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“You’re half Seelie fae.”
“I’m half Dianic witch.”
“And I’m nearly all Shadow demon and I know I felt the burn of the double daggers. Remove the spell.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“I won’t ask again. Remove. The. Spell.”
“You didn’t ask at all,” I snapped.So much for keeping my cool.
“Please.”
The request still sounded like an order. “Or what? I’ll be tied down and tortured?” I baited. “Been there, done that. In case you didn’t notice, it doesn’t work on me.”
“Stop being so damned obstinate.”
My arms crossed. “Why do you want it removed?”
“You say the thread didn’t look like a soulbond, but I definitely felt something on my palm. It won’t serve either of us to not know for certain if the bond has started to form. If I’m marked, we’ll have evidence.”
He was right. I didn’t want to admit it but he was. The odds were probably slim, but if the soulbond had somehow partially begun my lifeforce could be at risk, as would his if he marked my palm in turn. It was a significant thing to know.
Also, in fairness, though I had severed one soulbond in my life, I didn’t actually know if I could sever one attached to me, or if he would be harmed in the process. I’d only ever done it after the being’s mate had died, and only ever once at that.
“Well,” I started, “I suspect it’s you and this unexpected link that have brought out some of my combativeness. I’m usually quite controlled with my speech.”
The self-satisfied stretch of Casimir’s lips had my eyes rolling. “It wasn’t a compliment,” I insisted.
“Whatever you say, Little Bird.”
“I told you to call me Raven. Now,” I shifted my chair over, so I could better see the string uniting us. “Sit still and don’t distract me.”
I didn’t actually need to see the bond to remove the spell, but I could concentrate better if I wasn’t looking at the prodigious demon. My Sight shifted and the lambent filament became my focus. Was it me or was it slightly thicker than the first time I saw it?
Slowly, I absorbed the spell back into my aura. The last of my magics left the thread and a deluge of power swept between us. I jolted forward. Strong hands clasped onto my biceps and pushed me upright.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
The burst of magic quickly reduced to faint palpitations. It wasn’t the pull of a soulbond but it was more than I’d anticipated. At least it felt manageable at the moment.
“I’m fine. Let’s see your palm.”
Without thinking, I grabbed his right hand. Electricity zinged up my arms when our skin touched. I held on, keeping my face down, pretending it was nothing. Casimir called no attention to it so neither did I.
The only marking upon his skin was a dark silver pattern tracing his lifeline. Most members of each faction’s army were marked similarly. “No double daggers,” I pronounced. “On either of us.”
He sagged in relief and I was appalled at the level of offense I took over his reaction. We were strangers. Neither of us should be pledging our lives to the other when we’d only had a handful of minutes together.
“Do you feel anything at all?” I questioned, intently focused on his palm.
“I do.”
“Where?”
I lifted my face when he didn’t reply. The ferocity of his excited engrossment pierced straight through my soul. I dropped his hand and sat ramrod straight.
“Under the skin,” he eventually replied. “Draven experienced something similar with Lyric. Like the soulbond began but didn’t finish.”
