Chapter 27 #2
Pain lanced through my abdomen as he lifted me, and I flinched despite myself.
Something vicious flashed across his face.
He carried me toward a large wooden table against the wall and set me atop it with impossible care before stepping between my knees.
Candlelight flickered across the blood covering his chest and shoulders.
He leaned closer, whispering against my skin, “Where are you hurt?”
I placed my hands against his shoulders, trying to create some distance between us. “Thank you… for stepping in,” I whispered. “If you hadn’t, it would have been far worse.” My fingers came away bloodied. “But now you are the one who is injured.”
“My pain is irrelevant. I have endured far worse and survived. I gave you my word. I will not break it. When we are bonded, no one will ever lay a hand on you again.”
Heat curled strangely through me despite everything.
“Your offer…,” I began softly, the words catching despite my effort to keep them steady. “What does it truly mean?” My cheeks warmed, but I didn’t look away. “I understand what you want from me…, but I need to know something first.”
I hesitated only a breath.
“If I am yours…” I continued, quieter still. “Are you mine as well?”
A smirk curved his mouth, blood still marking his jaw. “Would you be jealous if I sought another, little Bondward?” he murmured, the nickname settling through me in a way I couldn’t fully explain. But that wasn’t an answer. Irritation flickered. Before I could snap, his expression changed again.
“Now tell me where you’re hurt.”
His hand slid slowly from my shoulder down the center of my chest before settling against my stomach. I flinched as his palm spread over the injured skin beneath the cloak. A growl rumbled from deep in his chest as he pulled the fabric aside, exposing the bruising beneath.
His touch moved carefully across the reddened skin. I expected pain. Instead, the warmth of his hand combined with the rough rhythm of his breathing near my neck sent goosebumps racing.
“Their mark will not linger,” he whispered against my hair. “I’ll erase their scent from you.”
He kissed the skin beneath my ear, rubbing his cheek against it. A deep ache stirred through me, almost impossible to suppress. I did so anyway.
“Stop.”
He pulled back, his eyes lifting to mine. I held his stare, my pulse unsteady.
“There isn’t time for this. Don’t you have any other thoughts besides fucking me?” I snapped.
His hand pressed firmly against my bruised skin.
Pain flared through me, forcing a gasp from my throat as his other hand immediately closed around it.
“Do not speak to me that way.” He murmured, his voice low.
“You’re injured. And still defiant. You will require firm teaching once you belong to me. ”
I glared at him and tried to wrench his hands away. “That is not what I want.”
His thumb brushed once against my throat, and the look on his face turned dangerously intent.
“The moment you are bonded to me,” he said, “what you want will become irrelevant. I will make certain you think of nothing but me between your thighs. No fear. No doubt. No other concern occupying that defiant mind of yours.”
“Stop. Speaking. Now.” I bit out, pushing against his chest with every word despite the pain tearing through my stomach. “My uncle was murdered, you stupid brute!”
The words cracked through the dungeon. Silence followed. He stilled completely. Then, slowly, he stepped back. The heat vanished from his expression as something colder settled into its place. Calculation.
“Now that I have your attention… Marcus expects me to keep you in line. Though I don’t know why he thinks I can.”
“Hmm,” he merely grunted.
“The Imperator killed my uncle.” The words felt foreign.
I looked away, unwilling to let him see how deeply they cut before forcing myself to continue.
“But Marcus set it up. Elion was working on something before he died. Some kind of elixir. He never had the chance to explain it. But he told Marcus I was the only one capable of continuing his work. That no other Bondward possessed the magic to replicate what he had found. I believe it has something to do with my piercing, and therefore yours as well.”
I lifted my gaze again, resolute. “I have his journal, and the key to open it. I haven’t read it yet. Whatever he discovered must have threatened something far greater than we understood. Or he wouldn’t have been silenced for it.”
I closed my eyes, putting my pride aside. “I need your help.”
He studied me in silence for a moment.
“What you ask of me is no small task,” he said.
“Turning against Marcus means little to me. But you are asking me to rise against a system that has ruled for years, against the Imperator himself.” When he spoke again there was something unguarded beneath the steel.
“The man who has taken everything from me.”
His admission struck deeper than any shout could have. But I had to convince him.
