Page 36 of This Blood That Breaks Us (This Blood That Binds Us, #3)

Thirty

Luke

Zach and I entered the sparring room. Fighting didn’t interest me much, but my brother enjoyed it. With the remnants of whatever pain he felt earlier circulating in my body, it only gave me more reason to make him feel better.

We shed our shirts and bit into our wrists. It didn’t hurt. My venom control was perfect, and leaving a clean, quick bite was becoming muscle memory.

“May fate guide you,” Zach said. His lips twisted into a wicked, sarcastic grin.

Akira’s words to me under the bleachers in Blackheart rang in my ears. I pushed out the memory and squared my shoulders.

“May fate guide you,” I repeated.

Then he lunged. Zach was great at offense, and though he couldn’t immediately knock me to my knees, he was getting better at shifting my balance early in the fight. He wanted to get me on the ground. I dodged him, but he grabbed me from behind and flung me to the ground.

“Ow,” we said at the same time.

Our gazes shot to each other in an instant.

“What the fuck was that?”

I popped up to my feet. “Wait. Hit me right here as hard as you can.”

When he punched me, we both winced.

“This isn’t happening. Are we physically linked now too?”

I punched him in the shoulder, and another wave of pain ran through me. It wasn’t exactly like being hit myself, but it was similar and almost as painful. Just slightly less.

“That’s—”

“Complete bullshit,” he said.

I was confused but not surprised. Anything was possible, but we already shared enough. Physical pain added on top was a nightmare situation.

“Oh good. You’re both here. I wanted to get some training time with you both.” Sirius came strolling in.

“We can’t . . . ”

“Why would that be?”

“We think the bond linked us, like physically.”

“That’s absurd.”

“That’s what we said, but we came to spar, and when I knocked Luke to the ground, we felt it at the same time.”

He looked between us, not saying a word. Then swatted Zach on the back of the head.

“Ow,” we said again.

“What’s that for?”

“I take it you guys were never linked like this. Not even you and your brother?” I asked.

Sirius wasn’t talking, only looking between us with flared nostrils and a hardened jaw.

“Both of you, follow me.” We left the sparring room and followed Sirius through the hallway.

“Why are you taking us to the atrium?” Zach asked.

“Privacy.”

He led us to an empty entryway with marble floors and stopped right in front of a large wooden door with a sun and the moon carved into it. He turned on his heels to face us. His normally slicked-back hair was falling wildly at the sides of his face.

“Give me your arm.” His eyes darkened, and he beckoned for me.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Fear laced my brother’s voice.

“Give me your arm,” Sirius repeated.

I went to give it, and Zach pulled me away from him.

“No. Not before you tell us what you’re going to do.”

“What’s going on? Why are you afraid of him?”

“Because he knows, unlike Ezra, I might hurt you. And trust me, I intend to.”

“We’re not doing that,” Zach said.

“You say that like you have a choice. Give me your arm .”

Sirius’s eyes lost all color, then he lunged. There was a scuffle. A push and pull as we all scrambled on the floor, tugging and tearing each other’s clothes in an attempt to escape Sirius’s advance, but we were already too weak from the blood loss.

Zach yelled for me as Sirius grabbed him by the collar and pulled him through the door.

“No, wait!”

Pure ragged panic took over as I shook the door. “Sirius, no! Don’t do this.”

I didn’t even know what it was until I felt a sharp pain along my forearm. Like someone dragged a knife along my skin, but there was no blood. Frantic breaths sputtered from my chest. The bond pulled me apart from the inside as slices stung my skin, and I heard my brother’s screams from inside, but something else was there too—fire. Fire lit up my belly and propelled my feet to the door. Sirius thought he could mess with us and test the bond like weren’t real people with real pain.

Not my brother. Not my family.

“Open the door!” I punched the hard wood of the door, growing angrier and angrier.

I didn’t know where all the anger was coming from. Was it mine? Was it my brother’s? The lines between us blurred, but it didn’t matter. I pounded my fists harder into the door, ignoring the pain in my hand and my body while Zach called for me. The bond flared, but somehow, I was numb inside. My only focus was taking out that door that had to be at least five feet thick. The door was coming down one way or another.

Not my brother. No.

Zach’s desperate cries on the inside of the atrium echoed, and I hit the door harder.

Connell appeared next to me. “W-what’s happening, sir? I heard yelling.”

“Go, get Ezra.”

“Bu—”

“Go, before I kill Sirius!”

I kicked the door. It was budging. My entire arm was on fire, and my fingernails felt like they were being pried off. The skin on my knuckles peeled and bled, but it only strengthened my resolve. The door was coming down, and I would kill Sirius for doing this to us.

The wood finally cracked and burst open.

Zach was on the ground of the atrium covered in blood, shaking. I didn’t understand. Why do this? Why physically torture us to test the bond. My brother knew all along Sirius was capable of this and more.

