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I swallowed hard.
He left, popping back out and for a second, I was relieved.
And then it hit me where he was going. Back to the circle. To my friends. To my mate.
Dastien! I shouted through the bond, but he wasn’t going to be able to help me. The bond was still present but felt dead, lifeless. So there was nothing I could do to help him either.
But I had to do something.
Think, Tessa. Fucking think. Don’t let this fear get to you.
I paced around, trying to get my mind to settle, but it was hard. So hard to think straight when I was terrified.
I needed to not be me for a second. If I were Claudia, what would I do?
A protection knot and a circle. I was bad at knots, but I could do a circle. Or I used to be able to do them. Astaroth had gotten through my circle like it didn’t exist.
I tried to think back to what Samantha said about the tie. I had to break the tie first. When Samantha couldn’t break it, I figured it’d break when I did the spell, but she’d said that I needed to somehow be on both planes.
I was. I was alive but on this plane. So that counted.
But I needed to be able to see the tie if I wanted to break it.
I was in a black void. In Hell. With nothing. No ingredients. Nothing to make up a potion or salt for a circle, but there was one thing I did have.
Myself. My will. My magic.
I sat down and as I crossed my legs something poked hard into my ankle. “Shit.” I reached inside my Ugg and wanted to cry.
Holy shit. It was still there. After everything with the trip to the Lunar Court and then racing to finish the spell and everything else that came with that, I’d forgotten I’d stashed it in my boot.
Thank you, God. Thank you. Thank you.
I had myself, my will, my magic, and one fucking evil dagger.
I didn’t know if Samantha saw this moment coming or what, but I owed her big time. If I hadn’t taken that dagger, if I hadn’t held onto it…
I couldn’t think about that. I had a shot. I was taking it.
This time I didn’t hesitate. I sat on the ground and slashed my wrist open. Coating my fingers in my own blood, I rose up on my knees and drew a circle around myself as wide as I could reach.
This was where I’d gone wrong last time. I’d said to lock everything out, but I was tied to Astaroth. He’d sown a thread of himself through my soul, and I’d locked him in the circle with us.
I had to sever his tie before I did anything else. Dastien might be right about delegating to others, that I had to lean on my friends, but he wasn’t totally right. They couldn’t do everything for me.
I was the Alpha. I was the witch. There were some things that I just had to do for myself.
I pictured all of the ties I had and pushed them away from the circle until they were outside of it. If any of the ties cut through the circle, then I wasn’t sure what I had in mind would work. I had to be in here alone so I could sort through them.
“I activate this circle. Only I am in. Only me. Only myself.” The words didn’t matter. Just the will, and I was doing this damn it. “I activate this circle. Only I am inside of it. Only me. Only myself.”
The circle lit up and I heard Astaroth cry out.
The ground rumbled under me and I knew he was on his way and he was angry.
I had to block him.
I closed my eyes and searched my soul for magical links. Even if I was in Hell, I was still alive. Which meant the links were still there. I just had to concentrate harder.
