Page 73 of Bound By Wishes

A wave of nausea hit me hard in the gut, and the world felt like it tilted on its axis as their faces started to resemble Mathew’s.

The Nightshade’s lifeless eyes flicked back to me, her smile growing colder. “It was just a nick,” she declared, her voice a chilling echo that seemed to seep into the very walls of the throne room. “It won’t kill her. I need her filthy blood, remember?” Her gaze rose to meet Ranen’s. “But for you, my darling, I might be persuaded to show a little mercy.” The Nightshade’s gaze lingered on Ranen with a twisted satisfaction. “I wonder,” she continued, her voice dripping with dark amusement, “will you beg me to save her?”

Ranen’s muscles quivered. I glanced up at him, his face a mask of simmering rage. His jaw was clenched so tightly that the muscles in his neck stood out. His grip on me tightened, and I felt tension coil within him, like a serpent ready to strike.

"Please," Ranen hissed, his voice strangled with wrath. The word hung in the air, heavy with an emotion I had never heard from him before. "Spare her, Mother."

Mother?Shock flooded through me, sending a fresh wave of chills through my fevered body. My mind reeled, struggling to grasp the word that just escaped Ranen’s lips. The Nightshade—this monstrous, decaying creature—was Ranen’s mother?

I glanced up at Ranen, and his expression was a storm of conflicting emotions. The pieces started to come together. The mother who had treated him so badly, the kingdom that was rightfully his that she stole. She was the monster, the one whose powers King Thalorian had taken and imprisoned in the tomb.

The Nightshade’s eyes gleamed with malevolent delight, relishing the power she held over Ranen. “Place her at my feet,” she instructed.

I could feel the heavy burden of his anguish pressing down on both of us. This wasn’t just a fight for my survival; it was a war of power. My heart clenched painfully in my chest as the gravity of what he was risking hit me. This was a battle of wills between a son and his monstrous power-hungry mother, one that had been brewing since his birth. And in that moment, I realized how much Ranen was sacrificing, lowering himself to ask her to save me.

Ranen knelt, placing me gently on the ground. The cold marble floor kissed my bare legs, intensifying my trembling. He rose to his full height. The loss of his warmth, the absence of his protective embrace made the cold floor even more unbearable.

His eyes locked onto the Nightshade with a glare so fierce it seemed capable of tearing through stone. Every muscle in his body was taut, his posture stiff. The air around him crackled with anger. His presence was overwhelming, a storm barely held at bay, and it was frightening. He was more dangerous than I had ever imagined, even with his powers diminished by the curse.

The Nightshade took a slow, deliberate step forward, herdecayed form looming over me like a shadow of death. She extended her bony hand, and my breath hitched as her deadly nails traced a path along my cheek.

"Such a pretty little thing," she said, her voice a sickening purr as she leaned closer. Her empty gaze held me captive. "It's a pity I have to kill you." Her words were like venom, each syllable seeping into my skin. “No descendant of my worst enemy will be allowed to live.” The bitterness in her tone revealed the twisted depths of her possessiveness.

She raised her hand, ready to strike, as dark shadows clung to her. I froze, my gaze locked on her sharp, decaying nails. The air around her grew denser, thick with the weight of her dark magic, making every breath feel heavy and labored.

Ranen roared, primal and deadly. The entire room was shrouded in darkness like he had stolen the sun from the sky. I could barely make out the silhouette of the Nightshade—the shadows around her seemed to recoil, disturbed by Ranen’s power.

I used the cover of his smoky cloud of power to crawl away, carefully maneuvering through the darkness toward Malik. He stood frozen in the doorway, his eyes wide with shock as he watched everything unfold.

I shook my head hard as the lesions on my arm burned, thick poison sludging through my veins. My crawling stopped when Malik’s face shifted, morphing into Mathew’s. I drew in a deep breath, forcing myself to fight the pull of the poison. There was a war raging around me. I didn’t have time for fears or hallucinations. But the image of Mathew held me frozen in place.

I fought with everything I had, trying to conquer thecrippling terror that had kept me prisoner for so long. My chest tightened, as if the fear itself banded around my ribs. My muscles tensed, willing my body to move, to break free of its invisible hold. I forced my gaze forward, blocking out the dread that clawed at my mind. The horrifying image of Mathew’s twisted face faded.

“Cal!” Malik yelled, gathering me into his arms and lifting me to my feet.

I clung to Malik’s shirt as the Nightshade and Razoul attacked Ranen. Shadows and smoke swirled around the room like a living tornado. The room darkened as everything was consumed in a thunderous whirl of dark magic. The air bristled with the acrid bite of smoke and the faint metallic tang of the raw power of their clash.

Fear snaked through me, cold and relentless. Ranen was no match for them, still bound by the genie’s curse that had stripped him of his djinn powers. He was going to get himself killed, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I gasped when the room fell into an eerie silence. The shadows that had overwhelmed the room retreated, and the cloudy haze cleared, revealing the aftermath of the battle.

Bile burned the back of my throat as I saw a large, dark form sprawled across the floor. Blood pooled around it, flowing like a crimson river across the marble tiles.

“Ranen!” I wailed, my voice breaking with desperation as I fought against Malik’s firm hold to get to him.

From the shrinking shadows, Ranen emerged, his expression a cold mask that deepened the chill running through me. My gaze fell back to the body sprawled on the floor. Relief flooded through me, making my knees weak as I realizedit was Razoul.

The Nightshade stood unmoving, momentarily losing her composure. She bent over him with a cry so piercing it seemed capable of shattering glass. Her skeletal fingers stroked his hair with a motherly tenderness that seemed so at odds with the evil that surrounded her.

“How dare you?” she growled, rising to her feet with a tremor of fury that seemed to shake her entire body. “He was your brother.” Her voice quivered with rage and sorrow.

Ranen’s expression remained cold and unyielding, though the harsh lines of his face softened slightly as he glanced down at the lifeless form of his brother. “His death is on your hands,” he said, his tone lacking emotion. “You turned my own brother against me, using him to curse me and release you from the prison you should still be rotting in.”

“How?” she spat, taking a menacing step toward him. “You shouldn’t be strong enough to defeat a djinn.”

Ranen’s gaze lingered on me for a heartbeat before turning back to his mother. “You never understood my strength or what I’d do to protect her.”

His words fractured my heart.

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