She drops her gaze and turns back to Rebecca’s crumpled form. “Anyway, it didn’t work. We’re still bound.”
The words take a moment to sink in. A heavy sensation settles in my chest, and I step back. “That can’t be. I—I submitted like I was supposed to. Gave you everything.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
On the floor, Rebecca lifts a hand toward Julia, magic crackling. But Julia is too quick, sweeping Rebecca’s hand away without even touching her. Rebecca grunts and hits the bookshelf again, blood trickling from her nose.
My stomach drops. That feeding has clearly made Julia stronger. Too strong.
Footsteps thunder closer in the hall. Elizabeth and Riley burst through the doorway, out of breath. Elizabeth is wearing a black nightgown edged with lace, with a black satin robe flowing open. Riley is still in jeans and a white top under that crimson cloak, like she was nowhere near ready to sleep despite the late hour.
“Enough!” Elizabeth roars. With a sweep of her arms, she forces Julia and Rebecca apart, sending them flying to opposite walls. The whole room shudders, and books fall from the shelves.
“Hannah.” Riley’s voice breaks on my name, no more than a whisper.
I turn.
She’s staring at me like I’m something ruined. Her hand covers her mouth, and her wide, watery eyes trace over every visible mark Julia left. The bruises from her fingers and teeth. The scratches from the tree bark. The leaves tangled in my hair from when I lay spread beneath her.
My face burns hotter.
Julia gets to her feet, breathing hard as she fixes her hair. Rebecca is slower to stand, wiping blood from her nose. The three of them face each other in a triangle, the magic in the room so taut that it feels like the air is statically charged.
The grandfather clock downstairs chimes, and we all go still. Three in the morning. About four hours until the moon sets and I’m stuck as Julia’s pet forever. The binding spell tightens like a vise around my ribs, like it knows time is running out.
I catch Julia’s eye, seeing my own frantic questions reflected back at me.
What did we do wrong? Did I not submit enough? Was I holding back?
“Everybodyout,” Elizabeth commands. She points to Julia with her fingers curled into claws. “Except you.”
Rebecca squares her shoulders and shoots Julia a deadly glare before obeying. She grabs a blue silk robe off the back of the door, then guides Riley out ahead of her.
As I turn my back on Julia, her voice stops me. “Stay close, pet.”
I scoff and keep walking, my spine rigid with barely contained fury.
I can’t tell if it was a threat or a joke. With Julia, nothing is sincere.
The moment we’re downstairs, where the front door is still open from when I burst through it, Riley whirls to face me with watery eyes.
“You surrendered to her.” It’s an accusation, not a question. Her voice is so broken, so hurt, that a flash of unexpected guilt shoots through me.
Rebecca ties a knot in her robe with jerky motions. She swipes her hand, and the front door slams so hard that the chandelier rattles. She paces thefoyer, clenching and unclenching her fists as if itching to blast something with magic.
I look past Riley, where an oval mirror hangs behind one of the cat statues. The woman staring back at me is almost unrecognizable.
My hair is a wild tangle, leaves and twigs caught in the strands like I’ve been dragged through the forest. Dark bruises bloom across my neck in the clear shape of Julia’s fingers. Scratches rake down my collarbone and arms. My lips are swollen.
I lookravaged. Like someone who begged a monster to devour her.
Humiliation burns through me so intensely that I have to look away.
But I tamp down those feelings, refusing to be embarrassed that everyone in this house knows what we did. It’s not my fucking fault I’ve been bound to a sanguine witch. “Don’t look at me like that, Riley. You broke up with me. And it’s not even like that. I did what I had to in order to get my freedom back.”
“Did it work?” she asks, her tone telling me she already knows the answer.
My jaw tightens.
