Page 129 of Hexbound
"For?" She could feel something brushing at her mind, as though he was trying to talk to her psychically.
"I've been shielding you from the bond, but I can show you what happened."
Verity opened up to him, and suddenly memories slammed into her, only she was seeing them fromhiseyes.
Blood slid between his fingers as he ground his hands over the wound. "I'm losing her!"
"You can do this!" Lady E snapped. "Concentrate."
"You don't understand." There was a mess of blood, a ruptured artery pumping too fast beneath his/her mental touch. "I'm not a Healer! I’m not! Every time I repair something, the bleeding ruptures it again. I don't have time to work my way through this! Not like when I was healing you."
A sense of loss so profound that Verity had never felt the like washed through her. He/she looked up at Lady E, feeling like a helpless child again. "I don't know what to do!"
"There's one thing you could do," Lady E whispered, sliding a hand over his/hers.
"What?" Desperation choked him/her.
"A soul-bond," Lady E replied, tears wetting her cheeks. "Link her life to yours, and you'll keep her alive long enough to heal her. But if you fail, you'll both go under." Regret warred with responsibility on her expression. "I don't want to lose you too."
"I can't let her go without a fight." Determination filled him/her as he/she began to trace a rune on her forehead in blood. "I love her."
Verity blinked as the memories receded and the room spun back into being. She could sense him now, intertwined psychically with her to the degree that she didn't know where she ended and he began.
There were no walls between them. Not anymore. She could sense his regret at the words he'd said to her, sense the dull grief he'd hastily patched over and pushed aside, and the gut-wrenching loss he was pretending he didn't feel. She also knew that he was terrified she'd reject him.
"I had to do it," he said in a raw voice. "It was the only way to save you. Healing you took too much time and I used up a great deal of energy. That's where all the weight has gone. My body began to consume itself." He paused, then slid onto the bed at her side, clasping her hands in his. "Verity, forcing a soul-bond on you without your consent... I would never have done it if there'd been any other choice. It's not finished yet. You have to accept it. If you do then neither of us can ever break it. But if you were unhappy, or decided you wanted... something else... then I could mute the bond. You'd never hear me, never sense me. You could do whatever you wanted with your life."
But he'd senseher. She knew it, just as she realized the thought hadn't been hers.
"Is that what you want?" she asked in a small voice.
"I took your choice away from you." Bishop squeezed her hand. "And I'm shielding you again, but no." Those molten brown eyes met hers, thick with emotion. "I want you to be my wife. I was going to ask you that last night we lay together but I didn't think it was the time, not with Horroway's blood still wet on my hands and so much going on. I wanted.... I wanted to prove I was a better man before I asked. I wanted to be rid of themaladroise."
Relief flooded through her. She tugged on his hand. "Lie down with me."
"Is that a yes?" he asked hoarsely, stretching out beside her.
Verity smiled. This man was everything she'd ever wanted in life. "Of course it's a yes. I'm madly in love with you, Adrian. And if I'd even known there was such a thing as a soul-bond, I would never have objected. We've linked before." She stroked the hair from his face as he lay beside her. "And when we're linked," she admitted, her voice dropping, "it's the only time I don't feel so alone anymore."
She'd never have thought he had so much doubt in him, but she saw it when she said she loved him. It wasn't the first time she'd said the words, but she'd not been privy then to his innermost thoughts. And he was letting some of them through.
It hurt to see how poorly he thought of himself. A man with too much blood on his hands and too much death in his future. All he saw when he looked in the mirror was someone whose only gift was killing. And when he looked at her, he hated that that was all he could offer her.
"You fool," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. "That's not the only thing you can offer me."
And she let her heart swell with everything she thought about him, everything she loved. His gentleness, his chivalry, his determination to help her build a new life without asking for anything in return. The way he kissed her. The way he could build practically anything, and craft amazing spells with his power. His protectiveness, and how he would do anything for those he loved—for Drake, for Eleanor, for Agatha and Marie—even if it meant that he bore the weight of that on his soul, and not them.
"With you by my side," she whispered, cupping his cheek in her hand. "I will never be alone. And neither will you."
Tears wet his eyes at the words and the grief erupted. Verity dragged him into her arms, her heart bleeding for all that he'd lost.
"We'll get him back," she whispered, wishing she could take his grief for him. "Drake's still alive, and that means there's a chance to get him back. Then we can deal with themaladroisenow that there's a chance to heal you of it, and marriage, and the future. There's always hope, Adrian."
"You are my hope," he rasped, lifting his face and kissing her. "You are my everything. I love you, Verity, and I will spend the rest of my life proving that to you."
She smiled and slid her hand underneath his shirt. "Why don't you prove it to me right now?"
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