4. The Cost of Freedom

CHAPTER 4

The Cost of Freedom

B rynleigh wasn't surprised that her freedom had a price tag. Nothing in this world was free, especially for someone who had the misfortune of not being a Representative.

It wouldn't surprise her if, one day, even the air they breathed was taxed. Nothing was sacred in this world where golden veneer hid the cracks of darkness, despair, and death.

She knew that, yet she still asked, "What is the price?"

Storms filled Ryker's dark gaze. He sat a few feet away, but an ocean might as well have been dividing them.

She'd done that to him. To them.

Brynleigh couldn't bear to look at Ryker for more than a few heartbeats. The air was cold, but it had nothing compared to the frigidness stretching between them.

Dropping her gaze, she studied Ryker's coffee mug. Focusing on that was a much better option than thinking about everything else.

The blood had helped take the edge off her hunger, and most of her external wounds were healing. That was good. There was still a hollowness in her stomach, though. Maybe it would always remain, a reminder that she'd spent weeks starving and being tortured .

Being full was a distant memory, but at least her fangs no longer burned, and her shadows were returning. They hummed gently in her veins, their song a muted version of their usual symphony.

She wasn't sure she could call on her wings if she needed them, not that it mattered. Ryker had made it clear she wasn't leaving this place.

She was still a prisoner; her cage had just been upgraded.

The fae captain inhaled deeply and twisted a box around in his hands, staring at it as though it contained the secrets of the universe.

His voice was gravelly as he asked, "Have you ever heard of Emery Sylvain?"

Brynleigh canted her head, repeating the name in her mind. It sounded vampiric in origin, but it didn't ring any bells.

She frowned. "No, I can't say that I have."

It was unique enough that she was certain she'd remember if she heard it.

Ryker's fingers tightened around the box. Brynleigh stared at the movement, fascinated. His fingers were bigger than hers—no surprise there, all of him was bigger than her—and callouses covered the pads of his fingers. His hands had a rough elegance that spoke to a life of hard work.

Sadness swept through her as she recalled the first time they'd touched.

Maybe looking at his hands had been a bad idea.

She dropped her gaze and swallowed. The uncomfortable air between them was painful, and her chest ached. Seconds ticked by. Each was longer than the last and filled with a horrible tension that never used to plague them.

"You're certain? Emery Sylvain." Ryker drew out the syllables as if she hadn't properly heard him the first time.

She looked up. Instantly, she regretted the action. He was staring at her, his gaze sharp, and his mouth pinched in a line.

She shook her head and shrugged. "I have no clue who that is. "

His eyes narrowed as he studied her. There was nothing kind in his expression—he looked at her as if she was a puzzle he was trying to solve.

After a few painful minutes, he sighed. "Are you lying to me again?"

Again.

She hated that he even had to ask that. She squeezed her eyes shut so he wouldn't see the hurt flickering through them, and she curled her fists. Her nails cut crescent moons in her palms.

Did Ryker know his words were sharper than any of the silver instruments of torture she'd been subjected to over the past three weeks?

After what Brynleigh had done, she deserved the question, but it still stung. All of this stung.

She wouldn't cry, though. She wouldn't let him know how deeply he was hurting her.

Her pain was her penance.

"I'm not lying," she said when she could trust herself to speak without her voice breaking. "I swear on my family's graves, I will never lie to you again." What would be the point? She and Ryker were already shattered. "I have never heard the name."

His stormy gaze pinned her to her seat. She was no longer confined to that iron chair, yet she could not move beneath the weight of his attention.

This was the fae captain, she realized.

This was why he had risen in the ranks so quickly and gained so much power. It wasn't just because of his mother's position as a Representative—although that certainly must have helped—it was because everything he did, every movement he made, screamed that he was in control.

After an eternity, Ryker loosened his grip on the box and nodded. "Okay. I believe you."

As he should. She wasn't lying about this.

She breathed, "Thank you. "

They stared at each other, neither speaking as that awkward ocean grew and grew between them.

After several uncomfortable, frigid minutes passed, Brynleigh asked, "So… who is he?"

