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Then the queen turned to Magnus. “Find a way to keep my magic and grant immortality, and you have a deal. But…” She pointed to Arabella. “The shadow fae will remain in my custody. The moment you fulfill your half of the bargain, she’s all yours.”

Magnus bowed his head. “As you say. I’ll make my final preparations.” Without another word, he turned toward the door with Elias at his heels.

Arabella stood in stunned silence, her mind reeling, before her feet were moving. She pointed a finger at Hadeon and then at Jessamine. “Help her. Now.” Then she ran after the sorcerer as he strode down the long throne room toward the doors. “Wait!”

This couldn’t be happening. Not only had Magnus done unspeakable things to Jessamine, but he was taking Elias away again.

When Magnus and Elias didn’t stop, she skidded to a halt and summoned her shadows. She formed a wall of impenetrable black before the door.

Magnus turned on a heel and walked back to her, his robes trailing on the ground. Blood no longer dripped from his hand but had dried around his fingers. Elias followed at his heels, his arms crossed behind him, his eyes on the sorcerer’s back.

Look at me, she thought, not for the first time.

It was a foolish thing to wish. She knew why he wasn’t looking at her, why he was so cold, acting as though he didn’t know her.

It was the syphen. It was Magnus—all of this was his fault.

But even knowing that, her heart twisted when he didn’t meet her eyes, when she couldn’t find the reassurance in them that she sought.

Even if she could see some recognition in his eyes, that would be enough. Just to see the male she’d fallen for was still there.

He’d been so close to breaking in the dreamscape.

She longed to know that he was okay, that he was still him.

“Why?” she demanded.

As she spoke, she thought of the enchantress she’d once been—the confident woman who’d been accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed.

She needed to be that woman now.

The sorcerer stood before her, just out of arm’s reach. “You’ll have to be more specific, Enchantress.”

“For one, why Elias?” she said, grabbing hold of the anger alighting her senses and allowing it to bolster her courage.

“Why can’t you find some other twisted hobby to occupy your time?

For another…” She lowered her voice so that even the fae couldn’t pick up the next words with their hearing.

“What do you hope to gain by allying with the Twilight Court?”

The sorcerer’s face remained impassive as he said, “I was ending kingdoms long before you were born. I cannot be goaded so easily.” He glanced over his shoulder to where Elias stood. “As for your questions… All in due time.”

She crossed her arms. “You want me? Then I want answers, and I want Elias free. Otherwise, I might be tempted to trip and fall onto a blade before the queen hands me over. Then I’ll be of no use to you.”

Maybe the sorcerer needed her to make more syphens. Perhaps he wanted to kill off the last of the shadow fae still walking within the lands of the living. Or it could be something else entirely. But she made a bet it was the former, hoping she could use her life as leverage.

Jessamine came to stand beside Arabella. Her footsteps had been so quiet that Arabella had completely missed them.

Arabella’s heart twisted at everything that had been taken from her friend in a single moment. She’d been unable to protect her.

In the room behind them, there were a series of footsteps.

A glance over her shoulder revealed the fae guards had moved from their posts beneath the archways, hands on the hilts of swords.

But none drew closer. For some reason, the queen was letting them have it out in her throne room and didn’t lock Arabella away immediately.

For now, it was enough that the Twilight Court guards were staying away from her while she faced down the male who held her mate captive.

Magnus took a lazy step back until he stood beside Elias. He ran the back of a finger down the side of Elias’ face. The gesture was intimate, like one of lovers. “My prodigal son has always been unique. His power is unlike his brothers.”

She frowned.

Elias’ ability to feed off mortals and weaponize essence… That was what Magnus was after? Then she understood the implication. If all his erox could use essence as a weapon, they could take over the mortal realm, going from village to village and turning the men into erox. No one could stop them.

“What do you want with Arabella?” Jessamine demanded.

Magnus turned from Elias, who never moved, never objected to the sorcerer’s touch.

“I can only control so many erox at once with a syphen. I can make them do my bidding, true, but to give them each their own task and ensure they make each step in the way I want… Well, that requires a lot of concentration. More than I’m willing to devote.

” He took a step forward so that he whispered in Arabella’s ear—so low that she almost missed it.

“But if my erox each had syphens, they could control armies, and I could control them. I’d have legions at my fingertips. ”

“What could you possibly want armies for?” she demanded.

Slowly, the sorcerer leaned back so he could study her eyes. “Let’s just say I have some unfinished business with The Ten.”

The Ten were said to be the original sorcerers in the mortal realm. They’d been the founders of the great human cities and created so many of the technologies used there. But they’d been alive thousands of years ago. Surely, they were long dead.

Arabella frowned, shaking her head.

None of this mattered. Not right now when her mate was before her and needed her to rescue him.

Enough holding back. Enough talking.

Jessamine was safe, and if Arabella could attack before Magnus was ready, maybe she could get Elias’ syphen from him.

She lashed out with her shadows. They arced in the air toward the blade.

As the thorned vines neared the sorcerer, they crashed into a wall of power. The shadows became less corporeal, melting into mere dark smudges as they pressed against the shield the sorcerer had formed around himself and Elias.

Her heart dropped.

Even after everything she’d gone through, the sorcerer was still so much more powerful than her.

Magnus pressed the syphen to Elias’ throat. “Try that again, and I’ll slice your mate open.”