Ambrosia circled her like a shark, eyes gleaming with triumph. “Look at her,” she cooed. “She thinks she matters here.”
Rage cut through my weakness like a blade.
“Touch her,” I said, voice low and guttural, “and I will tear out your?—”
The spell snapped down my spine again. My strength bled out onto the floor. I tasted copper, and suddenly I saw two of everything.
“Nadia,go.” My throat was raw. “Run.”
Her eyes softened. And to my horror, she smiled sadly.
“I told you,” she whispered, “I’m not leaving you.”
Something broke in me then.
I bowed my head, breath heaving out of me. I had survived war, betrayal, centuries in a void.
But this was the first time I knew true despair.
She would die for me. The woman I loved would die for me, and I could not move.
Every instinct I possessed roared. Every part of me strained against the ritual.
And that was when a glimmer of magic rippled across Nadia’s skin. My heart lurched.
Nadia doesn’t glimmer.
My head lifted even though the spell dragged my muscles down. Her skin rippled again with that sharp shimmer. It was wrong. Ambrosia did not notice. Hammond did not notice. But the bond inside me did. It strained in panic. It told me nothing familiar stood in front of me.
My chest tightened.That is not her.
Ambrosia stepped closer to the figure wearing Nadia’s shape. She reached out to touch her cheek. The fake flinched. A small, clever flinch.
Cassian.
Ambrosia frowned. “Why are you?—”
“Nadia” moved first, catching Ambrosia’s wrist and twisting, then slammed Ambrosia against the stone hearth with all his force. Ambrosia gasped. The sound cracked through the chamber. Hammond stumbled in shock. The energy around me stuttered. The siphoning faltered just long enough for me to lift my head more.
Ambrosia’s expression flamed with fury. “You little rat. You dare?—”
“Nadia” landed a solid blow to Ambrosia’s ribs. Ambrosia spat something guttural and slammed her palm into the fake’s shoulder. The force sent both of them stumbling across the floor.
Their movements blurred in a violent rush. Ambrosia grabbed the fake’s hair. The fake grabbed Ambrosia’s jaw. Hammond yelled, but he could not stop chanting without breaking the ritual. His panic fed the power and fed the room.
I pushed against the spell until my muscles tore. “Cassian. Stop. She will kill you.”
He did not stop. He shoved Ambrosia into the altar. Her head snapped forward. Hissing, she lunged at him. They crashed into the center circle of the ritual and the power warped. The chamber rippled. The burning stole another piece of my strength. My hips buckled. My hands scraped against the stone.
Ambrosia clawed at Cassian’s glamoured throat. “You think Cristian will save you.”
He spat blood at her feet. “He doesn’t need to.” His glamoured face twisted with effort. “I only need a second.” He caught her by the wrist. The glamour shook. Ambrosia’s nail cut into his cheek. Red spilled over Nadia’s borrowed skin.
I shook my head hard. “Cassian. Move. Fall back.”
He did not listen. He never listened. Pulling a silver blade from his coat, he drove it into Ambrosia’s heart.
Her lips parted. Confusion cut through her fury. She stared down at the hilt, like she could not understand her own mortality. The spell pulsed hard enough to rattle the walls. Hammond’s chanting ceased.
