Chapter 44 #2
His smile stole my heart as his shadows rose to dance with the ribbon of solar magic, twining with it. “Like meeting an old friend. I could not have said it better myself. This is the magic… your magic, Saphi. Not the magic drawn from the lands, but the magic drawn from in here.”
He tapped the fingers that were still pressed to my chest.
“This is your magic. In here. Draw from this well when you are practicing and no shadow will taint your light.”
I nodded and stilled a moment to look at him, warmth unfurling within me as I soaked up the fact he was here with me, and once again he was pushing me, making me stronger, and making me see and reach for my full potential.
I wanted to ask him why the magic I drew from the land came out as darkness—as shadows—and how I could wield it and my solar light when I was part seelie.
Instead, I found myself saying, “Does your magic change when you draw from the land?”
He hesitated before solemnly shaking his head. “No. But my magic was born in the Shadow Court. It awakened there and I am unseelie. I think perhaps the fact your fae blood awakened in my court affects your magic, blending shadow and light into one. A union.”
He kept using that word. Union.
Nothing about me felt united.
I was a wolf. I was a seelie. I was divided. But Arianell believed I would figure out the truth of my heart and I would decide what I was becoming.
None of which made sense to me yet.
“Now.” He grinned, a hint of mischief in his eyes. “I shall teach you some basic spells.”
It turned out I was an excellent student after all, when Kaeleron was my tutor.
I absorbed everything he told me, bewitched by the energy of him as he guided me through several basic spells, and by the end of it I was exhausted but I had learned more in only an hour or two than I had in my entire time with Meiryn.
I could cast a globe of light that would illuminate my path, could silence my footsteps, knew the fundamentals of locking or unlocking a door without a key, something I would practice later, and could summon small orbs of solar magic that had actually obeyed my mental commands, although one had shot off into the forest and I wasn’t sure where it had gone.
Kaeleron had assured me it would sputter out when it moved beyond the reach of my command. Apparently, magic had limits. It was like a circle around me and only within that area could my magic work. But I could expand my reach with practice and as I grew in power.
I hadn’t failed to notice that most of the things Kaeleron had focused on for my first lesson had been ways of sneaking around unseen and protecting myself.
I had also never felt closer to him, the simple act of him teaching me the most basic of magic feeling as if it had somehow deepened this bond growing between us.
He smiled down at me, so proud, so damned beautiful. “Well done. I have a reward for you. Wait here.”
He was gone in a swirl of shadow and starlight before I could stop him.
I waited for a minute, and then tugged my boots on and began to pace the glade, gaze darting between the spot he had disappeared from and the darkening sky. I glanced at the spot again, feeling a little frantic now, worry gnawing at me as I willed him to reappear.
He did.
Looking exhausted.
“Where did you go?” I hurried to him and checked him over, reassuring myself that he was fine and that it was just teleporting that had worn him out.
He pushed strands of his onyx hair back from his face, heaved a sigh, and frowned at his hand as he lowered it. It was shaking.
I clasped it in both of mine. “You really shouldn’t push yourself. Was this reward for me really worth wearing yourself out?”
“Absolutely.” He carefully raised his other hand, revealing a leather satchel, one that was a shade darker and a touch larger than the one he had left near Arianell’s home by the stream.
He opened it for me, producing two things from it.
The leather holster with my throwing knives.
And a neatly wrapped paper parcel I could smell before I saw it.
“Oh gods, give me that.” I lunged for it, snatching it from him, and twirled away from him with my prize, ignoring his husky chuckle as I stole my reward.
“Like I said… always ravenous for meat. I believe I have heard you say that about my cock once or twice.” He leaned against a tree, cutting a far too alluring figure as he crossed his long legs at the ankle and folded his arms across his bare chest. Amusement shimmered in his eyes as he watched me.
Amusement and love.
I opened the package and pulled a strip of the dried meat out of it, and snapped off a sizeable piece before popping it into my mouth. Salty. Smoky. Rich.
Heaven.
My eyes drifted shut as I savoured the jerky.
The perfect gift.
I finished one strip, leaving only a small piece, and danced my way back to Kaeleron, lifting that piece to his lips, sharing it with him.
He grinned and opened for me, and when I placed it on his tongue, he closed his lips around my fingers, his gaze hot and sultry. I pulled my fingers free, fighting the temptation to press against him, to rub him and make him look at me—make him see only me.
I could fight that urge, but I couldn’t master the one that had me taking hold of his shoulders and pulling myself up to capture his lips. He tasted salty. Smoky. Divine.
“These things are not the only ones I brought with me. I have a change of clothes stashed for you along the route I plan to take out of this court, when we are done.”
“I hope it’s not another dress.” I curled a lip at the one I was wearing and pulled another piece of jerky from the wrapper, not sharing this one.
He relaxed into the tree again, gaze raking over me, admiring my curves in a way that pleased my wolf instincts and calmed that need to rub against him.
“I believe I picked your favourite leathers and blouse, but I was in a hurry to leave since Vyr was rather… unhappy… about my decision, despite the fact Neve assured her I needed to be here and would be fine.”
“Well, your sister was right to not want you to come here. It was a stupid, reckless decision.” I turned my back on him.
And trembled as he appeared behind me, one strong hand gripping my hips to hold me in place as he lifted my shorter braid with the other and pressed his lips to my nape. His breath tickled it, rousing my wolf instincts and making me want to growl at him, commanding him to bite me there.
To mate me.
“There is a part of me,” he kissed my nape, that grin in his tone telling me he knew what he was doing to me, “that cannot wait to see you in all that tight leather again.”
I turned in his arms before I found myself growling at him, demanding he bite me, and wound my arms around his neck. “I do look good in it. Almost as good as you look in leather.”
I raked my gaze down his bare chest and teasingly bit my lip.
And frowned at his tan pants.
“I can’t get used to you in this outfit. I want you back in your leather armour that makes me want to devour you every time I look at you.”
His grin was wolfish. “Well, you have developed a taste for my meat in particular.”
“I want to indulge that taste I have for it.” I reached for his pants but he caught my wrist.
“Later. We have work to do, so do please stop distracting me.” He stepped back from me and turned away, and I giggled when he grimaced as he reached into his pants to adjust himself.
“What is this work you want to do that is more important than me seeing to your needs?” I finished another strip of jerky.
He picked up the holster of throwing knives. “I am going to teach you how to apply your solar magic to these.”
He casually tossed one and it flew past my head, close enough that I felt the shift in the air as it cut through it, and I turned in time to see it embed itself in a tree behind me.
“I like the sound of that.” I went to him and took the knives, and paid close attention as he ran me through how to apply my magic to the blades, focusing hard so I didn’t mess it up.
The first three blades I threw hit their marks but carried no solar heat.
The fourth one I managed to get some of my magic to cling to the metal, and it left a little scorch mark.
The fifth set the whole tree on fire.
“Perhaps that was a little too much solar magic.” Half of his shadows blanketed the tree and the other half scooped water from the stream to our right and tossed it over it, extinguishing it before it could spread to another tree or draw attention.
His shadows remained in place over the tree as he turned to me, trapping the smoke so no one would see it.
“We shall practice that more later.” He ran an assessing glance over me. “I had not considered it before, but your magic, while untrained, is powerful… and perhaps this is because you have the blood of kings in you.”
I shrugged. “I figured I do since the guy who was apparently my true father was a king.”