Then the burn seared her to the bone. Alora shrieked and writhed, trying to remove them, but the burning crystals were fused in place, smoking on her skin.
Eldrik laid out the parchment on the stone slab above her head, then he read it aloud. Alora’s heart shuddered at the strange words. The language slithered, vowels bending backward on themselves, malevolent and sharp.
Hellspeech.
Where did he get this spell?
Eldrik lifted a thin blade and murmured. “Hold still.”
“No, stop, please!”
The first shallow cut landed above her breasts. Alora bit her tongue, forcing herself not to scream as he slowly carved a symbol on her flesh, continuing to chant. The array in the ground pulsated red. The pain stung, but it was measured. Precise. And she knew he was only getting started.
Rune will come. He will come.
“The fae can survive a siphon,” Eldrik said as he worked. “But you, oh, who knows what will be left of you once I have drawn all that magic out. You are held by more than the light.”
Tears rolled down Alora’s temples and she shook, feeling her body go cold as more blood continued to leak down her torso and over the edge of the table.. Her spilled blood had fueled the ritual circle beneath the table. Something dark and frightening filled the atmosphere.
Her terror doubled.
“Please!” she cried. “I’ll do anything. Please don’t take any more!”
“I’m giving your death meaning,” Eldrik whispered, pressing a small crystal deeper into the hole he had carved into her skin. “You’ll be part of something greater than yourself. You’ll be a part of …me.”
Alora gasped, the entire room tilting. Her head fell back as her vision spun.
Eldrik continued chanting the infernal spell as he cut glyphs into her skin. The blade skillfully curved over her shoulders with a sharp swipe and Alora choked on a cry. His filthy hands stroked the most intimate parts of her with vile worship.
This was nothing like the moment she’d absorbed Rune’s power.
This was defilement. An intrusion.
Violation.
Alora stifled her sobs and shut her eyes tight, not wanting to see what he did to her body.
She could feel Rune on the edge of her mind. She held on to that presence, grounding herself on it like an anchor.He will come?—
Then Eldrik pressed a palm to her chest with a final word and pain exploded through her. Alora’s eyes widened, her breath stolen, all of her body arcing with a scream. It was molten iron scoring through her bones. Through the fiber of what made her.
White-hot.
Blinding.
Like her veins were being scraped from the inside out.
A torturous, burning tug pulled at her wrists. From an incision of a glyph he had carved, Eldrik pulled out a glowing white thread like a coil of flame. Alora’s body shook violently. Her magic wailed through the air and through her.
A soundless scream that shredded her from the inside out.
Her mind flashed with a memory of her mother’s song, but it vanished as though snipped away when Eldrik plucked the strand fully out of her body.
Alora wailed.
Her memory was gone.
Eldrik laughed in awe as he held up the flaming strand. “Oh, what wonders you hold in your veins.”
