Chapter 38
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
Kraghol took a step to follow Jasper. But Kali growled at him, baring her sharp teeth.
He froze, shocked that the little fox he’d taken in would turn on him. But Kraghol had hurt Jasper. And Kali was now Jasper’s familiar. And also, it seemed, his protector.
“I’m sorry,” Kraghol said to her. “I’m sorry for hurting him.”
Then Kali turned and dashed after Jasper.
But Kraghol couldn’t leave it like that between them. He had to make Jasper understand. And they still had to break the bond, so Jasper would be well again. He took a step.
“You love him!” Freya’s voice sliced like a knife through the air.
Kraghol froze. For a moment, he’d forgotten about his sister. How could he think of anything else when faced with Jasper hurting and clearly unwell? But he couldn’t deny her words. “I do.”
She snarled. She held a small clay bowl in her hands. Her pouch of supplies that she used for healing lay open on the ground. He had no idea what she had been doing. And right now he didn’t care.
“I have to go after him.” He took a step.
“You want to help him?” She called out. “You want to save him? I am the one who can do that.”
He turned towards her. She walked towards him. A strange dark-red substance coated the sides of the bowl she held. Had she been mixing something whilst he argued with Jasper?
“What is that?”
“This is how you break the partial bond. Your human is very mate sick.” She sneered. She glanced in the direction Jasper had disappeared. “That is why the conflict between the two of you harmed him so much. A threat to an incomplete mate bond will exacerbate the illness.”
“How do I help him?”
She reached her fingers into the bowl. She collected the red substance. She rolled it between her fingers, forming it into a ball. “Consume this. It will break the bond instantaneously.”
She held out the ball. It looked almost like one of the chocolate truffles Jasper would make him.
He took the ball. He hesitated. “I have to speak to him first.” Kraghol lowered his hand. He knew he should eat it. That would be best for Jasper. It would heal him and put an end to his suffering immediately.
But he could not break the partial mate bond until he tried to make Jasper understand. I have to at least try.
“You really love him, don’t you?” Freya asked, voice hoarse.
Before he could answer, a noise of disgust escaped her. She turned her back on him and strode away. She grabbed her pouch from the ground and shoved her bowl inside. She hefted the pouch onto her shoulder but did not leave as he thought she would.
For several moments, she stared ahead as if locked in place. Then she turned and faced him. “There is a way to complete a mate bond between a krampus and a non-krampus.”
“What? But I have always been told—”
“I know what you have been told. That is what everyone is told. But a krampus can mate a non-krampus.” She walked towards him. “It was just decided that it was best if that knowledge was kept a secret.”
“Why?”
She pressed her lips together. “Our histories are not so separated, krampuses and others. There was a time we lived amongst them, in villages and even cities. Our own ancestors lived in Anorra many years ago. But we have always been treated like monsters. Our kind faced constant persecution and prejudice.”
She scowled. “So we left that way of living and those who treated us with disdain. We began something else. We became something else. We turned into the monsters they said we were.”
She smiled, baring her fangs. “And we gave them something to truly dread. Now every year we descend on the city, reminding them to fear and respect us.” She stopped right in front of him. “Over time, it was forgotten that we once lived amongst them.”
Kraghol couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “So is everything I was taught a lie?”
She huffed. “You’ve never wondered why we speak the common tongue used in Anorra?”
“But why did I know nothing about this? And why do you know it?”
“Our history and secrets are heavily guarded.” Freya lifted her chin. “Known only by the leaders of the krampuses and the spiritual guides. There is no need for anyone else to know.”
Then she stared at him, eyes narrowed as if studying him.
She exhaled. “To complete the bond with a non-krampus, you must reverse what you initially did. You must pull the life essence that you poured into him into yourself. Not all of it. Just part of it. That will seal the mate bond. Use your instincts. They will guide you.”
“Why are you telling me this?” She’d been so enraged and disgusted with him moments ago. And she’d just made this red ball that would break the partial mate bond. Now she was telling him how he could properly mate Jasper?
“Because you are in love with him!” she said, voice strained. “And you have never been happy amongst us. Never.”
She shook her head. “I will not be the cause of you suffering for the rest of your life. But if you mate him, you cannot remain in the forest. You must leave and not return. Grandmother will not tolerate you mated to a human. Not her grandson.”
The back of his neck prickled.
“She’d leave your human unbothered. He is not worth her concern. But she’d probably capture you and forcibly break the bond.”
Kraghol frowned. A completed mate bond could not be broken. Everyone knew that. “But—”
“There are ways to break a mate bond,” she said, pre-empting his question. “Then she will send you away. By force if necessary. So if you mate that human, you must leave and not return.” She paused. “You could not see me or any of the family again.”
He stared at the ball in his hand. It was a lot to process. He wanted a future with Jasper. He wanted it with every scrap of his being. But how could they have one? Where would they make a life together?
“I have to go speak to Jasper,” he said.
His sister nodded as if expecting that. Then, after a second, she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tight. Kraghol didn’t respond for a moment, too shocked to move. They’d never hugged before.
But over the years, his sister had always shown her love for Kraghol by watching out for him and by trying to mould him into a krampus that he could not be. Even whilst disappointed in him, she’d never given up on him.
And now she had told him how to complete the mate bond with Jasper, even when she despised the idea.
He wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you. Thank you, Freya.”
She abruptly pulled away. “If you decide to mate him, I will not tell Grandmother. I think it best you just disappear. Hopefully, she will assume you’re dead.” Then she strode away, not looking back.
He watched her go, uncertain if this would be the last time he ever saw his sister. Then he turned and followed Jasper’s footsteps through the snow. He broke into a run, needing to reach Jasper before he left the forest.