Her eyes were so red and dry from crying, and my heart fucking broke seeing her and my men like that. We were stillalive, but we were fuckinghurt.
I didn't know many mages that would survive what Casper and Jasper went through, but Matthieu somehow controlled the blood loss when he did it.
Not that theycoulddie, anyway.
Thank the spirits for that.
The energy in the air hung heavy with despair and anguish. It almost felt like a physical weight. I let out a sigh as I felt the thirst for revenge building up inside me. Anger boiled in my veins, ready to be released.
Weneededour powers.
The door banged open with a loud creak as it clattered against the wall. The guys didn't stir, and that made my gut knot with worry.
"I have another riddle!" Matthieu clapped his hands in excitement as his gaze zeroed in on Fawn. "This one's for you, sweet mage. In a world of mages and monsters lore, two souls are bonded forevermore. When darkness looms and evil spreads, together they feed, where devastation embeds. Five bonds will be broken for this one to rise, and you will be mine until the end of time."
"That was barely a riddle." A man stumbled into the room behind Matthieu with his hands bound in front of him. The man's face was swollen with dried blood caked around his nose and mouth. His shirt was torn and stained with fluids, as were his pants. He leaned heavily against the wall, defeated and exhausted.
Matthieu's smile dropped, and he glowered at the man. "You are here to do a job and nothing more unless you want your daughter to be at my mercy."
The man's lungs rattled as he coughed, but his gaze dropped as he nodded. "Understood."
"Any guesses, Fawn?" Matthieu went back to his cheerful self as he strode in front of her.
"You're going to tryand failto break my bonds with them and bond yourself to me instead. But bondings are permanent, just like my immortality." Fawn blinked slowly at him. "Plus, I will never allow my spirit to be bound to yours."
Anger flashed in his gaze before he sucked in a deep breath and chuckled. "You won't have a choice. See, my friend here, he's a spirit mage. And he's going to start off by breaking your soul bonds. Then, he's going to bond us instead."
Spirits, please don't let this happen.
"It won't work," Fawn snapped.
Fawn would be in excruciating pain if he even attempted it. Bondings were rare andirreversible. It was common fucking knowledge. I wanted so badly to intervene. I wanted to fill Matthieu's lungs with water or conjure a death rune, but I had no magic.
My men were still incapacitated from the torture, but maybe that was a blessing in disguise since they didn't have to watch whatever it was he was about to do to her.
This wasn't going to work. It would only hurt her, and I had a feeling Matthieu knew that.
"Zaveous!" Matthieu snapped his fingers, not breaking eye contact with Fawn. "Do it now."
The spirit mage nodded as he shuffled closer to the woman I had definitely fallen in love with, and my heart pounded so hard it hurt.
He lifted his hands, and I saw them trembling slightly. He must've been afraid of fucking with soul bonds, but he feared Matthieu more. He chanted something under his breath, words so low I couldn't hear them, but the impact of them echoed through the room.
Fawn's eyes began to glow a very faint blue as she fought the spirit attack, and her hair fluttered behind her as our bond tugged painfully.
My men stirred with each passing second but were still too weak to move or fight back against the spirit mage's invading magic.
The air around us crackled with energy, seemingly choking me as breaths became increasingly difficult to take.
Fawn clenched her fists by her side as her expression became stoic and determined even though I could sense fear emanating from her down the bond. I'd never been at the mercy of a spirit mage until Fawn, and I never wanted to be.
Zaveous, the spirit mage, tried desperately to rip our spirits from Fawn's. A wave of energy swept through the room, and Fawn's body jerked forward as she gasped.
A stabbing pain lingered through the bond and penetrated my bones, and I grunted from the force.
"Youcan'tdo it," she croaked as her skin paled and her eyes glazed over like she was seeing something far away from here. "It's impossible."
The energy released from Zaveous seemed to grow as he focused it on Fawn's bonds with us.
