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question for me, she said, letting a pleading tone enter her voice.
    What is it? he said while looking down his patrician nose at the entire group.
    Is this a permanent bond linking mind and spirit ?
    He didn’t hesitate. Absolutely.
    Ciardis felt like cursing up a storm. If she had known she’d be stuck with this before he conjured the sigils in order to save them from death, she would have chosen death.
    There were some types of people you bound yourself to for life.
    Sebastian was one of them.
    Thanar, daemoni prince, murderer, and spiteful hell-raiser, was not.
    She remembered when this bond between them had first come about. It hadn’t been that long ago. A day. Maybe two. Time seemed to be dragging on for her this week. She and Thanar had been racing through the skies on their way to a warehouse, when their race to see the princess heir’s secret became a race to save their lives in mid-flight. A big black dragon by the name of Balash had appeared behind them, intent on burning them to a crisp or eating them or both. She actually wasn’t sure if dragons ate food cooked, but she wouldn’t put it past them to char their kills or have their human servants do it for them. She wasn’t crazy enough to ask the Ambassador from Sahalia that question, though. It would happen when hell froze over.
    At the time of their frantic dash through the skies it had just been her and Thanar, with Thanar doing his best to outfly and outfight a beast forty times his size. The tables had turned when Thanar had conjured the net of Sauras, a bit of arcane magic that he had only been able to bring about because he had used a melding of her weathervane gifts and his own daemoni mage powers. The powerful arcane spell was one that he had said “could only be created between two individuals in perfect unity.”
    She still doubted that perfect unity part. But she didn’t doubt that Thanar wouldn’t have been able to conjure it without her assistance. That assistance had come with a price. A semi-permanent one if she had anything to say about it. His disturbing access to her mind would need to be cut off as soon as possible.
    “Well, two can play that game,” she muttered under her breath. It might be time to really test the daemoni prince’s worth...and loyalty to the god of destruction.
    She felt some relief that Sebastian didn’t yet know about this bond. Not because she didn’t want Sebastian to know on principle but because the moment he did she was certain he’d put his sword through the daemoni prince’s throat. Whether or not she still needed him in her quest to defeat the blutgott .
    Thanar sighed. A pity. I was hoping you’d give up that silly quest.
    Ciardis’s golden eyes opened wide and then she narrowed them as her hands balled into fists in frustration. Never.
    She wanted to hit him so badly.
    Careful, Golden Eyes , we wouldn’t want your prince heir knowing you were thinking amorous thoughts of me.
    I was not! she thought, scandalized. Flashes of his chest came back to her in that moment.
    No , he agreed, but it’s fun to push you to think about it .
    She couldn’t say anything to that. Now that he’d planted the thought in her mind just by mentioning it, she was thinking about him.
    Arghh. Get out of my head .
    Impossible, my little Weathervane. Now that I almost have you. I’m not giving up .
    You don’t almost have anything .
    You keep thinking that , Thanar said as he shut down the conversation by sending a delicious shiver of anticipation through her mind. His own anticipation.
    Ciardis didn’t deign to respond. Mostly because she couldn’t. She was battling for control over her own emotions...and losing. Damn him.
    The daemoni prince’s mouth slid into a satisfied smile as the two creatures caught up to their speedier winged brethren and landed on the rooftop.
    Then Ciardis’s breath caught in her chest. Griffins. Two proud and strong ones stood behind Thanar.  A black one and a golden one. She