Yvan’s Wyvernfire ramps up, as if he senses my agony, and Vogel’s eyes flash silver. “His Wyvernbond...it’s all over you.” His face twists with a look of almost jealous betrayal before he grasps my hair, his nails biting against my scalp. “Did he force his Icaral kiss on you?” he seethes. “Push his serpentine tongue into your mouth?” He murmurs another spell, and my gag bindings disappear so fast my teeth clamp down on my tongue.

I level an acid glare at Vogel. “Yvan Guryev didn’t force me,” I snarl, baring my teeth, tasting blood on them. “I wanted his Icaral kiss.”

Vogel’s eyes spit silver fire. He draws back a hand and slaps me across the face so hard a breath is forced from my mouth. Outrage spasms through me.

“We’re fasted now,” Vogel states, chillingly calm as he stares me down. “You’ll speak no more of your staen’en taint. And soon, you will be fully Sealed to me.”

Shock seizes hold at the implications. “You’re a priest.”

Vogel’s piercing gaze remains unnervingly intent. “I relinquished my priestly role before I took hold of this fasting, as is allowed by the Blessed Book.” His look shifts to one of alarming intimacy. “Elloren, the Ancient One has made it clear to me. We are each other’s destiny.”

I can barely breathe, so great is my astonished horror.

“We’re tainted, you and I,” he rues as I gape at him in confusion. “You’ll understand in time,” he obscurely adds. “But together, the Ancient One will restore us to purity. We’ll atone for our sins by fulfilling the Prophecy. And then join our magic through our Blessed Sealing, for the Glory of the Ancient One.”

My shock turns volcanic. “You’re going to have to bind me a lot tighter than this, Marcus,” I seethe. “I will never Seal to you willingly.”

Vogel’s eyes flash that odd silver fire as Yvan’s incoming aura ramps up into a hotter blaze. His gaze sharpens. “Do you feel him coming for you, Elloren?” he croons, his branching magic biting into my lines.

Yvan! Stay away!

“Let him come,” he says bitingly. “Because you’re about to destroy him.”

He jabs his Wand’s tip into my neck and I scream, the shock of pain unbearable as dark branches impale my lines and the world blinks out of sight, my nails scrabbling against the stone ledge beneath me as Vogel’s power fully punctures mine, gray completely overtaking my vision.

Then a fiery silver.

I spiral up out of the dark, pain searing through me as my magic inverts to Shadow, my fire turning gray as steel.

“You’re mine, Black Witch,” Vogel says, voice deep and certain. “The will of the Ancient One cannot be defeated.” He touches his Wand to my forehead, like a solemn benediction, and my Shadow bindings fall away.