My magic was back.

I knew the moment it happened. Unfortunately, I could not access it and I could not feel the bond.

I hoped the assholes outside would give me more time, I hoped Arthur would somehow burst into the cell like a knight in shining armor- and wouldn't that thought amuse him?- but after a few hours, the two fae I'd become familiar with opened the door and approached me.

"What's that?" I asked when I spotted a syringe in their hand.

"Not silver," the fae replied, sticking the needle in my neck. My heart beat in my ears and my head grew heavy.

Darkness.

Drowning.

I struggled, breathing in water instead of air. My lungs screamed. Then my head was pulled over the water.

Coughing and struggling for breath, I looked at the one eyed bastard crouching in front of me. He waved away the vampire holding the bucket of water where my head had been submerged. A white bandage covered Rami's left eye.

"Are you fully awake, my lady?"

Buzzing. My chest exploded with so many emotions, it was difficult to keep my face from betraying it. The bond. It was alive again. My magic was there, but I was too disoriented to get a hold on it.

After I caught my breath, I gave Rami a sweet smile. "Very much awake. The white bandage is a nice touch. You're almost tolerable with one eye, if you let me take out the other, you might just have a chance."

His right eye twitched. He straightened and pulled out a knife from an arm sheath. He was armed, unusual, with a sword on his back and a sheath on his arm. His black t-shirt and cargo pants looked odd after always seeing him in semi formal clothing.

He moved to the side, where Noah was chained to a chair just like me. He was still unconscious, his head lolled to the side. He looked like he lost half his weight. His cheekbones stood out in his face, his scars more pronounced than usual, and his eyes framed by dark shadows. A vampire held a knife to his throat. And similar to Noah, another vampire behind me pressed something cold and burning to my neck.

Beyond Rami, I could see we were no longer in our tiny cell. The room stretched before me, a massive hall almost the size of a football field.

"The phoenixes. Now." Rami's words dragged my attention back to the witch.

I opened my mouth, thinking of an excuse to stall, when Rami grinned savagely and stabbed his knife in Noah's shoulder.

Noah's eyes shot open with a snarl. He struggled, the chair and the chains barely holding him in place. Rami stepped back from the wolf, looking worried for a second that Noah would shift right then and there and tear into him.

The vampire pressed the knife into Noah's neck. He stilled, breathing heavily. He glanced at his bloody shoulder, at me, then fixed his intense gaze on Rami.

The witch looked at me. "The phoenix. And the bird better arrive within twenty minutes. Otherwise, your friend will lose his life."

"Then you won't have any leverage against me," I told him.

He chuckled. "Oh, I think I will be able to find some. You do care for the innocent, after all. Human children are so very easy to kidnap."

Bastard. I wanted to punch his smug face in so much, I could almost feel his bones breaking under my fist.

Damn it. I could feel Arthur reaching out through the bond. A storm of darkness and rage and fear. I tried my best to soothe the bond and began searching for the one I shared with the phoenixes. It had always been there, but after being disoriented from the silver, it took me a while to find it.

It burned bright in my mind, searing my heart with pleasant heat. They responded to my reach, willing creatures of light and warmth. Their unconditional affection and trust broke something inside of me.

And I just couldn't do it. I couldn't call them to their death. But Noah's labored breathing next to me was a nail in my heart.

Torn between two evils, there was no right choice.

I decided to give them the choice.

I channeled my thoughts through to them. The nature of the bond was different from that I shared with Arthur. Thoughts were difficult to channel through. Images and sensations were easier.

I showed them Noah's injured form. I showed them Rami and the giant hall we were in. The gray stones of the ceiling flowed to the walls and the floor. There were several entrances all around the rectangular room. And right in the center of the ceiling was a circular opening from which the night sky peeked in.

Fire torches hung on scones along the wall, bathing the giant room in a faint orange glow. I shivered. It was cold, and not just from the weather. There were people around, moving throughout the big space with purpose. We were in one corner of the room, out of everyone's way.

In the center of the floor, right under the hole in the ceiling, was a massive, glowing red circle drawn in the stone, a smaller circle inside, with symbols and glyphs inside the two.

I showed them the cages right beside the circle that made my blood run cold. There were about a dozen cages surrounding the circle. A person in every one of them.

Humans.

I showed the phoenixes all of that and called them, giving them a choice. All I received in return was an image of a clear sky and sensations of pain and fear. It all lasted one second, maybe two.

Resigned, I pulled back from the bond and looked at Rami.

"Well?" he asked.

"It's done."

He leaned forward, his face inches from mine. "Remember, my lady, any tricks and you'll be responsible for your friend's fate."

"Understood." I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from lashing out at him, all the while sending reassuring thoughts through my bond with Arthur. I was alive. But that was all I could give him. My magic was still hazy and disoriented, within my fingertips' reach. If I just had another minute-

"Good," he straightened and the vampire behind me stabbed something in my neck. I stifled a scream. Something hot and painful slid through my veins, setting my blood with a fire that ate my magic and the bond.

I blacked out for a few moments. When I came to, Rami was nowhere to be seen. The fresh silver in my blood made my head woozy.

I shivered. It was getting colder. Noah was shivering and sweating at the same time. Poor man. They must've dosed him with more silver.

"Will you hold up until help comes?" I asked, my voice scratchy. He didn't look good.

Noah gave me a look. The fact that he scrounged up enough force to be offended made me roll my eyes at him. Men.

