Page 120 of This Blood that Bonds Us

“What happened?”

At my voice, Aaron dropped the dagger and fell to his knees in front of me. The darkness and gray in his eyes dissipated.

“She tried to keep you under. And I made her stop. I’m sorry,” he said, wiping some wetness from under my eyes and my nose. Blood. Black Blood.Mine.

“Is that mine?”

His voice shook. “Yes. You were bleeding. I got scared and panicked.”

“That’s panicking for you?” Halina said.

“I think you oweusan apology,” Felix grumbled as he dusted off his clothes.

Aaron had knocked them all down. The bookshelves, the desks, all of it was broken on the ground, and all their eyes were on Aaron, not in fear but in wonderment and awe. Even Kilian was speechless.

“It’s okay. I would have done the same,” I said.

He touched his head to mine like there wasn’t a slew of eyes watching us. With a firm grip on my shoulder, he pulled me in for a hug.

“You scared me.”

“I’m sorry.” I rubbed at his back.

“Do you feel all right?” Dom was the next to speak.

“Uh. Yeah. I feel fine,” I said.

They were still staring.

Anzola’s exuberant excitement concerned me the most. “Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable.”

Fifty-Three

Kimberly

I struck the matchbox in my hand, and the stick’s fire burned ablaze. I’d come to love the silence that once felt smothering, because it reminded me of my nights camping and my hikesalone. I didn’t miss my old life while every current moment felt fleeting and too short.

The last thing I wanted was to be alone.

I missed the green and the smell of blooming flowers, but it was still winter. Those things would come back. I hoped they would. As I lit another candle, I dared to think of the future. A life where we weren’t hiding or running anymore.

At battle’s end, I wanted us all to be together again, walking through the trees and laughing. No smoke or fire, just the scent of fresh blooms and the roaring of the waterfall. I didn’t care where as long as it happened.

The glow of the candles in the room of our cabin reminded me of the burning stars in the sky and that there might soon be a day when every kiss and touch wouldn’t feel like our last.

The front door opened below, and Aaron threw off his coat and boots in a slurry of snow on the ground. I already knew the problem from the rigidness in his shoulders and that urgent look in his eyes. Meeting him at the foot of the stairs, I steadied him.

“Kim, I need blood.”

Kilian was convinced Aaron’s connection to the queen meant something, and after his inordinate display during the eclipse, Kilian was eager to test it out with a few blood bags. It showed us nothing of use. We’d been unsuccessful in figuring it out, and now . . . we were out of time.

“It’s too much, I can’t do it. It’s not working. I just, I . . . I need you.”

“It’s okay. You’re in control.”

I feared for what that meant for him going to that place. If he was injured and needed blood and couldn’t get it. Or even worse . . . him not resisting the temptation for Her blood.

He closed the distance between us in one leap and grabbed me by the waist.