Page 25 of Bonds of Blood
“The pact between me and Sylvain might have been an accident, but no one can rightly say that he’s been enslaved. Not even coerced. I don’t rule by terror or by force. The fact that Mom refused to come with you should have told you enough.”
Baylor flinched. Good. Then I’d hit him where it hurt. He could brag about power and dominance all he wanted. It didn’t matter when the one person who mattered most refused to give him the time of day. Almost tried to drown him, too.
“I stay out of loyalty and love,” said Sylvain. A little saccharine, maybe, but it came from the heart, and that was all that mattered. “I stay because Lochlann and I believe the same things. One of them is that evil cannot be tolerated.”
“He’s right,” Bruna said, shaking a potion threateningly. “Your ass is grass, Baylor.”
Namirah growled in solidarity, and in wordless approval. Always good to know we were on the same page.
“And I asked to come home with them!” Ember shouted. “I would never ask to come home with you. Give us back our Satchel before I burn your eyes out.”
Baylor scoffed. “Impertinent little firefly. All of you, mere insects. Do you not see that you stand before a grand summoner? Come, Lochlann. Enough of this foolishness. There’s still time to join me, to learn at my side. Forget our philosophical differences. I can show you what it means to wield true power.”
“Pass,” I said automatically. “Instant pass. Thanks for the invite, though.”
“Wonderful. Then you’ve chosen to make the Oriel of Earth your grave. I’ll be sure to tell your mother so she can come and find you. That is, if I ever let her out of my sight again.” His lips drew back as he offered me a derisive sneer. “Do not forget that I returned to the Wispwood to take what is mine. I’ll start with your mother.”
Gods, I could’ve thrown myself at him. Even after all these years, Baylor still knew all the right things to say. The wrong things, to be specific, all the words that would send me into a rage, get my blood boiling. He’d always been a fucking asshole. Difference was, this time, I actually had what I needed to fight back.
My breath came in slow, rumbling huffs, the aggression building in my body. Sweat dripped down my forehead, trickled from the tip of my nose. Was it really that warm in the oriel, some aftereffect of Baylor’s corruption? I licked my lips, tasting salt. But I knew that wasn’t sweat.
Seawater. More of it trickling from my brow, dripping down my back. I looked at my hands, heart racing as I watched my very skin, flesh, and bones become translucent, become liquid. I couldn’t register the words, but I could definitely hear my friends exclaiming in alarm. I looked to Sylvain for support, excited and deeply afraid, all at once.
“It’s finally happening,” he whispered. “It’s incredible. Embrace it, little human. Accept your other half.”
That was all the encouragement I needed. My body collapsed, and yet it didn’t, simply transforming from something mostly solid into something entirely liquid. Gods above and below, but this was out of my wheelhouse. Who would I even speak to about this? Namirah, who understood metamorphosis inside and out? My mom, certainly. And there was Headmaster Shivers, too. Was that why they were always so kind to me? Did they recognize the undine within?
But priorities first. This was how I could end it. Attack Baylor in my new form, rush at him while he was still in a state of shock. And there it was again, that look on his face, the unspoken thrill of discovery. That was all that mattered to him. This was only a game of scientific curiosity. I’d never seen him gaze upon me with such wonder, with something approaching adoration. His widened eyes. His open mouth.
His open mouth. That was all I could really focus on. His nostrils, too. Wasn’t that what Mom was trying to do in the library? Enter him bodily through every available orifice. Seek out his lungs. Fill them until he stopped breathing.
I sped toward him like a wave crashing onto the shore, so eager to show him my newfound gift. But Baylor didn’t retreat, to my surprise, only stood there watching.
“Ah, and so you show me your temperament. You truly are a product of Marina’s water and blood. Like mother, like son.”
Burbling and watery, as if from deep within the ocean, I heard myself speak.
“Die.”
Amid the endless torrent of water raging in my ears, I heard Baylor repeat himself through a sinister smile.
“Yes. Exactly as I expected. Like mother, like son.”
What was once my blood ran cold, what was once my chest gripped with icy fear. Baylor wasn’t only echoing his words for fun. My mother was an undine. More specifically, she was his eidolon.
What did that make me?
Baylor Wilde clenched his hand as if meaning to squeeze my throat from afar. Threads of emerald light danced from his fingers. The breath did indeed leave my body, the pressure not simply imagined, applied through some dark magic he’d concocted.
Those skeins of magic — they looked exactly like the chains that were wrapped around each of the four oriels. I tried to scream, but nothing emerged from what were once my lips. Baylor’s chains had already wrapped around my mouth, his magic so potent it could turn water solid again, contain the immaterial.
Cold metal pressed against my skin, every link of my father’s chains like ice. He’d reversed my transformation. I struggled, thrashed my limbs, but the shackles bit deeper, rubbing my flesh raw. I cried out in pain, and again, only silence. Behind me my friends shouted in anger. Sylvain’s voice rose above them all.
“Lochlann! No. Let him go!”
“Your form is imperfect,” said Baylor. “But you’ll learn more about the transformation in time. I’ll teach you, boy. Just as I taught your mother. Now come.”
He tugged hard, the chains rattling as he brought me to my knees, manipulated me like a puppet. No. I was a dog, a beast of burden, leashed by his power. This was his plan all along, to make me his plaything. Once I was summoner. Now I was eidolon.
