“Fuck it, I’ll go find them, I know who would be most likely to succeed. They’ll need to be strong enough to hold the bond, it won’t take much magic to gain it, but they’ll both suffer if the witch can’t control the shift.”
Melody nodded, only half listening as she held onto Leon’s hand. Carefully she fed a trickle of magic into him. Not enough to alert the witch connected to him, but enough to keep his heart going a little longer. She could feel the trace of her old bond with him.
It was funny, he was one of so many faces that haunted her, yet she couldn’t say where he had come in the lineup. Only that he was one that they had all grieved as lost. What on earth had her aunt been doing with them?
She held onto Leon’s hand, counting his breaths, stroking his fingers, talking quietly to him of the shifters she remembered still being at the compound when she left. More guilt wracked her. How could she have left the rest of them to this? She’d left them all behind and they had no protection without her.
Melody snorted. They had no protection with her, but she’d been able to provide them with a modicum more comfort than they would have otherwise. Heated water made bathing less horrific, even if it was with a bucket in a cell full of other shifters. Scraps of food, small bars of soap, even an extra blanket. She couldn’t be too greedy, or everything would be taken from all of them, but she’d done what she could.
Firm hands rested on her shoulders. “Mel, you have to stop it. You’re hurting them.”
Melody looked up in alarm to Oz’s blue-grey eyes. “What? Hurting who?” Her gaze tore frantically through the room, but other than the healers, nobody was stirring, even councillor Argrum sat to the side holding the hand of a shifter, stroking it as she was.
“Dean, Asher, Trent and Nick. You’re hurting them with your guilt, Mel. They’re all dying to come in here and rescue you. Asher’s been in his wolf form for the last half an hour, howling. The provost threatened to silence him permanently with a spell, except Trent—the other Trent—did something with his magic to mute it.” He stroked a curl back from her face. “They were too agitated to be allowed in here, so they sent me. I’m not bonded, so I can’t feel it.”
The pained expression on his face told it all. He wished that he could. It didn’t matter that she’d hurt him too, he just wanted to feel what she did.
Goddess, she didn’t deserve any of them.
The doors slammed open again, and Nick returned with half a dozen or so witches. Melody didn’t know any of them, but Nick obviously did. They all gathered around the cot Melody sat beside.
“This is Leon, he’s a mountain lion,” she said, woodenly, as if by leaving out the emotion, she could lessen her pain, or the horror of what she was about to say. “Loyal, steadfast. His first witch fell in love with him at another college. He never spoke of her other than that, but whatever happened hurt him deeply. He couldn’t control his beast, so he eventually came to Bestia, hoping someone there would help him. At his fittest, he’s strong. The bond had to be broken forty-seven times before he was weakened enough for one of the other witches to take him.”
There were gasps from the senior students.
“The witch who got him wasn’t strong enough to help his shifts, so I was always trotted out whenever it was needed. None of the other witches would help, it was beneath them to tend to a beast that wasn’t their own.”
Melody stroked his head.
“Leon is a good man. They ordered him to breed me once. He knew I didn’t want it, and he refused. They whipped him so badly I thought he’d died. All to save my virginity.”
A hot tear slowly made its way down her cheek.
“He deserves a good, strong witch who is going to understand that he’s traumatised. He’ll probably have nightmares or night terrors. Many of the shifters at the compound did. He deserves to have the life that he should have had from the start. He’s a good man.”
One of the male students stepped forward. “I’m Steve, I’d be honoured to hold his bond until such time as he chooses the witch that he wants.”
Melody looked gratefully up at him through tear-blurred eyes. That was more respect than she’d hoped for. Someone who would not only care for Leon, but allow him the freedom to make his own choices, even to Steve’s loss.
“Thank you,” she said, huskily. “Please, give me your hand. Open your magic as if you were going to force his shift, but hold it there, can you do that? I don’t know if this will work, but we can only try.”
Steve put his hand in hers, and Melody closed her eyes, holding even tighter to Leon’s hand. Gently she reached for the strands of their broken bond and began to feed magic into it. The bond thickened, reached for her, and gradually connected with her magic. Before the witch on the other bond could react, Melody yanked the bond apart, strengthening her own with Leon at the same time.
On the cot, his body convulsed for a few beats, before lying still. The healer rushed to his side, pouring magic into him, now that he was free from being drained. Melody also fed him from her magic, drawing from her bonded shifters. Behind her, Oz murmured to someone that she was taking from her own familiars to help Leon.
The bond with her began to solidify, and she knew it was time to try and transfer it again. This would be harder, there was no preexisting link for her to work with. If she broke her link too soon, she could kill him.
“Are you ready?” she
