Page 120 of Caged

“Breathe. I’ve got you. I’m here, okay? Everything is fine.”

It’s a lie that tastes like ash on my tongue.

“You’re bleeding. You’re hurt.”

“I know.”

I press my forehead to hers and let my eyes flutter shut. I just want to feel her against me. Just for a moment.

I want to memorize this feeling. The way it feels to hold her. The weight of her in my arms. The way her breaths puff, warm and soft against my lips.

“Please don’t leave me,” she begs. “Please don’t die.”

My fingers flex against her delicate face.

“Never. I will never leave you.” I pull back enough that she can see the truth of my vow in my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be fine, and you’re going to be fine. My brothers are going to get here, and when they do, they’ll get both of us out of this house. Out of this nightmare. I swear to you, Idril.”

She nods in understanding, but her tears refuse to stop. “Caelan.”

My name on her lips sounds like a secret. A prayer whispered just for me.

I feel it flow through my veins, suffusing my very blood with a sense of power I’ve never felt before. It explodes into my soul, pushing and shoving with determination until it cracks something open that I never knew existed.

Something in my chest pulls tight, then snaps….

And unlocks.

The pool of silver light churns faster and faster until it’s a spiraling cyclone of molten starlight.

It builds and builds until it can’t possibly be contained any longer. Then it flares once and ignites. The pool pulls taut, forming into a silver thread that launches from my soul, eager and starving, and latches to Idril, wrapping around her soul. Claiming her. Binding her to me with undeniable certainty.

Idril gasps, her body arching against mine. I catch her—I will always catch her—as the world, the universe, fucking time itself twists and bends until it morphs into something new.

There’s silver everywhere.

Behind my eyelids, in my blood, woven through every strand of my DNA, every cell of my body, and fiber of my existence.

I can see it. I can see her.

A thread more alive than any Bond has a right to be, it pulses between us—bright and eternal and so achingly, perfectly right that I want to weep at the perfection of it.

Centuries I’ve lived, and I never once believed that something like this could exist.

The thread of our Bond beat in perfect synch with our hearts.

Hers. Mine.

Ours.

If I thought what we shared before was the full force of the Bond, I know now how wrong I was.

This is life-altering. World-shattering.

Idril floods through me—her joy, shock, relief, fear—all held together by a fierce, determined love that’s unmeasurable.

I don’t fight it. I wouldn’t even if I could. I let myself drown in her, happy to die in the waters of her soul if it means I get to feel her essence tangled with mine for even one moment more.

My Mate.