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Chapter Eight

ELIAS

A tugging in Elias’ chest pulled him from sleep, and he gasped awake.

For a moment, he blinked, staring at the inside of Magnus’ tent, nearly passing out again. As he glanced around from where he was cuffed hand and foot to the X, he heard the rustling of the awakening encampment.

It was morning.

There was another tug in his chest, and he realized it was the mating bond.

Arabella.

He could sense she was moving. There was something… different about her emotions. While her fierceness shone down the bond as it always did, there was a new determination. Or perhaps it was resignation.

What are you doing, little enchantress?

There was a flash of light as the tent flap was pulled back and Flynn walked through it with Magnus a few steps behind.

Flynn stood near the entrance, his hands crossed in front of him. “Elias is ready for you, sir. He’s been teetering between passing out and going feral for hours.”

That was right. He’d nearly forgotten with the tugging on the bond.

After Flynn had sliced him open for hours, bleeding him of essence, Elias had blacked out.

Now, his stomach twisted painfully, and his fangs lengthened, puncturing his lower lip.

If he didn’t feed soon, he’d succumb to his inner demon.

What would turning fully into a demon do to Arabella and their bond? Would the mating bond snap? Or would she be plagued by his hunger, feeling it down the bond every moment until the final day of her mortal life?

Magnus didn’t come to stand before where Elias was tied.

Instead, he stood beside the table of food, popping a grape into his mouth.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have time this morning to see to our little experiments.

I’ve located where the enchantress has gone to.

The next time I see you, I suspect it will be with your mate in tow. ”

Panic surged in Elias’ veins.

How had he found her so quickly?

He couldn’t let Magnus find her. Not if she would soon share his fate. The sorcerer might want to use her shadow fae magic to create new syphens, but he wouldn’t hesitate to torture her to get what he wanted.

“Wait,” Elias said as Magnus turned toward the tent’s exit.

Elias’ mind raced as he desperately searched for something, anything, to keep Magnus from leaving.

From going after her.

Elias would do whatever he could to protect her. Even if all he could do was stall the sorcerer.

Magnus paused and turned back toward him, one eyebrow raised.

“I need…” Elias began, struggling to speak through the fear tightening his throat. “I need to feed.”

Magnus nodded as though expecting this before waving a hand to Flynn. “Bring in one of the humans?—”

“No,” Elias interrupted. “I don’t want them.” For a moment, the lie lodged in his throat. But he knew there was only one thing that would keep Magnus from leaving.

“I want you.”

Magnus’ hand was frozen mid-air, his eyebrow inching farther up his forehead. After a moment, he lowered it before turning to face Elias fully.

“So, you’ve come to your senses, then?” Magnus said. “I admit, I didn’t think it would be this soon. But…” He crossed the tent, stopping before Elias. Reaching up, Magnus ran the back of his fingers down Elias’ cheek.

It took everything in Elias not to flinch away. “Flynn was… very convincing.”

Somewhere beyond Elias’ line of sight, Flynn snorted.

Magnus’ scarlet eyes flickered between Elias’ eyes, as though searching for the truth.

Elias locked down the disgust he felt for this male behind a mental wall.

Then he pictured Arabella in his mind’s eye and allowed his longing for her to bleed through.

He let himself succumb to his desperation to be near her.

All the while, the mating bond tugged in his chest.

It was like a second heartbeat.

Slowly, Magnus nodded and waved a hand, not turning from Elias. “Flynn, there’s a small unit of erox waiting at the edge of camp. Find Enchantress Arabella and bring her to me.”

Flynn brought a fist to his chest before there was a flash of movement at the tent’s entrance, and he’d departed.

Elias’ heart dropped.

He’d prevented Magnus from leaving, but he hadn’t been able to stop them from going after Arabella.

As his mouth went dry, he tried to remind himself that Magnus was infinitely more powerful than the regular erox.

He was both a sorcerer and an erox while the erox in his army were limited to their demon abilities and any special powers they had.

It was better that the soldiers were the ones to go.

This way, Arabella and whoever she was with had a chance of getting away.

Magnus leaned forward. His amber and woody scent washed over Elias, making his stomach twist. This only served to worsen the hunger gnawing at his gut.

Elias’ canines pressed deeper into his lip, and he tasted blood.

“You need me?” Magnus’ hand moved to the back of Elias’ head, his fingers gripping on to his hair and pulling .

Elias gritted his teeth at the pain and nodded.

Not only was Magnus the only erox who could feed on other erox, he could also give the essence within him to another erox. It wasn’t just that erox could feed on him, but that he could give them essence.

It was something he’d tried to do with Elias all those years ago.

And Elias had refused.

Which was why he knew this was the one thing that would keep Magnus by his side—and away from Arabella.

“Then what are you waiting for?” Magnus asked, his lips a mere breath away.

Swallowing back bile, Elias leaned forward and kissed Magnus. His fangs brushed against the sorcerer’s lips, and he traced his tongue over Magnus’ lower lip, which earned him a smile.

Gripping Elias’ hair tighter, Magnus deepened the kiss. As Magnus’ tongue swept into Elias’ mouth, the metallic taste of blood filled his senses.

His fangs had split one of Magnus’ lips.

Instantly, heat swept over Elias’ gaze as his pupils swelled, his eyes going fully black. Thick, heady lust and a need to feed swirled in his gut.

Fuck, he wasn’t going to be able to hold back.

“For you, my prodigy,” Magnus purred before a light crested in his throat. Elias’ eyes fixed on the path of Magnus’ scarlet essence as it flowed up the sorcerer’s chest and into his mouth.

Then Elias’ restraint slipped between his fingers like ground glass.

With a moan, he pressed back into Magnus’ touch, into his kiss, as he feasted on the sorcerer’s essence. Time lost all meaning as he drank deeply, pulling mouthful after mouthful into him.

Distantly, he became aware of the sorcerer reaching between them. But he was so swept up in the feeding that he didn’t fully comprehend what was happening until warmth splashed against his stomach.

With a gasp, Elias pulled away from Magnus.

The first thing his mind registered was Magnus’ swollen lips. Then he glanced down to the space between Elias’ naked body and Magnus’ mostly clothed one.

To where Magnus had freed his cock, fisting it.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for that,” Magnus purred, tucking his cock back into his pants before pressing a final kiss to Elias’ lips.

Shame welled up within Elias as he stood there, unable to move, to fight, to clean himself.

Then Magnus reached into his cloak, removing a blade.

“For your good behavior,” Magnus began. “You have earned some time to rest.”

Something sharp sliced into Elias’ mind.

“You’re to remain in this tent until I return,” Magnus said as he filtered his magic into the syphen. “Do not even consider fleeing, fighting, or using your magic. Self-harm is prohibited.”

Elias grunted as the syphen’s magic descended on him, layering over his mind, his thoughts, until the commands settled in place.

Then his cuffs unlocked.

Unable to hold himself up, Elias fell to the ground. Blood rushed back into his arms, and it felt like needles pricked along every inch of his skin.

But just as he couldn’t bring himself to raise his arms, neither could he bring himself to feel relief as Magnus mussed Elias’ hair before striding from the tent.

Leaving Elias alone with the memory of what they’d just done.