Page 64 of The Pactbound Angel (The Soul Mirror Duet #1)
My Life For Yours
“I… wait, what? Let me see. You have something, too.” I stumbled over to a pool of water in a fallen tree’s trunk, and kneeled to peer at my reflection. On my neck blazed a strange symbol, red and flaming against my skin. I thought it was a bug bite.
“It’s the same one you have.” I spun on my knees to look at him. “Did the prince do this? What is this? I don’t recognize the symbol.” A rising panic began to swallow me. Could the prince catch me with this? It’s obviously magical in origin. What does it mean?
Ramiren rubbed his throat. “No. Your prince did not do this. But I know who did.”
I stood up, mouth agape. “Who?”
Ramiren looked down, almost ashamed, and rubbed his forehead then ran a hand through his hair. “That’s the sigil of the archdevil Vrakus. The one I bargained with for the ability to whistle myself out of danger. Though I do not know why you are marked with it. Perhaps, because… ah, fuck!”
“What? What, Ramiren?” I stood, taking a few steps towards him. Oh, don’t hold back on me now. The impatience in my raised voice couldn’t be tamped down. “What were the terms of your pact with him? ”
His furious expression suddenly shuttered. “That’s not something I can disclose-”
My hands balled into tight fists at my sides, and my jaw clenched so hard my teeth hurt. My patience, once again, shattered. “Damn it to the Dark Drop, Ramiren! Enough with your secrets! Tell me!”
Ramiren almost imperceptibly winced at my outburst. For once, he was not smiling. “I cannot disclose the terms, else I break it.”
My anger at his reticence mixed with my panic over the sigil and my heartache over his leaving as I spat out, “I have a mark on my neck. You know what it means, and you are not telling me. Whatever happened to your secrets will never harm me ?” My eyes suddenly burned with unshed tears.
Ramiren’s voice, normally even and calm, raised in volume to match my own.
“It’s not that, Nathalia. Please ! If I tell you, it is not dissolved.
It is broken . There is a difference! Remember what I told you about the consequences of breaking a pact?
” Fear and frustration twisted his face as he steepled both hands together in front of him, as though praying to me that I’d understand.
I asked quietly, “Who bears the cost?”
His shoulders deflated. “Me. I would bear the cost. It would be I who broke it.”
Unless…
“Unless you have another pact allowing another to take the burden.”
“ Gods-damn it , Nathalia!” Ramiren turned away from me, throwing up his hands in frustration.
“I must know, Ramiren. I must know. If I am to die anyway, because gods know what this sigil means, I would rather know the reason why.” I didn’t care that I was begging.
“I can’t let you-”
My hands stretched towards him. “Ramiren, taking the burdens of another, that is something I trained my whole life for. Please let me do this. ”
Ramiren turned back to stare at me, his face a mask.
He swallowed hard. “That is not something that is going to happen, Nathalia.” He bowed his head and closed his eyes tightly.
“But you’re right. Because your life is in danger, I have to tell you.
The terms with Vrakus were my fault, so I’ll bear the burden myself. ”
My heart went into my throat. Would he be flayed for telling me? Killed? I can’t let that happen. But before I could stop him, he threw my world into chaos.
“The pact between myself and Vrakus had addendums, written with a special ink that is invisible but still binding on the parchment. I didn’t know of the ink’s existence until it was too late.
That is why I never deal with devils. Not anymore, anyway.
” He tugged his hands through his hair again, the strands beginning to stand up.
“The addendums stated if I used the ability to whistle myself out of danger, I would be brought to him. Hunted. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, as it were. He’d leave me alone unless I used the ability, believing if I used it then I obviously wanted his company.
That’s why I wasn’t in a hurry to get my ability to whistle back from the mischief hag.
She had that vial of mine for twenty years .
” He let out a derisive laugh. “Frankly, I was glad to no longer have the temptation.” He paused, and his eyes darted around, as though waiting for something.
