Page 72 of The Bound Blood
Nolan exhales—quiet, subtle, but unmistakably relieved. His shoulders drop just a fraction. “Oh. Uh—good.” His gaze flicks from Raiden to me, then back. “Are you okay?”
“Thanks to our girl, yeah,” Raiden answers, tone warm.
Nolan blinks. “Our girl?”
Raiden hesitates, uncertainty creeping into the edges of his voice. “…Unless you don’t want to share her.”
My stomach twists. The fears I’d shoved down earlier come roaring back so fast I can barely breathe. The last thing I want is to hurt Nolan. To make him think he’s being replaced or pushed aside.
I drop Raiden’s hand and step toward Nolan, heart thudding. “Nolan?—”
But he shakes his head, steady, calm, meeting my eyes without flinching.
“I think Lindsay should have the final say in that,” Nolan says. No jealousy or insecurity, just quiet honesty.
The knot in my stomach pulls tighter. “I—” My voice catches. “I wouldn’t want to do this if it hurt you. Either of you.”
Nolan’s expression softens. “Linds…you haven’t hurt me.”
Raiden’s eyes flick to Nolan, then back to me—open and vulnerable in a way he rarely lets anyone see.
Nolan continues, voice warm but firm. “If this is what you want…if it’s all of us? I’m not against that.”
My breath stutters.
Nolan steps a little closer. “But only if it’s whatyouwant.”
Raiden nods once—a small, cautious, hopeful motion. “Yeah. Whatever you choose, we’ll follow.”
The weight in my chest lifts, replaced with something warm and terrifying and huge.
“I want both of you,” I whisper. “I don’t want to lose either of you.”
Nolan’s thumb brushes the back of my hand. Raiden exhales softly, tension easing out of his shoulders.
And for one, impossibly fragile moment, everything feels like it might actually work—before the Veil shudders.
A cold ripple slams through the air, through our feet, through our bones, through the thin invisible thread binding the three of us together.
I gasp and whip my head between them. “Did you feel that?”
Raiden’s hand tightens around my elbow, stance tense and alert. “The Veil,” he says, voice low. “That was the Veil.”
Nolan’s breath catches, his brows drawing together as he stares toward the doorway, like he’s listening to something only he can hear. “It felt… thinner,” he says carefully. “Like something pressed against it from the other side.”
Raiden’s jaw flexes. “Too close.”
A second pulse rolls through—weaker, but unmistakable. Nolan flinches. Raiden steadies me automatically.
“Why can we feel it?” I whisper, dread curling tight beneath my ribs.
Nolan doesn’t answer right away. His eyes narrow slightly, thoughtful, like he’s flipping through a mental library at lightning speed. “It might be because we’ve all touched it,” he says finally. “Not literally, but—” He gestures vaguely between the three of us. “We’ve been in direct contact with the Veil’s boundary more than most students ever will.”
Raiden’s grip on my elbow stays firm. “We’ve felt fractures before. Not like this.”
“No,” Nolan agrees softly. “But there are old texts that mention… resonance.” He swallows, then continues, quieter. “People who’ve repeatedly interacted with the Veil—closing rifts, stabilizing breaches—they can sometimes form a kind of attunement to it.”
My heart lurches. “Attunement? Like we’re… connected?”
