Revealed (24 page)

“And now,” Magistrate Licklow intoned. “We are
finally
ready to begin.” He looked at Y’dex and Rast. “Challengers, please remember that you must stay in your places and you may pull on the contested female using
only
your blood bonds. Physical touching is not allowed unless she touches you first. The moment she does, you may claim her.” These last words he directed solely to Y’dex, obviously ignoring Rast. “Is that clear?”

“
Crystal
,” Rast said loudly, letting the pompous bastard know he refused to be ignored. “Let’s get going.”

“Very well.” Licklow gave him a disgusted look and then stepped back. “Begin…
now
.”

Even before he uttered the last word, Rast saw the look of pain appear on Nadiah’s face.
That bastard,
he thought angrily, looking down the glowing blue line to where Y’dex was standing, his hand already curled into a fist as he twisted the bond.
He started early. Still trying to cheat. Well, let’s see how he likes this.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the newly formed bond between Nadiah and himself and gave a gentle tug. It was like pulling on a slender, silk cord that was somehow wrapped around her—around her heart or soul, he supposed.

To his dismay, Nadiah responded to his tug with a hurt cry. It was clear she was already fighting the pain Y’dex was inflicting on her and now…
Now, I’m adding to it,
Rast thought, feeling sick. He let the silk cord slide through his mental fingers…and Nadiah suddenly stumbled several steps in Y’dex’s direction.

“No!” It was a cry of agony, straight from her heart. “No, Rast, please!” she gasped, her blue eyes filled with pleading. “Please don’t give up on me.
Please
bring me to you.”

“But it’s hurting you,” he objected, even as he mentally felt for the silk cord of their bond again. It seemed to throb in his hands, echoing her pain with every heartbeat.

“I don’t care.” Nadiah’s voice was a breathless whisper. If it hadn’t been so quiet in the vast, echoing room he never would have heard it. “I don’t care, just
pull.”

Bracing himself, Rast took another tug on the cord connecting them.

Nadiah’s hands clenched into fists. As she took a single, staggering step toward him, she bit her lip
hard
. So hard, in fact, Rast saw a thin trickle of blood on her chin.
She’s trying to hold back for my sake,
he realized.
Trying not to scream so I won’t feel bad about hurting her. God what a beautiful, brave, amazing woman!

“You’ll never win her that way,
human
,” Y’dex called from the other end of the glowing blue line. Rast looked up and saw he was smirking, obviously enjoying every ounce of pain inflicted on Nadiah. “Watch and learn,” he told Rast. “
This
is how it’s done.”

Clenching both his hands into fists, he twisted and pulled back toward his body with a cruel smile on his face.

Nadiah shrieked, her slender body contorted with pain. Rast thought with horror that she must look the same way someone who is struck by lightning does at the very moment of impact. It was clear she didn’t want to but this time she moved towards Y’dex. It was almost like some invisible hand had her by the hair and was
dragging
 
her. Dragging her closer and closer to her doom…

“What’s wrong with you?” Nadiah’s friend Lydiah was suddenly at his side. Hands on her hips, she glared at him furiously. “Why aren’t you fighting for her? Why aren’t you pulling?”

“I’m trying, damn it!” Rast growled. “It’s just…I knew Y’dex would hurt her when
he
pulled. But I didn’t think
I’d
be hurting her too.”

“Nadiah would rather suffer the agony of being burned in a thousand suns than give herself to Y’dex.” Lydiah spoke in a low, intense voice. “So
pull.
You didn’t come all this way and go through so much just to give her up to my tyrant of a brother, did you?”

“Hell, no.” Gritting his teeth, Rast dug in and pulled—really
pulled
on the slender cord between himself and Nadiah with all his might.

Nadiah gasped, her face going paper-pale. But she managed to stagger several steps closer to him and away from Y’dex. And despite her obvious pain, she somehow managed to smile at him.

