Page 30 of Before the Bond Breaks
“Let them complain. They’re not in charge of us.” Just our fate.
Maze pulled her hand free and folded it into mine, our fingers twining. She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly as she stepped into my embrace and rested her head against my chest.
Maze’s next words were soft, but fiercer than anything she’d said all night: “No more choosing duty over each other. I saw how our clans are like family already.”
I gave her my promise—not in words, but in the way I squeezed her hand, the certainty that ran straight through my bones.
For a while, we stood in silence, watching the night shift over the compound, every hard-won inch of peace earned at a cost. The moon drifted higher, cold and bright, as if daring us to keep going.
No one could tell what tomorrow would bring, not in a life like ours. But tonight, Maze and I stood together, every scar and every hope lined up side by side.
We would face what came. Together. Always.
17
MAZE
The dream grippedme by the throat, dragging me out of sleep with a violence that felt almost physical. I clawed at the sheets, the taste of ozone and blood still raw on the back of my tongue. My mother’s voice echoed, clear as cold steel, each word slamming against the inside of my skull.
“He’ll use the stone. Your blood activates it. Yours is the key, Maze.”
I woke fighting for air. Panic tightened my chest like a vise.
I shoved myself upright, taking deep breaths to calm myself. My hands shook uncontrollably. I curled them into fists, grinding knuckles against my thighs, trying to force control where I didn’t feel any.
Beside me, Talon woke instantly. His body stilled, wolf sharp beneath the surface. He reached for me, palm catching my wrist with enough pressure to ground me. The golden glint in his eyes locked on my face.
His chest pressed close, heat rolling off him like a shield as he pulled me into a hug. “I got you.”
I tried to shake the dream vision off, but my pulse pounded. Squeezing my eyes shut, I sagged against Talon. My mother’s words rang in my ears. What if she was right? What if that was why Balder took Jessica and drained her of her blood?
My voice scraped rough. “I had a dream or vision or something about my mother warning me about the Severing Stone. It needs Valkyrie blood. That’s how Balder plans to activate it.”
I forced the words through clenched teeth. “He killed Jessica for her blood. Not just her power. He drained her dry because he needed both. Maybe he already has my blood, from when he pretended to be in love with my mother on Vanaheim. Or maybe Jessica’s was enough.”
Talon’s arms tightened around me, holding me steady. His presence filled the room with calm and a sense of home.
He studied my face, mapping every tremor. “You think he’s going to try to use your blood to power the stone?”
I nodded, swallowing the bile at the back of my throat. “Or Jessica’s. Mother said my blood opened it, but maybe any Valkyrie with a direct bloodline to the Prime could do it. Balder wouldn’t have risked so much if he had thought he could shortcut the ritual. He needed her alive long enough to finish the draw. He didn’t just want her dead. He wanted her emptied.”
My fingers flexed, nails biting into my skin. The shakes had gotten worse, not better. I tried to steady myself, tried to pull in the Command of Will, but the memory of Jessica’s body and my mother’s voice tangled together in a knot I couldn’t cut.
“What if he’s using her blood now to track or find the stone? Or worse, what if he’s building a way to break all our bonds—kill the line, then use our own essence against us?”
The possibility hollowed my chest.
Talon’s hand closed over mine, forcing my fist to unclench. He drew my wrist to his mouth, pressing his lips to my pulse until the wild beat steadied under his touch. “We won’t let him win.”
He fixed his gaze on mine. “But you’re right. He prepared for this. He’s probably already using Jessica’s blood in his ritual.”
I breathed in slowly. My body ached for control, but the tremor in my hands wouldn’t stop. I hated the weakness. I hated I couldn’t think of Jessica without seeing her on the slab, drained, her power wasted.
Talon read every inch of my reaction. He reached up, tucking stray hair behind my ear. “Maze, we’re going to end this. But you need to focus.”
My pride wanted to snap at him, to push him away and barricade myself behind the old walls. But his voice had a gravity that pulled me back in. I stared at his jaw, the set of his shoulders, the way he watched me like nothing else mattered.
It pulled something loose in my chest.
