Page 161 of Gift from the Nexus

“Fine, but you owe me,” she says with a wink, laying her palm out for Keeper. “If you could.”

“Could what?” he asks, arching a brow.

“Deposit some of your blood in my palm so I can find this lady we’re looking for.” Oakly rolls her eyes like it wasn’t obvious the first time and I shake my head at her.

Keeper stands there skeptical for a moment before I guess deciding to just listen. When he slices his hand open, I, well, probably all of us, hold in a gasp. My mind seems to just space out because I’ve never seen anything like this, nor do I even know what’s going on.

His blood isn’t red. It’s cobalt blue.

“Is it supposed to look like that?” I croak out.

“The color? Yes, that’s normal for my line. Is your blood not blue?” he asks Draken. After a small stare off, Draken warring about what to do, he finally causes his eyes to glow. He doesn’t let them shift to slits, but he brings his gift forth enough to bring out the extent of his cobalt blues.

“My blood is red.”

“That’s quite all right,” Keeper says, smiling, seemingly stunned by Draken’s display. I’m pretty sure Draken could’ve said his blood was black and Keeper would’ve still smiled. He seems to just be fascinated by all things my dragon man and I let a seed of hope plant itself in my chest.

I want more than anything for Draken to have a good relationship with his dad. If that’s what he wants, of course.

“That’s plenty, thanks,” Oakly says, and her head only tilts back a split second before her eyes are flying open, colliding with mine.

“Don’t say anything about her. She told me I couldn’t talk about her. I don’t know why, but we need to do what she advised.”

“Holy shit, Willow.”

“I know.”

“I’ve got her. We can move out whenever.”

Nodding, I turn to Keeper, working up the nerve for what I have to do. I’ll admit I have the ick thinking about stabbing him in the neck, but I’m trying to push it out of my mind and just focus on the fact this is saving his life.

“Can you kneel right here so I can reach you better? And I need you to place my finger directly on the cord. I don’t want to accidentally miss and slice your neck open.”

He gives me an uneasy look that I completely get. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned slicing his neck, but he’ll be fine.

Doing as I asked, he positions my finger and slowly glides it back and forth on the side of his neck. The cord rolling beneathmy finger makes me sick to my stomach and I repress the need to gag. This is beyond cruel. I can’t imagine the number of times over the past several hundred years he’s grazed his hands across this thing, knowing it keeps him a prisoner.

“I have to puncture a hole in your neck until I feel the cord, then I can get it out.”

“You don’t think I’ve tried cutting it out myself?”

“I’m not cutting…I’m melting it.”

His eyes enlarge comically, then he smooths his features once more. I guess the fear of continuing to be stuck like this is stronger than the fear of dying accidentally.

At his nod, I begin to pierce his skin. Like Tanith warned me, he doesn’t even flinch as my fingernail digs into his neck, but I, on the other hand, feel nauseous as his blue blood begins to dripple onto my other fingers. The moment I feel my tip tap against something solid, I steady myself.

“This is the part that’s going to hurt, but I need you to stay as still as possible. Please, for the love of Elementra, do not send my ass flying or pull away or anything crazy.”

“I won’t. I trust you with my life,” he swears.

Fuck, that’s a lot of pressure. He doesn’t even know me.

Closing my eyes, I call forth my dragon and my flame. Just like when I was trying to break out of my cuffs, I focus my flame on slowly flowing down my arm and through my fingers, directly into the cord. By the small hiss leaving his lips, I know he feels it start heating up.

With my other hand, I call forth my earth element and lay it gently on the other side of his neck so I can get a feel of how solid it still is. I nearly faint when I realize it’s still very much hard and it’s going to take a lot more firepower than what I’m putting out.

“I’m so sorry. This is really going to hurt. Stick with me,” I murmur and up the ante of my flames.

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