Chapter 1
Est amage, I hope you’re ready. Memnon’s silken voice raises the hairs along my forearm as he speaks across our magical bond. It’s time to get married.
Goddess.
Married.
I can barely breathe around the thought.
And yet, I can feel the magic from the unbreakable oath we swore weeks ago—the one where I vowed to marry the two-thousand-year-old sorcerer—now pressing into my flesh.
It feels like a fist to my sternum, the pressure a nuisance.
Having experienced this once before, I know I only have a handful of hours before it will go from merely uncomfortable to debilitating.
It kills me that I had nearly gotten out of that vow through a magical loophole. All I had to do was not fall in love with the sorcerer.
My heart is a loser.
Fingers snap in front of my eyes. “Did you hear me? Selene?”
I blink and my residence hall returns to focus.
Sitting across from me in Ravensmeade’s dining hall is Kane Halloway, my friend and one-time crush. He frowns, the coffee I made for him long forgotten. His phone still rests before me, Luca Fortuna’s succession plan brightening its screen.
“Memnon took over the Fortunas’ empire,” he says slowly, emphasizing each word.
“All that shit that Luca and the rest of his family were running now belongs to your soul mate.” Kane only grimaces a little at those last two words, though it must’ve cost him.
Only a short while ago we were almost a thing, and Kane still hasn’t completely given up on the idea of it, despite me having a soul mate.
It’s time to get married.
And now a fiancé.
Abruptly, I stand, sliding the phone back to Kane. “You need to go.”
Kane takes the phone but doesn’t make a move to leave his seat.
Right, alpha werewolf. They’re allergic to orders.
“That’s it? No reaction? No outrage?” the shifter says, clearly disappointed.
I feel the tightness in my chest from that unbreakable oath. I know from memory that the magic’s hold is only going to get worse until I fulfill the terms of it.
“I need to get ready.” I back away from the table, distractedly releasing a little of my magic to carry the two colorful mugs of coffee I poured for us a short while ago to a nearby bin of dirty dishes.
“Ready for what?” Kane asks, finally rising. “What could you possibly have to do today?”
Turning from the shifter, I head down the dining hall, past the connecting kitchen and into our hallway.
“If you really must know,” I say over my shoulder, “I’m getting married.”
The invisible noose around my neck seems to tighten further, and the need to run buzzes beneath my skin.
It’s quiet behind me.
“What?” Kane finally breathes. After a moment, he adds, “You can’t possibly be serious.”
“I am.”
Kane catches up to me in a few long strides. “Even after everything he’s done?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Yep.”
He shakes his head, his jaw set. “You can’t go through with this.” His voice has roughened.
I pause in the foyer, noticing the eerie silence in my usually boisterous house. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to answer to you.” Not for the first time, I feel deep, deep gratitude that I don’t have to.
A soft growl rumbles in Kane’s chest. “You and I both know the man is evil,” he insists.
Obviously the man is not wrong. Memnon killed many people last night and many more before that, and he will likely kill more people in the future, but none of that is going to stop this wedding from happening.
I also cannot help but think of how the Hungering Ones, the primordial beings that exist deep in the earth, nearly snatched me away last night and how, if it were not for Memnon, I might not have seen the sunrise at all.
“Thanks for the heads-up, Kane. Now,” I say, “if you want to hang out here, be my guest, but I need to go.”
Crossing the foyer, I open the front door and leave my unsettlingly quiet residence hall behind.
“Selene!” I hear the lycan behind me, and I exhale, closing my eyes briefly. It was naive of me to think Kane wouldn’t follow.
“Stop trying to run away from what I’m saying,” he says obnoxiously.
I do not, in fact, stop.
Instead, I cut across the quiet campus grounds.
Out here, some witches are moving about between classes or lazing about on the front lawn.
But there are concerningly few of them, either due to the recent murders or the events of last night—events that might’ve freed many of my coven sisters from magical bonds that were forced upon them.
The lycanthrope jogs up to my side. “I know you don’t want to hear any of this, but marriage is a big deal.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I say, arching a brow.
I skirt around Cauldron Hall, heading for the Everwoods. Unfortunately, it’s the same direction Kane came from.
“Then is this sentimentality?” he says, a little of his wolf roughening his voice. “You think you need to marry him because you’re soul mates or because you had something long ago?” I can feel Kane’s gaze boring holes into the side of my face. “Because you don’t.”
“Kane, you actually have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say as the two of us hit the tree line, the daylight dimming.
“Please rethink what you’re about to do,” he says. “Because it cannot be undone.”
Of course marriage can be undone, but I don’t bother mentioning that. Nor do I care to explain to him that a magical oath is compelling me to marry Memnon.
An odd, possessive emotion has taken root in me. My soul mate might be terrible and tricky and violent, but he is mine. And when the world presses in, I cannot help but feel as though my back is up against his, the two of us facing out against everyone else.
“Why do you want me to rethink everything?” I say, glancing over at him. “Why is that so important to you?”
But I already know the answer, and so does he. The truth hangs in the air between us, unspoken yet so very loud.
Kane still has feelings. Or hell, maybe it’s just his pride that’s on the line. I doubt alphas are used to rejection.
For a moment, he looks utterly caught off guard, then defensive. The expression clears and he finally says, “I just want what’s best for you.”
I bite back a disbelieving huff.
“I’m not a packmate, Kane. No amount of orders will compel me to do what you think is best. Just forget about me.”
Through the dense boughs of the evergreen trees, I make out the stone slabs of graves and the iron fence that rings them.
Last Rites Cemetery.
I can practically feel his annoyance rolling off him.
“Fine, marry the asshole,” he says as we enter the graveyard through the open gate.
“Thank you for your permission,” I say sarcastically.
The chill autumn air cuts through my shirt and stirs my hair, and I think that Kane must be particularly cold in his tank top and shorts.
He still stubbornly strides next to me, his brows furrowed, a scowl on his face.
A few leaves flutter and scrape against the stone markers as a breeze blows through. I weave my way between graves until I come to a familiar tomb that isn’t a tomb at all.
My gaze passes over the moon phases carved onto the weathered gray stone of the crypt.
Lifting a hand, I murmur, “Pes ozkos izkas. Osgus wuvaksutagu sapu ditnavasa ivakmit ewasava.”
Open for me. Reveal what lies beyond.
The door swings inward, exposing the tomb’s darkened interior.
Kane staggers back, only now seeming to notice our surroundings.
His eyes sweep over the crypt, then the graves nearby, then return to me just as I step inside the darkened tomb.
Candles flicker to life, illuminating the empty chamber.
Well, nearly empty. Toward the back of the chilly room, there’s a sheen of light suspended in midair.
It looks for all the world like an oil slick. I step up to it.
“What in all the gods’ names are you doing?” Kane asks with rising alarm, his wolf back in his voice.
A slow smile blooms along my face as I rotate around and face him. “Witchy shit. I suggest you don’t follow.”
I catch a brief look of confusion on the shifter’s face before I step back onto the ley line—and then the magical portal swallows me up.