Page 101 of Bound in Blood

“Got it. Ease off on the fire.”

She smiles and returns her focus to the battlefield that was once Gaea’s Green. And my mind goes back to Malachi and the prophecy.

There is only one person I can think of who might be able to help us, and he isn’t here. Is he close by?

Lucian?

He replies quickly.Ophelia Hart.

Your uncle is a megalomaniac, you know, and he’s trying to take over the world.

And what does that have to do with me?

You already know what it has to do with you.I duck as a warlock throws a spell at me, and Enora finishes him off before I can retaliate.You know what the prophecy says, and you know what it means.

I still do not see what this has to do with me, he says, his tone bland, but I refuse to believe he’s the monster he believes himself to be.

We really need you.

Goodbye, Ophelia Hart.

I swallow down the disappointment that lurches up in my chest. I was so sure he would help us. But I won’t give up. I will figure out a way to get to Malachi and the boys before we lose them too.

Chapter

Forty-Nine

MALACHI

75 MINUTES BEFORE THE LIGHT GOES OUT

The potency of Giorgios’s rage vibrates through the cellar, bouncing off the concrete walls.

The wraith shrieks even louder than before, and I screw my eyes closed as though that will somehow make it less painful.

“I know. I will do it now!” Giorgios bellows, and then he’s hauling me up by the back of my neck and dragging me to the center of the room.

“Here?”

The wraith screams in response.

I glance down at the stone circle I’m kneeling on. It’s a part of the earth line that runs underneath the university and connects to the ruins at the mouth of Havenwood River. The pagan settlers who lived on this land before the university was here believed it to be magical, and Alexandros once told me it magnifies the demon magic he uses to protect our house. But I can honestly say I have never given it much thought. Until now, that is, when I find myself kneeling on it while Giorgios holdssome evil fucking sword over my head. The whole thing, pommel to point, looks as if it’s made of shadows that drift in and out of sight.

“Get the fuck off him,” Xavier yells, struggling to his feet and hobbling over to me. But after only a few steps, Giorgios floors him with a swipe of his arm and mutters some kind of incantation in a strange language. Xavier doesn’t move, and I almost throw up onto Giorgios’s feet.

I glance at Axl, who has his jaw clenched, his lips pressed together in a thin line.

“Now back to the matter at hand.” Giorgios raises the blade once more.

“No!” Axl shouts. “It wasn’t him. He didn’t bite Ophelia first. It was me.”

I close my eyes, readying myself for the blow anyway, but it doesn’t come.

Giorgios scowls at him. “You are lying.”

“I’m not!” Axl spits.

“He is,” I snarl.

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