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“Refusing to start a bond in the first place is the only way to really stop it,” another woman said solemnly.
“We should be free to create bonds if we want to.” Eisley’s face was pale, but her jaw was set firmly. “We should be allowed to take mates if it’s something we desire.”
“Not if it gets us killed,” one of the men spat. “We need to catch the bastard who’s doing this. We need to hunt again.”
“We neverstoppedhunting, we just didn’t find any damn leads,” Kierden growled, his body tense.
“No one in the city could kill you,” one of the women said. “If you sealed your bond with the human, we would have a chance of finally finding and ending the killer.”
Everyone looked at me again.
Everyone except Kierden.
They wanted me to volunteer, to offer myself up as bait.
“No.” Kierden’s voice cut through the silence like a weapon. “Nissa is a human who’s only lived a fraction of the time the rest of us have. After our bond dies with the eclipse, I’ll mate with someone willing to risk their life for an answer.”
His words stunned me.
Andveil, they hurt me.
We’d been in bed together for days, talking for days,touchingfor days, and he just… volunteered to mate with someone else?
From what he’d told me, no one was killed until their bond was complete. And a complete bond was permanent.
I understood that what was happening was a tragedy, and that they needed a solution, but that didn’t mean he needed to volunteer to mate with someone.
And he hadn’t evenconsideredchoosing me permanently. After he’d spent days telling me he was attracted to me, he wanted me, he found me beautiful… the bastard may as well have slapped me in the face.
Nods went around the group of fae.
His peopleapprovedof his plan, and I couldn’t question him without becoming either a target or a laughingstock.
I needed to get out of there. To get away from the king and clear my mind.
“The elves are approaching!” a voice called from somewhere deeper in the jungle.
“We’ll comb the bodies and homes for any sign of magic or interference after I speak with the elves,” Kierden said. He called three names and told them they would guard the home, and that they’d be working with him afterward. They agreed, and then Kierden, Eisley, and I headed off to meet the elves with our bonded esu.
Part of me wondered whether he’d even notice if Bright and I slipped away.
But then he glanced over his shoulder, looking me up and down. His voice touched my mind and he asked,“Are you okay?”
I stared at him.
What was I supposed to say?
Another mated couple had been murdered, solidifying the fact that Kierden and I couldnotseal our bond. Which I didn’t want anyway, right?
And he had basically just told me we didn’t have a future. We couldn’t admit the truth of our developing feelings to his people, but if he really wanted me, he could’ve just gone along with volunteering me as the damn bait.
If we didn’t have a future, what was I doing there at all? I couldn’t watch him mate with another woman and just be friends with him after everything we’d done and been through.
Though I was nowhere near ready to seal our bond, some part of me had still been holding on to the possibility that I could be with Kierden in some capacity. Even if we were just lovers. I hated the idea of being mates in secret, but if we did break our bond, we could share a bed, share a home, share a life… it would have perks.
Perks that I could no longer allow myself to consider.
“I’m feeling sick,”I lied.“I’m going to go back to the castle and rest while you meet with the elves.”
