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I didn’t waste any time answering him.Instead, I rushed to Saint, whose eyes were glowing again and who was clearly right on the edge of Shifting.Pushing my bleeding thumb between his lips, I recited rapidly,

“Blood of my Blood and Breath of my Breath!Nothing can part us now except Death!”

At once, I felt the Blood-Bonding—which had only been partial before—take hold completely.Saint must have felt it too, because his eyes stopped glowing and he gathered me to him in a hard, almost desperate hug.

“Mi Corazon!”he breathed in my ear.“I was so afraid I’d lost you!”

“You almost did—I almost lost myself, too,” I told him and realized that I was crying.“But I’m back now—we’re together and we’re never going to be parted.”

As I spoke, I felt the false memories peeling away, sloughing off the surface of my mind like dry, dead skin.

My father must have felt his spell go too, because I heard him howl in rage behind me.

“No!No!”

Turning in Saint’s arms, I saw him pointing a trembling finger at me.

“You’re going to be sorry for this, Avery!I’m cutting you off!”he growled.“No more tuition—no more car.Why couldn’t you just let yourself benormal?”

“Iamnormal,” I said coldly, putting my arm around Saint.“I don’t need your approvaloryour money.”

Though to be honest, I had no idea how I was going to continue at Nocturne without him paying the tuition.But if I had to, I’d graduate early and go somewhere else, I told myself.Somewhere Saint and I could be together without anyone pointing fingers or being ugly to us.Somehow, we would make it work.

My father shook his head in disgust.He pointed at Megan.

“I know you’re the one who started this, Latimer!”he snarled at her.“You’re going to be in trouble—allof you!”He glared at all of my coven mates, even little Jalli, who shrank back from his angry stare.

Then, without another word, he turned and walked away from us, stalking away from the athletic field and from Nocturne Academy for what I hoped would be the last time.

I turned to Saint and he gave me a troubled look.

“Your father could cause trouble for us, couldn’t he?”he asked.

I shrugged stoically.

“He can try.But he can’t do anything about the fact that we’re Blood-Bonded now,” I pointed out.

“Dios.”He ran a hand through his hair and a look of wonder took the place of his anxious frown.“I can’t believe I’m Blood-Bonded to another male!”

“Not just any male—yourl’lorna,”I reminded him.I frowned.“Er, so I guess taking the curse off your Drakedidn’tmake him straight?”

“Not in the least.”Saint let out a shaky laugh.“In fact, he is begging to come out and cuddle you now.”

“Can he wait for a minute?”Megan asked.She and Kaitlyn and Emma had come to surround us.“I want a hug first—okay?”she asked Saint.

He nodded graciously and stepped aside.

“Now that he knows Avery is in no danger, he says that he can wait for cuddles.”

I smiled at him and then sighed happily as my coven mates surrounded me in a four-way hug.

“Oh Avery, please tell us you’re really all the way back!”Kaitlyn said, looking at me anxiously.

“Yeah—because straight Avery was a realjerk,”Emma put in.

“I’m sorry, but he really was,” Megan said, nodding.

I had vague memories of saying awful things to them that made me blush.