The Consumption was completely different from the bond between Julia and Yuli. The pair had a glow, a color, which pulsated out from their bodies in tandem like a shared heartbeat.

“Look at that. I’ve never seen a binding like this before,” Julia said, then squinted, eyeing a particular strand. It was already thinner than the rest, and was warping erratically. Within minutes it thinned and thinned at the middle before snapping like a rubber band that had been pulled too taut. “The connections are weakening.”

Phoebe could only sit there, unable to move more than a few inches, as Julia scrutinized her. It was even more difficult to ignore Silver’s gaze, who had resigned himself to staring after failing to struggle closer. Eventually, Julia must have observed all she could, because the light vanished and Phoebe’s consciousness was pulled back into her frozen body.

“What’s the deal?” Phoebe asked, slowly stretching and getting up from the kitchen floor.

“The binding got super confused. It’s physical like a Consumption, but there’s an exchange of energy like a Rise, too. And it’s degrading.”

“So can we let it fade? I can just wait for all those things to break and it’ll be over?”

Julia shook her head. “Breaking a Rise willy-nilly can throw you on your ass for days, and breaking a finished Consumption is impossible. I don’t know what’ll happen when all those strings snap, but dying might not get rid of the side effects. The ritual was strong enough to leave a permanent scar so… I don’t know if we should risk it.”