His stormy gaze pinned her to her seat. She was no longer confined to that iron chair, yet she could not move beneath the weight of his attention.
This was the fae captain, she realized.
Thiswas why he had risen in the ranks so quickly and gained so much power. It wasn’t just because of his mother’s position as a Representative—although that certainly must have helped—it was because everything he did, every movement he made, screamed that he was in control.
After an eternity, Ryker loosened his grip on the box and nodded. “Okay. I believe you.”
As he should. She wasn’t lying about this.
She breathed, “Thank you.”
They stared at each other, neither speaking as that awkward ocean grew and grew between them.
After several uncomfortable, frigid minutes passed, Brynleigh asked, “So… who is he?”
Ryker palmed the back of his neck.
Damn it all, but she couldn’t help but notice the way his muscles tensed beneath the fabric of his shirt. Even now, after everything that had happened, she still found him incredibly attractive.
What did that say about her? She was still healing from being tortured. She shouldn’t be having these kinds of thoughts.
“I can’t believe you don’t know about him,” Ryker muttered. It sounded like he was talking to himself.
“I have no idea who he is,” she reiterated.
Ryker’s brows furrowed, and he shook his head. “He’s… Emery Sylvain is Jelisette de la Point’s Bound Partner.”
Bound Partner.
The words didn’t register for a minute, but when they did…
Oh, gods.
Had Brynleigh been feeling better before? That was no longer the case. Her stomach bottomed out, and her head spun.
It felt like she’d just been thrown off a high-rise building, and now she was careening through the skies without her wings to save herself.
Bound Partner.
Her fingers grappled at the armrests, and she swayed from side to side. Her mouth dried, and black spots filled her vision.
“Excuse me?” The words tasted like ash.
She must have heard Ryker wrong. Fae couldn’t lie, but this… it… that wasn’t possible. It wasn’t like a fucking Binding could be easily hidden, for the gods’ sake.
“Jelisette doesn’t have a Bound Partner.” Her head reeled, and her words came faster and faster. “That’s not… No. I would know if my Maker was Bound to someone.”
Bile rose in her throat, and she held a hand over her mouth.
Ryker was a fae, and he couldn’t lie, but this…
A Binding?
Brynleigh knew what they were, of course. Everyone did.
Binding Ceremonies, like Tetherings, were rarely done. Bindings were eternal commitments blessed by the gods themselves. They could never be broken. Vampires could be Bound to fellow vampires but also to humans, elves, and shifters.
The Binding was a blood ceremony that tied lifespans together. For mortals, it extended their lives to match their Bound Partner’s. For vampires, it meant they would never again require a Source that wasn’t their partner.