It's as if mom had hugged me.
"You journey will still cause you pain, my child. However, you has your mate. You have the purest of the bonds, an unbreakable, holy mating bond. While all others can be broken by giving up every single thing that makes you, you; magic, true body, nature, memories, mind, personality, to make you mortal, and strip you down from your race to turn you into a human; that cannot happen to the bond of a winged-serpent. Yours is the purest of all others, the strongest. Two bodies and one heart."
I turned pale hearing her say exactly what Mia told me.
"I know," I whispered, heart in pain.
"Why do you lie, child?" She asked in innocent confusion. "Why do you fight against something that will make you stronger. That will be a key for your victory above those who wronged and harmed you?"
She really is powerful. I'm overwhelmed. "Lie? About what?"
"About not loving your mate, when you love him so deeply, to a point where you feel pain. Why do you fight? Why do you let your anxiety, fear, and pride get in the middle of something so pure and beautiful?"
My body froze, my heartbeat sky-rocketed. "I…"
"He loves you as deep as you love him, if not more. Your pride is getting in the way and that is hurting him profoundly. By hurting him, you hurt yourself, since your emotions are mixed with his. Why hurt yourself more than you're already are, child?" How does she-
"I'll talk to him after the final match."
She narrowed her eyes, "Do you enjoy leaving him miserable? Are you sadist? You enjoy causing him pain?" Is she genuinely curious or is she fucking with me?
"I might be sadistic," I blinked. "I do like when he's angry. Not sad but angry? Definitely. He looks amazing when he's pissed of like that." Bell choked on her laughter on my side, while Haya simply watched me.
"Must be a side effect of the torture," she frowned softly.
"What did you mean by two bodies and one heart? I've heard that before, but I do not understand what it means!" Mia refused to tell me, ugh.
"Seems like I'm a better source for you," Haya grinned amusedly for the first time. Genuinely amused. "When there is a mating bond where one of the parties is a winged-serpent, many things change beside the bond being unbreakable. Telepathy, empathy, channeling each other's powers, send energy through the incandescent thread of the bond, your healing and regeneration become his, souls that will be connected in all of their possible reincarnations as mates, mind sharing that goes beyond telepathy in a way where you can share your memories with him."
"Your strength becomes one and you turn into equals in power, all that you have you can share. You can take their pain for yourself. They become the sole antidote for everything that you are, and vice versa. Your heart becomes one in the moment you fully consummate the bond after touching in your true form. Your heart and his beat in the same rhythm, when one is racing, the other is too; when one slows down, the other does too. Your very lives are connected to one another, my child."
"That is why, to your kind, the mating bond was the most precious thing in their lives, they always knew the power that comes with it. The responsibility. The danger. The endless love. They feel everything like no other kind does. Those who are mated to one of your kind, are the luckiest of all others. If the mate happens to be of another race, they can be called the luckiest kids alive, for being able to feel everything, to wield such a magnificent power."
Bell was dead silent, and so was I.
"So… if I die, Oli dies?" I whispered haunted.
"And if he dies, you die," Bell mumble as haunted as me.
Everything just got a whole lot more fucking dangerous.
"Yes. That's how it is. The purest of the bonds."
I scoffed, "To die with my mate. My mate will die with me. Cruel."
She frowned, "Cruel would be to let a mate alive after they lost their soulmate, Hel. That is what true cruelty feels like. To be condemned to a lifetime of pain and disgrace, loneliness and guilty for not protecting them. That, is cruel!"
My mind went to Mia, who lost her mate. To Russell who lost mom. To how I know I wouldn't be able to live if I lost Oliver. "You're right. That would be crueler, but it's still too much."
"You say that because you have a self-sacrificing nature!"
Ugh. She sounds like Oliver. "Indeed," there's no reason to lie, not when she can tell I'm lying. "Is Lilith Amadea Velraki-Aussaresses alive?"
My question caught her by surprise, and she froze for a second, then her eyes beamed with delight, "Yes."
