39. Lorant
39
LORANT
B efore it was time, I took the stairs to the top of the tower and paced there instead of inside my room.
I waited.
Would she again refuse to come? Just the thought of her remaining in her room while I stalked to the window and climbed onto the roof, where I’d sit until the moon started to kiss the horizon, was enough to make my rage boil again.
If she—
“You don’t need to follow me to the top of the tower, Surren.” Her voice echoed up to me. “I’ll make my own way back to my suite.”
My lungs . . . froze.
Surren gasped. “My queen. No. This is not done. It’s my job to—”
“I’ll make sure she makes it safely back to her suite,” I barked.
“Lord Lorant?” Surren called out.
“See?” Reyla said. “I told you I’m meeting him here for training. I’ll be perfectly safe with him.”
That was a matter of perspective.
“Very well, my queen,” he said. “We’ll wait at your suite for you, then.”
A door banged on the lower level.
“They’re with me all the freaking time,” she hissed. “Can I never be alone?”
Her light footsteps shivered their way up the narrow, coiled stairway to stroke across my ears and my skin that twitched in anticipation.
My soul.
Be kind. Merrick’s admonition echoed in my mind.
I would try.
She reached the top of the stairs, puffing, but when she stepped onto my level, she didn’t complain. I could feel the wariness in her, the way she was already slamming up the walls she’d need to keep me out.
And that only made my frustration burn brighter.
“Welcome, Wildfire,” I drawled.
Pausing, she smacked her palm over her heart. An admission or was she still feeling short of breath?
“You’ve finally arrived,” I snarled. There went my attempt at being kind. Although, I hadn’t injected much of the irritation storming around inside me into my voice. I even curved my lips up in what I hoped was a decent enough smile.
“Fuck, Lore, what did I do to deserve that grimace?” she said with a roll of her eyes. Her hand flopped to her side as she walked over to stand in front of me.
“It was a smile. Not a grimace.”
She propped her hands on her hips, calling my attention to their gentle slopes and the way the movement lifted her breasts, showing off a hint of their peaks. I’d tasted that flesh. Dragged my tongue across it before moving lower.
Her leathers not only cupped her ass sweetly, but they also seemed to stroke her curves, pressing themselves against her skin like a doting lover.
“I think you should keep snarling,” she said lightly. “It suits you more than that smile.”
“You don’t find it charming?” I rasped, watching her. I would never be able to drag my gaze away.
“Should I? Charm doesn't seem to be part of your nature unless I've been reading you wrong all this time.”
“I can be quite charming when I choose.”
“I won't hold my breath in anticipation.”
I adored her wit, how she teased. But Merrick was right. Tonight, I had to work with her magic. Not drag my tongue across her skin.
“Allow me to state that I'm here at Merrick's request and only for that reason,” she said. “Nothing else.”
“You don't crave my company as much as I do yours?”
She grumbled. “You don't crave anything from me.”
“I believe I've already shown you what I crave.”
She tilted her head to look up at me, and though her gaze narrowed with irritation, her eyes showed me she was already struggling to maintain her guards. To keep me from seeing that she did crave me. “Shadow magic. Nullification if that will keep you on course. This.” She held up and lit her index finger, then pointed it at the floor and etched a swirl into the stone with her fire. “As you’ll note, I’ve started to master this one on my own.”
When the puff of smoke she’d generated with her drawing cleared, swept away by the brisk wind passing through one window to exit out another, I smirked. “Add an R to the L, Wildfire, and perchance a swirling heart, and it’ll be complete.”
She stomped over to stand above the area. “That’s not an L.”
“It’s an L. It stands for Lore. Me.” I moved up behind her, resisting the urge to nudge her hair to the side with my nose and press my lips against the sensitive skin on her nape. “I didn’t realize you had a soft spot for me in your heart.”
“I don’t.” She pretty much bolted away from me, not stopping until she’d reached the stone wall and pressed her back against it. I could follow her. Cage her with my arms and then devour her, but . . .
