Sought(81)
“What?” Kat’s heart was suddenly in her throat. Surely she must have misunderstood the old woman? But from the grim look on Deep’s face and the concerned look on Lock’s, they had heard the same thing she had. “But…but I don’t want to live in pain the rest of my life,” she whispered through trembling lips. “And I don’t want to be dependant on some magical flower in order to function.”
Mother L’rin rose and poked her hard in the sternum. “Then bonded you must be. No way to break the soul bond there is and so—”
“Yes, there is.” Deep stepped forward, frowning. “There is a way to break the bond between us—one that has nothing to do with flowers and foolishness.”
“What are you talking about?” Lock said, frowning. “There’s clearly no way around this—Kat will have to be fully bonded to us.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Deep’s bottomless black eyes narrowed to slits. “Yes, you’d love it, dear brother. The problem is, that little Kat here, would not.” He turned to Kat. “Would you?”
Kat’s heart clenched in her chest. “Up until recently I would have said I absolutely didn’t want to be with the two of you,” she said quietly. “But—”
“But now you’ve had a change of heart and you’ve decided you want to be with us forever?” Deep said sarcastically.
“I didn’t say that,” Kat protested.
“Of course you didn’t. “Because that’s not what you want. We’re not what you want.”
“Deep,” Lock said warningly, stepping toward his brother.
Kat waved him back. “No, let’s try and talk this out. Deep,” she said softly, taking a step toward the dark twin. “Why are you acting this way? After how we talked in the cave, I thought…”
“I thought a few things myself.” Deep’s hot glare turned suddenly cool and distant. “All of them wrong. But as I was saying, there is a way to break the soul bond and let the three of us go back to living our normal lives.”
“Of what do you speak?” Mother L’rin demanded.
Deep frowned down at her. “The Scourge. They developed a way to break bonds between warriors and their mates. The psychic knife, they called it—a machine they developed on their home world.”
Lock stared at him, obviously appalled. “You can’t be serious. That machine, as you call it, was a torture device.”
“Why shouldn’t I be serious?” Deep demanded. “The breaking of an incomplete bond wouldn’t hurt any of us. I’ll admit the machine was invented for diabolical purposes, but why shouldn’t we use it to our advantage?”
“Maybe because it’s on the Scourge home world?” Lock raised an eyebrow at his brother but Deep was not so easily deterred.
“Please, Brother, their planet is a deadworld now. Since the last battle of Berrni nothing lives there and no one goes there—the entire place is abandoned. We could walk in, break the bond, and fly off-planet and no one would ever be the wiser.”
“The Goddess would know.” Mother L’rin rounded on Deep, waving a crooked finger in his face. “Sacrilege you speak of.”
Deep frowned. “No, what’s sacrilege is bonding an unwilling female to you.” He looked at Kat. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
Kat’s chest was tight but she lifted her chin and looked him in the eyes. “Yes,” she said, nodding stiffly. “I would.”
“Good, then it’s settled.” Deep clapped his hands together once, in a motion of finality. “We’ll go at once.”
“Not without permission from the Kindred High Council, we won’t.” Lock glared at his brother. “Or have you forgotten that it’s a forbidden zone?”
“We’ll find a way around that,” Deep said casually. “You know Baird has friends on the Council.”
“But what about lady Kat’s pain?” Lock demanded. “Or don’t you care about that, anymore?”
“Of course I care.” Deep’s voice was suddenly gruff. He turned to Mother L’rin. “How long will it take you to brew that potion?”
“No potion will I make for you!” Mother L’rin threw the bouquet of black and white blossoms on the ground and trampled them into the dirt with her tiny feet.
“Hey, wait!” Kat protested. “We went to a lot of trouble to get those! And anyway, I thought they were sacred!”
“Sacred they are. But better they should be crushed than used by such as you. Blasphemers!” She spat at Deep’s booted feet. “If pain your lady has, ease her yourself.” Then she stalked off into the tall pink and gold grass muttering angrily.