Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
Jamie leaned heavily against Azelon as they made their way to the copper tub.
Each step sent a dull throb of pain through his healing wound, but the Tideborn's steady support kept him moving forward.
Where their skin touched—Azelon's arm around his waist, Jamie's hand gripping Azelon's shoulder—a strange current flowed between them, neither entirely pleasant nor uncomfortable.
"Sorry," Jamie muttered when he stumbled, causing Azelon to tighten his grip—and what a nicely tight grip it was. Jamie's first impression of the man had been correct.
Not a thought he should be giving too much attention right now.
"The healing took much from your body," Azelon replied. "This cleansing bath will help restore your strength."
The store was certainly glad to help, it seemed.
Steam rose from the copper tub in fragrant curls. Candles flickered to life along stone shelves that had sprouted from the walls.
It was as if the store wanted to set a certain mood.
Jamie would have to have a talk with it about that, once all of this was over. He almost shook his head at himself.
Was he seriously considering lecturing his store so as not to meddle in his love life?
How strange had his life become?
"We'll need to remove the bandages," Azelon said, breaking Jamie out of his thoughts. The Tideborn's gaze fixed determinedly on the herbal mixture he was stirring into the water. "The cleansing won't work properly otherwise."
Jamie glanced down at the white strips of cloth wrapped around his torso. "Will that be safe for the wound?"
"The bath itself has healing properties," Azelon assured him. "It won't cause harm."
Jamie nodded, bracing himself as Azelon's fingers found the edge of the bandage. The Tideborn worked with clinical efficiency, yet each brush of his fingertips against Jamie's skin sent pulses of that strange energy between them.
Jamie had no words for it, but his skin tingled and his own fingers itched to touch Azelon's blue skin in return.
It wasn't enough just to have the Tideborn's hands on him. He needed more than that; he wanted to get into the bath and draw the Veridian into the water along with him.
Was that the influence of the magic that whispered between them?
It had been a long time since Jamie had had such thoughts about anyone—and now he felt himself drawn to both Corin and Azelon? Who were clearly meant for each other ?
No, it was just the strange magic of this place.
"You look conflicted," Azelon observed.
"It's nothing."
Jamie could tell the Tideborn didn't believe him. Hell, Azelon probably knew he was lying because of this strange and unintended connection that had formed between them.
They needed to get rid of that.
"I can handle the rest," Jamie said when the bandages were removed.
"Very well." Azelon turned away, busying himself with arranging towels while Jamie awkwardly removed his sleeping pants.
When Jamie finally lowered himself into the tub, the water felt like a warm embrace. It seemed to seek out his injuries, cradling them with unusual gentleness. The herbs released their scent more strongly now. Something like mint and sea salt, with undertones of a spice he couldn't name.
"This feels..." Jamie searched for the right word. "Soothing."
"It should be." Azelon knelt beside the tub, his markings glowing more intensely now. Where they reflected in the water, the liquid took on the same luminescent blue. "The mixture contains elements that respond to Tideborn magic."
Jamie studied Azelon's handsome face, noting the tightness around his eyes, the careful way he controlled his expression. Through their connection, Jamie sensed concern, guilt, and something deeper that Azelon seemed determined to suppress.
"Earlier," Jamie began, "during the healing, I saw fragments of your memories."
Azelon looked aside. "I know. The connection was stronger than intended."
"Tell me about that person you saved."
For a moment, he thought Azelon wouldn't answer. The Tideborn's tail flicked once in agitation, then went still.
"They broke the law," he finally said.
"What did they do?"
Azelon's hands moved to the water, drawing patterns across its surface. Wherever his fingers touched, the water glowed more brightly.
"You should immerse yourself fully," he said instead of answering. "The cleansing works best when the water contacts all affected areas."
Jamie raised an eyebrow at Azelon.
So he wanted to deflect?
Jamie wasn't sure why that bothered him so much. Whatever had happened in Azelon's past should not concern him.
And yet…
Suppressing a sigh, he chose to comply for now.
