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she thought in horror.
    We’re bonded , Thanar answered.
    What do you mean we’re bonded? We’re not bonded! Whatever that was, it wasn’t a bond, she said.
    She knew if she said enough times it would become true.
    At this point, Ciardis knew she was rambling but she couldn’t stop. I know what a bond feels like. I know what I feel. Pushing your feelings ahead of my own isn’t a bond. It’s mind-rape. Get out. Stay away from my feelings and my emotions. You can’t make me love you.
    Thanar didn’t even bother to contradict her. Because he couldn’t. One benefit to linking to someone else’s mind, was being able to see their thoughts before they spoke them. It was almost impossible to lie to the other person. Ciardis could feel Thanar’s contempt, but she also knew what she had said was true. Now that she realized that he was an undercurrent in her mind as well as connected to her power, she would use that to her advantage. Mind bonds weren’t a one-way street. Therefore she knew that there wasn’t one word that he could issue through his lips to placate her and not have it be a lie. But she also was aware of the horrifying satisfaction in his mind. He didn’t care . He didn’t care that he had upset or morally misused their mind link because he had gotten what he wanted. He had manipulated her emotions and forced her to feel what he wanted her to feel, and not a drop of remorse clouded his mind.
    His selfishness was astonishing. More importantly, she wanted to know how this false bond was happening and why . There was only one other time that Thanar had spoken into her mind and had been able to use his gifts to sync with her own powers so simultaneously.
    Her mind flashed back to the time that they had flown in the skies together.
    She felt Sebastian’s unease through their bond. Ciardis ?
    She realized abruptly that Sebastian couldn’t understand the storm of emotions running through her head because of Thanar. He just felt her emotions skyrocket with no corresponding source of concern appearing in front of him. In his eyes, she was having a panic attack for no apparent reason.
    He wouldn’t know , said Thanar smugly. You and I are bonded on a separate link. He can’t hear what he can’t feel.
    “Interesting,” Ciardis muttered aloud, her heart pumping a mile a minute. She really needed to figure out who could and couldn’t access her mind quickly. And what’s more she needed to do it fast. She’d gone over the lessons she had had with Lady Maree Amber over and over again in any spare moment she could after the warehouse incident. She was desperately trying to cut off access to her mind but shielding wasn’t working as well as she’d hoped.
    It wouldn’t, seeing as it’s not supposed to be used against bond mates, Thanar said.
    Ciardis was heartily tempted to ignore him. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. But she couldn’t. She needed answers and right now he could give them.
    Reluctantly, she said, Sebastian can block me. So your argument is invalid.
    Amusement wafted through their bond before he deigned to answer. I said bond mates, not bonded idiots. Two different concepts. Two different connections.
    Ciardis’s shoulders tensed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She would deny a bond with Thanar to her last breath if any soul asked her. But she couldn’t deny that he had both a link to her power and the key to enter minds at will. If she wanted to shut off either of those connections, she needed information.
    What do you mean ?
    Look it up.
    Ciardis wanted to slap him. She wouldn’t. Because she didn’t believe in airing her dirty laundry in public, something she had learned the hard way in the gossip mill of the laundress facilities in Vaneis. Besides he was floating so high up that she couldn’t reach him. But that was all right. She believed in payback and Thanar would certainly pay for his transgressions, all of them, at a later date of her choosing.
    Just answer one