Page 38 of Witch Bound and Down

"As in forever," Hazel confirmed, her hands shaking. "One dose and the bond is gone. The familiar loses their enhanced intelligence, their ability to communicate, their magical connection to their witch. They basically become..." She swallowed hard. "Ordinary animals again."

The silence that followed was deafening. Bullseye could feel the mating bond between them thrumming with Hazel's growing horror and betrayal.

"You knew," she said slowly, turning to stare at him. "You knew what this was all along."

"Hazel—"

"Don't." Her voice was deadly quiet. "Don't you dare lie to me anymore. The dragons told you exactly what this was when they hired you, didn't they?"

Bullseye's jaw worked silently. Through the bond, he could feel her emotions shifting from shock to hurt to a rage so pure it made his own magic recoil.

"They did," he admitted finally. "Big Scorcher and Little Sparky told me it was Bond Buster. They told me what it does."

"And you took the job anyway." Her voice was flat, emotionless.

"It's just a cargo run—"

"It's not just anything!" Hazel exploded, her magic flaring bright around her. "This stuff destroys magical families! It turns familiars into mindless animals! And you knew that when you accepted their money!"

"The payout was too good to pass up," Bullseye said weakly.

"Too good to pass up," Hazel repeated, staring at him like she'd never seen him before. "You were willing to help dragons destroy thousands of magical bonds for money."

"It's not personal," Bullseye protested. "I don't make moral judgments about cargo. I just transport it."

"Not personal?" Hazel's laugh was bitter and sharp. "Bullseye, we have a magical bond. And Hopper and I have a familiar bond. How is that not personal?"

The mating bond between them was screaming with her anguish, and Bullseye felt like his chest was being ripped apart. But he forced himself to stand firm.

"Our bond is different," he said.

"How?" Hazel demanded. "How is our bond different from the thousands of witch-familiar pairs whose connections you're about to help shatter?"

"Because..." Bullseye struggled to find words that didn't make him sound like a complete monster. "Because it just is."

"Because you care about our bond, but not about theirs," Hazel said, understanding dawning in her eyes. "Because our magic matters to you, but everyone else's is expendable."

"That's not what I meant—"

"Yes, it is." Hazel's voice was getting quieter, which somehow made it more terrifying. "You've been lying to me this entire time. While we were falling in love, while we were forming a magical bond, while you were making me trust you—you knew exactly what cargo you were planning to deliver."

"I didn't lie," Bullseye said desperately. "I just didn't tell you the specifics."

"Oh, well that makes it so much better," Hopper said sarcastically. "Lying by omission while your mate falls in love with you. Very classy."

"You let me bond with you," Hazel continued, her magic crackling with fury. "You let me give you my heart, my body, my magical essence—all while knowing you were planning to help destroy the very type of connection we were forming."

The betrayal in her voice was like a knife to his gut. Through the bond, he could feel her pain as clearly as his own, but it was mixed with something worse—disgust. She was disgusted with him, disgusted with herself for trusting him, disgusted with the bond that connected them.

"It's not the same thing," he said again, but the words sounded hollow even to him.

"It's exactly the same thing!" Hazel shouted. "The bond between Hopper and me is just as real, just as important, just as sacred as the one between us! But you don't care about that because there's no money in protecting it!"

"I care—"

"No, you don't!" Hazel cut him off. "If you cared, you wouldn't be standing here defending your right to transport magical weapons designed to destroy families like ours!"

"They're potions, not weapons," Bullseye said weakly.

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