Page 14 of The Demon’s Sinful Serenade (Silvermist Mates #6)

"When I squeezed Poppy's throat," Julian continued, "River's horror was exquisite. Like drowning in ice water. So much guilt. So much fear." He tilted River's head. "Want to know what she feels when she looks at you?"

"Shut up," I growled. The temperature in the shed spiked, my control slipping.

"Or what?" Julian sneered. "You'll burn her to get to me? We've already established you won't hurt this body."

Behind him, Poppy's eyes darted to the bracelet in her hand, then to a spool of twine on a nearby shelf. She rolled her fingers over one another as a signal to keep Julian talking.

"You won't win this," I taunted. I had no idea what the witch planned, but running my mouth? That I could do. "You're nothing but a parasite feeding off someone else's life."

"Better a parasite than whatever you are. Did you think she could ever love you? Look at you." Julian laughed, and the sound was so wrong coming from River's lips that my stomach turned. "Red skin, horns, a fucking tail. You're a creature playing at being a man."

I forced myself to smile through the pain of his words as Poppy inched toward the shelf. "At least I'm alive. What are you but a memory too pathetic to fade away gracefully?"

Julian's eyes narrowed, and I saw the moment my barb struck home. "She owes me," he hissed. "Her body. Her future. It should be mine!"

"Is that what this is about?" I asked, taking a careful step forward as Poppy unwound a length of twine, her lips forming silent words.

"Revenge because River wouldn't enable your addiction?

" Another step, and Poppy looped the twine around the bracelet.

"Because she put her foot down and demanded you get help? "

Julian's face—River's—contorted with rage. "She betrayed me!"

"She tried to save you," I shot back, close enough now that I could see the faint shimmer of something dark swirling behind River's eyes. "And you were too selfish to let her."

Another loop of twine, another incantation just audible enough to catch fragments about binding and vessels.

"Enough!" Julian screamed, lunging toward me.

But the lunge never completed. Julian froze mid-step, confusion flashing across River's features. He tried to move forward again, straining against invisible chains.

Poppy stepped forward, the twine-wrapped bracelet glowing faintly in her palm. Her voice rang clear through the small space as she began circling Julian.

"I bind you, Julian, from doing harm against yourself and harm against others," she intoned, making a complete circle around River's frozen form. "I bind you, Julian, from claiming a vessel that is not yours."

Julian thrashed within his invisible prison, River's mouth contorting in a snarl. "You think your kitchen magic can hold me?" he spat, eyes darting wildly between Poppy and me.

"I bind you, Julian, from doing harm against yourself and harm against others." The bracelet's glow intensified as she completed another circuit. "I bind you, Julian, from claiming a vessel that is not yours."

River's body convulsed, her back arching as Julian fought against the binding spell. A sound emerged from her throat, half-scream and half-inhuman shriek, as darkness seeped from her pores like ink bleeding through paper.

"Release what you've taken," Poppy commanded, her voice steady and firm.

River collapsed to her knees, gasping and choking as the shadows coalesced on the ground. Tendrils bled into one another, growing and striking and hunting . One wrapped around River's wrist, another going straight for her mouth.

Her eyes flew open, and for a moment, just a moment, I saw her looking back at me.

"He's too strong!" River cried, slapping away a tendril slithering for her throat. "He's trying to get back in!"

The shadowy mass surged and piled higher and higher. Light disappeared under the dome of midnight, and darkness pressed down on us with suffocating weight.

"You can't have her," I snarled.

Fire erupted from my hands, creating a ring of fire against the shadows.

Ifrit magic burned through my veins like molten metal, in answer to my rage, my fear, my desperation.

Flames shot higher, burned brighter, color shifting from orange to blue-white.

Every muscle in my body screamed as I channeled more power than I knew I had, blowing past limits I'd always been careful about.

But it wasn't enough. Julian's shadow self was too strong, too determined.

Your flames will burn brightest in the shadow of death.

The Prague witch's words hammered through my skull with each pounding beat of my pulse. This was what she'd seen. Not my death or River's, but this moment of shadows threatening to consume my mate, death hovering on the threshold.

I dug deeper, past what was safe, past what was sane. The heat was excruciating, burning me from the inside out, but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. Not with River's life at stake.

The shadows screamed, a sound like a thousand souls in torment, but I wasn't giving an inch. Where flames met shadow, the darkness hissed and recoiled. They curled into themselves, writhing as if in agony, and the smoky scent of rot grew stronger.

I drove the flames higher and hotter, forcing them against the dome like a second skin.

River gasped as the shadow tendrils released her, retracting into a single writhing mass above our heads.

The compressed ball of darkness twisted and contorted, shrinking smaller and smaller as my flames crushed it from all directions.

With one final surge of power, the shadow ignited from within. A blinding flash of light, a shriek that rattled the shed's metal walls, and then... nothing.

The flames died away, leaving the three of us in the suddenly dim shed. River knelt on the concrete floor, her blue curls wild around her pale face, her chest heaving with each desperate breath.

"River?" I reached for her cautiously. I needed to feel her, to confirm she was real. That she wasn't some illusion, or still played host to that dead fucker.

Clear green met my gaze. Her eyes. Hers, and hers alone.

River launched herself into my arms, her body trembling from head to foot. "He's gone," she gasped against my chest. "I can feel it. He's actually gone."

I wrapped my arms around her, and buried my face in her hair. Each inhale of rain and citrus soothed the rawest parts of my soul. She was alive. She was here. She was mine.

Poppy stepped closer, the bound bracelet still glowing faintly in her hand. River turned and drew her into a fierce hug.

"I'm so, so sorry," she choked out. "I couldn't stop him. I tried but?—"

"Shhh." Poppy pulled back, holding River at arm's length as she searched her friend's face. "It wasn't you. I know it wasn't you."

They clung to each other, tears streaming down both their faces. I sat back on my heels, the adrenaline crash leaving me hollow and shaking. Every muscle in my body ached from the magical exertion, but the pain was a small price for the overwhelming relief of seeing River free.

Through the open shed door, I could see festival attendees moving about in complete oblivion to the battle that had just occurred. Music thumped in the distance. The world had continued spinning while ours had nearly ended.

It was over. Julian was gone—hopefully for good, this time—and River was safe. My mate was safe.

The thought froze me in place. She knew now. I'd declared it in front of Julian, in front of her. There was no taking it back, no pretending it wasn't real.

River looked up from Poppy's embrace, her eyes finding mine across the small space. The look in them wasn't disgust or horror, as Julian had claimed. It was something else entirely, something that made my heart stutter in my chest.

Recognition.