Page 64 of Enchanted Throne


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The wolves had started running with us in the forest in the mornings. It was making getting out of bed in the morning a little easier. I fought the smile tugging on my lips.

“Do it again,” Owen challenged. “Take it down and put it back up if you don’t believe me.”

I creased my forehead thinking of all the nights I had trained with Krew and Keir both. “Why haven’t we gotten around to combining our magic more yet?”

Owen snorted. “Because you’ve been too busy combining...” he paused to bring his hands together, interweaving his fingers, “yourselves.”

I should have been surprised with his crassness, and yet I wasn’t. It was just how Owen was.

Krew shot me a grin that had me catching my breath. “We have beenratherbusy. Alsoratherthorough.”

“Stop.” I rolled my eyes. “Owen isn’t going to let this go until we do a barrier again, so get your thoughts out of the gutter.”

Krew trailed his hand down my back. “Likely not.”

With a flick of my fingers, the barrier fell, and I sent another one back to replace it. This time taking extra care to envision only the smallest amount of magic.

But the moment Krew’s navy magic joined with mine, the same thing happened, both strands of magic becoming significantly thicker. Rather than becoming a light blue color, it just looked like a significant amount of silver magic outlined in navy, his magic wrapping around mine to further protect it. I wondered if he was the first one to send out the magic, if my silver would outline his. And could Keir’s combine to his, strengthening it even more?

Owen was shaking his head as he rocked back on his heels. “Well, will you look at that.”

I closed my eyes a moment, trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves. “Can we just go back to the fact that one of the king’s spies could still be hiding inourcloset right now?”

Owen cocked his head at me. “Ah no, honey. I swept the entire wing as soon as you suspected someone had been in here.” He squinted. “I’m a little wounded you would assume I didn’t.”

“Hey Raikes,” Krew began.

“What?”

“How about you take the rest of the night off? I just cleared my schedule to come deal with this, so I’ll stay with Jorah until dinner.”

Owen crossed his arms. “You two are justa lot, you know that? We need to be doing some more combining of another sort soon, all right?”

“Agreed.” As Krew laughed, Owen headed for the door, breaking the sound barrier as he went.

I spun to look at Krew, grateful for the extra time with him since he would be training with Keir tonight, but surprised with it all the same. I didn’t say anything, I just looked at him.

He put his hands on my waist and then pulled me in closer. “What?”

“You just got rid of Owen because—”

“Because he pulls extremely long hours,” he leaned down to brush a light kiss on my collar bone, “protecting one of the two people I love most in the entire realm.”

I felt the smile playing at the corners of my mouth. “Is that the only reason?”

“No.” He switched to the other side of my collar bone. “I found seeing our magic combineextremely attractive.”

As soon as he brought his head up to meet my eyes, I whispered, “You fiend.”

He brushed a gentle kiss to my lips. “I don’t think you realize all the times I wished to touch you and couldn’t. Either because I was supposed to be only faking a relationship with you or because you needed time and space to heal from my brother.” Another kiss. “You were always just out of reach. Sometimes this doesn’t all feel real.”

I laughed as he scooped me into his arms. “I knowexactlywhat you mean.”

CHAPTER17

As we loaded into open-topped carriages for the tour of the townships, I was relieved for the weather. It was still quite chilly this morning, but the sun was shining, and we were sure to have a warmer day than it had been the past week.

I longed for spring. I longed for the days the sea started to warm and breezy walks on the beach were welcomed and not chilling. But for today, I would take it. I had a blanket across my lap for now, but by the time we returned to the castle, I shouldn’t need it.