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Only once the circle has been formed, does Lia join me in the middle of the circle. Dagger still in hand, she raises her arms and her blade above her head.

“I call on the darkness and the old, hungry gods who will bear witness to my deeds,”she incants in Latin.

The words are the same ones she used at the last spell circle. Only now, I sense those old, hungry gods somewhere deep beneath my feet in a way I didn’t a month ago. Their eyes are focused on Lia and me.

We will watch,they seem to whisper.

Lia lowers her arms, then presses the tip of her dagger to the tan skin of her forearm. Slowly, she drags the blade down, a line of blood welling as she goes. “You remember this part from the spell circle, don’t you?” she says to me as she works.

Around us, the other supernaturals are silent.

Idoremember this part of the ritual, only when she did it last, the wound she made was on her sternum.

Memnon,I say uncertainly, reaching down our bond once more. My gaze is fixed to that line of blood.

What do you need from me, Empress?

I need for him to be here, but I cannot will him to come any faster than he already is, so I stay silent.

Lia moves around to the back of my chair and cuts away my bindings.

Before I can take a swing at her, her magic is there, restraining my arms. She grabs one of my hands and pries it free of her magical restraints.

Lia extends my arm out and slices her blade down my skin, parting the delicate flesh.

Memnon!I cry out now.Memnon!

“With blood I bind, with bone I break?—”

No, no, no!

She grabs my cut forearm and presses her own bloody one to mine, her expression determined.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

I struggle against Lia.She’s placing a binding spell on me!I cry.

The other end of our bond goes still as death.

Then Memnon’s magic is flooding my system—an ocean of it pouring into me. Normally I have to reach for it to pull it through the bond, but it’s as though the sorcerer himself is shoving it all out.

With his magic comes warmth, devotion,love. I’m tired and weak, but I grasp what I can of his power and my own, and I funnel every bit of it down my arms and out my hands. A sluggish plume of orange and indigo magic releases, though it does nothing more than push Lia back a little. It’s not even enough to break her hold on me. I can still feel her blood mingling with mine.

Maiden, Mother, and Crone, this cannot be happening.

“Only through death shall I at last forsake.”

I scream as a new, intrusive bond forces its way through me, the magic slicing into my body.

“What I command, you shall obey. Your will is mine till your dying day.”

The pain of this bond is searing, but maybe that’s because, unlike the others, this one isn’t consensual.

It lodges itself behind my sternum, and its roots seem to burrow into my bones. My cheeks are wet, and I realize I’m still screaming. My throat is ragged from the sound.

For a moment, I feel Memnon right there, as close as he can be through the bond.

It’s quiet on his end, but from that silence comes…