Tell him I’m about to be blood bound to a vicious, fae-eating book? But that first, he’s going to see me torn down to the weakest, most vulnerable version of myself?
I’ve never wanted to do anythingless.
“Raeve’s afraid of you seeing her in such a vulnerable sta—”
I clap my spare hand over Ahvi’s mouth. “You little traitor.”
A slit of pain hacks through my chest. Like Sereme just took a blade, stuffed it between my ribs, and dragged it sideways—straight into my Creators-damn heart.
The bitch.
My body becomes one big plucked nerve, squirming into an agonized knot like a stabbed serpent.
My pulse is a drum pounding in my ears. So hard and fast I barely hear a sound beyond the violentTHUD-UMP–THUD-UMP–THUD-UMP.But I see Kaan’s mouth move as my shoulder strikes the ground. Read the words that bludgeon past his lips as he crouches behind Ahvi, helping to unlatch my spasming hand from around the poor kid’s wrist.
“DO IT! NOW!”
I’m still coiled in agony as Ahvi looks at me through wide eyes, mouths the words “I’m so sorry,” then dips his finger in my blood and slashes a ruddy line on the stone.
Completing the final rune.
The runes ignite.
I tear my hands through my hair, heart rupturing at the sight of Raeve drenched in the silver light oozing from the active runes, clawing at her chest like she’s trying to peel back her skin and rip out bits of herself.
Ahvi shuffles back and hugs his knees, eyes wet and wide. “I’m so sorry,” he repeats, rocking, peering at Raeve knotted on the ground.
“Not your—fault,”she bites out between full-body convulsions, each teeth-gritted jolt a storm striking me in the sternum with a rage of lightning bolts.
She finally loosens.
Chest heaving, she begins to untangle from the knot of her twisted limbs. “Count your … daes, you … serpentbitch,” she mutters, then plants her hands on the ground and shoves up, all the softness ripped from her face, replaced with a mask of cold, deadly rage.
She clears her throat, swiping the dirt from her cloak as she straightens, squares her shoulders, then slits her gaze at the ring of runes casting her face in a silver sheen. “It’s not working.” She cracks her neck one way. The other. “I don’t feel anything.”
“You will …”
Ahvi’s soft words echo through the tunnel like a haunt.
Tense silence slips by while we wait.
I hunt every movement; note every blink, every lip twitch, every breath of motion, finding nothing out of the ordinary while she crosses her arms and taps her foot on the ground.
I frown, still watching Raeve as I turn my head in Ahvi’s direction. “Are you sure—”
Raeve’s breath hitches. She squeezes her eyes shut and drops her chin to her chest, the fall of her loose hair hiding most of her face.
With a snarl, she snaps up her hood and whips around, giving me herback. And though the action is swift, something about her hands needles me. Like they’re not hers at all, but akin to spindly branches clawing at the mist.
Skeletal.
Ahvi meets my gaze. The briefest glance, but all the confirmation I need that I’m not going mad.
Jaw clenched, I charge forward, circling Raeve in the effort to look her in the eyes again. But with each step I take, she turns a little more, keeping her face shielded from my sight.
“Raeve.”
“Sire.”
