Chapter Five
As Wynter had anticipated, the meal at Seth’s Keep was a fancy affair. Not simply due to the gourmet food and vintage wine. Every place at the table had an elegant little name card featuring a calligraphic font.
There were multiple knives and forks of various sizes and styles—all so shiny they could double as mirrors. The pretty crystal dishware looked so expensive she’d honestly hesitated to touch it. The classical background music made her miss her regular background dinner noise, even if it was the sounds of her coven members squabbling like kids.
The room sure smelled good, though. The scent of the beeswax candles on the table laced the air, along with the scents of food, pungent wine, and the freshly cut flowers that formed the centerpiece.
The other people seated at the long, mahogany dining table seemed perfectly at ease. Still, conversation was sort of . . . stiff at times. The silences weren’t always comfortable.
Being introduced to Wynter had seemed to pleasantly surprise both Eve and Noah. They’d even seemed a little touched, though more Eve than him. As for Rima? She still behaved somewhat aloof toward Cain and Seth, clearly intent on holding a grudge over the surely-not-so-hard-to-understand fact that she’d once been under suspicion of freeing Saul—like his sister Lailah, he had been one of the four ruling Aeons who’d imprisoned the Ancients. The siblings were now dead.
As she’d talked with and studied the Aeons at the table, Wynter had reached the conclusion that Cain’s assessment of them was correct. Although she’d once lived at Aeon, she’d never spoken a single word to Eve or the twins before now; hadn’t even exchanged nods with them. Mortals simply held little to no interest for Aeons. They were easily ignored and just as easily sentenced to death, much like Wynter and her mother.
Not that Wynter held that against these particular Aeons. They’d had nothing to do with what happened to her or Davina. Abel and his consort, Lailah, were to blame—both had paid for that with their lives. Something which often made Wynter smile.
She actually felt sorry for Eve and the twins. They were permitted to stay at Devil’s Cradle, but they weren’t fully trusted or welcomed by its residents and so hadn’t yet integrated themselves into society. Wynter knew what it was like to stand apart like that. Knew how lonely it could make a person feel. Her old coven had treated her as though she were an outsider for most of her life.
Opposite her, Eve looked up from her meal with a smile and said, “Living at a Keep must be quite strange for you, Wynter. Modern-day houses are quite different, even at Aeon. I never left there until coming here, but there were ways for people to see how the rest of the world looks. I saw houses made mostly of glass, saw some that were like palaces, and even buildings that were higher than any tower I could ever imagine seeing.”
Wynter knew that the woman had “viewed”
the outside world by utilizing preternatural methods such as fire-gazing. Cain did it often using the font in his temple. Wynter had found it pretty fascinating to watch as images flickered to life within the flames, providing a kind of satellite view of the globe. He could zoom in on any spot to get a better look. Aeon, however, could not be seen—the Aeons had ways to block it from view. But, just the same, those assholes couldn’t see Devil’s Cradle.
“Modern houses are very different from Keeps,”
Wynter confirmed. “But I can’t say that living at Cain’s Keep feels strange.”
Nor could she truly say she officially lived there yet, but she saw no need to have that conversation with his family. “I’m not sure I’d love it so much if it was situated above the town where it’s not so easy to regulate the temperature all-year round, though.” Castles weren’t exactly simple to keep warm.
“Yes, there’s a bit of a chill up above now, isn’t there? I don’t like wandering around the town. I’m quite happy exploring the city. Many of the Halloween decorations outside the houses are quite something.”
“I tried urging Cain to include a few inside and outside his Keep, but he vetoed it. He’s kind of boring that way.”
He wouldn’t even agree to prop some pumpkins around the front entrance.
Beside her, Cain arched a brow at Wynter. “Boring?”
“In general? No,”
she replied. “But when it comes to celebrating holidays? Oh, absolutely.”
“Only because many are now so commercialized,” he said.
Wynter playfully gave his arm a soothing pat. “I get it, old man.”
Humor danced in his eyes. “You’ll pay for that later.”
Eve chuckled. “You two have a sweet dynamic.”
She lifted a slice of fresh bread and bit into it. “This bread is truly delicious.”
“My staff purchased it from the shop that’s run by the Bloodrose Coven,”
Seth informed her.
Her eyes widening in a delighted surprise, Eve looked at Wynter. “Really? You baked it?”
