“About that,” Willow says, her voice clipped. “We’ll be in touch if your services are still required.”
My heart flies into my throat, and I shake from head to toe. The only reason his services wouldn’t be needed is if I don’t return to Fairhaven Academy because my father terminates my enrollment or because Rad mates me.
Marcus’ winter-wind-and-pine scent spikes and he meets my eyes, his own filled with regret, remorse, and too many things left unsaid. Saints above, is this the last time I’ll see him?
Tears bead in my eyes, but Marcus does the only thing he can. He loads my bags into the trunk of the rental without a word before stowing his own bags in the back of the town car.
His voice breaks when he tells me goodbye, but his words are stiff, full of all the things he cannot say. “Miss Rose, it’s been an honor. I wish you well.”
And I hope with every part of my heart that this isn’t the end, that I’ll see my stoic, brave, sweet, thoughtful alpha again.
I turn from my sister and swipe the tears from my eyes the moment he pulls away, feeling more helpless than I have since my date with Rad following the All Saints’ Eve attack. The day he left his handprint on my face as a message to the men who love me.
“Willow, please. What’s going on?”
She looks at me, truly, for the first time. “Father wants you to be tested for an affinity. We’ll be doing so at Radcliffe’s facility before we depart. I’ll need your phone.”
I hand her the phone Father bought me and she sighs. “Don’t play dumb, sister. Your other phone. I’ll take it from you by force if I have to. Please, don’t make me.”
I duck my head and slip my burner phone from the torn lining of my purse and hand it over.
She tosses it to the ground and then stomps on it, driving the heel of her stiletto through it. She stomps on it twice more and then kicks it into the brush at the edge of the parking lot. “I’m sorry, Juniper,” she sighs. “Truly. But Mr. Radcliffe insisted on it. Now, come on. We’re due at the facility in an hour.”
“Why now? Why am I being tested for an affinity?”
“Mr. Radcliffe has requested it as a condition of your mating.”
“Is he going to mate me?”
Willow presses her lips together, eyes narrowing in what might be pity. “I suspect Father will give him his blessing. Mr. Radcliffe has held up his end of the agreement. His results have been… more than satisfactory.”
My world falls apart as I sink into the passenger seat of the rental car. Willow performs a quick spell that temporarily blinds me, then binds my hands with another spell, and pulls out of the parking lot, the tires of the car crunching gravel. Bound and blind and on my way to Andrew Radcliffe. Have I ever been more vulnerable? My sister is serving me up to a monster.
I try to memorize the turns she makes, desperately thinking I’ll somehow be able to remember the route, but my thoughts quickly crowd out every turn we make.
And then Willow’s thoughts slip into my mind, and my mouth goes dry.
My sister has stood by as scientists administered affinity tests. They’re unsophisticated, barbaric, and I flinch in my seat as images whip through my head.
Omegas, scribes held to their hearts, tormented with magic until their affinities revealed themselves.
Or until their hearts gave out.
“I’m sorry, Juniper,” Willow murmurs, as the car finally comes to a stop. “If I could prevent this, I would.”
“What do I do, Willow?” I whimper as she unbinds my hands.
I feel rather than see her look up at me. “Whatever you must.”
I go still, and then she removes the blinding spell and light floods my vision. I have to narrow my eyes, squinting against the bright morning light until my eyes grow accustomed to it once more.
Whatever I must. To what? To hide my affinity? To keep Rad from mating me?
She leads me up to the front of the facility, a firm hand on my shoulder as if she thinks I’ll run. But I can sense the guards wearing mage tech that canvass every inch of the facility and the clearing around it. Escaping now would be futile, never mind that I’d be lost in the wilds, miles and miles from anything I know.
Rad meets us at the front doors, Blair at his side. He beams at me and that’s when it strikes me… his smile is the same vicious grin the Baphomet masks wear, his lips twisting the same way the black molded leather does.
“Beloved, how glad I am to see you.”