“I—”
“I promise you this,” he interrupted, voice hardening. “Kharos and I will tear this empire down to its foundation.”
The chains shifted as he straightened.
“I will rip the crown from Varos’s head and lay it at your feet. All of them will burn for what they’ve done, and I won’t stop until there is nothing left of them but ash.”
Power radiated from him. My piercing pulsed and hope followed—
“But…,” he continued. “Only if you become my Bondward in full.”
Fuck. Vengeance was within reach. I could feel it. His strength was unmatched already. If I bonded with him… and joined the rebellion we might truly make a difference.
Goddess. I’d have to give up my freedom.
Submit to him. Maybe there was another way.
If the warriors could cast their Bondwards aside, then maybe there was a way for me to break the bond as well.
Maybe it wouldn’t be permanent. I’d just have to play along, long enough to destroy everyone who’d ever wronged me. My resolve hardened.
“Fine,” I whispered.
A slow satisfaction spread across his features. “Good. Tomorrow I will claim you. Be ready… They will take us to the Temple of Lunarion. Bind us before the Goddess.”
A cold smile touched his mouth.
“Your magic tied to mine will make me unstoppable. Kharos will become something they’ve never seen before.
Let them think they command me. I allowed Marcus that illusion for years because it suited me.
It does not suit me any longer. They’ll think they’re strengthening their weapon.
What they created… is a monster. And I do not bleed for rulers, or Lanistas, or crowds. ”
His eyes locked onto mine, unyielding.
“You bind yourself to me… and I will bleed for you.”
For a moment, I said nothing. He was working his way inside me—testing every fracture, every weakness, until somehow his presence rooted itself there anyway.
Dangerous. Unwelcome. And yet the hollow ache inside me no longer felt quite so empty.
I looked up at him, really taking him in.
He truly seemed capable of destroying an empire.
“Marcus will want your oath of loyalty renewed tomorrow,” I whispered.
“Sleep, little Bondward,” he murmured. “Tell Marcus I am loyal once more. Tomorrow, everything changes.”
I held his gaze one final breath, then slid down the table before climbing the stairs from the dungeon, each step steadier than the last, conviction burning where naivety had once lived.
Sleep didn’t come. No matter how tightly I closed my eyes or how often I turned the night over in my mind. When dawn finally broke, I rose without hesitation and dressed in new leathers, a hard clarity settling over me. Nothing after today would resemble what had come before.
I fastened my satchel at my hip and grabbed Elion’s. The clasp hung crooked. I stilled.
The metal around the lock had been bent inward, the leather warped around it as if someone had forced it open in haste.
How had I not noticed it sooner? My pulse lurched as I looked inside.
The insignia still lay where I had left it.
Thank the goddess for the hidden compartment.
But the journal wasn’t there. I searched again—faster this time, fingers shoving through the contents as though it might somehow appear if I only looked hard enough. It wasn’t there.
No!
I emptied the satchel onto the desk. Vials, cloth, and loose papers scattered wildly across its surface.
My thoughts tripped over themselves as I retraced every moment of the night.
The dungeon. Marcus. His office. The way his expression shifted as he handed me Elion’s satchel.
Cold realization slid into place. He had taken it.
My hands curled against the wood, fury rising fast and clean, burning away the last remnants of hesitation.
He had stripped away my only chance of uncovering the truth.
I would get it back.
I forced myself to move. Gathered everything and repacked the satchels with deliberate care.
The cures I’d made with Vayren were still glowing.
He was right. Once we were bonded, he and Kharos would be unstoppable.
The image of him snapping Marcus’s neck flickered through my mind.
A dark sense of satisfaction unfurled through me.
There was no room left for pity. Or mercy. Not anymore.
I didn’t know what the temple would demand. What it would cost. But whatever came… at Vayren’s side, I would endure it.
The morning passed quickly. I forced my way through breakfast beside Jorius and the other Bondwards, speaking little while his attention remained on me throughout the meal, watchful and increasingly suspicious.
More than once he asked if I was truly well, remarking that I seemed far too calm for someone who had endured the night before.
I gave him little in return, and eventually he frowned and muttered that he would see me during training.
He didn’t understand. This wasn’t peace. It was preparation.