Chapter 32 #2
“That will last for a few minutes more as the power adjusts to its new home,” Klaus tells him.
“Drink this—it will help as the Gift begins to take root. It can be...uncomfortable.” He hands Barony another stoppered vial, this one filled with red liquid, and Barony again drinks it in one swallow.
It must taste worse than the last by the face he makes and William huffs out a quiet laugh.
Barony glares at him but his lips curl before his face twists into a grimace of pain, his teeth bared and clenched.
“Barony??” William says, clearly worried.
“This is perfectly normal,” Klaus assures everyone.
The other royals have drifted over now, Queen Nicolette primly wiping her mouth with a silk handkerchief.
Barony takes sawing breaths through his nostrils, tendons straining in his neck as he fights to hold himself as still as possible as the power fills him.
I imagine the Gift searching for a way out, fighting its new enclosure as a trapped animal might fight a cage, clawing at every inch trying to find a weak point.
Once it finds none, it will settle into submission, but the fight always comes first. “It will only last a few minutes.”
We wait, the minutes slowly ticking by, until Barony begins to relax, the tension easing out of him.
“Great fucking Makers,” he gasps, eyes flying wide, utter exaltation shining within the black.
I smile at him, sharing in this lust and love of power.
“Well,” I tell him, “let us see what you can do, Your Majesty.”
I can’t help but laugh indulgently as Barony once again lifts a vase from the table and sets it back again. It’s all he can do for now, but it’s only been a few days. He will learn to grow and use the full potential of the Gift, as all of us do: in time.
Well, in theory.
“It’s incredible. The power brimming inside, the potential I know I possess. It’s still...fighting is the best way to describe it, but it will submit completely soon, I’m sure. I can only imagine what it will be like when I take another. And another. And—”
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” I tell him with a laugh. “Klaus has said you should wait before you try to take another Gift—though I know you don’t plan to,” I add before he can interrupt to say the same thing. “But the most anyone has been given is three.”
“I intend to be the first to take more,” he says simply, grinning at me. It actually makes my chest clench, his joy infectious. My eyes burn and I force the ridiculous tears away.
“Let us begin with two and see where it leads us, shall we?”
He leans in and kisses me on the cheek, absolutely nothing romantic in the gesture which is fine by me, before holding out a hand to help me from the chair and lead me from the room.
We make our way back down to the transfer chamber.
The other royals are there already, waiting anxiously.
Additional tables and chairs have been added, set up the same way as Barony’s had been before.
Klaus’ acolytes stand at the ready, trained in the procedure by the master himself.
Despite my Gift, I’ve always been a little jealous of the alchemists—the true alchemists.
There are many who study the art, as I did long ago, and call themselves alchemists, but true alchemy can only be done by those with special blood.
Magik they used to call it when Hypathia was still in its infancy, kingdoms nothing more than mounds of dirt.
Similar to Gifts, but instead of one particular power or talent, those with magik could do all manner of things.
It’s been lost over the centuries, turned into what we know now as alchemy, a mixture of the tiny amount of magik left in their blood and tonics and potions and the interaction of metals and herbs.
“Do it again,” Queen Ruby says, pale blue eyes alight. “Show us, Barony.”
Barony laughs, grinning like a showman at the theater as he raises his hand and lifts one of the straps from the table beside her, waving it in the air before letting it flop back to the table.
She titters like a child, nearly squealing and I barely stop myself from rolling my eyes, keeping my doting smile plastered on my lips.
Lifting a strap from a table? Please. It’s little more than a party trick.
None of them know anything about real power, none of them can instill fear into the hearts of everyone around them with the mere mention of their name.
But I can.
Klaus and the others come in, the acolytes dragging more incapacitated Gifteds along and depositing them on the awaiting tables.
William embraces Barony, squeezing him hard before pulling away and cupping his cheek lovingly.
The two queens don’t act as if anything is amiss and I realize that all of the other royals must already know the truth about William and Barony’s relationship, of their true feelings.
I watch as they share a look, one of those looks that has always mystified me.
How can a simple look convey so much power, such emotion?
The look says I am yours and you are mine and as long as we’re together, anything is possible.
This is how I know that Barony could never match my darkness. He’s capable of looks like that. I never will be. My chest tightens again, that small voice whispering in the back of my mind, begging...
I silence it, gritting my teeth and shifting my shoulders back.
They all settle into their chairs, preparing themselves for what’s to come. Klaus meets my eyes, the question clear, and I give him an almost imperceptible nod.
“Drink your first elixir now,” he instructs and all of the royals take up their vials.
Queen Ruby raises hers, laughing, and the others do the same, toasting to their first step in gaining ultimate power.
They all drink and that little voice inside me, the one shred of goodness that remains, demands enough attention to make me avert my gaze from Barony and William as the poison takes hold, as they reach for each other before toppling, blood dripping from their eyes and their throats starting to smoke as the acid eats through their flesh.