Page 73 of Lifebound

I bit my tongue, thinking maybe I shouldn’t have said that at all.

“It’s fine, though. It wasn’t that bad, really. I’m fine, as you can see. I survived,” I muttered. “But anyway, where didyougrow up?”

Again, Rune remained silent for a long time as we walked, sometimes looking ahead, sometimes looking at me through the corner of his eye when he thought I couldn’t tell. But I always felt his attention on me.

I said nothing, of course. It was enough that I was drowning in regret for having told him as much as I did. Just that to me that was sonormal.It was just my life. I didn’t think he’d make anything of it; otherwise, I’d have kept my mouth shut.

“I left Midnight when I was six. I’ve lived in the Seelie Court since I was eight.”

“And how old are you now?”

I saw the way his cheek rounded up when he smiled. “How old do you think I am?”

“Could be twenty. Could be two hundred. Does it make a difference with your kind?”

“It does, actually. Helid is close to two hundred. He and I don’t look the same.”

“You…really don’t,” I said in wonder. “You’re way younger.” It wasn’t wrinkles or grey hair or anything like that—Helid had neither. It was the aura. The clothes. Theeyes.

“That’s because I’m twenty-six. If I ever make it to two hundred, I’m sure I’ll look plenty different,” he said.

Twenty-six.He was eight years older than me.

“What did you do?” Rune asked before I could come up with a question of my own. “When they bullied you. What did you do?”

Oh, hell…“Um…nothing.” I cleared my throat, looked away when he raised a brow at me in suspicion. “Do you, by any chance, have a Lifebound, too, somewhere?” I blurted.

He paused for a second like I’d just asked the most ridiculous question he’d ever heard. “I don’t.”

“Oh,” I said with a nod. “Is it like a common thing?”

“It isn’t.” Those deep indigo eyes were still full of suspicion as he looked at me. “Fae no longer bind themselves to others. I haven’t even heard of a single real binding in my lifetime before you.”

Well, fuck. “Really?Why?” Now I felt even more uncomfortable.

“Because we’re fae,” said Rune. “Because immortality means that a lot changes along the years. Old enemies become allies. Old friends become a threat.”

“And? So what? Can’t one be…I don’t know,unbound?And so what if friends become enemies? Doesn’t that just mean that if they fall sick they can’t call the other to heal them?”

“They can be unbound, but both parties would need to willingly agree to it. And there’s a lot at stake when your life depends on that of the other.”

My heart skipped a beat. I was afraid to ask but I did anyway. “Meaning?”

“Meaning, if one dies, so does the other.”

I stopped walking. When I did, my hand slipped out of his. I looked up at the clouds in the sky, at the sun half hiding behind them—which, by the way, looked bigger than it should have, but maybe I just wasn’t in my right mind at the moment.

I looked at the people, too, all those creatures, men wearing lizards like clothes, and women with eyes that glowed, and another incubus with hair a hot pink that just grazed her shoulders—and I thought,Betty would like her hair.

Then Rune’s face filled my vision. “How much did Helid tell you about the life-bond?”

I shook my head, opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t make a sound until the third try. “Just that those who are bound can save the life of the other, can heal any disease or poisoning.”

Rune waited another moment, and when he saw that I wasn’t about to continue, he said, “That’s it?” I nodded. “Come on, let’s get going.” And he tried to grab my hand again.

I jerked it away. “No,” I said, louder than intended, but what the hell. “No, no—first, you will tell me what being aLifeboundreally means, andthenwe can go.”

“We’re in the middle of the street.”

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