Page 341 of House Ignis

A laugh escaped him. “You do.”

“I’m not discussing this with you.”

“You don’t have to. Your face is doing a spectacular job.”

I reached for my glass. “Did you cross an ocean solely to irritate me?”

“No.” He glanced toward the floor again. “But watching you drink yourself stupid because you’re terrified she’s going to hate you has certainly made the journey worthwhile.”

“I said fuck off.”

“You are absolutely fucked.”

“I’m aware.”

Then the blood bond changed.

I stopped breathing.

Something flickered through it, faint at first. A disoriented pulse of awareness that had me setting the glass down before I dropped it.

She was waking.

I felt the exact moment consciousness found her.

Confusion came first, heavy and muddled with sleep. Then discomfort sharpened into pain as she moved against the magical restraints holding her.

My jaw clenched.

Fear followed.

It tore through the bond so suddenly that every shadow in the room went still.

“Asher?”

I barely heard Khai.

I could feel her searching. Trying to understand where she was. Why she couldn’t move. Why unfamiliar magic held her in place.

Then came the realization.

And with it, hurt.

Gods.

My hand closed around the edge of the table.

It wasn’t physical. I almost wished it were. I could survive pain. I could survive her fire tearing through my skin and burning me down to fucking bone.

This was worse.

Betrayal flooded the bond.

Hers.

Because of me. It hit so hard I forgot how to breathe.

Every fear I’d spent the night drowning in whiskey was suddenly there between us. Whatever she was seeing, whatever she was beginning to understand, was tearing through every piece of trust she’d given me.