“Wait.” I turned and squeezed Krew’s arm. “My magic is obviously silver, but what is its shape?”
Owen put up a hand. “Now that is tomorrow’s lesson. Releasing magic slowly is very difficult and hard to control.”
I yawned. “Okay. Tomorrow then.”
“I owe you some sleep and what I am sure will be a very lengthy discussion,” Krew said playfully as we headed back toward the castle.
Those words had me wanting to voice a thought I just couldn’t let go of. “Do you regret it? Forcing me into this power?”
Krew stilled and turned toward me. “Do I regret not telling you what I was considering? Yes. Do I regret how overwhelmed you feel right now? Absolutely, yes. Because you still see this magic as a burden when it was meant as a gift.” He pointed with his free hand back toward the two green trees. “I regret how it went down, but no, I do not regret giving you this power. Look what you are able to do, love. Just look.”
I didn’t regret marrying Krew, or the fact that we were soul bonded, but I wasn’t quite sure what this was yet. It didn’t feel like a gift, but maybe it wasn’t entirely a burden either. The thought of trying my magic on the lake was exciting, but I also dreaded it. Dreaded having to use my magic again soon. Dreaded all the unknowns.
“Will it take a few days for your magic to lessen?” I asked him softly. “Will you miss it?”
He shook his head. “No, I won’t miss it. And I have no idea how long it will take.” He held up his palm, his blue magic already running along the veins in his hand. “I want to practice with Keir tonight. I feel like I haven’t lost much, just a few drops. What will likely take a few weeks to recoup. Not months like I was expecting.” His eyes locked onto mine etched in concern, but he also looked...happy. “Everything is the same. The same and yet entirely different.”
CHAPTER3
Despite feeling an exhaustion that was bone deep, I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping until Krew and I discussed this issue of our soul bonding. He could talk to me in my head. And as thrilling as that was, to be close to someone in a manner such as that, it was also intimidating as hell. What if I was mad at him? What if I accidentally checked out another man?
What did this all mean?
“Sleep or talk?” Krew asked me as we were finally alone again in his room.
I slumped down onto the couch. “Don’t you have any princely duties to do today?”
He shook his head. “I am technically off the hook for the next few days while Father meets with parliament. I suppose I might need to make an appearance tomorrow sometime during the joint session and also at the wall to make it seem as if I am disloyal hunting. And I have a meeting with The Six later in the week. Otherwise, I am all yours, love.”
My cheeks burned with heat knowing he meant that in more than one way.
He knelt at the floor in front of me, handing me a steaming cup of tea. “I cannot begin to understand how overwhelmed you must feel right now. And I know I am to blame for that, Jorah. I made a selfish decision to protect you with my magic. But it is also one I willneverregret.”
“Even if I come to regret it?” I asked quietly.
He gave me a small smile. “Even then. If it saves your life from my father like I intended it to, I cannot and will not regret this.”
I knew his decision to give his magic to me had stemmed from his past experience of not being able to protect Cessa, Warrick’s mother. I knewwhyhe did it. I was just still shocked and stunned he’d actually done it. He hadn’t told me. Or Owen, apparently. He just decided I needed saving and had done it. Giving away years of a magic that he had honed and worked hard to gain. Like it was nothing.
The rest of the realm can burn, but I made sure you will always be safe.
He hadn’t given me this magic in a game of manipulation, it’d come from a place of love. In the way that he loved me so fiercely, he’d do anything to keep me safe. And though I was furious at him for this, for doing this without telling me, I was also a little stunned by how he loved me in his every action and move.
He was still eye level, kneeling in front of me. “Can you read my thoughts every second of the day?” I asked.
He smirked and gave his head a shake as he moved to sit next to me. He wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, massaging gently. “No. Eventually maybe? But I’d have to seek out your thoughts, it’s not just there. If that makes sense.”
I let out a long sigh. “No, it doesn’t make sense, Krew. None of it makes sense.”
His hand stilled. “Well, I can feel where you are, even if you are not in the room. I can feel the direction you are in, but in my head. And I know that sounds crazy. It’s like some sort of tether between us. And when I focus in on that, in the direction I feel you, that’s when I can hear what you are thinking. Though if you are feeling strongly, or in the case of this morning, about to panic, it seems to come chasing down that tether to me.”
This was madness. I had never heard of any of this before.
“I know it sounds absurd. I need to find out more about soul bound couples, but there are very few living now. Over the generations there were fewer and fewer and now I’m not sure what information I can find. I should get Hatcher on this immediately, so we can learn more of what we are capable of together, but for now I’d like to keep this between us. At least for a few days until you have a better handle on your magic.”
I gave him a smile of understanding. I didn’t want anyone else to know I had magic for a while. “And why did you suspect we might be soul bound before last night? You could hear my thoughts even then?”
He gave his head a shake. “Not often, but my magic was regularly reacting to your emotions as well as my own. Even when my parents seemed to have a loving relationship, I hadn’t ever seen that before, so I knew something was amiss.”
