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I should have guessed Donika would try something like this. She was so hungry for power, so relentless. Of course, she would want to be immortal, too. No spell was too much when it came to Donika.

“What now?” Tess asked, letting Puck pull her against him. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his shoulder.

Alastir’s voice was ragged when he spoke. “Now, we test her blood… and we wait.”

I hadn’t spent any time in the laboratory during my time in Siraleth, and my only memory of it was from when I had dream walked here. From when I had pulled the grimoire out of the dream with me and brought it back to the mortal realm.

I was biting my fingernail to the point where it had started to bleed by the time Alastir had rolled up Annelise’s sleeve and taken her blood with a needle. It was exactly as one would in the mortal realm… no slice of the blade across a palm or anything like that. It all felt so… normal.

The next part… not so much. He had taken the syringe full of blood and emptied it into a beaker, setting it over a flame to the point of boiling. His hand poised over the glass—eyes closed as he spoke a murmured spell. He added ingredients for the spell to the beaker and mixed it. When he was finished, a spark of light emanated from the beaker and the flame turned off, the blood inside sitting quietly for the first time.

He inserted his pinky finger into the mixture—then put that finger in his mouth—tasting it on the tip of his tongue. His gaze was downcast, a crease forming between his brows.

“Well?” I asked, anxious to know what the spell had told us, if anything.

Alastir shook his head so slightly I could have missed it. My gaze shot to Tess across the lab table, and she gave me a half smile that never reached her eyes. Nik placed a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s as we feared. She has been marked.”

“God dammit… ”

I wanted to fling every single thing on the lab table to the floor, but I restrained myself. Barely. I leaned back against the work bench behind me, running a hand through my auburn curls and pushing it out of my face. I desperately wanted to hit something right now. My energy was swirling angrily inside of me when I felt a tug through the bond. My gaze flitted up to Nik’s, and he wore an expression I couldn’t quite read.

“Ok. We thought that might be the case. What do we do now?” Tess asked.

Always trying to be helpful. Not only was this one more thing that now stood between me and Donika, but it also made the fate of Annelise unknown.

Amiyah pushed into the room with a grim expression. She had obviously been listening at the door.

“We will do what we always do. We will find a spell to reverse it.” She answered simply. As if it were that easy.

“And if we can’t find a spell? If we run out of time? We only have a matter ofdaysleft.” I pointed out.

Amiyah nodded, as if she understood the stakes.

It was always one step forward, two steps back, and I was brimming with frustration. We didn’t have time for this.

“We havetwogrimoires at our disposal now. There has to be something in there to reverse the marking. We have Alastir, one of the most skilled Shades of our time. And we haveme. Worst-case scenario, we figure out how to transfer the mark to me instead of Annelise.”

“No.” I shook my head, my hair falling in front of my face once more. “Not an option. That’s out of the question.”

“I am more disposable than your mother.” Amiyah’s voice was soft when she spoke. She was trying to be reasonable.

“No, you aren’t. None of us are.” My voice was ragged in return.

“Diana—”

I put my hand up to stop her. “I won’t hear it. We won’t sacrifice one person for another. We will find a spell to reverse the marking, or… ”

“Or what?” Tess asked, her voice small.

I met her gaze once more from across the lab table and her eyes brimmed with fear.

“Or nothing. We will find the spell.” I practically spit out the words. “Let’s all get to work.”

I could only pray that the Mother saw fit to save my own mother. That she would show Alastir a way out of this. Donika was dark and cruel, but she had found one more way to twist the blade. If she died, we would have to kill Annelise, too, in order for her soul to truly return to the earth from which it came.

This was so fucked up.