Page 37 of My Blood Is Yours

A female who already thinks I’m a complete and utter twat.

And pretty,some rebellious voice in my head adds.

I hear her give a muttered curse as she steps forward, filling my vision with her elegantly dressed form. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to upset you. Did Odessa send you or something?”

Odessa?

I shake my head, the words coming slightly easier this time—though they still make it clear I am entirely foreign to this place. “No. Sorry. Just a mistake...”

The female gives me a strange look, as if surprised by my poor pronunciation. Her eyes roam over me as if she’s not quite sure what to make of me. “Right…”

She hesitates for a moment longer, studying me in a way that makes me feel far too exposed before giving up and walking away.

I tug the ring off my finger, feeling like I need to mourn Ffion all over again, and hand it back to Sariel. “Let’s go.”

Sariel looks down at the ring, but doesn’t take it. “You made me vow upon my blood and magic to bring you to yoursoulboundand to bring youbothwith us to Atratus. If I do not do exactly that, it is under penalty of death.”

I heave a long-suffering sigh, scrubbing a hand over my face before I snap beneath my despair and frustration. “Well, how was I to know!? I wasn’t expectingthisto happen. What’re we supposed to do now? Kidnap her? Surely there’s a way toundothe vow.”

Sariel gives me an unimpressed look. “I can assure you, there isn’t. Magic isn’t something to be meddled with, and vows are not something you can just go back on. Even if you both agree to it. The words, your blood, your life force, your magic—have sewn its will into the very fabric of the universe. It would be like trying to cut a hole into a blanket. The whole fucking thing could unravel. Iassumedyou understood this when you dared to suggest such a thing.”

My throat works around a knot of guilt. “No… Not entirely.”

I only know about these things from what Ffion told me—or what I’d pried out of the people I’ve tortured and kidnapped trying to find my way to exactly this place. Before Ffion, it was so that I could find my family. After Ffion passed, it only became about finding her.

Having been born in the New World—in the wilderness outside of the Virginia Colony—where human medicine isvirtually nonexistent, I lost my farmer father when I was somewhere between boyhood and manhood, while all my other known family had been lost to disease or famine. And my Serpaphi mother had long disappeared… I returned to the place of my father’s birth—England—in the hopes of finding family. Which proved to be an exercise in futility… Until I met Ffion.

All I’ve ever wanted was a family.

A wife.

Children.

As a seer, Ffion knew what I was. I didn’t have to hide anything from her. I couldn’t have even if I’d tried. She knew all there was to know about me. Told me that someday, I would find myself in a realm calledOurinessa—that I would find my destiny there. That I didn’t belong in Terrenea, and my time there would pass in the blink of an eye in comparison to mypainfullylong lifespan.

“Seraphi are the protectors of goodness, Evandriel. Even if they are unwitting to their purpose, they will be guided to it by the unseen hands of the universe. By Akash. Just as a wave is drawn by the tide, so you are drawn by your destiny. Your time in Terrenea is exceedingly finite—when my soul is freed from my body, you will protect my daughter, and you will rescue her and her soulbound from this place. And through all your subsequent acts of goodness, you will be led to a fate far more beautiful—and filled with family and love—than you would have ever imagined. It is then that we will meet again.”

SARIEL

My intuition nudges me, and I figure this is as opportune a time as any to ask about the spinning top. Iwillthe object into my hand and present my upturned palm to Evandriel. He does a double take at the sight of it, and his jaw falls.“For fuck’s sake… Where did you find that?”

I shrug.“Doctor fuckhole. What is it? And why does it have so much magic pouring off of it?”

There’s a glistening in Evandriel’s eyes that’d be hard to miss. I feel like from the moment I stepped out of that underground, and we left the Terrenean realm, the brute-ish mask Evandriel wears has slipped further and further. It makes me realize just how stark the contrast is between the façade he presents and the male he truly is.

With one hand, Evandriel slowly reaches out to grasp the top with careful fingers as though it is something immeasurably precious and fragile. “It is amana siphon.It absorbs one’s power. Stores it to be used later...”

His eyes shift to Elowen, whose lips part in realization.

My heart roars its victory—at last, we finally have a way to find my brother. My heart thumps, and my muscles tighten withthe need to snatch the top from Evandriel’s fingers, and I silently curse myself for being so naive as to let him take it from me.

“My mother’s power…”

Evandriel nods. “This is how he relieved her of her so-called ‘madness’.”

As if Evandriel can read my mind, his eyes return to mine. Instead of returning it to me, he takes Elowen’s wrist to open her palm, and places it there, curling her fingers over it. It gives me another wedge of respect for him.

“How much power is in it? How many times can we use it?”

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