The Vows of Enemies

Chapter 4

'Dragons'.

Alek's voice sounds so clear in my mind, it's like he's talking right next to me, and not a few metres away. His mouth hasn't moved- I'd watched it- which meant that he sent the thought straight from his brain to mine. And yet, that was not the thing my eyes widen at.

As soon as I had found out what would be happening at our engagement party/hidden wedding, I forced myself to do as much research into Blood Bonding as possible- simply to know what I was getting myself into. The act of it goes back centuries, to the story of The Destruction in fact, in which one of the Three Brothers got married and performed the Blood Bond for the first time.

It's a piece of simple magic, done simply my signing the names of the man and woman in each other's blood. From the moment the blood dries, the two souls of the now married couple join together. Effects of the magic include being able to speak into each other's minds, sometimes hearing each other's heartbeat and, once upon a time, being able to transfer wounds from one person to the other. But that hadn't been done in centuries, and required ultimate concentration and controlling of emotions- of which I don't have.

So, I've somewhat been expecting Alek's voice to pop into my head at any given time, which is why the only fear I feel is fear of what his reply means.

Dragons.

Of course, I knew there were dragons hidden amongst the trees near our border, but they were rare, their scales said to shift to camouflage themselves, and their footsteps said to be eerily quiet. Apparently, from the way Alek sounded so sure of himself, the man in front of me has seen one before in his lifetime, unlike myself, who had only seen words on pages, littered with myths only said to be true.

I don't dare move an inch, not when Alek approaches me, crouches, grips the fabric just above my knees, and rips. The sound is harshly loud as he makes his way around me, the champagne fabric falling to the sodden floor. He quickly tugs down my underskirts as well, the quick action swallowing up any protests threatening to crawl up my throat and replacing them with a deep gulp and heat spreading to my cheeks.

Instead, I focus on the blinding pain in my side, the crimson red spreading further and further through the fabric, the wound in the centre deep and fresh. Alek's eyes catch it as he stands, his hand coming to brush the stained fabric, and I suppress a wince. My breathing becomes more staggered as I lose more and more blood by the second, and he can see that, his face coming closer and closer with every slow blink I take. I focus everything I have on that. Blinking. And on the man in front of me as he puts my forehead to his, my breath gathering between us as the air gets colder with every minute that passes toward sunset. That, and the fact that it acts as a warning that the dragons are getting closer and closer, their large statures radiating pure magic.

That is mostly the reason why they are so desirable, and yet no one has ever captured one. To capture, and kill, a dragon would be to have the purest magic known to man. And Gods know what that would do to you. Immortality? Ultimate power? Death? No one knows, and, hopefully, no one ever will.

Blinking again, my heartbeat slows to a calmer rate, and my breathing becomes less staggered and more...normal. Alek has his eyes closed, brows scrunched in some kind of pain, and I don't register it until he pulls away, picking up his dagger from the body of a boy too young to be doing this sort of stuff.

"We have to move," he says, voice strained and low. He grunts shallowly as he reaches behind his back, pulling both his swords from their places. When he hands me one of them, pushing the hilt into my hands, he grips his side, and I almost turn away at the sight.

A wound, almost identical to mine, is bleeding into his leathers. My mind tells me to turn from the sight, like I had done so many times when he had returned from training back home. But I don't, not when I look down to my own side, only to see my own wound sealed. Like it was never there. Like it had... transferred itself onto Alek.