Stop.
Caelan’s voice echoing in my mind halted my actions. I stared at him. He had never shown any ability in mind affinity before. Had he been hiding it all this time? Making everyone forget about my friends while he butchered them?
“You cannot save them now and I will not allow you to kill yourself,” he said. “Do not try again or I will be forced to take further measures to restrict your autonomy.”
I met his cold gaze, my mind breaking as I tried to process my friend’s face with the monster that stood before me.
“What have you done?” I whispered.
Caelan circled the stone table, his face in the shadows.
“You would not understand,” he said, his voice, for a moment, sounding familiar.
But there was nothing familiar about this man.
Nothing at all.
“I have prepared you a serum,” he said. “It will take away your pain.”
The five columns around the table began to glow. I looked more closely, seeing each of my friends’ bodies holding a crystal in their bound hands. The fifth pillar was at my feet, a green stone sitting in a claw setting tied to the pillar with rope.
“Is that…?” I whispered, staring at the stone.
“Yes,” he muttered. “I needed you to find it, the one you resonated with the most. Ironic and a bit troublesome that it turned out to be the piece you would wear in the play.”
I stared at the replica Amulet of Elenyar, the emerald stone at the center casting an eerie glow.
“They are soul gems,” Caelan said. “I needed them. Powerful mages that had formed a connection to you. In order to acquire your everi, I had to secure the ritual area. Their sacrifice was necessary. It will save many.”
“Save many?”
Caelan held up a crystal in his hand. He placed it in an iron sconce fixed to the fifth column. It began glowing faintly, connecting to the other four around us, forming a pentagon.
Caelan lifted himself onto the table.
My breath caught as he hovered over me. His knees straddled my waist, his face above mine.
“I like you, Anna,” he said. “I am sad that it was you who had to be chosen for this.”
He shifted his hips against mine intimately, holding me tightly in place with his body and everi. I swallowed painfully and tried to summon my everi, but it was channeled into the cuffs no matter how much everi I forced into it.
He held a small, clear vial before him.
“Please, take it,” he said.
I laughed.
He tried to drain it into my mouth but I spit it out violently.
“If you are going to kill me like this, chained to a stone slab, you’re going to listen to me scream,” I seethed.
Disgust curled his lip.
“You will come to regret that. To fill a soul gem, one’s soul must be extracted slowly and carefully. It can take hours. As your life energy is drained from your body, it is captured in the crystal. I am here to ensure that the process is slow and thecollection is done correctly. Unfortunately, that means a painful and agonizing death for the one’s soul being collected,” he said.
A soul gem? He wanted to steal my soul?
“Why are you doing this?” I demanded.
