Tragic Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #5)(51)

We must have some good karma out there in the world because no one spots us as we reappear. The moment that our feet land on the cleanly tiled floor, Gabe lets out a roar as his body begins to shift.

I yank Oleander away from him and behind me at the same time as Gryphon and Atlas both dive in front of her, but her bond is still in control. It stares at Gabe with the unnatural blankness that it has, its eyes rounded as it takes in the gruesome sight of Gabe’s arms and legs snapping and elongating, his skin giving way to black, shiny scales, and giant wings bursting out from between his shoulder blades. His clothes are shredded into pieces and the sound of his labored breathing and groaning slowly turns into an animalistic snarl and in only a few short minutes, we're left staring down at the dragon.

The dragon with black void eyes.

I glance around at the rest of the room, but any words I might have dry up in my throat at the sight of the beast. There's no point in speaking to anyone about it anyway. No one but the three gods amongst us might actually know what the fuck is going on here.

None of them are reliable in answering though.

What the hell is that? I have to try to ask my own bond the question, even if I’m expecting nothing from it.

It's quiet for a moment before it answers, It awakens.

I stare over at Gryphon. He is splitting his time between looking at me, processing my bond’s words, and staring down the dragon as it begins to pace, its eyes glued to Oleander without blinking.

Its void-like eyes are the marker of the god now living within him.





No matter what we try, we cannot get Gabe to shift back.

Nox and Oleander are also both still in their bond state, standing and staring at the beast from where it paces on one side of the room, barely able to take three steps before it's turning and taking three steps back. It’s clearly agitated but unwilling or unable to be reasoned with.

After we get Kieran out and Atlas positioned next to Oleander, ready to pounce in case something goes terribly wrong, we decide to just wait them out, but after an excruciatingly long hour, nothing has changed.

“Can you get into his head? Can you see anything?” I mutter quietly to Gryphon, and he shrugs back, a white ring around his irises as he stares at the beast.

“I can get in there just fine, but there's not much I can tell you about what's going on. All I can tell you is that his bond is different now. It's more than it was before.”

I groan and look between the three bonds, eyeing them as the dragon huffs and it continues its pacing. “How exactly does a bond suddenly become more?”

Gryphon hesitates for a moment before he shrugs. “Did Oleander do this? She told him to think ‘bigger’, and suddenly he can turn into a dragon. Did her bond somehow spark this?”

I’ve never heard of something like that happening before. Never. Not even in the worst of the Gifted rumors or whisperings of the Resistance urban legends.

I reach out through my mind connection to Oleander, but her bond shuts me down before I get very far, my own bond clawing at the edge of my consciousness as it tries to get out to be with her.

Gryphon and Atlas couldn't handle my bond right now, let alone mine, Nox’s, and Oleander’s all at the same time with the new complication of Gabe’s dragon.

“It’s different,” Gryphon mutters.

I nod. “You said that.”

“No, I mean, it's different than Oli’s bond. It's not thinking in human terms, only in animal needs and desires. It only wants her.”

I don't even want to think about what that means though. The predatory look in its eye tells me more than enough, and I don’t like it one bit.

“We need to get the three of them back to themselves before this gets out of hand,” I snap, my frustration finally boiling over.

Atlas shrugs from across the room where he's standing half covering our Bonded, and he leans into her ear to murmur something to her quietly. The bond finally looks away from the dragon to stare at him before her eyes flutter shut for a moment. When they open again, Oleander’s beautiful blue irises stare back at Atlas. The animation is back in her face as she moves, her arms winding around his neck as she tucks herself into him closely.

“What did you say to her?” Gryphon asks, his tone a little harsh with relief.

Atlas shrugs and then watches as Oli slips her hand into Nox's without a word, leaning into his side without touching him, and slowly his eyes shift away from the voids until his lip turns up in a snarl and my brother is back in the room with us.

“A Soul Render can't just turn someone into a god,” Nox says as he watches the dragon pace, diving straight into the issue before us.

Gryphon runs his hands through his hair, irritated. “Well, what other explanation could there be? Bonds don't just become more.”

My Bonded chews on her lip for a moment, and it's clear she's keeping something from us, the guilt in her an almost palpable thing. Finally, Atlas takes her free hand and faces us. “Oli ended up in Gabe’s head after they went to sleep the other night. She hadn't had the chance to tell anyone yet, and now she's feeling guilty about it.”

She huffs and throws her hand out around the room. “Appearing in his head didn't just make this happen though. I don't have the ability to do this. Even if I did, I think I'd remember it. Right? Or at the very least, my bond would remember it, and it swears that it hasn't done anything. I did meet his dragon in there though. I met it, and we both knew that it was different. It was very different to his wolf and his panther.”