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Sariel joined us after he saw us, leaning over the old pages and making a face when he realized he couldn’t read it, either.
“Okay, now that we’re all here,” Atlan began with a deadpan look at us, as if we should have predicted his previous arrival and responded accordingly, “I’ll start off by saying that there are different…flavorsof bonds—”
“We knew that,” Sariel interrupted, frowning a bit. “Barimuz explained about thrall bonds while we were in Hell.”
“He was strongerandmore polite than you. Fascinating,” Atlan grumbled. “As I was saying, the idea is the same for all of them—one person attaching themselves to another—but the intent is where they vary. Thrall bonds are for control, familial bonds are for support—”
“Familial? Like a found family situation, or—”
“Stop interrupting!”
Atlan’s features distorted briefly. I grimaced when Sariel swayed in place, a sick sensation tickling the bond. The fae hybrid took a steadying breath and got his glamor back in place before glaring with two (blessedlynormal)eyes.
“Stop interrupting me, and I will explain. I’m sorry for the outburst.”
Clearing his throat, Atlan turned his attention to the book again. I gaped over the man having apologized at all, considering any other time he’d blown up about something, he’d simply huffed and waited for the conversation to continue.
“The familial bond is usually between those who are blood-related, but not always. When it’s deep enough, it can occasionally act like the thrall and mate bonds do, including telepathic connections.”
Obviously pleased with himself for answering Sariel’s question fully, he nodded and continued. “The most dynamic of the bonds is the mate bond. Typically, it will reveal itself quickly and be solidified almost immediately when a pair finds one another; it’s why we always assumed they were for reproductive purposes. However, there are known cases where that is… clearly not the intent. Some never have sex at all, some bonds contain more than two people, and others are between people who will never be able to reproduce.”
Atlan paused, looking at us both with curious eyes. “Now is the time to ask questions.”
“Are you sure? I’d hate to set you off again,” Sariel sniped, and Atlan sneered.
The two entered into a stare-off that was unproductive.
I huffed. “So how do they complete the bond, then? The ones that aren't interested in having sex, I mean. I thought that was the only way.”
“Apparently not. The book notes that the most common way of sealing a bond is an act of true love.” His face twisted, and he ran a slender finger down a line of words before clicking his tongue. “It’s where all those fairytales come from.”
“So how did I seal ours, then? I mean, we don’t—” I looked at Sariel, feeling my cheeks burn for the millionth time today. “It’s a little early to decide something like that, right?”
My mate felt amused by my clear discomfort, and I wanted to dart out of the room when he answered for Atlan. “You fought an Archdemon and went into Hell to save me. I think that counts as an act of true love.”
His purr was smug, a grin pointed at me like the whole situation hadn’t been crazy traumatic for both of us.
“Well, that’s presumptuous,” I muttered, ignoring his smirk in favor of staring intently at Atlan, willing him to speak up.
The other hybrid didn’t disappoint me, glaring between us like our bond had offended him personally. “I don’t really know, other than the obvious.”
Before I could protest, he hummed. “I’ll need to do a bit of digging and see if there’s been a similar situation to yours. Honestly, it’s too bad you can’t read this; I’m sure you’d be fascinated by the different pairs they’ve studied.”
“And I can’t convince you to read it to us?” I batted my lashes playfully.
He rolled his ruby-red eyes, shaking his head. “No. But Kiran might, if you have the right bargaining chips.”
I pouted, but rolled with it. “I have another question, Atlan. Is it true that demons can’t have mates? Like, at all?”
I was thinking back to how Barimuz had said as much back in Hell. It seemed a little weird that with fallen angels, fallen-blood wolves, Unseelie fae, and probably even vampires and witches allowed to have soulmates despite technically all being dark or “unholy” in some way, a line was drawn specifically with demons.
Atlan snapped the book closed, head falling to one side as he considered my question.
“This book doesn’t have any records of pairs that have a demon in them, and I’ve never heard or read about them being able to in any other book, either,” he started carefully. “Demon hybrids were everywhere in the Free Kingdom, but in all my years there, none of them were ever reported to have soulmates, either. Why do you ask?”
“I heard it somewhere, so I just felt like checking if it was true,” I kind of lied. “Do you maybe know why?”
He frowned in thought, then shook his head. “No. There’s hypotheses, but none of them are confirmed.”
