My wrists ached something fierce. Not just my wrists, but my ankles and shoulders, too. I squirmed, trying to get more comfortable, but my arms and legs moved only inches. My eyes slammed open and my heart pounded as I replayed the last few minutes before I was told to sleep. By Jude.

I jerked against my restraints. My hands were bound above my head and I couldn't move my feet either. Where was I? Above me, a dark ceiling loomed. Below me, I could feel cool stone. I moved my arm and the new stone I touched felt colder than that underneath me. I must have been lying here for a while as it seemed the stone had been slightly warmed by my body heat.

I tried to crane my neck to get a look around, but it hurt too much. My entire body was stiff and aching from being tied down to the cold slab of stone. An altar, I suddenly realized. I groaned and wanted to thud my head against the stone, but thought better of it. Knocking myself senseless wouldn't help me.

Sadie, you sneaky bitch, I cursed inside my head. I'm going to toss you around like a ragdoll when I'm done with Jude.

Now that I realized I was on a stone altar, I could piece together where I was from what little bit of the room I could see. They hadn’t taken me far and I knew exactly where we were. I was in the coven's little hidey hole beneath the occult shop. This was where they got together to play witch.

"Evening, my love," Jude crooned from somewhere near my head. I twisted my stiff neck from side to side, trying to get a look at him. I wanted to make sure he saw the rage on my face.

"This is a new low, even for you," I spat out. "What're you going to get from this, huh?"

Although I was furious, I was still aware that I was in deep shit. Even as I snarled at him, my mind focused on slowly loosening the bonds around my wrists and ankles. I was careful to alternate between each restraint, moving them a millimeter at a time.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked.

It wasn't. I had no idea what he was capable of anymore. With a chill, I remembered the sheriff coming into The Peach and asking about missing tourists. And there I was, tied to a stone altar. Blood magic? God, I hope not.

My mind shifted to the present when he had tried to drug me with those chocolates. That was a little dark, but it had seemed like it was just him trying to manipulate me back into his life. I hadn't even considered why. Was this the goal? To have me strapped down on an altar to do heaven knows what with?

"Haven't you felt it?" he continued. "How easily I can control your powers? It's effortless, you know."

I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes. No other man in existence could compliment himself so thoroughly. Unfortunately, I understood what he meant.

I didn't want to admit it, but his powers did seem to have grown in the time we had been apart. He didn't even struggle to control me when I was angry at The Peach. Before he left, his control wouldn't have lasted nearly as long. The implications made me sick to my stomach.

"What have you done, Jude?" I couldn't quite keep the hint of sadness out of my voice. It was sorrow meant solely for the loss of the man that I had fallen in love with—my high school sweetheart, the father of my children.

He was a monster now.

Jude moved to the edge of the altar and looked down at me with a smile. A smile that didn't even begin to reach his eyes. My heart pounded with fear.

"Well, my darling," Jude said in a tone that was anything but loving, "I would love to tell you all about my adventures, but you seem to be trying to escape."

His body moved slightly and I heard a rustle. The bonds around one of my wrists cinched painfully tight. I clenched my eyes shut, teeth bared, but I refused to cry out. I wouldn't give him that satisfaction. He moved around the table to the next wrist.

"Don't try that again."

"Or what?" He clearly already had something terrible planned for me. Of course I was going to try to escape.

"I know where the children are, Rhonda."

My blood ran so cold that my heart stopped for a beat. I barely even felt the bonds cinch tightly around my wrist. "They're your children."

"The brilliant thing about children," he said as he moved to the bonds at my ankles, "is that you can always make more."

"You sick son of a—"

He cinched one of my ankles so tightly that I felt the rope cut into my flesh. A cry forced its way from my lips.

"There we go." He chuckled.

I lifted my head to stare at him through eyes that stung with unshed tears. My blood was thick with fear, hatred, and rage. As he smiled at me, all I could think was, I once loved this man. I handed him my heart and he devoured it with a bloody smile.

Yet, I had still wanted my children to know the side of him that I had once loved and let him back in when he returned. And now, because I had been so blind, he was threatening their very lives. I realized his true nature too late.

Anyone in their right mind would tell me not to feel guilty. They would tell me that he had manipulated me. I knew they would be right, but deep down I would still blame myself. Jesus, would I even get a chance to feel guilty?

