THE SANCTUARY HASN’T BEEN a secret for months now, not since the Resistance had attacked, so it’s not exactly a surprise that someone has once again come calling. The surprise, however, is that when I arrive at North’s offices, instead of being greeted by my Bonded, I find all three of their bonds standing there waiting for me.
Three sets of black eyes, three blank faces, and three robotic voices. All of them are beings that I am equally obsessed with, but Atlas and Gabe react to their presence about as well as can be expected.
“Oli, get behind me,” Atlas says as he tries to wrestle me back, but even though he is invincible and strong enough to move a car, I’m determined. He would never do anything that could unintentionally hurt me, so I win the fight.
“Something’s clearly happened if they’re all out, especially North’s bond. Just let me speak to them!”
Gabe looks a lot more healthy now that he has half a chicken coop and a gallon of barbeque sauce in his belly, and he merely tilts his head to the side as he takes them in. “We were just talking to the others a moment ago, why aren’t they here now?”
That’s a good question.
Gryphon’s bond, I really need to get used to calling it the Soothsayer, answers for all of them. “We recognize the newcomer. This is best dealt with by us.”
Well, that’s disturbing.
I check in with my own bond, but it has nothing but joy to give me. Joy at the sight of her beloved Bonded here and ready to make war on our behalf, ready to shed blood and destroy any Gifted dumb enough to consider being a threat to us and the life that we are building here.
“Did the vessels let you come out, or was this more of a coup?” Gabe asks carefully, and North’s bond, the Crux, answers him, though his eyes stay fixed on me.
“There is no letting. There is a god-bond outside of the gate. It’s requesting entrance into this place. It is not for the vessels to deal with.”
“That sounds like a ‘no’ to me,” says Atlas with a drop to his tone, and I wave a dismissive hand up at them.
“My bond doesn’t seem too interested though. Shall we all go down there together?”
I take a step, but the Corvus stops me, a large palm fitting over my chest. I can see Atlas’ reaction to this from the corner of my eye. He hates Nox, but he trusts his bond even less. It seems a little silly to me. If anything, he should trust it more.
It was always devoted to me and eager to covet and protect me.
“You might still be tired, Bonded. Maybe the Eternal should take care of this.”
I hate that word coming out of Nox’s mouth. I have to remind myself that it’s not him saying it. I also refuse to get huffy at the Corvus for thinking such a thing. I’m sure it comes from a good place, but I shrug.
“I feel fine. And until I need it to come out, the Eternal is happy to leave it to me. We’re on very good terms, you know.”
The Corvus cocks his head to one side as it looks me over. I smile, reaching out for a hug, and am delighted when it lets me. Both of the very human Bonded behind me make unhappy noises at all of the touching. I pull back for just a moment instead, using the opportunity to get some more information.
“Which god-bond has come to see us? Is there anything I need to know before we go down and face it?”
“We should kill it,” says the Crux, and the Soothsayer shrugs.
“It’s not happy that I broke the connection and it’s been forced to come crawling on its own two feet instead of using what belongs to us.”
Even though the words might be a little confusing, it all snaps together in my head slowly. “It’s the possession one, isn’t it? The one that took over Sage. It’s here because we wouldn’t listen to it.”
All it takes is a single nod of the Corvus’ head before I’m off, stalking over to the elevator and jabbing at the button. I’m ready to run down and open the gates myself to punch this god-bond square in the jaw before I rip its soul clean out, and no one will stop me from doing so.
That asshole almost destroyed my best friend, and I’m going to kill that motherfucker.
I SUPPOSE when I think of god-bonds, I think of tall and muscular men. I think of the handsome faces that surround me and the men who are so devastatingly attractive that I never stood a chance trying to keep myself and my bond away from them. I think of the paragon of beauty and grace and desire.
I certainly do not think of middle-aged men with a receding hairline and a severe underbite.
“That’s really him? That’s the guy who infiltrated Sage’s head and killed Dara, who came close to ruining my best friend’s life and definitely her peace of mind? I almost feel bad for wanting to punch him,” I snark.
