Dachev grabbed my arm and threw me down. As I fell, I tried to snag his leg and pull him off balance, but missed. I hit the floor hard with him on top of me. I tried to roll out from under him, but he had his full weight on me.

“Don’t struggle, pretty one,” he murmured. “Struggling only makes it hurt more. I’m so sorry about your potion. But I have a present for you. Something to replace it.”

Still atop me, he reached down into his pocket, took something out, then brought it up to my face. It was one of the other man’s chiseled stone knives.

“I think we’ll have fun with this,” he said. “Much more fun than we’d have with your potion.”

I started to cast a binding spell. The moment the first words left my mouth, his eyes widened, with confusion, then fury. I saw my mistake, and tried to rush through the incantation. His fist slammed into my cheek. Bone crackled and a tooth pinged into my throat. I wheezed a cough and the tooth flew out on a string of spittle. I started to cast again, but Dachev slammed his hand down on my throat.

“A witch?” he snarled, bringing his face to mine. “So that is what I recognized. You didn’t care to enlighten me. You didn’t dare, did you?”

Again, I tried to push him off, but he had me perfectly pinned, so I couldn’t do more than glance awkward blows off his back.

“Do you think I don’t know how to hold you, witch?” he said. “At my trial, some thought I used a sedative on my victims. Others believed I knocked them unconscious. But I didn’t. What is the pleasure in cutting an unfeeling carcass?”

I narrowed my eyes, hoping to summon some bit of my Aspicio powers and blind him.

“Don’t give me that look, witch,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t shock you. I can see it in your eyes. You remind me of her, you know. My Nix.”

He lifted the knife. “That’s not to say I’ll spare you. After all, she did betray me. I forgive her. But that doesn’t keep me from imagining how I’d like to betray her. Love and hate. The same impulse, the same passion.”

I flicked my fingers in a knock-back spell, managing to gasp the single word needed to cast the sorcerer spell. Nothing happened.

“Useless without your spells, aren’t you, witch?” He smiled. “Well, without your spells and your kicks and your punches. You do know how to fight. None of my other victims did. Quite disappointing.”