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Her palm was warm against his skin. He focused on that connection, wanting to absorb every remaining moment he had with her.

“Watch his hands,”her voice echoed in his head.“The bigger the draw on his power, the more it fluctuates. When his palms dim, make your move.”

Liam’s breath caught. She’d spoken to him through a telepathic link. Opened herself to him, connecting them as true mates.“What are you talking about?”

“I love you, Liam. Remember, you’re my origin. My anchor.”

She raised the dagger high over her head. He sucked a breath, bracing for the moment the blade would pierce his heart.“Love you, Viv.”

Down her arms came. Though Liam tried not to, he flinched, squeezing his eyes closed.

He registered the sickening sound of metal striking flesh, and yet he felt nothing. He cracked his eyes open and belted out a shout of denial.

The dagger’s hilt protruded from Vivian’s chest. Blood trickled from the wound. Crimson against the pristine white of her gown.

His mind threatened to fracture at the sight. “Vivian. What? No,” he bellowed.

She met his gaze for one long second. Everything they’d yet to say to each other and never would was written in her eyes. Then the light faded from their golden depths, and she collapsed.

Twenty-Six

“The fuck?Vivian. No! What did you do?” Liam wrenched his shoulders up from the slab, pulling at his chains. His Bride was dead. Ice sliced through his veins. Shredded his heart, slashing, rending.

Alistair stared down at Vivian’s crumpled form, showing little emotion. “It didn’t have to be this way.” He scooped her from the floor and carried her to his work table, placing her beside his many black journals. The stone set in the hilt of the soul sword glowed with an ominous light.

Alistair grasped the dagger. “You made your choice.” Rather than pull it free, he drove it deeper.

“No!” Liam choked out a spine-wrenching sob, the sound emerging from the deepest part of his being.

The mage’s hands glowed, Vivian’s body arched, and the stone pulsed. Something dark and greedy pulled at the very depths of Liam’s psyche. Vivian’s bond. Alister was stealing her soul. Dark forces ripped her away from Liam, tearing at their bond.

No! You can’t have her!With every fiber of his being, he tried to hold onto their connection. Still, he sensed her slipping through his fingers like smoke. The loss stabbed through him, slicing flesh and bone. Carving away his humanity. Carving out pieces that could never be replaced. Leaving him so empty he knew he’d never be whole again.

“At last, it’s done,” Alistair said, drawing the dagger from her chest, holding it with far more reverence than he’d ever shown the woman he claimed to love. “I’d always suspected Vivian’s soul would be the perfect complement to my creation.” He cast a triumphant grin in Liam’s direction. “It’s what drew me to her in the first place. All that vibrant energy. When we met, she was so full of life, so beautiful. I knew I had to have her. I stole her right out from under you. Me. What did you call me? Ah yes. A weaselly little bastard. The other mage used to call me names as well. See, I was weaker than they were. But no longer.”

Vivian’s lifeless body lay on the work table, unmoving.Gone, she was gone.

An inferno of pain tore Liam’s insides apart. Fangs thick behind his lips, mind reeling, more animal than man, he snarled, “I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you.”

“Now, now,” Alistair admonished as though he corrected a child. “No need for theatrics. This ismymoment, after all, not yours.” He rubbed his chin. “Although, perhaps I’ll keep you around a bit. Add you to my army of the dead. I could use a good slave to muck out the hellhounds’ cages.”

He positioned himself in the middle of the room. “It’s time I reaped the reward for all I’ve sacrificed. One last incantation will see my life’s work complete.” Dagger clasped in his hand, he thrust his arms toward the sky. Lighting crackled overhead, and the ground quaked. Glowing cracks opened in the ground, the mansions ley lines lighting up beneath the mage’s feet.Alistair siphoned energy from them as though he’d stuck his dick in a light socket. Strange words parted the mage’s lips. He stared up at the stars, face rapturous, chanting.

Liam’s skin prickled. Electricity snapped, and the pungent scent of ozone filled the air. Bright light glowed in the mage’s palms.

Watch his hands,Vivian had said.The bigger the draw on his power, the more it fluctuates. When his palms dim, make your move.

Alistair was sucking that shit down, all right. Who was Liam to deny Mistress Vivian’s final order? If that’s what she wanted, then that’s what he would do. Liam was going to take this bastard down.

He focused on the mage’s glowing palms, eyes watering, retinas burning. Alistair’s arms shook from the strain, his lean body quivering. Piercing blue lights lasered from the male’s fingertips, flashing as though out of control, then sputtered.Wait for it. Liam held his breath. Sputter, sputter…sputter. Out.

Liam’s glowing shackles went dark.Now!

He gritted his teeth and pulled with everything he had, wrenching his arms down. He’d either break free or rip his hands off. Metal sliced deep into the thick scars on his wrists. The cuffs snapped. He made quick work of the chains on his ankles, then launched off the slab.

While Alister’s super-charged hands might have faltered, the bastard was still juiced. Energy radiated off the mage, prickling Liam’s skin. No way he could touch him directly.Time to improvise. As Liam grabbed a seven-foot length of copper pipe, Alister caught sight of him.

“You!” The mage turned and lowered his arms. Energy gathered in his palms, glowing brighter by the second. The menace in his expression warned it would be a kill shot.