The BloodBound Heir

It was early morning and there were only five days left before Alexia would walk the Bridal Path. Too many days I’d spent avoiding my father and Caspian, both of which would stop me if they knew what I was attempting. After a week of frustration and loneliness, I decided to try and visit Alexia.

Alexia’s mother’s house was close to the traders market. It was in a nicer part of town, but the stench of the slums still wafted up the street as the carriage slowed to a halt. The house itself was tiny, and squished between buildings like an afterthought. I’d only been here a few times before, and still hesitated before I knocked. The door opened, but instead of the petite blonde greeting me, a tall man with red hair and freckles opened the door.

“Thomas, I presume?” I didn’t hide my disappointed scowl.

He eyed me blankly. I hadn’t personally met Alexia’s brother before, and I hadn’t dressed as a LeMont before making the journey into town. Thomas had no reason to know who I was, save for the LeMont family crest on the carriage door behind me.

“Yeah, and you are?” He asked.

I held out my bare hand cordially. “Lady Daelyn LeMont.”

Recognition changed his expression as he backed up into the house, refusing to touch me. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”

I lowered my arm down to my side. “I assure you that while I am very irritable that you did not consult me before deciding to sell my personal attendant to some foreign lord, I am here under the best of intentions.” I stepped forward to peer around him. “And seeing as I am here, I will not be leaving until I’ve met with your sister. So I suggest you invite me in.”

“I’m sorry my lady, but Alexia is not here.”

I opened my mouth, but he rushed on.

“Truly, I wouldn’t dare lie to you. The duke has only been good for me and mine.”

I grit my teeth together. “If she’s not here, then where is Alexia? I need to meet with her.”

“She has gone to the dress maker with the other brides. They’re being fitted for the ceremony.”

Of course. There were many preparations being made, and of course it would be the day I tried to meet with her.

“Very well.” I sighed, trying to not feel defeated by such a small matter. “Could you pass on a message to her for me?”

Thomas nodded warily.

I racked my brain for something that didn't sound suspicious, and wasn’t utterly pointless. “When they line the brides up, can you ask her if she can request to be last in the procession?”

Some of Thomas’s earlier apprehension left as he looked at me skeptically. He narrowed his eyes. “What games are you playing with my sister?”

I glared right back. “I don’t play games with the lives of those I claim to care about.” I snapped. “However, if you must know and are doubtlessly aware, the Bridal Path passes by the LeMont Estate. I would like her to go last if possible so that I might walk with her the rest of the way to the docks, without disturbing the other brides.”

“No one walks with the brides,” Thomas said stoically. “It’s forbidden.”

“No, it’s strongly discouraged.” I clarified with as much confidence and authority as I could. “There is no official rule against it, and it’s only discouraged because it’s disruptive to the other brides. If it wasn’t discouraged, then the whole city would follow them to the docks.” I stood up straighter, challenging him to contradict me. “Unless there’s something you’d like to educate a LeMont on, something you know that I don't?”

He shrunk back against the door. “No, my lady.”

“Good.” I concluded. “So you’ll tell her what I said?”

He swallowed hard as he nodded, and I noticed beads of sweat had formed along his forehead and upper lip.

I reached out without thinking. “Are you feverish?”

Thomas nearly jumped away from my fingers, cowering in the shadows of the house. “Please don’t curse me! I'll tell her, you have my word.”

Exasperated, I pulled my hand back. “Is that why you look sick? You’re afraid I’m going to curse you?” I could help the bitter laugh that escaped my throat. “How would I even begin to curse you? I'm clearly unarmed.” I didn’t even have a bag with me to hide a charm in.

Thomas shook his head. “With your blood magic. All LeMonts have it.”

“Thomas, your sister has worked for me for years. I don’t possess a bloodbinding.”

But he shook his head in fervent disbelief. “Everyone knows that you used your binding on Lord Kayn. The whole town knows he kissed you and no one’s seen him since!”

A few of the townsfolk were starting to slow their walk as they approached the house, lingering for an ear of gossip. My cheeks heated with irritation.

“If I came into my binding recently, then why didn’t I command Alexia to strangle your throat when she told me that you sold her?!” I shouted back.

“Because you know Alexia would be devastated.” He lowered his eyes to the ground, refusing to look up at me anymore. “She’s too pure. My sister would never be the same if she were commanded to murder.”

I rubbed at my temples, trying to dissipate my annoyance. How was it that after twenty-two years, still no one believed that I was without a magebinding? What else could I possibly do to prove it to anyone? If Lord Kayn had vanished after the night of the ball, then he was probably just too afraid to leave his house after my threat.

