I felt his heart beating deep down, like a slow, comforting clock keeping time. I felt connected to him in a way that couldn’t be explained. Like our souls were holding hands. I didn’t feel his emotions, like I had thought I would, just the ease of knowing we were together. I felt responsible for him, deeply in love with him, and a pure light originating from inside because of him.
He’d been right. It had just strengthened what we already had. We might physically be apart in the future, but we would never be separated, something that would totally suck if our relationship went south.
Call me Mrs. Glass-half-empty. Or practical; take your pick.
“Yeah.” My voice had returned to hoarse and scratchy, like on day three, but at least it worked. “I might walk bowlegged. Don’t make fun of me. It’s your fault.”
I have heard that bonding is intense and enjoyable, but that seemed excessive.
I laughed and thought about rolling toward the edge of the bed.
Come, we need to go. He didn’t move.
“Who are you trying to convince, me or you?”
My body does not want to obey my head’s commands.
“Are you sure it’s supposed to be six days instead of seven? Because it certainly doesn’t feel like we should be running around at this point. I’m still exhausted.”
His body wiggled a little. I can do this. Finally he rolled to his side before swinging his feet over the edge.
I followed suit, hating every minute of it. I wanted to lose the entire month to him, lying in bed and reveling in his perfect body. He’d ruined my sense of reason. Absolutely destroyed it. I was not thinking rationally anymore. Callie would kill me.
A shot of adrenaline had me surging to my feet. “Callie and Dizzy!” My legs gave out and I fell to the ground. “Dang it, my legs are not obeying.” I crawled to the wall and climbed to my feet. A bit dramatic, but man, I was sore and tired. “Oh my God, how could I have forgotten to leave them a note? They’ll think I disappeared off the face of the earth.”
I pulled on my clothes and weapons and scooped my pouch off the ground. I dug out my phone. It had probably long since died, so I looked around frantically for a charger. The least I could do was text them.
“Moss will have seen to that,” Darius said, coming around the bed and placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I gave him instructions to pick up a letter from you and deliver it to them. I had thought we’d spend some time getting you comfortable with the next steps before initiating the bonding. There were a few things I wanted to do. As usual, of course, you unraveled my plans. He will have seen to it in our absence.”
“I hope he didn’t try to sign my name to it, because there is no way he could mimic me. They’ll know something is up.”
Darius went still for a moment. “You can send another before we leave.”
I took a deep breath. “Do you have a charger?”
He glanced at my phone. “For that relic? No. We’ll get you a new phone.”
“Just because I bonded you—” I had to stop myself for a moment. A rush of butterflies and inner girlie squealing blotted out all thought. I tried again. “Just because I—” I gritted my teeth, because this was getting ridiculous. “—doesn’t mean I want you to buy me a bunch of stuff. This phone is fine. I just need a charger.”
Two backpacks, a satchel, and a new, larger pouch awaited us downstairs, along with a new set of clothes and a handwritten note. Darius took up the note as I riffled through the backpacks. Each contained a scaly sort of suit made out of stressed leather and patches of hard material, rope, a Swiss Army knife, and other survival tools. Darius’s pack, the one with the larger suit, contained a lighter. Mine did not.
Moss was nothing if not thorough.
Within my new pouch was a color-coded array of spells, and a piece of paper identifying what they all were.
Extremely thorough.
I dropped my hand with the paper in it so I could see how much of the information stuck. “Oh crap.”
“What is it?” Darius asked, now looking through the backpacks.
I felt my eyes widen as I lifted the paper again. “I read the paper, looked away, and I remembered every detail. Holy crap.” I smiled. “That is awesome! Totally cheating at life with humans, but awesome.”
“You’re welcome.” His lips tweaked into a grin.
“Well, you’ll get to walk around the depths of hell with a bunch of horribly ugly creatures that want to do you harm. So you’re welcome.” I strapped the pouch around my waist as my stomach growled. My brow crumpled. “I haven’t eaten since we started the bonding. Is that normal?”
“For humans, no. For you? Who’s to say? That raises a good question, though. Do you need to eat? Demons do not, so I don’t assume there will be any restaurants down there.”
“If I didn’t need to eat for the last week, then…”
He nodded like he thought that was the case. “It will probably be extremely uncomfortable for you for the first few days. You will probably feel hunger again now that the bonding is no longer distracting you. There will be other physical discomforts. You’ll want to breathe, but there will be no air in places. Your thirst will go unquenched. To top it off, you’ll miss the sun.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Of all the things you listed, I can handle no sun.”
“For a while, yes. But mark my words, you’ll notice its absence.”
I nodded, since he would know, and thought about raiding the kitchen for one last meal. Instead, since I should probably start the torture now so I could get used to it faster, I looked around for paper and a pen.
“Moss did not sign your name to the letter,” Darius said, slipping on his backpack. He nodded toward the note lying on the couch. “He kept it vague, telling them that you were sorry and making it clear that you would have written yourself if you’d had the opportunity.”
“He didn’t mention why I was unable, did he?”
“Just that you had to start your journey.” I stopped my search for writing implements, but my relief was short-lived. “You will need to tell them eventually,” he continued. “What we have will never go away, Reagan. You will be my darling for all of eternity, traveling the world by my side. We are one, you and I. They will catch on eventually.”
“Let’s just slow down with the dramatics, shall we? And ‘darling’ is something that can go, that’s for sure.” I pulled my hair up in a ponytail. “I think I liked you better when you thought I was a nuisance.”
“That is fear talking.”
“Pretty soon it will be violence talking, so you have that to look forward to.”
I looked back and forth between my older pouch and the new one. There was really no need to keep the old one, as beat up as it was, but it had been with me through a lot. I was a little sentimental. Besides, if something happened to the new one…
I emptied the older pouch of used casings and the few intact spells and stuffed it into my backpack. The pinch of hunger was starting to be a problem. Already. Though after a week, it probably should’ve been way worse. It was probably a mental issue.
“Are we waiting for something?” I asked, hefting my backpack. “And what does the suit do?”