LOGINValentin’s POVWith tidings as ill as they were, Victoria and Valentin couldn’t talk about things openly, so they went to Valentin’s office, which he had left warded and protected. There, they would not be overheard.There, Valentin told Victoria all that occurred, with some exception for privacy’s
Max’s POVMax hadn’t made it far from his initial starting point before he had to stop and try to grab hold of the mating bond again. Closing his eyes, with his hand over his heart, he meditated, trying to manifest the bond in his mind’s eye as a rope, a tether, guiding his heart to Zora.With progr
“I’m not doing that. I’m going to follow the bond.”“You can still feel it?” Thorne asked him. “Enough to follow it?”Max pressed his hand to his chest. “I think so.”“She’s nowhere close to us,” Valentin said. “If you go blindly, it could take you days if not weeks to find her.”“Then I had better
Valentin’s POVValentin tried to remain calm as Max, Kairos, and Thorne engaged in varying levels of panic, but it was difficult. His resolve was being tested by the moment.One minute Zora had been here with them, and in the next she had simply vanished. What should have only been a small exercise
“Neo…” I whispered.He just kept staring back. His gaze was probing, like he could see down inside of me, straight to the soul he might have held a piece of. Could he feel this too?I opened my mouth, about to ask –The sky opened first, and suddenly rain fell. The tree branches and leaves blocked s
Zora’s POVBeyond the now obliterated doors of the tomb was a stone staircase that led directly up out of the dark and to the outdoors. And it really was the outdoors. As we ascended the stairs, Neo and I found ourselves in the middle of a field.Rocks were scattered here and there among the tall gr
The next morning, another note was slipped under my door. It was written in normal Valentin script with the time, ten at night, underlined twice. I frowned at it. He usually wanted to meet in the morning, before Basics. This was at night firstly and secondly, not on the day of Basics. Something ab
I cringed at the names but shifted my hearing to another conversation. “—she’s sleeping with like half the school! So desperate for attention after being rejected it’s kind of sad.” “Do you blame her? I mean she had one of the rarest bonds and rejected it. Couldn’t be me—” Another conversation
“What do you want?” I snapped as I pushed myself off the floor. Despite standing on my feet, Maximus was still a half a foot taller than me. I tried to tip my chin to glare at him but failed. Maximus’s gold eyes bore into me. “To be able to sleep without hearing you scream,” he spat. “Do you eve
I raised an eyebrow. “She clearly doesn’t think that,” “I slept with her once,” His said. His voice was eerily calm. “It was a mistake. I know that and I will not be repeating it. She clearly thought it meant something when it didn’t.” I hummed and turned to press my back against the wall. Our s







