Chapter 6
Breaking [ brāy -king ] noun
The process of severing of a bond between Talents achieved by applying simultaneous external stimuli to the linked individuals.*
*Preexisting emotional rapport between pairings results in coma and/or death, recommending the practice of assigning bonds between ambivalent partners and immediate physical separation once a pregnancy becomes viable.
– Excerpt from A Treatise on Talents , Third Edition
“There have been few instances of talent calling to talent documented since the Surge, however the occurrence is so rare that in this day and age it must be completely discounted. Much like the antiquated notion of ‘love at first sight’, the so called ‘pull’ is nothing more than a dangerous fallacy. It is your responsibility to bond wisely within your line by contracting a mate of similar ability. As future leaders of Glynfyls, it falls to you to continue your respective Houses in a responsible manner. Mingling between lines almost always results in the unsavory creation of twists.”
– Lady Valtroy, Academy Headmistress ,
Glynfyls
It was still dark when Kara awoke wrapped in Flynn’s arms. She basked in his warmth. For the first time in weeks, that stupid gnawing to breed was a bare whisper in her loins, their ache due to an entirely different reason. A smile flitted across her lips.
She’d had no idea sex could be like that. Waves of Riegel’s fury lashed through their link, and she smiled, not caring. She hoped he’d felt all of it. Flynn’s arm tightened around her. How a sub made her feel so safe she hadn’t a clue, but he did.
It was a shame… She snuggled back against him, unwilling to finish the thought. She’d enjoy this while it lasted.
Flynn propped himself onto his elbow, pulling her close. His hair was in disarray, face muzzy in the flickering lantern light. All his sharp edges had softened, and those hazel-green eyes… He nuzzled behind her ear, beard prickling her skin. She shivered at more than his touch. Even with the fire blazing, it was cold in the little room. It must be subzero outside.
“You good?” He brushed back her hair, nose grazing hers. For all his rough talk, he could be so gentle. Kara smiled, and he echoed it, his thumb tracing her dimple.
“Perfect. You?”
“Starving. Wanna sandwich?”
She pulled him down for a lingering kiss. “As long as I don’t have to make it.”
He chuckled, sitting up. Kara ran her hand over the ridges crisscrossing his back. It looked like he’d been beaten with a lash. He heaved himself to his feet with a grunt, struggling into his sweatpants. Cold air filled the space he’d left, leaving her oddly bereft. She pulled on a shirt, watching him hobble over to the cabinet, his limp worse.
When they were together, she had the worst urge to heal him, her halos actually glowing, like something was trying to pull talent from her. She couldn’t explain it. Maybe it was because he was so broken. Slices, bullet holes and brands, blunt force trauma, she could erase all of it in less than a heartbeat?—
She laughed. He’d pulled out the biggest jar of peanut butter she’d ever seen.
“What? I told you I had another jar.”
“That’s a keg.”
He shrugged. “You want honey?” His grin widened at her expression. He came back to bed carrying a stack eight sandwiches high.
“How many do you think I’m going to eat?”
“Dunno, these are all for me.” She smacked him with a pillow and, man, that smile of his… “Okay, okay. I suppose you can have a couple.” He handed her one on a paper towel, and she crunched into the airy cracker-ish bread stack.
After all of the ligament work she’d done in the Creche, healing Flynn’s knee would take half a second. The odds of anyone sensing her do it were slim. Nora had said the vector’s range ended around Greyburn. They were practically there. Besides, she owed him her life… And she liked him, a lot more than she should.
He wasn’t comfortable with talent, but if she did it while he was distracted?—
He’d thank her once it was done, and she’d be safe this one time, probably. Clinical Kara screamed about what would happen if she was wrong, and she ignored it. What were his other options? Surgery in some backwater? She had no idea what passed for a medical center out here; most places didn’t even have power. They were supposed to be leaving anyways, and how would he drive like that? She could do something for him, something she was good at.
Kara glanced up to find him watching her with a bemused expression.
“That last half off, or is your sweet tooth finally satisfied?”
She swept the crumbs from the bed. “Never, I was just wishing we didn’t have to go so soon.”
“Sun’s not up yet.” The deep rumble of his voice resonated in her bones, drawing her like a lodestone. Her face raised as he leaned forward, claiming her mouth with his .
