Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

“Jasper.” She shook her head at him. “You must know what is between us is more than love. You are part of my soul. The last, lingering piece of sanity left inside of me.”

“Does that mean you love me?”

“It means that there is more than just love in what I feel. You are in every breath I take. You are the reason I will remain human for a little while longer.”

“Is that a good thing?”

She shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll have an answer to that until you’re seventy years old and wishing I was just as wrinkled as you.”

“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.”

“If you wish.”

Jasper embraced her, tucking her head into the crook of his shoulder, and breathed in her spicy scent. Relief was a dangerous drug. It coursed through his system and made him think for just a moment that everything was going to be okay.

Theirs might not be a good life. He knew that deep in his core. There was a good chance neither would make it until Jasper was seventy — there were many more battles to fight, and a war to be won

But in this moment, none of that mattered. She was in his arms. She was holding onto her sanity by a thread, but she was still here. Still human. Still breathing.

“You really want to become my master?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Mercy nodded. She slipped her hand between them and pressed it against his chest. Her words sighed out of her mouth as she whispered, “I bind my soul to yours until I feel your passing from this realm. To you I give my will, my right, and my being. Until death takes me.”

His spine tingled as heat washed from his toes to the top of his head. His heart skipped a beat, and he knew it was now aligned with hers. Every breath he took, every pump of blood through his body, was linked directly to hers.

Jasper pulled her against his chest, staring down at his hand, which was settled on her back. Sparks of light danced beneath his fingertips, arcing from him to her in a never-ending play of fire.

“That sounds dangerously like wedding vows,” he muttered into her ear.

“They are. A Phoenix has only one mate or master.”

“Ignes doesn’t mind?”

Jasper’s fingertips began to burn. The skin of her spine split open, and Ignes crawled his way out of her body. He opened his great wings, and launched himself into the air. Jasper watched the Phoenix take his true form, a massive eagle made of fire and brimstone. Ignes circled them slowly in the air, as though protecting them from any who dared interrupt this moment.

“At least he only got the Unicorn horn,” Jasper whispered. “It could have been much worse.”

Mercy stiffened. “It was more than that, Jasper. It wasn’t all about the horn.”

“What? What else did he do?”

“It’s not what he did. It’s what I did for him.”

Jasper leaned back to look at her face. “What did you do?”

Mercy’s eyes filled with tears again as she met his gaze. She seemed to shrink further into herself as she shrugged. “I destroyed Haven. I’m sorry, there was no way to stop. The power was too great, and his compulsion was too strong. He said to destroy everything bad. And I did.”

“How? How did he tell you to do anything if he wasn’t your master?”

Mercy shivered. “He distracted the Phoenix. The spikes in my eyes, the immense amount of damage he had done before bringing me here. Ignes was so invested in healing me that his concentration was broken. He was so angry at what they had done, that when Malachi said to wipe the world clean… It was a perfect opportunity to do so.”

Jasper grunted. “Why Haven? Haven doesn’t have anyone evil in it.”

“There was at least one person in Haven who was bad enough for the Phoenix to want to wipe it from the planet.”

“Who?” Jasper couldn’t imagine anyone so evil — barring Malachi — that they’d deserve such a death.

“I do not know.” She looked up at him helplessly. “The Phoenix does not care about a face or a name. Only the soul underneath.”

He pulled her back into his arms, a troubled expression wrinkling his brow. There were no words to say after learning she had destroyed his home. His Haven.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I cannot explain how sorry I am.”

Jasper tasted the truth of the words she whispered. It lingered in the air like seawater and rang in his ears. But that didn’t make it any easier to hear.

“I’ll go get the others, and we’ll figure it out.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.” He kissed her forehead. “Stay with Ignes. I’ll be back.”

With one lingering glance towards his destructive beauty, he disappeared from the ashes. Mercy was left curled in the remains of what she had done. And what she had become.

15

Jasper put the last slice of bread onto the sandwich with a soft smack. Cooking had never really been one of his talents, but he found it to be relaxing. There was a rhythm to it he hadn’t ever appreciated. Perfect measurements were important, as were the directions.

He was good at following directions. With the loss of Haven, Jasper in particular had been forced to find new outlets for his need for order. Working out could only relieve so much tension, and without the Five, there weren’t any missions to go on. He was floundering, in a sense.

A soft tsking behind him made him turn.

Lyra leaned against the door jamb. She was so tiny that the door was almost twice her height. Her shirt was sequinned and this time depicted a kraken smashing a boat.

Maybe Wolfgang was good for her after all. The Lyra he had grown up with would never wear a shirt that suggested she might be a creature of the water.

“She’ll never be able to eat that,” Lyra declared.

“What? Why?” Jasper looked down at the plate