As he made a show of tightening the bonds on my other ankle, reality crashed down on me like a demolished building. Thunk, thunk, thunk—level by level, it came crashing down. These might be my last few minutes. I couldn't fight Jude when I was bound, both physically and magically.

My children. Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes. Hopefully, Sam would take care of them. Above all, however, I hoped Jude would just leave them alone when he was done with me.

I let my head fall to the side, trying to hide my teary face against my arm. There wasn't anything I could do. Any action I took would put my children at risk. What if Jude had people ready to snatch them as we spoke? I thought I was so smart coming here, but I had played right into his hands.

I didn't know what to do anymore.

I watched, numb, as the dark, musty basement began to fill with witches from the coven. I took a shuddering breath and forced my tears to stop. I knew not one was going to do a thing to help me, and I'd be damned if I let them see me cry.

How long had this been going on? How long had Fayoak's coven been slowly rotting from the inside out? How did no one notice?

"Would you like to know what's on the agenda tonight?" Jude purred from above my head. I hadn't even noticed him there. He brushed a long, cold finger along my cheekbone and I jerked my head to the side.

"Screw you, Jude."

"If only." He took my chin between his fingers and forced me to look at him, That empty smile on his face, his eyes cold and flat. "This would've been so much easier if you had just eaten those chocolates. You would've remembered just how good I could be to you. We could've skipped all of this." He gestured around the room with his free hand and let out a slow sigh as if I had somehow inconvenienced him.

"I shouldn't have even answered the door when you showed up."

"No, probably not." He smiled even wider, yet his eyes somehow got colder. He turned and faced the gathering crowd, done toying with me. "Sadie, is everyone present?"

My old friend emerged from the crowd. "They are. We're ready for the ceremony."

I hadn't realized she and Jude were such great friends. In fact, she seemed to outright despise him when we were together. Had it all been a front? What else had I missed?

"No. Someone's missing." Jude snapped his fingers. "Ah, yes, the young thing that dresses all in black. April, maybe?"

Even though he got the cashier's name wrong, I caught the flicker of jealousy in Sadie's expression. A bark of laughter escaped my mouth before I could stop it. I let my eyes fall shut and pressed my head back into the cool stone.

"You were screwing Sadie, weren't you?"

"Past and present," Jude replied in a satisfied voice.

"You're despicable. Is nothing beneath you?"

"It's a matter of interpretation. I happen to think many things are acceptable if the benefit outweighs the cost. Such as sacrificing my wife for her power. Immense benefit, very little cost."

My eyes popped back open. Leave it to Jude to not mince words. He really didn't plan to let me walk out of here tonight. Shoulder to shoulder, members of the coven packed into the basement and stood eerily silent. Just watching and waiting. I heard a door creak open, then heavy footsteps on the stairs. The murmur of hushed conversations spread through the crowd. Jude looked with interest to see what was causing the stir.

I strained my already aching neck to get a look from around Jude. My heart jolted painfully against my chest at what I saw. It was Paige. Sam—my Samael—trailed listlessly behind her. His eyes were dull. He dragged his feet with each step. Had Paige done something to him? My eyes hurt and felt dry as a bone, yet seeing him like that dredged up tears I didn't know I had.

"I helped you, you dumb little witch," I shouted in a burst of anger.

She jumped slightly, then turned her startled eyes on me. I noticed then that she had the sheriff in tow behind Sam, too. Had Sam been coming to rescue me with the sheriff?

How did Paige manage to—I barely held back a surprised gasp. Oh my God, they were here to rescue me. All of them. It took everything in me to keep calm when I saw the tiniest head nod from Sam. I knew it was a message for me. My heart leapt wildly in my chest in response.

"What the hell did you bring them here for?" a witch called out from the crowd, his voice full of confusion.

"He's, um, Rhonda's . . . guy-thing . . ." Paige sounded so painfully stilted that I wanted to cringe. "I caught him and the sheriff out front. I managed to trick them into drinking a mind control potion. Should be good for a little while longer."

"Did no one tell you that we didn't need him anymore?" Jude motioned to me, strapped to the dais. "We've got her, as you can clearly see. Although, I must say I'm impressed you were able to control a shifter. Even when my magic was stronger, herding those beasts had been hell. Did your friend include you in a ceremony or—"

"No one told Paige we were trying to get Rhonda, Jude," Sadie interrupted, her voice laced with suspicion. "Have you been snooping in people's heads?"

