmates from Draven, the only ones with the guts to point and whisper openly at us all.
Idiots.
I will probably regret it later when North reams me for it, but I use a finger to tip Oli’s head back and press my lips to hers. “I don’t give a shit about petty jealousies, Bonded. Let them gossip and whisper all they like. It still doesn’t change the fact that none of them could survive without us doing all the hard work.”
She hums happily under her breath, and we approach the large opening to the kitchens. It’s set up like a buffet, except that the doorway is large enough that we can see into where the chef is cooking. Oli brightens as she leans forward in my arms, away from me. I would be a little more bothered about it except then I see why.
“Holy shit, you look like death, Ardern,” says Kyrie as she slides a huge, hot plate of chicken wings onto the buffet and pulls a rag out of her pocket, wiping her hands as she walks around to us.
She’s covered in flour and grease from the kitchens but has a big grin across her face. I can tell she has found her happy place in the Sanctuary. She always did love running the cafe, so I’m not surprised that this is where she has come to contribute here.
“I ate something that isn’t agreeing with me,” I say with a smirk and a wink, listening to the sounds of disgust from the tables behind us with an evil cackle.
Atlas rolls his eyes at me, but Oli laughs along with me before pulling a face. “Yeah, they’re not exactly tasty. Well, their souls aren’t, at least. I’ve never tried the rest of them before.”
Kyrie blows out a breath and shakes her head as she looks up towards the ceiling. “It’s going to take some getting used to listening to you lot talk so casually about that sort of thing. No wonder everybody around here looks like they’re going to blow a fuse.”
Oli looks around with a playful smirk before shrugging. “Hey, I brought the nice Bonded in with me today. If I was really planning on ruining everyone’s lives, I would have brought one of the other three.”
Atlas scoffs under his breath before murmuring, “You’d have brought Nox, and then we would get to see just how quickly everybody here would change their fucking tunes.”
More tables start to discreetly vacate around us, and Kyrie shakes her head at our antics.
“It’s definitely weird to see the two of you getting along. But I have to say, I’m glad. You guys were stressing my brother into an early grave. I also won a good amount of money off of Black for that, so I owe you a drink. Just don’t tell North I was supplying booze to his underage Bonded,” she says again, cackling.
Oli just grins back at her, batting her eyelashes as she snarks back with all of her trademark sass. I enjoy the sound of it all, but the smell of the wings finally hits my nostrils and makes my stomach clench and turn. I’m both hungry and sick to my stomach. I’m not sure anything I eat will actually stay down, but goddammit, if I’m not willing to give it a try.
Kyrie turns on her heel and grabs a takeout container, shoveling mounds of chicken into it before stabbing a fork into the mess and waving it in my direction. “Eat this before you pass out. I’ve spent enough time around TacTeam operatives to know what hangry looks like, and I’m not going to be picking you up off of this floor anytime soon. Hell, I don’t think I could manage it.”
Oli giggles and ducks out from underneath my arm to free it up, and I scowl at Kyrie for taking her away from me. But as the smell hits my nostrils again, I can’t deny that I need it.
I clear the entire tub in under a minute.
Felix’s eyebrows hit his hairline, ever the physician as he starts mumbling to me about indigestion problems and the ramifications of scarfing this down so quickly. Sage pretends to make gagging noises behind her hand.
“At least take a breath in between bites,” she grumbles.
I barely listen to any of them as I stalk back over to the buffet and refill the takeout container. Oli laughs along with something that Kyrie has said and walks over to join me, as though she can’t stand to be any further away from me than I want her to be, grabbing more to-go containers and filling them up for the rest of our Bonded Group and our friends.
Felix grabs bags to start packing away the containers in, but all I can think about is shoveling more food into my stomach, the sickness finally easing away. When I get to my fourth helping, I finally start slowing down a little, still eating but taking breaths in between each forkful.
Kyrie raises an eyebrow in my direction. “Do I need to go and put another flock of chickens on for you? Or are you almost full, kid? Who would have thought that eating the enemy could make you hungry instead of filling you up?”
I shrug and take the bottle of water that Oli offers me, draining it in one go before I answer. “It was probably the two-day nap I took that cleared the mountain, but really, who’s counting?”
When we get back to the Benson’s house, I notice the tension in the air straightaway coming from Sage’s newest Bonded. I don’t remember Wick growing up near us, but he was one of the Lower Tier families anyway, so it makes sense. My parents weren’t particularly concerned about where people ranked in our society, but the fact of the matter is that if you weren’t invited to the same parties and your kids didn’t go to the same schools, there just wasn’t much opportunity for mingling.
He’s polite enough to Oli, though he looks at Atlas and I just a little too calculatingly for my liking, as though he is assessing our every move. He’s lucky he’s doing it behind Oli’s back or her bond would have come out by now to shut that shit right down. I share a look with Atlas, but he only shrugs, unconcerned about doing anything about it right now. He’s right though, if it’s not affecting our Bonded, it’s just not worth chasing. If it was affecting Sage, she would have told Oli by now, I’m sure.
Sawyer and Gray both come to the table to thank us for bringing them food before getting enough for their Bonded and the small boy sitting on the couch and heading back down there to eat. There isn’t enough room for all of us at the table anyways, and they all seem very comfortable in their little bubbles.
I suppose sharing a house like this has taught them how to live in close quarters without being involved in every little thing together. I am so fucking grateful we don’t have to deal with that. Oli reaches out through the mind connection to see if any of the other Bonded wants something to eat, to join us or to have her deliver to them. North and Gryphon both answer her almost immediately to say they will meet us back at the house for dinner later instead.
Nox doesn’t reply.
When Oli doesn’t seem too concerned about it, I guess that he did so privately with her instead of to all of us, something I assume he does more often than not. Things might be going well enough between the two of them now, but Nox has never been one to be open about where he is and what he’s up to. I doubt that will ever change.
For once, Atlas doesn’t seem so worried about it either.
We sit through the meal together, Atlas and I watching Oli as she watches Sage who is watching Wick and Felix bicker with one another.
It’s exhausting just to see.
Riley had grabbed a plate for himself and then disappeared into one of the bedrooms, still looking like a corpse, but everyone else seems less worried about it now, so I’m sure he’s not about to drop dead. We make it through the entire meal and are about to start doing dishes when Nox’s voice cuts through our heads.
Don’t react. Don’t panic or make a scene. Excuse yourselves and slowly make your way over to North’s offices.
I place my hand on Oli’s back as I take her plate, putting it in the dishwasher with my own as I try not to look concerned or rushed. Atlas meets my eye with a nod, moving over to Oli as we smile and make excuses for leaving already.
He checks his phone and quietly moves Oli out of the room after she gives Sage a quick squeeze and promises to call her later.
We do all of this in a matter of minutes, but it feels like hours before I’m able to take a deep breath and shoot Atlas a look without worrying that anyone else will see it. Oli ignores us both completely, reaching out to Nox within all our hearing as she finally lets the panic she’s feeling show.
What’s happened? I know no one’s hurt, but what is it?
North sends through a soothing feeling to her, but it’s Gryphon who answers the question.
Someone has arrived at the gate.
