It’s a relief she’s not going to let this push her back into that panic spiral she was in last time.
Sage meets my eye and gives me a wry smile back, though it’s more exhausted than anything else. “It's back, isn't it? The thing that was in my head.”
I nod, pressing my hand against the glass and looking her over again as though I’ll be able to see it there under her skin somehow. “Can you feel it? Can you feel anything?”
She sighs and slumps back onto the bed, propped up on her hands and head rolling back on her shoulders as she looks at the ceiling in defeat. “No, I can't feel anything. It's only because I got put back in here that I guessed it had to be that. Did I do anything? I can't remember anything, and I don’t think there are any gaps in my memory, but—”
I cut her off before she spirals too far down that path, “No, Gryphon's bond just saw it in your head… that it's waiting in there. He thinks it wants to speak to us, and that's why it didn't fully take over. It seems to know more about it than we do.”
“If it knows more, then why isn't it saying something?” Felix murmurs to me quietly, and I side-eye him just a little.
“It’s only just woken up, and we're still trying to get the introductions out of the way. I don't think it is purposefully trying to deceive us.”
“What do you mean ‘woken up’?” Riley asks, pressing one of his hands against his forehead and the other against the glass. He looks at Sage with a mixture of sadness and longing that I'm sure is never going to change, at least, not without some deep therapy and a lot of reassurance from Sage that I'm not sure she is ready to give him yet.
Giovanna did a lot more damage to the two of them than anyone is ready to unpack.
Kieran steps up beside me and we share a look, then he glances over his shoulder at his team leader and close friend. “Take a look for yourself. If you can't see that there's been a big change in Shore, then I'm not confident in taking you on missions with us in the future.”
Even an outsider can see that there's something else going on here.
Whether the god-bond realizes we are talking about him or if it’s just decided that enough is enough, it steps forward, pressing against my back and immediately setting the rest of the room off with that behavior.
A wisp of smoke curls up my leg and wedges its way between us, but I reach a hand out. “I’m fine. It’s fine. I think he's been asleep and separated from his bond for a little too long to wake up with the ability to read the room.”
Atlas wedges himself between Felix and me once more with a respectful nod to the doctor-in-training and a wary eye at Gryphon's bond.
I have very little patience for the posturing that's happening.
I feel as though it's all at Sage’s expense, like we’re wasting precious time here while there’s a ticking time bomb in her head.
“Can you get it out of her? Can you get it out andkeepit out?”
The bond takes a breath, then his head tilts to one side again as he stares Sage down through the glass.
I'm glad she's still staring at the ceiling because even I can recognize that bearing the full weight of the god-bond's attention can be, at the very least, unsettling.
“It came here to speak to us. I can get it out once we've heard what it has to say, otherwise it will just find another path to us… perhaps one more dangerous.”
Kieran's jaw clenches but he holds his tongue, though Wick isn't so good at restraining himself. “You're happy for it to just use her like that? Would you be so happy if it was your Bonded?”
The god-bond turns to stare at him and to his credit, he only cringes a little. “There is no one strong enough to do that to my Bonded now that we're all together.”
“Which is exactly why I knew I needed to come and see you all now, as disgusting and distasteful as groveling might be. I guess we’ll all have to cower at your feet now that you’ve won.”
We all turn to Sage, her voice, but not her words, ringing through the air between us as we take in the void eyes and the god-bond in control of her body.
* * *
You would thinkafter seeing all of my Bonded taken over by the beings that live within them that seeing Sage this way wouldn't come to such a shock, but the gods within my Bonded still feel familiar to me. They still feel like theybelongto me, like I've known them forever. They are as magnetic and alluring as the men they live within.
The god-bond speaking through Sage makes my skin crawl.
My hackles rise, and every fiber of my being wants to reach inside her and yank it out.
It does not belong there, and I'm repulsed by its presence.
The way it smirks at us all is horrifying. It’s an expression I would never see on Sage’s face, one that makes her look like a completely different person. I can't contain the shudder that runs through me no matter how hard I try. I really shouldn't be giving it any extra ammo against us, but that's my best friend.