Oh Nadiah, I’m so sorry.
Forcing himself to do it, Rast pulled again and she came a few steps closer. Though he could see what it was costing her in pain, he knew he couldn’t stop. This was his only chance to claim her, to save her from what she had told him was a fate worse than death. He
had
to bring her to him no matter how much it hurt
her
physically or
him
mentally to give her such anguish.

“That’s right, you’re doing it. You’re bringing her to you!” Lydiah sounded excited. “You’re…oh…” Now she sounded surprised and a little worried. “Off-worlder, you’re crying.”

“Am I?” Rast swiped at his eyes briefly, making sure to keep his hold on the bond.

“Are you well?” Lydiah asked.

“I don’t like hurting her, goddamn it,” Rast snarled. “Not even for her own good.”

“But it’s almost over,”
Lydia
said coaxingly. “Just a few more feet and she’ll be able to reach out and touch you…”

But just as she spoke, Y’dex redoubled his efforts, yanking on the bond with both hands. Nadiah gave a sharp, breathless cry and Rast watched in dismay as she was dragged within three feet of her cruel fiancée.

“Just a little closer, my lovely,” he heard Y’dex crooning. “Just a little bit closer and you’ll be mine for the rest of your life.”

“No!” It was a shout of agony from the bottom of his soul. Suddenly Rast knew what he had to do. He had to pull Nadiah to him, yes. But he also had to give her a reason to come. Had to give her the strength to break the bond with her evil fiancée and come to him forever.

“Nadiah,” he called, yanking on the cord as hard as he could. “Nadiah, come back to me
right now.
Come back to me because I love you!”

Her eyes flew wide and she turned her attention from Y’dex to him. “Rast,” she whispered uncertainly. “Do you…do you really mean that?”

“Of course I fucking mean it!” he shouted, angry and desperate with love for her. “Now get back here so I can prove it!”

Nadiah closed her eyes tightly for a moment. Though Y’dex was twisting with all his might, doing the double-pump fist and arm gesture Rast had grown to hate, she was still, like a slender tree withstanding a storm. Then she lowered her head and took a single, staggering step in Rast’s direction. Then another and another. She looked like a person walking against the wind—a hurricane force wind, actually. Her whole body leaned forward, clearly past her center of gravity as she pulled away from the bond that had held her most of her life. The look on her face was one of anguish and yet she came, step by step, towards Rast.

“Stop!” Seeing what was happening, Y’dex left his place at the end of the glowing blue line and jumped toward her. Grabbing her arm, he spun her around and shook her. “You’re mine, you little bitch!
Mine!”

“No!” Nadiah’s voice cracked like a whip as she faced her tormentor. “No, I’m not yours, Y’dex and I never will be. I will be…free…of you…
now!”

On that last word, Rast felt something give inside her—a quiver like the first tremblings of a killer earthquake came shivering along the cord of their bond. He looked at Nadiah with fresh respect and wonder.
I’ll rip his bond out by the roots—that’s what she said,
he thought.
And I think she just did it. No, I
know
she did.

Y’dex staggered, his face filled with pain as he clearly felt it as well. “You bitch, that
hurt!”

Nadiah laughed grimly. “Good. Now you know how it feels.” She tugged at the arm he was still holding. “It’s over, Y’dex—let me go. Let me go to the male who loves me as you never did.”

“
Never
.” Y’dex’s pale face was a mask of animalistic hatred. “Never. I’ll
never
let you go.”

“Oh, yes you will, you son of a bitch!” Rast had been holding himself back up until now, trying not to break the rules and give the magistrate any reason to invalidate the challenge. But now he couldn’t stand it anymore. He strode down the glowing blue line, reaching out for Nadiah as he went.

But before he got to her, she pulled back her free hand and slapped Y’dex as hard as she could. Her handprint stood out red on his pale face and he staggered backwards, a look of disbelief in his eyes. “You…you struck me! I can’t believe you actually
struck
me.”
 
His fingers stole up to his reddened cheek. “How dare you?”

“I warned you.” Nadiah was panting with exhaustion but her words were still firm. “I warned you to leave me alone. I’ll
never
be yours.” She turned toward Rast, took a stumbling step and fell.

