Page 182 of Owned

The grimoire’s whisper was sharp, and the knife pressed harder against my flesh and the blood flowed onto the pages.

My eyes were locked on the blade and I bit back a gasp as I fought to pull the dagger away from my hand and failed.

“What do you desire?”it asked again. More urgently this time.

“Freedom,” I choked out.

That strange pressure folded around my hand and my breath hissed between my teeth as the blade cut deep and my blood dripped down over the blackened silver and onto the grimoire’s ravenous pages.

“And will you ask me to help you achieve that desire?”

“Yes.”

“The will gives you the words—”

A breath shuddered between my lips as I stared down at the symbols that bloomed on the grimoire’s pages. The words came to me effortlessly and my focus sharpened. Not just to mystepbrothers, but to what my life would look like once Lucian was dead… that was what I wanted.

“I call on you to help me—I will open myself to your presence…” I paused briefly, “but only if you will give me what I desire. Swear it.”

“I swear it.”I could almost sense the curve of a smile in the grimoire’s voice.

A ripple of power traveled from my fingers to my hand and up my arm.

The cut I’d been forced to make burned with a strange, cold fire and I couldn’t help the cry of pain that slipped out.

“A willing possession. To bind spirit to flesh...”

The words echoed through my thoughts—through the room.

The blade slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor as I gasped.

I was exposed.Vulnerable.

What have I done?

But the grimoire’s presence in my mind was stronger than it had ever been. The unfamiliar voice sounded less strange.

Almost like a part of me I hadn’t known was missing.

The presence swelled inside me and then—

Nothing.

The runes and symbols, the writing I couldn’t read on the pages of the grimoire, faded and then disappeared.

The pages were blank.

The silence in my mind was terrifying.

I was alone.

The voice was gone.

The words were gone.

The only thing that remained was the barely there pulse of the blood bond and the gnawing doubt that I couldn’t do this by myself.

But that was all I needed.

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