Chapter 22 #2
“What are you thinking?” he ignored her apology, his eyes searching hers.
“I’m thinking I’m an idiot for not working it out sooner,” she admitted, with an attempt at a smile.
“About the pair bond?”
“No, about who you are,” she said quickly, her eyes narrowing. “Why? When did you figure out the … pair bond?”
Her tongue tripped over the words, feeling unnatural and alien to her.
She’d heard of mating bonds being formed; many of the legends told over campfires revolved around them, but none of them spoke of one formed between a lower artemian and a Dragon.
She didn’t even know it was possible. It was a type of magic reserved for the immortals, a connection tying two souls together in a bond so powerful, so unbreakable, that death itself was the only thing that could sever it… and even that rarely ended well.
“When I kissed you, the night the thieves attacked.” He flicked the twig he’d been playing with into the fire, watching it burn with a hard intensity.
The light of the flames flickered over his profile, drawing attention to the perfect line of his jaw.
She hadn’t had much of a chance to unravel her feelings about whatever it was connecting them, but he had, and he definitely didn’t look happy about it.
The realisation knotted painfully in her stomach.
“Is there nothing we can do about it?” she asked, half hoping he’d say he didn’t want to, half terrified that there was no escaping it.
He didn’t look away from the flames, but a muscle in his jaw feathered.
“It’s not fully formed yet. We’d have to accept it to complete it.” He finally looked back up at her, catching her expectant expression and sighing. “We’d have to sleep together.”
Aelia took a step backwards.
“Was that what that was about?” Aelia pointed to the wall he’d had her perched on. Would he have stopped had she not panicked? Or would he have kept going, committing them to this bond without ever consulting her?
“No,” Keeran insisted, anger permeating every line of his body. “You think I’d do that? Take that decision from you? Who the fuck do you think I am, Aelia?”
“I don’t know who you are,” Aelia snapped back, hackles rising at his tone.
“I don’t have a fucking clue. You’ve lied to me every moment we’ve been together, which I can’t exactly blame you for, all things considered, but it does mean you forsake the right to get defensive when I then struggle to piece it all together. ”
Keeran leapt to his feet, shoulders tense and fists bunched. How had she not realised what he was? Standing before her now, he was every inch a warrior, a beast, a Dragon.
“You may not have known what I am, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know me,” he said, with careful restraint. He couldn’t hide the black encroaching into his irises, though.
“What is that?” Aelia took a step back, not sure if she was on the verge of raging at him or bursting into tears.
It was too much; she felt emotionally wrung out, physically exhausted.
After everything that had happened in Callodosis, this was tipping her over the edge of her control.
“It’s like there’s something else looking back out at me. ”
Her voice trembled. Great, her body was opting for tears.
She pressed her lips together, squeezing hard as she tried to hold them back.
Keeran’s face softened immediately, the darkness vanishing as soon as he saw her distress.
He took a step closer, arm outstretched towards her.
Aelia recoiled, knowing she’d lose the fight with her tears if he was nice to her, if she let him take her in his arms.
He froze and lowered his hand.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know, Aelia, just please, come here.” Worry creased his brow as he took her in, reading the panic threatening to overwhelm her.
But she just shook her head, taking another step away from him.
“I can’t think here.” Her voice broke, and she cursed her own weakness. “I need some space. Don’t follow me.”
Aelia spun on her heel and stalked to her horse.
“Aelia, wait, it’s pitch black out there.” Keeran crossed the clearing in a matter of strides, watching her untie her horse and slinging the rope around its neck to tie the loose end to the halter. “You can’t seriously be going out without any tack.”
Aelia sprang onto her horse’s back, grabbing hold of the rope and touching her heels to its flank. The horse skittered to the side, pivoting around where Keeran held it firmly beneath the chin.
“Let go,” she snarled, too desperate to get away, to hide her tears from him, to think about anything else.
Keeran looked silently up at her, a world of pain and fear buried in his eyes. For a moment, she didn’t want to go, she wanted to slip right into his arms and cry until the world started to make sense again. But then he released his hold on the rope.
They stared into each other’s eyes for a second that stretched for an eternity, before she gritted her teeth and pressed her horse on. It dropped into a canter and took off into the night.