The god-bonds don’t react to my words at all, but Gabe howls with laughter, clutching at his belly dramatically. “You’re struggling to comprehend that he is a god-bond because he’s not hot enough?”
Atlas scowls at Gabe for a second before a shit-eating grin creeps over his face, and I have to smother the urge to throw hands at the two of them.
“I’d be more concerned if you did think they were hot,” Atlas snarks back, and it’s weird not having one of the other three chime in. I have to remember that they’re probably in there somewhere biting their tongues and waiting for the moment that they can give me hell about this.
You won’t have to wait for long. Nox’s voice drifts through to me, and I startle as I glance over, but his bond is still in control. We’re all standing in one of the control rooms, watching the god-bond on the large monitor, everyone just waiting for something, anything, to happen.
It’s making my skin itch.
Are you okay in there? I send back.
We’re all fine, don’t worry. I’m interested to see what they choose to do here. There’s been a lot of talk of how powerful and incredible they are but not a whole lot of substance yet. I want to know what they will do for you.
That’s a little bit sweet from him, and I duck my head. Naturally, Gabe and Atlas both notice.
“It’s Nox, isn’t it?” Atlas says in a wary voice. “That’s definitely a Nox smile.”
I choke back a laugh because part of me wouldn’t believe that I had a Nox smile a few months ago, but I can already feel it on my face, so I’m not going to argue with him about it.
“He’s keeping an eye on everything. I don’t know how much North and Gryphon can see, but he’s here to watch everything.”
“Well, that’s what North said, wasn’t it? That Nox always got along with his. I only hope that someday I can get along with mine that well,” Gabe says.
“How do you get along well with a dragon?” Atlas says as we watch the monitor together, waiting for the god-bonds to make a move. It’s like a very long, very intense game of chicken. Everyone is waiting for someone to do something worth reacting to.
“It only ever talks to me when Oli is around. Even then, it’s just to make the claim over her. It doesn’t really have opinions like the rest.”
Atlas nods slowly, thinking it over, and Gabe shrugs at him. “What’s yours like? Have you spoken to it yet?”
“Mine’s pretty much the same, except it doesn’t like a lot of things… like people being around Oli. In the cafeteria, it pretty much wanted to try to tear everybody to pieces.”
I give him a look, but Gabe chuckles under his breath. “The dragon wants to eat them. I guess I’m expecting that sort of reaction from all of them.”
Atlas nods again and then turns to me. “Sweetness, what does the terrifying and cantankerous Soul Rending god-bond say to you?”
“During the day? It’s sleeping. I asked a little bit to see if it wanted to come out now and deal with this situation, but it was more than happy leaving everyone else to it. It came out when I was with Gryphon’s bond and Nox, but only to share the space with me,” I say, color still staining my cheeks even though everybody knew exactly what was going on and they’re all perfectly aware of how I spend most of my evenings with my Bonded.
I clear my throat and continue, “It mostly lets me run the show as long as I’m not in danger. I think it’s letting me get comfortable with all of the god-bonds and the changes that have happened. I think maybe once things settle down a bit, we’ll have to come up with some sort of scheduling.”
The word tastes weird in my mouth, and Gabe scoffs at me again. “So you’ll have the body Monday through Wednesday one week, and then swapsies for the next?”
I groan and slap a hand over my face. “Well, I don’t know! I have no idea how any of this works. To be honest, I don’t think the god-bonds do either. I get the idea that none of us ever survived long enough to have to worry about this sort of thing. Very few vessels matched up, I know that for sure, thanks to my bond.”
Atlas leans toward the monitor, staring at it a little closer as the man there cocks his head at us. It takes a second to remember that he’s not staring at us the way we’re staring at him. All he can see is a camera out there as he waits for us to do something.
Atlas scowls again and murmurs quietly to us both, “What things have stayed the same? Does your bond remember anything or tell you much about that sort of thing? Or is it just from Nox’s research that you know about this?”
