Page 126 of Inflamed By an Incubus

It had to be one, because she suddenly felt as if she was in a void. She couldn’t sense anything. The flickers of life she had been slowly starting to feel all disappeared and her head felt heavier, the ache in it worsening as her panic mounted.

That panic stole control of her when the man set her down on an angled board and strapped her left leg down.

She summoned all her strength, put it into one burst of action and somehow managed to get her sluggish body to obey her. Her right boot hit the mage in his chest, knocking him away from her. His back hit the wall near the open door and her eyes leaped to it.

Before she could reach for the strap around her left ankle, the door slammed shut and the mage was on her. She desperately wrestled against him, her strength swiftly failing her as he caught hold of her left arm and shoved it down against the board. Evelyn cried out when he tightened a strap around it, causing the thick leather to bite into her skin and her bones to ache.

The haze returned, rolling through her mind like dense fog, stealing her strength and leaving her at his mercy.

He strapped her right leg down followed by her wrist and then paused to loom over her, the green and blue light from the spell that covered the walls shining across the harsh planes of his face.

“I have been looking for you for so long.” He reached a hand down and smoothed it over her hair, and she spat in his face. He sighed and wiped it away, his crimson gaze never leaving hers. “I realised soon after I completed the curse that I should not have done it.”

The curse.

Her eyes widened and she stared up at him.

This was the mage who had cursed her and Fenix all those years ago.

Her heart called for Fenix now, sure that he would be coming for her, that he would find her and get her out of this mess. Both he and Archer would be out for blood. God, she hoped they found her soon, before this mage had time to carry out whatever his plan was for her.

A plan she feared would result in a fate worse than death.

He confirmed it for her as he canted his head and raked a gaze over her, his crimson eyes growing heated. A shudder wracked her, the vile feel of his eyes on her making her want to spit in his face again, to yell at him to take his filthy gaze off her while at the same time it made her want to shrink away and beg him not to hurt her.

“I could have used your blood to resurrect my beloved Cyra… but I was blinded by rage,” he murmured and stroked a lone fingertip down from her collar bone to between her breasts. He paused there with it pressing against her sweater, right over her heart. “I have been working tirelessly since we were parted, constructing a fitting use for you. I found a spell. Ancient. A little unstable. One that will make use of the tie that links my wife’s death to you… that tiny black thread of fate you formed when you killed her. I am going to use that to bring her back… and you will be the vessel for her soul.”

He grinned.

“The ultimate in necromancy.”

Fire swept through her, a thousand prickles dancing down her spine, and she bucked up off the table as he shoved the top end of it down to lay her flat. No. She wouldn’t let him do that to her. Tears burned her eyes as she struggled against the bonds that held her and the spell that had her head growing hazy again and her limbs feeling heavy, refusing to give up and accept what he was going to do to her.

She had to break free and escape.

Only she wasn’t strong enough.

As she was.

That hit her hard, knocking the wind from her and making her go still against the board.

She thought about what she was. She wasn’t human. She was a phoenix shifter.

Shifter.

Meaning there was another form within her.

She just had to figure out how to transform into it.

Evelyn closed her eyes and calmed her mind as best she could, focused on the thought of becoming something else. The mage murmured words in a language she didn’t recognise and the air hummed, making the hairs on her arms stand on end. She pushed harder, willing herself to transform, only nothing happened.

And then it hit her.

The fire she kept seeing in her dreams.

Kept feeling coursing through her body.

That was her other form.

---