Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Valen turns to me with his unnatural quickness.
“Seriously, let him go. He’s my friend. He would never hurt me. Please, just go and look for Coal, then come back. Okay? Please?”
“You abuse your power.” He slowly lets up on Druin’s throat.
“What?”
“Your power over me.” Valen advances on me until I’m backed against his bedroom door, his broad frame blocking out everything except him. “You’re wielding it against me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I gasp when he wraps his hand around my throat.
“You do, kedves verem.” His lips ghost against mine.
My knees go weak as he squeezes the sides of my neck lightly, his lips teasing along my cheek and then my ear. “I will do as you ask, but when I return, there will be a price.” He meets my eyes, and I realize his are no longer the cold abyss he’d shown to Druin. For me, they’re molten, a raging blue of water and sky. I shudder at his touch, at the intimacy of this, of us.
My heart pounds, my eyelids fluttering as he presses a kiss to my lips. And then he’s gone, storming past me and dressing so quickly he’s nothing but a blur. By the time I have my shirt on, he’s nowhere to be found.
Once I’m dressed, I hurry to the staircase and climb until I find Druin sitting on the steps and leaning against the stone wall.
“He’ll find Coal.” I sit beside him.
“You don’t know that. I should be out there looking for him. He’s Corvidion. My direct line.” His golden brown eyes don’t focus. He stares past me, as if he can see through the earthen walls and all the way to Coal. “I should be flying for him. Not sending a Dragonis.”
“Valen was out of line.”
He shakes his head. “No, he wasn’t.”
Perplexed, I stare at him.
He sighs and bounces the back of his head on the wall a couple times. “You’re his mate. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
“Mate. What does that mean?”
“You don’t know what ‘mate’ means?”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, of course I do, but the way you’re using it and Valen was using it—it clearly means something else to you.”
“You’re his Blood.” He shrugs a shoulder, his wing scraping against the wall.
I swallow hard. The only reference I have for that statement is what I know about Gregor’s bond with Theo. Given what’s happening to Gregor, I can’t chalk it up as a metaphor or a flowery way to describe love. It means something more, something that I’ve seen in the books in the library but have failed at translating. What Valen’s been calling me—kedves verem; it’s some sort of a blood blond.
“I’m a human. I can’t—”
“Valen is half human. That doesn’t matter. What matters is you’re his mate. You two are bound. Your Blood is one.”
He says it so matter-of-factly, as if this is something vampires are taught from birth. Common knowledge.
“What does that even mean?”
He raises his brows and points at my chest. “You feel it. You can feel it right now. In there. In your heart, your blood.”
“Feel what?”
He peers at me. “Close your eyes.”
“Huh?”
“Close your eyes.” He has the nerve to sound exasperated.
“If this is a trick …” I glare at him, then slowly close my eyes.
“Now listen.”
I sit for a moment, but all I hear is nothing. Just my breathing. Druin is silent. “To what?”
“To your blood.”
“My blood doesn’t make a sou—”
“Shh,” he hisses. “Just listen.”
I shake my head but keep my mouth shut. And I sit. Slowly, I relax a little. My lower back against the higher step, one of my knees bent, the other leg straight. I think about a million things all at once, my thoughts never landing on any idea for too long. It’s like a chaotic slideshow in there, always has been.
“You’re not listening,” Druin chides.
“Shh!” I snipe back at him.
Then I settle even more. And I think about blood. About cells. About random bits of minutiae dealing with blood—the varieties, the rhesus, the types. Slowly, my thoughts quiet and I think about Valen. Not pulsing blood or white blood cells. I picture him, his eyes when they’re kind. When they see me. His touch. The sharp wit that cuts, the gentle touch that heals. My skin warms.
I sense something else. Someone else. I sense—determination. Not just a drive, but a force that can’t be stopped. A relentlessness that leaves me breathless. It’s Valen. He’s searching for Coal. I focus on that feeling, on the sensation that doesn’t spring from me. It’s alien. But it’s also familiar.
Awareness tingles along my skin. And then the feeling changes. To … interest. Something soft grazes along my cheek, a warm exhale, and I know—somehow I know—Valen can feel me.
“Valen?” I call out.
No one answers. No one is there. Still, I feel something. A reassurance. A warmth that permeates every cell until it’s like he’s with me. Wrapping me in his arms, nothing between us. Kedves verem.