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A ring.

Not just any ring. A ring forged of steel, with a shard of blue-black Orb in the center. That tiny shard seems to suck the very light from the room.

“What isthat?”

Even as I ask the question, I feel the ominous coldness seeping from that tiny Orb.

My father licks his lips in anticipation. “I prepared for this eventuality, Natali. It’s a Bond-Disrupter. If you put this on, you won’t feel those three anymore. You’ll banish them from your mind, and you can ignore them completely. It will silence all the negative aspects of the Bond, while allowing you to keep the longevity, the strength, and the focus.Thisis the tool we need.”

It makes me shiver. “I don’t need it.”

My father motions to Gerard. He sets the ring down carefully on the bed, then leaves. It sits there like an unspoken promise.

Iknowthat little shard of Orb has thoughts. I felt the power of an Orb in my hands when I fired that Orb-Beam pistol. I both respect and fear the power of the Orbs.

“Natali – look at me.”

I can’t pull my eyes away from the ring for a moment. I only force them away at great effort – turning from the Orb and back to him.

Shifting my gaze was like trying to pull my hand out of a firm grip.

“Natali,” my father warns, “those three Aurelians are strangers. You don’t know what they’re capable of. I spoke with the Aurelian Law Enforcement Captain, and he’s been investigating Brennan and his triad for thirty years. Law Enforcement didn’t have hard proof, but they’d developed suspicions that the triad had done awful things to acquire Orb-material for their Empire.”

He leans forward.

“Those three are fanatics, Natali. They’d do anything for their species – even breaking their most sacred laws. The fact that they resorted to kidnapping you proves every last one of those allegations.”

I shake my head.

“They wouldn’t do…” I gulp, unable to even say the words. “They have a line even they won’t cross.” I struggle to find my thoughts.

“They’ve been suspected of breaking a man’s arm, Natali – a prospector who ended up in a hospital. Mysteriously, he also signed a deal with them that same day; providing them with mining rights.”

My father’s eyes narrow.

“That’s just the start. Now, they’ve kidnapped you. They aren’t monsters, Natali – they’re worse than that. They care about just one thing.”

I look at him. I have a new respect for my father. All this time, I’d thought he just wanted to be rich. Now, I see that he has foreseen the darkness of the approaching future, just like my triad spoke about.

I shudder, wondering if the allegations against Brennan, Otho, and Lazar could possibly be true. I’ve seen the darkness in Brennan’s soul – and I worry what they might be capable of.

“They’re smart, Natali,” my father warns. “They see the future, just like I do. So, I need you to ask them something – using the Bond, or telepathy, or whatever it is.”

I frown, but my father continues pressing me:

“Do they care about you, Natali? Or do they only want you because you can bear them sons?”

The coldness I felt looking at the Bond-Disrupter is nothing compared to the chill that finds me now.

That icy chill stems from my worst fear - that I’m truly nothing to those three warriors. That the only thing they care about is the Bond – and that if I became unBonded to them, they’d forget about me in an instant.

I hate that my father’s words ring true.

My father steps forward slowly. He picks up the Bond-Disrupter ring with reverence.

“I should have let you know sooner, Natali – about my plans for the future. About the war that’s coming. It’s just, you were always such an anxious child. You grew up, but that anxiety never left you. I didn’t want to burden you. I’ve never let you make your own decisions.”

He holds out the ring.