Page 177 of Illusory

“Wait! William, please,” I begged, my voice trembling with desperation as the men closed in, surrounding me in a tight circle. “Don’t do this. You’re making a mistake. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

William ignored my pleas, his face set with grim determination as the hooded figures began to chant in a low, guttural language. The air instantly turned heavy, crackling with dark energy that made my skin feel like there was something crawling beneath it. The man with the chalice stepped forward, his hood falling back to reveal a face covered in pale scars and strange ritualistic tattoos, his eyes completely black and devoid of any color.

He lifted the chalice between us, the dark liquid inside sloshing ominously as I reared against the binds.

My heart pounded frantically as he dipped his fingers inside and then reached towards me, his fingers glistening with thick red liquid that I instantly knew was blood—probably the Horsemen’s. My stomach lurched into my throat as I tried to jerk away, but the magical bonds refused to let me save myself.

“Don’t touch me!” I screamed as his fingers pressed against my forehead, the chanting growing louder as he marked my forehead with bloody runes and symbols I couldn’t make out.

The blood felt like ice against my skin, sending a violent shudder through my entire body. It seeped into my pores, an unnatural coldness spreading from the point of contact, creeping through my veins and settling like frost in my chest and limbs.

The chanting intensified, the guttural words pounding in my ears, relentless and suffocating. The other two hoodedfigures dropped their hoods, revealing their equally disfigured faces—twisted, scarred, and far from human—as their voices rose in a fevered crescendo.

The air around us pulsed with dark energy, oppressive and thick, pressing down on me like a weight I couldn’t escape. It felt as though I were choking on my own breath, the very atmosphere tightening around my chest, making it harder to think, harder to move.

The chanting grew impossibly loud, a deafening roar crashing against my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping onto whatever shred of control I could find, desperate to block it all out, to stop whatever they were doing to me. But deep within, I could already feel it—a terrible, inevitable shift. Something foreign, something malevolent, tearing its way inside, clawing through every corner of me, and claiming all the parts that were never meant to be touched.

A searing pain erupted in my head, spreading like wildfire through my body and making my limbs lock up. I gasped, my eyes flying open as it pulsed through me, streaking through my veins and muscles and bones as if destroying everything it touched. It felt like my insides were being ripped apart and rearranged, like something alien and malevolent was forcing its way into my very soul and reconstructing it.

“Stop!” I cried out fruitlessly, tears streaming down my face as pain and dark magic swirled around my insides like a suffocating vortex. “Please, make it stop!”

But the chanting and pain only grew stronger, the energy tearing its way through me, into all the places it didn’t belong. Places that were mine. I could feel my own power rising up to meet it, clashing violently inside me as the two forces battled for dominance, hissing noises whipping out at me from every corner in my mind. The harder my magic fought it, the more the pain intensified until all I could feel was searing hot painslashing through my body as though my flesh were melting off my bones. As though my brain was liquefying inside my head.

I should never have come here. I should have never moved an inch to take that damn book. The second my fingers touched it, I was trapped, never to be—wait. The book.

It’s the fucking book!

The realization slammed into me, and in a panic, I threw the Sang Noir to the floor. My hands shot up, pressing hard against my ears in a desperate, instinctive attempt to block out the pain that was now tearing through my skull. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to summon my magic, to fight back, but the agony ripped through my mind like a thousand screaming voices, overwhelming and scrambling everything in me. My body shook uncontrollably, every muscle rebelling as the dark energy continued its merciless assault. I couldn’t fight it. I couldn’t do anything.

I couldn’t even collapse to my knees and beg for mercy.

They had won. I knew it just as sure as I knew my name.

“Please…” I rasped, my voice a hollow whisper that barely escaped my throat as a familiar tightening between my shoulder blades suddenly spread across my back, making my eyes snap open in horror.

My wings.Oh god, my wings!

They couldn’t know about them. It was the one card I was still holding. Theonlycard I had left to play. But I knew, even before the first tremor of movement, that it was already too late to stop them.

With a deafening crack, my wings erupted from my back, unfurling in a violent explosion of black feathers that sent a shockwave of gasps through the room. William’s eyes widened in disbelief, his mouth falling open as he stood paralyzed, unable to look away. My wings, dark as night and brimming with energy I couldn’t control, had ripped through everyrestraint I had, leaving me powerless to pull them back in.

Not that it would have mattered one bit. They’d already seen them.

“Unbelievable,” breathed William, his tone almost awestruck as he staggered backwards.

Before I could react or say anything, the room suddenly began dissolving around me in a blur of motion and color. A sharp pull tugged at my chest before I was yanked back through the portal of time and space, the cold enveloping me like a soaking wet blanket and seeping deep into my bones as I was torn away from Temple and the nightmare that had ensnared me.

For a heartbeat, there was only darkness and the sensation of falling through an endless void. Then, with a sudden, jarring pull, I crashed back into reality, gasping for air as strong, familiar arms cradled me from behind.

I washome. It was over.

But I knew I was far from being okay.

“Jemma!Fuck. She’s back!” growled Trace, his grip tightening around me as Dominic and Gabriel stormed into the room and rushed to my side, the three of them surrounding me like a protective wall.

“Whatthe fuckhappened? Where did you go?” Trace’s voice cracked, sharp with panic as he turned my face toward him, his hands trembling as he inspected me, desperate for any sign I was alright. “Jemma? Are you okay? Talk to me!”

I blinked, trying to reorient myself as the room tilted and swayed around me, making me feel nauseous. My mind was still reeling, buzzing with the sound of distant whispers and hisses slashing through my brain.

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