Luckily, she fell right into his arms. Rast scooped her up and cradled her tenderly against his chest. He could still feel the bond between them but it seemed weaker somehow, the throbbing heartbeat that ran through it was fainter. He told himself it was nothing—only that she was no longer in pain. But one look at her face made him wonder if that was right.

“Nadiah?” he asked, looking anxiously down at her. “Sweetheart, are you all right?”

“Fine.” She smiled up at him, her eyes half closed in fatigue. “Now that you’ve got me I’ll be all right forever.”

“Oh,
sweetheart
…” He bent to kiss her cheek…and realized that it was ice cold.
Surely
that couldn’t be normal, could it? “Nadiah?” he asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice but this time she didn’t answer. “Nadiah!” Rast shook her gently and then with more force but her eyes—those lovely, otherworldly blue eyes—were closed and her head rolled limply against his arm. “Help!” He looked around wildly. “I need a doctor over here—help me!”

Suddenly Lydiah was pulling on his arm again. “Off-worlder?”

“What? Do you know a doctor? Where’s the fucking hospital around here?” Rast demanded, all in one breath.

“Do you truly love her?” Lydiah was looking at him steadily. “You weren’t just saying that to help her break the bond?”

“What? Yes, of course I love her!” Rast said wildly. “I’m out of my goddamn mind in love with her, all right?”

“And you want her with you?” Lydiah persisted. “You want to be tied to her for always and spend your whole life with her and only with her?”

“Yes, yes, yes! What is this, twenty questions? Just tell me where to find a doctor!”

“You don’t need a doctor—you can heal her yourself. If you’re willing.”

“Willing to do what?” Rast begged. “Please, just tell me, she’s barely breathing.”

“Close your eyes, calm yourself, and feel for the broken bond—the one she tore away from Y’dex,” Lydiah instructed.

Rast forced himself to do as she said. He’d always had a cool head under pressure. This was no time to panic—not when Nadiah’s life might hang in the balance.

Closing his eyes, he reached along the slender cord that connected him to Nadiah. He could barely feel it now—it was like a ghost, a whisper of silk that passed right through his mind’s fingers as he searched. But there was something else in there—something big—he could sense it. Big and hurt and throbbing, like a cut artery pulsing away the life’s blood of its victim.

“Do you feel it?” Lydiah asked anxiously. “I don’t want to rush you, off-worlder, but Nadiah seems to have stopped breathing.”

“Yes.” Reaching out mentally with everything in him, Rast grabbed the severed cord. It was more like a rough rope or a vine in his hand and unlike his own, slender connection, it was still throbbing with life. Even as he held it, though, the throbbing grew weaker and the cord felt less and less substantial. “I’ve got it,” he told Lydiah, still not opening his eyes. “I’ve got it—now what?”

“All right, feel for the end,” she instructed. “The broken end.”

Rast felt for it and found it soon enough. It came to a sharp and jagged point, like a limb torn away from a tree by lightning.
Like holding a dagger in my mind,
he thought and felt a strange comfort in the thought. “I’ve got it,” he said grimly. “Just barely. It won’t last long. Now what do I do?”

“Now you must stab it into your heart.”

“What?” Rast’s eyes flew open and he almost lost his mental grasp on the slippery, jagged bond. “What did you say?”

“If you want to save her, you have to anchor her to you,” Lydiah explained patiently, as though speaking to a young child. “The only way to do that is to push the bond deep into the core of your soul—your psychic heart. Close your eyes and imagine pushing it into yourself—stabbing the root deep in your heart. It’s the only way.”

“Of course it is,” Rast muttered. Suddenly, it all made perfect sense.

“One thing, off-worlder,” Lydiah said. “This
will
hurt. And if Nadiah is too far gone, she may take you down with her to death’s doorway.”

“You think I give a damn about that?” Rast growled. “I don’t care where she takes me as long as we’re together.”

Lydiah smiled at him. “Then you are truly worthy of her. I am glad I broke my vow.”