Ryker palmed the back of his neck.

Damn it all, but she couldn't help but notice the way his muscles tensed beneath the fabric of his shirt. Even now, after everything that had happened, she still found him incredibly attractive.

What did that say about her? She was still healing from being tortured. She shouldn't be having these kinds of thoughts.

"I can't believe you don't know about him," Ryker muttered. It sounded like he was talking to himself.

"I have no idea who he is," she reiterated.

Ryker's brows furrowed, and he shook his head. "He's… Emery Sylvain is Jelisette de la Point's Bound Partner."

Bound Partner.

The words didn't register for a minute, but when they did…

Oh, gods.

Had Brynleigh been feeling better before? That was no longer the case. Her stomach bottomed out, and her head spun.

It felt like she'd just been thrown off a high-rise building, and now she was careening through the skies without her wings to save herself.

Bound Partner.

Her fingers grappled at the armrests, and she swayed from side to side. Her mouth dried, and black spots filled her vision.

"Excuse me?" The words tasted like ash.

She must have heard Ryker wrong. Fae couldn't lie, but this… it… that wasn't possible. It wasn't like a fucking Binding could be easily hidden, for the gods' sake.

"Jelisette doesn't have a Bound Partner." Her head reeled, and her words came faster and faster. "That's not… No. I would know if my Maker was Bound to someone."

Bile rose in her throat, and she held a hand over her mouth .

Ryker was a fae, and he couldn't lie, but this…

A Binding?

Brynleigh knew what they were, of course. Everyone did.

Binding Ceremonies, like Tetherings, were rarely done. Bindings were eternal commitments blessed by the gods themselves. They could never be broken. Vampires could be Bound to fellow vampires but also to humans, elves, and shifters.

The Binding was a blood ceremony that tied lifespans together. For mortals, it extended their lives to match their Bound Partner's. For vampires, it meant they would never again require a Source that wasn't their partner.

Bound Partners rarely separated from each other. Why would they? They provided life for each other. They were blessed by Isvana, the goddess of the moon, herself.

And if Jelisette had a Bound Partner, that meant Brynleigh had missed something significant. It meant her Maker had been lying since day fucking one.

Brynleigh's heart raced, and disbelief coursed through her. She drew in short breaths as she thought over every interaction she'd ever had with her Maker. Assuming it was true, there would be signs. Markings.

How could Brynleigh have worked so closely with someone for six years without noticing they were Bound to another being?

None of this made any sense.

Her head swirled. Her lungs squeezed. It was like someone had dropped a thousand-pound weight on her chest.

And Ryker was sitting there, studying her every movement.

"I… I don't understand." Perhaps she would've taken this news better before her imprisonment, but now… "Jelisette wouldn't have kept this from me."

Right? There had to be some level of trust between them. After all, Jelisette had Made Brynleigh. Some vampires saw their progeny as their children, and they shared everything.

While Brynleigh had never had that kind of relationship with her Maker, this was …

Impossible.

Right?

It seemed like a small omission from the outside, but the more Brynleigh thought about it, the worse it got. She had spent years with her Maker, and Jelisette had never mentioned anything like this. She'd never even hinted at having a Bound Partner. Brynleigh had never seen her with anyone; for Isvana's sake, she'd never even seen Jelisette's supposed Marking.

Ryker raised a brow.

"Really?" His tone made his position on the matter clear. "She wouldn't have?"

"No." Brynleigh shook her head adamantly. "I… She's my Maker."

She could still remember the feeling when Jelisette saved her from a watery grave, still remember the way her sire had first drained her of her blood and then given her the gift of immortality.

Brynleigh whispered, as if trying to convince herself, "There's a sacredness to our bond."

If this was true, it meant she couldn't trust anything that had happened to her since her Making.

Ryker leaned back, his relaxed posture almost laughable in the face of Brynleigh's inner turmoil.

"Your Maker hid this from you."

His voice was so calm. So certain. He might as well have been telling her that the sky was blue.

