Page 96 of Tethered Fates

“Just a bit longer!” Vidar orders.

Elio lets out a piercing scream.

My gaze shoots to him, only to find a pale hand poking out from his shadow, with an obsidian blade stabbed into his ankle.

Elio falls, bleeding out as Summer’s hand slinks back into the shadows.

The blood glass shatters just as a car speeds off, and I can breathe a sigh of relief, even as Summer crawls out of Emma’s shadow and the other mages begin to stand.

“Hey, look,” Emma singsongs as the blood she was fighting against soaks into her own flow, staining what used to be a bright red into a dark crimson. “Looks like I’ve got ancient vampire blood now, too.”

Chapter Thirty-Two - Teagan

Itried to be brave for Sen.

But really, I was freaking out.

So terrified, all I could do was hold onto our bond with both hands, and if Golden hadn’t pulled me out of that mansion, I wouldn’t have left.

The engine roars as Kate speeds down dark roads. Her car’s high beams light up the spindly, low-hanging branches that scrape the sides. Sen trusts her, so I will, too. But I’m gulping down air with my fists clenched. This doesn’t feel right.

“Sen is gonna be fine,” Golden tells me. “Lucero and the others are with him. Plus that weird ancient vampire and Elio.”

Kate makes a sound of disbelief from the front.

“They’re good,” Kai adds from the front passenger seat.

I nod, not mentioning Golden’s knee hasn’t stopped bouncing as he strangles a ball of multi-coloured yarn.

“Oh, my yarn?” Golden perks up to my silent question. “I like it. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s my thing. All vampires have things. Maybe this is mine, I dunno. Did you know about things?”

I think of Sen’s stamp collection. He’s going to show me once this is all over, he promised.

“Of course you do,” Golden rambles on, squeezing the life out of his yarn.

“Lad.” Apollo places a hand on Golden’s bouncing knee, then says to both of us, “They’re gonna fuck shit up, don’t even worry about it. Then when you get home, you’ll see the mansion covered in mage blood. That’ll be nice, right?”

There’s a beat of silence, then Golden says, “Your prep talks are kinda shitty, dude.”

“Like yours are any better,” Apollo snickers, not taking any offence.

“I really shouldn’t be hearing this conversation…” Kate grumbles.

Somehow, Golden begins to calm. But I can’t stop sucking in short, sharp gasps.

What if the walls are drenched in Sen’s blood?

What if Summer takes his heart?

What happens to a person without their soulmate?

“Wanna hold some of my yarn?” Golden offers. Without thinking, I twirl a piece around my finger. It’s nice, fibrous.

An image of Sen’s dark hair wrapped around my finger flashes, and my vision blurs.

“Where are you taking us?” Kai asks.

“The safest place I know,” Kate replies.