Page 151

“Creature, attack him!”

The clay monstrosity charges toward Memnon, and its clay lips peel back, revealing sharpened gray canines.

Right as it’s nearly on Memnon, my mate reaches out and rubs away a portion of the Hebrew wordtruthfrom the creature’s forehead.

All at once, the creature’s form stiffens, losing its animation. It falls to the ground, shattering apart, the sound like a clay pot smashing. I stare at what remains of the thing’s head. On its forehead, I can just make out what remains of the Hebrew word, which is now missing one letter. What remains reads as a different word entirely.

Death.

“Creature, repair yourself!” Juliana commands.

I wait for the bits of dried clay to cobble themselves back together, but they remain where they fell, still and lifeless.

Memnon returns his attention to the sorceress, his magic rapidly folding inward, toward his form.

For the first time, I see a flicker of misgiving in Juliana’s eyes, even as they begin to glow?—

BOOM!

Memnon’s magic explodes out of him, ripping through the room and throwing Juliana and everything else back. The only thing Memnon’s magic doesn’t touch is me. The hair on my head doesn’t so much as stir.

The sorceress coughs as debris falls and dust kicks up. Through the haze, I see a set of glowing eyes as Memnon strides forward.

“There is one thing I hold holy in all this gods-forsaken world,” Memnon says, closing in on Juliana. Goose bumps break out along my skin. His voice still has that unsettling otherness to it. “And you hurt her.”

The sorceress sits up enough to lob a curse at Memnon. He bats it away like it’s a fly, but when it hits the wall behind him, itmeltsa section of drywall.

She throws another and another. He doesn’t bother knocking them all away, and he doesn’t react at all, even when the curses eat away at his clothes, and bits of his flesh smoke.

“You cannot hurt me,” Juliana insists. “I bonded you to me. I remember.”

He doesn’t respond, but when he bends down and grasps her by the neck, it’s clear he can in fact hurt her. His magic closes in on her, the indigo swathes of it stained with dark, oily streaks.

Juliana begins to writhe and scream.

“Selene,” she gasps out between cries, “kill him.”

I suck in a sharp breath as my broken limbs tense at her command. She had ordered something similar of me earlier?—

Your first true task once I release you tonight will be to sever each of those bonds.

That command hadn’t taken root because she hadn’t released me, but now,nowher insidious magic is pressing in on me, forcing my body to move.

I cry out as my broken bones are jostled.

Est amage!

In response, Juliana’s screams intensify, like Memnon worsened the curse he struck her with.

My body is still trying to pick itself up, broken bones and all. Beyond the pain, there is a different sort of anguish. Horrorcrawls along my skin at the thought of killing Memnon. I have loathed the man and wished for his demise more than once, but…but somewhere along the way, things between us have changed.

No.I fight the compulsion.I will not do this.

Sweat begins to bead on my brow as I battle the magic.

I will not harm my soul mate.

Just when I’m sure I’ll be forced to comply anyway, the command’s power over me dissipates, washing away like blood in the rain.