Tragic Bonds (The Bonds that Tie Book 5)
Tragic Bonds: Chapter 21

My parents’ Bonded Group leaves the Sanctuary shortly after the meeting with the council.

Despite my complicated relationship with my parents, I feel nothing but pride at my Bonded and our entire Bonded Group with how they had handled themselves in the face of the General’s ire.

To have Oli stand up for us all without hesitation, the vehemence and pride in her voice as she had talked about the responsibilities that we all carry when dealing with the Resistance, had lifted some of that pressure off of myself. A little of the guilt has eased away now, knowing that we are doing our best and we have limited resources. We’re pushing ahead for our community and those around us.

I leave the meeting and head straight to Sawyer at his request. He’s still in the Security Office, which we have now dubbed ‘Sawyer’s Den’ from how much time he spends in there at the computers, working through security footage and monitoring all of our systems to keep the Sanctuary running smoothly.

He’s been a godsend for North and I. We’d never had a Technokinetic before, not one that we had trusted and certainly not one as powerful as Sawyer, and the fact that we can argue with him and tell him exactly how it is just makes the situation even easier on us all.

His message to me had been simple. I found something. See me ASAP.

I should probably feel apprehensive or hesitant at his text, a signal for our next move against the Resistance, but I don’t. I always feel in control and calmest when we are in action, and this time of preparing here at the Sanctuary has just made me even more ready to get on the road.

I catch Nox as I start towards the elevator, jerking my head for him to follow, and without a word, he does. The greatest gift in disguise was the soul-bonding and Nox figuring out a way around his trauma. Even if it had aged North and I a good twenty years, years we will never get back, I’m sure.

When the doors slam shut behind us, I get my phone out and show him the text from Sawyer. He gives me a curt nod and reaches up to rub at his eyes. He’s still not sleeping.

He shrugs without me saying a word. “I can’t. As soon as I shut my eyes, I start thinking about the bonds in history. I keep having nightmares that don’t feel like my own. It feels like… forget it.”

My eyes narrow. “If the last six months of learning about your bond, not to mention North’s, has taught me anything, it’s that any little gut feeling you have, we need to listen to, Nox.”

“It feels like they’re my bond’s memories, but I was there too. They’re not my own… but I was there. I don’t know how to explain this without sounding like I’m going insane.”

I blow out a breath and run my hands through my hair, pulling it up to tie into a low ponytail to get it away from my face. I should just cut it off, but some part of me likes the normality of my hair, the one active protest I ever had against my father and his militant ways. The only one I kept into adulthood after I had a house of my own, a job of my own, and a Bonded Group of my own.

Everything I could ever want, all of my own.

“Have you spoken to North about it?”

His brows furrow and he shrugs. “I mentioned it, but he’s had so much bullshit going on with the council that he’s barely given it a look. I spoke to Oleander, though. She’s not having the nightmares, but she recognizes the deaths like I do.”

When the elevator stops and the doors begin to open, Nox presses the stop button before they get very far.

This isn’t good.

“You should read them.”

I scowl at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that Gabe’s dragon was in history. It’s shown up once, but I’ve also found a bond that can get into people’s minds. They call that a fortune teller, because it always knew the answers to things before people had spoken. The same black eyes, but with your abilities. You should read the list as well.”

“My bond doesn’t have a voice. It doesn’t have anything other than feelings. The same as every other bond but yours.”

Nox nods and then he turns to me, fixing me with a look. His eyes are dark on my own, that same dark blue hue they have when he is fixated on something.

“I don’t think Oleander’s bond made Gabe’s bond into a god. I don’t think that’s possible. I think it woke it up.”

Sawyer needs to leave his den a little more often.

You’d think now that he’s found his own Central Bonded, he would have some motivation to go home and spend some time with her. Judging from the state of his den, he has not been getting out much.

The air is stale in the room, and there’s a mountain of energy drinks scattered across his desk, half drunk and discarded for a fresh one, purely because he can’t focus for long enough to drink one while it’s still cold.