Kindness. Civility. Encouragement.
Even I could sense if I didn’t try, I’d drive her away and next time, even Merrick wouldn’t be able to convince her to meet with me again.
“A truce?” I held out my hand. Would she dare take it? I hadn’t given her any reason to believe I wouldn’t trick her. Why was this so hard for me?
Oh, yes. I knew why.
She stared at me for a long time, assessing me. Judging me, I was sure. I remained stoic, struggling to project an image that would come across as non-threatening.
An impossible thing .
Yet her shoulders loosened. She took one step toward me, then another. Finally, she stopped in front of me, glaring at my hand. “What are the terms of your truce?”
“Work with me, and I’ll . . .”
“Leave me alone?”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“You should.” Her voice cratered. “Please. You have to. I can’t—”
“But you will.”
“Conclude your terms.” The sharpness in her eyes would cut the stone beneath our feet as easily as her finger. “Agreeing to work with you is essentially granting you a favor.”
“You offer a favor?” My slick smile grew. “Now, isn’t that intriguing?”
“You know what I mean. None of that fae favor crap. You won’t manipulate me into anything like that.”
“We could call it a soft favor.” I tightened my spine. “Agree to work with me each evening and in exchange, I won’t touch you unless you beg me to.”
“As if that’ll happen?” She took my hand much too easily. Shook it with too much vigor. “Deal.”
She had so much to learn.
“I’m not begging you to touch me, Lore,” she crowed. “Get used to that right now.”
“We’ll see.” I stepped back from her. “As you said, you’re doing well with your lightning magic already, though I believe you’ve only begun to learn how to wield that power with much accuracy.”
“Yes, because that is not an L. It’s a squiggle. ”
I grinned. “It’s an L. One day, Wildfire, you’ll add that R and a heart.”
She didn’t return my smile or my challenge. “Don’t do this, Lore. We can’t. I won’t.”
Or she would.
“I believe tonight, we should see if you can use your power to pull in even one puny shadow,” I said.
“Pull it in?” A frown bloomed on her face, and she shoved stray hair back over her shoulder. The wind caught it and streamed it out at her side like feathers of sunset. “What does that mean?”
“As long as there’s light, there are shadows around you.” I flicked my finger toward the wall on my left where moonlight filtering in through the window made my shadow rise and lurk against the stone. Even my shadow appeared to be staring at her; it could no more look away than I could. “All you need to do is make the shadows come to your call and do as you command.”
“Shadows.” Her lips thinned, and she crossed her arms on her chest. “What is a shadow going to do at my command?”
“Almost anything with the right incentive.”
“They're like mist, and mist can't do anything.”
“Mist can creep under a door or through a keyhole to spy. Imagine you're fighting in a great battle and suddenly, a thick mist obscures your vision but not that of the wielder.” I fed her my usual smile, slick and full of cunning. “For the right mist wielder, mist can kill.”
“It can’t take on a physical form. I can see the value of obscuring vision. You could eliminate an enemy if you could see where you were going, and they couldn't. Slip in, a quick slice with your blade, and it's over. But how can mist kill?”
“Imagine thickening mist and sliding it down your opponent’s throat. Keeping it there and thickening further.”
“They could keep their mouth closed.”
“If you fill their nostrils with more mist, how will they breathe?”
“Good point.” Her face creased. “You're saying that shadows can do these things for me?”
“And so much more.”
“I don't believe I want to choke someone to death with a shadow.”
“Give it time, and you might.”
Her lips curled up on one side, and her face took on a conniving slant. “Perhaps I would.”
The fates help whoever challenged this woman. There was no way she wouldn't walk off every battlefield victorious.
“What else can shadows do?”
I warmed to the subject. “You could command shadows to cloak you, hide you.”
“And sneak around inside the castle? Sounds fun.” The grooves on her forehead suggested she had a destination in mind.
