Chapter 8: A Wound That Binds

The days after my failed attempt to sever the bond passed in a feverish haze. I drifted in and out of consciousness, my body a leaden weight on the bed. The agonizing pain had subsided, but it had left behind a deep, bone-gnawing weakness. It felt as if the bond had been stretched to its breaking point, and now hung between us, thin and frayed, a phantom limb that was both absent and constantly, painfully present. Elara rarely left my side. She forced broth between my lips, bathed my fevered...