I took in how bruised and beaten she was, but as I tried to reach my light magic, I came up empty. Panic bubbled within me.
"From the scorching heart of the sun, I call forth the power of one. A sphere of sun rays and searing flame, with a power that only I can tame. Spirits of Hexarium bless."
No ball of light illuminated us.
It was as if I was hexed again. None of my magic worked.
My body ached, and my head was fogged up.
The rest of the guys and Fawn finally started to stir.
"Mmm," she mumbled. "What? Where are we?"
"Goddess?" My twin finally roused, his eyes searching for Fawn until finally finding her.
"Muse?" Silas asked, his head snapping up as his vision seemed to clear.
"Fawn, love?" Bastian's head wobbled as he woke.
"Bug?" Aimon's voice was scratchy as he blinked a few times. "Where are we?"
"A dungeon of some kind," I spat out bitterly. "I'm not sure what's happening, but I can't use my powers."
"That's because he perfected whatever potion they were trying to do to nullify powers," Fawn explained in a scratchy voice. "He forced the potion down my throat by catching me completely off guard."
"How did he do that?" Jasper asked her, his voice so low I could barely hear it.
"He slammed his mouth over mine. He must've had it in his cheek or something," she answered hollowly. "The protection rune seared my skin, but he withstood the blast it shot off."
Fury scorched my veins. He would die.
The door creaked open at the far end of the room as Matthieu stepped into view, flanked by two burly guards. His eyes glinted with malice as he strode toward us with purposeful steps.
"I'm going tokillyou!" I shouted, jerking against my restraints.
He stopped right in front of Fawn's chair and smiled at her before turning away and pacing back and forth across the room.
"It appears that none of you have the power to break those bonds," Matthieu said as he gestured to our restraints. "It seems as though my potion worked even better than I had anticipated. I wasn't sure, you know. With your ties to Hexarium and all that."
He paused and looked at each one of us, his gaze lingering on Fawn a bit longer before continuing. "You know, I didn't want it to come to this," he said calmly. "I had hoped that we could have talked things out civilly, but instead, you chose to defy me, and now you must pay the price for your defiance."
Fawn spat at his feet. "Fuck you." She stared him dead in the eye. "You don't scare me."
His smile practically split his face in half with how happy that seemed to make him. "War has officially broken out between all three empires," he announced delightfully, clapping his hands.
"I'm going to burn you from the inside out," I snarled, jerking against my restraints.
"And we're going to make sure you suffer first!" Jasper jerked against the chair, thrashing to get out of it. "I'm going to kill you for touching her!"
"Of course, the twins are the first to come to her rescue," Matthieu cooed, his gaze turning dangerous as he stepped in front of Fawn. "Did youreallyfuck them? Or were you messing with me?"
"I've fucked all of them," she answered through clenched teeth, vibrating with anger.
A black curtain of rage fell over his eyes, and he backhanded her so hard that the sound echoed.
"Don't fucking touch her!" Silas shouted, his voice shaking with rage. "I swear to spirits, you're going to die for this, Matthieu. I'm going to kill you myself!"
Vulnerability wove through my rib cage. I needed to dosomething.But I couldn't--not just because of Matthieu's potion blocking my powers but because there was no other possible course of action right now that could free us from our restraints and protect Fawn from Matthieu's wrath.
