Page 39 of Haunted

I’m too weak to move far, as if I’ve just recovered from a raging fever, and no one comes for me.

I manage to sit against the wall. My throat’s not as swollen as it was because my light works hard to stabilize my body and I’m actively focusing it.

Have the healers looked at the empress? How does she fair?

I’m tempted to raise the gate on our connection and check for her, but I’m afraid what else might slip through. I only hope she’s too distracted by her pain to see any truths I’m concealing.

Neifion. I wish for his comforting presence, but he’s much too large to come to me in the dungeons down narrow corridors. I can only call out to him. A half-emrys can only bond with other half-emrys who carry light. How can I feel the empress? I knew what was going on in the chamber as she tortured Mother Siana. How did I bond with the empress, who is all darkness?

It doesn’t seem to be a normal bond. Neifion opens his sight to me. He’s outside the stronghold, in a private area where there’s no foot traffic. The ground is hard and gray, and he’s curled up on it, waiting for when I’m ready to return to Creiddylad. He likes his solitude.

At least in my weakened state I can see the hazy skies when he looks up. The sun is low on the horizon. It’s peaceful.

It’s not like a bond that half-emrys share because of their light, Neifion says. It couldn’t have been. It felt more like a bond between dragon and rider. Like our bond, how I can see and feel through you.

So you felt it too.

Yes.

This shouldn’t be possible. I shift, working circulation into my cold bottom. A bond between a dragon and rider is made when a rider wears a dragon stone against his skin. We share thoughts and emotions telepathically. We feel each other’s pain. My unending life gives my dragon immortality, which is why dragons seek out a rider to give their stones to. Without a rider, they age and eventually die.

The empress doesn’t need my unending life. Dark Emrys possess unending life through the dark power, different from how the Half-Emrys of Light possess unending life through the light.

She didn’t need a bond with me, so why was one forged?

Perhaps she used a darker magic on you, Caedryn. Perhaps this has been her intentions all along.

Why?

To learn who you really are. To learn where your loyalties lie.

I have been nothing but loyal to her. I rub my forehead in frustration. I want out of this dark dungeon. Why hasn’t someone come along to even clean up the blood?

The torches flicker ominously. They are on the verge of going out, but I can hardly bend my legs to stand.

The empress knows how loyal I am, I say. Besides, she seemed just as surprised as I was. I sensed no magic when we were together that could have made the bond.

So no spell, then. She might not be a Child of Light, but you locked some sort of physical bond in place.

Dark Emrys don’t bond that way.

But you have bonded, Neifion says. One drop in your terrific control, and she will know where you are and what you’re doing.

I snort. When have I ever failed in my control?

Neifion clears his throat. When you let the devil herself take advantage of you.

You encouraged it.

I did. I’m sorry.

Was that all our union was, her taking advantage of me? I wanted it to happen. I wanted her. I must have feelings for her.

I close my eyes and breathe in a patient breath. My feelings for her don’t matter. Everything we have worked for will come to pass. Just let me take care of the empress.

You must find a way to sever the bond.

I will.

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