“That I have no bond?”
The fae in the room, including my aunt, all exchange shocked glances, like I’ve just uttered a gross expletive.
“Bliss, that’s not possible,” my aunt says, coming to place her hand on my shoulder. “Not all fae find their bond in their lifetime, it’s true, but every fae has a bond.”
“Not Made fae.” It comes out before I can stop myself. I know I’m not a Made fae, but what if there are also some Born fae that don’t have bonds? “What I mean is, isn’t it possible that some Born fae don’t bond either?”
“Impossible,” the fae standing behind Tessa mutters. The sharp canines give him away as a vampire.
“There is no record of a Born fae not having a bond,” Tessa says firmly. “Yours has been activated. There is some other explanation as to why the stone behaved the way it did.” She speaks matter-of-factly, and it seems like it’s the end of discussion.
But I don’t budge, even as Tessa indicates we should follow her out of the room. “How can you be sure it’s activated?”
Tessa pauses, looking thoughtfully at me for a moment. “There are a few more tests we could do. One of them would be a spell that will essentially tug on your bond. If we tug and it gives too easily, then it could be that your bond isn’t attached to anything, and that would point to it being un-activated, but if we can pull it taut, then there’s someone on the other side of it.”
“Well, let’s do that,” I say, the words spilling out of me. Ineedto know. I want the false hope that I have a mate squashed before my mind can carry my heart away into a fake future of joy and happiness only for it to shatter. I don’t think my heart can take that.
“It’s not quite that simple,” Tessa hedges. She clears her throat. “The spell can be quite painful. Not for you—for your mate.”
“Oh,” I say, my shoulders slumping. I don’t want to cause anyone harm, least of all my maybe not real mate.
“It’s not something that he won’t recover from,” Tessa explains. “We should still try it. I just want you to understand that it’s a possibility.”
Liz puts an arm around me. “It’s alright, Bliss. You’ll be able to apologize for it as soon as you meet him.”
“Doesn’t sound like a great way to start off our relationship,” I mumble. “But he might not even exist so, yeah.” I wave my hand in the air, indicating we should get on with the spell.
Tessa nods to the vampire behind her, who leaves the room, presumably to gather whatever materials the spell requires.
About ten minutes later, the vampire returns and he and Tessa get to work erecting a circle around me. I sit on the cold marble floor, inside a ring of crushed up rose quartz, candles spaced evenly around the circle. A book lays open in Tessa’s hands. The vampire places a black tourmaline stone right in front of me and steps gently outside the round of crushed stone, careful not to mar the shape of it.
“Place your hands like this,” Tessa instructs, holding out the book to me with an illustration of a fae placing both hands flat on the center of their chest. I mimic the position and Tessa nods. “Let’s begin.”
She speaks in the same old fae language that the ceremony was in, reciting whatever incantation is in the book she holds. Her words wash over me and I feel a sensation crawl up from the floor around me, slithering to my heart and then somehow going into me, but also beyond me as it searches for my bond. I imagine some sort of spiritual snake made of ether traveling along my bond, searching for the perfect place to tug.
It doesn’t take long for the snake to find it.
I breathe in harshly, gulping down air as it feels like my breath has been snatched away from me completely. I don’t feel pain, but I feel where the snake has pierced its fangs into my bond, slithering with all its might backwards towards me.
But instead of the bond coming flying backwards as if it’s not attached to anything at all, the snake’s fangs are ripped out almost immediately, the bond completely taut, absolutely no give in it whatsoever.
I can hear Tessa draw in a sharp inhale.
I open my eyes as soon as I feel the snake hastily slither back from wherever it was called from.
“What just happened?” I glance from Liz to Tessa to the vampire, who looks on at us stoically.
“The bond—it was as if it was made of concrete, immovable,” Tessa says, her confusion making me apprehensive.
“And that’s a good thing, right?” Liz asks. “That means it’s attached to something.”
Tessa doesn’t answer her right away, looking between us.
“Do I have a bondmate or not?” My voice comes out harsher than I intend it.
Tessa takes a deep breath, and I feel bad, realizing that spell must have used up a significant amount of her power.
“I’m sorry, but the spell is inconclusive. I’ve never felt a bond like that.”
