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It didn’t seem like long before I was tossed not-so-gently onto a hard, flat surface. I’d landed on my elbow, and I curled inward, crying out, as the movement caused my shoulder to spasm. Hands pulled at me, grasping at my arms as the bag was removed from my head, briefly catching on the hairpin.

As my vision cleared, shadows began to take shape. Candles scattered throughout the sterile-looking space lit the room. Finn was grumbling something to my left, and he spat at the witch who’d manhandled him to his knees.

I scanned the rest of the room. I was on a knotted, wooden table. To my right was a slab countertop, and across the room, near the head of the table, was an open-faced fireplace. A large iron cauldron hung above the fire. It was bubbling over with a red boiling liquid, and my skin crawled.

I had no time to guess what the contents might be before four men in tan robes, carrying belts, moved beside me.

“What...” I began, and Finn made a sound of alarm, but they were quick. Before I could even sit up, my legs were strapped down to the table. A cold sweat broke out of my forehead at the feel of their fingers, and my helplessness grew as they spoke.

Why were they tying me down?

Their faces were shadowed, and I had no idea what they were saying. I craned my neck and looked above the head of the table at Daniel—the only one who hadn’t pulled up his hood.

“We—” I began, swallowing my panic as I touched my bound wrists to my chin. “We had a deal! I wasn’t going to fight.” How could he be so untrustworthy?

Although, to be fair, he was a cannibal, so his word probably didn’t count for much.

“It’s insurance,” Daniel responded before pulling his hood over his head. His words were muffled, and my stomach sank.

Finn said something as another belt was wrapped around my shoulders, and I was further tied to the table, but I couldn’t make it out.

I’d been resolved, but now I couldn’t pretend anymore. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to get hurt. I was a giant baby, and this was a scenario out of my worst nightmare. And now, without being able to read their lips, I couldn’t communicate.

I… I couldn’t even move.

“No!” I was able to force the word through my numb lips as a line of sweat dripped from my brow. My body refused to respond to my commands, but I had to try.

Maybe I could give them something else.

I went to speak again, but this time Daniel placed his hand over my mouth.

I could finally see his face through the shadows and flickering lights.

His brow was wrinkled in worry, and his lips twisted in contemplation.

“She’s panicking already,” he said, glancing at the others.

“Give me something to gag her with—I wouldn’t even trust the promise of a fae in something like this. ”

The roaring sound of Finn’s obscenities echoed through the room as Daniel—so quickly I could hardly protest—shoved the gag in my mouth.

Speech was my last resort—the only way I could protest—and I squeezed my eyes shut as it was ripped away.

I hadn’t expected them to tie me down. Now I had only one chance. I could only hope that Finn had been incorrect in his assumption about the spell’s success.

My attention wandered in my panic, and as a butcher top island was wheeled into view beside me, I couldn’t look away from the display of various cutlery.

My heart raced and dots swam in my vision. It was too late. The boys weren’t going to make it in time.

I was going to die.

Rough hands grabbed at my wrists, and the manacles that’d been holding back my abilities were removed. Still, it didn’t matter. Even though the buzzing shock stopped pulsating down my arms, I couldn’t get free.

My face was wet as they pulled at my arms and tied my hands down at my side. My shoulder pounded in tandem with my heart, but I couldn’t feel anything besides the choking threatening to suffocate me.

“Bianca!” Finn’s voice broke through the haze, and I blinked at him. His eyes met mine before he turned to one of the witches at the side of the table closest to him.

“Hey, asshole.” Finn moved elegantly for someone who’d only just been tossed around. His arms were still bound behind him, his power restrained, but it didn’t stop him from lowering his chest as his victim turned and faced him.

“Don’t forget about me,” he said and slammed his head against the hooded man.

They both fell to the ground .

There was a stunned pause as everyone stopped—their focus on the two of them. Finn sat up, shaking his head, while the witch also rose, his hood falling down his back.

“What the hell?” The chestnut-haired witch bemoaned with a grimace as he touched his head. “You’re crazy.”

“That’s right, you fucker,” Finn replied, smirking. “You’re dead.” He didn’t seem to care very much about the line of blood dripping from his own wound.

He’d been hurt.

