Page 142 of Obsession

“But I helped you. Where’s your sense of loyalty?”

“Loyalty!” His eyes flash, and his claws change color—no, he’s just heating them into sweltering tips. “You don’t know the meaning of the word.”

“And you do?” I say shakily. “I think your siblings would beg to differ.”

He jumps forward, raising his claws to pierce my chest, and I shut my eyes, bracing for the agony. What does it matter? He’s fully in the circle.

A few painful heartbeats, and I remain un-skewered.

My eyes open one at a time to see Jaegen before me with narrowed eyes. “Circle?” he says.

I use the last of my remaining energy to jump out, landing on my knees. The second I touch the ground, the others are revealed: Sem standing directly in front of Jaegen with the necklace in the palm of her hand, Aris beside me, mouth twisted with distaste, and Simon and Henry in the corner, watching intently.

Aris helps me up, his cold hands a drink of water on a summer’s day. Immediately, I feel a thousand times better: the heat is gone, my chest is light, and my vision is clear.

I want to shut my eyes and stand like this forever, basking in my health, but Sem brings me back to the present. Aris still does not let go of me.

“Hello, Jaegen,” she says quietly.

Jaegen’s reaction to seeing his sister and learning she’s alive is different from Aris’—not completely divorced, as they were both surprised, but Aris’ shock gave way to anger. Here, Jaegen’s eyes widen with… fear.

I suppose I’d react similarly if I encountered the person I thought I murdered.

“Sem,” he whispers. He raises his hand to reach for her, claws and glowing skin now gone, but he pauses as he hits an invisible barrier. The air ripples as it did moments ago when it was affected by his heat, shifting in a way that reveals the border of the circle he’s within—the circle that’s stopping him from leaving.

His eyes narrow. “What is this?”

“Hello, brother,” says Aris, unflinching under Jaegen’s murderous gaze. Aris wiggles the fingers of his free hand in a wave. “This is what the humans call ‘karma.’”

Jaegen finally notices the pendant in Sem’s hand. His eyes shoot to my neck, to Sem, and he blinks once. Twice. “My magic—”

“Your magic?” says Aris.

“—it’s gone,” Jaegen finishes, as if Aris didn’t interrupt. “What’s happening? Sem…”

“I did not make this decision lightly,” says Sem.

The two look at one another. The fear is wiped from Jaegen’s expression now, replaced with incredulity and something like hurt. Sem’s eyes are misty, too. It’s strange to think that they might care about each other.

“You let me believe I consumed you,” Jaegen says.

“I had to.”

“Why?”

“Because of your ambition. I suspected, given my magic, that you would perform outside of your domain, and you did. The second you could, you used Order to suit your own needs.”

I stare at the back of Sem’s shimmering dress grimly. There it is, the crux of her plan: How do you trick an all-powerful being? Not with brute force, not with outright deceit, but by softly nudging them toward their own defeat.

You test their ambition, and let that ambition destroy them.

His chest puffs as he lets out a long breath. Jaegen says, with accusation, “That’s why the magic did not bend to my will; you lived, still.”

“I did,” she replies, now more composed. “And I have witnessed your behavior; you are out of control.”

“Me?” Jaegen demands. His anger has started to heat the air again, though it remains cool by Aris. Though trapped in the circle, the effects of Jagen’s presence are not gone entirely, only muted. “All I wanted was to help these people!”

“And did you help them?” she says.

---