Page 39 of Claim Me

Stall them,Issy demands.

I… I can’t.My lips try to move but I’m rendered speechless by the sight before me. Unraveled by Klas on his knees. Terrified of the axe in Kaspian’s hand. Suffocated by the lack of oxygen in the room.

Fallon!Issy snaps.Pull it together.

I try. I do. I just… I can barely focus on anything other than the glint of metal. The knowing look in Klas’s gaze as he stares me down in anticipation. It’s like he’s woven a spell around my spirit, forcing one last act of submission out of me despite my desire to rebel.

Something isn’t right. He’s… he’s done something…

Tied me up with a leash.

Bound me to his fate.

I can feel it wrapped around me, the sensation slithering like invisible snakes, hissing and biting at each of my urges to move. To scream. To cry!

Issy starts speaking again, her tone urgent, but I barely hear her. Everything is going dark. Except that metallic edge. The instrument that’ll destroy both me and my forced mate.

I part my lips, a plea caught in my throat.

This isn’t me. I obey no one. I choose my fate. I’m the master of my own destiny!

I writhe beneath the spell, my soul screaming at the injustice of being tied down.

“Klas, you are hereby excommunicated from the House of Gold and Garnet,” Kaspian says, his arms lifting in the air. “And your sentence is death.”

Words echo in my mind as I fight the enchantment anchoring me to this wicked soul.I reject you! I reject this! I am not yours to take into the afterlife!

Kaspian’s arm begins to move.

Downward.

Sharply.

The angle perfect.

And everything seems to still around me.

My mind. My body. Issy’s desperate screams. I’m no longer one of this plane, but of another. One I’ve only ever visited in my dreams.

Death.

A chill whirls along my spine, causing my lungs to freeze.

This is the source of my magic. My enchanted being. My home.

It’s where I draw my power. How I connect to the souls of the dead, where I lure the spirits of the living.

I close my eyes and breathe, Klas’s spell no longer holding me hostage.

I’m free.

But am I still alive? Is this where he intends to find me? To own me? To claim me for eternity?

No.

I refuse.

He has no right to my soul. Only death can truly claim me, yet all I feel here is empowered. Renewed.Alive.