Alarm coursed through me. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Orias confessed he didn’t know exactly how he managed to close the barrier, which was why he was so keen to study the magic. He believes it might have been the addition of a third element that made the spell work.”
“What third element?” I asked, more confused than ever.
“Us.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s ridiculous. What’s so special about us? We have no magical ability.”
For the first time since I’d met him, Hamid actually looked uncomfortable. “Our Mori bonded as the spells hit us, and Orias thinks the bond somehow strengthened the spell.”
“What? No,” I croaked in denial. “How would he even know about that?”
Hamid stuck his hands in his jeans pockets. “I told him.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Orias said the combined magics should have killed us. He wanted to know every detail of what happened, and I felt that was too important to leave out.”
I started pacing. “Lovely. So, what happens now? Will the spell wear off on its own, or does Orias have to take it off us?”
The thought of going back to Los Angeles with Hamid, even for a day, did not sit well with me. Just by coming here, he’d undone a week’s progress in breaking the bond, and I was going to have to start all over again. Great.
He didn’t answer me, and I stopped pacing to look at him. My stomach pitched when I saw him watching me with an expression of unease. “Hamid?”
“The spell cannot be broken,” he said.
I waved a hand dismissively. “Maybe not by Orias, but Sara could undo it without batting an eye. In fact, let’s go ask her.”
“No.” He grabbed my wrist as I walked past him toward the door. His next words hit me like a punch in the gut. “If the spell is broken, the hole in the barrier could reopen.”
I stumbled. “W-what?”
Hamid loosened his grip but didn’t release me. “The new spell sealed the barrier, but we don’t know what damage was done before Orias was able to stop the breach. He believes that breaking the spell might reopen the barrier and possibly destabilize it.”
I stared at him as I tried to wrap my head around what he was saying. “What happens to the spell when we break the bond?”
He glanced away, and when his gaze returned to me, it felt as though all the oxygen had been sucked out of my lungs. “We can’t break the bond.”
Roaring filled my ears, and I swayed on my feet, dimly aware of him taking hold of my other arm to steady me. I heard him speaking, but it came from a long way off. Everything was drowned out by the five words on repeat in my head.
We can’t break the bond.
We can’t break the bond.
“Jordan.”
I jolted as Hamid’s sharp tone cut through the fog around my mind. I looked up to see him watching me with worried blue eyes. The last thing I needed from him was kindness or concern. I wanted to see the arrogant, brooding warrior who never spoke to me unless it was absolutely necessary.
I pulled out of his hold and put several feet of space between us. “What?”
“I understand why you’re upset,” he said calmly.
“I don’t think upset is the right word for how I feel. And why don’t you look upset about it?”
His expression did not change. “I’ve had half a day longer than you to accept it.”
I crossed my arms. “If you think I’m going to accept this, you’re delusional. I’m not taking a mate…ever.”
I had plans for my future, and they did not include a male breathing down my neck and cramping my style. I had nothing but respect for Nikolas and Chris, but I’d witnessed their overprotectiveness for Sara and Beth enough to know I didn’t want that for me. Hamid didn’t like me or want the bond, but eventually it would start to rule his emotions and turn him into a testosterone-fueled, raging pain in my ass. Hell no.
Fury replaced my shock, and I closed the distance between us to poke him hard in the chest. “This is all your fault! If you hadn’t rushed at me like some bloody Neanderthal, we wouldn’t be in this mess. There’d be no bond and no spell tying us together.”
Hamid frowned and captured the hand jabbing him. “You are being irrational.”
“I think I’m entitled to be irrational,” I yelled at him.
If Orias’s spell hadn’t worked, who knows what would have happened to the barrier. Millions of lives might have been at risk. I knew this, but the logical side of my brain was at war with the emotional side, and right now my emotions were winning.
“The Council is already assembling a team of scholars and magic users to study the magic,” Hamid said as if I hadn’t just gone off on him. “They will work together to try to create a stronger spell to replace this one.”
“Oh.” I took a deep breath, almost giddy with relief. We had some brilliant minds among our scholars, and Orias wasn’t the only powerful warlock in the world. Between them all, they should be able to figure out a solution to this.
“We will have to be patient and work together until this is resolved.” His warm hand squeezed mine, and my Mori practically swooned.
