Memnon arches a brow at me.

I’ve…got a plan.

The corner of his lip twitches. I have no doubt.

The elevator dings without ever moving, and the doors reopen, revealing floor B1, a.k.a., the parking garage.

From our bond, I feel Memnon’s amusement. Incredible plan.

If you have a better one, I’m all ears. I pull out my phone as the doors close, checking the time.

11:44 p.m.

Six minutes until I’m to show up at the lobby. Sixteen minutes until midnight. My legs begin to tremble as I put the phone away and the elevator descends to B2.

Steady, my queen. We’ll get them.

Do you think there will be any more wards? We haven’t come across⁠—

Darkness steals the last of my thoughts and my consciousness along with it. I don’t feel it when I hit the floor.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 48

“I’ll be damned. We got them both.”

I make a noise as I blink my eyes open. My cheek is pressed to cold marble, and the room is sideways, but I can see several sets of suit-clad legs.

Before I can rise onto my knees, I feel someone’s boot connect with the back of my head. I grunt as pain explodes behind my eyes, dulling my vision, and I fall back to the floor.

Behind me, I hear a scream.

“Stay down,” a masculine voice growls at me, “or we’ll make you.”

Somewhere beyond my back, I can hear soft sobbing.

The man who kicked me now moves away, his boots squeaking against the floor. “I assumed you’d be happy you wouldn’t have to die tonight,” he taunts the crying woman.

Sybil.

I lift my head and turn it, uncaring that I might receive another hit to the head for the action.

The hit doesn’t come, and the first thing I see is my friend, flanked by several burly men who are currently talking quietly to one another. At least I think that’s Sybil.

Horror drips down my spine as I take her in. Both of her eyes are bruised and swollen nearly shut, and her body is bloody. She’s still sobbing, her entire body quaking.

“Sybil…” I whisper, reaching for her.

Sybil glances up at me, then shakes her head frantically, her gaze moving briefly to one of the men standing guard. The man glances her way, and she shrinks back, her shoulders curling in on herself.

Was he the one who gave her those bruises? He’s a dead man.

Ignoring her warning, my power leaves my palm, aimed at the guard in question. It’s only moved about a foot from me when it fans out across an invisible wall.

What the⁠—?

I sit up a little more, and that’s when I notice the hastily made chalk circle drawn around me, clearly made to contain me and my power inside.

I reach out a finger to the edge of the chalk, but instead of touching the powdery substance, I feel the bottom of the circle’s transparent wall.

I’m trapped.

My attention moves past the invisible barrier to the rest of the room. Everything in me goes still when I see a massive, slumped form just beyond my feet, trapped in his own chalk circle.

I make a low, aggrieved sound. All I can see of him from this angle is his wavy black hair and his broad back. He lies there, unmoving.

Memnon? Are you all right?

I wait for some sort of response, but the bond between us is idle. I let out another noise, and the guard who kicked me scowls down at me, taking a step in my direction.

“Leave it, Dain,” one of the other guards says, “Sophia is already on her way, and she wants the girl terrified, not beaten.”

Memnon, wake up! I push what magic I can down our bond.

Nothing.

I can still feel the eyes of the guard, Dain, on me. “Sophia wants the girl terrified?”

For the love of your gods, est xsaya, wake up! I command.

On the other side of our connection, I feel his awareness flicker, and his body stirs a little.

“I can give her terrified,” Dain says darkly.

Sybil cowers as he passes her, and I swear I see my friend’s nails elongate before quickly retracting. Dain stops at the edge of the chalk circle encasing my mate. He assesses Memnon curiously before lifting a buffed black shoe as though preparing to kick the back of the sorcerer’s skull.

Memnon!

My power flares out of me and fills the spell circle as Dain’s leg snaps out.

Faster than I can follow, Memnon rolls onto his back and catches Dain’s boot in his hands. With a jerk of his arms, he twists Dain’s leg.

Snap.

Dain screams as bone breaks, and he topples into the circle.

One of the other guards rushes after Dain, who Memnon now has by the head. My mate twists hard to the right⁠—

Snap.

Sybil screams as the lifeless body of Dain slumps against Memnon, partway in, partway out of the spell circle.

The sorcerer is already angling the body to try to get some part of it to smudge the chalk and break the circle when one of the guards grabs on to Dain’s legs.

In the distance, I hear an elevator ding, followed by the click of heels, but I hardly pay it much attention.

I rise to my feet, placing my palms on the translucent walls of my cage as I watch my mate play tug-of-war with a corpse.

Est amage, are you all right? Memnon asks down our bond. His concern is so at odds with the merciless way he’s handling what’s left of Dain.

Now that you’re awake, yes.

You honor me, Memnon says.

“What the fuck is happening here?” Sophia’s voice echoes from the hallway beyond Memnon. A moment later, she enters the room, two more guards in suits flanking her.

Her eyes fall to Memnon, Dain, and the guard tussling with my mate.

She lifts an arm toward my mate. “Sleep.” The spell hits the sorcerer square in the face, and I cry out as he falls back against the invisible wall of his cage, his eyes closed.

The other guard stumbles back with the lifeless body of Dain.

“You fucking fool,” Sophia spits out at him. “Do you realize this is a sorcerer we have trapped? Had I not shown up when I did, you’d be dead and my family’s chance at revenge would’ve been squandered.” Her magic is unspooling out of her with her anger. “Get the hell off the ground, and take the girl”—she gestures to Sybil—“upstairs to the auction room.”

Sybil wails at the order, and I cry out along with her.

The guard drops Dain and hustles over to Sybil, roughly grabbing my friend by the arm and prying her from the two remaining guards posted on either side of her. Sybil begins to shriek and flail. Fur sprouts from her skin before retreating back into her.

“You will not shift,” the sorceress commands, “nor will you fight back.”

Sybil cries out brokenly, a shiver racking her body as the order does something to her. The fact that Sophia’s words worked at all means my friend must be bonded to her again.

A hopeless sort of fury rises in me. Sybil had done so much to escape this woman and all for what, a day or two of freedom?

I slam my fist against the wall of the spell circle as I watch the guard drag my sobbing friend away.

The action catches Sophia’s eye, and she turns to me briefly. “Ah, yes, Selene. You made it. Just in time, too.” She follows my gaze to where I’m looking at Sybil. “Oh, don’t worry about her. I am a woman of my word, and I did promise that if you came, your friend’s life would be spared.” She flashes me a smile that’s more cruel than sweet. “So I shall spare it.” Sophia calls out to the retreating guard. “Make sure you first ensure the girl is healed and then get her appropriately dressed for the auction. She needs to look enticing, not like she’s been mauled by wolves.” Sophia gives me a conspiratorial look. “Though I hear she’s into that sort of thing these days.”