Page 42 of Tethered Fates

Kai huffs, rolling his eyes.

“The old Sovereign controlled me, too,” Elio adds. “He forced me to give the tome to Emma. I tried fighting against his hold, but I wasn’t strong enough…” Elio chokes back the bitter shake in his voice. “The First Tome is a blight on this world and should be destroyed.”

Bran smiles. “It definitely has caused trouble.”

“Emma’s commanded me never to harm her, so I bided my time. Then I heard Summer got her hands on the fucking thing. Finally, I thought I had my chance.”

“Why didn’t you go to Astra?” Vidar questions. “Or did she command you, too?”

“No.” Elio grits his teeth, his annoyance once again rising. “But my aunt thinks she can save all the blood mages, and it’s made her desperate. Desperate people make stupid choices. Summer being a prime example.”

“And how do you come into this, Bran? Did your little prophecy tell you?” I ask.

Kai and Teagan share a look of confusion, but that’s an explanation for later.

The yellow shards in Bran’s gaze seem to sparkle when he says, “I saved Elio.”

“That’s the strangest thing I’ve heard all day,” Vidar remarks offhandedly.

Bran crosses his ankles, the perfect picture of smug arrogance. “Still upset I didn’t save you from being burnt at the stake three hundred years ago?”

“Now that you remind me, I am,” Vidar snarls, “It. Fucking. Hurt.”

Bran’s grin sharpens.

I clap my hands to get their attention to avoid the inevitable fight. “Before we travel down memory lane, why don’t we finish listening to Elio so I can get back to doing what I do best—hunting.”

Teagan’s big eyes scan me over. “I thought you were a detective.”

I wink. “Something like that.”

My heart warms when he offers the tiniest smile.

Maybe a poster of his face wouldn’t be so outlandish…

“I’d been trailing Summer,” Elio continues, louder this time, “and managed to track her to a tattoo studio, King’s. I waited days, but the moment I was about to give up, she pulled up in the middle of the night and tried to sneak in. I thought it’d be my only chance and went for her. Didn’t exactly go to plan.”

Elio rubs the back of his neck as if prodding an old hurt.

“I knew she was a powerful shadow mage, but I didn’t expect how talented she was at blood magic. If Bran hadn’t shown up, I would’ve been split in half.”

I raise an eyebrow at Bran. “Convenient.”

Bran shrugs as if saving people is something he does on the regular, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Elio told me about his mission, and I was duty-bound to help,” Bran drawls.

“Duty-bound? Help?” I laugh. “Since when?”

Bran flashes his bone-white teeth. “Since I plan to destroy the tome.”

I’ve spent my life learning to read when someone is lying. Bran has always tripped me up. Not because he’s a good liar, but because he’s always hiding something and makes no secret of it.

“Can it even be destroyed?” I ask, knowing full well the First Blood Mage Tome might as well be indestructible.

But when there’s a flash of laughter in the corner of Bran’s eye, Vidar and I exchange a millisecond-long glance. As always, the ancient vampire is keeping his cards close while teasing us with glimpses of his true intentions. That’s to be expected with Bran, yet what concerns me more is the feeling in my gut that he’s holding another card behind his back.

“I keep telling him no,” Elio snaps. “It was made thousands of years ago by skinning a powerful creature who agreed to the torture. The magic and pain poured into it are immense. You could drop the tome in lava, and it’d find a way out.”