A while later, more people spilled into the vast hall. Ten, twenty, thirty... damn it. Most of them glanced my way one or two times, all of them were much better dressed compared to the mercs. The majority were witches and fae, and a very small number of vampires. They were pulling their troops in.

This was not good. This was not good at all. Where the hell was Arthur? Worry gnawed at me. Was he even okay? Was my father okay? What if they'd been hurt?

I shook my head. No. I had to believe they'd come or I'd lose my mind.

Rami walked through the nearest entrance. Another witch, one of the newcomers, met him halfway, and the two headed straight for me. The new witch was old and powerful, almost as powerful as Rami.

"Is this her?" the male witch asked, his voice as dark as his eyes.

"Yes. Fascinating. Isn't it, Blasius?" Rami said.

"Indeed. The resemblance is uncanny. It's a shame she isn't as gifted as her mother."

"You already got what you wanted out of Orla before she decided her morals no longer aligned with ours," Rami said.

Blasius' eyes scanned me from head to toe. His face contorted in disgust. "Yes. Mostly."

"How are your experiments?" Rami asked.

"Fine." Blasius turned and walked away, joining the gaggle of witches near the circle.

"The clock is running, my lady. Say your last words to your friend, in case the bird doesn't arrive." He lowered his head until his breath brushed my face. He bit my neck, his teeth almost breaking the skin. Bile rose in my throat. "You'll have front row seats to the show, my lady. I hope you appreciate it."

I made my voice light. "Hey, Rami."

He leaned back enough to look at my face. I headbutted him. Appreciate that, asshole.

Rami staggered back, blood rushing from his nose. My forehead hurt like a bitch, but it was worth it. Rami's face twisted with rage. He backhanded me, my neck almost cracked at the force of his hit. Noah growled.

Rami groaned and fixed his nose with a crack. He lowered his head again, but this time left enough space between us to keep his face safe from my gentle ministrations. "I will break you until you wish you were dead, and then I will break your wolf in front of you. Then everyone of your beloved friends, and then your mate."

My vision turned red. Blood rushed to my gums and fingers. His heartbeat sounded so loud to my ears. I jerked against the chains, almost knocking the chair down. A savage snarling noise reached my ears as if from under water, like that of a crazy, cornered beast. I realized it was me.

Rami took a step back, his face apprehensive, turned and fled.

It took me several minutes to get my breathing under control. The red haze faded and left an odd sense of brittle calm in its wake.

Noah looked at me like I was inches away from breaking out of my skin and turning into a cobra.

"What?" I asked.

He shook his head and followed Rami in the crowd. "I'm going to dig out his liver and shove it down his throat," he said conversationally.

"Join the line."

The night sky, dotted with stars, suddenly burst into flames.

Orange and red and purple. An explosion of colors, swirling and melting together. A high whistling sound echoed in the vast hall, making my ears ring and Noah snarl. All activity ceased and people looked up.

The lights fell down through the hole, a column of fire in their wake. It was so bright I was blinded for a moment. Then the lights faded and a magnificent bird stood in the center of the room, feathers glowing the colors of sunset. The bird raised his majestic head and made a high whistling sound. Like a dolphin's cry, it pulsed against the wall and echoed. A haunting melody of fire and light.

"Now!" one of the mercs bellowed out. Several mercenaries raised some sort of crossbows and fired at once. Bolts found their target in the poor bird with loud thuds, chains stretching from the bolts to the mercs. The bird cried, A high note of pain and anger, and fluttered his wings. The mercs pulled, anchoring him to the ground.

Tears born of agony and guilt swelled in my eyes. I gritted my teeth. I wanted to look away, but I was the one who got the bird in this situation. If the phoenix could go through it, then I would damn well find the courage to look at it no matter how much it hurt.

Everything happened quickly. The bird was secured in one corner of the circle. The humans, unconscious, were dropped in several points along the circle, too.

Rami stood on the fringe of it, barking orders left and right. They were preparing the spell.

The ground and walls shook. It felt closer, somehow, as if the epicenter of the earthquake was moving toward us. Maybe it was just my wishful thinking.

Silence blanketed the hall. Everyone moved back, lining the walls of the place, except for a dozen witches and fae who surrounded the circle of the spell and began chanting.

It started as a low sound, a cacophony of whispers. A blood chilling symphony that reeked of dark, potent energy. A magic so twisted and sinister it made me want to curl around myself and hide my own magic from it.

The chanting rose in volume, the unintelligible words more forceful by the second. The lines of the spell on the ground glowed. Blood from the humans and the bird ran through it and pooled in the empty center. A pond formed. As I watched, several immortals joined the chanting group armed with daggers, they slashed their wrists and dripped their blood in the spell.

The pond grew and the voices climbed higher, ascending a ladder of almost inhuman notes. The pond in the middle lit up with an iridescent glow. Rainbow colors swirled together, dancing to the voices. Then the colors melted to a deep blood red.

In a blink, the blood in the pond shot up like a reverse waterfall. Up and up and up until it surpassed the hole in the ceiling and kept going up, an infinite stream. Defying all laws of physics; gravity and mass conservation shot down the drain. The smell of ozone and blood permeated the air. And the sound of a thousand waterfalls deafened my ears.

The scene back in Paris flashed before my mind. This was it. They had to be stopped now before they reached the point of no return. I glanced at the exits, guarded by the mercs. Now would be a great time for Arthur to show up and stop this madness.

He didn't.

The stream of blood glowed, its red color lightening to a pale pink, then to a startling pale blue, almost white. The world exploded into white stars. The fabric of reality split.

And a demon stepped forth.