The Bound (Ascension #2)(123)

After skimming the page, he swallowed hard. “Blood magic,” he whispered. “I can finally have my own magic, and it will bring us together.”

“It’s not permanent. It requires sacrifice. A sacrifice that you have to be prepared to harness. Each person has an essence or a fire…and when you take a life, you can wrest that magic from the source,” she said warily. “It’s taboo to even speak of it in the castle.”

“I’ll do it.”

And then he withdrew a long knife from his belt.

Cyrene wanted to turn aside and not witness what was about to happen, but Serafina seemed determined to watch. She was trembling, and tears rolled down her cheeks, but she didn’t turn away. They were in this together.

As Viktor slid the blade across his baby’s neck, Serafina released a small sob. She covered her mouth with her hand. Blood pooled in Viktor’s hands and onto his feet as the life left his firstborn child. Tears were pouring down his face, but he didn’t stop.

He just chanted the words, “Life freely given. Power freely taken. Drawn from you. Give thus to me. Cast off the light and plunge into darkness. I surrender.”

She felt the air shift in the room as Viktor took the blood sacrifice and harnessed control of the power from his child’s life essence.

Cyrene was sickened and disgusted. How could Viktor Dremylon kill his firstborn? All of this was to harness magic for some kind of ritual. It felt surreal. She couldn’t believe that Serafina had let him do this…encouraged him to do it.

Viktor placed the baby on the floor between them, and he and Serafina clasped arms.

Serafina read from the book to begin the ritual, “The Bound ceremony is a sacred act set up to strengthen and combine the magical properties from the originators. Three qualities above all link us together—loyalty, trust, and acceptance.”

Cyrene gasped as realization hit her. He had harnessed magic so that he and Serafina could be bound together for all of eternity.

“The circumstances of our binding will test for loyalty, trust, and acceptance between the hosts. Do you wish to be tested for the Bound ceremony?”

Viktor answered, “Yes.”

Serafina met his eyes and nodded. “Me, too.”

“Know that the trials might be difficult, and once you start, there is no going back.”

There was already no going back. Cyrene could see it in their eyes.

“Do you accept the circumstances?” Serafina asked.

Their eyes met again, and they smiled.

“Yes,” they whispered together.

They each grabbed a vial of liquid and tipped it back.

Viktor and Serafina had been Bound two thousand years ago.



Cyrene sat straight up and gasped for air. It couldn’t have been real. It couldn’t have been. That had never happened. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. It was just a dream.

“Cyrene!” Dean cried next to her. “You’re alive.”

She crashed back down into what she realized was sand. The skies were dark, but the rain had stopped, at least for the moment. She worried they were in the eye of the storm and that if they left this spot, everything would start up all over again.

“Creator,” she breathed. “What happened?”

“We’re shipwrecked. The storm crashed us into some rocks, and then we landed on this island.” He threw his arms up in defeat. “You’ve been out for hours. I thought you were…dead.”

“How did we get on the island? Where is the rest of the crew?” Cyrene asked.

Dean’s face looked bleak. “We were sinking. I grabbed you and found something to paddle with. I swam us onto shore. I haven’t seen anyone else. They might still be out there.”

“And Robard?” Cyrene asked.

She couldn’t believe what had really happened. Dean couldn’t have thrust his sword through Robard’s chest. His blood couldn’t have called to her to use it to stop the hurricane. Like Viktor had used it to harness blood magic from his firstborn child. None of that was real.

“He’s…” Dean’s voice cracked, and he looked away. He buried his head in his hands. “Gone. I’ve known him my whole life, and now, he’s gone. Dead.”

She reached out and touched his leg. “He was trying to kill you.”

“We’ve fought thousands of times. I could have stopped him. I could have made him surrender.”

“He would never have surrendered.”

Dean looked away. “I don’t…I don’t want to talk about it. We need to find shelter for the night, and in the morning, we’ll find a way to get off this island.”

They scouted out a place in the nearby trees. Cyrene was weak and could barely move. Dean had to carry her halfway, and he didn’t look too good himself. She knew that they needed to eat something to replenish their energy. But they couldn’t find much more than a coconut in the dark. It would have to do until morning.

Cyrene rested back against Dean’s chest and closed her eyes. She was beyond exhausted. The couple of hours that she had slept while blacked out wasn’t enough with the amount of energy she had used. She didn’t even want to think about trying her magic right now. Her whole body was sensitive. She doubted it would be a good idea.

Closing her eyes, she tried to use Dean’s warmth to chase away the demons. Sleep quickly took her, but soon enough, she awoke, screaming at the top of her lungs. Blood was everywhere. On her eyelids and on her hands and in her hair. She clawed at her face, trying to get rid of it.