Page 135 of Owned

“What promise?”

“That you will exact the will of the Council— That you will act as our Justice.”

The voice was flat. Detached. As though it all meant nothing.

What?

“YourJustice? Against who?”

Silence. But only for a heartbeat or two.

“Against Lucian Romano.”

The answer was quick and sharp.

My lip curled as I glared back at them. “You almost killed me in the forest. Kidnapped me. And now you’ve put me in chains and covered this cell with keylines… What makes you think I’d doanythingto help you?”

“Do you want your freedom or not?”

I did.

“But you won’t just let me go?”

The speaker stepped forward and her robes brushed over the uneven stones and stirred up little clouds of dust that sparkled in the keyline's glow. “Just… let you go. Do you really think Lucian Romano would stop hunting you if we did? Do you think he’d allow you to traipse off into the sunset and live a quiet, beautiful little life?”

No.

Definitely not.

I’d been so desperate for Valen’s plan to work that I hadn’t thought about anything beyond that—

The figure crouched down to look me in the face. “Avril,” she said, “you must go through with the wedding.”

My breath caught, a sharp gasp that felt like shards of glass.

“You don’t understand— I can’t—”

“You have to,” she continued. “This is the only way to guarantee your own survival. You want to live, don’t you?”

Obviously.

I nodded.

“Good.”

I didn’t have to see her face to know that she was smiling. Somehow, that made the interaction even more chilling.

“To seal your bond, you will cast a powerful spell of control over him. You are uniquely positioned to perform this act—”

“And then what?”

A whisper of a chuckle. Then she straightened. “Then you can leave the rest to us—”

“Why?” I blurted out. Anger, frustration, and pain were beginning to overpower my fear. “Why would you think I would—”

“Because you have no choice,” another voice interrupted. “You watched your own mother be consumed by him. Do you think you are so different that you would survive him without our help?”

The words hung in the air like a noose tightening around my throat. I glanced down at the shimmering chains that encircled my wrists, magic-infused and unyielding. The glow of the keylines.

---