Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(88)

“The Eternal would certainly like to think that, wouldn't you?” it spits out, its voice changing, darkening, deepening, and its eyes bleed to black.

My bond stretches in my chest again in retaliation, preparing and readying itself to finish what evil has been started here. We’re both ready to take back the life that we want to have with our Bonded, the one we all deserve.

The Pain god raises a hand, centering its power on me, only this time, I feel the full blast of it as it pulses out of the god-bond’s body. It hits mine as though it’s a physical wave, crashing over me and flooding me with sensation. I do feel the pain but not in the way that the Pain god intends, because my bond is shutting it out of my mind, taking it from me as it took Silas Davies’ pain. It’s protecting me now as it protected me before, taking it all even as my body begins to shut down.

Protecting me now as it always has.

As my vision begins to blur, my eyes slowly begin to flutter shut. For a second, I feel myself panic.

What if it doesn't work?

What if everything that we planned was all for nothing? What if we die here, and my last moment with my Bonded was back at the Sanctuary, back where Nox was the only one confident of this plan. He was the only one pushing it, while the others were furious at us both for this. What if all of this is for nothing and we're going to be forced to cycle again?

As my vision goes black and pushes me into darkness, those words echo in my mind, the last thing I think as the Eternal takes over… What if we fail?

What if I fail?





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN





Nox



Convincing North to let Oleander walk into the Pain god’s trap with nothing more than our shadow creatures at her side is only the very first of my hurdles.

Convincing the rest of the Bonded Group is almost impossible. Even after Oleander said she was going whether they liked it or not, it came to blows, Gryphon almost taking my head off and Atlas only being stopped by North’s intervention.

I have to come to terms with the vicious, loathing looks that I’m going to receive from each of them throughout this.

It doesn't matter though.

None of that matters, so long as the plan succeeds.

For the very first time, my brother insists that Oleander takes his shadow creature with her. She tucks August behind her other ear after he shrinks down to the size of a penny, invisible to the world and everyone in it other than the three of us.

North has never trusted his bond or the creatures with her like this.

He's never allowed them to spend time with her, especially at such a distance. He's never trusted that side of himself, and certainly not with someone as beloved as his Bonded. Those fears inside of him haven’t just changed, they've evaporated altogether.

There is no doubt in either of our minds that she’s safest with our eyes on her, and if our eyes cannot be there, then our shadow creatures are the next best thing. I would trust Azrael with her no matter what, but there’s also something reassuring about August being with them too.

I’ve seen what North’s most vicious creature is capable of.

Standing at the edge of the Wasteland that I'm sure we're about to be pulled into, my eyes voided out and the hard glares of the Bonded Group on me, I watch the moment the Pain god transports Oleander to the bridge.

I almost second-guess my own plan.

Not because I don't believe that Oleander is strong enough to go through with our plan at the site of her parents’ death, but because the memory of that car ride lives within me just as it lives within her, and a vicious, violent reaction bubbles out of me.

North side-eyes me for a moment, his own eyes black as he watches through his shadow creature, but when the others begin to question what's going on, he's the one to answer.

“The god-bond is trying to get a rise out of her. It’s trying to find a weakness in Oli to get through to the Eternal—”

“And it's not going to work,” I cut him off. Even if he reads the pure truth in my tone, Gryphon certainly doesn't believe me.

“What is the point of a Bonded Group like ours if we're going to just split up the moment one of these things snaps its fingers at us? This is fucking stupid,” he mutters under his breath, checking out his weapons again.

It’s a tic that he usually does when we arrive on a mission to calm himself down, and yet here it is, cropping up as he tries to keep a handle on his emotions. It's not usually this hard for him, but I suppose this is the first time we've had to do something like this. We haven't been separated from Oleander since she chased Kyrie to that Resistance camp and got herself sliced to pieces. The echoes of her pain back then still reverberate in my mind, and my bond seethes in my chest at the reminder.

We won’t let it come to that this time.

“Tell me again why you think this is going to work.” North mutters under his breath, and I take a long, calming breath of my own.

He's not questioning me. He's trying to stay calm. If I keep telling myself that, maybe I won't lose my shit at them.

It’s almost fucking impossible not to.

“They weren't testing Oli at the camps because they wanted to use her as a bomb. The Infinite Weapon program was a smokescreen, a way to convince the underlings to do their work for them.”

The records are very clear about what the god-bonds were really doing during the experiments. The patterns are there, and it hadn't taken long for me and Benson to figure out that we were looking for a very particular type of experiment within the archives. They weren't just looking at how to shift souls from bodies, but how to mix some bloodlines for certain types of Gifts.