“Not me. One of my coven, Hattie, does the baking,”
Wynter clarified.
Rima lifted her glass of red. “And you enchant weapons with dark magick.”
There was an accusatory and slightly pompous note to her voice that was all provocation.
Pfft. As if Wynter would be put on the defensive so easily. No one—least of all a practical stranger with a serious attitude problem—would ever make her feel shame for her magick being dark. It wasn’t as if she’d turned it dark somehow. It changed when she died. Death never failed to leave its mark.
Having felt Cain tense beside her, Wynter placed a hand on his thigh and smiled at Rima. “I can do many things.”
The other female went to speak again, but Noah quickly said, “I think your ability to enchant weapons is impressive. I heard you can deactivate the runes at will. Is that true?”
he asked, seeming merely curious.
Wynter dipped her chin.
“Which then enables you to prevent your own work from being used against you,”
mused Noah, his lips kicking up. “Smart.”
He paused. “It’s so strange that no one at Aeon ever realized you’re a revenant. It’s as if Kali made sure that you flew under the radar.”
“It is,”
agreed Rima. “Why?”
She tossed out the word in challenge.
Wynter gave a lazy shrug. “You’d have to ask Her.”
“I’m not sure I’d want to be in frequent contact with a deity, even if there is honor in being Favored, but it has to be interesting at times.”
Noah cocked his head. “I don’t understand why Kali made you so different from other revenants. You really don’t need to feast on flesh and blood to survive?”
“Darling Noah,”
began Eve, a fond smile plucking at her mouth, “that is not something one should ask at the dinner table.”
His cheeks pinkened. “Sorry,”
he said to Wynter. “Just curious.”
“It’s fine,”
she assured him. “And the answer to your question is yes, I truly don’t have that particular diet.”
“Why?”
Rima repeated.
Serious eye roll. “Again, you’ll have to ask Kali.”
Rima folded her arms. “I’m asking you.”
“Enough,”
said Cain. The word was low. Soft. But pure frost.
“Like Noah, I’m merely curious,”
Rima defended, though she dropped her bad attitude in an instant.
Her brother gave her a hard look. “You’re being rude, and you know it.”
Rima drew in a breath and then turned back to Wynter. “I apologize,”
she said, sounding genuine.
“Then let’s have no more rudeness,”
pressed Eve.
Rima cut her gaze to Cain. “Why did you lie to your people?”
It wasn’t a demand or said with any hostility. It seemed to be a genuine query.
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You told them that you plan to soon invade Aeon,”
said Rima. “Only that isn’t possible. So you lied. I don’t understand why.”
“It was the truth.”
Cain sliced into his fillet mignon. “We fully intend to take the war to Adam.”
Rima’s brow creased in confusion. “How?”
Seeing an opening to raise the subject of how he might get the aid of the three Aeons at the table at one point, Cain replied, “We believe it’s possible that we can cause a fissure in the prison.”
He felt it safe to reveal his plans, since there was no way the Aeons could get the information to Adam even if they were in league with him. “Three of its creators are dead, so the power they instilled into it is no longer so potent. That means the cage has essentially been weakened.”
Rima’s brow furrowed. “But the blood of each Ancient was used to fortify it, yes? I’m not sure how any of you could still damage it unless several of you died.”
“We could do it with help from another Ancient.”
Or so Cain hoped.
“But there are no others.”
He forked a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. “Not true. One other was dumped here with us. The Aeons didn’t bother to take or use his blood to power the cage because they didn’t believe he would live—they only brought him here because they knew that watching him die would be difficult for me.”
“You’re referring to Abaddon?”
asked Eve, stilling in surprise. “He lives?”
“He’s in a coma of sorts.”
Cain lowered his cutlery to the plate and lifted his glass. “We’ve never attempted to wake him before—he for sure would have lost his mind while confined and unable to avenge his children.”
He’d been deep in grief at the time.
“Children?”
echoed Rima.
Seth nodded, his face solemn. “Many children were slaughtered when the Aeons sprung an attack on us all those years ago.”
Eve’s gaze turned unfocused. “I could hear them screaming, but I couldn’t get them help. Adam had confined me to my room after I told him that I wouldn’t fight against my son.”
Her eyes sharpened as she looked from Seth to Cain. “Do you really believe you can wake Abaddon?”
