Page 41 of Room for Three
"You should immerse yourself fully," he said instead of answering. "The cleansing works best when the water contacts all affected areas."
Jamie raised an eyebrow at Azelon.
So he wanted to deflect?
Jamie wasn't sure why that bothered him so much. Whatever had happened in Azelon's past should not concern him.
And yet…
Suppressing a sigh, he chose to comply for now.
He slid deeper into the tub until the water reached his chin. As he did, the liquid seemed to respond, curling around him intendrils of soft blue light. Wisps of something silvery began to rise from his skin. The residue of the healing magic?
"It wasn't an execution in the way you understand it," Azelon said, breaking the quiet. "Not death of the body. Something different. Something worse, perhaps."
Jamie remained silent, hoping that Azelon might go on.
He did.
"Among my people, certain connections are forbidden. Bonds that reach beyond our kind." Azelon paused as if struggling with the words. "A Tideborn had formed such a bond with an outsider. The Council ordered a ritual to sever it."
"Sever a bond?" Jamie asked, watching the silvery wisps drift upward. "Like breaking a marriage?"
"No. Something deeper." Azelon's eyes met his, startlingly intense. "Our bonds are sacred, reserved for lifelong mates. Between a Tideborn and an outsider, they are considered corruption."
Despite the warm water, an unexpected chill ran down Jamie's back. "So this person had a magical bond with a Tideborn?"
Something like what he and Azelon had right now?
Jamie didn't voice that part of the question, but Azelon seemed to respond to it anyway.
"Yes," he said, still holding Jamie captive in that intense gaze of his. "It was an old, matured bond. The ritual would have broken it, cleansed the Tideborn of the connection. But such severing is not gentle. It tears rather than unties. The outsider might have survived, but they would never have been whole again."
"And you stopped them from doing it," Jamie said.
"I did." Azelon's matter-of-fact tone couldn't hide the emotion Jamie sensed from him—a fierce protectiveness, an integrity that made him stand against any action he felt was unjust. "I believed then, as I believe now, that some bonds should not be broken, regardless of tradition."
As he spoke, Azelon's attention shifted to the silvery wisps rising from Jamie's skin. His brow furrowed.
"What is it?" Jamie asked.
"The residue should be dispersing." Azelon leaned closer, examining the tendrils that had begun to coalesce rather than dissipate. "Something is wrong."
Jamie felt it too—the connection between them wasn't weakening as Azelon had suggested it would.
Azelon's markings flared as his hands moved through the water and he murmured words in a language Jamie didn't understand. The water's glow intensified, swirling around Jamie's body.
Yet the silvery tendrils continued to gather rather than dissolve.
"This isn't working." Azelon's brows furrowed. "The bond isn't releasing."
"What does that mean?"
Jamie had an idea, but he hoped he was wrong. He hoped he was not stuck in a magical bond with a stranger. Evenifthat stranger was tall and gorgeous and solid in his convictions—and obviously in love with someone else.
Azelon met his gaze and licked his lips. His confusion radiated through their bond. "I don't know."
He attempted another incantation, his markings blazing so brightly that Jamie had to squint.
