“Eternal magic of ageless time.”
“No. I won’t do to you what he did.”
“You must. Marley, it’s the only way. Please.”
Understanding flickered in her eyes, acceptance. She spoke the words, her voice soft, weak. He hadn’t noticed any noise before but noticed the lack of it now as the world seemed to hold its breath. Waiting.
“Heed the call in my rhyme.”
A whip of wind broke the silence, rattling the windows he’d conjured as the magic wrapped around them. The ground beneath them shuddered, and Ian felt his blood heat even as hers seemed to sear his hands.
“Bind two souls like molten steel.
“Let fire forge the woven seal.
“Me to you and you to me.
“Forever enslaved. So let it be.”
Ian braced himself, waiting for the feel of invisible shackles.
Marley hesitated, frowning. Her breath hitched and she began to cough, deep, wracking explosions that shook her tiny body. Blood dribbled in a narrow trail from the corner of her mouth.
Panic reared up inside Ian, a beast tearing at him with teeth and claws. Not too late. It can’t be too late.
“Finish it. You have to finish it.”
She drew in a ragged breath, lifted her hand to his cheek. Her eyes were bright with pain, her voice barely above a whisper. “Forever…one. So let it be.”
The wind died. The fire lapsed, settling back to a cozy glow. The ground went still. And tears continued to glimmer on Marley’s face, caught in her now closed lashes. Her hand fell in a clumsy stroke down his cheek to rest against his shoulder, limp and cool.
“Marley?” Ian’s voice was barely louder than hers, muted by terror.
He shook her, his voice rising when she didn’t respond. “Marley wake up. You said it wrong. You have to start over. Marley!”
The sound had him freezing, hunched protectively over her. Just a faint scrape, a rustle of fabric. His senses opened wide, parsing reality and illusion, scanning for the threat.
At the sound of a chambering bullet beside his ear, the last of the illusion faded. They were back in the cave and a gun was pressed to the back of his head.
“Get the fuck away from my daughter.”
Chapter 13
“She’s healing in a way she shouldn’t. Harm, are you sure it’s her?”
The voice trickled through the dark, muffled and indistinct. Marley wanted to stir, but her limbs seemed unconnected to her mind. So cold. She was so tired of being cold.
“It’s her.” Another voice. Grim. A thin layer of repressed anger and…fear. “Will she survive?”
“When she first came in, I’d have said no. But now? See for yourself.”
Footsteps. A slow exhale. “I don’t care why. Just finish up here.”
Marley fought her way to the surface of the dark as she felt some kind of tugging. What was going on? Why couldn’t she control her eyes? With great effort she cracked them open, only to slam them shut again at the glare of bright white lights. It seemed to take a year to angle her head down and try again.
A man hunched over her middle, everything but his silhouette erased by the blinding light. As he moved, something glinted. Marley squinted, zeroing in on the thing until it became clear.
A blade, already coated with her blood.