Pretty Spelled by K.A Knight
Atlas
After gathering everything I need, we begin setting up the idols and magical elements around the cage. She watches me from inside, spitting insults to try and get reactions, but every time she does, Remi just starts singing and her eye twitches and she shuts up. I want to reassure my wildflower, to let her know it’s going to be okay, but I can’t without giving away my plan, which may make this fail.
While I was getting air, I thought of it. It’s an old type of magic. Blood magic for mates, usually to bind them. I thought I could alter it to bind us together and therefore push the darkness out of her and the bond. It may not work, but it’s worth a try. I won’t give up.
Once everything is ready, I sit in front of the cage. Usually, a bonding just requires love, blood, and some form of connection—usually sexual—but we are using the ancient blood ritual, and all it needs is willing intent. I know deep down Wildflower will agree, but I need to give her a message for her to concentrate on. “Wildflower,” I murmur, ignoring those black eyes and looking past them to my mate trapped within. “Focus on me, focus on our love, on our family, on the bond between us. Hold it in your heart and hands, and no matter what she says or does, do not let go.”
She can’t respond, but I have to believe she heard me, even as the darkness laughs and lashes out with her claws, narrowly missing my cheek, but I do not flinch. I close my eyes and block her out, focusing on my last memory of my mate. The way her black hair shone in the light, her bright blue eyes filled with love, her lips tipping up as she laughed. Her pale skin darkening under the summer sun, and the feel of her soft, small hand in mine. The heat of her body as she let me carry her. The way she smelled, floral, like the fields beyond the castle.
The sound of her soft, loving voice, and my name on her lips. I feel my own tip up, and without looking, I reach for the ceremonial blade. I mutter the words under my breath, the ones I had to double-check, as it has been many years since I’d seen a tradition like this conducted. I slice across my hand, letting the blood flow with my intention, with my love, combining it with my magic before reaching for the cage. She swipes at me again, laughing, but I manage to overpower her and grab her hand. It’s cold, nothing like my love, but I ignore it as I cut down her palm.
“You want to play?” she taunts. I push her voice aside for my love’s.
“Attie, I’m here,” she whispers, quiet but so strong. It’s filled with determination as I feel our bond pulse with love and hope, that once fraying thread thickening from each end.
Strengthening.
I continue chanting as I press our hands together, mixing our blood, our fingers joined. She is mine. My mate, mine for always. I take her now into my body and heart. We shall live as one, my body shall be her temple. In this life and the next, we are connected… And so I repeat it again and again as that bond continues to solidify until, with an audible bang, it slips back into place, shining bright with gold and flecks of black.
There’s a gasp, an audible scream of anger, and when I open my eyes, Lilith is thrown back in her cage. She clutches her hand as I watch. It will never heal now, she will always have a mate scar on her palm to show others she is taken, that she has already been claimed. My blood is pumping through her, I feel it, my magic too. It wraps around my mate, strengthening her waning soul and dragging her to the front. It battles that darkness with her, the bond blocking all others until her body arches from the ground and a scream leaves her lips. Her mouth opens as black smoke pours from it, until suddenly, it stops, and she falls to the bottom of the cage.
Immobile.
Her eyes are shut, and her legs and arms lie in strange angles. “Wildflower?” I murmur desperately. I feel hope fill my chest, thinking it worked, but the longer I don’t see her blue eyes flutter open, the more I deflate with disappointment. I thought this would work, but I was wrong. I need to find another spell. Something to save her. Maybe we could try—
“Attie?” she croaks, and her head turns, strands of her black hair falling across her face. Those pink lips part on a groan of agony as her long lashes blink open to reveal blue orbs. The black veins on her skin melt away as if disappearing altogether. Even the scent of evil and pain vanishes, replaced by the floral fragrance of my mate. My heart stops and my brain freezes as I just stare at my mate wordlessly.
It’s her.
It’s Lilith.
“Attie?” she repeats.
* * *
It’s her, it’s Lilith. I rip open the cage faster than she can blink. I ignore Khalid’s warning that it could be a trap. It’s her, I know it is. I can feel it, can feel her—my mate. Tears flow from her eyes as I snatch her up and yank her into my arms, pressing my forehead to hers, unable to look away from her blue eyes for a moment.
“Wildflower,” I whisper brokenly. “Tell me it’s you.”
“It’s me,” she says as she begins to sob. She closes her eyes for a moment before they open, the shine of tears undoing me, making my poor broken heart ache. I brush them away before kissing her forehead and each eye.
“Shh, I’m here, I’m here,” I whisper, holding her closer, letting her feel the pounding of my heart, the strength in my grip telling her I will never let her go again.
“I was so scared,” she whispers. “I was losing myself. I could see you, but I couldn’t get to you.” She hiccups. “Am I really here or is this another trick?”
“You’re here, baby, and you’re not going anywhere ever again,” I promise, my tone filled with the strength of my conviction. “I vow it. Feel me, I’m here, you’re real.” I grab her hand and press it to my skipping heart, and slowly, a smile curves at her lips.
“Centuries later, and I still make your heart race,” she whispers, and then she winces. “I’m tired, so tired, Attie, but I don’t want to sleep—”
“Shh, it’s the bond and the ritual making you tired. You need to rest. I will be here when you wake up.”
“But-but what if I wake up trapped again?” she murmurs, fear blooming in her eyes, so I grip her cheek and force her to look at me.
“My wildflower doesn’t fear such things, she trusts me. I’ve got you, sleep, nothing will happen, and when you wake up, I will be right here at your side where I belong. You’re safe now, you’re safe,” I soothe as her eyes close and her body finally relaxes. She must have been fighting off that post magic exhaustion, but she needs to rest or it will rip her body to pieces.
Lifting her slowly, I cradle her as I look to the others. Khalid is crying, holding Remi in his arms, and when I meet his eyes, a bright smile curves his lips, the likes of which I have never seen. “It’s her, she’s safe,” he rasps raggedly.
“She is,” I whisper, trying to fight back my own tears at the feeling of having my mate in my arms again. “I’ll take her upstairs to rest. Call the others, tell them to come home… Their sister is back.”
With that, I slowly head upstairs, opening the door to the room I made for us, and lay her on the king-sized bed before tucking her under the covers. I strip off my shirt and shoes and get in next to her, pulling her into my arms. I refuse to be without her for another moment. Not after I just got her back. I’m never letting her go again.
Lilith is mine, and when she wakes up, I’m going to prove it to her. Enough waiting, enough fear and pain. We are together again.
We are mates.
