When Redana uses the Command Seal implanted under her skin, it’s not because she’s afraid that Bella really will do what she just threatened, and she needs someone to save her. She’s not thinking that clearly at all. She just can’t bear to be [i]alone.[/i]

She’s alone with Bella. For the first time in their lives, they’re together and apart. There’s no safe haven here, no softness she can touch. The face in front of her belongs to a stranger. Her Bella is gone. Spittle trickles down her face, beads against her lips. The magic throbs and lances under her skin, a command, inexorable and inexplicable.

[i]Come to me. Stand before me.[/i]

The air shimmers into impossible angles; the world warps. A transposition of necessity. A miracle. Owls shy away, ready themselves, as an impossibility steps through under compulsion: Pallas Athena in a wedding gown, sculpted from the finest stone.

“Alexa,” Redana sobs. Again. Again, her friend sees her like this: weak, humiliated, helpless. Wasn’t the last time enough? “Tell her she’s wrong, please.” She tries to turn her body, to look, and the Kaeri keep her feet from touching the ground, from finding any sort of leverage. “Tell her... you’re my friend, aren’t you?”

Then she does manage to get a look, courtesy of a scan from the Auspex, and her train of thought derails spectacularly. “Wait, Alexa, you’re getting married? Why didn’t you tell me? Am I invited? Did you not tell me because you didn’t want me there? Oh no. Oh no no no. That can’t be right because if that’s right—“

Then Bella is right. Alexa doesn’t even want Redana to attend her wedding. The betrayal stabs deep.