“Then it must be done.” I grabbed a small, ceremonial knife from my purse and pierced my index finger, letting three small drops of blood drip into the tiny container.
I paused before I started the same process with Connor. “What's the favor you want in return?”
Cassiel's form began to fade. “That's easy, my dear. Keep Bryn and my grandchild safe. Protect them, always.”
“With my life.”
After Cassiel disappeared, I slit the tip of Connor's finger. Three drops of blood fell into the vial.
Smoke rose from the container, and I quickly capped it. I shook the vial until the contents turned a beet red. Within seconds the dark red dissolved into a purple resembling the color of an eggplant.
“Here goes nothing.” I took a sip from the vial, trying not to gag as I swallowed quickly. Then I held Connor's mouth open and poured the rest into his mouth.
His body jerked and he woke. “Shit! Aylin?” He leaned forward, trying to spit out the contents.
“No! Swallow it.”
His face turned red, but he looked into my eyes and swallowed.
My imprint sizzled. I held back a scream. The orange glow illuminated, the black char turning a crimson red. My blood boiled and spread from my wrist until it captured my heart. I convulsed, my body rejecting the flood of dark magic.
Cassiel warned it would be painful, but never said I would be burned alive. Slowly, painfully—like a witch burning at the stake.
“Aylin,” Connor gasped. He held his wrist as if he experienced the same gut-wrenching agony that I was.
But I couldn't respond. I panted and tried to calm my body. I imagined lying in an ice bath, the frigid water cooling my burning skin.
Connor placed his hand over mine. “Aylin, look at me.”
I forced open my eyes, trying to ignore the inferno burning within me. “What?”
He grabbed my wrist and turned it until my imprint faced upward. The half-moon shone bright, the black char gone. But the twining light running from my imprint to Connor's stopped my heart.
Connor's imprint?
I seized his wrist; it was imprinted with a bright half-moon. Strands of light ran from his to mine and intertwined into one. Our souls melding together. Vena Amoris. Strands of love ran from the soulbond through the vein until it pierced the heart.
We were bonded.
“No.” I couldn't believe that he really was my mate. We never even completed the bond. But here he was, with an imprint that matched my own.
“Yes.” He smiled, watching the strands that connected us.
“No, we've not completed the bond. It can't be.”
“Yet, here we are.”
I wanted to smack the smile from his face. “I'm still pissed at you for marking me.” I felt the two bumps on my neck and frowned. “The guys are going to have a fucking heyday with this.” I smacked his hand away from mine.
“Sorry.” His smile widened. “But how exactly did this happen?”
What had Cassiel called it? “Sanguinem Magicae, blood magic. It must've ignited our magic and made your soul recognize me as your mate.”
I eyed the welts still encompassing his body. With a push against his chest, I shoved him backward on the couch.
“I like where this is going.” Connor pulled me on top of him.
“Not what you're thinking. Now, that the easy part is over, we need to extract the poison from your body. I may be pissed, but I don't want you to die.” I straddled him and placed my hands against the largest welts on his stomach.
“Honey, I'm very much alive.”
“Oh, I can tell.” I winked at him, trying to hide my fear of absorbing the poison. I wasn't about to disclose to him what Cassiel had warned me about.
Instead, I called forward my magic and aligned my healing energy. The bond amplified my connection to Connor, and I sensed my power enter his body. I wrapped it around the darkness and pulled it from his body into my own.
Adrenaline spiked through me. The more dark matter I absorbed, the further away I slipped. My body fought the onslaught. Sweat dripped from my forehead. The salty mixture burned my eyes, but I continued.
“Aylin, stop!” Connor shouted.
I couldn't. He was almost scrubbed clean from Gabriel's poison.
Just a little bit more.
I pulled the last strands from Connor. When my magical power stopped, I fell into darkness like a rubber band snapping.
But I'd done it.
Chapter Seven
Aylin
I fight my way through murky fog as the weight barrels down on me like a train. It is difficult to trudge forward, but a light guides me. I don’t believe in anything after death, but staring into the heavenly glow, I reconsider.
Then that light waves a pink drink in my face. Hysterical laughter follows.
“Aylin, what on earth brings you to the Table?” Nadia bounds forward. The fog vanished and Nadia’s light illuminated the chair. My chair. The one with a reddish wolf among the seven at the Table. I want to feel a connection, but numbness consumes me.
Despite her cheerfulness, I find it difficult to express any form of emotion. A shield dampens every feeling—my happiness, anger, joy, pain. They are all gone. My body is present, but my soul, my psyche aren’t. Like a blank slate, the only thing present is my knowledge.
“Nadia, help!” I beg with a raspy voice.
“Drink, drink, drink.” Nadia pushes the pink liquid toward me.
I gag from the acrid smell. My nostrils burn and my eyes water.
I can’t drink it.
“I said, drink!” Her voice is darker and deeper.
Nadia?
I step back, eyeing the creature in front of me. Nadia's sunken corpse glares. Her evil smirk says, I will kill you.
Nadia wouldn't capture me. I have to be dreaming. She can’t hurt me in my imagination. Can she?
I move back into the darkness. Away from the corpse. I focus on pulling myself back to reality. Back to Connor.
