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“Youdoknow. You’re just as powerless to this as I am. The sooner you come to accept that, the sooner we can enjoy our lives together.”
The words tasted bitter. A gut-churning melange of truth, helplessness, and betrayal.
I watched her expression carefully as the faint echoing of words from my Knowingness returned to me…Resistance is an exercise in futility.
Maybe I should unbind her.
That alone may earn me her trust.
Hope, thickly twined with anxiety, knotted in my chest…
Another brief vision bleeds in - a sweet relief from the previous one.
Mareina and I standing in front of one another, bloody palms clasped together, as took our vows in front of a priestess.
The vision, though fleeting, burned into my mind’s eye like a beacon of hope.
There was absolutely no way of gauging how long it would take before a vision came to fruition. Perhaps the previous vision of Mareina standing inAvernus, Mors’ underworld,wouldn’t take place for centuries.
I couldn’t hinge my decisions upon what might not occur for hundreds of years…
Though it seemed entirely impossible that Mareina and I would be taking oursoulboundvows any sooner considering her hatred for me was palpable but… I’d learned long ago that no matter the odds, it could all change in a fleeting moment.
My rational mind continued to try and reason as to how this might actually work. If I let her go under the pretence of…compassionand my own trust inher…If she ran… A dark pleasure curled through me at the idea. My grip on her tightened as my cock twitched at the idea of getting to chase my little nightmare… Not to mention it might give her the opportunity to see for herself just how powerful the demand of the bond was…
Especially,with an unfulfilled bond… From the moment we met, trying to resist was like trying to douse a forest fire with a cup of water.
“She will come for us.”
The words spilled from my lips as a new sort of betrayal that settled on my chest …
“Let them come,lohane thili.There is no world in which you can be taken from me. And do not take my words for prideful foolishness. It is my Knowingness that tells this truth. And it has never, in all my years, been wrong. Zurie will soon have her day of reckoning.”
While my words were absolutely true… I'd wielded them with the purpose of manipulating my ownsoulboundinto trusting me rather than as words of love and reassurance… As they should have been.
Guilt and his all too familiarfriend,shame,drifted out from the shadows of my mind and into the spotlight. Trying to shove them away was like trying to shovesmoke.
Mareina remained silent, her gaze locked on mine. Her expression hard, yet unreadable, as if she were intensely focused on finding some lost piece to a puzzle.
Just as she’d opened her mouth to reply, my Knowingness prickled at the back of my neck. My gaze shifted, passing over the forest surrounding us. Gradually, the scent of a bonfire wafted towards me. My jaw snapped shut as my heart began to pound in my chest.
“Dakrun,”I growled, turning my head toward Pomona and Famei who were riding closest behind us.Bandits.
Famei gave me a sharp nod before sliding off his still-walking horse. His form shifted, bones painfully and rapidly shifting, snapping, and growing until the form of an enormous gryphon promptly broke into a sprint and leapt into the air. The slap of his mighty wings caused a gust of wind that had me instinctively shielding Mareina’s eyes from the dirt and debris it rustled off the trail.
Mareina looked up at me, mirroring my own surprise.
“Sweet Gods…,” Mareina breathed.
Gryphons were an exceedingly rare thing that most believed were either extinct or mythical.
“Where is he going?”
“To check the area for?—
My Knowingness speared through me.
Protect.
