Page 127 of Claim Me

However, the scene before me is anything but.

“Issy…”

I cast another flare of light, sending it to the machine pumping air into my twin. It’s archaic-looking. But it seems to be keeping my sister alive.

There are tubes going into her mouth and down her throat, the image grotesque and making my stomach twist. “What have they done to you?”

It’s so wrong.

Sohorrible.

I’m going to destroy all of them,I tell her through our broken bond.All. Of. Them.

I place my hand on her chest, right over her heart, and flinch at her frozen frame. She resembles an ice cube.

“How long have you been in here?” I wonder before casting more light spells, causing over a dozen flickers to flutter around the small freezer space.

This spell would have exhausted me mere hours ago, especially having uttered it so many times. But I feel perfectly normal now. Those little lights are fresh from the death plane, the twinkles reminding me of stars. I cast them all around Issy, needing to see what they’ve done.

She has an intravenous line inserted into her arm, the plastic tubing connected to a half-full bag of saline liquid. Otherwise, apart from the machine and her nearly frozen state, she appears to be mostly untouched.

She’s wearing a pair of jeans and a sweater, just like she normally would. Her blonde hair is a little longer than the last time I saw it. And she’s lost weight over the last few years, too. Although, she’s always been more slender than me. I’m the curvy one. She’s the taller, thinner one.

“All right,” I say to her, my gaze narrowing. “How am I going to wake you up?”

Issy is the spell master, the one who has read all the ancient death-magic texts. I’ve learned a lot from her over the years, but this is a moment where our connection would be most beneficial because she would be the one with the answers right about now.

However, that’s clearly not going to work.

I twist my lips to the side, my hand still over her heart.Can I somehow push the energy into her?I wonder. I absorbed it for her. Or that was my intention.So maybe… maybe I can… shove it into her…?

My brow furrows as I attempt to push some of the power into her chest.

Nothing happens.

You know, I really need you to magically wake up,I tell her through our shattered connection.Because I could use your advice here.

Of course, she doesn’t reply.

My jaw ticks. “It’s not like you to give up this easily,” I say conversationally. “You’re usually in my head, demanding that I fight. So how about you do the same?”

It’s a taunt, one my sister would normally rise to, but there’s nothing normal about this situation at all.

The lights in the freezer start to dim, causing me to create more.

They flutter around as I pace the freezer.

I only pause once to try to open the door. I’m not at all surprised to find it locked.A problem for after I wake up Issy,I decide.

They have her in some sort of magically induced coma, no doubt to keep her quiet.

And she’s mated now, too.

“Did yourmateput you to sleep?” I ponder aloud. Because that’s definitely something Klas would have done. A freezer isn’t all that different from being buried alive.

Nyx pulled me out of a gravesite when she found me last year. Then she used her goddess magic on me to break the obedience spell.

I don’t have that kind of power.