Page 186 of Bedeviled

I choke as my heart seems to skip another beat. Instinctively, my magic floods down my arms and coils in my palms. I move my hands to his chest.

“I’m sorry,” I rasp out.

And then I shove all my power at him.

There’s a brief moment where relief registers on Memnon’s face. Then, violently, my magic rips him from me and catapults him clear across the forest into a nearby tree, his orbs of light following after him. There’s a horrible thump as he collides with the tree trunk, then silence.

I gasp, clutching my heart as it unsteadily regains its rhythm. I can’t seem to draw in enough air.

I roll to my side as my limbs tremble and jerk.

Too much. My body has endured too much.

I pinch my eyes shut as a sob rips from my throat.

There’s no doubt in my mind now. Eislyn must’ve captured Memnon somehow and bonded him. I don’t know what in the Seven Hells she did to his magic, but it’s effective on me again. And now she has sent him to end me.

I hold back another sob at the perverseness of the situation.

With a groan, I push myself up off the ground, then stagger to a nearby tree, one I lean heavily against.

I glance in the direction I threw Memnon. Only now, there’s no one in sight. I scan the deep shadows, certain he landed in that section of woods. But the orbs Memnon lit earlier have died out.

Which means either I gravely injured him or⁠—

A hard chest presses against my back, and Memnon’s arms close around me like a vise, one at my throat, one over my heart.

His lips skim against my ear.

“I’ne.”

Die.

CHAPTER 44

My legs fold from under me as Memnon’s power invades me, more powerful this time than even before. It slips into my nose and mouth, down my throat and into my lungs. Sinks into my skin and winds its way between my bones. I sense it close in on my fluttering, broken heart.

I jerk against my soul mate even as I feel that beating organ slow. I claw uselessly at his arms.

I cannot see him, but I can feel the wetness of his tears against me, and across our bond, I feel his acidic agony. I remember how once, on the battlefield, I had died for a time and how Memnon had done monstrous things to revive me.

If I die tonight—by his own hand, no less—Memnon will become a thing of nightmares. Of that I’m sure.

My resistance becomes sluggish.

I can hear Memnon’s voice dredged up from the past.

“… You are mine and I am yours, and those are my soul’s deepest truths … Every bit of me loves you. Even the wretched parts … A love like ours defies everything … I am yours forever …”

This is not how we end, I say weakly across our bond. We are eternal …

“It is not our end,” he agrees. “You will come back to me.” There’s a fierce, determined pitch to his words.

And then my heart stops.

BA-BUM…BA-BUM…BA-BUM⁠—

I draw in a deep, gasping breath of air. Immediately I cough, curling into a hard chest. I sense a hand pressed just over my heart.