Adalind proposed it three days after the Council announcement.
"There's a ritual." She stood at her apartment window, watching Portland's lights. "Ancient Hexenbiest binding. I've been thinking about it since the enhancement ceremony."
"What kind of binding?"
"Blood pact. It ties life forces together—permanently, irrevocably." She turned to face me. "If one of us dies, the other inherits their power. If both live, we're connected beyond physical proximity. We'd feel each other across any distance."
The blood bond from her enhancement had already created something similar—empathic connection, shared awareness during moments of crisis. But that had been a side effect, accidental, incomplete.
This would be deliberate.
"Why now?"
"Because of the baby." Adalind moved toward me. "If something happens to me during the pregnancy—if complications arise, if enemies reach me—you need my magic to protect our child. Grimm abilities alone might not be enough against Hexenbiest-specific threats."
"And if something happens to me?"
"Then I inherit whatever you've become. The extracted abilities, the enhancements, the combat capabilities." Her voice was steady despite the weight of what she was proposing. "Our child deserves parents who can protect them. This makes that protection redundant—either of us alone would have both our strengths."
[PROPOSAL: HEXENBIEST BLOOD PACT]
[EFFECT: PERMANENT LIFE FORCE BINDING]
[BENEFIT: POWER INHERITANCE (SURVIVAL)]
[BENEFIT: ENHANCED EMPATHIC LINK (CONSTANT)]
[RISK: SHARED VULNERABILITY - DAMAGE TO ONE AFFECTS OTHER]
[REQUIREMENT: GENUINE COMMITMENT]
The System's analysis confirmed what Adalind was describing. The binding would make us stronger together, but also more vulnerable—damage to one might echo through to the other.
"This isn't marriage." Adalind read my expression. "It's more. Binding that can't be broken, can't be dissolved, can't be escaped. We'd be tied together until death, and our deaths would be tied together too."
"That's a significant commitment."
"We're having a child together. We've fought Royal forces together. We've bled for each other, literally." She held my gaze. "The commitment already exists. This just makes it formal."
She wasn't wrong. The blood from the Kimura poison, the trust through the enhancement ritual, the months of building something together—we'd been binding ourselves long before any formal ceremony.
"Who would officiate?"
"My mother." Adalind's expression complicated. "The ritual requires a senior Hexenbiest witness. Catherine is the only one I trust enough to perform it correctly."
"Trust is a strong word for your relationship."
"Trust to want her grandchild's parents bound properly. Self-interest, again." Adalind's voice held acceptance rather than bitterness. "She'll do it right because doing it wrong would harm the bloodline she's invested in."
The ritual took place three days later.
Catherine Schade arrived at the location Adalind had chosen—a clearing in Forest Park, ancient by Portland standards, carrying resonances that Hexenbiests had used for ceremonies for generations. The elder Hexenbiest moved through the preparation with professional efficiency, her expression revealing nothing of her thoughts.
"The binding requires blood exchange, spoken vows, and genuine commitment." Catherine's voice was formal, carrying the weight of ceremony. "If either of you harbors reservation, the ritual will fail. Worse, it might backlash—damaging both of you permanently."
"No reservations." Adalind's voice was steady.
"No reservations." I matched her tone.
Catherine studied us both, her enhanced senses presumably reading our emotional states more clearly than human observation could provide. Whatever she found seemed to satisfy her.
"Then we begin."
The ritual itself was complex—drawn symbols, spoken phrases in a language older than Latin, blood drawn from both of us and mixed in a silver bowl. Catherine guided us through each step, her instructions precise, her corrections sharp when our pronunciation faltered.
The vows came last.
"I bind my life to yours." Adalind's voice carried across the clearing. "My power becomes your inheritance. Your survival becomes my purpose. Until death ends what blood has joined."
My turn. "I bind my life to yours. My strength becomes your shield. Your danger becomes my battle. Until death ends what blood has joined."
The blood in the bowl began to glow—soft at first, then brighter, pulsing with light that matched no natural frequency. Catherine spoke final words in the Hexenbiest tongue, and the light surged upward, splitting into two streams that flowed toward us.
The connection formed.
It wasn't painful—more like a door opening somewhere inside my consciousness. Suddenly Adalind was there, not as a memory or an abstraction but as a presence. I could feel her heartbeat, her breathing, her emotional state. Not thoughts—nothing so invasive—but awareness. Knowing.
[BLOOD PACT: COMPLETE]
[STATUS: PERMANENTLY BOUND (ADALIND SCHADE)]
[ABILITY GAINED: EMPATHIC LINK (CONSTANT, RANGE UNLIMITED)]
[INHERITANCE ACTIVE: SURVIVOR GAINS DECEASED'S ABILITIES]
[WARNING: SHARED VULNERABILITY - MONITOR FOR ECHO DAMAGE]
"It's done." Catherine's voice held something I couldn't identify—satisfaction? Pride? Calculation? "You're bound now. Whatever happens to either of you, the other will know. Feel. Eventually, share."
"Thank you." Adalind's voice was formal. "For performing the ceremony correctly."
"I want my grandchild born to capable parents." Catherine gathered her materials. "The binding ensures capability survives even if individuals don't." She paused at the clearing's edge. "Treat her well, Grimm. She's more valuable now than she's ever been."
"She's always been valuable. Just not always recognized."
Catherine's expression flickered—something almost like approval. Then she disappeared into the forest, leaving us alone with our new connection.
"That was... intense." Adalind's voice held wonder rather than complaint. "I can feel you. Really feel you, not just the blood bond from before."
"Same." I tested the connection, sensing her presence like warmth at the edge of awareness. "Is this what you expected?"
"Better." She moved close, and the contact intensified the link—her emotions clearer, her presence stronger. "I've never been connected to anyone like this. Never trusted anyone enough."
"No regrets?"
"Only that we didn't do this sooner."
We walked back through Portland's streets, hands intertwined, the new bond pulsing between us with every step. The city that had become our territory felt different now—more personal, more meaningful, more worth protecting.
"Your mother seemed satisfied." I broke the comfortable silence.
"She got what she wanted. Access to a powerful bloodline through formal binding." Adalind's voice held no resentment. "But so did I. A partner who can protect our child if I can't. Someone tied to me through more than circumstance."
"Is that what you were afraid of? That I'd leave?"
"I was afraid of everything." The admission came quietly. "Being used. Being discarded. Being powerful enough to threaten but not strong enough to refuse. The pact changes that. We're invested in each other's survival now—literally, magically, permanently."
"We were already invested."
"Now it's unbreakable." She squeezed my hand. "Now it's forever."
Forever was a long time. But walking through Portland with Adalind beside me, our child growing inside her, our bond humming between us—forever didn't seem frightening.
It seemed like exactly enough time to build something worth having.
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