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Do what?Apprehension flickered through the haze the sorceress had created.

When she placed her palms on my face, I flinched back, knocking my skull against the tree. At her touch, a warm tingling sensation sparked within my body.

“What are you up to, pet?” I said, attempting to hide my response.

“Runa can both project images into someone’s mind and extract them. That means we’re about to possess all your dirty little secrets,” Drazen answered.

Outrage burned across my senses, fury sharpening my fangs. I would not allow this injustice. This personal invasion. An assault on my psyche.

Sure, I’d performed a similar act not so long ago on a young faerie who had fallen into my hands. Without reservation, I’d invaded her mind to test her mettle, claiming it was to assess if she was a danger. When in reality, I’d done it to see how she could be of use to me—even knowing it was a gross abuse of my power and an immoral assault on so many levels.

Apparently, karma was no friend of mine.

“No,” I snarled. Too late.

Runa’s glowing eyes held me captive, and I was helpless to look away. In spite of my attempt to engage every mental block in my repertoire, I felt her gliding right through my barriers. The female was extraordinarily skilled. It was too bad she ran with a band of thieves.

Her presence swirled within me. Not like a gentle breeze,more like a tempest blasting through my defenses. It lit up all the nerve endings in my body, bringing me to life while sending me to my death at the same time.

In my ears, a gentle pulse pounded. My own? No. It didn’t match the panicked hammering behind my sternum. The seductive rhythm grew louder, the tempo almost hypnotic, pulling me deeper and turning me inside out. What was this madness?

Beneath my breastbone, my own heart skipped and leaped to a quicker beat as though it ran a race, eager to meet the rhythm of the one in my head.

The sorceress’s soft gasp said she’d felt it, too.

Did she attempt to enchant me only to get caught up in her own magic? It would serve her right.

Even more determined to keep her out, I clenched my jaw, reassembling the fractured walls of my barriers—and failing. Runa’s power swam through my essence, the two mixing together in perfect harmony. Then, slamming into an obstacle.

“What is this?” she whispered. Whether the words were out loud or in my mind, I couldn’t discern.

Again, she struck the barrier, causing pain to spark in my skull.

“Not possible,” she growled, and I sensed her gathering energy for another blow. To my shame, I cringed in readiness, grunting as she struck again. Again. Hammering. Failing.

Hot liquid trickled from my nose and ears. Agony stole my breath. The sorceress’s grip tightened, her hands crushing my face.

“No. More,” my garbled objection slipped past drooling lips.

Determination flooded the connection between us. Curse the woman, she readied for another attack. My brains would be little more than porridge if she didn’t stop.

“Runa! Enough!” a voice barked.

The grasping hands whipped off my face, and Runa’s cry melded with my groan of pain.

Ears ringing, I blinked, finding my attacker cradled in her partner’s granite arms.

“Are you okay?” Kronk trailed a coarse finger under her chin.

“What happened?” She peered up at him, expression dazed.

“You tell us,” Drazen demanded, crowding the pair.

Yes, I would like to know as well. The daggered glare I sent her was sharp enough to fillet her porcelain flesh from her bones.

Runa sat straighter in Kronk’s lap, pressing her palm to her forehead. “He’s bound.”

“He’s what?” the horned infernus asked, saving me from asking the same.