I yanked my hand from his. Why did he keep touching me? It was hard enough to think straight without him making my demon go crazy.
“Patience is not one of my virtues,” I replied dryly as I went back to pacing. I needed to do something to work off this nervous energy. “And we don’t need to work together or even see each other. We just have to agree not to break the bond…for now.”
Hamid raked a hand through his hair. I caught myself staring and remembering how much I’d wanted to run my fingers through that hair when I used to lust after him. Disgusted with myself, I tore my gaze away and waited for him to speak.
“There is another reason why I came to see you,” he said as if he was reluctant to share it. I was about to ask him what could be worse than the news he’d already given me, when he said, “Orias consulted with some of his colleagues. They are concerned that due to the nature of our bond, the spell could weaken the longer we are separated.”
I fought to keep my anger in check. “You have got to be kidding me. You don’t honestly expect us to live and work together?”
“We are warriors. We will do what is required of us,” he stated like it was as simple as that.
“We’re also bonded,” I said through clenched teeth. “You know as well as I do that the more time we spend together, the more the bond will grow. I’ve seen enough bonded couples to know how that ends.”
His calm mask slipped, and for several seconds, all I could see was the frustration and pain in his eyes. It hit me then that I was making this all about me, but it couldn’t be any easier for him. Maybe even worse because males were always affected more deeply by the bond. He was going to start feeling things for someone he didn’t want, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. And when we finally broke the bond, he would suffer the most.
Another thought struck me. What if there was someone else, some other female he’d already given his heart to? He’d never talked about his personal life to me, but even he couldn’t work all the time.
Most of the anger drained out of me. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “Is this bond going to hurt someone in your life?”
His brows drew together until understanding dawned in his eyes. “There is no one else.”
“At least, there’s that,” I said, relieved no one else would be hurt by this.
Neither of us spoke for a long moment, and then he asked, “And you?”
I let out a short laugh. “God, no. I like to have my fun, but I usually never see them again.”
Hamid’s nostrils flared, and I wondered what I’d said to annoy him this time. I thought back over my last words, and it took a few seconds for realization to set in. Bonded males didn’t like to hear about their females with another male. His female. Ugh. Just thinking it made me want to run as far and as fast away from him as possible. At the same time, a tiny, dangerous part of me wanted to be his, for him to be the only male who touched me.
“Okay, then,” I said in a rush. “If we’re going to do this, we need to set some ground rules.”
“Ground rules?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes. We can’t break the bond, but we can take measures to keep it from growing too quickly. Maybe at the end of this, we’ll both come out of it with our sanity intact.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “I’m listening.”
Encouraged by his willingness to get on board with this, I continued. “We might have to be near each other, but we don’t have to spend every second of the day together. I think we should limit our time together as much as possible.”
“What else?”
“Absolutely no touching, for any reason whatsoever.” I backed up a step to make my point.
There was a moment of silence before he said, “No touching, unless I need to save your life.”
I shot him a dark look. “In case you’re forgetting, that’s how we got here in the first place. And who says I won’t be the one doing the saving?”
His mouth curved into the tiniest of smiles. It was so out of character for him that all I could do was stare.
“Is that everything?”
His question brought me back to my senses. “There’s one more thing. None of our mutual friends know about the bond, and I want to keep it that way.”
“How will that help?” he asked.
“It will help me. People get weird around bonded pairs, and I don’t want the looks or the questions. This is between you and me. And the Council,” I added sourly.
Hamid nodded. “As you wish.”
I eyed him suspiciously. He was being awfully agreeable.
He stared back. “Is something wrong?”
I pointed at him. “You’re being too nice to me. That has to stop.”
This time he did more than smile. He let out a deep chuckle that made my stomach flutter and my nether regions tighten.
“Stop that!” I threw up my hands and spun away, shaken by my body’s reaction to him. If he could affect me like this now, what was it going to be like in a few weeks or a month?
I took a steadying breath. They would figure out how to replace the spell before then. I just had to keep telling myself that.
“I shouldn’t be nice to you?” Hamid asked, amusement evident in his voice.
I turned to glower at him. “No. Back in L.A., you were cold and patronizing toward me. If you start acting differently, people are going to figure out something is up with us.”
“I see. I promise I will do my best to treat you with cold indifference.” He wiped the smile from his face, but he couldn’t hide the sparkle of laughter in his eyes.