Page 198 of Infernal Bonds

After several minutes that felt like forever, the fog cleared enough to reveal my parents.

“Nope. Absolutely not.” I turned around to head back the way I came, not ready to confront whatever nonsense my mind wanted to conjure up about them.

I’d been a child when they died. I didn’t want to face the memories of their deaths, nor did I want the cursed forest in my mind to taint the good memories I held dear.

Before I could take more than two steps, I walked right into a solid wall of muscle and stumbled back.

“You’re pretty good at running away,” Cyn said, grinning at me in that infuriating way he did when he wanted to fight.

“What are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. You tell me, brat.”

“You’re not real.”

He held his arms out. “Yet here I am.”

“Where are the others? Where’s Zeke?”

“You wanted me, not them.”

I scoffed. “That makes no sense.”

“Doesn’t it? Ash will reassure you. Zeke’s gonna hit you with affection. You never know what Ezra’s gonna do. Let’s face it… you know I’m the only one who’ll make you deal with it.”

“Deal with what?”

“What you’ve done.”

I crossed my arms, and his eyes dropped to my chest. Even in my dreams, I couldn’t escape the sexual tension between us.

He only looked because you wanted him to.

“Such a helpful brain you are,” I muttered, making Cyn grin. He knew exactly what I’d thought, like every other manifestation in this dreamscape.

Cyn nodded toward my parents. “Turn around, Raelynn.”

“I hate you,” I mumbled.

“No, you don’t.”

Stupid dream.

I turned to face my parents, only to find Patricia now sitting between them in the same chair, with the same Bible in her lap.

“Look at you, relying on one of Hell’s minions to protect you,” Patricia sneered.

“I don’t need him to protect me.”

She tutted. “Do you think Lillian and Greg would approve? Is that why you brought them here?”

I didn’t understand why my parents were here.

Clearly, I’d brought them here, but I’d never considered what they would think about my being in Niemna or with the guys. I’d been too preoccupied with my new life as a non-human to give it much thought.

“They sacrificed their lives for you, and you repay them by joining the very creatures who killed them? You ungrateful child.”

“Cyn wasn’t the one who—”