Thank the Dark God my human heart was no longer responsible for keeping me alive. In that moment, it would have broken in two.
“You used the Lifebind to get close to her, to get her through the gates. Exactly as we asked. And now…”
The fae king finished Maura’s sentence. “And now you shall have your reward, as we agreed.”
Everything had been stripped away from me. I’d only made it through the gates because Garrick had seen to it, not even because of the Lifebind, but because of some deal he’d made with Maura and the fae king. The man I’d been willing to sacrifice for saw me as nothing more than a tool. A means to some unknown end that he’d never trusted me enough to tell me.
Maura and the fae king had plotted from the beginning. The king must have been responsible for the faerie ring we’d stumbled upon in the forest. Garrick and Alize had known, even then. They’d shattered not only my trust, but my illusion of agency.
They’d even taken my familiar.
I fell to my knees. This time, there was no one there to catch me.
Garrick tried, but Aurienna was faster. Vines sprang up from nowhere, encircling our arms and holding us in place. Garrick thrashed against them, but then Elodie was murmuring a spell, and the fae king waved his hand, and suddenly I could not move anything beneath my neck. I could not even look at Garrick, though I could hear his snarls of frustration.
It was for the better. I never wanted to see him again.
Maura withdrew three cinched bags from within her cloak. She passed off one each to Elodie and Aurienna, who both began to move, sprinkling ash from the bags as they walked.
“Where is my familiar?” I demanded.
Nothing else mattered anymore. At least, nothing that I could see or feel. My chest ached terribly, but there were too many causes to blame just one.
Maura waved away my concern. “You will be reunited with her eventually.” She stepped around the lines of ash that the other two witches carefully laid out. “You have been so helpful, Koryn. Do hold still for this last bit.”
“Why, Maura.” A demand, not a question.
She took my arm, grasping it in the same place she had on a dark, frigid night three hundred and seventy-seven years before.
“Why do you think I have lingered in Velora all of these years? I will not be just the head witch of this coven, but of all the covens. A queen of witches.”
“Vassal to a fae overlord,” I seethed. Keeping my mouth shut had never been a particular strength of mine.
“You are so shortsighted, Koryn. You are ruled by your emotions rather than your mind. It is why you never mastered your active power.” She dug her pointed fingernail into the tender skin of my forearm, ripping open the wound that had healed only days before.
She squeezed until several drops of blood spilled across the ground. The lines of ash burst into flame. I did not miss the irony—a frost witch, imprisoned in a pentacle of blood.
“Koryn, I need you to listen to me.”
Garrick’s voice hit me with the sharpness of a knife. I felt it in my gut.
I did not turn my head. I refused to look his way. But that did not stop him.
“They are going to take you away from the gates. No matter what happens, you must remember the oath?—”
“Enough!” Maura ordered. “That should be enough blood to pacify the gods for now.”
“The Dark God will punish you for this treachery,” I breathed.
Maura licked her lips. “Not even the Dark God can save you now, Koryn.”
Then she snapped her fingers, and the world went dark.
EPILOGUE
GARRICK
You cannot have her.