“There. That’s the fight I wanted to see.”

I lunged for Sirius, pushing him back a few steps. I didn’t care how old he was or how experienced. I’d fight him now. I’d kill him if he thought he could so much as look in my brother’s direction.

“This is who you need to be here. Not cowering on the floor. This bond is not your excuse to be weak.”

I stepped forward again, but Zach grabbed my leg. “Luke, don’t. Please, let it go.”

“We’re not cowards. This bond doesn’t make us weak. It will make us the strongest to ever set foot on The Guard. It makes me strong enough to kill you.”

“Want to test the theory, Calem?” Sirius’s eyes sparkled with the challenge.

“Yeah, I do.” I stared into his eyes, our faces inches apart.

I’d missed the fire in my veins, but it had been there all this time, lying dormant and waiting to strike.

“That’s enough,” Ezra’s voice came from behind and pulled me back.

“No, let’s see. Maybe Sirius’s time is up.”

Sirius didn’t shrink away from me, and I waited patiently for his advance.

Ezra grabbed my face in his hands, and his blue eyes steadied me. “Stop. Go comfort your brother.”

I turned back to Zach shaking on the floor. His entire arm was covered in blood, with long gashes. A few of his fingernails were cut and pried up.

The emotion of it all hit me like a freight train. I fell on the floor next to him, pulling him into an embrace. Finally, the tears came and we wept. The pain pulsed everywhere. Aching. His wounds were open, barely starting to close, and it hurt. Physically, it hurt, but I couldn’t tell if it was worse than the emotional pain as the fear of it left us. This would be a process and another series of days stuck hurting.

“Don’t do that again.” Zach cried into my shoulder.

“Do what? Save you?”

He said nothing as he buried his head into my shoulder. It felt good to comfort him this time. Holding him was holding me together. It eased all the pain rushing through me. We’d get through this like we always had.

Sirius and Ezra bickered while a few lower members filtered in to watch, including Connell. He, too, appeared to be crying.

“This is over the line.”

“The bond needs to be tested. We need them to be prepared.”

“They’ve already been through a lot.”

“Haven’t we all? They don’t get a pass for being damaged. It’s up to us to make sure they can face what lies ahead. You of all people know The Divine Path speaks of great enemies coming. What will happen if they catch us here like this?”

Damaged. Squeezing Zach tighter, I understood the fear he held now. Sirius was calloused, and his heart was cold. He called us brothers but treated us like soldiers. Replaceable, beatable, things for him to mold.

“The bond will snap into place when it’s ready. It doesn’t need molding or testing. You need to apologize,” Ezra said.

The hairs raised on the back of my neck at Her presence.

My brother’s and my head hit the floor in a bow before we could blink. All of us were on our faces before Her. I didn’t need to see Her to feel Her presence, but She rarely left Her room and not without an escort.

I caught sight of the tail end of Her dress as She walked to Sirius, who was kneeling too.

“My queen, I didn’t intend to cause harm.”

“Do not speak. You carried this mission out on your own volition. For three days, leave my sight. You will not pray. You will not speak to me or anyone. Your punishment is your own loss of connection and a fasting from blood.”

There were hushed whispers in the atrium. It was unheard of.

“This is something to be celebrated. The bond has evolved further than we could have ever hoped. Isn’t that the true sign of The Divine? That these two will usher in the strongest bond our family has ever seen.”

Words of praise filled the room in hushed whispers.

Her attention turned to us, and I wondered if this could be the same person. The one who killed Sarah. Because this felt different. My world was knit together like the stars overhead when She was near. She aligned the cosmos in place and hung the moon in the sky, and more importantly, She came for us when we needed Her.

“Let me see,” She muttered, and ran Her fingers through Zach’s hair.

I waited for his normal protest, but his tough outer shell had fallen. He let Her take his arm.

“You came.”

“You were calling to me. I can help with the pain. Would you like that?”

He looked at me, and I nodded.

She bit into Her wrist and blood flowed from Her porcelain skin like ink. I turned my head, willing myself not to breathe in the scent of Her blood. I had to be strong for my brother. I should have been worried, but She wouldn’t hurt him. She wouldn’t hurt us. The past was the past. This queen, my queen, was perfect and magnificent. She’d do nothing but care for us.

“Drink a little, Darling.”

He didn’t hesitate. The euphoria of it hit as if I had tasted Her blood with my own lips. It healed his wounds, and every ounce of pain we’d been plagued with was instantly gone. I marveled in the peace. The sense of safety and love pulled me under with it. She was worthy of all my praise and devotion.

“Ascension is near. On the next new moon, in five days, this pain will be a thing of the past. Until then, you both will not be kept apart. Your wait is almost over. You’re both ready.”