I stop for a moment and take a breath, letting whatever information I might have squirreled away in my head without really knowing it come to the forefront. I find there’s a lot more there than I originally thought. “North and Nox are always brothers. Every cycle, they come together. They’ve always been as loyal to each other as they have been to me. I think this has been the first cycle that Nox has… struggled with that.”
I’m careful with how I word that so I don’t let anything slip. I can feel Nox in my head still, and he’s not reacting to anything that I’ve said. Clearly, I haven’t stepped over any boundaries here. “The dragon takes the longest to cycle. The Cleaver usually comes alone, and the Soothsayer… the Soothsayer has come with others a few times. We’ve gotten close before, close enough that it gave us hope we would make it someday. That’s it. That’s all I’ve gotten. Do you guys know anything?”
Gabe takes a breath the same way that I had, like he’s trying to find the secrets hidden within himself, but he shakes his head. “The dragon doesn’t give me anything. It’s really not interested in anything but you.”
Atlas is quiet for a moment. “My god-bond is more this time. I can feel it flexing in my mind and coming to terms with how much more we are. I think it’s because the Bonded Group has been completed. There’s just no limit to the power this time.”
No limit.
As the Crux finally steps forward and shadows spill from his body, taking form around us as he prepares to go down and let the god-bond in, I hope that we’re right and that there is no limit.
I get the feeling we’re going to need all the help we can get.
PUNCHING the god-bond right in the jaw is just as incredible as I thought it would be, and the sound of it dislocating is like music to my ears.
I would’ve swung at him again, if Atlas hadn’t stopped me, planting himself between me and the god-bond. The Soothsayer had taken over his mind and forced his compliance to make sure he didn’t try to swing back at me, both of them disapproving of my actions in different ways.
I might be a cocky bitch at this moment, but I feel like I could take the little weasel.
The Corvus and the Crux get him moving into one of the Tac Training Center’s interrogation rooms without a word between them. Even when the Soothsayer eases up the mind control to test the god-bond, it doesn’t attempt to fight them or speak to them at all. It just complies as the shadows wrap around its body and move it to where we need it to go.
The hardest part is doing all of this without the entire Sanctuary knowing what’s going on.
That involves telling a very concerned and very alarmed Kieran, who then involves an incredibly pissed-off Vivian.
I almost see why the Tac personnel are scared of him.
“And when exactly were you planning on telling us that all of you have these eyes now,” he snaps, and I throw him one of my most shit-eating grins to deflect from the ‘oh dear God’ of the situation.
“It was a need-to-know basis, and until we had a handle on things you just… didn’t need to know. But now that we’ve discovered that there are more of those things out there—”
“Hold up! Things?” he asks, raising a large palm at me that instantly sets Atlas on edge, though clearly Vivian wasn’t going to do anything about it.
“So we all know that my bond is a little extra, and it just so happens that my entire Bonded Group also has extra going on with their bonds.”
“What the hell does extra mean, Fallows?”
“Again, you remember that there are certain rules that have to be followed when it comes to my bond? Their bonds are all the same. I highly suggest lowering your tone around me, especially with… wait, no, they’re all a bit psycho about me. Anyway, I’m more than happy to have all of the conversations in the world with you about it, except we do have one of these bonds here with us, one that is capable of hacking into people’s brains and forcing them to kill people. So we should probably save the chitchat for a later date.”
Vivian stares at me for a second as though I’m the dumbest human being on Earth before he curses viciously under his breath and starts barking orders into his walkie-talkie, moving operatives around while Kieran gets Sawyer on the phone to have the cameras turned off.
Gabe leans over to murmur into my ear, “North and Gryphon aren’t going to be happy with this.”
I shrug back. “I’m not sure what exactly I’m supposed to do about it. I only told the two people that all of us trust anyway, so they’re just gonna have to get over it.”
Strong words that I hope I don’t regret.
