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Zephyra smiles broadly and presses one to her cheek. She sighs and inhales deeply. “I can feel it,” she says. “The power.”
Miranda blinks slowly, then glances up at the invisible shield she’s cast around Zephyra’s territory. “You asked for them to be more powerful than the chaos spell.”
“I did.” Zephyra tweaks her index finger under Miranda’s chin. Despite the fact Miranda looks many, many years older than Zephyra, the vampire queen talks to her as if she is a child.
I have no idea how old Zephyra is.
Perhaps, to her, Miranda is a child.
A dot.
An insignificance.
“You did well.” She gestures for Miranda to hold out her hand, then presses the cuffs into them. “Now, go fasten these where they belong.”
Miranda’s eyes widen, just for a second, then she nods slowly. “Very well.”
I swallow hard. She’s approaching me and Kole.
What the fuck are those things? I ask him without speaking. Do they have spikes? Like the collar?
Kole presses his lips together. Magick. He meets my eyes. They’re imbued with magick. Strong magick. Can’t you feel it?
Miranda is in front of me now. She gestures for me to hold out my wrists.
“What are they for?”
“They will stop you from using your powers. The chaos spell I laced into Zephyra’s shield is powerful, but spread across such a wide area, it’s not as effective as she’d like. Condensed into these, it’ll make your gifts even more unpredictable.” She meets my eyes and stares into them. I’m unable to look away and she holds my gaze as she says, “They will not behave as you expect them to. Remember that.”
She sighs heavily and closes her eyes as she wraps the cuffs around my wrists. At first, they feel like nothing at all. But then Miranda waves her hand over them and mutters under her breath, they tighten.
There is a fizzing sensation in the space between the leather and my skin, then a jolt of pain ricochets down my arm. I scream and jerk backward, shaking my hands as if I might be able to fling the manacles free. The pain burns. It is blinding. I can barely breathe.
Tanner cries out too. He can feel me, and perhaps the chaos spell is affecting his empathy as much as his water magick, because he doesn’t seem to be able to shut it off.
Kole looks at Tanner, then at me. Torn. Unsure who hurts more. But then it’s his turn.
His scream is more of a growl. Anguish laced with rage.
I splay out my fingers and stare down at the leather.
It still burns, like scalding water dripping onto tissue paper skin.
Miranda turns away and walks back into the shadows.
Zephyra watches her leave, then spins on her heels and shouts. “Bring them. They are harmless now.”
2
ZEPHYRA
“What the fuck is this place?” Kole growls at me as I usher him inside our new and improved nest.
Kole. My Ink Heart. My viking.
He has come back to me, and there is no way in hell I’m letting him go again.
Right now, he’s angry with me. But he’ll change his mind soon enough. When he remembers what I gave him. What I can keep giving him. How good I made him feel.
