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Hadeon, Genoveva, Jessamine, and Elias watched in silence as that dark crept ever downward.

The only sound that could be heard was Magnus’ chanting, which had softened to a low rumble.

Clenching her teeth, she took several deep breaths, trying to steady her swirling vision. The flow of Magnus’ dark magic was quickly depleting her energy. It was an effort to ignore the way her slick palm slid against Magnus’ as he gripped her handtoo tightly, his attention focused wholly on the new presence whirling toward them.

Then it was a breath away, stretching out toward the knife.

The moment the energy collided with the hilt, a burst of unnatural wind swept through the throne room.

“Yes,” Magnus hissed as the energy…stuckto the blade.

Somehow, she could feel its sudden fear, how it tried to pull away, but it couldn’t separate itself from the knife.

The sorcerer’s chanting grew to a crescendo, and suddenly his voice was no longer one, but many.

The magic spinning around their bodies swept upward to meet where the dark moon’s magic was being sucked into the blade. Then all three powers moved in a combined current of magic, billowing in circles that soon became too fast for her eyes to track. As it did, she felt a tickling sensation from her ears and nose. When she brought up her free hand to swipe it, she realized it was blood.

Then the torrent began to slow as their powers flowed into the amplifier at the hilt.

In moments, the magic was sucked into the amplifier until nothing remained.

The room was utterly silent, and the dark moon’s magic had changed. No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t just magic. It was a piece of the moon, itself.

No longer did it hover in the air. Somehow, the sorcerer had trapped the magic within the blade.

Magnus released her abruptly, and she staggered backward, nearly falling on her ass. He looked up to the queen on her throne, whose eyes flashed with sudden fervor.

“Now, I shall prove to you immortality is within reach.” He turned back to Arabella. “But first…” He reached within his robes—grabbing Elias’ syphen. “Elias, restrain EnchantressArabella. If she resists or tries to break free, kill Jessamine and then yourself.”

Arabella blinked, her mind not wrapping around his words as Elias stepped between the shadows. He appeared beside her and grabbed her arms, forcing them behind her back.

“Elias—” she began but stopped as she watched in horror as Magnus pressed the tip of his new syphen to the center of Jessamine’s chest. His scarlet magic banded around Jessamine’s entire body, pinning her arms to her sides. “No! Don’t touch her?—”

Elias’ lips pressed to her ear, and Arabella thought for a moment he might speak, might say something—anything—to make this better. To make this madnessstop.

But she knew with devastating certainty that Magnus had forbidden him from speaking to her as Elias shook his head. The gesture was so faint, and she felt it in the way his cheek pressed into her hair.

Don’t, he was trying to say.

If Arabella tried to use her magic or break away, Elias would kill both Jessamine and himself. In a single instant, she’d lose both her best friend and her mate.

Tears cascaded down her cheeks as she watched Magnus hold the syphen to Jessamine’s chest, chanting once more. Blood plopped onto the floor beneath his hand, but he ignored it as a golden magic swirled from Jessamine’s chest and out her mouth.

Her magic, Arabella realized.

Somehow, Magnus had detached the earthen magic from Jessamine’s body. How was that even possible?

Jessamine snarled at Magnus as his power lifted her off the floor, making her hover in the air. She spat in his face as her magic wrapped around the syphen and filtered into the amplifier at the base of the hilt. For a moment, the black glass orb glowedgolden. Then, the sorcerer’s magic wrapped around Jessamine’s neck and pulled.

The sound of Jessamine’s neck snapping cracked across the room, echoing unnaturally loud.

A scream tore from Arabella’s throat as she felt the blossoming light of her friend’s magic—Jessamine’slife—go suddenly dark.

No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening.

Jessamine was her sister, her best friend. She couldn’t even comprehend a life without her in it—without her laugh, her sharp tongue, and her constant reassuring presence.

Arabella screamed and screamed, the shadows surging from the floor in a torrent.