Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
She rolled her eyes at the note of warning in his voice. “Like I didn’t already know and, what’s more, agree to that.” Meaning to fold her arms, she went to take a step back, but the hands on her ass held her tight to him. “Now, what would it mean for me to bind myself to your creature?”
“It would mean that your life-forces would be tied.”
“Tied? But wouldn’t that make your creature vulnerable? It would die if I died, right? You would die.” Her stomach lurched at the thought.
“It doesn’t quite work that way. A soul is the core of a person. Their life-force is the energy that the soul generates. When a person’s body dies, their soul moves on, along with their life-force. The latter doesn’t die. As the soul remolds parts of itself for rebirth—like in the netherworld, where it’s beaten down to be purified—its life-force also transmutes right along with it, until it becomes a different energy.”
“Okay,” she said.
“As such, if you died, your life-force and that of my monster would remain intertwined. The break would only occur if your soul and life-force altered for rebirth. Which wouldn’t happen, since Kali would only send you back.”
“But what if She didn’t? What if, for some reason, I didn’t come back and then my life-force altered? Then what?”
An intensity gathered behind his eyes. “Then I’d fucking find a way to rain fresh hell on Her.”
Wynter barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. “Don’t get all snarly, I’m not saying She wouldn’t send me back.” Though there was always a chance it could happen. Deities were unpredictable, to say the least. “I’m speaking of a hypothetical situation here. What would happen to your monster if I died for real?”
“It would feel immense physical pain. I would, in turn, be weakened by the severance of its link with you. But I wouldn’t die. My creature and I would survive, and we would free your soul so that you could be reborn just as I promised you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Just how much would it weaken you?”
He hesitated. “I would likely have to Rest for a decade or so. But that would be for the best in any case.”
“Why?”
“If I didn’t, I would eventually begin to . . . mentally deteriorate.”
“Go insane, you mean?”
He slowly dipped his head. “Wynter, both my monster and I would lose our sanity if we lost you irrespective of whether you were bound to my creature in some way or not. We need you. The only thing that would keep us going would be the knowledge that you were out there somewhere for us to find.”
Which was sweet and all, but it didn’t erase her concerns. “Would there be other consequences to your creature’s life-force being tied to mine?”
Cain shook his head.
“Then I don’t really get why your monster would be so keen on this. I mean, it gains nothing from it.”
He tapped her nose gently. “Wrong. It will have the satisfaction of knowing you’re committed to it. And . . .”
“And, what?”
“And you will carry its venom inside you. As you already know, my creature wants that. It resisted before now because if you had died you’d have returned fully healed and so its venom would no longer flow in your veins—the whole thing would have been for nothing. But now that you’re immortal, you’d survive the bite. The venom would then live in your blood.”
“So it’s the venom that forms the binding?”
Cain dipped his chin. “Once it has been absorbed into your bloodstream three times, you and my monster would be forever tied.”
“And how would you feel about that?”
His brows inched up. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I asked. You have very few vulnerabilities. Letting your creature entangle its life-force with mine would make it and, by extension, you vulnerable to an extent.” She didn’t like that part at all. “I don’t want to ever be a weakness to you.”
He pinned her gaze with his own. “You could never be anything but my greatest strength. As for how I’d feel about all this . . . I wouldn’t have a single issue with it. I want you bound to me in as many ways as possible. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that I own enough of you; that you’re as tied to me as I need you to be.”
She frowned. “You own my damn soul. Need I remind you of that?”
“Oh, pretty witch, it’s not at all necessary to remind me of that—it’s not something I would ever forget or take for granted. I treasure it, much as I treasure that you trust I’d never abuse that hold I have over your soul.” No one else had ever had that level of faith in Cain; none had ever expected “good” things from him until Wynter.