Page 61 of Unbound

We plunge into the rift, the elemental plane dissolving around us as we're pulled back toward our own world. Toward Confluence Academy.

13

Isit beside Raith in the healer's room, studying him as he lays with his eyes closed and his body covered in thick bandages.

I lift my shirt to expose the burns on my back, wincing as the academy healer applies a salve and then wraps my torso in clean linens. “You’re lucky,” she says. “These aren’t too deep. I don’t think you’ll scar.”

“Thank you,” I say, smiling as she nods and drifts to join the other healers tending to dozens of wounded students who are being carried in every few minutes as more and more return from the rifts.

Beck, Ambrose, and Mireen all sit beside the bed with me.

There's an air of tense anticipation between all of us. For now, students are still fighting to tether elementals as the window to return to campus remains open. In a few hours, the rift will close, and anyone who hasn't returned will be assumed dead.

After that, we'll all be forced to participate in a celebratory ceremony, as if our victory isn't shadowed by the ghosts of hundreds and even thousands of dead going back to that first day when we arrived in our carriages. The thought makes my stomach turn.

Mireen's hair is still soaked and she has a gash on the side of her neck that the healer bandaged when we arrived. Her braid has come loose in several places, leaving her copper hair to stand up and catch the fading evening light that streams through the windows. "So…" she says softly. "Are you going to tell us what is going on with your mark, Nessa?"

I instinctively twitch to put my hand in my pocket, but force it to still. My pulse skyrockets. The silver threads running through the blue and the patterns are different than everyone else who tethered. Even the blue is a deeper shade than their marks, as if some of that unnatural color saturation from the elemental plane is showing straight through my skin.

Typhon already told me it would draw attention. He said it was because he's an ancient, and the depth of his tether is many times more powerful than the types my classmates will have. It explains the deep, vibrant blue, but not the threads of silver. I’ve managed to work on disguising them more, but not before my friends saw.

"Um," I say, scratching the back of my neck. “It’s complicated.” Gods, how do I even begin to explain this? The most obvious answer is to admit the truth about Typhon to my friends. Admit I tethered a fucking ancient and blame him on the strangely intense water mark on my hand. “I think it has something to do with the elemental I tethered, though. At least that’s what he says.”

For now, they can’t see him. Elementals can choose to remain hidden from all but their tethered human, and I haven’t seen any other elementals showing themselves as students return from the rifts.

I can see Typhon lurking in the corner of the room like a dragon twice the size of a horse. They can't. Not unless he chooses to let them.

"Caution will prevail when tethers are fresh,"Typhon notes, casually reading my thoughts and responding, as if it's the most normal thing in the world. That's going to take some adjustment.

"Hey," Ambrose cuts in. "We've all known there was something different about you since the start. And if you don't want to talk about it, then you don't have to."

Mireen nods quickly. "He's right. I just wasn't sure if the mark was connected, or if…"

"Did I tell you guys Uther is a fucking water bear?" Beck asks, eyebrows wiggling. I’m not sure if he’s interrupting because he’s just that excited, or if he’s trying to divert the conversation to save me from having to share.

Either way, I appreciate it.

"About fifty times," Ambrose says, though there's some amusement in his voice. "And Mireen's elemental is an adorably deadly otter thing, which… frankly I am having trouble imagining."

Mireen sits up straighter, glaring at Ambrose. "Ollie is deadly. He has these claws. He's cute, yes, but he does have claws. And he's fast."

We all grin.

"And," Ambrose continues a little smugly. "I completely understand you're all just a touch jealous of Akaron. Water hawks are, after all, quite rare."

"I'll take my cute but deadly otter."

"A bear, Ambrose." Beck says. "Uther is a fucking bear. Who wins in a fight, a bear, or a little flimsy hawk?"

Ambrose waves them both off, eyes fixing on me. "Do we get to hear what form your elemental takes?"

The healer on duty is fussing with bandages of a girl a few beds over, so I wait until she heads back to her office and leaves us in relative isolation. Raith still seems to be sleeping, but I guess there's no use hiding it from him. He saw Typhon with his own eyes.

I have to take a few deep breaths, building up the willpower to tell the truth.

"Well… you guys remember that story about the terrifying water monster in Mirror Lake? And the huge dragon thing I told you about that nearly killed me during the Water Trial?" My pulse skyrockets, dread about their reactions crashing on me like a wave.

Ambrose leans forward so slowly I almost don't see it. Mireen's eyes start to widen. Beck scratches his nose, still oblivious to where I'm going with this.

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