Trust me.

It was the faintest whisper in my mind, so weak and distant I might have imagined it. Across the distance between us, across the invisible, impenetrable barrier that separated us, Zylas stared at me. Stared into me. His eyes scoured my soul, a promise hidden in their glowing depths.

Trust him.

Tears spilled down my cheeks. I convulsed with a sob, the bindings on my wrists scraping my skin raw. I had to suck in air, had to search for strength. It took everything I had to force my head to move.

I nodded my permission. My surrender.

Everything around me blurred as tears streamed from my eyes. I wept, unable to stop. Men bustled and voices murmured, but I didn’t hear them. In my head, I listened for Zylas’s voice, needing to hear him again.

Desperate to understand.

Desperate for him to explain.

Why? Why was he letting this happen?

But I heard only silence, only my internal screams, my howling denials that this couldn’t happen, wouldn’t happen. I couldn’t lose him. I needed him. I needed him with me.

I would rather die than let Claude have him.

Why won’t you let me save you, Zylas?

A voice chanted an incantation. Claude. He stood in front of the circle, a grimoire cradled in his open hand. The three sorcerers waited, watching, listening.

Zylas crouched in the circle’s center, darkness rippling around him. His eyes were on me, boring deep. As if in a dream, I remembered him crouched in a different summoning circle. Remembered him pressing against the transparent barrier, straining to reach me. Remembered sliding my blood-slick hand across the hardwood floor, my fingers crossing the silver inlay.

My arms jerked against the bindings.

“Zylas of Vh’alyir, you hereby bind yourself to my will. You will obey my commands without question or deceit. You will take no action without my permission. You will not harm me in any way, physically or mentally, or allow harm to befall me. You will …”

I lost track of the contract clauses. Couldn’t hear Claude listing them, one after another after another. All I could hear were my own hoarse, muffled cries against the gag, as though if I made enough noise, I could drown out the summoner and stop this.

Zylas, please don’t. Please!

“I accept.”

My body went limp, limbs slack against the bindings.

A chain jingled. A new infernus with a blank face—awaiting a House sigil. Claude passed his grimoire to Saul, then arranged the infernus over his palm. He stepped closer to the circle.

This couldn’t happen. It couldn’t. It had to stop. Someone stop this!

Zylas shifted to the circle’s edge and pressed his hand to the unseen barrier. Claude pushed the infernus against the demon’s palm, holding it in place.

I remembered cold metal edges digging into my palm. Zylas’s fingers squeezing mine, my blood all over both of us. His arm supporting me. His breath in my ear as he whispered the command that had sealed us together forever.

“Enpedēra vīsh nā,” Claude declared, the foreign words rough and awkward.

“Enpedēra vīsh nā,” Zylas whispered, the same sounds guttural but elegant in his husky voice.

Crimson magic blazed out of the infernus, and Claude stiffened. Burning pain was blasting down his arm and into his chest as the magic bound his very being. I remembered that feeling too.

The light died away. Claude staggered back, clutching the infernus, its chain swinging from his white-knuckled grip. Zylas slowly lowered his arm, his gaze downcast, his unmoving tail coiled across the floor.

A rushing sound filled my ears. It had happened. It was done. Zylas was bound to Claude. He wasn’t my demon anymore.

He belonged to Claude now.

Chapter Twenty

“Congratulations, my friend,” Saul murmured. “You’ve achieved your dream at last.”

Claude smiled modestly. “It’s taken a long time to get here.”

Zylas didn’t move, gazing blankly at the floor. The men continued talking, their words mush in my ears. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter.

“Robin.”

I started, shocked to find Claude standing in front of me. I hadn’t noticed him moving closer.

“Where is the grimoire, Robin?”

My apathy shattered. I shrieked against the gag, lunging forward. The chair wobbled, its legs scraping the dirt floor. Hatred scorched my soul and I wanted my hands around his throat. I wanted demonic claws so I could tear him apart, so I could gouge those callous eyes from his skull.

He’d taken my parents from me, and now he’d taken Zylas too. If I killed him, Zylas would be freed from the summoner’s command.

Grabbing my throat, Claude shoved me and the chair back into the cinderblock wall. He studied me as I screamed against the gag.

“I’ll keep this simple, my dear. There’s no way to move a contract from one person to another.”

My shrieks cut off. I sucked in air, teeth gritted.

“Regardless of the rumors to the contrary, a contract can’t be transferred, but”—he smiled coldly—“a demon can be shared. We spent many years developing the ritual you just witnessed.”

He leaned close, his face filling my vision. “I, however, don’t like to share. Your contract with Zylas is about to end, and there’s only one way that can happen.” Releasing my throat, he stepped back. “So here is my offer, Robin. Tell me where the grimoire is and how to get it, and I’ll kill you so quickly you won’t feel a thing. Refuse, and I’ll give you to my old friends, who’d very much like to spend a good long time with you before you die.”

Across the room, Jaden grinned hungrily.

I trembled against the chair.

Claude studied my face, then sighed. “Well, her stubbornness is good news for your boys, Saul.”

The old sorcerer made a quiet noise. “Unfortunate for you, though. Aren’t you in a hurry?”

“I can’t linger for long.” Claude turned away from me. “Someone has been meddling in our affairs, and if they go so far as to trespass in the Court, I intend to be waiting for them.”

“Could it be the sorceress’ doing? Dealing with a woman like that—”

“Varvara served her purpose well, and she even did me the convenience of dying once I had what I needed.” Claude rubbed his jaw, the stiff scar on his chin pulling at his lip. “But I may not need to wait for Robin to change her mind. Her former demon should know where to find the grimoire.”