“Because he’s needed. She’s made someone very angry, and that’s the fun part about blackmail, Eliphas. You do what I want. Now do it.” The doctor, a guy they all called Doctor Bauer, nodded his head sharply at Nakul, who tensed.
Eliphas sighed and sat down across from him.
“Nakul, I need you to do something for me.” Eliphas’ words carried power.
Nakul knew how to identify a spell being woven when he felt one. He jerked against the bonds, but the magic of the prison made him weak and removed his ability to turn into a snake. He couldn’t get away.
“Nakul, you will do this thing for me,” Eliphas continued, looking angry.
“No,” he hissed. “I will not be a puppet.”
“You will kill Kaliya Sahni.”
Nakul’s stomach dropped as magic clawed its way into his mind.
“No!” he screamed. “I will kill no one for you. How could you betray me like this, Eliphas? I thought you were helping me!”
“I’m sorry,” the Warden whispered. “But I won’t lose everything just to protect you.” The witch took a deep breath. “Nakul, I need you to do something for me. Nakul, you will do this thing for me. You will kill Kaliya Sahni.”
I could barely breathe. My heart raced as I felt the rage and pain from my uncle. They were asking him to do one thing that was so far out of bounds, the spell was more than just a suggestion. It was a violation. The very idea of killing another naga, especially me, was so far past Nakul’s moral line that it was like being…
I didn’t continue the thought as the feelings of my uncle swirled around me.
“NO!” He wouldn’t do it. He would never do it. The compulsion spell sank into him, but he fought so hard. It buried itself deep inside him. It was there like a cancer, a foreign object that didn’t belong. It made him ill.
“He won’t do it if he remembers it’s there,” the doctor snapped. “Move over and let me finish this.”
Eliphas backed off quickly, his face blank. The doctor raised a hand over Nakul’s face, and an insidious black power wove its way into my uncle’s mind. It blurred things. It replaced things.
“If you kill Kaliya Sahni, you will be given a new life. A new name. Freedom will be yours to do with what you want. If you wish to return to killing, we can facilitate it. Others will be trying, though.”
“I won’t kill my niece or any other naga,” Nakul hissed, but I knew what just happened where my uncle did not. The man had blocked the memory of the spell that had just been done and replaced it with a ‘piece’ of a new memory. This was some heavy power. This healer was immensely powerful, and he was skilled with memory manipulation.
Something curled in my stomach as I felt Nakul’s violation. That feeling didn’t go away. As he was walked out of the room, the feeling that something had tainted him remained.
It reminded me all too much of the mistakes I had made as a teenager and what had been done to me. Bile rose in my throat as Nakul’s violation mirrored my own. A memory of a man forcing a potion down my throat came to me, and the scene started to change.
Monica let go of my hand, and it all ended.
I turned and vomited in the middle of the surrounding audience.
27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Kaliya, what happened?” Monica demanded, leaning over me as I finished emptying the contents of my stomach.
“Nothing. It’s fine,” I snapped. Nakul’s feelings had been so visceral, and my life had taken such a fucking left turn recently, everything had collided at that moment. I normally had no reaction. What happened to me as a teenager was a long time ago, a hundred years ago, to be precise.
The witch touched my shoulder, and I hissed, revealing fangs as I turned to look up at her.
“Don’t touch me,” I ordered. “You ended the spell. We have what we needed. My business is my own.”
She pulled her hand back, and I watched her put on a professional mask, then direct her attention to the witches around us, all silent and respectful. She had them well trained.
“Of course. Everyone, you’re dismissed. I want two junior coven members to clean up. Then all of you to take the rest of the night off. Rest and recuperate.” She looked back down on me. “You and Raphael can come with me.”