I laughed. “Well, you do want to become bonded to him still, do you not?”
“Well yes, but I can’t be soul bound to him if you are. Plus Krew was checking with the sages about an Enchanted having more than two bondings. John suspects their power will lessen the more bonds one person holds.”
I giggled. Here Owen wanted to use this as a weapon to have a means of more productive communication for all things in the disloyal underground.
“What?” Owen asked.
“It’s just that you see it from a strategic standpoint, and Krew mostly uses it to flirt with me or check in to see how I’m doing. It’s very innocent compared to how you would want to use it.”
“Innocent?” Owen asked. “Not the word I would use.”
I put a hand up. “Fine, but you knew what I meant.” I paused. “Do you really think Krew’s magic will remain? It won’t lessen any further?”
Owen leaned back from the cards he’d been about to deal. “I think we have no idea. And we have no idea because no one has ever been foolish enough to try to give all but a drop of it away. Until now.”
“To a vessel who didn’t even really want any to begin with.”
We stared at each other for a second and then we were laughing. Soon I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe it was the absurdity of it all. I wasn’t sure. The first Enchanted in who knows how long who wished to give all of his magic away managed to give it to someone who didn’t really want it to begin with? What were the odds?
Owen picked up the cards and dealt them, Silvia came in shortly after. We convinced her to play a few hands with us before my gown fitting.
If I was going to have to wait the day away to find out about the ring, then at least I had good company.
* * *
The tar-lookingwater sloshed over my boots. I sent another wave of magic into the lake, stronger this time, doing my best to maintain a steady stream flowing out of my palms. It took far more concentration to have a continuous flow than it did for merely sending it to move objects. I wasn’t perfect at it, but I was slowly improving.
It’d been an exhausting day. Nara had been essentially locked in her room for the day while the king looked everywhere for his ring and decided if she was to blame or not.
We didn’t have the ring yet because she hadn’t been able to take it to the drop off point. And the king was angry, but based on what Krew said, not as angry as he would have expected if the object held their mother’s magic. Then again, maybe the king was just trying to make it appear he wasn’t overly bothered.
Whatever the reason, I was over this day. I was over this plan. I was over the king remaining in power. I wasn’t skilled enough or strong enough to attempt to take him down myself. Nor was I sure I was brave enough or naïve enough to try it on my own. But I needed something good to come from all this.
There were so many different plans in motion that I was lost. Like a dance I didn’t know the steps to, I was just being dragged along.
But I didn’t want to be. I wanted to know the steps, to help. I wanted the king gone too; I just didn’t know how to accomplish that.
So here I stood at the lake. If I wasn’t going to go to bed with the knowledge of the results of the princes’ stupid plan, at least something good could come from this day. I would try to heal the lake. Again.
“Jorah,” Owen warned. “I think you’ve used about enough for the day.”
I ignored him entirely.
Krew was standing next to him and added silently,You didn’t sleep well last night, love. Don’t overdo it.
I ignored him too. Sometimes if I used enough magic, my skin would slightly glow. It was an adrenaline high I was beginning to like. But following that high, I usually crashed into a deep sleep. And that was what I was going to need tonight. To use so much that I could just sleep. Sleep and not worry. About Nara. About the ring. About the king. About the ball. I needed eight hours of no worrying.
So I sent even more magic into the lake which was now completely and wholly covered in silver magic.
“Jorah,” Owen barked, this time sounding pissed. “Knock it off.”
I didn’t stop the magic flowing from my palms into the lake. “First you tell me I don’t use enough, now you tell me I use too much. Which is it?”
I was facing the lake, not him. But I heard his stomping toward me as he said, “There is such a thing as burnout, you know.”
“Just a little more,” I offered. “Please. I need something good to come from this atrocious day.”
At least dial it back please, love.
