Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(80)

He deserved so much worse.

Unser is in a pretty bad state himself after Triggering and, grimacing, North is forced to call Adella down to help heal him. She’d been back at the house, breaking the news to their kids and waiting to get the all-clear from North and Gryphon to come and see her Bonded.

I've only met her a handful of times, but she’s the no-nonsense sort of woman you would expect two leading TacTeam operatives to be Bonded to. When she arrives, she has a stern set to her face that tells us that she's putting on a very brave facade to get her through everything that’s happening to her today.

There's no question in my mind that the three of them truly were a Bonded Group. Her hands shake as she presses them into Unser’s chest, her power flowing slowly through her and into him.

With a groan, his eyes finally flutter open. He looks confused for a second before reality crashes back in and he realizes he wasn't dreaming, that his best friend and a member of his Bonded Group was murdered in cold blood in the safety of our own town, in our own building.

He stares up into his Bonded’s eyes for a moment, their shared pain reflected in their gaze before finally he reaches a hand out to cup her cheek. I glance away, knowing that we’re all intruding on a very private and painful moment.

“I should have stayed with him,” he mumbles, and she shakes her head.

“We’re not playing the blame game here. No one is, because if we start pointing fingers, they win. I'm not letting every second of his life go to waste. We fought hard for this, and he deserves better.” Her voice breaks.

I have to clear my throat and step away from them both so that I don't do something mortifying like burst into tears here in public over a man I barely knew. Seeing their pain so clearly reflected is heartbreaking, to say the least, and the weird mix of guilt still bubbling around in me rears its head again.

Vivian deserved better.

Gryphon steps forward to help Unser up, slinging his arm over his shoulders as he helps him out of the rubble. Felix watches his unsteady gait for a moment before standing again, stepping over to where North and I are waiting as he mutters quietly under his breath, “Everyone here is stable, I've checked them all. I need to get back to Kieran.”

North frowns and nods. “He’s going to be alright though, isn't he?”

Felix sighs, scratching the back of his head. “There were a lot of breaks. Sage and I are working together to get him healed up, but it's going to be a few days at least. You're going to have to work without him until then.”

North nods and waves a hand. “He's alive, that's all that matters. We can cover him for as long as he needs. Rockelle can step into the second position for now, and we’ll try holding off any more missions until Black is back. Go. Go back to your Bonded and the rest of them, and we’ll clean up this mess.”

He nods and moves away, but as he does, Wick comes to stand with North, nodding respectfully at him. “There's nothing else that I can do at the house. Felix and Sage have a handle on the healing process. What can I do here?”

My opinion of Sage’s Bonded has changed a lot in the last few days.

I know that he already convinced Oli, and he wouldn't have gotten into the Sanctuary if he hadn't passed Gryphon’s rigorous vetting process, but just because he's not evil doesn't mean that he isn't an asshole.

I’m relieved to find that he's stepping up, the same way I did.

He’s finding a place not only in his Bonded Group but in the community itself. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially when you have a chip on your shoulder. Wick certainly had one of those, but he’s made a choice, and his choice is Sage.

No matter what.

I can’t argue with that, and neither can anyone else. Choosing your Bonded above all else is the right thing to do, and it’ll make him friends here faster than anything else he could try.

That same respect is reflected in North’s eyes as he takes him in. “We're going to have to Transport the prisoners out of the cells and get them locked up in the old cells underneath the council offices with a Shield in place. It's not ideal, but it's all we can do until we have made the repairs. You can help the rest of us with that.”

Wick nods without another word and rolls up his sleeves, figuratively and literally. Even with the horrific death weighing on our shoulders, it feels like a step forward, one that I know will break my Bonded’s heart.

Coming together after the loss of a great man.

Moving the prisoners is easy work when you have Gryphon's ability to shut down minds to do so. Seeing my sister is not my favorite thing, but I help ensure that the holding cells at North's old offices will hold her before we move them all.

She still looks so thin, but there is a lightness about her now that I was not expecting, and it takes me a second to realize what's going on with her.

She’s relieved.

My parents are gone. Peter and the rest of her cursed Bonded Group are all dead. It's only her and Jericho left now. If they're ever able to convince North and the rest of the council, or whoever ends up making these decisions in the future, to let her and Jericho go, they will never have to worry about being hunted by our family ever again.

They're free now.

Trapped by their so-called enemies and yet, they're free. It makes my very confusing grief over my parents amplify all over again. I suppose when everything with the god-bonds is over and done with, I'll have to help come up with a plan on what to do with them. At the moment, we're all just waiting. Waiting in case we need them, waiting to see if there's a use for them, waiting to decide what their fate is for the roles that they have played in the deaths of so many.