The seal cracked in her hands and the world lurched. One moment you existed on your own terms. The next, an invisible chain snapped taut around something deep inside you, and you felt exactly where it led. To her. Ava's chamber is draped in shadow and candlelight, the air thick with incense and quiet power. She moves like someone who has never once been told no, and she is circling you now, the broken seal warm in her palm. She hasn't spoken yet. She's studying you the way someone examines something they've just purchased, looking for flaws, for weak points, for where to press first. The curse holds you in place. Every instinct you have strains against it.