Page 160 of A Bond with the Dark

I drop the clothes into the suitcase and walk over to him, sitting on the edge of the bed front of him.

His eyes are bleak and sightless. “It’s my fault you’re in this mess. And poor Gauge.”

“I will dismantle the world before I let anything happen to him,” I say savagely. “And it’s not your fault I’m in this mess. This is, somehow or another, my destiny. You led me to it.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“I know. But despite all that is going wrong right now, I feel that everything will be okay.”

“We have no idea how much time we have until my mark starts making me do things, Sayah. I’m afraid of what I might do to you.”

“I’m not.” I catch his eyes and hold them, trying to get him back from the ledge on which he walked out. “Dom, I’m not.”

He nods, and I know he doesn’t believe me. There’s a darkness in him that lingers harder than before, and I will have to fight like hell to keep him from submerging himself within it.

I’ll have to get Bash to help me with that, too.

“Dom, we’re going to find a way to save you. I’m going to find a way to save you. To save you and Bash and my son, especially my son, and Scarlet. And I’ll also find a way to kill those warlocks. Every. Single. One of them.”

The fire in my bones stirs when I think, firstly, of Gauge and then of all the others, I’m going to save. The inferno that now lives in me that became alight when I became the phoenix has mixed with the storm that’d already made a home in me. The hurricane, mixed with a volcano, surges up and crashes into me and devours all the doubt that had seeped in when Mederio threatened my son. I’m going to save them all.

And be that savior of the damned.

“I believe you, Sayah,” he whispers, putting his hands on either side of my face, caressing my cheek with his thumbs, “and I love you for it. But if there comes a time when I threaten you again, like I did earlier, I need you to kill me, okay?”

I’m not saying anything to this; I wonder if he’s a threat to me now? I still have no idea what I am nor what would happen should any creature of the dark try and kill me.

“Sayah?” he asks, his eyes questioning where I’d gone.

“Yes, I will.”

“I mean it. Earlier, when Mederio came to me in my head, told me his name and took over, I had no power over myself. He wanted you dead, and that is what I was veilweaved to do. From what he said earlier, I’ll be myself but have to do his bidding; I imagine that’s exactly what it’ll be like. And I don’t know who he’s going to want dead and when. If we get to Washington and I threaten your aunts or anyone you love, take this.” He pulls out the stake he had driven into Bash and puts it in my hands. “And drive it through my heart. I need you to promise me you will; I’ll not be able to live with myself knowing I hurt you or anyone you love.”

Reluctantly, I take the stake. “I will.”

“Promise me?”

“I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“Now we have to figure out how you’re gonna get that through airport security.”

I laugh, and it feels good to have some light-hearted feelings bubbling up inside me in what seems like a long time. The dissolution of sadness abating even a fraction is calming.

“I’m sure they won’t think anything of it if I put it in my suitcase. It’s not metal. They’ll think it’s some sort of?—”

“Some sort of what?” The devious smile he gives me tells me he knows exactly what I’m thinking.

“Sex object,” I breathe, laughing at the way it feels to say it.

“Oh, if only we had time to explore that idea,” he says, falling into me and kissing my neck, jawline, and lips.

Heat engulfs me and I kiss him back passionately, suddenly wondering if the throes of passion would be different now that I’m of the fire.

There’s the sound of Bash clearing his throat at the door.

Dom slips off me sideways and eyes him.

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