“If the Ancients act as one when we attempt it, yes,”
replied Seth.
“Will his contribution truly be enough to cause some sort of crevice in the prison?”
asked Eve.
Seth tugged at the collar of his shirt. “I’d like to think so. We won’t know until we try. Which we plan to do on All Hallows’ Eve with or without him, but hopefully with him. Do you have no idea at all why Adam proclaims that Aeon cannot afford to fall?”
Eve shook her head.
“Maybe he just hasn’t given up hope that Eden will one day use Aeon as her Resting place again,”
Noah suggested. “If Aeon is gone, so is that hope. I personally cannot envision God ever entrusting us with the safety of his consort again. For some, it is too painful a pill to swallow.”
“If Aeon continues to rot, no one can use it for anything. Do you intend to undo the curse after Adam is dead?”
Rima asked Wynter.
“I would if Cain asked it of me,”
Wynter replied.
“Which I won’t.”
Cain took one last sip of his wine and then set down his glass. “Hundreds of my kind were butchered there, including my father and an uncle who gave his life to save mine. Their blood stains that ground.”
It needed to be razed.
“So does the blood of many Aeons,”
Rima reminded him.
“Only those who chose to join Adam in unjustly attempting to wipe out my race.”
Every single one of those Aeons deserved what they got.
“I don’t dispute that. My concern is that there are other Aeons there. Ones who were not part of the war. They will be without a home. They won’t understand this world.”
Cain gave a delicate shrug. “I doubt they will need to learn, since it is highly unlikely that they will survive the upcoming battle.”
“Most of the Aeons who wronged you a millennia ago died in the war. Others fell recently, and Adam will soon meet that same fate. Why punish the last living Aeons?”
Cain felt his face harden. “Not all died in those wars. Many survived. Don’t try to tell me differently. It would be a lie, and you know it.”
Rima allowed that with a slight incline of her head. “Some are still alive, yes, but they don’t make up the majority of the population.”
“Perhaps. But none of that population will be spared because they will not ask to be spared. They have been raised to loathe the Ancients and consider us evil. Raised to believe that this cage is necessary; that we can’t be allowed to live unless confined this way. Why? Because Adam needed to be sure that no one would be tempted to free us. He needed to be sure that we would be eliminated if we ever managed to escape.”
Rima looked down at the table, biting her lip.
“And when we appear at Aeon, every one of them will fight to defend their home from the bogeymen they believe us to be.”
They’d do it fervently. “None will wave a white flag. None will choose not to join the battle. None will care about our plight. Am I wrong?”
Noah exhaled heavily, making the flame on one of the candles dance to the side. “No. No, you’re not. It would be pointless to even consider the possibility that you could form a treaty with any survivors. As you say, they will unite against you for certain. They fear and loathe you in equal measures.”
Seth sat back in his seat. “Which is another reason why we will not go to Aeon offering a truce to any who would consider sitting out the battle. We can’t—won’t—take the chance that their true plan is to later mount an attack on us. We cannot chance that they would attempt to shove us into yet another prison.”
“I understand that,”
said Rima, raising one hand in a placatory gesture. “I do. But what if they were to agree to be confined to Aeon?”
Seth slanted his head. “Tell me, Rima, how did you fare when being confined to my Keep for a few months?”
Her shoulders sagged. “I hated it.”
“So did I,”
mumbled Noah. “Likewise, our fellow Aeons would hate being caged in their own town.”
“It would not truly be an act of mercy,”
said Seth. “A cage is still a cage, no matter how comfortable and spacious it is.”
Rima sighed. “You’re right. I just wish things could be different.”
Eve again took in both Cain and Seth. “Would you allow me to help you attempt to break your prison? The power of four Aeons are woven into it. I am not one of them, but perhaps my power could nonetheless aid you all in unraveling it.”
Cain hadn’t expected the offer. It shocked even his creature. She might care for him and Seth, might even love them, but she wasn’t a mother in the typical sense of the word. They didn’t have the sort of bond that would pull at her to protect them.
Plus, Eve was something of a pacifist by nature. To help free the Ancients would also be to indirectly help them launch an attack on her old home. In that sense, she would be an accomplice. And since she had stayed out of all previous wars, preferring to remain neutral, he had thought it would take time to convince her to help them. He’d even been braced for her to refuse point-blank to do so.