What? I gasped, "Lilith is alive?"
A nod, "Of course. A winged-serpent only dies when their mate is also dead, my child. Lilith's mate wasn't born at the time, which granted her immortality not matter the wound she received. That's one of the good sides of the purest of the mating bonds. Also one of the reasons why you wasn't killed in the torture. Oliver-Sean Montgomery Strauss-Khan was not born at the time."
"I… I would have died?"
"You were tortured in a deadly way, child. You are fully immortal until you consummate your mating bond in the way it needs to be. It hasn't been long since you consummated yours, since he touched your serpent. Until then, he was also immortal. The same goes for Lilith and the boy she is mated to," what the fuck?
"Who is… who is Lilith's mate?"
She tilted her head, "Sword brother to Sunna Hearthstone's mate."
"Sunna's mate?" Her Crowned Princess-Consort?
"The similarity between the phoenixes and the winged-serpents mating bonds is the two bodies and one heart factor. However, it's different since phoenixes are forever immortal, and thus, no matter her mate's race, the boy will also be an immortal, no matter if anyone tries to kill him!"
I blinked, trying to absorb what she just said. "What are they?"
Haya grinned slowly, "A commonality with you."
My eyes widened in understanding, "Vampires? Like Oliver?"
"You are stronger than Sunna and Lilith. Oliver is stronger than the two born vampires. But yes, all vampires," shite. "You have them."
"I have what?" I gasped. "Are they from the Circle?" But all of the boys are dating. "This can't be."
"The unmated ones. That's all I can tell you about their bond with Sunna and Lilith, my child," she winked at me.
Igor, River, and Rio? Two of them are Sunna and Lilith's mates? What the fuck? What's the probability? "Sunna is in the Pit. Is Lilith in the Pit too?" I can't leave them in there. I couldn't before, I can't now.
A nod, "She is."
Melina, you were right. Your daughter survived. "I have someone else from my kind alive?" I felt my eyes burning. "She's alive and she's not a baby or in an egg. She's… she's alive!"
"She is protected by one of the Goddesses. They both are!"
What? "Who? The Crone?"
Haya almost looked offended, "No. The Mother."
Oh? I thought she never interfered. "The Crown is in the Pit!"
Her eyes burned with excitement, "That is not a question."
"No. The Crown of Chaos is in the Pit," it's an indirect question.
The witch gave me the eeriest of the grins, "It is."
Fuck. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. "Grandpa's dead body is there."
Another nod, "It is. The Crown of Chaos is in his head."
"What do I do, Haya?" She's been more helpful than Mia, damn, and she's one of her creations. Would you look at that?
"You will need the earrings made of the drop of the Mother's tears."
Damn. She really knows everything. "How do I get it?"
"Go to Alaska. Your mate met her before. He'll recognize her the second his eyes land on her. She will tell you how to get the earrings there. Then you will get the Crown. Only after you get the Crown, you will be able to get the aether sword and daggers, but that you will learn when you meet Nacht's master," she even knows about that? Shite. "You already has the ring, the necklace, and the mirror of the soul. You will be prepared once you gather all the Royal artifacts!"
"What do I own you, Haya? For helping me?"
She licked her red lips, "What Goddess do you worship?"
Uh, is she a cult type of witch? "The Crone."
A nod, "Start worshipping the Mother too. Worship both of them. The Mother is my guardian Goddess, even though I am a witch. If I know all I know, and I can help you know thanks to that, it's because of how she enlightened me. You are being guarded by her too."
Oh? So, she's a deviant witch. I see. "Then I will do that. I'll begin to pray for both her and the Crone. Anything else, Haya?"
She pretended to think about it, "Give your all on the tournament, I'll be cheering for your team, my child."
I blinked, feeling my cheeks blush. "Thank you, Haya. I will."
"You better go, honey," Bell exclaimed. "It'll begin soon. I'll stay behind to ask Haya some personal things," about father, I bet.