Page 226 of Infernal Bonds

This wasn’t only about Raelynn and me. This involved all three of us.

“Go take care of our Nyrith,” Ash said, putting a hand on my shoulder before heading for Ezra as his shadows receded.

57

MISCONCEPTIONS

RAE

Slamming my bedroom door, I paced my room, not sure what to do with the restless energy coursing through me.

I thought Bondrot’s effects would last longer, but they seemed to fade while I was asleep. Enough that Ezra felt confident testing the limits of what I was willing to tolerate once more.

“Jerk,” I mumbled, pulling the covers up on the bed.

Had I messed up by comparing him to his father? Yeah, probably. But he needed to get it through his thick skull that I wasn’t okay with being a puppet.

I tipped my head back and groaned, dropping the covers.

No, that wasn’t right either.

I spun and flopped onto my back on the bed.

I wasn’t a puppet. I’d agreed to Cornaith’s stipulations if he accepted mine. If I wanted to get technical, it was a negotiation, not a decree—even if we all knew I wouldn’t have had a choice in the end.

But I couldn’t blame Ezra for it. He wasn’t the asshole who sat on a throne and implied I was a prisoner without explicitly saying it.

No, that was his father. I needed to keep that in mind whenever Ezra tried to keep us in line.

It sucked when my brain told me I’d messed up.

Yeah, Ezra sounded like Cornaith, but he wasn’t Cornaith.

The look on his face seconds before he came after me said everything I needed to know. My words had hurt him more deeply than I thought they could.

I knew Ezra had feelings, but I’d never seen anything affect him enough to crack that perfect control. I hadn’t meant to hurt him.

After Ezra had spent years preparing to succeed his father and become like someone his brother despised, implying that Cornaith had succeeded in shaping him into another dangerous ruler hadn’t been the right call.

I’d only wanted him to back off and give me some space.

I should’ve just walked away without saying anything.

Ezra wouldn’t have locked Zeke away in the dark, forcing him to use powers he didn’t want to use for Ezra’s benefit. I doubted Ezra would force anyone to serve under him if they didn’t want to.

And I definitely knew Ezra wouldn’t have left his wife brutally scarred, using magic as a reminder of her place beneath him to ensure absolute obedience.

Ezra wanted control, but not so much that he’d knowingly make others suffer for it.

We did what we wanted while making Cornaith believe he’d made us comply.

Ezra wanted us to work with him, but to give him the lead.

The guys trusted him to do that because they knew him.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for that.

Whenever we were alone together, his behavior showed that my refusal to let him take the lead bothered him.