He slid deeper into the tub until the water reached his chin. As he did, the liquid seemed to respond, curling around him in tendrils of soft blue light. Wisps of something silvery began to rise from his skin. The residue of the healing magic?
"It wasn't an execution in the way you understand it," Azelon said, breaking the quiet. "Not death of the body. Something different. Something worse, perhaps."
Jamie remained silent, hoping that Azelon might go on.
He did.
"Among my people, certain connections are forbidden. Bonds that reach beyond our kind." Azelon paused as if struggling with the words. "A Tideborn had formed such a bond with an outsider. The Council ordered a ritual to sever it."
"Sever a bond?" Jamie asked, watching the silvery wisps drift upward. "Like breaking a marriage?"
"No. Something deeper." Azelon's eyes met his, startlingly intense. "Our bonds are sacred, reserved for lifelong mates. Between a Tideborn and an outsider, they are considered corruption."
Despite the warm water, an unexpected chill ran down Jamie's back. "So this person had a magical bond with a Tideborn?"
Something like what he and Azelon had right now?
Jamie didn't voice that part of the question, but Azelon seemed to respond to it anyway.
"Yes," he said, still holding Jamie captive in that intense gaze of his.
"It was an old, matured bond. The ritual would have broken it, cleansed the Tideborn of the connection.
But such severing is not gentle. It tears rather than unties.
The outsider might have survived, but they would never have been whole again. "
"And you stopped them from doing it," Jamie said.
"I did." Azelon's matter-of-fact tone couldn't hide the emotion Jamie sensed from him—a fierce protectiveness, an integrity that made him stand against any action he felt was unjust. "I believed then, as I believe now, that some bonds should not be broken, regardless of tradition."
As he spoke, Azelon's attention shifted to the silvery wisps rising from Jamie's skin. His brow furrowed.
"What is it?" Jamie asked.
"The residue should be dispersing." Azelon leaned closer, examining the tendrils that had begun to coalesce rather than dissipate. "Something is wrong."
Jamie felt it too—the connection between them wasn't weakening as Azelon had suggested it would.
Azelon's markings flared as his hands moved through the water and he murmured words in a language Jamie didn't understand. The water's glow intensified, swirling around Jamie's body.
Yet the silvery tendrils continued to gather rather than dissolve.
"This isn't working." Azelon's brows furrowed. "The bond isn't releasing."
"What does that mean?"
Jamie had an idea, but he hoped he was wrong. He hoped he was not stuck in a magical bond with a stranger. Even if that stranger was tall and gorgeous and solid in his convictions—and obviously in love with someone else.
Azelon met his gaze and licked his lips. His confusion radiated through their bond. "I don't know."
He attempted another incantation, his markings blazing so brightly that Jamie had to squint.
For a moment, it seemed to work. The silvery residue wavered, beginning to break apart. Then, with a sudden surge that made both of them gasp, it flowed back into Jamie's skin and disappeared entirely.
A rush of foreign emotion took over Jamie—Azelon's shock and disbelief flowing into him with such clarity that for a heartbeat, he couldn't tell where his feelings ended and Azelon's began.
He closed his eyes against the onslaught, focused only on breathing for a moment.
This was weird .
"What just happened?" he asked.
"The bond is permanent," Azelon whispered, his voice tight with all the disbelief that spread between the two of them. "I can't break it."
Jamie's heart hammered against his ribs. "That can't be right." His hand gripped the edge of the tub, knuckles whitening. "You said this would be temporary. A side effect that could be cleansed."
Panic rose in Jamie's throat. He had a life to return to. A brother to find. A world that made sense, where magic was fiction and bonds didn't form without consent.
Calm , he told himself. You've got to calm down.
"There has to be a way to undo this."
"You don't understand," Azelon said, his voice roughening with emotion he couldn't suppress. "This kind of bond—it doesn't just happen. It shouldn't be possible, especially with a human." His tail curled tightly behind him. "The very thing I was exiled for protecting—now I've created it myself."
Jamie caught flashes of Azelon's thoughts. Memories of standing before a Council, defending his actions, accepting banishment rather than recanting. The weight of those consequences crashed into Jamie's awareness.
