Page 186 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

Did I imagine it all… their deaths? But I saw them die… didn’t I?

“I couldn’t feel you…” I look at them all. “Any of you,” I tell them, a spark of relief shifting behind their eyes.

The guys share one of their looks before Kai speaks. “Weweredying. That’s probably what you felt, but we healed. The bond brought us back.”

Rion steps closer. “Think of this logically. You think this is a dream, but what dream would allow you to feel everything you feel right now?”

I glance around the room, frowning. “But it’s not real either, is it?”

“It’s… complicated but can also be as real as anything outside this place,” Rion says, trying to get it to make sense to me.

“How? Because if you’re real, but this place isn’t, how does any of that make sense?” I ask him.

“We’rereal, Siren. This place is just an extension of us. Of our bond as brothers… as family. Withoutus… this doesn’t exist.” Rion smiles in hope that I’ll understand but doubt creeps in, making me question everything.

I look up and meet Axel’s gaze. “If you’re all really here…”

Axel moves closer. “We are, and we’re not going anywhere.” He pulls me into a tight hug, his smoky scent filling me up.

“Where ishere?” Still holding onto Axel, I look around the room. We’re in a kitchen, around a long marble table. The space is open, with the kitchen leading into a wide lounge area with a large white sofa set. There are wall-to-wall windows overlooking a beautiful cityscape.

Axel is still holding me, so it’s Rion who answers. “You’re in our link. A place we created to communicate when we’re apart. The link is built and sustained through the bond we, as brothers, share.”

“A separate bond from ours?” I ask them, wondering how that works. I’ve never heard of anything like it before.

“Yes.” Rion smiles, but there’s a hint of sadness to it.

The guys share the same look, but it’s Luka who speaks up before I can ask why. “We told you that we fell apart when you were taken when we were kids.” Luka shakes his head, frowning. “When we were starting to lose one another, I think the universe, or whatever it was, had other plans and kept us together until we could find you.”

Jax smiles as if lost in a memory. “It wasn’t as nice as it is now, though. This is a mirror image of our penthouse in

Manhattan.”

“The first one was a dump.” Axel huffs, leaning back to look at me, but he doesn’t let go.

“We were able to modify and mold it to our liking, and, over time, strengthen it. From what we’ve found, it seems to be an advanced form of astral projection.” Rion frowns as he tries to explain it to me.

Astral projection. “So, your bodies are someplace else, and your minds are here?”

“Yes, but it’s… more. I don’t know how to explain it other than it’s like we are in two places at once, but anything we do here can be reset once we return,” Jax says, sounding more at ease the more questions I ask.

That… just gave me a hell of a lot more questions.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” I ask.

“We’ve been doing it so long; it’s become natural to us. As natural as breathing. It’s not something we talk about a lot; we just… do it. It was never meant to be a secret from you,” Luka tells me.

“That’s not…” I shake my head. I didn’t care or mind that they never told me. I’m just glad they had some way to keep them together, to stay a family.

“Besides that, we didn’t have a need for it when we were at the Cardinal. We were all together, and even if we wanted to, King had spells all over the city. We wouldn’t have risked being overheard,” Luka says.

Sounds damn complicated, but the more they tell me about it, the more my mind opens to this being real and not just something my mind conjured up.

It’s not a dream.

A harsh rush of breath leaves me at the thought.

They’realive.

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