You Are Mine (Mine, #1)(34)

Abruptly, I'm yanked downward. The ceiling grows farther and farther away from me. My hair streams above me. Those gathered come back into view. I'm going to smash against the rock floor. The fear while falling is worse than soaring upward. My heart pounds.

My body won't move in any way to help protect me from the fall. The Envadi's face flashes by. I stop. It takes a moment to realize I didn't crash. A faint spell flows from Chancellor Zade, cushioning me to the ground.

His face is taut, void of expression except his eyes. They burn with barely controlled rage. I try to bow my head so I can't see how furious I've made him, but my head won't move.

From the side of me, Father grabs my wrist and thrusts it toward the Chancellor. “She's yours.”

Chancellor Zade grabs my wrist and with his free hand, unties my hair ribbon. The bit of red floats to the floor as my dark locks fall to my waist. He scoops me into his arms.

The ceremony is over. He's going to carry me to the carriage and I'll be able to go to the house. Find Cynthia. Figure out how to get rid of this fog clouding my attempts to do anything.

When he places me on the cool stone, I know being finished was too hopeful a thought. My body shivers. It comes to me.

There's no tarnished coming today.

I am the sacrifice.

“Don't move. Don't speak,” the Envadi whispers.

His words mean nothing to me. I want to run screaming away from the altar I lay on. But I can't. I can't do anything on my own. Just his exact words. Don't move. Not even a twitch. Despair engulfs me.

The Envadi moves my arms above my head and shackles them. His hand encircles my ankles and places them in shackles on the other side of the altar. As if I could move anyway. If I could, I would fight with everything I have.

He can't kill me though. If wives were killed before marriage, none of us would be here. The thought should comfort me, except he's clearly going to do something. But what? I watch his every move.

He stands at my side facing the crowd. His hands hover over me as if he's about to cast a spell. Nothing. The longer I stare at those hands, the more I need this tea to wear off so I can move. I have to get out of here.

“Happiness.” His voice booms through the room.

Sunny light burst through his hands. As soon as it hits me, I'm laughing, so full of joy to be laying on this altar for him.

“Sadness.”

A deep blue is cast on me this time. I sob, tears stream down my face, wetting my hair and the stone beneath me.

“Hunger.”

The straw-colored light hits me and my stomach spasms. I'm hungrier then when I had to go a week without food. A moan escapes me.

“Satiated.”

The spell fills me and the pain stops.

“Health.

My body brims with strength. If I could rise, I would break through the shackles.

“Sickness.”

Olive green slams into me. Aches and chills. I dry heave.

“Pain.”

A scream bursts from me. My back arches off the table.

“Contentment.”

I fall back to the table, but it feels as if I'm on a feather bed. I sigh.

The feeling leaves. I'm sweating. I want to cry. Or rage. Or scream again. But I can do nothing. My body doesn't respond to anything I try.

“All thoughts and feelings will be mine.”

He reaches to his waist. A clang reverberates through the room. He holds a dagger above. I am going to die. For a moment, I panic, then peace fills me. There will be no more punishments, only darkness. I hope my sisters can survive without me. Please let them survive.

“Blood of thine.” He thrusts the knife toward me, slicing my neck. The wound doesn't hurt. I won't be afraid as I wait for it to lunge at me again. I won't.

He raises the dagger. It angles toward his own arm and makes a small cut. Why did he cut himself? I can't figure it out, but relief that I'm still alive fills me.

He sets the blade on my breast bone and holds his hand out. A midnight blue spell slinks to my neck and coaxes my blood into the air. It reminds me of getting tested. The light forms a sphere above me, tugging and jerking deep inside. It hurts, the pain growing and gnawing in me. I want to cry out. A stream slips from the orb and flows to the Envadi's cut.

“Becomes mine.”

The tugging stops. The orb shrinks as the last of my blood he must have wanted flows into him. I'm woozy seeing my life's blood go to him. The metallic smell makes it worse. But I can't do anything about it. The nick on my neck stings.

He grabs the dagger and sheathes it. With the aid of a spell, he floats up until he's standing on the altar next to my waist. A mass of colors and sparks fly from him, dashing around the room. The crowd murmurs. Blues, greens, silvers, yellows, all invade my sight. One slips to my neck and the sting eases.

Sparks pop faster among the colors. The colors sparkle, glitter, and dance. All at once, they're gone. The Envadi stretches out his hands, then yanks them higher. I spring upward until the chains are tight. My pulse is erratic as I hover in the air, still on my back. My waist brushes against the Envadi, my arms and legs aching against the chains.

He blasts a dark spell over me. “You are mine.”





Chapter Fifteen





I kneel in front of the altar. The stone chills my legs. Something is bound around my neck. The Envadi holds a leash. I choke back a cry. Or maybe a shriek. But the tea still has me under its power.