Bound by Blood and Sand
Page 38

Unfortunately, meals were the only times when the work crews could spare Tal. Spending the rest of her time alone left Jae itchy with a need to use magic. All evening, she let herself drift into her other-vision, watching the estate and the people in it.
After dinner, Elan broke away from the workers to sit with Shirrad and Desinn again, while Tal and Gali finally crossed paths for the first time since dawn. Jae shifted her vision elsewhere when they kissed, but it was only moments later that they were both off again, working on different areas of the grounds.
Jae frowned when Elan’s meeting ended and he and Shirrad started walking together, inspecting all the work that had been done—and sweeping closer to Tal with every step. She couldn’t hear them, but sure enough, when they stepped into the room where Tal was cleaning out the last of the debris, Lady Shirrad drifted toward him, put a hand on his side.
A fierce drumbeat of magic thrummed in Jae’s veins. Tal smiled, but Jae felt the dread underneath it. If Shirrad wrapped an arm around him, if she ordered Tal to her room, Jae would—
Elan stepped between them, his expression just as smiling and placid as Tal’s. He patted Tal’s shoulder as he spoke, and Tal nodded and headed out of the room, his careful walk speeding up as he left them farther behind. In the study, Elan smiled at Shirrad and offered his arm. They resumed their inspection—and they walked away from wherever Tal had been sent.
Jae released her breath, and some of the bright glow of magic around her dimmed. Tal was still busy, but whatever order he’d been given, it had saved him from Shirrad for the night. It should have been a relief, but it wasn’t really.
The next morning, Jae made up her mind. When Tal brought her breakfast, she asked him to stay and sit with her as she paced across the room. “I want to try to free you.”
“And you really think you can,” he said, fingers splaying open against the floor.
“I think so,” Jae said. With as much power as she could sense now, it would be easier than when she’d freed herself. She’d attack it the same way, plucking Tal away from the Curse, pulling until he was free from the binding of the Wellspring Bloodlines.
“Then…all right,” he agreed. He tapped his fingers against the floor. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
“Just sit,” she said. She pulled a cushion around to face him, sat down, and reached for his hand. When she looked at them in other-vision, she couldn’t see where his glow ended and hers began. Taking a deep breath, she searched for the visions she’d had the night she’d killed Rannith, the way she’d seen the Closest all bound together. Once she found that braided rope of energies, it was easy to see the Curse, inside and around the Bloodlines, staining their every breath.
She reached into the rope of energies with her mind, sifting through the feeling of familiarity until she found several that felt more like her than all the others, and realized they were the Closest of Aredann. It made sense: Closest were tied to the estates where they were born, so the same groups had been intermarrying for generations. Each individual was related to some of the others somewhere back in their history. The Closest were all bound together as the Bloodlines, but the ones at Aredann shared more of her blood than the Closest anywhere else did.
Even at Aredann, there were dozens of people she didn’t know, though one felt so much like her that she thought it was Tal for a moment. But no, because she found Tal, too, at last. Which meant the other person had to be related closely to them—their father. Jae had never met him, since he hadn’t been brought into the household when her mother had, but it made sense that he was out there somewhere, too.
Her mother had never talked about him. Jae didn’t know if they’d chosen each other or been chosen for each other, told to produce a child. Someday, once Aredann was safe, she’d find him. For now, all she really cared about was Tal. Tal, whose blood and energy were all but identical to hers, easy to focus on once she found them.
She plucked at the thread that represented him, and he gasped.
“It’s the magic,” she explained, trying not to lose her focus on what she’d found. “Brace yourself.”
“Sure,” he agreed, and she dug back into other-vision and began to work.
The Curse pulsated around his thread, wrapping around and strangling it as she tried to pry him free. Something peculiar seemed to wrap around her throat while she worked—then she felt it, like a light touch against her skull. The pounding of the Curse, but miles away. Reaching for her, but not able to hurt her.
She braced herself, just like she’d told Tal to do. She plucked at Tal’s thread again, pulling it closer to herself—pulling herself closer to the Bloodlines, closer to the Curse.
She jerked out of other-vision, her hands pulling free from Tal’s, the room rushing back around her. Tal stared, wide-eyed. “That wasn’t…,” he said, not quite a question.
She shook her head. “Not yet. It was…the Curse….”
“If you can’t, Jae, it’s…I’ll be fine,” he said, and she didn’t miss how he hesitated as he groped for a truth to placate her. “I’ll be all right for now.”
“No,” she said, and took a breath. The Curse was gone from her body, there was no pain in her head, but she could swear she could still sense an echo of it. “I can do this, I’m sure. The Curse just…wanted me back.”
“Then don’t be stupid,” he said. “If you can’t free me without cursing yourself—”
“I can,” she said. “I just need to be careful.”
He didn’t look thrilled at the idea, but nodded. She took his hand again, braced herself, and fell back into other-vision. It was much easier to find him this time, but the Curse was still waiting.
Gritting her teeth, she reached for Tal’s thread and yanked. Tal screamed, jerking away from her and falling off his cushion. His thread almost got away from her, too, and as she fumbled for it, the Curse rushed in on her. Pain pulsed in her skull, and Tal was still screaming. Guilt twisted up inside her as she ignored that, pulling and pulling while she pushed back against the Curse, trying to keep it away from her. The pain in her head receded a little, but Tal was still writhing on the floor.
She pulled again—almost there—
“Jae!” He yanked her arm, and she saw him in real vision, eyes blown wide and glassy with tears. “Stop, please, please, stop!”