“What have you found?” I say, trying not to sound disgusted at the state of the place, but it’s hard. I’m not a neat freak like North is, but I definitely don’t live like a fucking pig. This place is just plain disgusting.

“I didn’t replace it so much as I was sent it, and by that, I mean Atlas.”

I roll my eyes because anything to do with Atlas is a very quick trigger for Nox.

Soul-bonding with Oli had done exactly nothing to improve their relationship, and I almost regret bringing him with me.

Sawyer sees my pain and shoots Nox a look. “That phone we confiscated off of him? Yeah, his mom still texts it now and then. I think she knows that he doesn’t have it anymore, so it’s probably more of a reflex or maybe she’s hoping that someday he’ll get it back. Whatever it is, her latest texts were enough to catch my attention.”

Nox isn’t so subtle about sneering at the mess of the place, but he walks over to the desk to read the text that Sawyer has pulled up on his system. “What the fuck does that mean?”

I step forward and read it for myself.

Time is almost up, Atlas. I want you to know that everything that I did was for you. This will make me a traitor to the cause, but I am your mother first and a Bassinger second. I always will be. Try to get your sister out if you can. This life was never meant for her. Her mother was too weak to protect her like I protected you. I hope you’re happy with your Bonded. I love you.

I read the message twice before I shoot Nox a look, but he’s glaring at the screen just as hard as I am, as though he’s trying to replace some secret message hidden between the words.

“That’s not all,” Sawyer says. “She also sent through a file. It was encrypted but easy enough to get into.”

I already know it’s big, because Sawyer isn’t just saying it. There’s lots of pomp and drama, the way there always is when it’s something big. He clicks on the screen a few times and brings up the file before leaning back in his chair and leaving us to read it.

“Holy fuck.”

“That’s all the locations,” Nox says.

I reply, “All of the planned locations—”

Sawyer cuts in before we can continue. “It’s all the locations, the planned locations, where people are allocated, what security they have; it’s everything. It’s every goddamn thing. It’s the key to taking out the Resistance, and Atlas’ mom has just handed it over to us, purely to keep her son alive.”

I scowl at the screen because there’s absolutely no way it’s not a trap.

When I say as much, Nox cocks his head at me. “You’d think that, but this is also the woman who protected Oleander and kept her hidden from everyone just to be sure that her son couldn’t be used as a pawn in her Bond’s games.”

I look back at the screen, memorizing places and names as quickly as I can, as though merely by reading it, the screen is going to self-destruct and we’re going to lose it all.

We can’t just take this ‘gift’ at face value.

I point at one of the glowing dots on the screen. “This camp is close enough to a town that I could verify it pretty easily.”

Nox says, his patience slipping, “We could easily check all of these locations by sending Kieran to the ones that don’t have Locators protecting them. Which we now know, thanks to these lists.”

“We can’t send Kieran,” I say, and Nox rolls his eyes at me.

“Just because he’s our friend—”

I interrupt him. “I’m not saying it because he’s our friend. I’m saying it because he’s the strongest Transporter. We have the only one who can transport our entire Bonded Group and TacTeam at the same time. We can’t risk him over a recon. We have others we can send in his stead just to scout it and see whether it’s true or not.”

“And if it is true?” Sawyer asks, his eyebrows reaching his hairline.

I shouldn’t say anything to him, not by official Tac procedures anyway, but he’s the closest thing we have to family, the one we’ve chosen instead of the one that we were born into, some of whom had happily stood in front of a room full of unfriendly faces to attempt to tear us down.

“Then we make a plan, and we wipe the Resistance off of the face of the earth before they come after our families again. We get rid of them all.”

My mind keeps slipping back to Nox’s words, but I can’t replace a way to rationalize any of it.

I usually leave the research and history parts of this job to Nox and North. Not only are they both more well-read than I am on the subjects, but they enjoy it. Talking through the tiny minutia of our society and how we’ve come to be is like crack to them both. While I am perfectly capable of joining in if I choose to, it’s not really my forte.

