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“Now, now, that’s no way to talk to your beloved, is it? I don’t understand why you are fighting this, Theo. Isn’t this what you always wanted? To be by my side forever? For me to finally claim you? For someone to finallywant you?”
Acting on some childish reflex, I draw back my head, gathering up all the saliva in my mouth, and spit in his face. The wad of gunk lands on one eye with a loudthwack, dripping disgustingly down his cheek. His horrified expression makes it worth the way the bonds around my chest squeeze terrifyingly tight.
“If you were so confident I still wanted you, you wouldn’t have kidnapped me, Darius. I wouldn’t mate with you if you were the last being on earth. Gods, I wouldn’t piss on your teeth if your mouth were on fire.Rot in the ether, Darius!”
My voice raises to a furious shout, echoing through the Falls over the sound of the rapids below us. The rage only feeds the power buzzing inside me, but it’s volatile, like a child learning to hone their gifts for the first time, only bigger, stronger. It feels like a volcano inside me about to burst.
Darius, a man I once thought I loved, and I stare each other down from opposite sides of the altar. His hand flexes by his side, bound in that black ribbon, no doubt used in the matingbinding ritual. His chest heaves with each breath he takes, power and anger rippling from him in waves. Tipping me closer to the edge of exploding.
“Good thing I don’t need your agreement. The magic of my father’s people may be largely lost, even before the Great Wars that ripped the power from us beings to save the pathetic humans, but some have remained loyal. Haven’t forgotten the way of our people. And my people, Theo, didn’t ask for what they wanted. Theytookit. Not through war or other barbarities. No, we used our wits and our cunning-”
“Yeah.” It seems my fool mouth has a mind of its own under pressure nowadays. And there is alotof pressure on my chest—it’s getting more than a little difficult to breathe. “And that worked outgreatfor your clan didn’t it?”
Another hard slap of magic, this time to my other cheek for good measure, snaps my head to the side. He didn’t pull back at all this time, pain radiating through my jaw and down my neck. My head spins from the whiplash, and it occurs to me that maybe I should keep my mouth shut if I want to get out of this alive.
“Enough of this, Theo. It’s time.” When my eyes blink open, through the haze of tears and black spots blurring my vision, I watch in horror as Darius raises his arms to the blue sky, his head thrown back as he chants mystical words, channelling ancient powers.
The candles before him are lit, the incense is burning, and the magic is brewing. I don’t know the words he is chanting. I can’t recognise the language, a long dead tongue, but I can feel the magic swirl around us and this sacred space.
Everything grows dimmer, greyer, as he casts his circle, as though we are encompassed in a mercurial cloud. The world feels detached from us, like we are displaced from reality.
He has managed to call the astral plane to us, merging the astral and physical realms in one temperamental convergence, a powerful and complicated ritual. The magical bonds around me loosen as Darius’s power is diverted into his workings, allowing me more precious oxygen into my lungs.
“It’s time, my mate, to bind our lives together.”
Pure, primitive fear floods my very spirit, wiping my mind of every thought, logical or not. There is only instinct. Wild, perilous, and stupid instinct. There is no possible way to escape. Desperate, I wrench my arms against their bonds as Darius rounds the altar with jet-black eyes and malevolent intent in his step. In the hand wrapped in the black ribbon he carries a blade. It is obviously ceremonial, but that doesn’t mean he is not going to draw blood. In fact, that is definitely his number one intention.
He stops immediately before me and cocks his head, listening for something in the distance. The gesture is so unexpected I almost giggle, obviously having lost my mind entirely. But then I hear whatever he has heard.
There are people calling. Yelling. Down below, their voices faint from the distance and the roar of the falls and the pounding in my ears. But it’s there. People calling out.
For me.
Darius and I seem to have the same realisation at the same instant, and everything becomes confusing and chaotic all at once. The cloud-like circle around us drops immediately, Darius instead diverting his power entirely to the bonds around me. With the last full breath of air before the bonds seize again, I yell as loud as I can to the people below.
“You fucking idiot!”Darius seethes, snatching me up roughly, pressing my back to his chest like a shield, the knife in his hand suddenly against my throat. There is a sizzle where his body makes contact with mine, but he is too far gone to feel it.
Instead, like the cornered animal he is, he frantically eyes the scene, above and below the Falls, edging us dangerously close to the cliff's edge to see who has arrived.
“Theo!” My brother's broken cry breaks my heart. He stumbles free of Caelan’s grasp to race to the edge of the pool as if he can somehow swimupthe waterfall to me.
They are all there—Seff, Edith, Seldon, andRoan. My poor Roan, he looks frantic and ready to go completely off the rails. Every vein on his skin raised and red, his muscles enlarged. I can see him heaving in rage even from this far away, feel the burn of his eyes on me.
But there are others there, too. More witnesses than I can count to my mortifying second kidnapping. They are patrons. From the Tavern? The mages are there in their swirling jewelled cloaks, fae of all varieties, even a pack of bear shifters I’d been friendly with whenever they passed on through.
Even that minotaur who’d been a massive dick a few weeks back. Turns out he was a nice guy, just problems with his mate had made him act like a jerk.
Well, shit. My eyes begin to burn with fresh tears. The idea that so many people had come to find me is somehow more overwhelming than the kidnapping itself.
Behind me, I can feel the anxiety vibrating off Darius. He seems to also be realising just how big the crowd is, and what it might mean for him.
What he doesn’t seem to realise is that behind us, the nabras have been silently stalking their way across the clearing.
“Don’t even think about coming up here!” Darius screams hysterically to the crowd gathered below, jerking me wildly about with his movements.
This whole thing has spun wildly out of control. Though it wasn’t exactly a well-thought-out plan to begin with. Darius seems like he is on the edge of losing it entirely. But then, sanemen don’t kidnap their exes to force them to mate with them, so I’m not sure he ever really had it to begin with.
I doubt rational decision making is top of his agenda right now. In the deepest recesses of my consciousness, I almost feel bad for him, but if only one of us is making it out of here, it’s going to be me.
