Page 44 of Bound in Blood

“You don’t?” he asks, incredulous.

The asshole is baiting me. “Just let me think.”

“There’s no time to think, Ophelia. You are taking your powers far too literally.”

Patronizing too, huh? Nice.

He shakes his head like I’m annoying him when clearly it’s him annoying me. “What is the most powerful force in the world?”

I blink at him and wonder what he’ll think of my answer. I assume he and I have very different views on the matter, but his hazel eyes implore me to reply, so I tell him. “Love.”

He opens his mouth and stares at me for a few beats before closing it again, whatever he was about to say dying in silence. His jaw tics while he appears to wrestle with something in his mind. What feels like an eternity passes before he speaks again. “The elements, Ophelia. What is the most powerful element?”

I rack my brain for the answer. Fire? No. “Water,” I reply confidently.

He nods, and I feel an unexpected—and definitely unwelcome—flush of pride. What do I care if I got his question right? I don’t want or need his approval. “It does not matter which element you choose, for they all could break his chains. What matters is which you believe to be most powerful. Water is a solid choice. It can level entire cities in the blink of an eye. And that’s only one of the elements running through your veins. Thatpowerlives inside you. So find your light, focus, and destroy the fucking cage.”

I stare at the cage and swallow nervously, wishing I shared his optimism. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.” His breath dusts over my cheek, and I flinch at his closeness. He doesn’t back away. “Find. Your. Light,” he commands.

That will take effort and concentration, and I don’t trust Lucian enough to allow myself to go to that place when he’s so near. But Alexandros’s pained murmurs remind me that I have little choice. Lucian may simply be luring me in and waiting for his moment to strike, but I take a little comfort in the Dragonfyre still warm in my hand.

I close my eyes and find the dazzling orb of light within my core.

“Focus, Ophelia. You have everything you need already inside you.” For reasons I don’t fully understand, the sound of Lucian’s voice soothes me. Perhaps it’s as simple as the fact that he sounds a lot like his father.

I draw in a breath, letting it fill my lungs, before I open my eyes and concentrate my energy on the cage and the chains binding Alexandros’s wrists.

“Believe it can happen, and it will be so,” Lucian says, quietly confident.

So that’s exactly what I do. I will the chains to break and the bars of the cage to shatter. And my veins spark up with lightning while power crackles through my body, and I channel the powerful swell of the ocean. I see it all in my mind’s eye—the bars exploding from the pressure of the water, their pieces scattering across the cave, then the links in the chains breaking open and falling from Alexandros’s arms.

Lucian ducks, pulling his hood over his head, and it happens in one huge blast, just as I imagined it. The broken chains of silver release Alexandros from their hold, and he collapses to his knees as they clatter to the cold ground.

I surge forward and catch him with one arm before he can fall forward onto his face. “Alexandros.” His name is half prayer,half plea. Terror and hope wage a war inside me while I wait to see if he’s okay.

His eyelids flicker, and I place a hand on his shoulder to steady him, my palm resting gently on his blistered skin. A violent swell of emotion threatens to swallow me whole, but I choke it down. Now isn’t the time. I glance back at Lucian, my senses hyperalert to any change in his demeanor. He watches us intently but makes no attempt to move. Still, I don’t trust him, and with a flick of my wrist, I form a protective circle of Dragonfyre on the ground around Alexandros and me. Lucian will burn if he tries to cross it, so it buys me a little time at least. And now that the Dragonfyre around us is burning brightly, I douse the one engulfing my hand and pull Alexandros into my embrace. Gliding both my palms over his charred flesh, I channel my earth line to heal him as best as I can. The thick angry welts striping the length of his back begin to heal beneath my touch, and he shivers in my arms.

As much as I believe that speaking into his mind would break through to him more easily, I know better than to try. It won’t work down here, so I say his name again. “Alexandros, it’s me.”

His eyelids flicker, and his nostrils flare. “Ophelia,” he growls.

All too quickly, his fangs protract, and with a feral growl, he goes straight for my throat. Despite his weakened state, it takes all my strength to stop him from feeding on me. The pained look he gives me almost breaks my heart all over again. “You can’t. Not yet. My blood flows with blue poppy. If you feed now, while you’re still weak…” My voice catches on a sob. I hate denying him, but it’s too much of a risk.

He blinks, and for a few seconds, I wonder how much of what I said he understands. But then his dark eyes spark with recognition and anger, and he nods his understanding.

“We need to leave here.” I hoist him to his feet. “It’s not safe.”

“How did you find me, little one?” My knees almost give way at the sound of his voice after too long without him, and my chest heaves with the effort of holding back my tears.

I blink them away. “I’ll explain later. We have to leave.”

“Then douse the…”He clings to me. “Is that Dragonfyre?”

“Yes.”

“Ophelia?”

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