Page 19 of Obsession

Maybe I misheard…?

He raises his hand, a flame appearing in his palm. The fire is so hot that it’s blue and, in the middle of it, are two, sprawling symbols. “I will place them on you now,” he says. “One will keep him from your mind, and the second will erase his memory.”

Oh.

I relax slightly and turn to strip, exposing my vulnerable flesh. Last time, I tattooed the rune on myself. How will it be done this time? Surely, he has different methods. Maybe—

With a blood-curdling yell, the most excruciating pain of my life strikes from behind. It starts on my back, but it’s so sharp that it permeates throughout the rest of me. Metastasizing, pulsing. I try to flail, but my body is pinned in place by an invisible force, and the feeling of helplessness is almost as terrible as the pain.

It’s just like in my dream. Just like the needles.

What is this? What’s happening?

Am I awake? Has Aris possessed me again? Is he controlling my body?

The smell of burning flesh rushes over me, and nausea strikes like a blow. Logical thought leaves altogether. I would be bending over, puking my guts out if I could. But I’m forced upright as my vision blurs and whites out. The only part of me I can control is my mouth, which is forced so wide from screaming that my jaw is locking.

“Almost done,” says Jaegen.

Done? Is he doing this—causing this? I can barely put the thoughts together. I feel stupid and half-conscious.

Abruptly, it ends, my body my own again. Released from whatever hold he kept me in, I tumble to the ground, throwing up my dinner from the bar. I’m able to support my weight on all fours for only seconds before a searing aftershock, likely more imagined than physical, knocks me to the ground.

Whatever is wrong with me is coming from my back. Jostling the muscles there is enough to send me to the grave.

Jaegen sighs. “Will you get up now so I can put the next one on you?”

His words activate my fight-or-flight. The next one?

He wants to do it again?

“I can’t,” I say—begging, pleading. I try to lift my head to look at him, but it’s too much and I wouldn’t be able to see him, anyway, my vision blurry from either tears or fatigue.

“Burning is the most effective way to place a sigil.” He says this like I am being ridiculous and sighs again, the sound short and irritated. “Get up. I will heal you after.”

There’s a black spot in my memory, the pain overwhelming my visuals, but one moment I am on the ground and in another I am standing.

“Sit,” he says, motioning to the settee.

I sit. I can’t tell if I’m doing it on my own volition or not. My limbs don’t feel like my own.

Jaegen puts the second rune on me.

Chapter six

I have never traveled so much. I haven’t traveled at all, really. And now, I’m in Berlin. We spent a whole two weeks in high school talking about the Berlin Wall, but standing in some random park in the rapidly darkening twilight, it doesn’t feel like I’m in a place of historical significance.

Wherever I am in the city, I’m close to Ryan; I can smell and see smoke, and there are helicopters, tanks, and soldiers. But I don’t go toward them. Not yet. I need a moment. This is all… so fast.

My hand goes to the sigils on my back, lingering over the one meant to poison Aris. The pain is gone, but the memory sends a shudder through me.

It doesn’t matter if I’m ready. It’s happening.

Resigned, I walk toward the chaos.

On the street is shrapnel and debris from miscellaneous objects. And bodies. I try not to look at them, but I see law enforcement uniforms and smashed cameras.

It’s as I approach a barrier that an officer starts yelling at me in German. I have no idea what he’s trying to say, but I have to guess it’s something like, get the hell out of here! I clearly don’t fit in with my civilian clothes.

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