Page 195 of Owned

Something was different—but I wasn’t sure what.

But the brand on my thigh throbbed gently in a rhythm that didn’t match my heartbeat, and the whispers in my mind had disappeared.

I felt alone.

Hollowed out and heavy at the same time.

The black lace of my wedding gown wrapped around me like a second skin, but I couldn’t admire the fine construction or the beauty of the beads and crystals that adorned it.

I felt like I’d been dressed for a sacrifice on a dark altar.

The gardens of Withermarsh had been transformed, and I looked down on them with muffled horror as memories of my mother’s wedding day came flooding back.

White flowers. Gauzy material draped over the serpentine hedgerows and topiaries.

Everything looked the same.

The same urns were in place. The same arch. Even the lanterns—those silken, ethereal ones that danced in the wind—were strung in identical fashion, their faint glow like bottled moonlight.

It wasthe same. Every inch.

My stomach twisted, and a chill seeped through my skin as a memory surfaced unbidden: my mother’s laughter, the hush of the guests, Lucian’s pale hand pressed to her back. That awful scene I’d witnessed during their first dance.

I gripped the velvet curtains tightly.

They hadn’t changed a thing.

Not the path. Not the flowers. The shadows would writhe beneath the arches like serpents at my feet and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Lucian wasn’t just repeating the past—he wasre-staging it.

A second bride.

A second claim.

And this time, it was me.

I’d had a plan.

Hope— A faint hope that I could overpower Lucian, or at least weaken him enough to give the Black Council an opportunity to strike.

But now I wasn’t so sure.

As I stared out over the garden, a sudden jolt ran through me and my back arched.

My grip on the thick velvet curtain tightened and the metal rings rattled on the curtain rod.

My mouth opened, but no sound came out as the brand on my thigh burned with an intensity that made my vision blur at the edges.

“You’re not alone,”a voice murmured.

And as suddenly as it had gripped me, the pain dissipated and left me gasping, clinging to the curtain for support.

I whirled around, but the room was empty.

My breath came in ragged gasps as I tried to make sense of what had just happened.

My magic hummed in my veins, but it felt different—after the spell I had felt sluggish and heavy, but now…

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