Page 34 of A Light So Blinding
“It’s fine,” she said. “I offered.”
“You... offered?”
Suddenly she seemed even more uncomfortable. She cleared her throat a few times, shuffling back and forth on her feet as though she didn’t have the same balance as she had before. “I mean, isn’t it obvious? This was the easiest way to get to you and my sister. Lord Tolly... Well, he wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t suggested such a thing.”
“Why would you do that?” he snarled. “You took your own life into your hands! The labyrinth is not somewhere for someone like you.”
“It was my only chance. I had to take it.”
“You didn’t have to take it! You could have figured out another way to talk with me. If Lord Tolly got you out of the labyrinth that easily, then you could have done the same with me. All you had to do was lie about that Lady... whatever her name was!”
He was getting heated, and he could feel it. The ugly side of himself that always seemed to come out when he was angry wanted to throttle her. He had told himself that he would protect her because she had saved him. How was he supposed to protect her from herself?
The woman had willingly gone into one of the most dangerous places in the realm. She had tied herself to a troll she did not know, risked her life staying in the cell with him, and all of that had been done with the hope that hewouldeven help her.
What if he hadn’t been so kind? What if he had been more interested in raping her, killing her, and all the other horrible things the human guards had expected from him?
Astrid moved closer to the wall of bones, clearly pretending to be interested in what was there to distract him. “These were used in her work?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m just curious what they were for.” She reached for a large raptor talon. He could tell even from a distance that the curved edge was sharp.
“Blood witches have many instruments for many things. Don’t touch anything.” He leapt to his feet, heading in her direction because she couldn’t keep her hands to herself. “Put it down, Astrid.”
She turned the claw, reading the words off the side in damn near perfect black tongue. Not that his language was all that hard to read aloud, but she clearly had no idea what the words meant. And then he watched in horror as the claw tilted. She lost her grip on it, and the sharp edge sliced through her palm.
The bright red line horrified him. Again, he was supposed to be taking care of her, and now she was hurt. Really hurt. The amount of blood pouring out of her palm terrified her.
He reached for the claw at the same time as she did, and somehow that ended up with both of them fumbling it between them. He hissed out an angry breath, managing to grab it for a few seconds before it sliced across his palm too. The beaded blood rang a bell in his mind. Something was wrong. Something about this wasn’t supposed to happen without him doing something, or avoiding it, or...
“Bjorn,” she snapped. “Now you’ve hurt yourself too!”
As if time had slowed, he watched Astrid reach for his hand and grab it with her own. Their blood mingled together, slipping as she tried to see how badly he’d hurt himself.
Then there came a spark. A spark of red magic that he knew was his own floated up between the two of them, and a spark of her own. Light blue and delicate, it twirled around his own as he stared in horror. And then, just like that, the two lights combined into something that was a purple abomination.
“No,” he whispered, staring at the light.
Bound, he remembered. The word burned through his mind.
Now they were more than just bound. They were...
Mated.
Thirteen
Astrid
Astrid watched the glowing lights that had erupted out of their blood glimmer right in front of her face. She couldn’t hazard a guess at what they were, but they were certainly pretty. Although the red ball illuminated Bjorn’s face in a rather terrifying manner that she shouldn’t have noticed. He’d been a good man. He’d protected her. Kept her safe. He was not the monster that red light painted him to be.
And then the blue light surged toward the other, twining in tighter and tighter circles until they were combined into a lovely purple light. Deep amethyst, the color of royalty.
It truly was a beautiful thing to behold, even if she had no idea what it meant. But as she stared, she realized that Bjorn’s dark green face had turned a rather interesting shade of greenish gray. He looked like he was going to throw up before he muttered, “No.”
No?
What did he mean by that?
