Set us both free. The boy was solemn. Lucy reached to touch his face.
No. In the end, she couldn’t let him go. It felt like cutting away herself. Ra and she were one piece, two facets of a glittering gem.
“Break the tie,” said Paolo. “Say the words!”
The Binding tie was a delicate rope woven from metal, promises, and lies.
The small boy transformed again, into the falcon Ra, as large as Lucy herself. “I have to say the words,” Lucy said. “And I can’t. I’m sorry, Ra, but we must have the Trial. This isn’t right.”
You are mine. It is as I said. I am already free. You are the slave.
“I will not have this,” said Paolo. “You have cast the circle, but you will not say the words. Enough of this folly! I will have Ra!” Using the spear, he sawed at the Binding rope.
Lucy fumbled for the spear, but she could not touch it.
“Oh no,” said Paolo. “You are connected to a demon. The Spear of Longinus is not for you. Isis’s Scroll could never free Ra! But this can!”
Lucy grasped the broken haft and the shock of rapture threw her to the outer edge, where the circle would be marked if it hadn’t sunk into the water. Where had Paolo Borgia found the spear that was used to kill Christ? It really existed? Another powerful item that could be used against demons—no—gods? Paolo hacked at the white thread, its edges fraying. Then, the world became a maelstrom and the Binding tie snapped with a delicate chink.
Ra winged his way into the sky. Free! His voice shook the heavens.
Lucy crawled toward Paolo, his arms open wide as though to accept Ra’s embrace. “You can’t!” she said.
“The demon is mine!” Paolo roared.
I am no one’s, save whom I choose.
“You must belong to one of us, if you wish to carry out your plans,” said Paolo. “You may choose me.”
Paolo could hear Ra? “What plans?” Lucy looked from Paolo to Ra.
“Ra wants to control the Egyptian gods. He wants to be the wielder of the Solomon Scroll, and to wield it, he needs a human puppet. You were that puppet, but now he has no tie to you and he will return to the Abyss unless he chooses another host.” Paolo shouted upward, “You can walk the Earth now, Ra, but you can make no difference here unless you possess a soul. I offer you my assistance.”
Lucy climbed to her feet. “You… want to be Ra’s puppet?”
“Oh no,” said Paolo. “You would be a puppet. Ra and I will be partners.”
“No,” said Lucy. Her soul was empty. She wanted to huddle into a ball of nothingness and drown in the swamp. Concentrate. “Ra, you must return to the Abyss.”
I cannot do what I wish from the Abyss.
“This is unnatural,” Lucy said. “Can’t you feel it?”
A figure walked through the noxious smoke, smelling of gunpowder. Octavia was wild, her shadow dress shifting, covering her and then not. She was striped with mud and her hair was stiff with smoke and wind. Ra screeched high in the air.
“As promised, Lucy,” said Octavia, “I have come for you.”
Lucy’s throat closed. She could see the taut string leaving the circle, which Bound Octavia to Khun. It was not white like Lucy’s had been, but red and pulsing. Something was wrong. When a demon was Bound, the thread was silver. If the demon won, it went black. What did red mean?
Ra dived toward Octavia. His wings were razor sharp, claws extended, and he darted into the circle. The thread between Octavia and Khun snapped like a harpsichord wire as Ra bit it with his beak. Magic fountained like blood, and the string pulsated like a dying snake. Ra grew even larger and reached out a talon the size of Octavia’s arm. He dissected Octavia’s chest and pulled out her heart with his beak, swallowing it in two bites.
Your sister is delicious, Lucia. Khun cannot save her from me!
Ra pushed into Octavia, folding himself into her. Octavia screamed as, inch by inch, Ra burrowed inside her.
“You can’t,” Lucy squeaked.
I could have given you the world. I give it to Octavia instead.
Octavia raised her head, her blue eyes turning gold. “H-help me,” she stuttered. “Please.”
Let me have you now, Octavia.
Lucy could still hear him. He was still connected to her. Maybe she could use the connection to help Octavia. “Let her go!”
Your sister Lucia betrayed me, said Ra, his voice echoing through Octavia’s as she spoke. She did not want me.
“Lucy.” Octavia reached for her.
