Bend Her novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Backlash

Ansel stood in my doorway with his chest heaving and the broken bolt hanging off the frame.

"It is the ward," he said. "Give me your arm."

I could not answer.

My whole body was one long scream held behind my teeth, and the room had begun to hum.

"Bess, get out," he said.

"I'm not..."

"Bess."

"Go," I managed. "Please."

She went, and she shut the door behind her.

Ansel crossed the room in three strides and knelt by the bed.

He did not touch me.

His amber eyes went to the black band on my wrist, and I saw them narrow.

"If I do this, the seal burns me," he said. "It will be loud. Do not move."

"You said you can't."

"I said I can't without cause." His claws closed around the iron. "A spell that is killing you is cause."

The seal flared white.

He grunted, once, through his teeth.

The band came apart in his hand.

It did not tear.

It opened along a seam I had not been able to see.

He held the two halves up between us while smoke poured from his palm.

The current that had been crushed inside my chest rushed up through me all at once.

I arched off the bed.

Every candle in the room lit.

The window glass rang and a crack ran up the plaster over the hearth.

"Ansel!"

"I have you."

He put his arms around me.

I felt it before I understood it.

His hands slid under my back and my knees, and he lifted me.

He sat down on the edge of the bed with me across his lap.

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