Their lust was electric, more than she thought intercourse could be; an intimacy beyond the physical. Her hands traveled along his shoulders, fingers burying in his hair. She fell back onto sheets heady with passion, eyes devouring his scarred physique. Brutish and menacing—so at odds with his touch. His lips dropped to tease her breast through the rough fabric, peaking its tip. She inhaled sharply, tender from his attentions, nails tracing the lines of his back as he moved to her throat.
“Tell me how you want my cock.” His words warmed her cheeks as much as her core. He grinned like a Cheshire Cat, knowing what his filthy mouth did to her. “Else, I can’t give it to you…”
He wouldn’t either. Ugh, he was the worst tease… She bit her lip, looking up at him through her lashes. “Maybe like that second time?”
“Mmm…” He nibbled on her neck. “Me on top, pinning your wrists above your head, fucking you slow and deep while you beg to come?”
Kara’s inhale was ragged. “All but that last part.”
“Last part’s non-negotiable.” His hands glided up her waist, leaving prickles of gooseflesh in their wake. “I love it when you beg for my dick.”
She trembled, but it wasn’t just from his words. That strange resonance in her talent was back, pulling at her. His forehead wrinkled, like he could sense it, too. Whatever it was, she didn’t care. Nothing but feeling him mattered. Ignoring its hum, she brought the shirt up over her head. She’d heal him now, before they left.
“I love it when you give it to me.”
Flynn watched her take her shirt off, the pull intensifying. It’d been steadily increasing each time they’d been together. He was playing with fire and didn’t care. Vanilla had never tasted so fucking good. Being with her… Shit. He could do this, he knew her limits now.
And fuck it just being last night. He had no intention of stopping, period. The rational part of him screamed about what lay down the road he was on, but then she met his eyes with those damn halos. Their glow, her scent—Christ, her fucking body?—
His sweatpants joined the shirt.
Her hand was on him, her mouth… He couldn’t get enough. Her breasts overflowing his palms, the contour of her hips, her wetness in his beard, the taste of his release tinging hers—He tensed his bum knee, pain chasing away the urge to sink his teeth into her flesh, to mark her as his, to hear her scream?—
No. He ground the damned thing into the mattress until he gasped. He wouldn’t hurt her. Fuck, he could never hurt her. Not like that. And she wasn’t his. Couldn’t be.
Goddamn, he wanted her to be.
The resonance grew stronger, humming through his body. He slid between her thighs, pinning her wrists, moaning as her tight heat enveloped him. So fucking tight. At his mercy.
His.
Kara arched and he retreated. God, what would it feel like to thrust to the hilt, have her claw at him as he bottomed out deep inside her, her blood on his tongue?—
No.
Gentle. He would be gentle…
“Please, Flynn…” She moaned, wrapping her heels around his hips, urging him to take her harder.
Damn, she was killing him. He put more weight on his knee, the air in the room heavy, gritting his teeth against the pain. She didn’t know what she was asking for. This was enough. It had to be. Anymore and he’d fucking lose it.
He wanted to lose it.
No.
She’d hate him. He panted against her, squeezing his eyes shut, hips pumping, the pull like a living thing. She strained to meet him, her halos ablaze, creating stark shadows against the ceiling?—
The tingle of talent washed over him, and Flynn’s eyes flew open.
She’d—FUCK!
He screamed, the tingle turning painful as it rearranged his flesh, every mark on him searing open, then healing without a trace. His nose crunched and reformed, the pain in his knee evaporated. Every scar and injury?—
Gone.
A bind, she’d thrown out a fucking bind! He met her eyes in a panic, talent pulling—demanding—he use his own. His halos flared, bathing her in a verdigris glow.
She gasped. “You’re a Talent?!”
His guts roiled. Her seeing them paint the room with a verdant green fire of the same intensity as her halos’ golden luminescence was the least of his problems. Talent continued to build around them, lashing them together, pleasure searing through him to her, its siren call unescapable.
Kara gave a soft cry, succumbing to the power, her fingers digging into his biceps, back arching, writhing beneath him, lost in it. Flynn moaned at the sharp bite of her nails, his body on autopilot, pulling out and flipping her around. Goddamn, that ass… He thrust into her from behind, jerking her back against his chest, one hand pillaging between her thighs, the other locked around her throat. “What the fuck, Kara?” he growled against her ear.
