Page 136 of Love Bites

“Breakfast?” he asked when I reached the kitchen.

“I need to get to school,” I said, shaking my head.

“Let’s go then,” he said, offering me his arm.

I took it. All my bluster had been for nothing.

It didn’t matter how much I wanted to get my magical education and help my brother, none of those things were going to stay in my mind when I returned to this cottage tonight.

I couldn’t resist Luke. I wouldn’t have resisted him last night if he had given me a chance.

Whatever spell had been placed on me, I wasn’t strong enough to stand up to it. The mate bond had been bad enough, but I suspected either someone at the school or Luke himself had ensnared me in some special magic yesterday.

Maybe once I got some distance from him at school I would bounce back. It was my only hope now, and that hope was faint.

“Is everything okay, Bella?” he asked, his brow furrowed in concern.

“I’m just tired,” I said.

He nodded, but he didn’t look convinced. To his credit, he didn’t press the matter. We set off into the woods in silence.

In spite of the break-in at the school, the hellhound, and the knowledge that something out there wanted the library’s power at any cost, I felt safe beside him. My heart seemed to have slowed to the rhythm of his footsteps.

As the dawn painted the sky pink, I wondered at the power and the delicacy of a spell that could bind me to him without resentment, impacting me emotionally and physically all at once.

If a spell like that existed, then healing my brother should be easy by comparison.

It occurred to me that maybe there was some way I could lay my hands on a healing spell today. Even if I couldn’t learn to use it right away, if I learned it before I left the school, then I could work on it from Luke’s place. I would have nothing else to do.

Suddenly, surrendering to the bond didn’t seem completely hopeless.

I had only one day. But I was going to use it to change everything.

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