I looked back at him over my shoulder in time to see his gaze dip briefly toward the stone floor, before lifting again with quiet resolve. The snap of his fingers cut through the low hum of the room and I flinched, holding my breath.
At first, nothing changed, and for half a heartbeat, I wondered whether the gesture had been purely symbolic. But then the pale silver veins threading through the black marble beneath our feet began to glow. It was faint at first, like distant lightning trapped beneath stone. The light intensified quickly, spreading outward in deliberate arcs that traced patterns I didn’t recognize, but I instinctively knew they certainly weren’t decorative.
Symbols emerged in looping curves and sharp angles, chasing one another in widening circles that enclosed a section of the floor several feet across. The glow sharpened from white gold to an eerie, fiendish green, casting harsh upward shadows that distorted the faces of those watching.
A murmur rippled through the crowd, and the demons nearest the forming circle stepped back in unison, widening the perimeter without being told. My heartbeat thundered in my ears as my whole body tensed against him.
“What are you doing?”I asked before moving away from him.
However, I didn’t get far as his arm circled my waist in one smooth motion. Firm, unyielding muscle halting my attempt to escape as I tried to step away from him. The contact was immediate and controlled, his hand splayed low against my abdomen as though anchoring me physically to where I stood.
“Ah-ah… oh no you don’t,”he murmured near my ear, his voice no longer threaded with something playful but now edged with something colder, something protective and possessive all at once.
The circle flared brighter, the runes completing themselves with a final surge of green light that pulsed outward in a sharp wave. The air within the boundary shimmered, distorting as though heat rose from beneath the stone.
Then it fractured.
The space inside the circle split with a crack like thin ice under pressure, and something forced its way through.
Suddenly, Bo appeared on one knee within the glowing perimeter, one hand braced against the marble as his form solidified from wavering distortion into flesh and bone. The instant he manifested, the runes surged brighter, lines of light climbing upward around him in vertical arcs that resembled bars of a cage.
Imprisoning him.
The name tore from me before I could temper it.
“Bo!”
He lifted his head immediately, his eyes finding mine across the distance, and for a fraction of a second I saw the flicker of surprise there, followed quickly by blind panic.
“What have you done?!” I demanded, twisting instinctively against the arm that still held me.
“What I should have done sooner,” Oblivion replied with measured calm, though I felt the tension coiled beneath it. The only bite of anger coming when he continued to say,
“He has lingered too long, and I do not tolerate attachments to what belongs to me!”
Bo rose fully within the circle, testing the boundary without hesitation. The moment his fingers brushed the green light, it snapped with violent intensity, forcing him back with a hissed breath as sparks scattered across the marble.
“Bo!” I shouted his name again, trying once more to fight against Oblivion so that I could run to him. But his arm becamea solid band across my torso, forcing me to stay locked to his chest.
“Girly, it’s okay,” he called, voice steady despite the strain beneath it.
I ignored him and quickly demanded,
“Release him!” The venom in my tone was easy to hear. My own anger cutting straight through the lingering haze of my earlier attraction.
However, Oblivion’s grip did not loosen. If anything, it tightened fractionally, drawing me closer against the solid line of his chest.
“He entered my domain without invitation,” he said, addressing me but watching Bo.
“Repeatedly.”
“You don’t own her, she’s not your property! She is mortal and forbidden to you, Enforcer!” Bo shot back, straightening within the glowing cage.
At that, something snapped in Oblivion’s calm façade. I felt the rumbling snarl of anger vibrate against me before I heard it. The sound was so dangerous that I couldn’t help but shake against him.
His arm shifted slightly higher across me, not overtly aggressive but undeniably possessive. As though reminding everyone present where I stood and to whom I was presently bound. The runes pulsed brighter in response, heat radiating faintly upward from the marble.
“No! Please, please… you can’t do this!” I pleaded, but it was of no use.
