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He slices open his hand and the blood flows from his palm like a scarlet ribbon.

“My blood magic against your sorcery,” he adds.

I use my own blade to carve a rune into my wrist. A magenta flame crawls up my fingers, reaching for the ribbon of blood. “I accept your challenge. If you lose, then you must submit to me. If I lose, then you go free. Forever. My magic will never have a hold on you again.”

“I accept the terms,” he says with a nod.

Our magic weaves together, forging a mystical contract bound more by the fabric of the universe than our words. A vibrant glow envelops us, swelling until Theren gasps for breath. I hold back a bit longer, waiting for the sensation to become unbearable before I breathe in. Then, I spin on my heels and transport myself onto the frozen lake.

Theren steps out the door and smirks. “You will learn to regret your decision to enslave me, Morrigan.” He squeezes his hand into a fist, causing blood to drip into the snow in a beautifully macabre scene. The blood begins to swirl, forming agolden staff with a blade at the hilt and a luminous ruby that vibrates with dark magic.

Recognizing the weapon, I take a subconscious step back. “How is it possible? Only the strongest mages can wield the Staff of Scorn.”

“You answered your own question,” he sneers. “There are no mages who can match my power. The staff came to me in a time when I feared mirrors the most. While the glass can betray me, toy with my mind,bloodis the purest element. So I mastered it in secret, and now it will help me defeat you.”

Fear cloying at my insides, I spin the blade in my hand and hold it out in front of me. Magic courses through my bones, pulling strength from the talisman. This fight... it will take everything out of me.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance, Theren. You’ve proven to be a bigger problem than you ever were a help.”

“You know what they say about hindsight,” he answers with a shrug.

His casual attitude vexes me and I feel my eyes narrow. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make sure you watch Eilish gasp for breath as I kill her with unhindered joy!”

Theren releases a bloodthirsty roar and races toward me. His red floods the whites of his golden eyes and dark veins crawl up his neck. He slides to a stop, using the momentum to hurl a vicious spell at me. I summon a shield and block the ball of roiling energy. The impact causes my arms to burn.

He’s right—he’s powerful.

He doesn’t hesitate to fire one spell after another in a hellstorm of magic. I struggle to catch them all. One grazes my arm, tearing through my flesh like the claws of a beast.

My visions shifts and I see Theren’s aura. It bursts with flames like a phoenix of vengeance and I know the odds aren’t in my favor. I press my hands together, palms flat, and pull themapart. Lightning crackles, growing stronger as I allow it to build before I channel it through my blade and slice the blade toward him. Theren goes flying, but he stabs his staff into the ice and uses it to slow himself.

The ice begins to shift and crack beneath our feet. I jump into the air, hovering above the trees that surround us, and scream. Shockwaves boom toward Theren, but he deflects them with a wall of ice. The scream bounces off the surface of the ice and ricochets back at me.

He stands and walks toward me atop the frigid waters. “You can always submit, Morrigan. Let’s not drag this out any longer than we must.”

“I won’t give up.”

“No, but youwillrun out of power in that talisman of yours before I run out of blood.”

***

THEREN

Delendren Glade

Morrigan crouches in the snow beside the fractured lake. Her lips are tinged with blue and the long strands of her ebony hair are whitened with frost as the day grows colder. Puffs of steam flow from her barely parted lips as she glares up at me. She’s beautiful in her own right, but the Midnight Queen’s beauty can’t compare to Eilish’s.

I watch as Morrigan wobbles to her feet, the blade in her hand a reminder of her treachery.

“Broken Theren,” she wheezes. “What would your father say if he saw you now? Would he be proud that you’ve toed the line he once straddled?”

“Elioth was a poor excuse for a father. And I don’t give a fuck what he’d think.”

“But you’re aware he’s alive?”

“I don’t care.”

“You should,” she answers with a serpent’s smile. “He waits in the depths of the abyss for the one who sent him there,” she taunts. “If Abedon releases him, then they’ll be unstoppable. There won’t be anything to keep them from taking your little angelic whore. They’ll use her and defile her as they strip away her magic, little by little. And then they’ll burn this world and the next.”