Until Lucien spoke again, his voice tight, his face both angry and grim, and said, “Drew Colter is my Eteria.”
Chapter 15
Supernatural Weakness
I had no idea what the hellEteriameant.
What I did know, however, was that the way he spoke that word made a chill crawl up my spine, causing an ominous, foreboding feeling to pool in my gut along with a confusing, expectant thrill.
“Eteria,” I murmured, tasting the term before I made the mistake of looking at Lucien.
He was so stiff, a vein threatened to burst in his temple.
Chase and his companion—Avenor, apparently, as Lucien called him—were staring at Lucien, just as stiff as he was, before they slowly, simultaneously, turned to look at me, shock slackening their faces. Especially Chase’s; he looked at me as if it were the first time he was truly seeing me.
Whatever this Eteria was, it was obviously significant.
The first one to break the stunned silence was Avenor. “I see,” he said in a low rumble, pushing back his chair and rising to his feet before clearing his throat and adding in a sincerely apologetic tone, “Thank you for letting us know.”
Confounded, I glanced at Chase as he rose slowly to his feet, too, seeming somewhat defeated.
“You will keep it to yourself,” Lucien suddenly said, and I whipped my head toward him, seeing him shoot a warning look at the two men. It wasn’t a request. It sounded like an order.
That seemed to snap Chase out of his stupor. “We’re not stupid,” he barked in an indignant voice, though why he reacted this way, I had no idea.
Lucien stood up and stared at Chase flatly. “Make a vow, then.”
The color ran out of Chase’s face before Avenor put a hand on his shoulder and stared at Lucien. “How about we do you one better?” he said, putting on a harmless, amicable smile that was so at odds with his earlier condescension, I was taken aback. “Chase and I are going to erase everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours from the systems and effectively sweep this whole ordeal under the rug. Think of it as a gesture of good faith, so you could trust us to keep this crucial information to ourselves.”
Lucien folded his arms. “Make a vow,” he repeated unyieldingly.
Avenor’s smile quivered while Chase looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “A sorcerer’s vow is a little overkill, don’t you think?” Chase said quietly, attempting a friendly smile, too, though it looked more like a grimace.
Lucien’s face remained determinedly resolute, and he said nothing, simply staring at the two men.
Avenor sighed. “Fine. We’ll make a vow.” He paused, adding under his breath, “Goddamn Alphas.”
“Now,” Lucien added.
Both Avenor and Chase scowled.
I was still confused by the whole thing, but nonetheless, I followed along when we exited the dining hall and Lucien led us to one of the rooms in the hotel’s convention center.
Once there, Lucien locked the door and turned to me. “They will need to draw your blood,” he told me, scowling a little, as Chase produced a dagger seemingly out of nowhere and Avenor used an antiseptic wipe over his inner arm.
“I don’t understand anything,” I informed him with a scowl of my own, folding my arms. “I want to know what this is all about before I let even a drop of my blood touch Chase’s dagger.”
Lucien visibly stiffened, and the impassiveness in his eyes suddenly disappeared, replaced by an odd shine filled with so many layers of emotions, it made my chest tighten. “Eteriais a word in old Myrrenic, the dead language of the Otherborne, or as you call us, the supernatural,” he said quietly, hesitantly. “In general terms, it means that your soul is bound to me.”
I froze, frowning, trying to process what he was saying. What did it mean, my soul was bound to him? What did this entail?
He must’ve seen the questions running through my mind because he added softly, “For now, all you need to understand is that you are my greatest vulnerability, and because of that, if anyone who wishes me ill learns what you are to me, they will do everything in their power to hunt you down and kill you.”
My lips parted slightly as I repeated his words in my head over and over again. But before I had any more time, Chase’s voice cut our conversation short. “We’re ready.”
The emotions on Lucien’s face disappeared as if by magic, replaced by a flat expression. “I’ll explain the rest later,” he told me in a quick murmur before he straightened and headed to Chase and Avenor with me following him, still confused but now genuinely scared too.
While I had yet to learn whatEteriameant, I at least understood why this whole making-a-vow thing was necessary.