Gia obeyed, dropping Aurora’s hand, and approached Franco at an unhurried pace.
No!She barely kept the scream from passing her lips. Aurora might have been freed, but Gia was as much a prisoner as she’d always been. Franco could wipe all her newfound knowledge from her brain, take her home, and she’d never know any of this had happened.
Her magic thrashed inside her, and she could hardly think. She should have seen this coming, but Franco had appeared out of nowhere. She was supposed to have time to prepare for this confrontation, time to ask how to combat hypnosis.
She reached for Aurora. Not with a hand—she couldn’t control her body—but with her magic.
Help.
Aurora’s power responded, wrapping around Gia in a feeling more secure than anything she could remember.
“Call on your power and repeat after me.” Franco sounded bored as he began the spell for an explosion.
Gia’s heart skipped. Aurora was following too closely behind her. An explosive spell would kill her.
Gia’s lips moved, and she was powerless to stop them. She longed to scream. To say anything other than the spell that would hurt the woman she was growing to love.
The last word of the spell tasted like acid, and Gia braced herself.
Nothing happened.
But she’d said the words. Why hadn’t her magic responded? She’d called on it—she’d been forced to—but, she now realized, it hadn’t come as requested.
“What the Devil?” Franco yelled, rushing forward and grabbing her arm. His eyes flared brighter. “Call on your magic and hand over control. Allow me to wield it. Speak as I speak. Act as if we are one.”
Gia’s head swam with the commands. She called on her power, but Aurora held it hostage. The tight squeeze wasunmistakable now. It constricted, keeping her magic grounded. Keeping it from Franco.
She’d given Aurora permission to channel her, and it seemed her hold was more powerful than anything Franco could command.
“You can’t have her.” Aurora’s voice was calm and threatening.
“Witch,” Franco snarled, spit flying. “Salvator, kill her.”
Before anyone could move, the men were blasted backward.
Gia wanted nothing more than to tear her gaze away from Franco’s glowing eyes and see what Aurora was doing behind her, but she couldn’t.
Franco growled and shook Gia violently. “Damn you! Why isn’t this working?” He fixated on something behind her. “Look at me, witch.”
“Make me, vamp,” Aurora spat.
“Gia, stun her,” he commanded.
The words passed Gia’s lips, her arm reaching for Aurora as if it were someone else’s, but her magic was locked down, and the spell came to nothing.
Franco roared, his fangs descending as his grip on her tightened past bruising to near bone-shattering.
“Let her go!” Aurora shouted. “Walk away, and maybe I won’t kill you.”
“Kill me?” Franco scoffed. “You can’t kill me.”
Aurora clutched the back of Gia’s neck, her palm growing hot at the contact. “I can, and I will,” she snarled. “Now, let Gia go.”
Gia’s magic surged, escaping Aurora’s tight hold to flow through her once more. Had Aurora’s concentration broken? Gia’s heart thundered, sweat breaking out on her brow. She didn’t want control of her magic. Aurora had to keep it safe.
Franco’s hypnotic link to her flared, and her magic latched onto it. Franco’s face twisted in pain, and he screamed.
Gia stared in shock.