“I let you down during the first war.”
Eve swallowed. “If I had stood up to Adam, if I had sided with you, perhaps I could have helped. Perhaps I would have instead simply died. In any case, by doing nothing I have always felt that I played a loose part in imprisoning you. The least I can do is assist you in righting that wrong.”
Appreciative of that, Cain dipped his chin. “You hold no blame in this, you have nothing to atone for. That said, we would be grateful for your assistance.”
He wished her words could have moved him somehow. Wished they could have punched through the wall of apathy he’d seemingly erected between them. Wished he could feel something as he looked upon his own mother. But still, he struggled with that.
Noah stroked a hand down the front of his shirt. “I will help as well.”
Cain exchanged a stunned look with Seth.
Rima gaped at her brother. “Noah. I’m not siding with Adam—far from it,”
she hurried to assure Cain and Seth. “But I’m also not keen on the idea of Aeon and its last inhabitants suffering for his sins.”
Noah thrust a hand through his hair. “Neither am I, but—”
“The place will be ravaged,”
Rima went on. “The people there will be killed.”
“Aeon is already being ravaged—the decay is more prevalent than ever,”
Noah pointed out. “And if the Ancients don’t take the war to Aeon, Adam will bring it here. Where we are. And then we could very well die. Not sure about you, but I want to live.”
Rima pressed her lips tight together.
“And you know full well that the Aeons there aren’t all goodness and light,”
Noah said to her. “They follow Adam. They always will. It was why we didn’t dare ask if any wanted to leave with us. We didn’t trust that they wouldn’t report it to him.”
Wynter took her napkin from her lap and carefully set it on the table. Her eyes soft, she said to Rima, “I get it. Aeon holds the home you shared with your mother; you hate the thought of it being destroyed.”
Cain blinked, not having looked at the situation from that angle.
“I understand,”
his consort went on. “I do. My mom lived there too, for a time.”
“You don’t care for Aeon, though,”
Rima pointed out, her voice clipped.
“Because my mom might have spent many of her years there, but she also suffered greatly at the end,”
said Wynter. “She was exiled—or, more specifically, marked for death—as I was. Completely paralyzed, she was tossed over the falls where she then drowned, powerless to help herself. So no, I don’t care for Aeon. But I do understand why you so hate the thought of the place meeting its end.”
Detesting the pain in his consort’s voice, Cain rested his hand on her thigh and gave it a comforting squeeze. He knew that part of her anguish came from not realizing until recently that her mother had never truly left Aeon; that her dead body had been so very close all along.
He also knew that there was some guilt mixed in with her hurt. Not only guilt at believing the lie that her mother was alive and in exile. Wynter also felt that some of the responsibility for her mother’s suffering lay with her. Because Davina Dellavale had given her life to spare that of her daughter’s; had pled guilty to bringing a ten-year-old Wynter back from the dead so that no one would know the truth.
He’d tried convincing Wynter on numerous occasions that her guilt was senseless. He’d insisted that there was no reason she shouldn’t have bought the lies she’d been told. He’d firmly stated that the only people who had any real hand in her mother’s death were the Aeons and the keeper who personally carried out the “exile”.
But that’s the thing about someone sacrificing their life to save yours, she’d once said to him. They meant it as a gift, but it will always feel like a heavy, painful weight.
Noah swallowed. “Our mother suffered there, too.”
Rima let out a heavy exhale, her gaze dulling. “Yes. She wasn’t happy. She spent most of her years pining for Abel.”
“She spent the rest of them hating him for forbidding other men to touch her,”
Noah chipped in. “She despised Adam with a blinding passion.”
Rima’s gaze went unfocused, as if she were lost in her memories. “Unable to move on and find happiness, she grew bitter and angry until there was no softness left in her. Both men killed it.”
Noah nodded. “I think she would be glad that Abel’s dead. I think she would support the Ancients in seeing Adam dead. And I don’t think she would care if Aeon fell. I think it might even bring her some peace.”
Rima’s shoulders lowered as all hostility seemed to seep from her body. “Yeah. Yeah, maybe.”
*
“Well,”
began Wynter later that evening as they entered Cain’s chambers, “that was sure the height of casual dinner conversation.”
She wasn’t gonna lie, she was glad the meal was over. “Something good came of it, though. Your plan to settle ruffled feathers worked with Eve and Noah.”