I don’t need to know the history of my Gift to be good at working my way through people’s heads. Discovering whatever I need to know about what makes them tick to keep our Bonded Group in the clear is as easy as breathing to me, but now… I can’t deny that I’m intrigued. Enough that I want to read up on what it is that Nox is talking about.

I don’t feel like I’ve been here before.

I’m not sure what exactly that’s supposed to feel like, but I’ve never questioned the limitations or boundaries of my Gift. Even after Oli and I had Bonded and I suddenly found myself without limits, there had never been a doubt in me that it was my connection with her that had given me that boost. Never once did I think that it might come from something more, something inside of me.

I check in with my bond again, but it doesn’t feel any different. Nothing about Nox’s words had opened up anything inside of me, but I doubt he’d be the one to trigger anything anyway.

It would have to be my Bonded.

I check in with her and replace her and Sage sparring in the training center together. Now that she can block me out, a frustration I am too stubborn to bitch Nox out about, I replace it harder to get a gauge on where she is or how she’s feeling. The walls inside of her are now permanently up, unless she decides to let me in.

I understand her need for privacy. Being exposed all the time wasn’t fair to her, but it doesn’t help dampen my anxiety. She feels me brush up against the wall inside of her mind and lets it down a little, just enough to communicate with me.

Are you okay? Has something happened?

I chew on the inside of my cheek so that no one around me notices the tension slipping away from me at the sound of her voice.

Everything’s fine. I just needed my Bonded for a minute, sorry to distract you.

I feel her flush of happiness through the connection. Don’t apologize for needing me. I always need you too. Are you busy? Can you come help fix my form? Kieran is a tyrant.

Kieran is helping her with her form at my request because I’ve found myself too wrapped up in planning to properly focus on what my Bonded needs.

The looming deadline of our next mission hangs over our heads.

Just because the rest of the Bonded Group and I are going to do everything in our power to make sure that she never has to go hand to hand with someone doesn’t mean we’ll be successful in that, and I never want to have a regret about how much she was taught here.

I already have too many regrets when it comes to her.

I can’t. I’m working on something with Nox. I’ll see you tonight though. We’ll come down for dinner at the house.

She sends me her feeling of contentment at my words, the emotion pouring into my chest the same way as if I was feeling it myself.

Will you sleep next to me tonight? Do you think you could convince Nox to let us both sleep in his room? Atlas is still jumpy about the shadow creatures being out, and I miss them too.

Nox would rather chew his own arm off than let any of us sleep in his room. The fact that he had allowed North in there when Oli freaked out says more about their relationship change than anything else that has happened since.

You can stay with him tonight and have me tomorrow if you need, Bonded. I can share when I need to.

North reads over the paper in his hand three times as the elevator takes us down to the cells below. It doesn’t matter that he’s read the information already a dozen times in the safety of his office; he’s still working through it the same way I did, as though trying to commit it to memory.

“How sure of this can we be?” he mutters, and even though I know he’s talking to himself, I answer.

“As sure as we can be of anything. We’ll still have to proceed as though this is a booby trap, but Evans has already checked out three of the camps. All of them are there, and from what he can tell, the information is accurate.”

He nods again, the same way he has every other time I’ve given him this information, but I don’t blame his disbelief.

I’m struggling with it myself.

It would have been much easier if Atlas’ mother had turned herself in. If she were standing here in front of me, I could have easily gone through her brain until I found some whiff of a lie, but with nothing but the cold, hard information on the page, we have to replace different avenues to try first.

We haven’t told Atlas yet.

We’re not keeping a secret from him, or from Oli, but we’re planning on having as much information as we can have before we head back to the house tonight to face them and tell them what’s going on.

I’m hoping that doesn’t backfire on us all.

We want to have our own opinion of the situation before we get Atlas’, because as much as we all try to stay neutral about these things… it’s his mother. The woman did attempt to protect Atlas, and in doing so, protected our Bonded. There’s no doubt in my mind that he will have some biases because of that alone.

Honestly, I would too.