When nothing happened, he seemed to relax.
My question came out as a whisper. “And what will this Vrakus do if he catches you?”
Ramiren’s mouth became a thin line. The haunted look he gave me was all I needed to know.
He did that? For me?
Realization hit me like a ton of bricks. “I have the sigil as well because we both, in essence, used it.”
Ramiren sighed. “Vrakus has been waiting very patiently for me to use the boon. He will come for me, for us, for whistling away from danger and now for disclosing the pact’s details. I don’t seem to have suffered any immediate effects, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.”
I frowned. “Let him try.”
“Oh, he will try. Have no doubt about that, Nathalia. He will try and most likely succeed.”
My hands went to the top of my head as I reeled at the gravity of the situation. Then, it struck me. “Wait. Hold on. Did you want to go separate ways because you knew you were going to be hunted by this Vrakus?”
Ramiren tongued his cheek. “That was my plan, yes. I didn’t realize you too had the mark.”
My hands fell limp at my side. “You were going to run off without me so I wouldn’t be in the fire with you?”
His response was almost too soft to hear. “Yes.”
“Oh, for the love of Horyn, Ramiren!” I kicked a branch and leaned forward with my hands on my knees and huffed with a frustrated growl.
He needed me, now more than ever. The desperate compulsion to protect him, shield him, defend him from this Vrakus was almost too much to bear. He is my charge. Always has been, I just didn’t see it. Until now.
I straightened and unsheathed my sword. Ramiren watched me, confusion marring his face, as I approached and stuck the point down into the ground to kneel in front of him. The cold, sodden ground soaked into my trousers, but I can’t care.
“I, Nathalia Maxliana Swordhand-”
“Nathalia, what are you-”
My eyes shot up to his. “Shh! I’ve waited decades for this. Don’t interrupt.”
Ramiren‘s teeth clicked closed as he stared down at me.
I closed my eyes, remembering the words I’d repeated in my head a thousand times before.
“I, Nathalia Maxliana Swordhand, Lady of Camlynn, Protector Initiate for the Church of Horyn, do swear and abide by the terms of this oath for all the rest of my days, be they many or few. This oath I take in the service of Ramiren…” I frowned and looked up at him. “Wh at’s your last name?”
Ramiren swallowed hard. His answer came out as a strained whisper, “Orasti.”
“...This oath I take in the service of Ramiren Orasti. I swear to guard you from all dangers. I swear to guide you toward all good ends. I swear to be a sword at your front, and a shield at your back. Your light when it is darkest. Your hope when there is none. My life for yours. Do you accept me as a Protector Advocate, Ramiren Orasti, or do you decline?”
When he remained silent, I spoke again, “You have to actually say I accept your service .” The juxtaposition made me smile, remembering a similar conversation, flip-flopped, had happened what felt like eons ago when I initially accepted our pact.
His jaw bunched. At this height, I could clearly see his tightly-fisted hands, the knuckles nearly white. Slowly, those hands relaxed, and I looked back up at his face as he said, “I accept your service.”
I felt something unfurl from my back. It was a strange sensation, like air twisting and rolling over me. I glanced over my shoulder to see two golden spectral wings, feathered but incorporeal, jutting out. My wings. They manifested.
More, different sensations budded as my oath took hold: the bond between us locking into place.
My senses sharpened. I inhaled deeply and could smell the damp of the ground beneath my soaked trousers, decaying leaves, and other forest detritus.
The near-soundless scurrying of a small animal off to my right caught my ears.
Colors became more vivid. Taste and touch seemed the same, but I hoped wine tasted better, at least.
When I finally looked back at my new charge, he was not smiling. His eyes had welled up. His gaze brushed over my newly-sprouted wings before finally locking his eyes with mine. He said quietly, “You said your charge was going to be your husband, angel.”
I smiled sadly at him. “You need me more.”
And I need you alive.