Page 59 of The Blood that Binds Us

I imagine it is exhaustion that has him so quiet—preparing his armies for their final stand against Legion surely has left his mind and body in need of rest. My temples throb at the mere thought of what it must be like dealing with Dusaro every day.

“Thank you for bringing me there.” I hadn’t been able to voice my appreciation before, but it feels wrong to not extend some sort of acknowledgment.

His slender eyes flash to mine, and he wipes the back of his hand across his face. “I would like you to answer something for me.”

I blow out a breath and look at him pointedly.Of course he wants something in return. “What?”

“You mentioned before that your parents tossed you out when you were young… after they learned what you were.”

“Are,” I correct.

“How did they find out?” he continues.

The smell of blood, it… appeals to me,I told him the night he interrogated me in the cell.I swallow hard. Ihatetalking about them, why is he asking this now? Perhaps he noted my tear-stained cheeks when I brushed past him outside the temple and suspected I had seen more than just Elysande inside those walls.

“My mother… is a cruel woman. She was very heavy handed, and to put it lightly, a complete and utter bitch. She punished me with great severity even when I had done nothing wrong.” I tear my eyes away and stare into the flames before continuing, not wanting him to see the tears pricking the corners.

“But I was an only child and lonely, and despite hating her, I craved her attention still. I sometimes misbehaved just to get her to notice me. In hindsight, I think I struggled regulating my emotions because no one knew what I was, what I was capable of. I had all these urges and violent desires bottled up inside me, and I didn’t know how to handle them, or channel them in a healthy way.

“One day, I was so upset about something she said to me—somad—that I didn’t even think about the consequences of my actions. I grabbed her arm and shredded it with my nails. I don’t know why I did it. I just… in that moment… Iwantedto. I was furious and wanted to hurt her. But then she started bleeding and… I had never made someone bleed before that day. The smell was intoxicating. I couldn’t think right, see right, nothing… It was like I became a different person when I smelled the blood. Everything about it drew me in—the color, the smell… I wanted to taste it. Something came alive in me at that moment.”

I wipe the tears from my face with the back of my hand, hating myself for presenting the breaches in my armor to him on a silver platter, but also not caring. If I’m going to die anyway, what’s the harm in one more person knowing my story?

“It was that moment she knew what I was, and that moment, she cast me out of her house and out of her life.”

I dare a sideways glance in his direction and find him absentmindedly running a hand across his jaw as he watches the fire hissing and popping between us. “What of your father?” Sin asks quietly.

I shrug my shoulders. “My father was a decent enough man I suppose, though he never protected me from her. He loved me in his own way… I think… but I wouldn’t say he was a good father. If he had found someone other than my mother to share his life with, then I think maybe he could have been. But she ruined him, and he allowed her to.”

When I glance back at him again, this time I find him watching me, his bronzed hands clasped together and dangling over his bent knees.

He clears his throat. “I’m sorry for the pain you endured at their hands. Say what you want about the kingdom, Ephraim, me… but when I hurt someone, it’s strategy. It’swar.But parents beating on their own young is something reserved for the lowest of monsters.”

“It seems we may have one shared belief after all, Your Grace.”

“When Legion captured you the first time—the time your sister found you—you and Cathal were… involved.” Not exactly a question, but his face burns with curiosity.

“For a while, yes. He came into the inn I helped run. This was before they were ever known as Legion, when no one even knew what they were planning. I’m not too proud to admit I acted out of loneliness back then and soaked up the attention he was all too willing to give me. Cathal was the only other person I shared my secret with, apart from my family. Myotherfamily,” I clarify. “I trusted him, and it was a mistake. One I won’t make again.”

“Tell me about it.”

I raise an eyebrow and shoot him a dubious look to which he raises a dark brow of his own and mirrors my expression. “What, do you have somewhere else to be?” He motions around us to drive home his point that we’re both stuck in the woods for the remainder of the night.

A short laugh falls out of me—okay,fine.“Cathal came for me the same night I confided in him. He brought a few others with him, and they bound me in iron and threw me on a horse. Dragged me to the other side of Autumnhelm where they had camps set up for their expanding army. Legion was actively recruiting then, in secrecy of course. I didn’t know what was going on, or who the people were. And then… and then they threw me off the horse and—” I trail off, remembering the stench of their worn boots as they took turns kicking me in the gut.

“And what?” he prompts.

“And they did bad things to me.” My voice is void of emotion, as if saying it out loud would be too painful, so my mind pretends I’m speaking about someone else.

“The same bad things they did to Ileana?” he asks.

I pull my knees to my chin and wrap my arms around my legs. I don’t know if I’m more surprised that Ileana shared her experience with the Black Art or that shetrustedhim enough to be so vulnerable.

“Yes… but just once. That first night. After that, they kept me chained to a tree away from where they all slept. But I would have chosen that over what Ileana went through. They forced her most nights. I… I could usually hear it.” My arms wind tighter around my legs as I hug them to my chest.

A glint of something other than the crackling fire flares in his eyes, but it’s not directed towards me. “Fuck,Wren. Where’s a godsdamned drink when you need one?”

I flash him a dangerous smile. “I have a feeling our taste in drink differs, Your Grace.” My eyes drop to the long lines of his tanned neck.

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