We walk through the hallway together, down past the cells. I take a quick look at the sorry state that Aurelia is in. With Jericho here, she has started to eat again, thanks to his coaxing through the cell doors, but she’s still thinner than when we had brought her in. Her cheekbones press up through her sunken skin, and her shoulder bones stick out as though they’re trying to break the skin.

She watches us walk past with lifeless, apathetic eyes.

North waits until I have gotten Jericho out of his cell, rendering him effectively unconscious with my Gift and getting him into the interrogation seat before he takes his own seat across the table from him.

I wait until his wrists are secured in the handcuffs before I let his mind out of my grasp.

Finally North says, “Speak to me about the camps.”

Jericho blinks as though he’s clearing his eyes, but he hears North well enough and answers straight away. “I’ve told you everything I know about them already.”

North shakes his head. “I want specific answers. How many are there?”

Jericho’s eyes narrow—he can sense that something has changed. “Three big ones, five smaller ones. In North America, anyway.”

He’s telling the truth.

It also checks out with the information we have, but North is careful not to look at me. “Which camp do they process prisoners in?”

On and on and on the questioning goes until, finally, I secure Jericho back in his cell, but it’s clear that every piece of information that Atlas’ mother has sent through has been backed up. Unless they’re both in on it, which is entirely possible and is something that we’ve taken into account, the information is true.

North scowls the entire way back up the elevator, but I leave him to it. I’ve formed my own opinions about what’s going on, and all that’s left now is to tell Atlas.

He controls his reaction to the text message and the information his mother had sent through better than Oli does.

She doesn’t say a word, but she chews on her lip like she’s trying to bite it right off of her face, her eyes darting between all of us. She worries about how this is going to change things. It doesn’t help that we made the decision to wait until dinnertime when everybody was present, and Nox is staring a hole through Atlas’ head as though he’ll be able to replace some sort of deception in him even though he’s been vetted a hundred times at this point.

He’s the only one in the Bonded Group whose head I’d sifted through rigorously, the only person who hasn’t been given the privacy of their own thoughts, just to be sure that he isn’t some Resistance sleeper cell, some jackpot the Resistance hit by having a child end up in our Bonded Group.

I trust him with Oli, and that’s the highest form of praise I can think of.

“She’s telling the truth,” Atlas finally says, his food abandoned on the plate in front of him, barely touched.

Gabe is the only one still eating, but after a day of fitting out Sheetrock and laying miles of tiles in dozens of bathrooms, I have no doubt that he’s worked up an appetite.

North shrugs and swirls the amber liquid in his glass. He’s slowed down his drinking, but I think we all wanted to dull the edge a little for this conversation.

“From what we can tell, it’s all true. Unless you can replace some sort of code word in there or something, then we’re going to tentatively move forward with this.”

Atlas frowns and turns back to the information, reading over it much slower this time, as if it hadn’t occurred to him that his mother might have hidden some message in there for him.

“What are we going to do with it though? How are we moving forward?” Oli says, pushing her fork through her shellfish risotto joylessly.

It makes me regret bringing it up, because it’s the first time she’s had seafood since we arrived at the Sanctuary and we’ve gone and ruined it for her.

Watching her eat is a particular pleasure for North and I.

I answer her. “We’re going to set up camp outside the Alaskan Wasteland as we’ve planned, but we are going to put into place other teams to take out some of the smaller camps at the same time. We’ll hit as many of them at once as we can handle. If they’re unable to call in for backup, we have a better chance of wiping them out.”

Oli nods and glances back at Atlas, but he is filtering through the pages with a scowl on his face. “There’s nothing here. Nothing but the information we can all read.”

North nods. “I was expecting that. I think that our greatest threat in this will be the traps once we arrive. They will attempt to split us up, and we need to be prepared for that. They’ll expect us to hit the biggest camp, to hit where Davies is going to be.”

Atlas rubs at his chin, his eyes darting down to Oli at his side.

North takes another sip of his drink and says, “That’s why we’re going after the Alaskan one. It’s not the most likely or the least likely, so it’s the safest bet. They have enough resources to set up traps at every camp, so we need to be prepared for hell… and to give it right back to them.”