Tragic Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #5)(37)

Jericho’s lip curls. “We’re not though, are we? Aurelia is a Bassinger in name only. Her father sold her off to the highest bidders. The only reason she got to have one of her actual Bonds is because I was willing to sacrifice everything to have her.”

I frown and look around at the rest of my Bonded Group, but they're all staring at Jericho intently. Only Nox seems distracted by the shadow creature at his feet. His head is ducked down as he strokes a hand over Procel’s head gently.

“I have no interest in listening to Resistance lies; we're done here,” North says, and Jericho jerks forward in the chair, his bindings rattling at the sudden movement.

He looks fearsome, his eyes narrowed at North like he’s imagining ripping his throat out with his bare hands. “You've already figured it out. You've already figured out what the Resistance has been doing for generations, splitting up Bonded Groups and using the entire population as a breeding science experiment. Very few Bonded Groups are left as they should be, and only if the testing slips through the cracks. You will let me and my Bonded go to Singapore, and not only will we abandon the Resistance fight, but I will give you whatever information you need to kill them all.”

North shakes his head slowly, his mouth a grim line. “You don’t think that every Resistance prisoner that we've had in this place hasn’t offered us the same thing for their freedom? I have no interest in playing these games with you, Jericho. You’ve turned yourself in, and it's all been for nothing.”

North moves as if he is going to stand, and Jericho snaps, “It’s about the god. The breeding experiments are about the void-eyed being, the one that lives inside your Bonded.”

That gets everybody's attention.





Chapter Eleven





Oli



He's bluffing.

I can barely hear Nox’s words over the pounding of my heart in my chest, thumping so violently that I feel as though my ribs might crack.

I don't think he is, Atlas replies through the mind link, and I risk looking over at him. His face is still completely unreadable, not showing any of the spiraling panic that I'm sure we're all feeling, or maybe it's just me. Maybe my own freakout is consuming me so goddamn much that I can't sense any calm in the rest of my Bonded Group.

North replies, his voice full of steel and sharp edges, Of course he is. He stumbled on some document about Oli, and he is trying to use that information to get his Bonded out of the cells. Admirable enough, because at least he gives a fuck about her, but it's not going to work.

Surprisingly, it's Nox who finally addresses Jericho. “Tell me what you know about the god. Tell me everything, and tell it to me truthfully. Maybe we’ll spare your life.”

Atlas glances over at me, his eyes round with shock, but I focus on what Jericho’s answer is. Nox is the one who had spent hours and hours trawling through every history book he could get his hands on that referenced void-like eyes or gods living amongst us, so I'm not shocked that this has caught his attention.

I'm also very aware that Jericho only mentioned the god living in me and has not put together enough clues to know about the Draven brothers.

“I know that the breeding experiments were about making sure that the god was born into the Resistance. They were hoping for it to be born into one of the higher families. That's why they chose the bloodlines very carefully. The Bassingers were hoping it would be born to one of them, but when the rumors started of a young Gifted girl who could kill people at will, with eyes that changed to black, they knew that they had failed and that it was born outside of our inner circles. When they approached her, the entire family ran. The Fallows knew what we were going to do.”

“And what exactly is that?” North cuts in, but Jericho keeps looking at Nox, his eyes sizing up the younger of the two Draven brothers. Maybe he sees something in my most damaged Bonded that makes him think he has a chance of convincing him.

“The god that lives inside her is not something that you can tame. Just because it's playing along now, doesn't mean it will forever. It always turns on its host and kills everyone around it.”

My blood chills in my veins, but my bond doesn't come out to play or even to reassure me that it isn't planning my demise right now as we listen to Jericho spout on and on about all of the things that it will do to us.

All of the things it has already done to my parents.

“Davies will stop at nothing to win. He truly believes that the only world worth living in is the one where the Resistance rules and the non-Gifted are wiped out. The attacks that have been taking place in the larger cities are just the beginning. Once they have the god back, they won't be stopped. They're going to offer it whatever it wants to get rid of the girl and work with them.”

They cannot offer me anything, my bond speaks up, and I try not to startle at the sound of it. I have my Bonded. I want nothing else.

Why do they think that you will kill me? Why is he so sure of this? I'm expecting it to brush me off, to say that Jericho is grasping at straws to get Aurelia out of here. I might even have believed it to be the truth, but my bond has always been nothing but truthful to me, even when it hurts.

Because I always have. Every last time, I have been forced to take over the vessel to get what I need. The other vessels were different. The other vessels were power-hungry or too stupid to speak to. You are different. You're the vessel I was waiting for, and now we’re going to have it all.