Page 7 of Before the Bond Breaks
Nicky was the first to break the silence. “He drained her dry, the bastard,” she muttered, knuckles still white on the armrest. “That’s what he does to everyone. Sucks the magic out, leaves them dead or… worse.”
Just as he did to our mother over two hundred years ago.
Candra nodded. “We saw him on the feed. It’s enough to move on him. Finally.”
I looked to Winter. “Did you see where the lab was? A location? Anything?”
She shook her head. “He blocked the location from her. I’d bet my soul he used a glamour overlay. The memories were spliced. She didn’t know which way was up, or how many days passed.”
For a second, I saw Jessica in my mind, but not as a fallen agent, but as my sister. We trained together and fought together. She’d never win a chess game against Candra or outfight Nicky again.
It was supposed to be my job to keep her safe.
I folded my hands, keeping the tremor at bay. “Now we know for sure Balder is behind the disappearances of the witches, and we know he’s making shifters. Rogue ones.”
“Like the one that killed her?” Nicky spat.
“Or worse,” Candra added. “He’s had centuries to perfect his methods. She wasn’t his first, and she won’t be his last.”
The ache tried to turn to rage, but I held it in check. There were moves left on the board, and I was damned if I let grief make the next one for me.
Winter spoke barely above a whisper. “He called her blood a ‘gift.’ Like she was a stepping stone to something else.”
“He’s always been obsessed with the Valkyrie bloodline,” Candra said. “Wants to synthesize a new breed. Make himself a god.”
I nodded, agreeing with that theory. After all, it was why he killed our mother and stole her magic. “And Jessica just gave us the proof.”
“Damn right, she did.” Candra jumped to her feet and began pacing just as Winter’s tablet dinged.
Winter glanced at the tablet and frowned. Then she met my gaze. “Talon and his brothers are here.”
Shit. I wasn’t ready to talk to him. Like that mattered when theNornswere involved. “Let’s go meet the Alpha and his inner circle.”
4
MAZE
Leaving the media room,I headed to the stairs leading to the lobby from the second floor. Nervous energy fluttered in my stomach. It’d been way too long since I'd seen Talon. The ridiculous urge to run down the stairs and into his arms rose, but I squashed it. I didn’t know whether Talon would be receptive to that kind of affection.
When the lobby came into view about halfway down the stairs, I met Talon’s gaze. Fire lit up his amber depths. A ripple over his features before his eyes shifted to those of his wolf. My body heated, and I slowed my step.
Talon stood in the center of the lobby with his brothers, Jenson and Larc, on either side of him like sentinels. The fourth male with them, Shaw Grizz, was part of Talon’s inner circle. He lounged on the sofa a few feet away with all the false ease of a bear ready to snap a bone if someone looked at him wrong.
I studied Talon closer as I descended from the final step and crossed the lobby. His hair was shorter. The last I saw him, it fell past his shoulders. Now it was short on the sides while the top was longer. He wore black dress pants and a light blue button-down shirt that was perfectly tailored to him with the sleeves rolled to mid-forearm.
He held my stare, unflinching, like he’d been waiting for this exact moment since the day I walked away.
Candra went to move around me because apparently, I wasn’t moving fast enough. I cut her off with a glare, which only made her roll her eyes.
Stopping a few feet from Talon, I nodded to him, then his brothers and Shaw. I opened my mouth but closed it, not knowing what to say. “Hi” seemed lame. So did, “Welcome to VPA.”
How can I be of service? Nope, definitely not that one. Talk about a double meaning when standing face to face with my mate.
Talon’s jaw flexed once before stepped closer and took my hands. I fought a groan at the feel of his skin against mine. Our magics reacted to the touch instantly. As did his wolf. From the low growl rumbling in his chest, he felt it too.
“We heard about Jessica.”
“She’s dead.” The words came out clean, stripped of anything that might be mistaken for weakness. It was my coping mechanism. Just shove all those uncomfortable emotions behind a locked vault in my mind. Lately, the fuckers kept escaping that vault.
