Page 104 of On Wings of Blood

My heart sped up. Finally, someone who actually knew something.

“Soul-binding is dangerous because the very act of inviting another soul into your body puts you at great risk,” she went on.

And what if the soul wasn’t invited?I thought.

I can hear you, my mother said sweetly.You forgot to mute me today.

I’d been using my limited ability in thrallguard more regularly to silence our connection. I tried not to do it too often because I empathized with her position–being stuck in my head with nowhere to go and no one else to talk to but me. I’d probably have been a lot surlier and sullen than Orcades was, if our roles were reversed.

Hopefully we’ll learn something useful that can help us both, I murmured internally.Surely you want to be free?

She didn’t reply.

I wondered, belatedly, if she was afraid. Was there a chance she’d simply disappear into the ether if we managed to expel her? Would it be the end, the real end for her?

I quickly turned back to what Professor Wispwood was saying.

“When two souls occupy one body, the boundaries between them can blur, and often, the host risks losing their own sense of self entirely. This magic is therefore rarely practiced and for good reason.”

My heart sank. That didn’t sound optimistic.

Professor Wispwood paused, as if weighing her next words. “Historically, we know of instances when this magic was used long ago. It’s rarely spoken of, but in the past, some highblood vampires would use soul-binding to extend their lives through unconventional means. In their desperation to live beyond the limitations of their bodies, some highbloods would perform a binding ritual with a blightborn. The blightborn would willingly take in the vampire’s soul, allowing the vampire to live on through them. A way of cheating death, so to speak.”

A murmur rippled through the class. I looked around me. Florence’s Magical Foundations section was made up entirely of First Year blightborn students.

My stomach twisted as Professor Wispwood’s words sunk in. I gripped my quill tightly.

“But it wasn’t always willingly,” Professor Wispwood continued. “Sometimes these rituals were performed unwillingly. There are even accounts of this magic being used on dragon riders.”

My heart beat faster. I expected the professor to look right at me, but she was lost in her train of thought. If she’d remembered I had rider blood, she wasn’t showing it. Or she thought it was irrelevant.

Even so, another murmur went through the room.

“Yes, dragon riders,” she confirmed, nodding. “I mean, think of it. By binding their soul to a rider, a highblood hoped to be able to control a dragon directly. There was no other way to do it. The rider’s bloodline, their connection to the dragon, would remain, but the vampire’s soul would be in control. At least, that was the hope.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine. What she was describing was nothing short of murder. Reading between the lines, it seemed obvious the vampire's soul purposely overrode the host’s.

“The process was far from perfect,” Professor Wispwood went on. “If the rider was not fully bonded to their dragon at the time the ritual was performed, and not only fully bonded but the dominant party in a very fragile, very complicated relationship, then the bond would rupture. The rider would die. Sometimes, the dragon would, too. It was a dangerous gamble, one that very few vampires succeeded in pulling off. Still, for some the risk was worth it.”

The risk of being able to control a dragon and still possessing all of the power that came with being a highblood.

My thoughts were racing. I hadn’t learned how to free myself from my mother’s soul, but I had learned something else. Something much more terrifying. The longer Orcades’ soul stayed within me, the more I risked losing control.

Professor Wispwood was trying to get back to the original topic of conduits. But I couldn’t hold myself back.

My hand shot up, my mind unable to keep back the question.

“Was there a way for the dragon rider to fight back? To get the highblood’s soul out of them? You said they were often unwilling after all.”

Immediately a ripple of shocked whispers began to spread.

Florence looked at me in alarm, her eyes wide.

But if the question seemed borderline treasonous to Professor Wispwood, she gave no indication of it. Simply tilted her head thoughtfully, her eyes flashing with curiosity.

She raised her hand to silence the chatter in the room.

“That’s an interesting question,” she said, her tone calm. “If there was a way, it would have involved blood magic. Blood magic is powerful because it can break bonds that other magic cannot. As you're all aware, bloodmancy is the domain of House Drakharrow. But when it comes to blood magic and soul-bonding, I don't believe it’s much practiced these days. I’ve never seen such incantations myself. Of course, that doesn't mean they don’t exist.”

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