My jaw tightens.
Toher.
I summon every drop of strength and limp back toward the house. The weight lifts, and by the time I storm through the gate, the tightness in my chest eases. “What have you done to me?” I snarl.
“Me? You just attacked me!” Hannah, too, sounds out of breath. She waves her arms, looking as pale and exhausted as one would expect of someone who nearly had her life force drained.
I hum. No, of course this isn’t her doing. She is too weak and powerless to be doing dark magic.
Which means…
Hannah sways on her feet, her teeth gritted. “Look, I don’t know what the hell you just did, but—”
I throw my hand out toward her. “Silence! I need to think.”
I step closer, and the pulling sensation eases, my strength returning like water rushing back through a drought-stricken riverbed.
“Don’t tell me…”
I back away. A threatening pang returns to my chest.
No.Rebecca wouldn’t… She couldn’t have.
To be certain, I take two more steps back. The pain tightens like a noose.
The truth crashes over me in a cold wave.
Damn you, Rebecca.
Fists clenched, I stalk forward again, circling Hannah. The pain ebbs at once. I breathe more easily. And as my pulse steadies in her proximity, her breath hitches. She feels this invisible tether too, and she’s afraid to say it.
I clench my teeth so hard that my temples throb. Rebecca, that bitch, put a binding spell on me. Not only am I forced to stay close to a fragile, unremarkable human, but I must also keep her alive—because if she dies, so do I.
I cannot drain her to fill my magic, but I cannot leave her either. I’m stuck with her.
I can almost hear Rebecca taunting me.The most powerful witch in the region, perpetually dependent on an ordinary human…
But that hag made a crucial mistake: she left me alive. And if she’s still alive too, then I have until I find her to plan my revenge.
Hannah’s lips part as she catches her breath. She’s not running, just glaring at me with fire in her eyes.
“It appears,” I say, my voice dripping with disdain, “that when you broke the curse that kept me asleep, you unwittingly bound yourself to me.”
3
Hannah
SoIburnedRiley’spoetry book to cut emotional ties forever, but apparently, ‘forever’ lasted about thirty seconds before I bound myself to someone infinitely more dangerous than my ex-girlfriend.
Bound.The word settles like a block of ice in my gut.
Thatcan’tbe true.
I turn and sprint away from this terrifying woman, and this time, she lets me go. I burst into the warmth of my home and slam the back door, my hands shaking as I fumble to lock it. As if running from someone who levitated bits of earth with a fucking hand gesture will make a difference.
“Wake up… This has to be a nightmare,” I murmur.
My brain scrambles for rational explanations. Gas leak. Hallucination. Some kind of elaborate prank my coworkers set up, though they’d never go this far. A stroke? Is this what a stroke feels like? Maybe I’m having a breakdown. God knows I’m due for one.
