Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(93)

I cast out my net of power.

They all feel it and the bickering stops, their eyes all shifting to me. I feel the Cleaver and the Draconis where they're working. I feel all of the Resistance who are still alive and fighting, as well as our own TacTeam personnel, who are outnumbered in a big way. None of my Bonded had pointed this out to me yet, secure in the fact that the Cleaver and the Draconis are a thousand times more powerful than any of those Resistance grunts, but Nox wasn't wrong.

We'll be here for hours if it's just the two of them fighting.

I already know that the others joining in isn't a possibility. None of them are going to let their god-bonds take over and do what needs to be done, not with how weak I'm feeling.

I turn my head to face North, meeting his eyes, and I find myself asking him the same moral question that I have asked him before, the one that nags at me the most.

“There's no saving them, is there?”

He stares back at me without having to ask for clarification, and he slowly shakes his head. “I’ve been doing this a long time, Bonded. Once they take in the Resistance propaganda, they're poisoned by it. We've poured resources into trying to rehabilitate, but so far we have only had three separate cases of people being able to get away from the Resistance, and the fact of the matter is… none of them chose the Resistance in the first place.”

My eyebrows creep up my forehead, and a lopsided smile stretches across his face. “Atlas, Aurelia, and Jericho. All three of them were born into the Resistance; all three of them saw no other options. The moment they were given some, they walked away. These people chose to be here. These people are beyond saving.”

I nod my head slightly and then for what I hope is the last time it will ever be required, I pull the souls out of hundreds of Resistance soldiers all at once, pulling their power into me and filling my energy reserves back up.

I take it into myself, and I let it restore me. The light and the energy buzzes down my limbs, filling my lungs like a gasp, my blood coursing through my body as my heart races.

It fills me up so quickly that I begin to push the power out to my Bonded as well, but each of them stops me.

“We don't need it, Bonded. Take it for yourself,” Gryphon murmurs to me quietly, and I let my eyes drift shut as the power settles within me.

There is a whooshing sound of wings beating against the air and then a thump as a body lands. The doorway of the tent comes open, and North is forced backwards as the Draconis’ head pushes through, filling up the space with the sheer size of him.

I smile and reach out a hand to pat his velvety soft nose, my skin coming away with blood from his battles, and Nox makes a sound of disgust in the back of his throat.

I ignore it and instead murmur to my beloved Bonded, “Thank you. I'm feeling a lot better now. You can let Gabe come back, if you want to. It might be easier to get him home if he's a bit smaller.”

It snorts and snuffles under its breath as though it is unhappy at the idea, but with a simple shake of its head, it slowly retreats. Then we hear the telltale snapping and crunching sounds of Gabe shifting back.

There's footsteps around us and North meets my eye for a moment longer, nodding before he steps back out to start directing the Tac personnel, surveying the hundreds of dead bodies left behind.

Gabe stumbles into the tent, naked, sweaty,

and blood-soaked. His skin has turned an ashy-green color as his stomach protests the feasting of his god-bond.

Gryphon takes one look at him, shrugging off his jacket to hand over, and says, “Try not to vomit in here. If you're going to puke, head back out.”

Gabe shrugs the jacket on, checking that it covers him all the way down to the knees before he clamps a hand across his mouth and mumbles from behind it, “Half of the Tac personnel are women, and I thought Oli would lose it if I was out there naked. I'll try and keep it down.”

Instantly, I want to fuss after him, but he shakes his head at me. “It's getting easier. Don't worry about me, Bonded. Let's just get you home safely.”

There's more sounds of boots outside crunching as though someone is running, and then the flap of the tent opens again, revealing Atlas. He looks as though he's about to pass out from fear until he sees me, relief sweeping over his features as he stumbles towards me.

“You took way too long to wake up that time, Bonded. Let's not do that again.”

I shake my head at them all, reaching my arms up so that Atlas can help me to my feet, and then I get one around him and the other around Gabe, holding them both close to me. My bond tugs in my chest, chiming in on how it feels about all of this, and I let my eyes slip shut to hear it out.

They did well. Take us home to rest, girl, my bond whispers to me. You fought bravely. They all did. Rest so we can wake up in the new world, a world built just for us that no one can take away this time.





I wake up naked from the waist up, lying on North's bare chest, and I have a déjà vu moment, one where my heart stops and I think that maybe the last few months have been a dream.

The last time I woke up like this, his arms banded around me and my legs wrapped around his waist even in sleep, I found myself in his office back at the Draven mansion with the councilors in the room with us. North was snarling viciously that they dared to question him while I was hurt in such a way. I was taking the power that I needed directly from him, that healing energy seeping through his skin and into mine.