“Fine. Use some magic first,” Owen demanded.
I squinted. “Excuse me?”
“Use some magic.”
I shook my head. “No. I told you, I don’t want to break anything else. And I already have used it today. That was why you pulled me out of bed at dawn this morning. I have done every single thing you have demanded for the last three days and I’m sick of it.” The tears of frustration pricked my eyes. I was so tired of this. So tired of them having me do this or that, so tired of them trying to figure me out. When I’d never even wanted this to begin with.
“Leave her alone, Owen,” Krew snapped.
“Jorah,” Owen warned, ignoring Krew entirely. “You can’t just suppress it all the time. You are going to have to start using it more frequently.”
“Fine. I’ll use it tonight. In the forest. I can’t use it up here.”
Owen narrowed his eyes. “Can’t or won’t?”
I clenched my jaw and willed my magic away so it didn’t just further prove his point for him. “Both. Both, Owen.”
I grabbed my tea and left, pulling down the sound barrier of Owen’s with me when I went.
CHAPTER6
“How long are you going to be pissed at me?”
“A while,” I admitted to Owen.
Krew held open the back kitchen door for me. It was late. Atrociously late. It was after midnight. And I was so tired I felt like a walking corpse. But here we were. Going back out to the meadow to train.
“Well, if you want out of this like the badass I know you are, you aren’t going to get there by getting coddled.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and willed my magic to stay put. I thought I had been mostly past this little tiff with Owen. Up until the wordcoddle. “I’m sorry?”
Owen gave me a shrug. “It’s the truth.”
I squinted. “Who exactly iscoddlingme, Owen?”
His eyes were no longer on me though, they were on Krew, the two of them stuck in a stare down.
“You think Krew is coddling me?” My voice went up in pitch as I asked the question.
Owen’s eyes briefly hit mine before going directly back to Krew’s. “Yes. Whether it is intentional or because he is distracted with becoming soul bound to you, or maybe even just distractedwith you, I’m not sure.”
“Owen,” Krew warned. “Push too far and insultmy wifeand we will have a problem.”
The way he’d sliced through the wordsmy wife.I fought off a shiver.
“You know she needs to be using her magic more frequently. You know she has to learn to trust it,” Owen argued.
Krew took a step forward with a look on his face that had Owen backing up. “And what you donotknow is what she feels like, what she’s felt like every day since I gave her magic. You don’t feel how overwhelmed she feels, but I do. Ifeelher panic. Ifeelher fear. She is terrified, Owen. And has been terrified every waking moment since she found the magic crawling across her skin.”
Owen was quiet a moment, thinking through Krew’s words. “Your guilt is not helping her, Krew. Both of you need to understand that what was done is done. Jorah is powerful. And she is strong.” Owen’s eyes switched to mine. “You were strong far, far before you ever had the magic. You are going to be okay. We are going to get through this. All of us.”
I wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince. Me or him. I was also entirely sick of hearingwhat was done was done.If I never heard that phrase another day in my life, that would be splendid.
The rest of the walk was quiet, though I could feel Krew stewing next to me.
Do you really feel guilty?
Yes. I had no idea you’d be this terrified with my magic or I might have only given you half. But Owen has a point. His delivery of it is horrid, but he has a point. I was trying to give you time and space to come to terms with everything.
