“Then we have the matter that your magic has presumably done nothing, gone nowhere, only slightly dipped, yet at the same time Jorah is powerful as shit.”
“Owen,” Krew hissed.
“Tonight Keir went half power at you, and you held your own. I am...disturbed. Tomorrow when he goes full blast at you, we will see. Maybe by then you’ll be weakening.”
“We woke my wife,” Krew offered.
Owen looked back to where I still laid still. “How’d you know?”
Krew’s eyes were on mine when I opened them up.
“Oh right. Because you two talk with everything but your mouths these days,” Owen barked. “Sorry, Jorah.”
I yawned. “Can you worry yourself into a tizzy tomorrow, please?”
“I’m not worried,” Owen snapped.
“Oh?” I asked, and to Krew I added,He is so worried.
He is.
“I am just... there is a lot going on. That is all.”
I yawned. “Go to bed, Owen Raikes. We will handle it in the morning. Bright and early, I’m sure.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Owen sent me a smirk and then left.
I stretched and moved to resituate the blankets, ready to go right back to sleep. Tomorrow. We could figure it all out tomorrow.
I’m going to shower quick. Want to join me?
I jolted. Was he going to flirt with me through our bond? At completely inopportune times? Of course he was. I was doomed. Irrevocably doomed.
But I’m warm.
His response was immediate.You could be warm in here too.
I curled in tighter to the covers and could almost feel him laughing. After a minute, while still in the shower, he asked,How much of that did you hear?
I considered my answer.Enough.
Please don’t worry. It may take a week or two to figure out how our bonding affected both of our magic, but all in due time, love.
I wasn’t so sure about that. I was trying not to let Owen’s comment fester, but I wasn’t sure I was accomplishing it. Was I dangerous?
Long after Krew was out of the shower, long after I’d used my touch to map his body, long after he’d fallen asleep, I remembered those words. I was powerful, yet no one knew how that paired with my Iron Will would affect things.
One time. I’d used my magic one time and felt good about it. Yet even then I’d done more than intended. I was looking forward to the day this power felt like a gift and not a burden, but I wasn’t sure that day would come anytime soon. If ever.
* * *
It feltlike the exhaustion was going to be a permanent companion to my new life. I carried it with me wherever I went, my own personal shadow.
I used magic two times the next morning, successfully, but almost wincing as I had. What Owen had said rattled me. I didn’t trust my magic. At all. And I was beginning to wonder if Krew’s so-called gift was a waste. If I’d end up suppressing my magic so much that I’d become just like all the other Enchanted in Savaryn. Weakened by not using it enough.
Maybe I preferred to be that way.
The rest of the day I practiced calling my magic to the surface and then calming it repeatedly. In the shower alone, I’d done it six times. It was far easier than I thought to will my magic to stay away. That wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was using it. And not doing something with it that was... extra.
