“When was the first time you heard my thoughts?”
He sighed. I had apparently asked him a question he wasn’t sure he wanted to answer. “Honestly?”
I gave him a nod.
“I swore I felt your panic the night you tried to run. My magic was...inconsolableuntil I found you.”
My jaw fell open. “But that was before—”
“I know, love.” His eyes never left mine. “That was before you cared for me in that manner. But my feelings for you were already there, whether I wanted to admit to them or not. I also swore I heard your thoughts the night of the fire.”
I shook my head, considering all his words. I could be mad at him for how much magic he’d given to me in the bonding, but it was true that we had always been drawn to one another. Even back when I was still in Keir’s Assemblage. Our souls seemed to somehow recognize one another even when we had rather they not.
“Here.” He brushed a kiss to my temple and got up. “Close your eyes. Not for magic this time, but I am going to leave your side and go somewhere in our wing. I won’t tell you where. Focus in, think of me, and see if you can figure out what direction I am.”
I looked at him curiously. “Okay.” I closed my eyes, willing to try this little experiment but unsure if it would work.
I heard a crackling sound and opened my eyes only to see that he put up a sound barrier around me and the couch. “That’s cheating.” But then I realized why he’d done it. I would have heard his footsteps and known what direction he was in. This way, I was truly blind, not knowing at all where he went. If it was on the bed behind me, out on the balcony, or in the neighboring room.
So I thought of Krew. My husband. My soulmate. I struggled not to focus on the images of the previous night, skin to skin, and instead just tried to focus on the intense look in his eyes as he had sliced open my hand and poured his magic into me. I turned my head slightly to the right. It felt like there was something there. Like he was there. With me. Like he’d always been with me, always occupied that space in my head.
“Are you—” I took a deep inhale and really focused, closing my eyes for a moment. “Are you sitting in Keir’s usual spot at the table?”
He let the barrier fall and said, “Very good, love. Yes, I was.”
I gave my head a shake. I wasn’t sure what was more terrifying. The fact that I felt Krew in my head or the fact that I had turned a dead tree completely green earlier. “Once more,” I demanded.
Krew laughed as he leaned up against the doorway. “Why don’t you try to say something to me instead? But not out loud. Through our bond.”
I closed my eyes, focusing in on the tiny space where I had felt Krew. I tried to think of it like a tether as he’d said, like a rope connecting the two of us.
I am tired. Entirely overwhelmed. I want to shake you, but I also love you.
Krew was grinning and back at my knees, kneeling before me.
“I love you too, my wife.”
“Why did you do this to me?” I whispered. “You knew I was anxious enough about only a drop of magic, so why would you think giving me all but a drop of it was a good idea?”
Krew took my hand. The scar from the cut during our bonding was almost gone. It looked like it had been weeks when it had only been but a day. He gently trailed his fingers over the mark before kissing my palm. “Because you are the absolute best person I have ever had the honor to know. And if magic really is an extension of ourselves, we need a whole lot more of you, your light in this realm.” He switched hands to do the same with the other. “You might not accept this gift now. And if you’d like to be mad at me, go right on ahead. I understand now how you’d feel forced into it, but please know that was never my intention.”
I let out a sigh. “Can our magic combine?”
“I think so, yes. We can try tomorrow if you’d like.”
“If you still have yours?” I added.
He gave me a nod. “I’ll still have some. It’s just a matter of how much.” He paused and rubbed my arms, still in his shirt. “How are you feeling now?”
I took a deep breath and tried to send the word to Krew.Exhausted.
For some reason, learning how to talk to Krew telepathically was a lot easier than using magic. Maybe because there were less variables. Less tubs to snap in half.
“Let’s go to bed then,” he said, holding a hand down for me.
I knew all of these issues couldn’t be fixed no matter how much we talked them to death. “You’ll stay? In case I wake like before?”
He pulled me to standing and kissed me. “I’m not going anywhere. And any time in the next week I am not at your side, Owen will be. We are with you, love. Every step of the way.”