Cain flicked a hand to light the many candles. “I wasn’t expecting them to volunteer to help us.”
“Yeah, I was surprised too. Well, I guess you now know it’s extremely improbable that Eve and Noah are here to do Adam’s bidding. Sadly, we can’t be too sure about Rima yet, though I’m not certain her reluctance to help stems from anything other than the grudge she’s holding.”
“I’m rapidly losing my patience with her.”
Wynter gently laid her shawl over the armchair. “I noticed. She’s full of resentment and helplessness.”
“Helplessness?”
Cain echoed.
Wynter nodded. “I get it. She had to watch her mother suffer for years in various ways. She couldn’t do anything to make it better. I felt that same sense of powerlessness when I watched my mother be exiled and taken away. Being unable to help someone you love leaves its mark on you.”
His gaze flitting over her face, Cain tipped his head to the side. “You’re thinking that I should be able to empathize, given I was unable to help Eve when I was a child.”
“Maybe not empathize as such.”
It wasn’t something he seemed to be much good at. “But I figure you can at least intellectually understand.”
He sighed long and loud. “The chip on her shoulder that Seth spoke of will hold her back. She gives her emotions so much power over her that it weakens her.”
“Well, that chip didn’t hold her back from flinging bold question after bold question at you.”
Recalling something, Wynter said, “You told Rima you had an uncle who gave his life to save yours. What happened? You don’t have to tell me if you’d rather not talk about it, I won’t be upset or anything.”
“I don’t mind talking about it. Though there isn’t really much to tell. As it happens, you’ve probably heard of my uncle. His name was Baal.”
“As in the Baal who humans believe to be a demon?”
“Yes. They have a habit of mistaking Leviathans for demons.”
Cain opened the top two buttons of his shirt. “Anyway, Baal was my father’s youngest brother but much older than me. He was exceptionally powerful. Brutal in battle. Utterly fearless. Loyal to family. And when an Aeon blasted me with power, Baal leaped in front of me and took the hit.”
“Then, as much as I’m sorry he died and you lost an uncle, I’m grateful to him.”
“Seth said the same thing. Abaddon took his loss the hardest. He was close to Baal. Very close. It will be yet another death that haunts Abaddon when we wake him. But it must be done.”
“Is the plan to still go ahead with it tomorrow night?”
“Yes, though there’s no saying it won’t take more than one attempt to bring him out of his Rest.”
Sensing that he was eager to change the subject, she asked, “Want to do some raw and dirty stuff?”
Cain’s lips bowed up. “Always, pretty witch. Always.”
He slowly swept his gaze around the room. “I like that you brought more of your things here.”
She’d sensed that. When he’d earlier noticed the plant she’d propped on a nightstand and the books and bookends she’d set on a shelf she’d claimed, pure satisfaction had rippled across his face.
“I like seeing your possessions mixed with mine.”
He took a fluid step toward her, raking his gaze over the full length of her body. “I also like this dress.”
He put his face closer to hers. “But I want it on the floor.” He scraped her lower lip with his teeth. “I want every inch of you bare.”
Phantom fingertips ghosted up her spine as anticipation began to thrum through her. She licked her lips. “I can accommodate that wish.”
She shed her dress, underwear, and shoes.
Humming to himself, he began to slowly circle her, dancing his fingers over her tingling skin. “So very beautiful. You make me want to take a big bite.”
Facing her once more, he stepped back. “Don’t move.”
He kept his gaze fixed on hers as he undressed. “Such a well-behaved toy.”
She narrowed her eyes.
His brow inched up. “Oh, are we pretending you don’t like it when I refer to you as my toy?”
he asked, covering the small distance between them in one predatory step that sent her pulse wild.
“No. I simply didn’t like the taunting note in your voice. But then, you knew I wouldn’t.”
His lips kicked up. “Well, of course I knew.”
He dipped his head and kissed her, sweeping his tongue into her mouth.
Wynter held his shoulders as he melted her with a wickedly slow kiss that quickly turned wet, deep, and dominant. His hand collared her throat as he backed her into the wall. The shock of the cool stone against her skin made her gasp.
