Lia steps up to me. I can see the pointed tips of her heels.
“My, my, you are a powerful witch. No one warned me about that. They all said you were weak, forgetful. An easy target but a poor asset.” She taps the toe of one of her shoes against the bare floor. “And what is this?” She looks at me, but her eyes are unfocused. She tilts her head. “Another bond?” She frowns. “Two bonds?”
The fact that she can sense any bonds besides hers is horrifying.
She takes me by the jaw and tilts my head up. “I cannot allow them to exist.” There’s a gleeful gleam in her eyes. “That would complicate things. Your first true task once I release you tonight will be to sever each of those bonds the first chance you get.”
I press a hand to my sternum as her malevolent power digs in, and I begin to heave, over and over, as it forces its intentions upon me.
Memnon could survive such an assault, but sweet, cranky Nero, who’s waiting for me even now…
I heave again.
No, no, no.
Plum-colored magic spills from Lia, giving her an ominous backdrop. “Let’s go over the basics. You will never harm me,” she commands, the order slipping straight down the bond and into me. “You will do everything in your power to protect and serve me.”
My fingers dig into the skin over my sternum. I can feel Lia in me just as I can Memnon. But where Memnon’s magical presence is familiar and comforting, Lia’s magical imprint feels like a violation.
She comes over to me then and places a hand on my head. I want to knock it away, but one of her commands activates and stops me.
I grind my teeth together, my body bowed beneath her touch.
Her deep purple magic trickles over me, then into me, and I’m powerless to stop it. But as it slips down my throat and into my body, I feel it driving out the effects of the drug in my system. I can feel my own magic swarm me again, and my control over it sharpens.
“I imagine that feels better, doesn’t it?” she asks from above me.
I press my lips together.
“Answer me.”
“Yes,” I hiss out.
Her hand slides from my head. “Why don’t we have a demonstration of what it means to be bonded to me?”
I hear the click of her heels as she moves away from me.
“Bow to me.”
It’s not even a choice. Her power forces my body to obey. I bend forward at the waist, my arms stretching out in front of me. I press my palms into the cold concrete.
“Now crawl over and kiss my feet.”
This is a nightmare, I think as I move across the ground to her.
Finally I understand her motives for healing me. If I were still injured, I would be incapable of doing these degrading acts. Lia obviously knows there’s more than one way to hurt someone.
I press a kiss to the top of her foot, every fiber of me rejecting this moment. Lia yanks her leg back, out of my reach, and kicks my face, sending me sprawling backward.
I taste blood in my mouth as my head cracks against the concrete.
“Thank me for hurting you.”
I can hear the glee in her voice. This evil motherfucker.
“Thank you for hurting me.” The words are pried from my throat.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Lia smile, her eyes narrowed. “Get up.”
My legs position themselves under me, and I rise.
“That’s better,” she says, assessing me.
I try to lunge at her, but that same insidious magic moves through me, seizing up my muscles before I can do more than lean forward. She doesn’t even notice.
She glances to the corner of the room, where the clay monster waits in the shadows.
“Creature, come here.”
I tense as I watch it approach. On its forehead, that same archaic word I saw the night of the spell circle. I couldn’t remember it’s name or meaning then, because I thought it was Aramaic. But it’s not. There’s another language that shares the same alphabet as Aramaic—Hebrew.
The Hebrew word I’m looking at is emet.
Truth.
It was one of a few hundred words I learned of Hebrew before my first life was cut short. The sight of it now pricks my skin. This is ancient magic at play.
When the creature gets to her, Lia reaches out and touches its cheek tenderly. “Though I have many bonds,” she says, “I don’t have a familiar. My creature here is the closest thing that comes to one.”
It’s literally a glorified pot.
She continues to creepily stroke its skin. “Selene, you are not to defend yourself against it.”
I’m not to—what? My gaze sharpens, moving between the two figures.
“Creature, hurt her.”
The fuck?
The massive monster strides toward me, and I stumble back, calling on my magic.
To my shock, it comes to me. But the moment I try to direct it at the monster, my magic halts, bound by Lia’s command.
Shit.
The creature grabs me by the throat and throws me across the room. I crash into a stack of cardboard boxes shoved near one of the walls, and I grunt at the impact, the boxes rattling as whatever’s inside them is shaken.
I can’t defend myself, I think as I scramble off the boxes as the monster heads toward me once more. That was the command. But it’s not immutable. There are always workarounds. I should know—I spent years figuring out my own when it came to functioning with memory loss.
Lia’s orders have holes I can exploit. She commanded me not to defend myself, but leading an attack isn’t the same thing.
I gather my magic in my palms.
I might only have one chance at this. I better make it count. I level my gaze on the approaching monster.
“Annihilate.” I shove my power out at the creature.
It hits it square in the chest—
BOOM!
The spell shatters the monster and launches sharp sherds in every direction. I barely have time to throw up a hasty ward before bits of the creature blow back at me.
Across from me, Lia shrieks as hundreds of the sharpened fragments drive themselves into her with unnatural force.
This is my opening.
I dash for the exit.
“Stop!” she shouts.
My feet pause midstride, and I want to shriek in frustration. The door out is mere feet from me.
“I forbid you from using your magic again tonight,” Lia says hoarsely.
My power dries up, receding back into my body.
“Creature,” Lia continues as she heals her various wounds, “repair yourself, then attack the witch.”
My stomach hollows out, and I try not to panic as I stand there immobilized. I blew the monster into a thousand pieces. Surely it can’t come back and hurt me?
But even as I think it, I hear broken bits of pottery scrape across the ground behind me. They clatter as they fit themselves together.
The thing is going to reanimate. Then it will hurt me, and I still cannot defend myself, and I cannot use magic. I might still be able to attack it, but I cannot move my legs.
I hear the thing behind me drag itself to its feet. Its heavy steps have me bracing. Once I see it, I’ll try to smash its arms.
Only, it never comes within my line of vision. It stops somewhere close to my back, and the momentary stillness is hellish.
The hit comes seconds later, the monster’s heavy fist driving into the side of my skull with so much force I go sprawling.