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I could just kill myself if our lives were tied together, although it would destroy Sebastian to do it. As if sensing my thought, she laughed. “Oh, and before you get any sacrificial ideas, know this. It’s only one way. If you die, nothing happens to me.”
My stomach flipped, and my throat tightened. “I consent, only if you let them go, unharmed.”
“So your husband can come back and try to kill me?”
“Like you said,” I spat. “He won’t harm you if your life is tied to mine. I’ll make sure they don’t return.”
Erianna's head shook with desperation as Sebastian's high-pitched shrieks echoed from the other room.
After a minute, she nodded. “I agree.”
“Then I consent to the blood tie.”
***
Tears streaming down my face, I watched as Avyanna arranged everything in the dungeon while Erianna and Sebastian were dragged away, their cries echoing in my ears. Then I heard Salvor’s voice, ringing out in the air as he approached to retrieve Erianna.
Avyanna sighed once we were alone. “It’s simple. I will cut your hand and Salenia’s and tie your life to hers.”
“Avyanna,” I probed, realizing she was the last person I could try to manipulate to get me out of there. “Did Salenia ever return Gwen to her body?”
She paused for a moment, then continued carefully arranging the pitch-black spell candles around the altar. “She will.”
I raised an eyebrow skeptically. “She won’t and you know it. Gwen’s soul is her leverage. Do you think she’s going to let a powerful sorceress like you go?”
I heard her swallow, thick and heavy in my ears. “We had a deal.”
“For when? After you returned her to her form?” I asked. “Was this a part of the deal, or is she already prolonging it?”
“Enough,” she shouted. “Salenia will do what is right.”
I shook my head in disbelief, spotting her piercing, yellow gaze from across the room. “You must know she won’t. Help me,” I begged. “She ruined your life, too. Let Gwen be at peace. Help me destroy the underworld. I’m not offering you any false promises, but every second that Salenia is here and using you, Gwen is suffering.”
She stiffened, then fluttered her eyelids twice. She drew out a piece of chalk and inscribed symbols on the altar. “Gwen will come back.”
When she finished, the torches blazed, and the dungeons were evacuated. Avyanna’s eyes radiated in the flickering light of the torches, and the shadows draped a sinister tint over the chamber. She unfastened my chains, but the cold metal shackles stayed clamped around my wrists and ankles.
Salenia entered, her robes swishing like a gentle wind, while her fingers gripped the dagger firmly.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest—this was it, the beginning of the blood ritual.
Avyanna’s midnight robes shimmered with a grayish sheen when she moved, reminding me of crow wings, and I pleaded with her in my stare.
“Begin,” Salenia ordered Avyanna, and I slumped over. I could barely keep my composure, shaking uncontrollably.
This was it, but at least Sebastian and Erianna were safe. I didn’t fight, knowing she was probably holding them near, in case I revoked my consent. I wouldn’t have them die for me. In every other way, I’d failed. All would be lost if Salenia took the throne, and it was my responsibility to prevent it from happening. Now I couldn’t.
I closed my eyes, praying for a miracle, something to interfere with so the ritual wouldn’t happen. I whispered prayers to the gods, to Vaneria, hoping anyone could hear me.
I blinked Salenia into view, but refused to show my fear. Not to her. “My siblings can’t help you here.” Her gaze narrowed. “They left you at my mercy and you pray tothem?”
I shuddered but refused to look away as she stared. “Did you let them go?” I asked, because that was all I cared about now.
“Salvor has Erianna, but Sebastian is with my guards.”
“What guards?”
A subtle sneer curled the corner of her lip. “The aniccipere. They’re under orders to kill him if I either you escape, or I tell them to, which I will if you don’t do this.”
