Page 4 of Bound in Blood

I tip my chin up. “I am not going anywhere with you until you tell me where Alexandros is.”

His blue eyes fill with tears. My poor broken heart is about to be decimated again. “You already know the answer.” He glances at the boys. “All of you do. You felt it as I did.”

“No!” I shake my head. “Take us to him. I can save him. I can use my earth powers. They can heal him, I know it. Alexandros told me that earth is?—”

“Ophelia,” Giorgios cuts off my babbling. “He is gone.”

Axl, Xavier, and Malachi come even closer, their bodies holding mine up as we take comfort from each other.

“How, Giorgios?” Enora asks, a distinct tremor in her voice.

He swallows harshly and shifts from one foot to the other as though uncomfortable in his skin. “Lucian was expecting us. He had an army waiting for us, and he took his father’s head before I could…” He drops his face into his hands.

“So Lucian is alive?” Enora’s whispered question is drowned out by Axl’s wounded cry.

I let go of Xavier’s and Malachi’s hands and spin around to face Axl before pulling the three of them closer. Once again, the indescribable agony of his loss tears us open, and we cling to one another, holding onto the memory of him, as well as the only thing we have left—hope.

There is a way to bring him back. I know it,I say through the bond, finding a strength from deep inside me, from the power within my light. I call on it, drawing on its energy to keep me standing on my own two feet and to keep them standing too.

“It is only a matter of time before he comes looking for you, Ophelia,” Giorgios says. “He knows who and what you are. We must leave.”

“We can’t. We have to stay here,” I mumble, my face pressed against Axl’s chest.

Giorgios’s heavy footsteps signal his approach. “His last words were of you.”

Tears burn my eyes, and I refuse to look at him. Refuse to listen to his lies.

“He asked me to protect you.”

“We can protect her,” Xavier growls.

“You are going to grow weaker with each passing day. How will you protect her then?”

“They won’t get weaker. I’ll think of something.” I’m already mentally searching through all the spells and ancient practices I’ve learned of these past few months. Surely there must be something that can save them. Even if… No! It’s unthinkable. I shake my head, refusing to believe.

“Regardless.” Giorgios’s voice becomes a low growl. “I gave him my word that I would protect you, Ophelia. I will not break my final oath to my only brother.”

Spinning around to face him, I roll back my shoulders, tip my jaw, and look him square in the eye. “Then you’ll have to keep that oath right here, because I’m not leaving Montridge. The books we need are here. Our friends are here.”

“Yeah, Ophelia has everything she needs right here,” Cadence chimes in like she’s been waiting for an opportunity to say something. Her loyalty makes me want to hug her.

“Friends and books will be of no use to you when Lucian arrives, silly little girl,” he snaps.

The ground shakes beneath us with the force of my ire, and flames lick at my fingertips, but I douse them quickly, somehow managing to keep my emotions in check.

The boys growl, their anger threatening to spill out too. Giorgios holds up a hand in surrender. “I am sorry,” he says, his tone gentler now. “Forgive my curtness, but I have just hadto watch the man I love and respect more than any in this world die in my arms.” The image he evokes causes my knees to buckle, and the boys hold onto me once more. I briefly wonder whether any of us will ever be capable of standing on our own two feet again. “If I am harsh, it is only because I am so concerned for your wellbeing,” Giorgios continues. “You have no understanding of the power Lucian wields.”

“Ophelia is way more powerful than him,” Xavier argues.

Cadence bounces on her toes, her hands balled at her sides as though she’s spoiling for a fight. “And she has plenty of powerful friends here at Montridge.”

“This is true,” Giorgios concedes. “But whilst you are here, you put everyone at this institution at risk. Both a young witch and a wolf have already died on these grounds, Ophelia. How many more must die before you realize how dangerous it is for you to be here? How many must die at the hands of Lucian Drakos before he finally finds you?”

How many more like Meg and Esme. Like Alexandros. He didn’t have to say I am responsible for his brother’s death—I know I am. And he’s right. I cannot allow anyone else to die because of me. But no matter how sure I am that we must go with him, I don’t want to leave Montridge. Not only because this is our home and the place where our friends are, but it’s the place whereheis. Abandoning Montridge feels like abandoning Alexandros.

I hate to admit it, but maybe we are safer away from here, Malachi says.Somewhere Lucian can’t find us.

Yeah, I know none of us want to admit it, but we’re all gonna get weaker, and we have no idea when that will start to happen, Axl adds.

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