34
We met Tess and Puck in Zion’s office, where Zion and Annelise were already waiting.
She fumbled with her hands in her lap as we joined them. Without a word she beckoned us to follow her, and we made our way down the hallway, up the spiral staircase and out of the cottage.
The grimoire was safely tucked under my arm as we walked.
“Where are we going?” Tess called from behind as we made our way through the winding cobblestone streets of Siraleth.
“We need a place of immense power to complete the binding,” Annelise explained, not glancing over her shoulder.
Zion was quiet beside her.
I knew where we were going…I had seen it. The grimoire had shown me. We were going to the place Osiris, my father, was slain.
The place Donika killed him and almost killed her.
We crested a hill, and I could see the rubble mound before me. This ground was marked by an immense amount of magic, and you could feel it running up through your feet and into your bones. My magic responded in kind, and was at the tips of my fingers, waiting.
We found a level place among the rubble and Zion and Nik helped to clear a space free of the stray cinderblocks and rocks.
Annelise wasted no time on explanations and began right away. The others stood back as Nik, Annelise and I stood in the center. Annelise circled us, salt dripping from her hand as she went. The salt would keep the magic inside the circle, and with a spell of this magnitude it was of the utmost importance.
Once we were enclosed in the circle Annelise held her hand out for the grimoire, and after a moment of reluctance I complied. My hand felt empty without it, and I had the sense that the grimoire felt the same.
It wanted to come back to me.
Annelise flipped to the page with the key spell, running her fingers delicately across the parchment. She recited the words I had heard in the vision, the words that had allowed her hand to reach into the page. She turned the book towards me, her expression expectant.
“Hac voce te voco, clavem. Prodeunt,” I chanted as my hand spilled into the page, disappearing at the wrist.
When I pulled my hand back out of the book, the key was within my grasp, as if it had been a physical thing all along. The crystal caught the light of the sun high in the afternoon sky, blinding me for a moment. When my vision cleared a shock of energy ran up my arm, stinging the scar on my shoulder where the lightning had struck me. I almost dropped the key from the shock of pain, and I had to concentrate to keep it held within my grasp.
My magic surged forth hungrily, anxious to feed into the key. It was as if it recognized this ancient magic on its own, and knew what would happen next.
Annelise closed the grimoire and set it on the ground before us.
“Nik, would you like to do the honors?” she asked.
Before I could ask what, exactly, he was about to do, he waved his hand and a small black cauldron appeared before us with a single glass goblet sitting atop a pedestal.
I raised an eyebrow at him, but he only laughed.
“Shapeshifter magic,” he explained with a shrug.
I would never get over how he could simply conjure things out of thin air like that. They had to come from somewhere, and I recognized these items from the laboratory in the cottage underground.
Annelise bent to lift the cauldron, humming a spell under her breath until the cauldron began to smoke. She placed it on the pedestal, reaching into her jacket to extract a dagger she had hidden there.
She cut the dagger across her palm, letting the blood flow into the cauldron. She passed the dagger to Nik who did the same. When it was my turn, I handed the key to Nik and raked the dagger across my palm, hissing at the pain as I let my blood trickle into the cauldron to join theirs.
Annelise covered the cauldron with her hand, another spell spilling forth from her lips. I met Nik’s eyes across the circle and the corner of his mouth lifted into a reassuring smile.
We were about to be bound for eternity, and the thought had my heart in my throat. When Annelise finished the spell she turned to Nik, then me, her gaze hard.
“There is one more thing I need you to understand about this spell before we do it.”
“Ok,” I replied warily, my heart racing in my chest.
“This spell will not only bind your magic, but your lives.”
I swallowed hard, meeting Nik’s burning gaze across the circle as understanding dawned on us.
“If you die, so does he. If he dies, so do you,” Annelise’s voice was firm, but gentle.
She didn’t want us to blindly bind ourselves together to win this war, she wanted us to have all the information so we could decide for ourselves the best course of action. A wave of emotion rolled over me as I met her gaze, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“This isn’t a complication we discussed,” Zion called from outside the circle, his hard gaze settled on Annelise.
“It isn’t your choice, Zion,” Annelise replied, her voice ragged. “The choice is theirs.”