He kept on ravishing her mouth until their breaths were ragged and she started to feel dizzy. Wynter wrenched her lips free and sucked in some much needed air. With a low growl, he took her mouth again and closed his hands over her breasts. She arched into him with a soft moan, wanting more. So much more.
“I do love these pretty breasts,”
he said, squeezing them. “I love them so much more when they’re covered in my come.”
He swooped down and latched onto a nipple.
Her breath caught as he sucked hard, sending streaks of pleasure to her clit. He licked his way to her other nipple and suckled until it throbbed. Then he bit down on it.
She hissed at the sting. “Not too hard.”
Cain flicked her a silencing look. “I’ll bite you as hard as I please, pretty witch.”
He sank his teeth into the swell of one breast, and she knew he’d left a mark.
Wynter’s breath snagged in her throat as carnal, spinetingling pleasure breezed over her soul, hot and drugging. Oh, mother of God. Her nerve-endings fired up. The fine hairs on her body lifted. Her feminine parts went crazy.
The pleasure came again, surfing along her soul in a scorching crackly wave that bit and scraped like teeth and nails. More and more sensations assaulted her—some soft and gentle as a feather, some dark and sharp like the spank of a hand.
Endorphins flooded her body and made her head swim. Every part of her felt so ultra-sensitive she didn’t think she could take it. Her core was hot and wet and achy—worse, empty.
As yet more pleasure rolled over her very being, she became distantly aware of him dropping to his knees. Of a hand cuffing her ankle and snaking its way up her leg. Of sharp teeth nipping her inner thigh. But the soul-deep sensations made it hard for her to focus on the physical.
“Such silky smooth skin.”
He tossed her leg over his shoulder and nuzzled her pussy—and that she easily focused on. “Hmm, deliciously slick. I’m going to lick you clean.”
Wynter groaned as a tongue swiped between her folds in a long, sensual lick that ended with a lash to her clit. Oh, Jesus. She slapped her hands onto the wall behind her, careful not to knock the nearby tapestry.
Her eyes fluttered closed as his tongue lashed and delved. The friction inside her built with every lick, flick, and stab of his blessed tongue. Then there was the wicked assault on her soul. So many sensations . . . There was heat. There was cold. There was pain. There was pleasure. It all blended together and shoved her closer to her release. God, she was gonna come so hard.
He stopped. It all stopped.
Her eyes snapped open as a growl of frustration scraped the back of her throat. “Motherfucking sadist.”
Cain stood, not bothering to fight the urge to smile. “At your service.”
There was something exhilarating about seeing her caught on the knife-edge of an orgasm, desperate to come and furious with him for making her wait.
He wouldn’t make her wait any longer, though. Couldn’t. He needed to be inside her. His dick was so full and heavy it hurt.
He lifted her and hooked her legs over the crooks of his elbows. “Now be a good little toy and let me wreck you.”
He thrust upwards, slamming his cock deep, gritting his teeth as her inner walls gripped him tight.
The breath whooshed out of her, and her head fell back. “Jesus,”
she rasped, clutching his upper arms.
He licked his way up the lifegiving vein in her neck. His inner creature wanted to bite it. Taste her blood. Inject its venom into her so it would be part of her. “You have no idea how badly my monster wants to mark you right now. It’ll do it soon, Wynter. You and I both know it.”
Cain used the weight of his upper body to pin her in place as he fucked her. He took her hard. Aggressively. Possessed her like a feral beast caught in a frenzied mating.
Even as he pounded into her pussy, he repeatedly struck her soul with waves, whips, and featherlight flicks of electric pleasure/pain. She was with him every step of the way, verbally urging him on.
His balls tightened when her eyes lost focus and turned cloudy, as if she was floating in some in-between space. Knowing he didn’t have long before his release took him, he changed his angle, ensuring he hit her clit with every bruising thrust.
She sucked in a sharp breath and dug her nails harder into his upper arms as her pussy began to spasm. “Cain, I need to come,”
she all but whimpered, her eyes now wet with tears.
He groaned, his cock swelling. “So do it. Come on, let go, cry for me. Yes, that’s my baby.”
They both came together—her screaming and shaking, him snarling and ramming his cock hard into her body over and over.
As they trembled with aftershocks, Cain buried his face in her neck, utterly sated. His monster made a low hiss of complaint, acutely feeling the absence of a bond to the woman it had chosen as its own. Soon, Cain assured it. They’d be bound soon.