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He’d escaped Magnus once, and the sorcerer would ensure it never happened again.

“Took you long enough,” Flynn hissed as he pulled his fist back with a wet squelch that had Elias biting back a groan. Then in a mockingly sweet voice, he said, “Have we been too hard on you?”

“Just needed my beauty rest,” Elias said before spitting blood onto the ground. “I trust there’s a reason why you woke me?”

One of Flynn’s nostrils lifted before his fist landed beneath Elias’ chin. The spikes punctured his skin, and blood filled his mouth. He struggled for air as pain assaulted him. Though this was nothing new. Not since he’d given himself over to Magnus. But even as Flynn pulled his fist free, Elias could feel his wounds stitching back together.

As they did, a deep hunger—a never-ending desire to feed—plagued him.

But he didn’t want just anyone.

He longed for the taste of Arabella’s essence on his tongue.

Now that he’d fed on his mate, he no longer desired the taste of anyone else’s essence. Still, he was so ravenous that he might give in and feed on one of Magnus’ human prisoners if they offered one to him. Worse still, he feared he wouldn’t be able to stop feeding if he started.

“Keep mouthing off.” Flynn wiped Elias’ blood from his gloves with a cloth. “The sorcerer will just work harder to break you.”

Swallowing thickly, Elias tried to keep any emotion from showing on his face. But a fear that had been rooted deep in his chest was growing—spreading until there would soon be nothing left of him.

“Thank you, Flynn,” came a voice from the tent’s entrance. “That will be all.”

Slowly, Elias’ gaze turned upward, his eyes skirting across the large tent.

There were rugs and plush pillows on the ground along with a table filled with food and drinks. So many luxuries in an encampment deep in a demon-infested forest, far away from civilization. He looked past the ridiculous opulence to the male at the tent’s entrance. Even silhouetted as he was from the forest outside the tent, Elias knew who he was.

Magnus strode across the tent with a mere nod to Flynn.

But he didn’t have eyes for him. No, Magnus’ gaze skirted up and down the length of Elias’ naked body as Flynn saw himself out.

Robes as bright as Magnus’ scarlet eyes swept along the carpeted floor as the sorcerer came to stand before him. “Have you nothing to say?” Trailing a finger down Elias’ stomach, heswirled the blood over Elias’ now-closed wounds. “Won’t you beg for your freedom?”

“I’ve pledged myself to you,” Elias said, fixing his gaze on the tent’s entrance.

And you possess my syphen, he didn’t add.

When Arabella had fled the castle with the amplifier, she’d taken Elias’ syphen with her. The sorcerer must have gotten hold of the blade when she’d been captured.

The moment Magnus chose to wield the syphen, he could force Elias to do anything he pleased. For reasons he didn’t yet comprehend, the sorcerer hadn’t compelled him. Instead, he’d kept Elias inside his tent, cuffed hand and foot to the X.

“You know I long for your undying obedience,” Magnus purred, his finger swirling ever lower.

“You have my compliance,” Elias said, gritting his teeth. “As I promised.”

The sorcerer made a tsking sound. “One day, I’ll have your loyalty.”

Torturing hardly inspires loyalty, he thought.

Let Magnus scheme.

Arabella was safe, and her memories were returned to her. That was all that mattered.

“Perhaps you’ll have a change of heart when you hear of what I found today.” Magnus removed his finger and studied the blood on it. “That little castle of yours—the one by the lake. You didn’t tell me how… scenic it was. I can understand now why you spent so many years there.”

For a moment, all sounds in the room faded into the distance.

No, no,no. Magnus couldn’t have found the castle. Not yet. Had he taken Arabella?

Elias had been careful not to reveal anything about his home in order to protect Arabella, her friends, Breckett, andthe goblins. And he’d been lucky enough that Magnus hadn’t forced the information out of him with his syphen. But how had Magnus found it so quickly?