Page 82 of Baited

“Fast?” the Habosu madame asks.

“It could be. Faster than scheduled ground transport,” Nood says with a twinkle in his eye.

I don’t think Nood is just a kindly Tref who helps orphaned younglings at all. Izzy squeezes my hand, her internal mirth echoing through the bond, along with her agreement.

Maybe I like the bond a little after all.

IZZY

It could be I’m getting used to it, but the bond is settling. The initial spikes of emotion are quieter, subtler, nicer. I can still hear Blayn thinking about food, his cocks, me…mostly me with the occasional side thought about weapons, but I’m finding it easier to manage. It’s also sweeter than before, especially when he catches my eye and smiles his secret smile, his love shining through the bond and lighting me up from the inside.

He’s also wondering about his family, the one which hovers on the edge of his consciousness still. The one he desperately wants to remember but there are so many blocks in his head, he doesn’t know how to get past them.

I lace my fingers between his, mine stretched wide.

“We can try together,” I say.

He lifts up my hand and plants a kiss on my skin.

“My Izzy,” he says. “You don’t mind going back to Tatatunga?”

He’s used the bond to tap into my desire to get away from the place.

“I don’t mind. I’d rather we didn’t have to, but we’ve got friends.” I look over at Madame Birrix, who has fallen asleepin the transport, her head thrown back, her mouth open as she snores gently. “We’re not alone.”

“I didn’t like being alone,” Blayn says. “I didn’t like the dark and the light. But you’ve helped me see it for what it was.”

“I don’t think that was me.” I run my hand through his feathers, and he leans into me, shoving his head into my hair. “I think Nood triggered your memories.”

“It was you,” Blayn says, voice muffled. “It is always you.”

He wants to sort through his jumble of a mind, the desire to find out who he is strong within him. Nood has explained he was an immature Gryn, on the cusp of maturity, when the accident took place.

It means he spent formative years in the dome, and I can tell he’s doing everything in his power to keep those memories from me. Something I’m not going to abuse the bond for. When he wants me to know, Blayn will let me in.

In turn, I hope I’m keeping my anger from him. My anger that such a sweet creature was taken from his adoptive family, ripped away and tossed into a pit of violence and hate.

Rych has been relatively quiet. His eyes are closed, but he’s not sleeping.

“You realize what this means,’” he says quietly.

Blayn lifts his head from my neck, looks at Rych, decides he’s not a threat, and shoves his head back again, this time covering me with a wing, meaning I have to pull the feathers down to see. Blayn grumbles against my skin but doesn’t shift further.

“It means he was the first,” Rych muses. “The first Gryn in the dome.”

“That doesn’t tell us anything. Where did you come from?”

“I was in a research facility, with Maxym.”

“And where were you before that?”

“I was…” Rych’s eyes darken, his fists balling up. Blayn lifts his head and glares at him, thoughtbond radiating with concernfor both Rych and me. “I was in some sort of…camp. Then I don’t remember.”

My heart burns in my chest. All of these gladiators have been so badly treated, my sweet Blayn, Rych, Maxym, and presumably Klynn too.

“What happened to all of you, to end up here on Trefa?” I wonder out loud.

“Don’t know,” Blayn says into my hair.

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