Sitri frowns at me, his gaze shrewd. He doesn’tsee me. Never sees me anymore. Only sees this thing inside of me. “You have so much power,” he mutters. “It’s like it’s too big for you.” He waves his hand, and the couch with me on it slides forward. “Let’s try something different.”
I slump back, and his glower thickens. “Attitude, pet. I want you to try and break it.”
“Break it?” I ask incredulously.
“Yes, break it in half. Split it into something smaller, something easier for you to work with.” I cast him an apprehensive look. “Try, Pandora,” he demands.
His magic cradles the daemon in my chest. My muscles tense as I try to hold onto it and force it apart at the same time. I tear at it. Rip at it. Direct all of my fury into it. Pain sears, yet I continue until it feels like my chest is being torn right down the middle. I grunt with the effort as it rips and shreds and tears.
Tears prick the backs of my eyes and then the daemon is surging out of me in two bolts. Sitri raises his hand to block the first in its path, but the second one catches him by surprise. It nails him in the left shoulder, and he flips backward off the coffee table.
I jump to my feet with a startled cry.
“Fuck,” Sitri mutters as he drags himself off the floor, rubbing at his shoulder. He holds up a hand when he sees the horror playing across my face. “It’s alright. That was…good. Let’s try that again.”
“No!” Tears well and spill out down my cheeks. My chest throbs, and the daemon, not one but two of them, lash inside of me in two separate pulses.
“Really, I’m fine, pet,” he sighs.
“Well, I’m not fine. Ithurts.I’mdone.”
He lets out a disgruntled noise. “Alright, we can stop there for the night.”
“No, I mean, I’mdone. I’m not doing this anymore. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. I’m done.”
“You’re not quitting,” he says, with a roll of his eyes. “Relax. Just sit down for a moment. Here.” He grabs the vials off the table and offers them out to me.
“This is all you fucking care about anymore,” I say, voice shaking with two weeks of pent-up rage.
No, twelve years of pent-up rage.
He drags his hand through his hair. “Look, I know I’m pushing you pretty hard, but it’s really important you get this under control.”
All of Div’s musings hammer in my head.He wants your magic. He’s using you.“Why do you care?”
His brows crumple affronted. “I want to help you.”
“Is that really it?”
He cocks his head. “Of course. I don’t want that to happen to you agai—“
“If you’re that worried I’ll kill someone else then you should’ve thought about that before.”
“I’m not worried you’ll kill someone,” he snips back.
“Then what do you want from me?” I snarl.
“I don’t want anythingfromyou.” His face falls as he chews at his lip. “Look, there are stories…about Magi that tried to go without using their magic, back when we had to hide.” He grimaces, his eyes grave as he drops his voice. “It could kill you, Pandora.”
Anger simmers inside of me and the daemon surges.My safety. He’s going to use my safety against me,again. “It—doesn’t—matter.”
His eyes widen in surprise before his shoulders slump. “It matters,” he says quietly.
“To who!? Look around, Sitri.” I gesture to the empty room around us, the walls I’ve been trapped behind. My outstretched hand ends at him. “Toyou?” I sneer.
His throat bobs with a swallow. “Yes, it matters to me.”
I scoff. It’s meant to sound angry. It mostly comes out broken.
