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Astaroth was screaming, hitting the circle. The dark shadows started to burn away, revealing the blackened, fire demon within.
Ignoring Astaroth’s shit fit, I focused all my will—all my power—into my words. “Show me the bond. Make it real. Show me the bond. Make it real.” I believed it would appear in my hands and as I screamed the words for a third time, something felt heavy in my hand.
It was a knot of golden rope. The cable, thick as my forearm. I held it gingerly. This was our power and I wasn’t about to let it go.
I ran my fingertips in my blood that had dripped onto the ground and dripped it over the bond.
“Lead me back to my mate.”
The world tilted and I rose up onto my knees. Everything spun, and it was worse than when Van transported me back to St. Ailbe’s. I was spinning and falling.
I squeezed my eyes closed and screamed as I hugged my knees into my chest. Air whipped my hair around my head.
And then my side slammed into the ground and I screamed again.
My wrist felt like it was going to rip off. I’d cut myself too deep and I needed a bandage soon or I was going to die.
The sound of a fight surrounded me. Growls and screams. The crunch of a broken bone.
Tessa!
I blinked my eyes open and gazed at wolf-Dastien. He was protecting what was left of the spell and the goblet from a couple demons.
I glanced around the circle.
Everyone had left it. That needed to change. And fast.
We were doing this. Now. Before Astaroth could come through again. “Back to the circle!” I yelled over the din.
I looked up at Eli, who was still perched in his tree. “Are you going to just sit there? Or can you actually get off your ass and help me?”
He gave me a salute and flew down into the battle. A second later, he rose again, dropping Elowen and Blaze into the circle. Van popped in a second later with Kyra.
Chris and Lucas ran through in wolf form. Claudia was just behind Lucas. She spun around—facing the demons chasing them—and muttered a few words. A second later, a ball of flames hit the closest demon.
Eli flew in with Cosette screaming at him in one arm and Beth in the other.
One more. We needed one more.
River ran through. The last one.
The pot with the stinky spell had been kicked to the ground. I ran for it.
My vision swam as I moved too quickly but I shook it off. Dastien pushed a bit of power and that was enough. More than enough. I needed to do this spell, then I could rest.
I grabbed the pot and reached inside. There wasn’t much. Maybe a quarter of a cup left. I rubbed it on my forehead, backs of my hands, and on the tops of my feet.
That was all there was left. There was nothing left for the others, but I hoped since I would be tied to all of them, that it was good enough.
I glanced around the circle. But we were missing something else: blood.
Beth had a cut running down her face, dripping blood. The wolves all had mats of wet fur. More blood. Claudia had a gash on her arm. River’s shirt was all but torn off, which meant he was bleeding, too. Even Van had blood on the side of his tunic. Everyone looked battered and bruised, so there was more than enough blood. We wouldn’t be drinking it, but it would still be there to bind us together. I ran around the circle, touching wounds from each of them. I rubbed the blood together in my hands.
I was wrong. They might not be drinking the blood or wearing the potion, but I would be. I would start the link, and Eli would bind it.
I licked my hands, swallowing the coppery tang of my friends’ blood, and said the words. “We unite. Stronger together. Our powers seal this portal forever. We stand, side by side. Until death. Protecting our plane from the one beyond.”
A line of glowing light started from me in the center of the circle, branching out to reach each of them. The lines crisscrossed until there was a line connecting everyone in the circle to each other and all of them to me.