“But if he dies—” Zion shook his head, his eyes sparked with anger.
“Then she dies,” Annelise finished for him. “There is a price to this kind of magic, Zion. This is the price.”
“It’s a chance we have to take,” Nik spoke, his voice gentle.
His eyes held mine across the circle and they blazed with emotion. He was willing to tie not only his magic to me for an eternity, but his life.
“That is, if you agree,” Nik continued. “The decision is yours, Diana.”
Tears pricked the back of my eyes and I tilted my head back, willing them away. I had cried entirely too much lately. I clenched my fist around the wound from the dagger, the movement stinging and bringing clarity to my thoughts.
If Nik died, I would die.
If I died, so would Nik.
“And the spell is permanent?” I asked, my gaze traveling to Annelise.
Her eyes were soft as they met mine. Gentle. Understanding.
“As far as I know, yes.”
I swallowed hard, my eyes moving back to Nik’s. All I found there was warmth. Love. Empathy. He was willing to live with me or die with me, whatever fate had in store for us. If I died in this war, if that was the price of killing Donika, then he would die beside me.
And he was willing to pay that price.
For me.
A choked sob left me as I crossed the circle and fell into his arms. They came around me and held me up as I clung to him. The thought of losing him was devastating. Overwhelming. But this spell meant I would never have to live without him.
“If you agree, I agree,” I told him, pulling back only enough to look into his eyes. “This changes things. If it changes your answer, I understand.”
“Nothing has changed for me, Diana. In this life and the next, I’m yours.”
I fell into him as another sob tore free from my throat, tears wetting my cheeks as they fell in earnest. A million emotions were swirling inside of me, and I didn’t have time to process any of them. Annelise and the cauldron were patiently waiting, as was my magic.
We reluctantly released each other, and I crossed the circle again to stand by Annelise.
I nodded, meeting Zion’s gaze, then hers. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”
“My strong, magnificent, daughter.” Annelise’s voice was strangled as she turned to me, pride in her eyes.
Another wave of emotion rolled over me and I bit my lip hard to push it back. If I let it, the emotions and the consequences of the last few weeks threatened to drown me.
Annelise instructed me to drop the key into the cauldron. As soon as I did and the key mingled with our blood, it began to sizzle. A sweet-smelling smoke wafted into the air.
Annelise filled the single glass goblet with the blood, her eyes turning black, swirling with blood magic. She handed the goblet to me, and my hands trembled as I took it from her. The black eyes staring back at me were familiar, and I felt a pang in my stomach at the thought.
She knelt to retrieve the grimoire once more and opened to the page where the key spell was written.
“Hold the goblet and recite with me,” she instructed.
I moved to read over her shoulder, the grimoire giving an involuntary shudder as we spoke.
“Hoc sacrificium alligabo.”
“Hoc sacrificium alligabo.”
“Hoc sacrificium alligabo.”
The goblet was suddenly warm within my grasp, the spell having heated its contents.
“Now drink,” Annelise instructed.
At first I balked at the thought of consuming the blood, but her black eyes met mine and there was something encouraging in them. These were not the black, lifeless eyes of someone lost to dark magic. I brought the goblet to my lips. I had expected the salty, metallic taste of blood but what I found in the goblet was both sweet and tangy.
“Now, Nik,” she instructed.
I passed the goblet to him as I licked my lips clean, the blood staining my teeth. He brought the goblet to his mouth, his eyes on mine as he drank.
I felt a pull deep within me, the ember in my core surging forth as he swallowed. He passed the goblet to Annelise, but she did not drink, she simply placed it on the ground before us.
“Clasp your hands together, the next part requires a physical connection.”
We did as she asked, our hands lacing together as we faced each other. He gave me a reassuring half-smile, and I was glad I couldn’t see the blood that I’m sure stained his teeth as well. As our hands connected my magic surged forth again, pressing against me so intensely it almost swept me off my feet.
This was blood magic, and my magic both reveled in it and rebelled against it at the same time. It wasn’t dark magic, but it was unmistakably powerful and intense. For a moment I could picture how Donika could get drunk on this feeling, addicted to the power I sensed rushing through my veins as we recited the spell and my magic responded.
