Bedeviled (Bewitched #4)

Things to Remember in Case Love Gives You Amnesia

Remember how the last time I wrote down one of these reminders I warned you about Memnon? Maybe you could actually listen to me this time.

So here’s a quick recap: Way back in the buttholes annals of time, Memnon the Cursed was screwed over by this fairy named Eislyn. (She sucks, FYI.) She enchanted him to sleep in a tomb, but she framed it to appear as though his wife betrayed him.

And babe, you were the wife.

There are a lot of details here that sound inexplicable unless you understand that one, you and Memnon are soul mates, and two, you lived once before as Roxilana, Memnon’s queen and the co-ruler of the Sarmatians.

But back to the present: When you went on your magic quest and stumbled upon Memnon’s tomb and woke his ancient ass, he incorrectly believed you, his long-lost wife, betrayed him. And in retaliation he did a lot of fucking rude things, such as:

forcing you into a marriage pact against your will

making you remember an ancient and traumatic past against your wishes

nearly asphyxiating a room full of your coven sisters—and their dates—at the Samhain Ball

framing you for murder

sending you to jail

bailing you from jail and thinking that somehow this was all going to work out well for him

It didn’t, however, work out well for him, because you are Selene motherfucking Bowers, and you can be a petty little shit when you want to be. So, you:

burned down his house (10/10 would recommend)

made him view the final memories of your aforementioned traumatic past, and forced him to realize you were 1000 percent not at fault for his entombment, and he is a loser

and lastly, you forged a bond where he would be entirely under your command in action and deed, which listen, you didn’t want the bond, but you needed his help to find the actual murderer behind the killings happening across Henbane’s campus, and separately you also needed his help to figure out who was threatening you after you stopped a forced bonding from happening at a spell circle

oh, I almost forgot: you also put off marrying Memnon by amending the terms of the forged bond—specifically that the bond between you two could only be broken if/when you fell in love with him, and only once that happened would your unbreakable oath to marry go back into effect

The forged bond between you and Memnon really worked. (Maybe a little too well. Sidenote: don’t drink witch’s brew if you want to keep the sorcerer at arm’s length.)

Anyway, Memnon helped you solve both who was behind the threats you were receiving and who was behind the campus killings.

It turned out that the murders and the forced bonds were both the result of a massive trafficking ring run by a dynasty of sorcerers.

This dark empire was headed by Luca Fortuna and his children Leonard, Juliana, and Sophia Fortuna.

His daughter Juliana—she also goes by “Lia”—was the one who you stopped at the spell circle, and she also ended up being the one who was threatening you.

Out of vengeance she came after you, tortured you, then forcibly bonded you to herself.

The situation was looking pretty bleak until Memnon broke into the building where you were held captive and he killed Lia, your bondmaster, effectively severing the bond.

(He also killed the rest of your enemies in the building, which made it to the news, so yeah, it’s a whole ongoing thing.

Maybe actually burn this after reading it.)

There are other events that have been happening as well—the friendship with the lycanthropes of the Marin Pack fell through, and you discovered that your best friend, Sybil, was trafficked in this horrible ring.

To break the forced bond placed upon her, Sybil allowed herself to be bitten by her shifter boyfriend.

She’s now living with the Marin Pack on the other side of the coven’s property line for the next lunar cycle while she learns to control her shifts since she’s now a werewolf and a witch.

(A werewitch? Sidenote: if I call her that, do you think she will immediately unfriend me?)

Okay, but back to the trafficking ring. The Fortunas held an auction on the night of the new moon, and you and Memnon crashed it.

Things did not go as planned and, long story short, you ended up trapped in a spell circle with a demon.

That was roughly when you realized the witches who’d been murdered on campus were actually sacrificed and—gag—eaten by demons.

And you were set to be the latest sacrifice.

Fortunately, you sent the demon back to hell, broke the spell circle, and took down Luca Fortuna with the assistance of the Hungering Ones.

You then went to stop the auction still taking place in the building, and it was during this time that both you and Memnon saw Eislyn, the millennia-old fairy who first got you all into this mess.

Memnon, in a rage, lost control of his powers, and during the chaos, Eislyn got away and some more bad people died, including Sophia Fortuna.

Which, sidenote: in the wake of this entire mess, Memnon may or may not have stolen the Fortuna’s multi-million-dollar empire right out from under their nose.

It’s all written out in Luca Fortuna’s succession plan.

Anyway, back to the horror show of the auction.

You were able to bring Memnon back from being consumed by his magic because, oh, I forgot to mention, you fell in love with him.

The one thing you weren’t supposed to do.

So the forged bond between you two is now finally broken, and bad news, babe: now you really do have to marry the sorcerer.