I know you. You want so much, Octavia. Let me give it to you.
“You can’t do this,” said Lucy. “She’s won her Trial. You can’t take her.”
“No,” said Octavia. “I didn’t win. Khun and I didn’t fight. We never told anyone.”
The red thread. “You never claimed Khun? What did you do?”
Paolo laughed.
Lucy’s blood boiled. If she were strong enough, she would snap his neck.
“You sinned,” Borgia said. “You sinned and tried to keep it secret.”
“Neither of us won,” said Octavia. “Khun and I, we are—”
You are mine! I am your master!
Octavia shrieked as Ra’s light permeated her, turning her skin from alabaster to metallic gold. She writhed in the swampy muck.
Lucy raced forward. Paolo watched as if a cast statue.
“This is what I’ve always wanted.” Tears burned off Octavia’s face.
“Ra?” Lucy’s voice trembled. “You’ve always wanted Ra?”
“He wanted me,” said Octavia. “He told me I was the most important. He made me try to kill you.”
Vain, stupid Octavia. I have never spoken to you. You have been haunted by your madness!
“Help me!” Octavia reached a glowing arm toward her sister. “This isn’t Ra! I know what Ra sounds like.”
Now you know what Ra sounds like. I am giving you your sweetest dream. Enjoy my gift.
“Leave her alone!” Lucy stepped toward Octavia.
“No. Stop!” Octavia crawled to her hands and knees. “I knew you were the most powerful. Father wanted it to be me. You are so powerful, you found your way into Mother’s magic. I hate Father for what he’s done. To you. To me. I will avenge you.”
“Avenge me?” Lucy’s insides turned to ice. “What do you mean?”
Octavia smiled, tight and smug. Grasses knitted around her into a golden sheath. “You are like Khun. No longer necessary. Superfluous. Powerless. Weak. Disgusting. An embarrassment to us. All I need is Ra.”
Light grouped around Octavia again. It pooled on the ground and turned into a giant bird. Ra took to the air.
Lucy was transfixed as Ra apexed, then like an arrow from an archer’s bow, he fell.
Her mouth dried and her legs quivered. She was his prey.
She ran, but the swamp sucked her down and Ra was upon her before she could get far. He sank his claws into her back like hot knives. His beak gouged into one eye and flung it into the air, and she screamed, her heart pounding. She could barely breathe. One talon fixed into her shoulder and ripped off her arm. Lucy’s consciousness wavered. Both talons ripped into the hole in her back. Knives sliced her, needles pierced her, and her skin echoed behind the drumming in her ears as she was ripped in half.
Nothing. Not even darkness was left when he was finished.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
In a few short minutes, October would turn into November. In the stone circle outside Mistraldol, the sacred place hewn from the Hathersage peaks, Octavia and Khun lay on the ground. The power vortex summoned by the Binding spell shielded them from the eyes of Octavia’s Anchor. All was well. Octavia had decided not to decide, and Khun had decided he wouldn’t Bind Octavia. Equals. Still connected, but not moving forward. Stasis. No one was free, but no one was a servant. Since they had decided to change nothing, the family would think Octavia had won. It was the simplest solution to their impossible situation.
Octavia was crumpled, h
er body uncovered, skirts hiked, stays loosened and breasts bare. Her lips were darker with the rough stubble of Khun’s bearded face, and splotches of blue covered her thighs where he had rubbed against her. She had turned toward Khun, watching his chest rise and fall. He was erect in his sleep. She straddled him, her skirts covering their contact, and pain stabbed into her, dark and sexual, filling her with heat. Khun’s eyes fluttered open. He bucked against her and she closed her eyes. He thrust into her. His hands strangled her breasts and she orgasmed, biting her scream into a grunt behind her mouth. Khun’s sharp nail ran over her chin’s curve. It sliced and her blood welled. She bent, and he licked it off her cheek.
“Take me,” said Octavia.
“We have to go. They’ll suspect something is wrong if we don’t appear soon.”
“I don’t mean this.” Octavia climbed off him and cleaned herself with a petticoat. “I mean Bind me. I don’t want the scroll. I want you.”
“You can have me and the scroll.”
