Page 29 of The Demon's Sinful Serenade
"That's not true," Poppy whispered, tears welling in her eyes. Her fingers tangled in River's bracelets as she tried to peel the fingers from her throat. "River, you know?—"
I'd heard enough. I slammed the door open, the thin metal crashing against the interior wall. "It's not River," I growled. "It's Julian. He's possessing her."
Both heads whipped toward me. Julian's expression darkened while Poppy's cleared with realization.
"Julian?" she repeated, her eyes searching River's face with new understanding. "But we banished you!"
"You tried," Julian corrected, not releasing his grip. "Amateur hour with three hedge witches. Did you really think that would work against me?"
"Step away from her," I ordered, moving further into the small space.
He released Poppy with a shove, sending her stumbling back against the wall. The bracelet around River's wrist snapped, charms scattering across the concrete floor.
"She's fighting me, you know," Julian said. He took a step toward me. "I can feel her clawing at the edges of her own mind. Such delicious desperation."
My vision tunneled, narrowing until all I could see was River's face, twisted into expressions that weren't hers. The shed's walls seemed to close in around us, the air thick with the stench of fertilizer, gasoline, and Julian's rotting presence.
"When I squeezed Poppy's throat," Julian continued, "River's horror was exquisite. Like drowning in ice water. So much guilt. So much fear." He tilted River's head. "Want to know what she feels when she looks at you?"
"Shut up," I growled. The temperature in the shed spiked, my control slipping.
"Or what?" Julian sneered. "You'll burn her to get to me? We've already established you won't hurt this body."
Behind him, Poppy's eyes darted to the bracelet in her hand, then to a spool of twine on a nearby shelf. She rolled her fingers over one another as a signal to keep Julian talking.
"You won't win this," I taunted. I had no idea what the witch planned, but running my mouth? That I could do. "You're nothing but a parasite feeding off someone else's life."
"Better a parasite than whatever you are. Did you think she could ever love you? Look at you." Julian laughed, and the sound was so wrong coming from River's lips that my stomach turned. "Red skin, horns, a fucking tail. You're a creature playing at being a man."
I forced myself to smile through the pain of his words as Poppy inched toward the shelf. "At least I'm alive. What are you but a memory too pathetic to fade away gracefully?"
Julian's eyes narrowed, and I saw the moment my barb struck home. "She owes me," he hissed. "Her body. Her future. It should bemine!"
"Is that what this is about?" I asked, taking a careful step forward as Poppy unwound a length of twine, her lips forming silent words. "Revenge because River wouldn't enable your addiction?" Another step, and Poppy looped the twine around the bracelet. "Because she put her foot down and demanded you get help?"
Julian's face—River's—contorted with rage. "She betrayed me!"
"She tried to save you," I shot back, close enough now that I could see the faint shimmer of something dark swirling behind River's eyes. "And you were too selfish to let her."
Another loop of twine, another incantation just audible enough to catch fragments about binding and vessels.
"Enough!" Julian screamed, lunging toward me.
But the lunge never completed. Julian froze mid-step, confusion flashing across River's features. He tried to move forward again, straining against invisible chains.
Poppy stepped forward, the twine-wrapped bracelet glowing faintly in her palm. Her voice rang clear through the small space as she began circling Julian.
"I bind you, Julian, from doing harm against yourself and harm against others," she intoned, making a complete circle around River's frozen form. "I bind you, Julian, from claiming a vessel that is not yours."
Julian thrashed within his invisible prison, River's mouth contorting in a snarl. "You think your kitchen magic can hold me?" he spat, eyes darting wildly between Poppy and me.
"I bind you, Julian, from doing harm against yourself and harm against others." The bracelet's glow intensified as she completed another circuit. "I bind you, Julian, from claiming a vessel that is not yours."
River's body convulsed, her back arching as Julian fought against the binding spell. A sound emerged from her throat,half-scream and half-inhuman shriek, as darkness seeped from her pores like ink bleeding through paper.
"Release what you've taken," Poppy commanded, her voice steady and firm.
River collapsed to her knees, gasping and choking as the shadows coalesced on the ground. Tendrils bled into one another, growing and striking andhunting. One wrapped around River's wrist, another going straight for her mouth.