The knot in my chest loosened slightly. I couldn’t seem to look away from it—that was, until Daniel Cole, standing at my shoulder, looked between us. I could still make out his features in the flickering lights.

“Nice try,” he told Finn. “But that’s another reason why we’ve tied her up. I don’t trust you at all.”

Finn frowned, and my heart slammed as, even though I could now pull against my restraints, I remained helpless.

“I was going to see if your brother cared about you very much, but now I have more incentive to kill you later,” Daniel replied.

“But right now, I’m busy.” He looked at the witch that Finn had attacked and, without missing a beat, the man stood, picked up the handle of what appeared to be a broken axe from a pile of rubble, and slammed it against Finn’s temple.

I screamed through the gag as Finn collapsed onto the floor. But, as pressing as the scene before me was, my fear and struggles turned inward as, before I could further protest, Daniel took a knife and sliced it down the length of my dress.

The arm air brushed across my exposed chest and navel, but—unlike his friends—Daniel did not pause to gawk at the mark on my breast. My attention was captured by the gnarly knife in his hands, and my pulse roared as he grabbed my chin.

No .

My thoughts protested, screaming, as my vision whirled through the room. Finn was unconscious and would probably die. Although, maybe not, because Damen was surely on his way. He’d be here any second, right?

Hopefully, he’d be able to save his brother.

It would be too late for me.

A foreboding weight began to fill the room, and my skin prickled from the feel of the magic pressing in around me. The witches were speaking—chanting—but the words were unfamiliar and distant.

Help wasn’t coming. I was going to be eaten.

I hated being right all the time.

The support under my head vanished, and my chin was released as Daniel’s touch moved to the back of my skull.

Despite everything, my hairstyle had remained undisturbed, and when Daniel twisted his fingers into my braid, my hair was pulled painfully in his hold. I twisted, shaking my head as I sought to protect myself.

Suddenly, Daniel’s chanting ended in a curse, and a section of my hair ripped as he snatched his hand back.

He was holding the hairpin that Titus had given me.

“What’s this?” he asked, turning his attention to one of the witches. He tossed the hairpin aside as he lectured, “I told you to burn everything! Your incompetence could have ruined the whole ritual!”

His grip returned a second later, and my view shifted, turning upside down. A stinging pain ran across the skin of my neck, but that no longer mattered.

Because there was only one thing I could focus on.

The bright orange flames within the hearth taunted me. I couldn’t tear my eyes from the spot where Daniel had so nonchalantly thrown Titus’s gift .

My thoughts were heavy with dismay. Thanks to Finn’s actions, I could fight again. I didn’t understand what had happened entirely, and it was strange that this—out of everything—would be my breaking point, but still…

That was my precious gift. It had belonged to Titus’s mother, and now it had been destroyed.

He was going to be so upset.

Anger pushed away my shock, taking control of my thoughts and erasing my pain. How dare they hurt someone that I’d claimed. How dare they ruin my possessions.

Inside, a comforting, old feeling began to well in my chest before flooding through me. I’d felt like this only once before—when I’d come upon Professor Hamway’s house in a dream and helped Rosalie escape.

I welcomed the ancient fury and let it flow through me. My chest heaved, but this time, it was no longer from fear.

The candlelight flickered ominously, and a ripple moved through the air. Exclamations of worry and alarm sounded throughout the room.

I wasn’t scared anymore. And that’s when everything changed.

One instant, I was on the table. The next, I was on the floor.

I blinked up at the bottom of the table as a shout rang through the room. Two witches staggered backward, looking around before one spotted me and pointed in my direction.

My vision flashed, and my body no longer felt like my own. Pain could not touch me nor hinder my movements when I ripped out the gag and rolled onto my hands and knees. The witch who’d pointed at me stepped away and crossed his arms before him—he stared at me with an expression of abject horror.

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” he said, the cloth falling away from his face as he stumbled back. “No one said she could blink! ”

Daniel dropped the blood-lined knife, ripped down his cap, and began to fumble around in his clothes. “Stop panicking and catch her!”

My movements were effortlessly smooth as my mind drifted between awareness and dreams, and nothing fully registered. My perception of the room was changing constantly. One moment, I stood in one corner, and the next second, I was in the other.

The colors faded into monochrome. There were only two things I knew for certain: I was trapped with people who wanted to kill me, and I had no choice but to defend myself.