“If we leave here and you aren’t my master, you know we can’t do this again.”
His hands cupped her breasts with the gentleness of beating wings and his lips traced her collarbone. “No one will stop us. We can do whatever we want.” His tongue found her ear, and the inside of her thighs prickled.
“Bind me to your will,” said Octavia.
“You don’t love me?” said Khun.
“I don’t understand you.”
“It’s a simple question.”
“It’s not that simple.” Her happiness was crumbling away morsel by morsel. “They expect things from me. I have obligations. If I go back to the family, I have to pretend to control you, and we can’t risk getting caught.”
“We can be very careful.”
She pulled away from him. “No, we can’t. If you possess me, we won’t have to.”
“They’ll kill us.”
She shook her head as she shifted her vest into place. “We can run away.”
“I won’t risk you. I’ve spent all your life with you. I adore you.”
Octavia laughed. “How can you love me? You’re a demon.”
“You believe we don’t love?”
“Everything you do, you do for your own benefit.”
“Is that so? Then why didn’t I try to control you?”
“I don’t know you didn’t. I don’t know how this works.”
“Yes, you do know.” He kissed her. His chin scraped her skin. He smelled musky and she wanted him again. “Tell me you want me.”
“I… I don’t.”
He nibbled her ear and deep pleasure turned her skin into gooseflesh. “Tell me.” Khun nuzzled her hair. “This will be our secret. No one will find out. I promise you.”
October became November. Octavia smoothed her shirt. Her hair was a disaster, but that could not be helped. Perhaps after the battle of Binding a demon, one’s hair would be unruly.
It was cold, even in the circle of power. “I want you,” Octavia said. “I will always want you. But you have lost me.”
Khun kissed her, his tongue probing her mouth. She trembled with excitement.
Octavia made herself step away and slowed her breathing.
“You want me to Bind you?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you see, Octavia? No one is to be master or mistress. We will be lovers. Isn’t that enough?”
That she loved him, she could not deny. “I have to marry. I have to have children. They must be magicians. Do you see?”
“No children who are half-demons? Yes, our children would throw a wrench in the workings of Solomon’s Scroll.” He smirked. “I don’t care for such details. But I will honor your wishes for now. I will leave and you can pretend you have Bound me. Make no mistake. I will be relentless in trying to seduce you, husband or not. You might be a new kind of Binder. Did you consider that?”
Octavia smiled, her face a mirror reflecting Khun’s lopsided grin. “I don’t love you, Khun.”
“If you keep telling yourself you don’t love me, you might believe it.” The world split behind him and he stepped backward into shadow and fire. The magical circle flared down.
“I won,” said Octavia. She resented Khun. He should have shut out the voices.
Carlo coughed. Smoke stung his eyes, filled his nose, tasted sour in his mouth. He stumbled away from the serpentine fog, waving his hands in front to clear the way, his feet sloshing in the swampy water. The smoke cleared enough for Carlo to see Paolo sawing at a silver thread as Octavia stepped into the circle. Carlo plunged forward, but he slipped in the muddy swamp. Clammy water sloshed up, coating his face with slime, permeating him with cold down to his bones. There was nothing left in him, nothing left to be the hero.
Mist wafted across his vision. Blood and gore arced into the air as Lucy was ripped in half. Octavia knelt on the ground, naked, glowing golden. Her chest was open and Octavia’s blood mingled with water.
Paolo Borgia stood stock-still in the circle, his chest rising and falling, frozen as Ra ripped Lucy apart.
Anger surged in Carlo. Ra no longer served Lucy. In separating them, Paolo Borgia had done an evil thing. Just like his father had said: watch out for your grandfather. Lucy had paid the price for Carlo’s lack of vigilance.
Paolo seemed old and frail for the first time to Carlo. His shoulders sagged, and the customary arrogance had evaporated into defeat and, even worse, uncertainty. Carlo’s world jolted. This elderly man frozen by fear, who had engineered this betrayal and failed, who was he?
Carlo shook his head. There was no time for this nonsense. He was Carlo Borgia, and whether he was all human, a demon, or the grandson of the most diabolical man who had ever lived, he was going to need to step up. What he would do once he reached them, he wasn’t certain. Lucy was gone and Octavia would be next. Carlo had to try something.