When we have the god-bond sitting in the interrogation room, no one in the Sanctuary any wiser, Kieran and Vivian both insist on sitting in the viewing room to watch the interaction as well. I try to persuade them to leave, but neither of them are having it.
“I don’t even want you in there,” Kieran snaps, gesturing a hand at Gryphon’s black eyes. “And I’m fairly certain that Shore would also not want you in there. If North wakes up and catches wind of any of this, he’s going to go on a full shadow warpath that will scorch the goddamn earth. We can toss a coin to figure out how Nox is going to feel about it.”
I don’t need to.
Nox is the one who told me to go and speak to Kieran and Vivian about it in the first place, but I’m being very closed-mouth about that. It does make me worry how North is going to react to all of this, enough that the tension bleeds through the mind connection, and Nox is quick to reassure me.
He’s not going to be angry at you, Oleander. Whatever happens, I will deal with it. We need the god-bonds to take care of this quietly now for us. Everything else can be sorted out. If you want to be in the room with the god-bond as well, you are more than welcome. The Corvus has already assured me that he will keep you safe, and you can always take Azrael in there with you.
As more of a reassurance to Kieran than myself, I do let the shadow pup down from behind my ear, loving on him for a moment before we step into the room with the rest of my Bonded Group.
Atlas stays close to my side as always, but the god-bond is very careful about where he’s looking, never once focusing on me. I feel sort of weird about it until he finally speaks.
“I mean the Eternal no harm. If it’s going to be here in the room with us, please know that and refrain from killing me before you’ve heard what I have to say.”
So it’s a respect thing, I’m sure, even if it does sort of make me feel as though I’m diseased. But with one glance, I see the look on the Crux and the Soothsayer’s faces right now and that sort of excuses it, because I’m not sure how either of them makes a blank face look quite so aggressive, but damn, are they good at it.
The Corvus says, “We’ve already heard what you have to say. You’re here because your Bonded is dead. You chose the wrong side.”
The god-bond cocks its head, and even though I should probably stay out of this, I find myself compelled to ask, “So, what’s your name? What do you do, other than attempt to ruin a Gifted girl’s life by controlling her and framing her for a murder she had nothing to do with?”
Its eyes dart around me again before it shrugs. “My vessel’s name was Gene; you can call me that.”
I feel an itch of irritation, but it answers me before I can snap something back. “We don’t cycle here often enough to have the same sort of legacies that you do. None of us are strong enough to cycle like you. Well, you lot and Pain.”
Pain.
Not very creative and easy to figure out which god-bond that is.
“So why exactly did you pick Pain? What did it offer you to be on its side?”
It stares at Atlas for a moment before it answers. “It offered me nothing. Pain found me after my Bonded was already dead. Instead of just killing me as well, it decided to use me. That’s what happens to the small god-bonds when the others come out to play.”
He sounds miserable and jaded, but I’m not going to be so easy to fool. This could all just be a game to him, a way to gain even a tiny bit of our trust to use against us.
I won’t let him hurt us.
Gabe looks at me and then says, disbelief dripping from his words, “So you were just used by the pain god to get them in here? That’s it? You really think that you could come and tell us that, and we’d just help you?”
The Crux turns to look at me, its eyes bright and unreadable, but my heart skips a beat in my chest all the same. When he looks at me, I feel the same way I had back when we’d first met in that perfectly put-together bathroom. Like he’s obsessed with me. Like he’s waited all eternity for us to be together again, like we’re two celestial beings in orbit, just waiting to finally collide.
He speaks, his voice a powerful and commanding sound. “You’ve come here to die. Any god-bond is a danger to my Eternal, and I won’t wait for you to become a threat before I kill you.”
I get all sorts of fluttery feelings at him calling me his Eternal.
The god-bond turns to look at me finally before it answers with a new tone to his voice, one laced with respect and deference. “You’ve helped me once before. I was hoping you’d remember that and help me again. If I’m wrong and I die… Well, I guess I’ll just remember that for the next life.”
