“Why?” Mara asked. “You know I can’t fight you.”
Freya sneered at her prisoner. “Because I want them to.”
The two men, their hoods drawn low, each took one of Mara’s arms, pinned them behind her, and tied her wrists tightly. Mara whimpered when they fastened a blindfold over her eyes until Freya told her to shut up.
“Pay attention,”the fire elemental hissed silently. “Steps. Turns.”
Mara tried, but she was so hungry, she wasn’t sure she’d counted correctly. A flight of stairs left her winded, and she almost collapsed at the top. Only the firm grip the two minions had on her arms kept her upright.
But then she smelled it. Fresh air. Wherever she was…there was an open door or window close by.Cade. Please find me. I’m scared. I need you.
“Place her on the altar,” Freya ordered.
Oh God. Not again.
They worked quickly, securing her wrists over her head, binding her ankles tightly together, and tying them to the stone.
All Mara wanted to do was ask what was going on, but she couldn’t seem to form the words. Without her sight, all she could do was listen. Multiple sets of footsteps. Not just Freya. And she could smell Celia. The witch wore a perfume or lotion that smelled like something rotten—or maybe it was just the woman’s magic.
“She is ready,” Freya said. The practitioner’s voice grated, and the fire elemental railed against Mara’s inability to speak.
“The babe will serve our purposes well, but we must know how strong she is.” Celia’s words chilled her to her core. “This will hurt, elemental.”
Mara moaned and tried to form words, and Freya laughed. “I told her to shut up.”
“Childish, sister. Even if I do not wish to hear her pleas and whines, I enjoy hearing her submit to me.” Leaning closer so her breath ghosted across Mara’s cheek, Celia whispered, “You may speak, elemental. For now.”
“What are you doing?” Mara asked. “Everything hurts, and I’m worried about the baby.” The urge to call Rachelherbaby was overwhelming, but she had to convince Celia she’d accepted her fate.
“We are testing to see how well the babe can absorb the elements we’ve taken over the years. And if the casting is successful, you will bring us everything we need before you die.”
“Before I die…?” Did Celia mean now? “I thought…you needed the baby to be born?” Tears burned Mara’s eyes behind the blindfold. She needed more time. Time with Rachel, even if she couldn’t hold her daughter like she wanted to. Time to figure out how she and the fragments of her sister’s element could resist Celia’s magic. Time for Cade to find her.
“Oh, we do, elemental. I have seen her birth. The three Fates have shown me much in my lifetime, and I believe the baby is our destiny. But we would be foolish not to test the child before the end. When we perform the final ritual, we will only have one chance to form the Spirit element. And we must locate our missing conduit.”
“Conduit?”
“Another being. For many years, we thought she was the answer. But she was never strong enough to absorb the four elements. Earth, in particular, resisted. Every time. She escaped when your mate and the rest of those fucking mongrels attacked our summer home, and they are protecting her. But we willretrieveher.”
“Just please...don’t hurt the pack. My mate. Do whatever you want to me,” Mara sobbed, “just leave them alone.”
“Gag her,” Celia ordered. “I am weary of her pleas, but I will enjoy her screams. If this works, there will not be much left of her mind, and that will be a blessing.”
Mara didn’t fight when they shoved a thick piece of leather between her teeth and fastened it behind her head. Whatever they were planning…it was going to hurt.
“I’m taking over,”Katerina—or at least the shred of Katerina left by the fire agate crystal embedded in Mara’s chest—said.
Within the space of a single breath, Mara was trapped in the small, inescapable box she always found herself in when the fire took over.
“Why?” she asked the fire.
“Because at the end of this, you need to be the one who lives. I tried to take everything from you once. I will not do it again.”
Several practitioners started to chant, and the altar rumbled underneath her body. A frigid wind whipped through the ritual space, and Celia shouted, “Air!”
It didn’t matter that Katerina tried to protect her, the pain of having an abundance of an element not her own forced into her body—into her baby’s body—made her feel like she was being ripped apart from the inside out. Rachel kicked, her little arms and legs flailing, and warmth filled Mara’s belly. Almost as if her daughter were channeling the fire to protect herself.
“Are you there?”Mara asked the other part of her fractured mind.“Say something.”