But no feeling in the world could excuse the lengths she went to. The lives she took. The sacrifices she made.
Annelise placed her hand over ours, reciting the last part of the spell.
“With this power I bind. Hac potestate teneor.” Her voice took on a melody as she repeated the words, over and over, blood red swirling in her black eyes.
My head was thrown back as magic surged up within me, running down my arms and through my fingertips towards Nik. He staggered back as the magic hit him, but he held on tightly.
The power surged within me so powerfully I ground my teeth against it, rearing back unintentionally.
“Hold fast!” Annelise called out, her hands grasping ours.
The rocks and sand kicked up around us inside the circle, my hair pulling free of its ties to swirl around me. The circle had become a tornado, the wind powerful enough that it threatened to sweep us off our feet.
But we held fast.
As my magic passed through my fingertips, I could sense another magic filling me, a magic I had never felt before. I dug my feet into the ground, determined to remain standing as the amount of power and magic rushing through my core threatened to bring me to my knees.
“Almost there!” Annelise called over the whipping winds.
My hair blew across my face, only allowing me to see bits and pieces of the magic flowing around us. Violet threads of magic encircled my hands, holding mine to Nik’s. In kind, crimson magic encircled his.
My breaths quickened as my brow furrowed, the amount of power filling me threatening to shatter me as if I were made of glass. My eyes found Nik’s through the dirt and sand, and they were wide as they held my gaze, Irises flashing violet as my magic filled him.
My knees threatened to buckle beneath me but Nik’s grip on me held me upright, and with one final word Annelise released us, and we sprang apart.
I hit the invisible shield of the salt circle with a crash, falling to my knees in the dirt. My vision swam for a moment as I realized we were finished. The spell was finished.
We were bound.
Nik’s eyes darkened as they met mine across the circle where he had been thrown back, too. He must have been feeling exactly what I was.
I felt everything.
I could feel Nik as if he were a piece of me, deep within the ember in my core. His energy was distinct, not as if it mixed with my own. I reached my hand out to him, and shadows snaked towards him from my fingertips. I pulled my hand back, my eyes flying to Annelise’s in alarm.
“This is a normal part of the binding. Each of you will have magic from the other, though not at the same strength or power as the one born to it.”
Nik nodded as he stood, coming to my side and helping me stand. Tears swam in my eyes as I glanced up at him, and his eyes sparked with something hungry. Despite the others being present, he brought his mouth down to mine, consuming me in a fiery kiss.
When we broke apart, Annelise was waiting patiently beside us with the goblet in her hands. She dipped her thumb into it and swiped the blood across my forehead, then Nik’s.
“May the mother witness, they are bound.”
“May the mother witness, we are bound,” we replied in unison.
As we spoke the words, the salt circle broke apart, Annelise’s eyes returning to their oceanic blue. The residual power in the circle spilled outwards, and as if it were a vortex we were pulled apart once more. Despite the rush of magic, we quickly found our bearings.
Tess and Puck were smiling as they moved towards us.
I reached into my core and pulled on my storm magic, and it answered willingly. Eagerly. The sky darkened and cracked with thunder overhead. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky. I waved my hand, and at once the clouds began to dissipate.
“Can I do that?” Nik asked with a smirk as he wound his arms around me.
“Not to that extent,” Annelise replied, leaning against the pedestal in the circle, “but some storm magic, yes.”
The spell had clearly taken a lot out of Annelise, and Zion went to her, holding her upright in his embrace.
With a wave of Nik’s hand the cauldron and goblet returned to the cottage laboratory.
“Can I do that?” I asked, raising my eyebrow at him.
“We will just have to see, firecracker,” he replied with a smile.
We had done it. We had the power between us to defeat Donika and bring peace to Istmere once more.
I could use my storm magic at will now, and I felt powerful. I could sense the magic sizzling right under my skin, warming me. The magic was singing right below the surface, never fully returning to my core as it had once before.
My storm magic and I were one.
And Nik…I could feel him as if he were a part of me. As if his soul resided in mine, and mine in his.
In this life and the next, we were bound.
Forever.