Page 98 of The Bound Blood
Now, I’m walking with Tamsin across the courtyard, pretending I’m normal, pretending everything is normal, pretending I didn’t almost die twice in twelve hours. I’ve been very committed to avoiding every topic that starts with “Kael,” contains the word “Dorian,” or ends with “patrols.”
But Tamsin is…well, Tamsin.
Which means my avoidance lasts all of two minutes before she grabs my arm, yanks me to a stop, and plants her handson her hips. She gives me what she clearly thinks is a fierce, intimidating fae glare.
It looks more like she’s constipated.
“You’re hiding something,” she announces.
“I’m literally walking next to you,” I say.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” She squints harder, like she’s trying to x-ray my soul. “You’ve got Big Secrets Energy.”
I blink. “That’s not a thing.”
“It is now,” she says. “And you’re radiating it.”
I sigh. “Tamsin?—”
She holds up a finger. “Don’t even try it. Spill. All of it. Immediately. Or I swear on every moon in the sky, I will hunt down Dorian, Raiden, Nolan,andKael and ask them myself.”
My stomach drops. “Absolutely not.”
“Then talk.” She leans closer, eyes shining with feral, nosy delight. “Because I can feel the chaos coming off you in waves. What happened last night on your patrol with Dorian? Why did you vanish? Why did Raiden look like he hadn’t slept in thirty years? And why are there whispers that Kael took you back to his room after a veil breach last night?”
I rub my temples. “Tamsin…”
“Oh no.” Her voice pitches higher. “Oh stars. It’s worse than I thought. You’re doing The Voice.”
“What voice?”
“The ‘I’m in denial but absolutely caught up in a love-square-with-a-side-of-fae-prince’ voice.”
I groan. “I’m not?—”
“Lindsay,” Tamsin says, voice dropping into something dramatic enough to win awards, “sweetheart, bestie, emotional dumpster fire of my heart—something happened last night.”
I freeze. “Nothing happened.”
Tamsin leans in so close I can see the flecks of gold in her irises. “You disappeared for hours,” she says, pointing at me as though she’s accusing me of murder. “Actual hours. Long enough that Raiden was pacing the courtyard when I woke up this morning.”
I wince. “Oh.”
“Oh?” She throws her hands up. “Lindsay, he looked like he was one missed heartbeat away from setting the grass on fire.”
I open my mouth to reassure her, but she barrels on.
“And Nolan,” she continues, poking my shoulder, “was sitting on that bench outside our building doing that nervous-leg-bounce thing, clutching a book upside down and not noticing. He only does that when he’s spiraling.”
Guilt knots low in my stomach. Nolan had been concerned when I found him.
“And Kael…” Tamsin trails off, squinting at me like she’s trying to read a confession off my forehead. “I didn’t see him this morning, which is weird, because he’s been showing up to meals lately instead of lurking in the rafters like a dramatic bat.”
My stomach flutters, but I keep my expression neutral. Or… I attempt to. Badly.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kael in the rafters acting like a bat.”
“He has wings, Lindsay.” She says this as if it’s the most obvious fact in the universe. “Shadow Daddy could absolutely fly up there if he wanted.”