"I only wanted to help," Azelon said, but doubt and guilt flooded through their connection. "I didn't know this would happen. It shouldn't have happened."
Jamie pressed his palms against his temples, trying to sort his thoughts from Azelon's, his fear from the Tideborn's remorse. "So I'm just—what? Magically tethered to you forever now? What happens when I go home?"
"I don't know," Azelon admitted. "I don't know if this bond would even allow such distance."
"That's not acceptable," Jamie said, water sloshing as he shifted forward. "I need to get back. I need to find my brother."
"And I need to understand how this happened!" Azelon's control finally broke, his voice rising. "This bond is sacred among my people. It forms over years, with intention, between those who choose it. Yet somehow, it's happened in days, without either of us intending it."
The candles around them flared in response as if the store itself reacted to their distress.
The store itself…
Jamie glared at the walls around him.
"Could the store be causing this?" he asked. "Using its magic to interfere?"
Azelon's expression grew thoughtful. "Perhaps. But…" He hesitated, conflict evident in the tight set of his shoulders.
"But what?" Jamie pressed.
"The bond requires... compatibility. Resonance. It cannot form without some foundation."
Jamie absorbed this quietly, trying to puzzle out the implications of what Azelon was saying.
He and this blue-skinned Veridian were compatible enough to form an impromptu connection that couldn't be broken?
But that was…
Jamie didn't know what to make of that.
"The magic found something to build upon," Azelon said, unable to meet Jamie's eyes. "There is no other way to explain it."
The words hung between them, too significant to dismiss, too uncomfortable to explore further.
"What about Corin?" Jamie found himself asking.
Azelon's gaze snapped to his, surprise and something like guilt flowing through their connection. "What about him?"
"If we're... connected like this, where does he fit?" Jamie hadn't intended to ask the question, but once spoken, he couldn't take it back.
"I don't know," Azelon admitted, and Jamie felt the truth of it, the genuine confusion, the Tideborn's protective concern for Corin.
A loud thud sounded from the hallway.
"What was that?" Jamie asked.
Azelon was already moving to the door, pulling it open to reveal an empty hallway. He glanced both ways, then looked back at Jamie. "It must have been Corin."
"Where is he?" Jamie struggled out of the tub, heedless of the water splashing onto the floor. Azelon hurried to help him, wrapping the towel around his waist.
"Do you think he heard us?" Jamie asked, dread building in his chest.
Through their new bond, Jamie felt Azelon's sudden spike of fear. "He would think we've formed something he can never be part of."
Jamie closed his eyes, trying to sense Corin the way he could now sense Azelon. Nothing came to him directly, but he felt a strange pull toward the front of the store.
"He's leaving," Jamie said with certainty. "Or already gone."
As if confirming his words, a cold gust of air swept through the building, carrying with it the scent of the wild forest beyond. The store itself seemed to shudder, lights flickering in distress.
"The front door," Azelon said, already moving. "He's gone into the forest."
Jamie grabbed for his clothes, wincing as the movement pulled at his healing wound. "We have to find him. If his emotions spiral out there?—"
"The creatures might return," Azelon finished grimly. "Or worse."
They dressed hastily, Jamie accepting Azelon's help without comment. The wound in his side protested every movement, but concern for Corin overrode the pain.
"What was he thinking?" Jamie muttered as they made their way toward the front of the store. "The forest is dangerous."
Azelon's expression was grim. "He believes he's protecting us."
"From what?"
"From himself." Azelon's voice tightened. "He blames himself for your injuries. If he heard us talking… He's likely spiraling and he doesn't want his chaos magic to hurt us."
That made an unfortunate amount of sense.
Jamie cursed under his breath.
The store's front door stood ajar, cold night air seeping in. Beyond the threshold, the forest loomed dark and wild. The faint glow of something unnatural flickered in the distance—Corin's projected emotions?
"He won't survive out there alone," Azelon said, his fear bleeding through their connection. "Not in his current state."
Jamie squared his shoulders, ignoring the pain radiating through his torso. "Then we find him."