Page 140 of Without a Trace
I looked at each of them, blood roaring in my ears.
“So let me get this straight,” I said slowly, my voice low, steady. “I’m the heir of your enemy. And yet somehow, I’m bonded to two of you. Opposing sides. Opposing bloodlines. Bonded.”
Zeke didn’t answer. His shoulders were squared.
“I’m waiting,” I said.
Trace’s mouth opened—then closed again.
It was Zeke who spoke first. “I don’t know.”
I stared at him. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I mean we’ve never seen it. Not in real time. The last documented case was in a Codex so old it’s falling apart in the archive vault. Most people think it was a mistranslation.”
Rhett shifted, arms crossed loosely over his chest. “It’s not a mistranslation anymore.”
I turned back to Zeke. “What did it say? That Codex.”
He ran a hand over his mouth, slow and deliberate. “That it only happens once in a generation—if that. And that when it does, it usually means the end of something.”
Trace moved closer. “You think we caused some kind of collapse?”
Zeke’s voice was low. “I think the collapse was already coming. This just sped it up.”
I felt the pressure of the bracelet again—low, constant.
“And the heir part?” I said. “You’ve known?”
Alden’s voice was quiet. “We suspected.”
“That’s not the same as knowing.”
“No,” Zeke said. “It’s not. But it was enough to make you off-limits.”
“Off-limits,” I repeated. “So what—you were gonna watch me from afar while I turned into what? A threat? A weapon?”
Trace shook his head. “You were never a threat.”
“Then why the hell am I dangerous now?”
Zeke’s mouth was a line. “Because now you’re tied to both sides. And nobody knows what the hell that means.”
I took a step back, breath catching. “Then figure it the fuck out.”
Zeke met my gaze, steady and grim. “I will.”
“You better,” I said. “Because if I’m bonded to both of them, and you’re saying I was never supposed to be born—then we’ve already crossed the line, haven’t we?”
Zeke didn’t respond.
And for the first time since stepping outside, no one interrupted.
I nodded once. “Then let’s stop pretending anyone’s in control of this anymore.”
“I’ve seen references,” he said. “Buried in the old Codex. The last recorded triple bond was centuries ago. A myth more than fact. No one’s seen it in real time. Not until now.”
Rhett muttered something under his breath and looked away.