I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms on my chest, lifting one eyebrow. “Where do you hope to sneak into, Wildfire?”
“Nowhere in particular.”
I’d discover where she hoped to go soon.
“You could also use shadows to form a weapon,” I said. “And with the right amount of power, it could cut nearly as well as a sharp blade. You could use shadows to block light or absorb energy from someone else.”
Her face stilled and wild panic swept through her eyes. “I'm not draining anyone of their power. Never.”
“You never know when you might—”
“Never. Do you hear me, Lore? Never .”
“Tell me who,” I growled, suspecting her father's involvement here again.
“As I said, we eliminated that threat already.”
I paused for a tick of time, resisting my urge to form fists, to find a way to raise one particular dead fae king only so I could kill him again. I'd make it special. Even his soul would never forget. “You could use shadows to clean the air. Make the shadows of beasts obey your command.”
“You’re saying I only need to ask the shadows politely, and they’ll do all this for me?”
“Power, Wildfire. It's about giving them the power only you can command and they crave, and in exchange, persuading them to grant you what you need.”
Her posture loosened. “Show me how to call them and give them what they crave.”
“Don't ask for anything you don't truly need and be prepared to pay their price if what you need is vital.”
“My friend's powerful. So is my brother. They don't appear to suffer from using power.”
“I assume you speak of the friend who envisions a well of power for her to tap. Your magic appears subtly different. I believe you'll need to pull in power from around you and use that instead, like we do here.”
“No well brimming with magic?” She sighed. “Somehow, having even a bucket of power at my disposal seems easier than finding it in the air around me. With a bucket, you can scoop it up. In the air? I’ll have to figure out how to gather it then offer it to a shadow to get what I need.”
“Which is why you must practice. Those who wield shadow magic are rare.”
“How rare?”
“I only know of one person who can do so.”
She huffed. “Then maybe they need to be the one teaching me, not you.”
“You will not be looking elsewhere for training,” I snarled, shoving off the wall and dropping my fists to my sides. “Only I will train you.” Her lashes flickered at the challenge in my voice, but I held her gaze steady.
“You're not the very fates themselves, Lore,” she said. “There are others out there who are better than you at a lot of things.”
I stomped over and gripped her shoulders, though loosely, and stared into her eyes. “There is no one out there who’s better than me.”
“No touch, remember? I don’t recall begging.” She shrugged me off and eased away. “There’s no one else out there with your ego, either, but you need to set that aside— if you can—or I won’t work with you.”
A growl ripped through me. “I’ll try.”
Her mouth curved into a delicious smile. “You nearly broke it, but it wasn’t a true favor. ”
“It’s almost the same thing.”
“Except it isn’t.”
I shrugged, not committing to anything. “Look at shadow wielding as if you’re making a trade, and the skill will serve you well.”
“The obsidian stone’s glow also suggested I could use nullification. What does that entail?”
“That skill is also very rare. I don’t know anyone who can wield that magic.”
“That’s me,” she said. “Rare.”
So very.
“Imagine being able to neutralize someone else’s spell,” I said.
“Like, poof, make it go away?”
“In some cases. I don’t believe nullification would work on an eras spell.”
“What’s that?”
“A wizard’s spell that has lasted for a very long time.”
“Are there any of those out there?”
“I’m sure there are,” I said.
“Nullification.” She tapped her chin. “Create areas where magic won’t work. Nullify that space, you could say. Could magic like that block someone’s ability to draw from their own well of power or the magic lurking around them? I’ve met fae who could freeze someone with one look, make it impossible for them to draw power. Maybe they possessed this skill.”
“There are spells that will do that. I doubt it was true nullification, because nullification would make it impossible for someone else to use their magic, not freeze them for a time to keep them from drawing it in. In that case, with your fae friends, the spell would only last until the one frozen, as you said, could overcome it. In true nullification, they can’t. Never.”
