Page 140 of The Wolf and the Chimera
Now, in the suffocating darkness of Medea’s mind, I was more trapped than ever.
Don’t you get it?the sorceress growled.There is no escaping me—there is only succumbing.
Sensations seeped through the cloying darkness. Sedatives chilled my veins, and a heart monitor beeped slowly. Light burned my closed eyes, but I couldn’t shift away from it. Someone brushed against my arm and brought my attention to the needles embedded there. Beyond my control, my power chugged toward it.
“Faster,” Lyall ordered. “The High Witch will be here soon. We can’t waste a drop.”
Like a cord being cut, my awareness of my body was broken, and I was once again in the heavy, dark silence of Medea’s mind. Wind swirled around me, and in the dimness, black stone glimmered beneath my feet. A woman stepped into the shadows. Her tan face was illuminated by the power that eddied beneath her skin. As Medea crept closer, I refused to break her ruby-eyed stare.
“Don’t you see?” she asked. “We are soul-bound. We are forged by blood and magic and millennia. You and I are unbreakable.”
After what I had witnessed, part of me believed her. Medea had been clever enough to trick the gods.
Who was I to outsmart her? What odds did a girl who had been protected and coddled her whole life stand against a centuries-old sorceress?
Like the lid of an ancient tomb closing, the shadows pressed in on me
An image flashed—Anassa’s lifted chin and defiant gaze.
Even on the cusp of losing everything, she had fought with bravery and skill and resilience that could not be broken or bound by any force, divine or not.
My chimera stirred beneath my skin.
Was that what it had wanted me to see?
I wasn’t a scared daughter or hesitant mate or uncontrollable beast anymore. I was born of a people who could not be broken. I was the heir to a once thriving kingdom, filled with love and hate and life.
I was a chimera, and chimeras bowed for no one.
The sorceress’s gaze bored into mine. Her face revealed nothing but arrogance and power, yet a whisper of fear coated the air.
There had to be a way out of this. I only needed to keep her talking long enough to figure it out.
“Why did you even lead me to the ripple?” I asked. “You and I may be soul-bound, but Ryder and I could’ve claimed each other at Circe’s Island.”
The sorceress swallowed hard, and dots connected.
“You never meant for me to make it there,” I realized. “That’s why you fought to gain control before we crossed under the waterfall.”
“You’re a decent liar,” she replied with a cool smile. “You know the best lies are mingled with truths.”
“Regardless,” I continued, “there must be a way to break apart two bound souls. After all, you freed yourself from your Anchor.”
The sorceress flinched and snarled. Light roiled under her skin like a coiling snake, ready to strike.
“I was strong enough to destroy that bond,” she quipped. “You are not me, pet.”
Though I shared the skin of a predator, all those years I had spent hunted and afraid had taught me how to think like prey.
My mind raced through possibilities. My bond to Ryder protected me from a full-blown possession, but it wouldn’t be enough to take control from Medea entirely, especially when I was trapped so deeply in the corners of her mind.
She had me pinned, and she knew it.
“No,” I agreed softly, “I am not.”
As my thoughts tumbled into each other, I studied the light beneath her skin—Helios’s light.
Even you, Helios?
