“Close your eyes. It will come easier to you in darkness. You are of the Dark God. You are one of us now,” Maura said to Alize. She did not reach for her hand or offer any comfort. Alize was surrounded by a coven, but she was alone.
Koryn.I’d never found our Lifebind lacking. But I wished in that moment that it afforded us a mind connection. I could not even see the pain on her face. The king had locked everything inside of us both.
Alize moved her arms awkwardly beneath her, pushing herself up to sit. My sister had never moved with anything but the exquisite grace gifted to her by her wind magic. But she did not have wind magic anymore. She was a witch, now. Dead. Resurrected. It was not her heart that pumped the blood that fed her organs, but Syleris’ power.
But Syleris did not stop it.I cannot.
Koryn heard a choice in those words. But Syleris was keeping secrets. The talismans were still in my pocket.
I cannot.Syleris could not.
I believed him, even if Koryn did not. He would not hurt her willingly.
“Witch,” the king warned. Alize jerked, her head snapping in his direction. Her eyes widened in horror; even resurrected, she remembered what had happened. But there was no fear in her eyes. Only rage.
Thick black ropes formed around Maura’s wrists. They crept up her arms, encircling her neck. They appeared at her ankles and wrapped around her legs. She stumbled sideways. Elodie tried to catch her, but they both went down.
What power or magic was this?
Maura clutched at her throat, the black band tightening so fast her eyes started to bulge. She was going to suffocate.
Alize—this was Alize.
Elodie realized it at the same time I did. She cast a spell so fast I could not catch the words. A wooden club formed in her hand, and she brought it down on Alize’s head before my sister could realize she needed to protect herself from behind.
Alize slumped to the floor, unconscious once more. The ropes binding Maura disappeared instantly. The head witch lay sprawled across the bloody pentagram, gasping for precious air.
“Well?” the king demanded. He was unbothered by Maura’s brush with the second death.
Maura got an arm underneath herself. She used the other to wave Elodie forward. The shapeshifter knelt down at Alize’s side and splayed her fingers out over the center of her chest.
The Dark God granted witches their power based on their manner of death. Alize was strangled, and now she had the ability to create bindings from nothing. But what did that mean to Maura and the king?
Elodie lifted her hand away. She took a step and leaned down to confer with Maura in whispers, then returned to her place on the pentagram. She did not offer her head witch a hand up.
Maura found her feet. If her legs wobbled, her voluminous robes hid it. Her mass of dark curls was askew, but she took the time to straighten them and her spine before she addressed the king.
“She is earth-bound, Your Majesty.”
The King of the Fae stared down the head witch of the Midnight Coven. My father had always had a temper. Those who survived at Balar Shan became adept at recognizing and avoiding it. But Maura stood under the full weight of his fury as it burned out of his turquoise eyes.
If he could have killed her then, he would have. I knew it. From the defiant tilt of her chin, Maura knew it, too. The only reason the king did not attack was that he was not assured of a victory.
“Then we have no use for her. Do with her as you wish,” he said.
The king strode from the presence chamber, the fae courtiers stumbling over themselves to open a path for him.
Behind their masks, there was fear in their eyes. Maybe they had never realized what their king was truly capable of, or maybe they had thought he would never turn upon a fae. But he left his daughter in the clutches of a witch. No one in Balar Shan was safe.
Feeling coursed back into my limbs. For a moment, the world spun, the heady drunkenness of self-control coming back. The first step I took of my own volition was to tug Koryn into my arms.
Isanara hissed behind me, but I did not care. She could take a bite if she wanted. I needed Koryn safe, if only for a second, even if it was a lie.
“Stop!” Alize screamed. She was conscious again. Fire burned along the lines of the pentagram, trapping her inside.
“A coven can only have five, and I have no use for another earthbound witch,” Maura said. The flames whipped higher.
Koryn twisted out of my arms. Isanara roared at her side.