Paige knotted her fingers together, then shrugged. "You guys never tell me anything anymore, so I . . . just sort of felt like I had to?"

Although I appreciated Paige's relatively smooth lie, I was stuck on what Jude had said. He had been controlling shifters. Instantly, I knew exactly which shifters he spoke of. I had been there when the spell that held them broke. How had I not recognized his magic on them?

"How?" I blurted out. "I fought them. The shifters from out of town. How did I not know it was you?"

He turned to face me with a grin. It was the closest thing to a genuine smile I had seen from him in years. As he spoke, he trailed around the altar, his fingers tracing the stone. He stopped when he reached my shoulder.

"Blood magic, of course. I used that pack leader as a conduit to control the rest of his lackeys. Revolutionary, if you ask me." Jude frowned. "Until he went and got himself killed, that was."

"Why not just stay in that town with your pet shifters? Why would you even bother coming back to Fayoak after all this time?"

"That's just it, isn't it? It's not like these things are done quickly. I was biding time, my dear. You can't take over a town overnight."

"Take over a town . . . ?"

He smiled eagerly. "The supernatural flock here. They need a leader. Fayoak would make a perfect throne for me."

"How generous of you," I replied dryly.

He brushed a finger along my jawline, trailing from the base of my ear to my lips. "I would have been generous to you, Rhonda. If you had only helped me . . ."

Despite my revulsion, I forced myself to smile faintly. "What if I helped you now?"

He chuckled as he traced the outline of my lips. There was a flicker of desire in his otherwise lifeless eyes. I gritted my back teeth together, fighting the urge to shiver.

"You won't help me, that's the problem. I realized that the moment you threw those chocolates, which I so kindly gave you, at me. Sadly, you won't be making it out of here tonight. However, know that your death won't be in vain."

A growl, deep and threatening, rumbled through the air and my eyes widened. Jude jerked back and snapped his head up to face the sound. I caught a glimpse of glowing topaz eyes that took my breath away.

"Sam?" I whispered.

I had never seen his eyes that color before. Even when he had shifted in the past, his eyes had remained their usual brown. Most shifter eyes changed color and took on an animalistic nature. Not Sam's, though.

It was only now, as I looked into those topaz eyes, that I realized how much control he had. Seeing them burning with primal fire, I knew that I was truly seeing his beast—and he was going to fight for me. If he could fight, then I would do the same.

My resolve fueled my power, and I used the momentary distraction to remove my bonds immediately, sending them spiraling out and whipping into Jude. The ropes coiled around his neck and arms, cinching just as tight as he had done to me.

He let out a strangled cry that rose above the flurry of activity breaking out just beyond us. As I sat up and swung my feet off the altar, I saw Sam and the sheriff fighting the hoard of witches, who were trying to keep them from Jude and me. A moment later, I felt my power snap away from me like someone cut a thread. The ropes fell away from Jude to the floor in a useless pile.

Jude turned slowly to face me. Satisfaction coursed through me when I noticed an angry red welt winding around his neck. Only a few seconds more and I could have done so much more damage.

"What're you going to do to me, Rhonda?" he asked as he hesitantly touched the red line like it stung. "You're not a fighter."

I looked his suited form up and down and let out a small laugh. "Neither are you. I guess we'll see who—" I paused when I noticed a smudge of black on the collar of his crisp white shirt. Disgust crawled through me as I thought of the young woman that had been working the front counter of Every Witch Way earlier. "Seriously, Jude? You had to have been in middle school when that girl was born."

Jude arched a brow as he looked down as he pulled at his collar to see what I was staring at. He looked back up with a smirk. "Jealous, are we?"

"Pitying you, actually. Clearly, your midlife crisis came early."

I charged forward, taking him by surprise. We fell to the ground in a heap. As I grappled with him, I caught sight of Jude's face. The rage I saw there momentarily stunned me. I didn't know how he kept surprising me. After all those years of marriage, literally trying to kill me—it was the homicidal rage that screamed through his expression that got to me the most.

Jude took advantage of my hesitation and flipped me over, slamming me against the cement floor with relentless force. I saw a flash of light as the force of the blow momentarily dazed me. The next thing I knew, both of his hands sank into my hair. He took big handfuls and wrenched me in close, so we were face to face and I had no choice but to look into his cold eyes.

"It's a good thing you didn't eat those chocolates, darling," he seethed between clenched teeth, "because I'd much rather kill you than fuck you."