Page 152

I breathe hard as I lie there on the ground, sweat dripping down my face. Or maybe they’re tears.

Some bonds are stronger than others. Not even a forced bond can overpower a fated one.

I stare up at the ceiling. “That foolish woman doesn’t know who we are,” I say in Sarmatian, my voice shaky.King, queen. Husband, wife. Ancient lovers, recent enemies. Soul mates.

Beneath his rage, I feel Memnon’s violent pleasure at this acknowledgment.

He reels the writhing sorceress in close. “You made enemies of the wrong people, sorceress.” I see his grip visibly tighten.

Juliana’s screams have turned into choked sobs. “Please, please,” she says hoarsely. She doesn’t say what she’s begging for. Mercy of some sort. I think she knows she’s not going to get it. Not given the circumstances of the evening.

With his free hand, Memnon withdraws his dagger. “I made a promise to my mate,” he says softly, “that the moment I found who had hurt her, I would make their deaths slow.”

He releases Juliana’s throat, and the sorceress falls to her knees. No sooner is she kneeling than Memnon grabs her hair, tilts her head back, and drags his blade across the sorceress’s throat.

A line of blood blooms like a crimson necklace, and I startle at the sudden violence.

Juliana cries out, her power flaring, but Memnon’s own power snaps out in response, forcing hers back into her body.

She’s not dying, I realize. The cut, though it looked wicked, was simply a flesh wound.

Memnon releases her hair and brings the tip of the dagger to his other hand. Swiftly he draws it down his palm. My stomach bottoms out when I begin to suspect what he intends.

He wraps his bloody hand around the sorceress’s wounded neck.

“With blood I bind?—”

“No!” she screams. “No, no! Selene Bowers, Icommandyou to stop him.”

I clench my teeth as another compulsion takes root and I have to fight it off all over again.

“With bone I break.” Memnon begins to smile now, unholy menace in his glowing eyes. “Only through death shall I at last forsake.”

What Memnon is doing shouldn’t be possible. The amount of magic needed for a forced bond is so massive it requires a spell circle. That’s why Lia called in those supernaturals earlier when she bonded me, and it’s why she hosted spell circles beneath Henbane Coven. But I can sense the sorcerer’s magic relentlessly building anyway.

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

She screams again, only this time, it’s more out of anguish than physical pain.

Holy Goddess. Memnon did it. He bound Juliana’s will to his own.

“You will not give Selene Bowers another order,ever,” he says. “You will not hurt Selene ever again. You will not hurt meever. You will not use magic ever. You will stay here on your knees, and you won’t speak, and you won’t move. You will wait patiently for me.” Roughly, he releases the sorceress.

Memnon crosses the room to me, his hair stirring and his eyes burning. His power billows about him as he crunches over the remains of the sorceress’s creature. If I were anyone else, I would be terrified.

When he gets to me, he kneels. So much of him is consumed by his power at the moment. I can’t see any softness to him. But then his hand presses to my cheek.

Beneath Memnon’s touch, his power floods my body, reaching for my broken bones. The healing spell warms me as it moves through my system and mends my injuries.

His thumb strokes my cheek as he gazes down at me.

I’m sorry,he says.For your pain. For not healing you sooner. For coming so late.

I don’t know how I have any more tears in me, but a few more squeeze out.

I lean into his hand.You came.That’s all I can seem to say.

I willalwayscome,he vows.