Page 153 of Unbound

"Will he come to see you?" I ask my mother.

"Soon. He'll want to say hello to your siblings first. Saving the best for last," she adds with a wink and a smile.

I smile back, thinking how beautiful she is.

I bounce on my toes as I roam the room with the nervous energy of a small child. I want him to be proud that I waited here with Mother. I want him to see I had the patience not to rush through the castle to greet him first.

So I wait, even as I feel something wrong in the air.

It's a coldness. A kind of nothingness.

It’s not long before I hear a scream from down the hallway, high pitched and frantic. It's a scream unlike anything I've ever heard before. In that moment, I know it's my sister's voice, and I know the sound of that scream is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

I wake with a scream of my own tearing from my throat, my body drenched in sweat. The sheets are tangled around me, restraining like hands trying to drag me back into the nightmare.

Raith is there instantly, his hands on my shoulders, his eyes wide with alarm in the dim light of early dawn. "Nessa! What is it? What's wrong?"

I can't speak, can't breathe. The phantom pain of burning still courses through me, and beneath it, a grief so profound it threatens to drown me.

"A nightmare," I gasp finally, trying to control my shaking. "Just a nightmare."

But what if it was more? What if it was a memory?

"Was that a memory from someone you tethered in the past?"I ask Typhon.

"Hmm? Was what? I saw nothing."

"I was in somebody else's mind. Seeing what they saw."

"Ah… these things are possible, I suppose. It could have been. I will ask that you don't talk to me about what you saw. The memory of the ones I've lost… it's a wound I am not ready to revisit."

"Of course. I understand."

I blink away the sleepiness, looking up at Raith's unscarred face. "I think... I think I saw something from Typhon's past." But even as the words leave my mouth, I wonder…

Could those have been Raith’s memories?

There's a heavy silence for a moment before Raith's hand drifts to his throat, fingertips brushing the place that's still bruised from where the siphon touched him. "What exactly did you do to save me?" he asks quietly, an edge to his voice I can't quite place.

"I'm not entirely sure," I confess, pulling the blanket tighter around me. The predawn chill seeps through my underclothes, making me shiver. And then I realize I'm hardly wearing anything in front of Raith. With a jolt in my stomach, I tug the covers up over myself.

He's just watching me intensely, though. Waiting…

I clear my throat. "I couldn't figure out how to heal you. And Typhon didn't think we had long to mess around. He said if I tethered to you, I'd be able to. So I made an oath to you, and it... worked."

"You tethered to me? How's that even possible? And what kind of oath?" His voice is incredulous.

I look away, suddenly embarrassed. The words had come from somewhere deep inside me in that desperate moment, pulled forth by instinct and desperation. "Nothing binding. Just a promise to protect you like you've protected me. That your life is my life. That your fight is my fight."

He's silent for so long that I finally look back at him. His expression is unreadable, his eyes distant, as if seeing something far beyond the walls of this room.

"Raith?"

He blinks, focusing on me again. "That was dangerous," he says, his voice tight. "You don't understand what I'm fighting. You shouldn't have sworn that."

"You were dying," I remind him, a flare of annoyance cutting through my exhaustion. "I didn't have time to think through the implications. I just knew I couldn't… well… lose you."

The impression of a smile touches his lips. "I know the feeling." He stands, putting distance between us. "You should rest more. Your body is still recovering."

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