Page 1 of Broken Ties
PROLOGUE
North
Blood and pain.
Rafe slows the car as we get closer to Draven University and I ignore my bond’s whispered threats, taking a deep breath to focus on my control. It writhes furiously underneath my skin, seething with anger when I refuse to submit to its demands. It woke the moment Noakes walked up to my desk at the Council offices, ignoring my secretary’s protests at his lack of appointment, and told me my Bond Group flagged in the blood screening. When it first tried to take control, it was easy enough to hold it off while I met with Maria Benson’s husband to collect my Bond’s information in person, but the moment he handed me the file, my bond took on a whole new level of defiance within me.
Go to her now.
I can’t give in to its demands, no matter how desperately I want to or how furious it becomes at me. It’s only been this angry and insistent once before, and it’s the fallout from that nightmare that’s delaying me from going to her now. Whatever it takes, this chaos needs to be dealt withbeforeI find my Bond.
My gaze flicks back down to the small photo taped to the file clutched in my hands, and the protective surge in my chest knocks the air from my lungs in its ferocity.
She’s the same age as Gabe, a freshman in high school, and now her parents are all dead, ripped from her in one fell swoop. It’s almost impossible to believe the Resistance had nothing to do with it but by all accounts, it was a tragic accident, one that came close to killing my Bond. Too fucking close.
My skin itches underneath my suit, from the back of my neck and all the way down until my toes involuntarily scrunch up in my soft leather shoes to fight the discomfort.
I loathe fidgeting, even when it’s a perfectly reasonable reaction. I did it a lot as a kid, forced to sit through dinner parties with people who smiled at my parents as though they weren’t holding knives behind their backs and waiting for the chance to plunge them into their hearts. It’s not that I think I’m too old to still be shifting in my seat, or that I give a fuck what anyone thinks of me, but the action has my mother’s disapproval ringing in my ears.
Any reminder of that woman is dangerous to my control and should be avoided at all costs.
Motionless for as long as I can stand it, I smother a growl of frustration when I finally shift in my seat. My arms flex as though it’s possible to find some give in the fabric, but it was tailored to my specific measurements to make me look like the perfect councilman; comfort wasn’t part of the consideration. The irritation only spurs my bond on.
Go to her before it's too late and they take her from us.
The photo wasn’t taken at the hospital and by the staging of it, it’s clearly a school photo someone’s pulled from her records. There’s not a lot of information in the file, but there is a long list of schools dotted around the country. No indication of why her family has moved around a lot, no obvious patterns ofResistance interference or suspicious activity, nothing for me to go on but the smile on her face in that photo.
How the fuck am I supposed to keep the thing that lives inside of me from her? How do I stop the nightmare creatures that roam rabid at the first sign of danger from terrifyinga childwho just lost her entire family? I can barely stop it from tearing apart the entire faculty and student body of Draven University, and all the simpering councilmen for how they treat me and my brother… What devastation will it wage the moment someone breathes wrong around her? Or even just looks in her direction?
I have far too much experience seeing a traumatized Gifted child through their teenage years, and I know the process of learning control, the slips that inevitably happen and the unpredictability of grief. If anyone in the community speaks to her the way they’ve whispered about my brother, I’ll level a building without my bond’s input.
The car turns and the library of Draven comes into view at the end of the street, the traffic even worse than it usually is as people flee the grounds by the dozens.
“JesusfuckingChrist,” William mutters before he glances at me, his eyes flicking down to both of my hands, and he lets out a slow breath when there’s no visible signs of my Gift slipping.
The black, writhing, sentient smoke covering the entire building before us is enough for even the saintliest of men to question themselves. I'll forgive my uncle for such an open display of frustration when he's usually so careful about hiding them from us.
He takes a breath, his thought process carved into his face as he attempts to redirect this train wreck of an argument, until we’re both on the same side instead of pushing me into my brother’s corner. Too bad I’ve never left it—never, no matter what chaos he’s thrown at me.
“How exactly are you going to talk him down from this? If you have a plan, North, I need to hear it.”
When his gaze drops down to the file in my hands, I shut it immediately, a seething, jealous, rage writhing in my gut at the thought of him looking at my Bond. I don’t want anyone looking at her, or speaking to her, or even knowing her. I want to get her out of that hospital and bring her back here, to provide for her care while keeping everyone else the fuck away from her until she’s healed from whatever injuries she has and processes the deaths of her parents. Then I want her to go to school and finish growing up safely, without thoughts of the Resistance snatching her from the streets or fears for her future. I want all of this to happen without any whispers of the Bond Group she’s matched with reaching her ears.
The first dickhead to call her a monster will be torn apart by the most vicious nightmare within me, and I’ll take out the whole council next if they come for me.
William tries again, using his most reasonable tone, but it only irritates me more. “North, you need to tell me what we're dealing with. When we step out of this car, we need to be on the same page or he’s going to take the whole building out.”
Taking a deep breath to help my own control backfires; the oxygen only feeds the fire within me until the heat consumes me. “If you want to do something, then call Noakes and tell him to disappear or there won't be a body left for his family to bury.”
William blanches, groaning under his breath as he watches the cars in front of us finally move out of the way. There’s yelling and the screeching of tires as the other students scramble to flee. We’ve worked so hard to convince this community we’re not monsters, but I stare at them with cold eyes as Nox tears it all down around us.
I really don’t give a fuck.
My only concern right now is my brother… and my Bond.
“North—”
I cut off William's very reasonable tone with a snarling one of my own. “He called Nox and told him. We made it clear that I was the only person who could give my brother that information and the safety of everyone around us was at stake, and he chose this instead. That spineless, slimy dickhead has torn my brother’s very fragile mindin halfand probably put us back tenfuckingyears of therapy. I’ll kill him on sight. That’s not a threat, William; it’s a promise.”