Page 74 of Sigils & Spells

The energy I commanded shook the foundations of the curse that held Ramsey.

Pandora’s last containment spell fell apart.

I roared, pushing more power. Then Ramsey leaped for her. I no longer cared if I preserved the human within. He had attacked what was mine, my beloved. I reached down and ripped the demon away from her collapsed form. She lay perfectly still.

“No!” I tore the demon spirit in half. Ramsey fell to the floor, and the shreds of what was left of the demon spirit dissipated in the flames of my mystical aura.

I lifted Pandora. She was limp. I clutched her to my chest, curling over her still form.

It had taken years of study to gain this power, and it was specifically to separate two spirits, the demon from the human. The power I currently possessed was for destruction, not to restore life.

Trails of lava streamed down my face. My tears burned down my throat.

She let out a small moan.

I shifted so I could look upon her.

She gasped, and then she was upright, clutching my arms and staring me in the eyes.

“Whoa,” she said in wide-eyed awe. “Merle?”

I tried to say something, but the tongue in my mouth felt foreign, and the words I did say were not in English.

“Okay,” she said with a nod, as if she understood me. “I don’t speak Sumerian. Okay, okay, okay.”

She leaned in against my chest, and I felt consciousness leave her for a second time.

CHAPTER11

Pandora

I woke up in a room that wasn’t mine. The sheets smelled like Merle. I groaned and rolled over, thinking this was a cruel dream. It was the kind of dream that tore a hole in my life, and I’d have to spend the rest of my waking day recovering from the damage that was never really there.

I had never been in Merle’s bed, so why wasn’t this dream putting him in my bed instead? At least he had been there, once.

“Pan?” Merle’s voice, soft and distant, filtered in through my brain.

I flopped to my back like a thrashing fish, and flailed about as I tried to sit up.

Merle’s arms were around me, and he made cooing sounds as he helped me. “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

I scanned my gaze around his room, not necessarily taking in the industrial bookshelves that needed a good dusting, or the action figures still in their boxes thumb tacked to the wall as a form of art. I was looking for my memory, as if it could be perched on the bedside table in the form of a plushy or something. There was plate of his favorite peanut butter cookies and a mug of tea, with the tea bag tag hanging out. I did not find my immediate memory.

Merle longer glowed. At least I remembered that…

And then I remembered that thing lunging for me. I flinched and tried to brush off the invisible ghost of a memory as Ramsey attacked.

I clutched Merle’s arms, panting with fresh panic.

“You’re all right. You’re safe. Your protective shield saved you.”

I blinked hard a few times and looked deep into Merle’s eyes. Flecks of gold picked up the light and danced around. He had pretty eyes, kind eyes. And I couldn’t read them, couldn’t read him.

“What happened? Where’s Ramsey?”

I pushed the blanket off my legs and positioned myself so that I sat on the edge of the bed. I looked up at Merle. The last time I had looked at him, he had been a god, well channeling one, I think. Now he was just…

Oh hell, now he was still painfully attractive, maybe even more so.

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