Page 105 of The Bonds of Indigo

She stays there, rooted in the middle of a grocery store parking lot, watching him disappear inside the pizza parlor. I check the bond and find nothing but silence.

A wall. Thick and immoveable. She isn’t letting me in.

Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to break through that.

I rest my wrist along the steering wheel and lower the passenger window. It clicks down and she startles, her head snapping toward me.

“Ready?” I ask, gentle on purpose. I’m pretty sure she was a breath away from crying, and I’m not going to bulldoze her.

“Just a second.”

She looks back toward the restaurant, her shoulders tightening. Atlas had invited us to stay for lunch, but I reminded him I can’t exactly enjoy pizza, and she’d immediately refused. Judging by her expression now… maybe she regrets that.

Lucifer has been gone for so long already—what are a few more hours?

“Do you want to go in and have lunch with him?” I ask.

When her gaze meets mine again, her eyes are glossed over. I’m honestly surprised when she gives a small shake of her head.

“No… I can’t say goodbye twice.”

She opens the door and slips inside, closing it gently behind her.

“Come he⁠—”

“Let’s try to get some distance.”

She clicks her seatbelt into place and turns fully toward the passenger door, putting her back to me in the most polite way possible. “We’ve got a long drive ahead of us.”

Alright, this has been the quietest forty-eight hours of my life. I miss Atlas already.

We’ve stopped twice for gas and once for snacks so Amarah could eat, but other than that we’ve barely spoken and haven’t left the road. We’ve stayed on Route 99—the single longest stretch of highway on Everhaven. It runs straight from Alameris all the way to Demour.

It’s also the only entrance that feeds directly into Demour’s heavily-patrolled border.

A wall was built a thousand years ago, running from the northern point where Xerkz meets the state line, all the way down to the southern border with Coldris. Mundanes used to cross over looking for cheap housing, but most died before they even settled. And back then, when we still had a president, the political heads of the three neighboring states took the blame for failing to protect their citizens. So the wall went up—twenty feet high and impossible to climb without getting shot.

Some Dylox can survive there for a few days without showing symptoms, but the ones who actually live in Demour are Mundanes who’ve gone mad. They’re not Necroth, but they’re not their former selves either—half dead, half alive, their bodies rotted in toxic air while their minds shattered and latched onto the waste like it’s a drug.

If the dead aren’t collected and buried outside the state, they eventually become Necroth. Zombies, basically. But not like Rane. From what I understand, Witches can use Ashspyte as an ingredient to restore them closer to what they once were, just… stronger. I hate the damn things.

We’ll have to stay on this road all the way to the border and decide whether we’re crossing as citizens… or criminals. They’re looking for Amarah, but I don’t know if anyone on the far side of the continent will give a shit. Hard to tell with Demour.

Before we left Atlas, she explained the plan: we need to reach the island just off Demour’s western coast. It’s the closest point to Old Hearth without actually stepping onto that dead continent. The more destruction and death in the area, the easier it’ll be for her to summon the gates.

I guess it makes sense.

A crack of thunder snaps through the sky, loud enough that my little slayer bolts upright with a gasp. She’d fallen asleep a while ago, and I’ve been driving through this storm that’s been all threat and no rain—until now. Lightning flashes, and the downpour finally starts.

She clears her throat, rubbing sleep from her eyes. It’s just past midnight and I’m sure she can’t see anything but shadows and the blur of lights on wet asphalt. Her arms fold around herself, and the goosebumps on her hands are impossible to miss.

I reach for the heater, flicking it on.

“Hey.”

…Hey? Gods, Kayn. Smooth.

She peeks over at me, breathing out a soft, sleepy sigh. “Hey.”