Page 81 of Wings of Lies
After seconds of watching his jaw clench and unclench, I decided I couldn’t do this and pulled back from his touch.
He latched onto my hand, following me as I stood, making me stay. “The night I found you, I was there that night because”—he heaved a sigh—“I’m your guardian.”
“That’s a bond, right? But what else does it mean?” I remembered seeing the word listed in my mom’s old text. It was in the section of vinculums, right under the word cordistella. But I was too busy reading everything on the romantic cordistella bonds that I neverread the two sentences under it for the guardian bond. Before I could, my mom found me and ripped the book out of my hands, locking it away again.
Aspen shook his head. “All I know is we’re bonded, and it’s the reason behind the tingles. I’ve been looking into it with little results.”
I bit my lip. “I think the bond is rare.”
He raised a brow. “How do you know that?”
“I saw the word once in my mom’s old texts, but I only remember seeing how small the entry was, and I’ve come to find that small entries mean the scribes don’t know enough or have enough information on the topic.”
“Can I see the book?”
I snorted. “Not until I find my mom’s new hiding place and unlock whatever new locks she put on her books. Then I’d have to sneak it out of the house without her knowing.” The locks I could handle. With how much time I had on my hands, lock-picking, reading, and training were my main hobbies. But finding the hiding place and sneaking it out, on the other hand, with how close an eye she had on me these days, would be the issue.
He frowned.
“I can try and sneak it out if you give me a week.” That way, we’d get our answers, and he’d have to return.
“Okay,” he said.
I smiled. “When did you know we had a bond? Is that how you found me? Where are you from?”
His frown came back in full force. “You said one thing, Lucille.”
I raised a brow. “You expect to drop a bomb like that on me, and I’ll just shut up? You could’ve given me anything else. I wasn’t looking for the whole moon, only a sliver.”
Those too-blue eyes of his narrowed to slits. He dropped my hand and stepped back, about to bolt.
“You know I could follow you, right?” I already told him I was part angel.
His eyes flashed with fire. “So help me, Lucille. If you follow me, I will chain you to these trees,” he seethed.
I swallowed, taking a step back. “I could just melt them off.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
“I will never come back if you follow me. Never. Stay here and stay safe, and I’ll give you some slivers next week.” Then he left, blurring into the trees, and leaving me with itchy skin at his demanding words.
I poppedout of my dream self. The scenes vanished as I sat in a dark area. That was the best way I could explain the odd sensation of not waking up and leaving whatever the hell that was. Maybe, my brain needed a safe spot alone to make sense of all the bullshit I witnessed. Aspen couldn’t be my guardian, whatever a guardian was, not after everything.
But my dream-walks were memories, not dreams.
So much wasn’t adding up.
My mom and I were running from everyone because of what I was. But even after remembering my last dream-walks, I wasn’t sure whoeveryonewas. Was it my father, the council, the queen, or whoever could sense my powers? Past me remembered my mom’s fear of these people, but were they all after us? Did one of them take my mom?
I needed to control this power and jump to her memory. Maybe all I needed to do was focus on her.
Before I could try, the temperature in my head dropped, and it didn’t feel like I was alone anymore.
My muscles spasmed from the subzero temperature. I didn’t think that was possible without a body.
“Hello?”I called out.
“There you are,” a deep voice said, echoing in the cavern of my mind.