She whimpered, her body clenching at his, legs shaking, her scent subtly changing. The base of his spine tingled in response, heat surging through him. “I didn’t—ah!” Her pleasure crested, the slickness of her passion pulsing around him, motherf—He fought to hold back—Christ, it was too fucking late—the pull, her talent, scent, his all-consuming need for her—Caught up in the web of power, it wouldn’t let them go.
Did he want it to?
Fuck it. With a loud groan, he surrendered, releasing his seed and talent with a lightning strike of power running from him to her, sealing their bond.
Something snapped.
What the?—
His concern was ripped away by the barrage of talent recoiling on them, melding hers with his, knitting them together in a cocoon of power. They floated in a sea of satiation. A dark, velvet eternity lasting only a breath .
Their halos winked out, and the strange force withdrew, leaving them sweat-drenched and shaken on the bed.
Groaning, Flynn rolled off her. You gotta be fucking ? —
“What…what are you?” She jumped up, pulling a sheet around herself and scrambling for her clothes, eyes wide and frightened.
“What am I? Do you have any idea what the fuck you just did!?” He scrubbed his hands over his face, smooth and unbroken. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He felt the shirt’s tag scratching the back of Kara’s neck, her confusion and terror flowing into him through the bond. Flynn gripped his head tighter. Christ, it wasn’t supposed to be this raw, all these emotions and impressions?—
“What did I do? I—it was supposed to be a trickle to heal that ligament, not a—Why did all that talent gather?”
She had to be fucking kidding, but she wasn’t. She genuinely had no fucking idea what the fuck she’d just done. He thought they were screwed? They were fucked. A burble of manic laughter escaped his lips.
“I didn’t think you’d let me otherwise!”
He threw up his hands and kept laughing, pulling on his sweatpants. She gasped at his face, taking a step back. Christ, he didn’t need this shit again?—
“Yeah, well, you’re right about that.” He snarled. “For a pretty obvious reason, wouldn’t you say? You’ve gone and bonded us!”
“How’s that even…” Kara bared her teeth, eyes narrowed. “What are you, some kind of Breaker? How are you hiding your halos?”
He staggered back from her ferocity. How was he feeling all of this from her? Was she getting the same from him? Flynn tore at his beard in frustration. “Don’t they teach you Sourcies anything? You never use talent when you’re?—”
She sprang at him, pinning him down in half a heartbeat. He swallowed the massive burst of lust shooting through him.
Damn, she was fierce! How had she knocked him back like that?
She leaned close, searching his eyes. His pulse sped, her aggression fueling his arousal. Her own answering in turn. A growl was in his throat. He moved to flip her onto her back, but she was faster.
Evading his grip, she backed away, breathing hard. “Oh no, that's why I left. Not a chance you’re trapping me like this. I don’t know who or what you are, but I’m not staying!” She ripped the curtain across the bathroom door, leaving him panting on the bed.
She was definitely able to feel his emotions as clearly as he was feeling hers.
Fuck.
Kara kicked at the pile of laundry by the toilet.
Leaving. How could she leave? She could feel him out there, his panic, desire, amusement—Amusement? Ugh, he was such a jerk! She chewed at her thumb, her own emotions threatening to eat her up, never mind his.
She’d bonded him. How was that possible? Talents didn’t live Outside, but here he was—What bloodlines could he possibly have? He wasn’t a Binder, their offspring was going to be a twist…
She rubbed her aching temples.
What was she going to do?
She laughed, sitting on the edge of the tub, limp.
What could she do? All she’d been running from, she’d run right into.
She was breeding stock.
Flynn didn’t have halos, but he did. Was his talent some kind of a natural mutation? Those wide hazel-green eyes—She fought against the pull to go to him. Ugh! I’m not an animal! —they’d given no indication he was talented. But the bond?—
And she’d done it to herself.
Kara bit at her thumb. He’d done something too, she was sure of it, she just didn’t know what. She buried her face in her hands.
Riegel was going to kill him. Terror filled her. She mentally groped at the back of her skull, where his link had coiled for as long as she could?—
It was gone. There was only the warm glow of Flynn’s agitation and concern.
