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I gagged, my fingers clutching at his wrist. Finally he let go. I slid to the floor, leaning against the bars, laughing weakly as I wiped blood and spit from my face. “You are, aren’t you? That’s why you’re so desperate you’d risk Nyxaris’s wrath.” Florence stared at me, eyes bright with terror. I held her gaze. “Nyxaris will come. He will tear this place apart.” I closed my eyes and whispered to myself, “And I’ll be glad.”

Viktor pretended he couldn’t hear me. He moved back to Florence and brushed her hair from her face, then reached down and loosened one of her restraints. Florence made a muffled cry as her arm was freed, straining her body away from him. But it was pointless.

I rattled my chains against the bars. “Don’t touch her. You want blood? Take some more of mine.”

He ignored me. A blade flashed. Florence moaned as a line of red blossomed across her skin. Viktor caught the blood carefully in a vial.

“Who is it?” I demanded. “Who are you binding, me to her? You to her? Which is it?” I shook my head. “I won’t let you do this. You’ll have to kill me.”

He looked over at me, smiling slowly. “You’re truly under the illusion that I would require your consent?” He laughed. “After all you’ve been through, I would have thought you’d be wiser than that by now.”

I closed my eyes. “So which is it?”

“Why just one? Why not both?”

“Both?” I looked at him, perplexed. “What?” I whispered.

His red eyes gleamed. “You broke a Blood Vow, and yet you still don’t understand the significance of what you really told me. What you revealed to me about that Avari dog.”

I thought of Kage—then quickly wished I hadn’t. Remembering him, thinking about him was too painful. I clenched my jaw. “You only know he’s a wolf,” I said dully. “What does it matter?”

He’d gotten away, that’s what mattered. I’d saved Kage. I’d done all I could. I’d given … everything I had. My hope of saving Persis. My freedom. Now it looked like even my life. And I’d do it again. In a heartbeat. Even though it hadn’t turned out the way I’d expected it to.

Viktor’s smile was all too genuine. I shifted uncomfortably. “Stop fucking smiling, you asshole.”

“That wolf should have died at my hands. I left him there, bleeding out and ruined.” He paused while I seemed to be holding my breath. “Yet my sources tell me he somehow lives.”

My heart sped up.

“His bitch of a grandmother has not been found, however. If she is truly dead, then every Avari with power will listen to him. Through him, through you, I can force their entire house into docility.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

“You broke a Blood Vow. You should have died. Do you not realize what it means that you did not? You were my consort, but apparently you are the Avari dog’s whore.” He gave a horrible, deep-throated laugh. “And you are his mate.” The word echoed.

I stared, not understanding. Then Kage’s words to me on the cliff one night hit me. When a wolf finds his true mate, he knows. A chill went through me. I hadn’t asked to be Kage’s mate. I hadn’t agreed to anything like that. But when our blood had mixed … when we’d made the vow … I thought of the feeling of our blood mixing, as if his very soul was sliding into my body. Like fire racing straight from his veins to mine. I touched my palm, tracing the place where the scar had faded. Was there still some part of Kage inside me, marking me as his mate? Some part of me that could be used to control him?

My eyes lifted. “Tell me, then. Tell me your plan.” I rattled my chains. “After all, who am I going to tell? If I’m your link to Kage, then Florence—”

“She will become my leash to the Duskdrake. She is bound to the dragon, and he is bound to her. He must answer to the girl. Through her, he will answer to me.”

“That’s impossible—both me and Florence? You can’t merge your soul with two others. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

He looked back at me. “And because you have never heard of a thing means it does not exist, is that it? You ignorant slut of a girl.” I hardly flinched. I’d become used to the crude put-downs. Not very imaginative ones either.

Viktor looked down at Florence. “Now, Miss Shen here may understand better. There are far more things in heaven and earth than we can imagine. Terrible, terrible things.” His smile was a skeletal grimace. “Isn’t that right, Miss Shen?” Florence stared up at him mutely. “In any case,” Viktor went on, “I need not bind three souls together. I have read such things have been done before—though, rarely successfully. But no, it is not a risk I am willing to take. Two soul-bindings are enough.”

“Two?” I stared at him. “But you just said …”

There was movement outside the room. Footsteps. Then a soft, submissive female voice.

“Did you call for me, Father?”

I stared in shock as Elowyn Wispwood stepped into the room. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen her here, I realized. She’d been the woman I’d almost recognized the other day, the one who’d held me down and fastened my restraints.

Viktor gestured to the other table. “It is nearly time. Come in.”

For a moment, I just stared, my mind refusing to understand. The professor of magic’s pale hair was pulled back into a neat chignon. Her hands were folded in front of her over a simple black skirt. Her posture was calm, her face intelligent and thoughtful. There was nothing there to suggest she was secretly a psychopath like Viktor. Nothing to suggest that there was any resemblance between them at all.