Fragmented bond

One moment, I had given up and was choking on water, and the next, I was being dragged onto the riverbank, coughing up water as shivers wracked my body. The tall and untamed grass tickled my face as I continued hacking up water.

I wasn’t alone. I hadn’t saved myself at the last second, realizing that I actually wanted to live. I’d been too busy drowning in guilt and anguish as I physically drowned, to do much of anything. Whoever decided to play hero remained a quiet presence behind me. Their hand was a heavy weight on my back as the water stopped coming up.

Before I could do anything, I was thrown over a broad shoulder as they strode away from the river. At first, I was too stunned to move as he carried me away. I distantly noted the energy coming off of him, both blood magic and elemental.

The shock finally wore off and I began struggling against his hold, hitting his muscular back. Other than a grunt, he didn’t seem fazed. His hold tightened and was like a steel band, limiting my range of motion.

“What the fuck are you doing? Put me down.” My screech tore at my already raw throat.

My dragon was still dormant in my chest, and I couldn’t focus on her and her emotions for too long without being pulled under again. This left shifting—full-out shifting or partial, which we tended to call summoning—out of the equation.

I wondered if he knew this since he didn’t seem worried about manhandling a dragon summoner.

“This will be a whole lot easier on both of us if you stop fighting me, Thea,” he said, his deep voice was a low rumble.

I was so focused on holding back the tide of grief and guilt, while also feeling indignant anger at this man that I hadn’t noticed his use of my name. “What is wrong with you? Put me down you fucking asshole.”

I tried kicking him again but it was useless and had my frustration growing. I welcomed the burning anger, it was preferable to all the other emotions beating at me. This was the second time in the past two days that I was saved by overly helpful bystanders. All of this was such bullshit. I didn’t deserve any form of kindness. The realm would’ve been better off without me. Without a selfish monster like me, whose own fated mate couldn’t love her.

He didn’t listen to my demands, nor did he react to the swears and names I threw his way. Not only had he not been affected by my struggles against him, he was now running. Tall, thick, and untamed trees surrounded us, their colors varied between the trees as did their species.

Fuck.

We were on the wrong side of the river; on the Outlier side. No wonder the heat here felt worse.

The Outlier lands weren’t safe during normal circumstances, but during the Great Heat, it was downright deadly. Not only because it was where the invading creatures loved to roam free, but there was no shielding spell for the sun out here. There was only one in these lands, and it circled around the lands. You’d have to sit under direct sunlight for a little while for it to do serious damage, but the unbearable heat could easily weaken you, making you easy prey. I was beginning to wonder if I had actually been saved by this man, or if I had somehow found myself in a worse situation.

We’d been moving long enough for my clothes and hair to dry, and for me to tire of hitting him. Eventually, he slowed to a walk and shifted his hold on my legs to open a door, entering a structure that gave us a reprieve from the unrelenting sun.

I knew there were cabins out in the Outlier lands for those who enjoyed hunting the wild animals that called these forests home, or enjoyed the isolation it gave them. I’d only been out here a few times, and never alone. It was only short trips and done as training exercises.

The interior of the cabin was dark, and I didn’t have it in me to try and adjust my eyes so I could see. The stranger had no problem moving through the room with ease. It was silent, all natural sounds of the forest were blocked out by whatever protection spells were placed on the cabin. The spells also kept the temperature at a reasonable level, and would most likely provide all the amenities that one would need out here. Not that I planned on staying long enough to find out.

As soon as he set me down, I’d escape and…

Well, I didn’t know what I'd do, but I knew I didn’t want to find out why he brought me to this cabin.

“I’ll need to update the warding. Stay here,” he murmured, throwing me on a soft and cushy surface. Before I could move, he grabbed my hands and within seconds, snapped a pair of handcuffs around my wrists.

I let out an indignant squeak as I tried tugging my hands apart but to no avail. At least the metal wasn’t silver—a summoner’s main weakness, and burned when it touched our skin. Based on the undercurrent of magic running through the metal, he didn’t randomly carry around handcuffs. He’d used his elemental magic to bend the metal into handcuffs. It was an ability some elementals had, where they could manipulate any metal they touched—other than magically enhanced metal and iron, which was their weakness.

It was just my luck that I was kidnapped by one of the few with this ability.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I shouted as I struggled to sit up on the bed, or I assumed it was a bed.

“I can’t trust you not to run off,” he called out as he walked away. A few moments later, the front door closed.

I sat in stunned silence as I stared ahead of me, seeing the vague shapes of furniture around the room. The nerve of this fucking guy. I couldn’t believe he abducted me and was holding me captive. Who did this kind of shit? What was his plan for bringing me all the way out here?

A chill ran through my body at the thought that he brought me here to take advantage of me. I was already at a disadvantage being handcuffed like this. Even without the handcuffs, I was screwed by my dormant dragon—she barely even lifted her head at my growing panic that almost overshadowed all of my other emotions—and I wasn’t liking my odds of winning a fight against him.

My attempts at getting free were renewed, but all I achieved were bruised wrists. I briefly considered breaking one of my hands to slip it out of the cuff, but the metal was firmly pressed against my skin. Anyways, with how my dragon wasn’t funneling energy into me, my healing would be slower. It would take twice as long to heal. That was a weakness I couldn’t afford, not against a hybrid out in the Outlier lands.

The lands with no rules, and where you entered at your own risk.