“You’re right, Alexia is too pure for murder. If I want you dead, I’ll clearly have to do it myself.” It didn’t sound like a joke, but I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity that I would ever hurt anyone.

Thomas didn’t think it was funny, pulling a knife from his belt and pointing it at me. “You might be a noble, but I’m not afraid to defend myself.”

I stepped back, a momentary panic coming over me before swallowing it down. “I could have you thrown in jail for so much as pointing your knife at me, Thomas.” I threatened. “Then who will take care of Nora and your mother? Not Alexia, you won’t see her again after Trasenmar.” I turned to leave, glaring daggers at the coward of a man in the doorway. “I want extra time with your sister on the last day that any of us will ever get to see her. Tell her to be at the back of the procession. If she isn’t at the back, I won’t be able to walk with her to the docks.”

I gathered my skirts for the walk back to the carriage. “If I don’t get to walk with her to the docks, then I will immediately come and find you. Then I will use the bloodbinding—that you are so convinced that I have— to enslave you so thoroughly, you won’t even realize that it is my fault you pull all of your hair out and spend your life bald.”

Thomas slammed the door shut, and I had to fight the urge not to throw myself against its frame. I wanted to continue threatening the man who started this mess, but proper ladies didn't have the luxury of physical violence, and I’d done enough lately to ruin my reputation without breaking down a door.

Climbing back into the carriage, I rubbed at the tension in my temples. Dealing with Thomas had given me a headache. I knocked on the upper wall, and the carriage lurched forward, back to the manor. I closed my eyes, letting my body melt into the cushions as I thought about my conversation with Alexia’s brother.

Interesting that Lord Tristan Kayn hadn’t been seen since the ball. It had been over a week by now, and even if he was afraid of me, there was nothing actually keeping him in his house. Fear of the duke or not, did he actually believe I would have him thrown in jail? For the amount of threatening I’d done recently, I’d never actually had anyone arrested, let alone punished. The most I’d ever done was letting my anger come out in unhelpful bursts.

But Thomas’s conviction did give me a reason to pause with a flicker of impossible thought, and the more I thought about it, the more my heart raced.

What if I did have the ability to bloodbind? I thought.

It was rare, but it was possible to discover your magebinding later in life. Sometime before adulthood, but after reaching pubescence. If Tristan hadn’t been seen since the ball, there was a chance that I had actually bound him, and he was truly trapped in his house for the remaining social season. The rumors circulating would be true, and it would explain why even the Magistrate had been hesitant, not even hesitant, he’d been outright fearful to touch me!

My mind raced with the improbability of it, but hope swelled in my chest, and it ignored all reason as it mapped out the pieces. If I could bloodbind, then I could command Alexia into leaving the Bridal Path. I didn’t know much about the gold bands that were placed on the brides, outside of them containing the charms that forced their march. Surely a bloodbinding would take precedence over an attuned charm.

In the hierarchy of magebindings, bloodbindings were the strongest. Even the strongest charmbinder would be weak compared to a weak bloodbinder. Their magic relied on imbuing other items with their magic, they couldn’t charm someone directly. A bloodbinding was different. It weaves its way into a person so thoroughly that the body couldn’t recognize the magic as foreign from itself. If I could get to her, I’d simply command Alexia to follow me off of the path, and the bracelets wouldn’t be able to stop her.

“If only there was a way to test it...” I mumbled to myself, staring out the window as we left the traders market and turned onto the main street. Most of my father’s servants were already bound to him. If I attempted to bloodbind one of them, they would be compelled to tell the duke, and I doubted any binding I could perform would be stronger than The Duke of Blood’s in order to stop them.

My stomach clenched at the self-proclaimed title, and I shook my head in an attempt to dislodge the spiral of thoughts. I needed to focus. If I was going to try and save Alexia, I had to also keep myself from giving into delusions. I had to prepare for the possibility that I did not come into my magebinding.

”So then what?” I whispered against the glass, picking up a finger to trace the outline of the metal cuffs from memory.

If I was wrong, and I wasn’t magebound, then I would have to remove the golden cuffs myself. It was treason to try and remove a bride from the path, and treason to remove the cuffs themselves, but could it be because they were easy to remove? Maybe it was as simple as pulling them off since they were only attuned to the wearer? The cuffs were tight, but they still possessed a latch to be removed. Even if it was a complicated latch, I could bring a jeweler’s kit to quickly take it apart myself. It was probably wishful thinking, but it was the only backup plan I had if magebinding didn’t work.

Either way, the hope that swelled in my chest was hard to ignore as I turned my focus onto other aspects of the escape. For first time since Alexia had shared her fate, I felt like there was a chance to change it.