Page 86 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“That’s not your concern at the moment. What do you know about this bond?” Theon asked.

“Can you read this?” Razik asked instead.

“Not fluently. It takes hours to translate, but I didn’t translate this. Katya did,” Theon answered. “She says she can feel Axel at times, but that is something common between a Source and Master.”

“Except it’s not,” Eliza said, pulling the door open wider. “You all should come in.”

A tense silence settled over them as they filed into the sitting room off of the main bedroom of the suite. Tristyn was last, still conspicuously silent. Katya perched on the edge of an armchair while Lange and Corbin took a seat on the sofa. Theon remained standing, crossing his arms and waiting for Eliza or Razik to speak.

“When Scarlett was here, she started working some things out,” Eliza started. “But none of us could figure out how it would be possible. Only certain bloodlines can create new Marks.”

“Which ones?” Theon interrupted.

“Zinta and Taika.”

“Scarlett is neither one of those, from my understanding.”

“Yes, but her history is not black and white. She…attained other powers. She does carry some of that lineage andcancreate new Marks. That is not the point though. We keep telling you that your Source Marks are not Source Marks, but the Marks you do use…”

Eliza trailed off, looking up at Razik.

“There is more than one type of bond among the realms,” Razik said with a sigh that said he found everyone in this room to be annoying for not already knowing this. “The Source bond you all have here is not what it was intended to be. Instead, someone, at some point in time, took a sacred bond and desecrated it.”

“Could you be any more vague?” Theon asked, his irritation matching Razik’s.

Razik shrugged. “Probably.”

“Stop,” Eliza cut in again.

She pulled her hand from the sleeve it was currently curled around and held it up for them to see. A Mark was on the back of it, tendrils of black branching out and winding around her thumb and first two fingers. She elbowed Razik in the stomach, and he sighed, holding up his left hand as well. The same Mark graced the back of his hand, tendrils winding around the same three digits.

“Scarlett and Sorin had a similar Mark,” Theon said, stepping closer to study their hands.

“Not similar. The same,” Eliza said. “Only theirs was complete.”

“What does that mean? Complete?”

“There is a bond called a twin flame bond,” Razik said, his arm coming around Eliza’s waist and his hand resting on her hip. “The Mark is a twin flame Mark, and if both accept the Mark, it initiates something called the Trials.”

“What are those?” Theon asked, still studying the Mark.

Scarlett had never let him get a good look at hers, and he’d been too busy trying to find Axel and figuring out everything about Tessa to really worry about the Mark on these two. And yeah, he felt foolish realizing a potential answer had been in front of him this entire time. But they could have said something.Anything.

“The Trials aren’t particularly important here,” Razik answered. “Whatisimportant is what twin flames can do. Once the bond is initiated, they can feel each other’s emotions and speak to each other via their thoughts.”

Theon slowly lifted his gaze to Razik’s. “Repeat that.”

He didn’t.

Instead, Eliza said, “And once the bond has been completed, they can combine the strength of their power so one or the other can use it.”

“I fail to see how this differs from the Source bond,” Corbin cut in. “We simply call it something different, no?”

Eliza shook her head. “From what I can gather, the Fae here do notchoosethe Source bond, but that is not the most concerning part. Finding your twin flame is not particularly common. More than that, it is not limited to only the most powerful. Any Fae and Legacy could be twin flames.”

“So this bond can only occur between a Fae and Legacy?” Theon clarified.

“Correct,” Razik answered. “It is said the bond is a gift to the Fae from the gods as a thank you for being a source of power for their legacy.”

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