Forced Bonds (The Bonds That Tie, #4)(49)

It doesn’t answer me. Instead, it curls up in my chest and goes back to watching Sawyer obsessively, taking Nox’s safety to a whole new level of crazy.

I glance over and find Gryphon staring at me as though he's seeing me for the first time. “You're talking to it.”

I shrug and roll my shoulders back, uncomfortable now that I have everybody's attention. “Yeah. I told you she's a cantankerous, unhelpful bitch.”

He doesn’t find that amusing, he just doubles down. “You're asking it questions though.”

Why the hell does that even matter? “Yes, well, it is an independent thing that lives inside of me and has its own thoughts and opinions and knowledge.”

Gryphon leans forward in his seat, planting one hand on the table in front of him as though he's trying to get something through to me that I’m too dense to see for myself. “Where does it get this knowledge from? If it's only ever lived inside of you, how does it know more than you? How does it know anything that you don’t?”

I have no answers, but my eyes flick towards North.

His jaw is tight and he looks incredibly irritated that this conversation is even happening, but he speaks for me. “They've been here before. Our bonds are far older than we are, and they aren't joking when they say that they belong to each other. This isn’t their first time on this earth, or their first time being bonded to each other.”

I don't let the shock that I feel show on my face, because I don't want to call him out like that, so I'm very careful about sending just to him, blocking Gryphon out, I didn't think you spoke to your bond. I didn't think you guys got along.

He doesn't look back my way either as he replies, After I found out that Nox’s bond was spending time with yours, I had a conversation with it to assess whether or not it was coming out and speaking to your bond as well. There have been some nights that you’ve slept in my room where I’ve woken up tired, and I wanted confirmation and to know what exactly goes on between them.

Holy shit. And what did it say?

It said that it couldn't stay away from your bond any more than I can stay away from you. There is something going on here, Oleander, something bigger than us, bigger than our community, and bigger than the Resistance itself. We need to figure out how to get all of us through it alive and unscathed.

I swallow and glance at Nox, the only other person in this room who might have some input on our bonds, to see how he is taking all of this in, but he is just staring at his hands, stretching his fingers out and then curling them into a fist, over and over again.

Gabe groans and rubs a hand over his eyes like this day has drained his will to live. “Do you think we would know if we came across someone else with these sorts of bonds inside them? Do you think that we could tell? Or is this all just us walking around in the dark until someone comes and attacks us again? Another bond like yours, but one who’s aligned to the Resistance… What a fucking nightmare.”

“Thank God it isn't another Death Dealer,” says Nox, finally breaking his silence. Sawyer snaps back at him, “A Neuro is just as bad.”

Nox rolls his eyes back at him, sneering, “It’s highly doubtful that a Neuro is worse than somebody who can manipulate shadow creatures to kill indiscriminately, Benson. Just because you are furious that your sister was used as the weapon, doesn't mean that we need to be stupid about this.”

I glance over at Sage and her eyes meet mine.

She’s sandwiched between Felix and Kieran, both of them glued to her side now that they have been reunited, and there's a little color coming back to her cheeks as she is piecing herself back together. I think the confirmation that it definitely was someone in her head was the news that she’d really needed, but also finding out that it was someone with unimaginable amounts of power has helped as well. There's no way to fight my bond, and I've never seen anyone fight off North or Nox’s bonds either, so how could she have possibly fought back against a Neuro like that?

Impossible.

It was never her fault.

Nox says, “We need to go through the history books. If this isn't the first time that they have lived together, then there has to be some records somewhere of it.”

Gryphon shrugs. “The last time someone was able to Soul Rend on this earth, they could only kill a handful of people at a time, and their eyes flashed white. When I found out what Oli could do, it was the first thing I looked up. That was all I found.”

Nox glances at North and says, “The library at the Hail Mary. There's books there that are under lock and key. If there's anywhere that will be able to tell us about the bonds, it'll be there.”

I glanced around the table again, but no one has anything left to say.

“Well, I guess we're going to the Hail Mary.”





Chapter Fifteen





Gryphon



There are a lot of rumors about who actually created the Hail Mary, but there's one thing I know for sure; whoever it was, they were fucking crazy.

All of this is vital information for Oli, who doesn’t even remember Kieran using the building to get them both out of Davies’ hands and Oli’s bond out to take out the camp, but it isn’t as easy as sitting her down and explaining to her that our community has access to a building that’s basically Pandora’s box, but on a much bigger scale.