“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 ofscheduling.”
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 haveno ideahow 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 ismorethis 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.
* * *
Punchingthe 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 averyconcerned andveryalarmed Kieran, who then involves anincrediblypissed-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 littleextra,and it just so happens that my entire Bonded Group also hasextragoing 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.”
