“You know I don’t think like that?—”
“Oh, is it because she’s one of your potential conquests?”
“What?” Minos’s face twisted together like she had greatly offended him. “Is that what you think?—”
Nikator stepped forward and placed a hand over Vita’s hand that held the knife. “Enough. Put your blade down.”
“I don’t listen to your orders. Especially not when someone is threatening Muyang.”
“Enough,” he gritted out. His hand lashed out and he grasped the edge of the blade with his hand. Blood trickled down his palm and dripped onto Biyu’s lap, staining her dress in small splotches. His gaze never left Vita’s as he forcefully shoved the blade away from Biyu’s neck, more red streaming down his hand. “You’ve made your point, sister. Now back away and calm yourself. If you kill her, then you kill me.”
Biyu held her breath; the tension in the air thickened and she couldn’t believe what was happening. Marriage. The knife. Vita’s rage. Nikator’s fury. Her head swam with all the new sights, and the cloying scent of Minos’s wildflowers, or whatever the hell he smelled like, made her somehow more nauseous than before. She wanted to back away from them all. Lock herself in a room and forget it all. She wanted … she wanted to disappear.
Nikator finally released the knife, grimacing, and Vita slowly lowered it.
“What do you mean you’ll die if she dies?”
He wordlessly handed her the scroll, which he had tucked into one of his pockets at some point. Biyu watched as Vita read it, her eyebrows pulling together. Minos came to stand beside her and poked his head beside hers to read over her shoulder. The entire time, she felt Nikator’s gaze on hers. But she couldn’t return the stare. Not with all the confusion and fear pumping through her veins.
Nothing was making sense.
Nikator had said she had married him, somehow. But how did that even happen? There was no way she had messed upthatbadly. She had meant to use the forgetfulness spell, not whatever spell he thought she had used. Had she grabbed the wrong scroll when she had reached beneath her mattress?
“Oh, shit,” Minos whispered, breaking through the fog of her thoughts. “You both are … bound together.Forever.”
Biyu flinched at the words. Vita cursed softly, while Nikator looked uncomfortable and …furious.
“What do you mean?” Biyu’s stomach lurched and she fought to keep her breakfast down. “What do you mean bound forever?”
Vita pursed her lips together and waved the scroll in her hand. “Do you mean to tell me you haveno ideawhat we’re talking about? Especially when you’re the one who cast the spell? You used a spell on him that makes you both married, bound forever, and if one of you dies, so does the other. A sacred bond that will last for eternity.”
A lightheadedness crept over her as those words repeated themselves like an echo, except instead of becoming quieter and fading, they became louder.
“Wait—wait—wait.” Biyu rubbed her forehead. “I must have heard wrong, because you just said that I’m … I’m bound to him for eternity? That’s not possible. How can—” She unsteadily climbed up to her feet and stared up at Nikator like she was seeing him for the first time. The blood had dried along his arms, but his palm was still seeping red, and it was coloring the polished wooden floors. Dressed in dark clothes, with his fiery blue eyes and blood-colored hair—there was no way this blood drenched warrior was her husband.No way at all.
There were few reasons why someone would want to have a magicked marriage and the specifics were always a tad different; some people did it so they could access the other’s magic. Some did it so they could be closer to the other. Some did it so they could have total control over their spouse or for loyalty reasons, though those were usually for political alliances.
But she had never heard of a binding spell where if one died, so did the other.
Nikator snatched the scroll from Vita’s hands and held it out for Biyu. His lips were pursed together when she gingerly took it away from him. Her heart pulsed in her ears loudly; she tried to stop her hands from shaking but it was impossible. She read over the contents of the spell, her chest tightening as each breath was painfully wrenched from her. It was as she feared; a magicked—cursed, really—marriage bond.
A tether fairer than what lies beneath the heavens,
Transcending breath and bone, womb to wraith.
A thread that ties two flames as one,
Bound in blood, in death, we burn.
She almost droppedthe scroll right then and there. The words blurred together as she reread them. Bound in blood, in death, we burn. That must have meant that if he died, she too would die, and vice versa. That even in death they would be together; their souls intertwined. A bond that transcended breath and bone—life and death.
Biyu swayed on her feet. “There has to be a mistake.”
“A mistake you made,” Vita pointed out coolly.
“I … I must have grabbed the wrong spell.”
“Ah, so there are other spells?” Nikator laughed cruelly, his eyes narrowing. “How long have you been planning all of this? Weeks? Months?”