That’s what he’d done .
He’d broken Riegel’s hold on her.
She laughed, tears running down her cheeks.
After this, after all of this, she was finally free of him.
Flynn tried to separate Kara’s emotions from his, her laugh on the other side of the curtain not helping.
She’d bonded him. Of course she had.
Fucking Cal.
Somehow, he was positive it was the old man’s fault. This wasn’t supposed to happen, not now, shit, not ever, and not with a fucking Binder! He wasn’t?—
Damn it. He scratched at his beard, feeling the smooth skin beneath it.
It wasn’t real… Was it?
The fact that Kara had fixed him up bang-spanking new, and the spaghetti of her tangled emotions pouring through the bond they now shared said otherwise. He ran a shaking hand over his lips.
What did he just do?
Christ, that was bullshit. He’d known exactly what he’d been risking since that first night on the road. Talent had marked them when they’d touched. Pegged them as fucking soulmates for Christ’s sake. True equals. And that goddamned dream he’d had in Diytan… He laughed, pulling at his hair. He was living in a goddamned fairytale.
Damn it.
He couldn’t lay this on Kara’s doorstep, having done his own part willingly. Fuck, eagerly. She didn’t have a clue, it wasn’t like that for Sourcies. Shit, it wasn’t like that for Northern Talents either.
He still should’ve known better and stopped it.
“Fuck my life. The fucking pull,” he muttered, looking heavenward through the window, past the low clouds sweeping their dusky vestments across the sky.
Eleven months, three weeks, and one day.
Sorry, Mom. I fucking tried.
Flynn scratched at his beard again, oddly bereft without his scars. His indignation rapidly being replaced by remorse. Damn it, it wasn’t Cal and never had been. He was in a trap of his own making, courtesy of his dick.
Kara’s laughter broke off, and the curtain pulled back. She stood there, wiping her eyes. “We need to talk.”
The call came through less than a minute after Riegel was hit with the recoil from his bond to Kara breaking. All of his synapses had fired at once, the pain excruciatingly divine, leaving him with a fraction of the talent he’d previously enjoyed. Ielle smiled, rolling off him, no doubt thinking his expression was due to her skill.
He didn’t disabuse her of the notion.
The communication orb chimed again. Composing himself, he answered.
Nells’s voice filtered from the blue sphere. “The vector picked up a massive surge about thirty miles south of Greyburn, then disappeared without a trace. I’m not quite sure what it was, sir.”
Though the loss of Kara’s bond wasn’t ideal, the circumstances would suit Riegel’s plans admirably. He’d lead them out to investigate an anomaly, then bring back his prize. “I thought the vector had been reassigned.”
The sound of Nells flipping through holos ate up a moment.
“Something about the processing time for the correct forms, sir.”
Riegel grinned. Sabet.
“Very good, Nells. Prepare to deploy.” The orb winked out, and Riegel rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He turned to Ielle. “Sorry, darling, I’ll have to attend to your needs another time.”
The courtesan pulled the crimson silk sheet up over her breasts, glaring at him. She was quite fetching when she was angry. He raised a sardonic eyebrow, not even her viper tongue could spoil his good mood.
“You’ve found Kara then. Bully for you. Just what do you plan to do once you have her, Riegel? She’ll push out an offspring then be bonded to another. Even odds on whether Titus nullifies you for Kasham or culls you afterwards. I don’t understand why that gets you so hard.”
His grin widened, watching her slap her palm with a crop. Ielle’s halos glowed lavender, and the skin on his torso bubbled. His halos flashed carmine in response. She cried out, pushing back into the pillows, unrepentant as he came toward her, fire in his gaze. His hand circled her throat. The other slid to her groin. Where his fingers trailed, he left a ruin of broken blood vessels, gifting her with the pain she craved.
Ielle moaned in unbridled ecstasy. Crushing her lips beneath his, Riegel left them weeping scarlet. She was always so eager to bleed for him. Well, anyone really, though he liked to think he made her scream just a bit louder than the rest. He certainly did for her.
Rising, he began to dress. “Will you miss me while I’m gone, my sweet?” He smiled at her breathless nod, watching her curl into a small ball with a satiated whimper.