“I would never do that to either of you.”
I wasn’t sure why I thought it was important to say so, but both of them seemed surprised I’d bother to say it at all. I didn’t mention how I never intended to break it in the first place because, despite having not said it, bonds were likely two ways.
If it’d weaken my power, it’d weaken hers. I’d never do that to Jo. But even that was an excuse. I didn’t want to break any bond I had with them even if being bound wasn’t what I’d initially chosen for myself. The mere thought of it tore me apart inside.
For once, the two shared a look that wasn’t full of disdain or ire. “No one in this room ever thought you would.”
“Would Lyra…?”
Again, the two were in sync, laughing in a way that eased my anxiety. “Did you forget the part where we’d be more powerful than she is?” Jo taunted, brushing my jaw with her knuckles. “I’d like to see her try.”
Heat erupted where she touched me and Cash’s hand held mine. It was so weird to be in the middle of the two after they’d been fighting and suddenly wish they’d put aside their dislike for each other and just fuck me already. Both of them. At the same time. This girl wanted to be the middle in a very sexy Fae sandwich.
Holy shit my head and body were a mess.
Cash sighed, and I wondered if he’d suddenly picked up on my horribly horny thoughts.
I peered at him, curious. “Will I need to magically bond with you after…you know, glowing runes?”
Shaking his head, he gave me a cute grin. “We’re bound in all the ways one could be as a Fae, my love, so no. And unlike amagical bond, it’s not something that can be broken.” His eyes moved past me to where Jo was. “Not even by death.”
I barely caught the dark expression Jo wore when I turned to look at her. I was perceptive enough to know that Cash was emphasizing that last part for a reason, and it had everything to do with her.
“Jo?”
Her lips pursed before her glamor came down and a rune that had color but didn’t glow appeared on her shimmery neck. I hadn’t thought the woman could be any more beautiful than she had been in her human form, but once the glamor was gone, nothing but a goddess walking the earth came to mind.
Jo was insanely beautiful. Her obsidian eyes had a circle of amber glow surrounded by darkness. A glowing ring no human eye could replicate. Her black hair was somehow both darker and more vibrantly aglow than it had been. The subtle sheen of scales and glitter appeared and disappeared along every visible part of her skin. But unlike Cash, the rune on her neck was the only one she seemed to have.
“That rune…”
It wasn’t black like the ones all over Cash. It was pink. So was it…
“A bond rune?” I asked after piecing it all together. “Wait, do Chaos Fae not get dark runes?”
I was almost certain she’d taken innocent lives. She’d told me as much. So why wasn’t she marked by them like Cash and Eros?
Cash’s hot breath painted my neck as his arm went around my waist, bringing my back snugly against his firm chest. “They do not. They are one of very few, love. Even Hands of Death can’t escape innocent death’s mark. Though, my kind views the marks as a natural part of who we are.”
Jo didn’t break eye contact with me. “Yes, it’s a bond rune.”
“You’re bonded? To whom?” I asked, fighting the burn in my chest at the thought she might have someone out there, waiting.
Letting loose a breath, Jo touched the rune. “I was. Her name was Reyna.” Her eyes dropped before lifting to glare at Cash, as if blaming him for forcing her hand. “The Organization used her blood and magic to create genetic hybrids. One hybrid in particular.”
My heart thundered at the thought. She couldn’t possibly mean…
“You,” Jo whispered. “It was likely her blood and magic that played a part in creating you.”
I’d been hit by a lot of metaphorical buses over the last year and a half, but this one was an especially hard hit. I grew a little weak in shock, but Cash held me closer, harder, his heat merging with mine, and for some reason, it calmed me.
“Is she…can we still—”
“She’s dead, V. She has been for a long time. The Organization has been doing this for a lot longer than you were probably made to believe. But what they did to try to create a perfect hybrid that they could control and use to cross the realms eventually killed her,” Jo whispered, the earlier expression twisting her face. “I didn’t save her in time.”
I stared at the rune on her neck. “A bond that can’t be broken even by death…”
Jo stood and stared down at us. “Not even by death.”
