Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(37)

I dart forward, my arms out as though I'm attempting to calm a skittish animal, but the Soothsayer isn't interested.

“They’ve come.”

North and Nox go on high alert immediately, dozens of shadows falling from both of their bodies as they send out more reconnaissance and enlarge the circle of protection around us. Kieran widens his stance and palms a gun while Sawyer leaps to his feet and ducks closer to my Bonded that’s closest to him, which happens to be Atlas.

“Who are ‘they’ and can someone please tell me why the fuck Shore’s eyes are black right now? I thought he was safe from this sort of bullshit!”

I'd forgotten that we haven’t told everyone everything yet, not even the friends who’ve become our family. North and Gryphon had made the decision that this information is on a need-to-know basis. We weren't expecting Sawyer to be in the thick of it right now, maybe then he’d have been let in on that little morsel of information.

He glances up to Atlas, opening his mouth and flinging out a hand, ready to demand answers, only to make a yelping noise and jump back from him.

His eyes have turned black as well.

One by one, the god-bonds are taking over.

As the situation goes from an information deep dive to the defensive, I want to apologize to Sawyer for involving him in this, but I feel my own bond waking up inside of my chest, stretching out until it fills my limbs. In the last moment before my own eyes shift to the voids as it takes over, I hear Kieran snap, “Get your ass over here, Benson. I'll get you back to the Sanctuary while all hell breaks loose. There’s nothing we can do to help the gods.”





CHAPTER ELEVEN





Oleander’s bond



The Manipulation god is here.

It’s not the one that I wanted to be dealing with today, but they’re all marked for death at my hands. The Pain god is long overdue for a blood-soaked and violent death, but I suppose we are encroaching on the Manipulation god’s space. The fact that she had cycled into the same bloodline as the Cleaver’s vessel is insult enough, but the idea that she has used that bloodline to build such a long-reaching platform only makes it worse.

The Transporter pops out of the room, taking the mouthy Gifted with him and leaving me alone with my Bonded. I enjoy the sight of them all for a moment as I look around, each of them awake and staring back at me. It has been too long since I looked upon them, and never have I been able to see them all together at the same time.

When the Pain god had woken the Soothsayer up, my mind was still scrambled from the attack, but now I'm thinking clearly. Seeing them all here together is everything I have always hoped it would be.

A hundred lifetimes with these men wouldn't be enough.

A thousand lifetimes with all of them together would only be the beginning of what I need from them. Even as the situation around us becomes dire, I already know that I would choose this life of ours. This never-ending cycle of birth and rebirth, death and destruction, pain and horror over and over again. I would because it would mean knowing them, knowing the devotion and love that they have given me, knowing the devotion and love that I pour back into them. I don't know what a peaceful time will look like for us, something that the girl has also questioned, but I find myself eager to figure it out with them.

The Draconis hasn't shifted beyond his eyes turning black, but the way he moves his head is telling, as is the way he pushes his nose in the air as he scents the newcomers, disgust curling his lip. He never did like anyone but me. He tolerates the Bonded Group, the few times he'd interacted with them, thanks to how long it took for him to cycle.

“They’re watching us, testing us. We should take it alive,” the Corvus says, and I tilt my head at him.

“We don't need answers. We need it gone.”

The Crux looks between the two of us. “It’s been here longer than us, and there is every chance it’s been searching out the others. It would be useful to know how many we need to find.”

The Soothsayer turns to look at me again, its eyes shining brighter as it calls on its Gift. “We don't need to question it. I'll get the information out of it, and then we can kill it.”

The perfect kind of compromise, one where our enemy is still dead at our feet.

I smile at the Soothsayer, happy and relieved to get my way, and then I follow the Crux as he walks back up the set of stairs, letting my power stretch out over the entire building and the street as I take stock of the souls around us.

“Stop.” I speak before the feeling fully forms in me, the extra senses I have beyond those of the vessel coming alight, and the Crux doesn't hesitate to follow my command.

“What is it?” the Soothsayer asks from downstairs, and I turn back to look over to my Bonded, each of them watching me and trusting that I know best in this situation.

“Something is wrong up there. Something is here for our demise.”

The Soothsayer's eyes flash into the brightest of voids, and I open up the mind connection between us all so that we can see what he can.

The Manipulation god is up there, though we don't have much information from it. The Soothsayer is stronger than any other Neuro, especially now that we've Bonded, but still, the gods can keep him out of their heads if they’ve been here long enough.

There are other Gifted here with it as well, and the moment I realize what she's doing, I tear their souls out, but it's already too late.