Page 64 of Lost and Bound

I don’t fight against his hold—there’s little point—instead I lean into it and close my eyes. Once I hear his sharp inhale, I know I’ve got him, so I reopen my eyes and smile up at him. “So was forgetting to ask if you could feed from me. And also getting into my bed without invitation. You know that’s a prick move, right?”

Cane walks back in and stops at the door. Arlan doesn’t let go, and I turn to Cane, letting out a dramatic sigh that screams, see what happens when you’re not here?

“Arlan, get dressed,” Cane orders.

His fingers flex, and I look up at Arlan as innocently as I can, but we both know it’s an act. Amazingly, he doesn’t say anything or bite me, so I take it as a win.

Cane and Emrys leave the room, and when Arlan goes to follow, I check out his butt, which of course is round and cute. The thought of calling anything of Arlan’s cute makes me feel like laughing. Then the knowledge of how offended he’d be at my word choice tips me over the edge, and I snort out loud.

And while there’s a noticeable change to the tension in the room with them gone, it also makes the malignant darkness pooling around Bael impossible to ignore.

He climbs to his feet, and I obsess about plucking fluff off my leggings and wishing I was anywhere but here. Anything to avoid looking or talking to him. There’s a noticeable tremor in my hands, leftover adrenaline from what just happened with Arlan and Cane, but also apprehension at being left alone with a demon.

Out of all the others, I have the hardest time accepting them and their angelic counterparts. Shifters, magikals, and vampires make sense to me, perhaps because they’ve been romanticized in books and movies for a long time, but demons have been portrayed as evil for even longer. My tremors get worse when I think about celestials until I realize it’s not thinking of them that’s making me shake. The faint humming builds into a constant, urgent chiming.

I jump up, eager to outrun the vision coming in, but I stumble as it takes hold. Before I lose myself completely to the message, Bael’s hands lock around my wrist, my own hands gripping the same way.

Then we’re no longer at Professor Cane’s house. We’re hurtling through time and space, landing in the forest again. The tear in the fabric of reality that the Legion used as their entry point is gone, but lingering around the scene are motes of magik and signs of a fight. But those things are incidental, and it’s a luminescent glow against the base of a tree which drags me forward, like a magnet.

Something brushes against me, and despite being mid-vision, there’s a part of me that recognizes the dark smoke clinging to me—Bael. He only steals my focus for long enough for me to sense and accept his presence, then the mysterious glow pulses impatiently.

“I remember this.” I’m struck by familiarity. The gravitational pull and intriguing sensation are a mirror to when I found both the bracelet and the arrow part.

Thinking of them, I look at my wrist and see hidden among Bael’s foreboding hold the shimmering strands of gold. Both he and the bracelet bring a sense that everything is as it should be.

In the next break in my awareness, I’m on my knees, digging through the rich soil. My fingers brush against something solid, and as soon as this happens, I don’t need to dig anymore; the ground simply wells up and offers the hidden object to me like a gift.

I see it, but before I can process what it is, the vision blinks out and Bael’s fingers digging into my skin is all I can see.

“Let me go,” I plead, trying to pull my arms free.

He talks over me, tugging me closer. “How did you do that?”

For every attempt I make to escape, he tries to keep me confined as he waits for answers I don’t have. The others crash back into the room, catching the tail end of our tug-of-war.

“Bael?” Cane says, physically inserting himself as a mediator when neither of us gives up the fight.

Bael hisses over Cane’s insistence. “She had a vision.”

“She did on the field too,” Arlan says blandly. “Noms do. Honestly, she is not worth you losing your shit over.”

Bael’s chin tucks, and he looks like he’s getting ready to argue. “She also dragged me along. I saw what she saw.”

Emrys inserts himself into the huddle, his purple magik weaving erratically to match his palpable mistrust. “That’s impossible.”

“I’m aware,” Bael snarls, his eyes blinking black as he tugs me close again.

“Settle down,” Cane insists, his demand coming out like a bark.

Resistance against his command is futile, and a wave of exhaustion hits, taking my fight with it. I let go of Bael, but my arms are still his prisoner, and everyone sees.

Cane growls under his breath, then starts lifting each of Bael’s fingers attempting to snap his stranglehold. Of course, though, Cane can do two things at once—deal with Bael while he continues snarling at me with obvious suspicion. “And what, exactly, did you see?”

I try to find the right words, which he reads as hesitation.

“Now, Maya. We’re waiting for some semblance of honesty from you.”

I shove down the incredulity burning my throat, because it definitely involves high-level screeching and perhaps a bit of Alpha shoving. Then I wait until I know I’ve got control of my emotions, and with a practiced smile on my face, I look directly into Cane’s eyes. “Being honest? Yeah, well, that involves some level of trust, and I have to say, Professor, nothing in the time I have spent with you or your friends suggests I can trust you. I will, however, tell you what I saw. You’ll do whatever you will, because that’s how things are in this world.”