Page 27 of Lifebound

Sound reached me abruptly.

“—expect an answer—this is all so very sudden. My daughter has a life,” Dad was saying, and he and the stranger were still standing face-to-face. The men I assumed were the guards had stepped a bit closer to the table, too.

“So does my nephew. He has a Court to rule, Mr. Dune, and he has been sick for far too long now. There simply isn’t more time,” the stranger insisted.

“Nonsense—if he’s waited this long, he can wait a few more weeks or-or months. You can’t just show up at my door and demand from my daughter?—”

“I am not demanding anything from her—she is Lifebound.Her bondto my nephew demands it!” This the stranger said with a slightly raised voice.

“Nilah, are you okay?”

Fiona was still sitting beside me, my hand between hers, her eyes wide with fear now. Her excitement gone.

“Of course,” I told her. “I’m fine, Fi.” I wasn’t sure if she believed me.

“She didn’t ask for it! My daughter did not ask?—”

“Dad.”

Finally, I convinced my body to move, to stand up. My legs shook but held my weight.

“It’s okay, Dad.”

“No—it’snotokay,” he said, and his cheeks had turned a bright pink now, his eyes bloodshot. Even his hair seemed to be standing in all directions, and the bruise around his eye was even more pronounced. “They can’t just come here and ask that of you. It’s absolutelyinsane!”

He really was worked up all the way. So much more than yesterday.

Again—because of me.

“I know that, but let’s just talk for a minute. I want to hear more,” I said.

His lips opened and closed, and his eyes widened. Before he could say something, though, I turned to the man again.

“Tell me exactly what you want from me, Mister. In plain English—tell me what you need.”

“Save him,” the man said, and he suddenly sounded desperate, like he just now forgot to put up his walls and appear calm. Like he just…slipped.

Which made that somethingthat had awakened inside me react.Suspicious,said the voice in my head. A man like him, who hadn’t changed a tiny bit in the past thirteen years, and who claimed to be a creature of myth, wouldn’t have simplyslipped, would he? Which meant he did it to try to manipulate me.

“That’s all I want from you, Nilah,” he continued. “Come to the Seelie Court with me and save him. Heal him like he healed you.”

“I wouldn’t even know where tobeginto do that.” I was no healer—the best I could do was make shit float in the air when I lost control of my thoughts and emotions, and even that was probably only in my head.

“But you won’t need to do anything—the bond will do it for you. All it requires is for you to be near him, to connect with him physically,” he said. “One touch will suffice.”

One touch—just like the boy had touchedme.

My heart hammered, shook my entire body. “And then?”

The man paused for a good moment.

“Then you can come home. The prince and I will personally escort you back here, if that is your wish,” he said. “It will be entirely up to you, but whatever your choice, you will forever be celebrated in Verenthia as the prince’s savior.”

Prince’s savior.It did have a nice ring to it.

“This isabsurd!” Dad cried, and he stepped back, shaking his head. Fiona was by his side in an instant, whispering in his ear.

“How long?” I asked the man.

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