He started to creep forward, but a hand stopped him. Khun? Carlo whirled, trying to rip the hand off his shoulder.
Not Khun. Drusus. One eye was blackened and one arm dangled by his side.
Carlo lowered his hand. His nails had grown to sharp claws of their own accord.
“That could have gone better,” said Drusus. His lower lip was swollen. The words sounded thick. “You aren’t on her side? You aren’t planning to attack me?”
Carlo hid his hand behind his back. “I control my own mind. Your wife, she’s persuasive, but I’m only part demon.”
“Good. I am inclined to trust you as the only ally I have right now. We have to leave.”
“No,” said Carlo. “We have to stop this. Ra killed Lucy and he’ll kill Octavia.”
“I saw everything,” said Drusus. “He won’t kill Octavia. He’s taken her instead. Look!”
Carlo glanced back at the circle. Ra burrowed into Octavia’s body. “My God.” Carlo started forward again, but Drusus grabbed him with his working arm, his grip squeezing.
“Getting ourselves killed by Ra will help no one.”
“My grandfather!”
“He will escape or be rewarded with the fate he deserves.” Drusus laughed, dry and bitter. “Octavia was right about Ra, if not about Lucy’s ability to control him. I don’t think Octavia expected this.”
“We have to help her.”
“I hope to,” said Drusus. “There is a third party interested in these proceedings and we must bring this matter to his attention.”
“Who?”
“Although I’ve never met the gentleman, there is a servant Solomon set to guard the scroll, a magical being called Balthazar. He’s very old, I understand. We are beyond our depth. These are matters infernal and celestial.”
“I agree.” In the circle, the glowing Octavia was shoving Paolo Borgia into a flaming fissure. Anger and fear wrestled inside Carlo. Whatever his grandfather had done, he was gone now. “How do we find this Balthazar?” Carlo said, his voice catching.
“We journey to the Temple of Erasmus.”
“Such a journey wil
l take some time.”
“I’m injured, but I can still take us a good part of the way. I expect Balthazar will intercept, given the situation. He won’t be able to stay at his post, not with the ripples from what happened today reaching out to him.”
“Is he a magician like you?”
“Borgia, we are beyond magic. We have walked into the world of mythology.”
Borgia. No, he did not want to be addressed the same way his grandfather was. “You must call me Carlo. I can’t stand to be a Borgia right now.”
Drusus used a sleeve to wipe sweat off his forehead. “You may call me sir.”
“I could, but I won’t. As soon as we get somewhere safe, I’m going to get a look at your arm. Now, could you give me a less circular answer about Balthazar?”
“He is an efrit, a creature made of fire. He will not suffer a demon to live, so you might be problematic, but he’s our best hope at the moment.” Drusus levitated them on a cushion of shaky air. “I will be most interested to see what he believes you to be.”
“I’m not so anxious to find out.” Carlo wished he had something to hold onto. “You aren’t going to drop us?”
“We’ll see,” said Drusus. “Let’s get as far away as we can.”
Octavia screamed as Ra burrowed into her. Please don’t! Please don’t! Lucy was dead and she couldn’t feel Khun. Great waves of power washed over her―Ra’s presence.
You want your father to be proud, don’t you? You want my power, don’t you? It will only hurt for a moment and then it will be all over.
The power settled in her, a slow burn, no longer raking and stabbing, but her skin stayed on fire. She emanated heat and light. This was power. This was control. This was the strength she’d never had, the ability to make things go her own way.
The voices in her head were silent. She only heard Ra.
She tested her joints and stood, glowing golden against the gray sky. The magical storm dissipated and the serpentine fog blew away in fragments. Real rain slowed and the sun began to burn off the mist. Octavia glanced down and saw a fragment of the black dress Lucy had worn floating in the murky water. Blood appeared on her golden hands when she merged with Ra. Lucy’s blood. The torn bits of Lucy’s flesh were fading, pockets of shadow in the marsh swallowing them, tidying up after Ra’s murderous lust. Her father was right and she had been a fool. She should have killed Lucy long ago in the natural progression of ambition.
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