It was like this was just another workday for Ryker, and he wasn't delivering life-altering news that would forever change how Brynleigh saw the world.

Some of her light-headedness abated, giving way to anger instead. Why was he doing this? Was it a trick?

"How do you know?" She narrowed her eyes. "What proof do you have?"

She refused to accept that this was real. Somehow, he had to be lying .

He raised a brow. "You want proof?"

It wasn't a want. Brynleigh wanted many things—for this to be over, for them to return to the way they were, for her heart to stop aching—but this was different. She needed it.

"Yes."

"Alright." He pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and slid it across the coffee table. He inched back his fingers before she could touch him.

Trying not to show how much the action hurt, Brynleigh drew the phone towards her.

An old, grainy picture filled the screen. She put her fingers in the middle and pulled them apart, zooming in. The date stamp on the bottom right corner was from several centuries ago.

She scrolled up to the two people frozen in time. Her mind stalled, unwilling to accept what she saw.

This was… impossible.

And yet, she was staring at it. It was as real as the rug beneath her feet.

"Tell me what you see," Ryker requested, his voice softer than it had been all day.

It was as if he knew this was turning her world upside down. But how could he know? And why did he even care?

Questions for a later time, when her world wasn't imploding.

She swallowed. "I… it's a picture."

"Of what?" he probed.

Her gaze dropped back to the phone.

"I mean… at first glance, it's a snapshot of a couple enamored with each other." An aura of happiness surrounded the pair. Even through the screen, it seemed infectious. "Like they're living in their own little bubble."

He nodded, his expression gentle. That was almost worse than the earlier harshness.

"And when you look closer? What do you see?"

Brynleigh hated that he was forcing her to confront the truth.

Tapping the picture, she frowned .

"This is Jelisette." Her Maker looked nearly identical to the way she did now. "Except… she's smiling. I've never seen her do that."

Not only that, but Brynleigh had never seen Jelisette without long sleeves or gloves. In this picture, she wore a bright sundress, and her arms were bare. Her chestnut hair was in a high ponytail, and there seemed to be a bounce in her step.

Brynleigh couldn't be sure from this angle, but it looked like the couple was holding hands.

"What about the man?" Ryker's voice broke through her thoughts. "Do you recognize him?"

"No, I've never seen him before." She would have remembered a man like this.

He was unforgettable. Like all creatures of the moon, he was beautiful, but there was something distinct about him. His face ensured no one could cross his path without remembering him.

A prickle of discomfort twinged in Brynleigh's gut. None of this made any sense.

Ryker reached over, still not touching her, and swiped right. Another picture filled the screen, the time stamp marking it as having been taken a few minutes before the first one.

In this image, both their arms were visible.

Brynleigh's mind emptied of all thought. Words were impossible to come by.

Unblinking, she stared at the picture as if it might miraculously change if she looked at it long enough.

Midnight ink wrapped around the vampires' wrists. The unmistakable mark of a Binding stood out against their skin, proclaiming to all who saw it that these vampires belonged to each other.

Brynleigh couldn't breathe. This was proof that Jelisette had lied to her. Her mouth dried, and her hands trembled. She lifted her gaze to Ryker's.

"You were telling the truth."

He nodded slowly. "I can't lie. "

She knew that, but…

"How?" The words barely made it past her heavy tongue.

She had so many questions she wasn't even sure which one she was asking.

How was this possible? How come she didn't know? How come she was just finding out about this now? How many times had Jelisette lied? How was Brynleigh so stupid?

Pity flickered through Ryker's eyes.

That was worse than everything else. Worse than the hurtful comments. Worse than his obvious hatred and anger. She didn't want his pity.

She wanted his love.

He cleared his throat and slid the phone back over to himself. "These photos came from a security camera in the Southern Region. They were pulled as part of an investigation into a murder that occurred around the same time."

Brynleigh stared at the empty table, trying to wrap her mind around this.

"I've never met that man before."

How could she not have met her Maker's Bound Partner? It seemed inconceivable.

"No, you wouldn't have." Ryker's voice hardened. "Emery Sylvain is dead."