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Juliana hesitates again. “The buyer,” she eventually admits.

The terms ofthatforged bond could be anything, anything at all. Even the fabled deals with the devil are technically forged bonds, despite favoring one side over the other. Just like those bonds, these buyers could have some terrible stipulations, and it wouldn’t matter. Juliana could make her bonded victims agree to it while they were still under her control.

It’s not lost on me that not even the devil does forced bonds. That’s how dark this shit has gotten.

I must make some noise. I feel nauseous again. It’s too much. Too much pain, too much violence, too much sick, twisted perversion. I have many questions I still want answered, but I don’t think I can stomach them tonight.

Memnon glances over at me, his power still consuming him. His eyes look merciless as he takes me in.

“Juliana,” my mate says, “you will stay here kneeling, and you will not speak. If you displease me in any way, I will make you remove an appendage.”

The sorceress glares at him, but already, the magic has silenced her.

Memnon strides over to me, his blue magic shrouding him.

He kneels next to me and cups my cheek.I will take care of this. You are safe now, I vow it.

He presses his palm more firmly against my skin. “Sleep.”

Darkness swallows me up.

CHAPTER 38

The first thingI notice when I rouse is a sense of weightlessness, like a stone has been lifted off my chest.

I blink my eyes open and realize I’m cradled in Memnon’s arms, my head nestled against the crook of his neck. My body sways gently as he carries me.

Fearsome queen. Brave-hearted warrior,he murmurs down our bond, noticing that I’ve roused.You valiantly survived horrors tonight. I could not be prouder.

Horrors?I say groggily.

But then I turn my head just a little and take in a familiar room. There’s debris and smashed cardboard boxes and an overturned chair. Immediately, a shiver racks my body.

I fist a bit of Memnon’s shirt as Iremember.

My gaze falls to the center of the room, where a massive pool of blood glistens around a dozen fleshy lumps that my eyes refuse to make sense of.

A hand cups my face, angling my head back to where it had been resting and shielding me from the sight.

She died slow,he reassures me.

I swallow thickly. Those lumps…those are Juliana. Or what’s left of her at least.

Revulsion claws up my throat. But it’s offset by that lightness in my chest. The bond Juliana forced on me…it’s gone. I can sense the hollowed-out space where it once was. With her death, it dissolved away.

Memnon did that.

I glance up at him as we exit the room and head down a sterile hallway, my heart suddenly overfull. The sorcerer’s eyes are still glowing, and his magic is still churning.

I won’t release my power until I know you’re safe, he admits.

He must be listening to my every thought.

I am.

“Stop that,” I whisper.

He gazes down at me.Not until I know you’re safe.