“I assume nullification could make a page appear blank unless the person who cast the spell wanted you to see what was written.”
“Excellent.” I’d only found one book in the library that referred to nullification, and it had only mentioned a few uses for it. My wildfire was thinking and analyzing this, and coming up with ideas no one else had ever dreamed of. Merrick didn’t need to tell me she was clever. That she could be conniving. It bloomed on her, shedding its perfume for those discerning enough to catch the scent.
Like me.
“Thank you.” The true smile she gave made it impossible to breathe. “How would someone counter a nullification spell?”
“I’m not sure it’s possible.”
“Not even for someone who can command nullification themselves?”
“I’m not sure anyone knows.” I forced my lungs to work as they should because she was still smiling. A real one. For me. “Let’s see if you can work with a shadow tonight.” I flicked my hand toward the wall where ours still dueled. “Never call your own.”
“Why not?” She peered at the wall. “It’s right there, waiting.”
“Your shadow will exhaust your magic much faster, and it might use the opportunity to merge with you and take over.”
“The other shadows won’t?”
“They’re not created from you, which means they can’t. ”
A shiver ripped through her. “There’s no way to kick it out?”
I shook my head. “It also might latch onto your fears and magnify them.”
“I don’t need that.” She faked a curtsy to her shadow who did the same to her as if she stared at herself in a mirror before turning back to me. “Tell me how to do it.”
I rubbed my hands together and explained about gathering the wisps of power around her and calling to the shadows. She learned how to find the power she needed with surprising speed, but bargaining with shadows was not going to be as easy. Mine would refuse to listen to her—at my command. The wall itself created a shadow, and I guided her in working with that.
Without success.
She tried much longer than most would’ve before she finally slumped against the stone and blew hair off her face that settled back down to irritate her.
“Enough for tonight,” I said, tugging her forward a step before going around behind her. “We’ll keep practicing each night until it’s seamless.” I released her hair from the band she’d used to secure it and fingered through the strands, resisting my urge to thrust my face into it and just breathe. I made a quick braid, tied it off, and got away from her as fast as I could.
“Thank you.” Frowning, she fingered the tip of the braid. “I’m not very good with hair. Did you have a sister and practice with her?”
“I did not.”
“No other siblings at all?”
What an odd question. “I’m the only one. ”
“I appreciate you taking time with me tonight. I know I can be snippy.”
“No,” I breathed.
Another smile rose on her face, this one driving its dagger straight through my heart. What I wouldn’t give to . . .
Soon.
Maybe.
Or never.
“You’re a good teacher,” she said.
“Of many things.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t have seen the wisps of power around me if you hadn’t shown me what to look for.”
I sucked in her praise, something I didn’t see much of. Although, no one else’s praise mattered. Only hers.
“I should leave,” she said. “There are only a few days left until the coronation.” Her gaze met mine before flicking away. “Will you be there, watching?”
“I will.”
“I’ll look for you.”
I nodded. “I won’t attend the dinner. Not my kind of party.”
“I’m not surprised about that.” She nibbled on her fingernail before looking up at me again, this time holding my gaze. “Will you be at the masked ball?”
“That, I could never miss.”
“Save a dance for me, then, Lore.”
“What would Merrick say about that?”
“I dance with who I please. I’m married to Merrick. I like him very much.” The color in her face suggested she might like him more than very much, but I was not going to call her on it. “But I decide who I dance with or don’t.”
“He won’t protest.”
“You’re right.” Her sweet smile told me she was thinking of him. Of them touching. Talking. Being together in all the ways a couple could. “He’ll stand near the wall, grinning as we swirl across the floor.”
“I can picture it now.”
She started to walk past me, but I tapped her arm. She could’ve kept going, ignoring me, but she stopped, close enough I could taste her light scent in the air. Suck it into my lungs and fuse it to my very soul.
“Before you leave, would you . . .” I swallowed, and it scraped its way down like stone. “Come up onto the roof with me?”