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“What will you do with it?” Luc asked, knowing that they didn’t have much choice, but also knowing how awful it would be to learn that by giving it to her, something worse would happen. Like the spell where he’d trapped Nix.
“Immortality—or as close as I am able to get to it. That is my bargain.”
Luc hesitated.
Nix huffed a breath.
“The sands are running, god,” she said.
“Yes. Okay. Yes,” Luc agreed.
The witch shuffled forward, and once she was close enough, held a gnarled finger to Nix’s chest. As Luc watched in horrified fascination, the tip of her fingernail disappeared into Nix’s chest. Nix winced and with effort, Luc kept his mouth shut.
When she retracted her finger, a small, golden thread curled around the sharp point of her nail. She held it up, studied it a moment, then dropped it into her mouth.
Luc tried not to squirm as she repeated the process with him. Where he’d thought there might be pain, he felt only a minor intrusion, but the thread being tugged from his heart felt as if a limb had been torn from his body.
“It won’t change your bond,” she said, holding the bright thread higher. “It is but a minuscule sliver of what is inside of you.” Then she slurped it until it disappeared down her gullet, and Luc’s stomach twisted at the glee on her face. She closed her eyes as if savoring the flavor, though Luc knew it wasn’t flavor she tasted, but power.
“A deal is a deal,” he said.
The witch inclined her head. “Listen to my words and heed them, for I will reveal the spell once: ‘A drop of this potion— two, three, or four—will call to the Deep Sleep and close the door, and slip into Dreamland locked up nice and tight, with a magical beastie guarding with might. One whose heart is bound and pure will face the beastie and endure. A faithful heart will be veiled from sight to reach the dreamer bound to endless Night. Upon True Love’s kiss, the spell will break, and into True Love’s arms, the dreamer will awake.’”
Then, as if a door had slammed shut, she was gone, leaving the forest devoid of sound. “Seek his true name,” her disembodied voice called in the eerie silence.
In the next moment, the forest came alive once more, the breeze and the sounds of birds bringing the space back to life.
“We have it,” Luc said and glanced at his brother.
Nix was slumped beside him, motionless. Luc jolted forward, gathering Nix into his arms as they both fell to the ground.
“No! No! Nix. Don’t leave me!” Luc yelled, shaking Nix, just as the rush of wind from Lexa’s wings stirred the forest around them.
31
“Father!” Luc yelled, holding an unmoving Nix in his arms, as Lexa portaled them into Alabastrine. They landed exactly where he’d asked Lexa to take them—their father’s study. It was a place that had, at one time, brought Luc fond memories. He remembered playing in the room with Nix as boys, their father watching them with an indulgent smile on his face, though at the moment, those memories weren’t at the forefront of his thoughts. “Help!”
Ur jumped to his feet, hurrying around his giant desk. “What has he gotten into this time?”
Luc deposited Nix onto a tufted leather sofa in the middle of the room. “Fix him,” Luc demanded. “He’s fading.”
Ur looked perplexed, his eyes jumping between Lexa and Luc to Nix. “What is this? A new scheme?”
“Scheme? What the fuck?” Luc shouted, tears filling his eyes. “He’s dying!”
“It’s the god-yoke, father,” Lexa said quietly, kneeling at Nix’s side and moving a lock of hair that had fallen over his eyes, as if that were all that ailed him. Luc’s heart pinched painfully at the sight of his brother; his skin was so pale, his eyes shut, his lashes dark against his skin.
“There is nothing I can do for–”
“You can,” Luc shouted. He couldn’t seem to help himself, pacing the room now. “The Order of Oracles said you could.”
“I could what?”
“Anoblitorium.” Luc turned and faced his father. “He didn’t ask to be god-yoked.” Luc felt all the blame settle on his shoulders. If he hadn’t cast that stupid spell, if he hadn’t lured Aurielle…
I’m so grateful for the spell. It brought me Auri.
Luc shoved his hands in his hair, squeezing and pulling to feel the pain as he crouched down. Emotions rioted inside him, along with the constriction around his heart that wasn’t only due to the god-yoke. He took a deep breath, then another, picking his way through the panic. “Prudence—the oracle—said severing the memories might help the fade, temporarily.”
