I let my expression grow dark. “You tell me this now?”
He gestured between us and said, “The bond is here whether we make it official or not. And the kin bond has its advantages. They say that kin can sense each other across great distances. That we’ll be able to find each other. Always.”
He studied my chest as if that’s where he imagined the link connecting us lay.
The magnitude of what we’d done hit me then. Because all it took for our connection to vanish was getting too far apart. This kin bond might’ve just fixed that and bound us even tighter.
I bit my lip in angst. Had we done the right thing? I waited for Auntie to say something, but there was only silence. Shadows and doubt gathered in my mind. Fortunately, my rumbling stomach provided the perfect distraction.
“You haven’t eaten enough.” Frazer twisted in his seated position and handed my pack over, placing it on my lap.
I undid the clasp and rummaged. I brooded long and hard and after finishing my eighth oat biscuit, Adrianna landed in front of us, her bottle slung over her shoulder. Liora rolled out of her arms with four skins and handed our two flasks back to us.
“Where’s Cai?” Liora dipped down, packing away the other two bottles.
“Collecting firewood,” I said.
Adrianna snapped her wings in and sniffed the air. “Why do I smell blood?”
Her eyes narrowed, her lips set into a harsh line; the cowardly part of me won and relinquished the explanation to Frazer. Once he was done, Liora slumped to the forest floor nearby. “I didn’t even think kinship between a fae and human was possible?” She was still, dumbstruck.
The color leeched from Adrianna’s bronze skin, but her eyes burned with the fires of the dark court. I couldn’t help feeling relieved when she directed her ire toward Frazer. “Are you mad? You made a kin bond with a human?”
Frazer glared. “You don’t choose the bond. You know that.” A tad defensive.
Adrianna shook her head as if trying to rid herself of a buzzing gnat. Taking another delicate sniff, she said, “You realize, of course, that you’ve merged your scents. She’ll smell less human. Other fae might be curious as to why.”
Frazer’s features tightened. “I’ve also made her harder to track.”
“True,” Adrianna conceded. “But I don’t think her admirer will be thrilled once he smells you all over her.”
I couldn’t stop a blush from blooming.
“Admirer?” Cai’s voice hummed with interest behind us. “Who are we discussing?”
I twisted around to see that Cai had brought back a heap of kindling, which he unceremoniously dropped in the middle of what would be our camp for the evening.
“We were talking about Wilder,” Adrianna answered, sitting down opposite us.
“Of course.” Cai winked at me.
Liora made a noise of impatience.
Adrianna continued, a steely thread beneath the lilting accent. “And the fact that Serena and Frazer have just made an irreversible blood vow declaring themselves kin.”
Cai swore, loudly—viciously. “We weren’t even gone an hour.”
My reply was tart. “I guess that was all it took.”
A ghost of a playful smile. “Clearly.”
After another ten minutes, during which Adrianna made more barbed comments and Cai built a fire, the shock of what we’d done lessened. Enough for Liora to say she should’ve seen it coming. And for Cai to become interested in developing his own special bond.
“I don’t suppose you’d fancy sharing a bond with me, would you?” he asked Adrianna, who suddenly choked on the rations she was eating. “Sounds like it’d make all the other females wild with curiosity. You’d be doing me a big favor.”
He waggled his eyebrows. Adrianna laughed, albeit reluctantly.
Amazing. Obviously not immune to his charms after all.
This thread in the conversation piqued my curiosity. I had to ask. “Adrianna, is it true they’ve banned fae and human couplings in all of Aldar?”
She put aside her packet of dried fruit and faced me fully. “Taking a human as a lover isn’t, but a true union is. It’s always been a divisive issue because many believe being with humans thins our blood. But in the end, it was Morgan and her fanatics who got the law changed.”
My eyes flitted to Cai. Then back to Adrianna. I shouldn’t meddle. And yet … “Even with witches?”
Liora was the one to answer, quietly. “Being a witch gives a human some status in Aldar, but not enough to let us love who we want.”
Those last words rang in my ears.
Cai was crouching down, throwing a few sticks on the blazing fire as he carried on. “When Morgan seized power, the fae and human couplings in the Crescent vanished in the middle of the night.”
I gulped.
Frazer growled. “Morgan might want humans in our lands, but only to see them in chains, serving us, while we act like their fucking fae overlords.”
Cai snorted with laughter. Liora’s face twisted with disgust as she bit down on an apple.
“It’s just as bad in the Riverlands,” Adrianna said baldly. “Diana agreed to adopt the same stupid law in the negotiations.” She pinned me with a look. “So no, it’s not a good idea to pursue any fae. No matter how … exceptional you might find them to be.” A sharp tone. Still, her expression had a softness to it. Maybe pity?
I looked away, swallowing hard. “You think it’s an infatuation?”
She tilted her head up a jot. “It was for me.”
My eyes snapped to hers. “You and Wilder?” Almost immediately, an unwelcome pang of possessiveness unfurled in my stomach. A fierce and jealous need to claim him had come surging from nowhere—my rational mind was losing the fight.
Adrianna laughed. A soft, self-conscious sound. “There was never anything between us. Nothing I didn’t invent in my own head. He put me straight after I invited him to spend the night with me.”
“Moons, that was bold,” Cai said. No judgment. More like awe.
Liora muttered something about sparing her from the male species. Adrianna simply shrugged it off. “More like stupid.”
I took a breath. “Let me guess, he gave you a line about how you’d be in danger if you were together?”
I’d tried for a light tone but ended up with sour.
Adrianna’s brows nudged together. “No, he said he wasn’t interested. And if I didn’t stop pursuing him, he’d have me thrown out.”
“Oh.”
A powerful swoop of surprise claimed me.
Adrianna only angled her head. “He told you that you’d be in danger?”
For Cai and Adrianna’s sakes, I gave a quick recap of what he’d said the last time we’d spoken. The story complete, Cai let out a low whistle. “Sounds like Wilder’s got secrets. No wonder all the females are crazy for him.”
He wore a little frown and a pout. Liora and I exchanged smiles.
“He could’ve been lying to you, to spare your feelings,” Adrianna dropped into conversation. “He does get a lot of attention from the female and the male recruits. Hard to ignore a beautiful, scarred male who reeks of power.”
How true.
Adrianna began, “Still, he didn’t speak to you as if you meant nothing to him.” I could’ve kissed her. “He’s better at hiding it than most, but he is different with you. Just because he’s never batted an eyelash at anyone else, doesn’t mean he abstains. Why not give seducing him a go? Show him what he’s missing.” She gave me a crooked grin.
Liora laughed, delighted, whereas Cai stared. A man falling head over heels—that’s what it looked like, anyway.
“He seemed convinced that Dimitri would use our connection against him,” I said.
Adrianna inclined her head causing her glossy braid to swing free. She regarded me carefully. “Well, as long as you don’t get pregnant or marry, Dimitri can’t do shit. At least not publicly. He might be a traitor and Morgan’s bitch, but if taking a human lover was illegal, he’d have to arrest half the fae in Aldar.”
Traitor? Interesting.
“How d’you know he’s Morgan’s bitch?” Frazer probed.