Wandfasted by Laurie Forest

Author:Laurie Forest
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: 2017-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21: Sanguin’in

“Tessla!” I hear my Grandfather’s heartbreaking, pathetic plea.

I ignore him as I bound down the dais steps and erupt into hot, angry tears. I hate you! I hate you! I hate you all!

“Let her go,” I hear Vale call out as I run down the aisle, my fire lashing.

There are sounds of shock as I pass. A soldier laughs and yells out, “Sanguin’in!” The word is taken up by more soldiers and echoes after me as I flee. “Bloody the sheets!” in the Ancient Tongue, the traditional and awful sealing cheer.

I stumble through the doors, past the rows of military guards, confusion etched on their faces.

I run and run, past tents, down deserted paths, until my lungs feel full of jagged glass. Until I reach a dark area just past a long line of tents, past the edge of the base, a dark field before me, a darker forest beyond that.

Thunder rumbles. Lightning cracks in the distance.

I fall to my knees, my palms in the dry dirt. Sobbing uncontrollably.

With each flash of lightning, I can see the black lines snaking around my hands like a cage.

An unstoppable wave of grief swamps over me.

Wandfasted.

Forever. Final as death.

* * *

I feel his fire before I see him or hear his steps.

“Tessla.”

My fire explodes. I wheel around, my knees scraping on the rocky dirt.

“I don’t want to be fasted!” I snarl at him, my hands clenched into fists. I want to rip off my own skin, rip off the lines. “I don’t want this!”

“I know,” he says calmly, but I can feel the full heat of his fire battering against mine.

“Are they happy now?” I cry at him, throwing as much affinity fire as I can toward him. I splay out my cursed hands. “Here it is! Proof that I’m pure!”

I drop my forehead in my hands and clutch at my hair, furious tears coursing down my face.

I’m bound. Forever.

Vale doesn’t move, and his fire doesn’t diminish. It’s burning hot as mine, barely contained. But he stays where he is, silently watching me.

Fasted. Forever. To him.

But it could have been Malkyn Bane, a small voice reminds me, cutting through the angry fire. It could be much worse.

I draw in a shuddering breath, trying to take full stock of the situation.

“You helped me,” I state flatly.

He doesn’t answer, his fire churning.

Defeated, I slump down to sit on the dirt path, our fires meeting, his outrage surprisingly as scorching as mine.

“We’re fasted,” I say miserably, my hands going limp in my lap, fire sparking hot in fits and starts all over my affinity lines.

“We are,” he affirms, his mouth a tight line.

I take a shuddering breath, wipe away my tears and look up at him.

“I didn’t want this, either,” he tells me, his voice suddenly hard. “A fastmate, fleeing from her own fasting.”

His rebuke stings like the point of a knife. “I know that,” I relent. “But you did it, anyway. And you saved me. You saved me from him.”

Vale nods, as if darkly resigned.

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