Chapter 28 Chapter 28

Chapter 28 Chapter 28
Vivian
The ballroom had morphed from a place of dance to a cage of gold.

The music had died mid-note, leaving a sharp silence that attacked my sanity. I clung to Adrian’s arm tighter, fingers digging into the fine silver lace of his coat.

Heart pounding against my ribs, my chest tightened and the room seemed to hit up to higher degrees.

The parish priest had just walked in with a crowd of certain Men in black. Only that they didn’t wear modern suits and didn’t possess the finesse of Will Smith.

He took a step forward, his voice so loud that I thought he was in danger of his life.

“Your grace, the whispers of the village had reached the bishop’s ear,” the man cried. “A report of a soul binding conducted without the sanction of the mother church.”

Adrian stepped forward with me still clinging to him, his face darkening. “Who do you seek? Choose your next words carefully.”

“The people speak of a shadow binding,” he continued, his voice reducing. “They speak of a shadow-binding. The tethering of a noble soul to an entity of unknown origin. This girl is the source of the rot!” The priest pointed at me with a frown.

Ignoring the faces I’d tried to impress in the past week looking at me in the crowd, I faced the Priest with the same defiance, stepping closer to Adrian as our sides pressed against each other.

“I’m not a rot,” I said with a defiance that surprised even me. “I am just a person. This is… this is crazy. You can’t just point at someone and call them a demon!”

“Silence, girl!” The Priest hissed. “Your speech is as fractured as your soul. You have ensnared the Duke in a web of forbidden biology. Look! Look at the air around them!”

I looked at the Duke and my heart sank. The Priest was right. Around us, a small, almost invisible swirl of purple had surrounded Adrian and me.

It was beautiful, but to these crazy people, it was the mark of the devil.

“This barrier is a shield,” Adrian growled, just as Edmund and Cordelia stepped out of the shadows, standing at a respectable distance.

“It is the ancient light of the Northbrook blood. If the church seeks to challenge the sanctity of my house, it shall find the foundation built on bone and claw.” Adrian added.

“Adrian please,” I pulled on Adrian’s sleeve. “Don’t make it worse. They have torches. I saw them.” My eyes glanced briefly at the men outside, bearing torches and standing in a straight line.

“Let them bring the sun itself,” Adrian said in a low growl. “They won’t be able to touch you.”

Cordelia stepped forward, this time in a scarlet silk that caught the light from the chandelier.

“As a daughter of the Hawthorne line, I share your concern for the Duke’s spiritual warfare. It is quite clear that he is under a heavy delusion. This shield is not a protection. It is a prison. But you must understand the Duke and give him some patience.”

“Silence, Cordelia!” Adrian said with a roar that almost made me flinch.

“I will not stand and watch a noble house fall to a colonial stray!” She shot back, her voice venomous before turning to the Priest. “If the Church wishes to cleanse the Hall, I shall offer my assistance. The tether must be severed before the Duke’s entire humanity is consumed.”

I blinked at their words, my mind conflicted. They were talking about severing the bond, and they say it in a way that sounds like it was actually possible.

If it was actually possible for the church to sever the bond that binds us together, I would have latched onto it without thinking in the past few weeks.

Before the Priest and his men in black, I didn’t know what I wanted.

“The house of Northbrook must be cleansed of this poison,” the priest cried, and the people in the ball room cried out, and the men in black robes approached us.

“No!” I cried, my American voice sharp through the room. “You do not understand. What we share… it cannot be broken.”

“A small priest to pay, girl… the price of a soul for the salvation of a soul,” the priest echoed, stepping towards the edge of our light.

Then it dawned on me. Their idea of separating the bond was to kill one of us.

To kill me.

The Priest stepped forward to grab me.

As his hand touched the purple shimmer, a shockwave of energy rippled through the room, sending the priest flying, his crucifix flying from his hand and shattering against the floor.

The windows of the ballroom rattled in their frames, several panes cracking under the pressure. The approaching men froze mid-step, their eyes wide as mine.

“Stop it, Adrian!” I yelled, feeling my knee buckle and a sharp dizziness as the bond seemed to drain my energy to maintain the shield.

“I did nothing, Vivian,” he turned to me, his face a morph of surprise that he struggled to hide. “I only have you, Vivian, and I will always have you.”

The drain from me was too much. It felt like the sickness I had when I tried to break the bond by separating from Adrian and moving away from my room.

This time, it felt different, as if the bond was overcorrecting. I leaned towards Adrian, falling into his hands as he held me, the faint groan of the priest reaching my ears.

“Look!” Cordelia screamed, a trembling hand pointed at me. “She is fainting! She cannot sustain the theft of his power any longer! Strike now!”

The men on black robes lunged. I saw the glint of steel as the men approached us. The ton dispersed, leaving us in the middle of danger.

I looked up at Adrian, his face bearing a dangerous glare that made me clutch harder at his arm, unable to tell the mischief he had planned.

“We need to leave,” I said weakly. “If we stay here… they’ll kill me.”

“We go to the chapel.”