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All my angst and worry seemed to drift away, out of my muscles, out of my heart, and I relaxed for the first time in days. The blood fever felt like it had worked its way out of my system, and I slowly bathed with the soap that Anadey had left. It was a golden brown, and as I smelled it, I recognized honey and oatmeal, valerian and comfrey, lavender and newly mown grass. I lathered up and then, holding my breath and closing my eyes, slid beneath the surface, letting the water cover my head before breaking through again. I gasped, then wiped my eyes on a hand towel.
Cicely, something doesn’t feel right.
Ulean? I didn’t know you’d come with me.
I think you need to get out of here right now.
I bit my lip, wavering. What do you sense? Is there anything riding the slipstream?
A pause, then: No. But I just have an uneasy prescience about this. Please, leave. Go home.
Wondering what was up, I slowly emerged from the tub and wiped off. As I draped my pendant over my head, I began to notice that I was feeling lightheaded. I sat down on the bench to the side of the vanity and tried to collect my thoughts.
Ulean, I don’t feel well—I’m feeling woozy.
Cicely, get out of here. Now!
I stumbled up and tried to gather my clothing but kept dropping pieces. Finally, I tried to shove myself into my jeans but couldn’t manage the legs. I threw on my jacket, ignoring my bra and top, which were somewhere on the floor. As I opened the door and staggered out, Anadey was there to meet me.
“Anadey—something’s wrong. I don’t feel so good. I think I’d better go home.”
“Nothing’s wrong, Cicely. I just had to make certain you were relaxed. This is a delicate spell. Now, take off your jacket and let’s get on with the casting. We don’t have all day.”
Everything seemed terribly normal, but when I stared into Anadey’s eyes, I saw a flickering light that I didn’t like. It was the light of betrayal. I pushed past her, attempting to make my way to the door, but once again I stumbled, and this time she grabbed me by the arm and jerked me back. She was horribly strong against my drugged state.
Off balance, I crashed to the floor. The room was spinning now, and I was blinking, trying to clear my sight, which had gone blurry. “What did you do to me, Anadey? What did you put in the drink?”
She tugged my jacket off me and then, grabbing me beneath both arms, half-lifted, half-dragged me into a circle of salt and herbs that she’d laid out in the middle of the living room floor. When we reached the center, she dropped me onto the floor, then stepped out of the circle and whispered a few words.
I forced myself to my hands and knees, crawling slowly across the twisting floor, to the edge of the salt. But try as I might, I couldn’t force myself to cross the barrier. I tried to scatter the salt, but my hand met an invisible force field as it neared the edge of the circle.>“I’m sorry.” I stared at him. “There’s so much I still don’t remember, but if there’s anything I regret, it’s hurting . . . killing . . . you.”
Chatter bit his lip. “I wish I could tell you everything, but Lainule would have my head. She’s convinced you need to figure this out for yourself. But I witnessed the devastation the two of you caused in your wake. And though by then I was dead, I now know that the potion you took was created by one of the most powerful sorceresses of that time period. The effects brought you back together in this lifetime, across time and space.”
“I know that—” I started to say, but he shook his head, cutting me off.
“No, you still don’t understand. You’re bound together, and nothing but death can keep you apart. When Grieve is hungry enough for you, he’s going to tear through Myst’s guards until either he’s dead or they’re in shreds, and then he’ll come for you. If we can get him out, so much the better. Because I’ve done some research. Cicely, that potion you took? It did more than simply bind you.”
“I know—it brought us back together this time around.”
“It did more than that,” Chatter said.
A pit in my stomach opened up. How many times Grieve and I’d been together in past lives, I didn’t know and wasn’t sure if Grieve even knew. But our time together as Shy and Cherish had been strong enough to bond us forever. At the end, when we were cornered by our enemies, we’d taken a potion to bring us back together in the next life. But now something tugged at the back of my mind—something I felt I should remember.
“What did it do? Tell me.”
Chatter let out a long sigh. “When one of you dies this time, it will take the other with them. That potion bound you together forever. Not just for the next lifetime.”
“Holy crap,” Rhiannon said. “Then if we don’t rescue Grieve . . . if Myst kills him . . .”
“Myst will also kill Cicely. That’s why Cicely took on Grieve’s scars from the whip. And if she’s terribly hurt, he’ll be the one to bear her pain.” Chatter looked unhappy. “When Grieve first told me—as Shy—that he intended to have the potion made, I tried to stop him. I tried to persuade Grieve not to go through with it, but he wouldn’t listen. He was blinded by the venom of your bite.”
I stared at him, breathing hard. No . . . no . . . I couldn’t have enchanted him. “We loved each other,” I said, hoarsely.
“Yes, you did, just like you love him now. And I’m surprised you’re keeping it together so well this time. But Kaylin was right—you’re sucked in by the intoxication; you can’t help it, just like he couldn’t help it. Another few bites and your common sense may flee.”
That scared the hell out of me. I exhaled and slumped back into the chair. “How do I keep my head clear? What should I do?”
“We can try some sort of counterenchantment.” Kaylin shrugged. “There are some powerful spells that might counter the venom’s effect without breaking your connection to Grieve. Leo was talking about the idea earlier to me. He said that Anadey may know of a way. He asked me to bring it up, because he thought you wouldn’t listen to him if he did.”
