“It’s not what I’ve done—it’s what you’re doing, my dear Reddix.” The witch gave him an evil grin. “You see, I started the circle by adding your darling Nina’s blood to my curative potion.” She gestured at the pale purple liquid in the pot, which was now bubbling again as though it had never served time as a magic mirror. “You must complete the circle by drinking some of the potion—only by consuming the blood she sacrificed for you can you staunch the flow of her wound.”
“That’s sick,” Reddix protested. “I don’t want to drink her blood.”
The witch shrugged. “I’m afraid it’s the nature of sacrificial magic. A sacrifice, once offered, must be accepted or the one who makes the sacrifice dies. Or in this case, slowly bleeds to death.”
“Fine.” Reddix put Nina down carefully, still supporting her with one arm. “Give me the potion. I’ll drink it.”
“As you wish.” The witch picked up a carved wooden mug and dipped it into the contents of the cauldron. She brought it out, brimming with pale purple liquid, and handed it to Reddix. “Drink, warrior. Drink for freedom and an end to pain. Drink to save your female’s life and set free one whose life is linked to yours.”
Nina began to have a worried feeling. Was the witch only talking about her? Or was she making some veiled reference to the strange man in chains she’d showed Nina in the cauldron—the one she’d claimed was her son. Who had chained him up in the first place? And what would happen if he ever got free?
“Reddix,” she began. “I don’t think—”
But Reddix was already downing the contents of the mug. His Adam’s apple worked as he swallowed it all in three long gulps. Then he finished and thrust the mug back at the witch.
“Here. I’m done with you now.”
“Very well.” The witch nodded.
“Is he cured now?” Nina asked. “Of his RTS, I mean?”
“As much as it was possible to cure him. I could not give him a normal Touch Sense or enable him to give a female the Deep Touch, but the emotions of others will be muted to him now—no more bothersome than a few pesky flies buzzing around his head.”
“The Deep Touch? What’s that?” Nina asked.
“Never mind my dear. It’s nothing that will ever concern you.” The witch was smiling now—an expression so gleeful it made Nina feel even more uneasy. What was she so happy about? Surely she wouldn’t get this much joy out of just curing Reddix of his RTS. Would she?
“And what about the other—the man you showed me in your cauldron?” she asked. “Is he—”
“Therron is beyond my reach—but not beyond hers,” the witch said mysteriously. “There is one coming soon—one of your own kind, in fact—who will free him of his chains. She will—”
“Ahh!” The hoarse shout came from Reddix, who had fallen to the ground on his knees. He was clutching the sides of his head and staring blindly at the floor as he shook in pain. “Ah, Gods—my eyes! The pain. The pain,” he groaned.
Nina looked wildly at the witch. “What did you do to him? Help him!”
“Oh, didn’t I mention?” The witch smiled nastily. “The potion is effective in curing RTS, but there are a few…side effects.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Reddix fell to the ground, bright lights flashing behind his eyes and searing pains stabbing through his skull. The sudden, blinding pain was as bad or worse than anything he had experienced with the Hurkon collar, and it wouldn’t stop—it went on and fucking on.
Dimly he heard Nina demanding that the witch help him, but Xandra only said something about side effects and that the pain had to run its course. He wanted to ask how long it would take—how much more he would have to endure—it felt like someone was driving silver spikes through his eyes and straight into his brain. But then, as suddenly as it had come, the pain was gone.
Reddix blinked his eyes and started to get up—until he realized he couldn’t see anything at all. Everything was completely black. And then the witch started speaking again—but this time he didn’t hear her with his ears. This time he heard her with his mind.
“Listen to me Reddix, son of Redan,” she whispered in his mind. “The time has come for us to part ways, but you have served your purpose well. In return, I will show you something few are privileged to see—a glimpse of your future.”
Reddix opened his mouth, wanting to protest that he didn’t want anything else from her, that he didn’t want to see his future. But then the blackness that covered his eyes cleared, and the vision unfolded before him…