Bloodlines (Bloodlines, #1)(58)

Of course, part of my duty to the Alchemists was looking after Jill, and whatever was plaguing her now obviously was connected to her welfare. For half a second, I considered lying to her and immediately dismissed the idea. I couldn’t do it. If I was going to keep her secret, I would keep it. If I wasn’t going to keep it, then I would let her know up front.

“I won’t tell,” I said. I think the words surprised me as much as her. She studied me in the dim light and must have at last decided I was telling the truth. She gave a slow nod.

“Adrian and I are bound. Like, with a spirit bond.”

I felt my eyes widen in disbelief. “How did that—” Everything suddenly clicked together, the missing pieces. “The attack. You—you—”

“Died,” said Jill bluntly. “There was so much confusion when the Moroi assassins came. Everyone thought they were coming for Lissa, so most of the guardians went to surround her. Eddie was the only one who came for me, but he wasn’t fast enough. This man, he . . .” Jill touched a spot in the center of her chest and shuddered. “He stabbed me. He . . . he killed me. That’s when Adrian came along. He used spirit to heal me and bring me back, and now we’re bound. Everything happened so fast. No one there even realized what he did.”

My mind was reeling. A spirit bond. Spirit was a troubling element to the Alchemists, mostly because we had so few records of it. Our world was documents and knowledge, so any gap made us feel weak. Signs of spirit use had been recorded over the centuries, but no one had really realized it was its own element. Those events had been written off as random magical phenomena. It was only recently, when Vasilisa Dragomir had exposed herself, that spirit had been rediscovered, along with its myriad psychic effects. She and Rose had had a spirit bond, the only modern one we had documented. Healing was one of spirit’s most notable attributes, and Vasilisa had brought Rose back from a car accident. It had forged a psychic connection between them, one that had only been shattered when Rose had had a second near-death experience.

“You can see in his he