Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(14)

Its eyes have rolled back in its head, but the blood that has oozed out of the socket is black, as though the voids themselves have spilled down and onto its cheeks.

We’re powerful in these forms, but without the Bonded Group together and the power of the Eternal pumping through all of us, we're not invincible.

If there are other gods here who have woken earlier, then we just don't stand a chance.

We never hunt them like they hunt us. We hunt for our Bonded, and for each other, so that we might live in this existence without the crushing loneliness we face when we cycle all by ourselves. I don't know what has happened to the other gods to make it so that all they care about is destruction. What twisted and dark things must have occurred in their cycling for them to care about nothing but blood and death and destruction. However, that is the reality we face until the Bonded Group is completed.

We will know no peace until the Eternal has all five of the gods who belong to it by its side. We will live this hollow and painful existence again and again until the end of time unless we do.

Finally, I look down at my hands again to find that in the center of one of my palms is a lock of hair tied in a ribbon. It's white, the same unnatural color of Oleander’s hair due to her Gift and the power it takes for her to Soul Rend. I know without having to speak to my bond that this version of her, from this time, is already dead.

My bond won't fight back because it doesn't want to exist without her.

The Corvus’ dead, void eyes next to me say the exact same thing.

It might pain me to know that his death is imminent, but I wouldn't wish another day on this earth without her or him any more than I would myself.

Without her, we are nothing.





CHAPTER FOUR





Oli



I wake up from my bond’s painful walk down memory lane sitting at the table alone.

The Soothsayer is standing over by the window, three steps away from me, as he looks out over the small valley of the Sanctuary. He doesn’t blink or move, and I stare at him for a minute just to be sure he’s still breathing. I wouldn’t want him to forget that Gryphon’s body, you know, requires oxygen and just decide to stop doing that.

North and Nox are murmuring together over a pile of paperwork spread out over the breakfast bar, a glass of whiskey in front of North but, surprisingly, nothing for Nox. Atlas and Gabe are nowhere to be seen.

I take a second to be sure I’m fully in control of my body again before I get up.

The Soothsayer follows me immediately.

North watches it with a scowl, but Nox just slips away from their conversation to follow us both down the hallway to my bedroom, as though I’m a magnet drawing them all along with me without question. I hear North collecting up his paperwork and then footsteps as he follows us as well.

I find Gabe already asleep in my bed, snoring gently as he lies on his stomach, one arm tucked under his head, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. Atlas is in my shower, the water running and the door half open.

He’s still the only one without a functioning bathroom, but when Gabe had tried to apologize for taking so long getting it working for him, he had merely shrugged and pointed out that he was happier sleeping in my room and using my shower every night than going back to his spare room, as he calls it.

North had seemed happy with him getting along so well until he called it that. Then he scowled in his direction because he thinks that it's disrespectful of him to take up so much space in my room. It doesn't bother me though, for the most part.

I would rather have them all here with me.

I know that's never really going to happen, not permanently, because of Nox's firm boundaries around his bedroom and having his own space, but I'm willing to take as much of the rest of them as they're willing to give.

It doesn’t surprise me that Nox and North had immediately pulled out Nox’s research and tried to start planning. All of this is terrifying in a way that I’m really not processing properly yet.

We’re not just being hunted by the Resistance, we’re being hunted by other gods.

The abilities they may have, the ties they could have with one another even if they aren’t Bonded, all of it will have to be factored into our next moves. The toll of fighting isn’t just our own; the battle always spills out onto the other Gifted and non-Gifted as well. All of them have been collateral in a war they had no idea was being waged over a hundred lifetimes.

Now that our bonds have warned us of the danger that’s coming, it's exhausting to think about, to even consider what we might all be facing now. Bigger, badder, stronger—

“There is no one stronger than us.” Gryphon's voice startles me out of my thoughts, and I jump a mile in the air.

I had forgotten he was following me and that he’s, once again, got front row seats to every little thought in my brain.

When I come to a stop in front of Gabe’s sleeping form, the Soothsayer comes to stand with me, pressing himself into my side so that the heat of his body scorches mine.

I have to clear my throat to find my voice again. “If you say so, but all I know is that the god-bond who was there managed to shut us all down with the pain it wields.”

His large hand comes towards me, slowly enough that I can move out of the way if I want to, but when I don't, he presses his palm into one of my cheeks, a happy rumbling noise coming out of his chest that is so unlike Gryphon.